Witnessing the collapse of the World Trade Towers whilst walking to work in Manhattan to his job as a comic book artist, later frontman Gerard Way was inspired to turn to music (see also), forming the band My Chemical Romance, the name suggested by Way’s younger brother from the title of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh’s novella Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. The band garnered their fanbase by releasing tracks on MySpace before being discovered and signed with a record label. Arguably the pinnacle of their success, the band’s 2006 album (the lead single released on the fifth anniversary of 9/11) Welcome to the Black Parade was hugely popular and received several accolades, including significantly controversy and resulting moral panic over their promotion of “emo cult of self-harm” for their frank discussions of mental health and balanced but bleak portrayal of the world. We’ll carry on.
Wednesday 11 September 2024
Sunday 16 June 2024
then they showed me a world where i could be so dependable, oh, clinical, oh, intellectual, cynical (11. 633)
Rising to number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1979 (the seventh spot in the UK charts), the lead single from Breakfast in America (see previously) was a deeply personal reflection by Supertramp’s singer-songwriter Charles “Roger” Pomfrit Hodgson, honoured with the Ivor Novello prize the following year for best song, both musically and lyrically, about his decade away from home as an adolescent at boarding school and an indictment on the priorities of the educational system for eroding individuality. The critically acclaimed song’s instrumentals feature castanets, saxophone and the tackle sound-effect from a Mattel electronic football game. The version by German techno band Scooter—as Ramp! (The Logical Song)—from 2001 peaked at second place in the United Kingdom, topping the charts in Norway, Ireland and Australia.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Screaming Lord Sutch, chicken orbs plus the exorcism of a werewolf demon (1983)
two years ago: Ziggy Stardust, the monkey puzzle tree plus Bloomsday
three years ago: your daily demon: Bathin, Psycho (1960), more links to enjoy, a summit in Switzerland plus a guide to hurricane name enunciation
four years ago: the sacking of Cambridge (1381), trends in house numbers, renaming US army bases, the first woman in space plus CPT Picard Day
five years ago: microplastics in our bodies, a field of poppies plus graphic designer Otto Aicher
six years ago: purging the Deep State, a visit to Burg Sonnenberg plus black hole solar systems
seven years ago: the Dunning-Kruger effect, IKEA cookery plus experiments in human-dolphin communication
eight years ago: denying a platform to dissenters, Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), coats-of-arms for same-sex couples plus Frankenstein and the year without a summer
Friday 22 December 2023
copycat (11. 205)
Born on this day in 2001, the product of a collaboration between researchers at Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical College) University and Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc, a brown tabby kitten called CC was the world’s first clone pet. A demonstration project to see if it was commercially viable and safe, CC—pictured with her genetic donor, Rainbow (bottom centre), displays an interesting discrepancy in the calico pattern due to random differences in tortoiseshell phenotypes from epigenetic re-programming on implantation (having dispensed with the usual determinants of fertilisation), lived a healthy and happy life, a perfectly normal feline giving birth to her own litter of kittens in 2006, dying aged eighteen years in March of 2020, still residing in the laboratory in College Station with her human caretakers.
Sunday 19 March 2023
vereinte dienstleistungswerkschaft (10. 623)
Established on this day in 2001 as a merger of the congresses of five individual trade unions—with a membership of around two million workers, including postal, banking, insurance, health, education, public service, media and transportation sector employees, Verdi represents the professional interests of its members and successfully lobbies—through political clout, collective bargaining and strike actions—for better compensation and improved working conditions.
Thursday 24 November 2022
secondly, i think you made that second bacteria up (10. 330)
Via fellow internet caretaker Miss Cellania, we are reminded of this classic segment from the serial political drama and stand-in for reality in Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing from season three, episode seven, “Indians in the Lobby,” wherein President Bartlet learns about and proceeds to call the Butterball Hotline. The main story focused on two Native Americans camped out in the White House demanding better healthcare standards for reservations and promising to cause a media disruption unless they are granted an audience with the bureau director.
Sunday 2 October 2022
casus foederis (10. 190)
Foundational to the treaty and only invoked once, thankfully, on this day—confirmed by the body two days later—in 2001 by member the United States after the September 11 Terror Attacks. Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation pledge to consider an attack against one to be affront to all. Operations Eagle Assist and Active Endeavour, air and shipping lane patrols, commenced once NATO determined that attacks met the threshold. Articles 7 and 8, concerned with international trade and commitments have been invoked several times, including in the Cod Wars, but have never risen to the point of a militarised dispute.
Friday 13 May 2022
6x6
sagittarius a*: the Event Horizon Telescope captures images of the Milky Way’s Black Hole—previously
sluggo: “Music from Nancy”—via Waxyclick-wheel: with the announcement that the last iteration of the iPod is being discontinued after two decades (see also), enjoy this first commercial advertisement
anamorphic camouflage illusion: the Phantom Queen optical effect
รผbersetzer: Google Translate adds languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, now facilitating communication among one hundred and thirty-three different languages
white dwarf: astronomers witness a nova in real time
Sunday 10 April 2022
7x7
improper fraction arena: Via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake’s superb Sunday Links and the depths of Wikipedia comes a list of articles submitted and ultimately rejected by dint of insanity
possible to express in words: a useful term with a surprisingly sparse corpora
reprise: another look at Davie Bowie’s 1973 The 1980 Floor Show through some raw footage—see previouslya moveable feast: a look at the mode, median and mean dates for Easter and the method of computus
a kitty bobo show: Kevin Kaliher’s pilot that went ungreen-lit in favour of Kids Next Door
micromachines: researchers developing tiny molecular motors that could be deployed en masse to suck carbon from the air, supplement our own organs—via Slashdot
did you know: from the depths to the Main Page
Sunday 19 December 2021
samwi$e g
In case you missed pre-anniversary acknowledgments on Friday, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert celebrated, two decades on, the cinematic premiere of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Fellowship of the Ring (previously) on this day in 2001 (I recall seeing this in theatres with my father, not on opening perhaps day but soon after, and it was the first time we’ve been to the movies since 9/11, a fear of large gatherings needed to be overcome) with a rap video about the LOTR trilogy with some Elvish lyrics and featuring cameo appearances that reunite the cast by Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Orlando Bloom and more.
Saturday 13 November 2021
8x8
uap: an interview with former US DoD head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Programme says that “Tic-Tac” craft have been observed by the navy for decades
dutch angle: dramatic tilt in cinematography
comrade kiev: an exquisitely curated collection of posters from Soviet timesp68/dulcimer: a prototype of the iPod—which celebrated its twentieth birthday last month—via Twisted Sifter
subjective distance: more on the ordering of adjectives and the unwritten rules of language—see previously
quesos y besos: a soft goat cheese from Spain beat out many contenders to be awarded the top prize for the annual World Cheese Awards
shoulder-surfing: a patent to discourage lookie-loos with a screen blur for those without the proper headgear and glasses—via Slashdot
discopter: Alexander Weygers patented the design for the first UFO flying vehicle decades before the craze in sightings and visitations
Friday 12 November 2021
monstropolis
Courtesy of Laughing Squid, we are directed towards Pixar Studio’s celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Monsters, Inc. with a four-minute tribute in the form of an old-timey animated short, filmed in scare-o-scope and complete with intertitles and rag-time accompaniment (original music by Randy Newman), leading to a rather heartwarming conclusion.
catagories: ๐ฌ, 2001, myth and monsters
Monday 20 September 2021
gwot
With the current climate twenty years on and comparable numbers of lives lost and lives impacted on a daily basis due to the pandemic and our trenchant, asocial behaviour and a resurgent Taliban controlling Afghanistan, it feels a bit hollow marking the anniversaries of the events that unfolded domestically and internationally in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 Attacks. The Bush doctrine, however—first characterised to the press as a “war of terrorism” on 16 September and then presented formally as a global “war on terror” in an address to a joint-session of the US Congress on this day in 2001, labeling “our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them” has an outsized legacy that impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. Despite consternation and criticism with this approach, the policy went forward with consequences around the world. Though his predecessor, US President Barak Obama, avoided the term and declared the conflict over on 23 May 2013, stating the that the US military forces and intelligence agencies could not and would prosecute a war against a tactic, instead styling the commitment as world police as Overseas Contingency Operations and substantively continuing, even expanding America’s role.
Saturday 18 September 2021
amerithrax
Beginning a week after the 9/11 attacks and continuing over the next month, a bioterrorist—likely a scientist at the US government’s biodefense and research labs in Fort Detrick, Maryland—posted letters laced with anthrax spores to several media outlets and the offices of two US senators, killing five individuals, mostly mailroom staff and infecting a further dozen with the bacteria. Compared to the hunt for the Unabomber for its range and time to identify a culprit and motive, the FBI operation named with the above portmanteau pursued a number of false leads, the attacks spawning, several copycat hoaxes. The notes in the envelops which purported to come from a non-existent grade school contained variations on the message:
09-11-01
YOU CANNOT STOP US.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.
YOU DIE NOW.
ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
&c.
Al Qaeda and Iraq initially blamed, focus not turning to the possibility that it was a domestic actor within the government until 2006, forensic geneotyping just reaching the sophistication needed to trace the particular bacterial strain back to its source, though the ordered destruction of all anthrax stockpiles limited the chance for future research into the crime. The US mail service is still hyper-vigilant over suspicious packages and prone to false-alarms.
Thursday 26 August 2021
a.i.
Via Waxy, we are treated to another instalment commemorating half a century of text gaming (see previously) with a retrospective look at the first major Alternate Reality play and the community of enthusiast who first embraced it with. The elaborate internet scavenger hunt called the Beast was made to promote the Steven Spielberg production the story of the then recently departed Stanley Kubrick touted as the blockbuster of the summer of 2001 about a sentient machine that wanted to be a real boy. The curious were encouraged to search for hints by phone, fax and web and engaged with this immersive entertainment experience.
Sunday 22 August 2021
7x7
wait for the beep: a growing collection of found-sounds in the form of answering machine narratives—via Memo of the Air
potatopoty: superlative tubers
yaxety sax: string ensemble performs the 1968 instrumental from Spider Rich and Boots Randolph
the metz address: Philip K. Dick (previously) speaks to an audience in 1977 at a sci-fi convention in France
say taliban, move your minivans: November 2001 Saturday Night Live sketch “Kandahar Dance Party” recirculating to mixed responses
dateline: Merv Griffin’s short-lived 1985 game show Headline Chasers
dear friends of mine, please write a line in this little wash tubbs book of mine—help me keep you in my mind: a comic scrapbook chronicling the Great Depression, via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lots more to see there)
Monday 16 August 2021
spin boldak
Although prior commitments and pledges had already set withdrawal from Afghanistan in motion and the US is made to face the parallels and comparisons to the fall of Saigon that it tried to dismiss or downplay, it was a grave failure of the imagination to be shocked at the thinnest veneer of stability and superficial democratic values that the West brought—standards imposed—and expect it to be robust or enduring and not swept away in the power vacuum filled by the resurgent Taliban government. Like regime change in American itself that vacillates between extremes that does not bode reliability or ongoing responsibility, the abrupt abandonment set off a military offensive in May that saw one regional capital after another be subsumed by Taliban forces. As belligerents approached the capital city of Kabul, president Ashraf Ghani relinquished control and fled to Tajikistan, disestablishing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, replaced with the re-established Emirate, and the movement’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (released from a Pakistani jail in 2018 at the request of the US) assumed control, announcing from the busy airport where thousands are seeking to evacuate, that the “War is over!”
Monday 28 June 2021
icty
Established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 with special jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity incurred in the territories of the former Yugoslav Republic since its dissolution in 1991, on this day in 2001, Serbian president Slobodan Miloลกeviฤ was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague to stand trial for genocide. The date coincides with Miloลกeviฤ’s 1989 presiding over the sixth-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, commemorating the rather pyric victory of the Serbian army against Ottoman invaders and enflaming an already tense situation between different ethnic groups that shared the constituent republics. The date also coincides with assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a conspiracy of the Black Hand secret society, the Bosniak and Serb group hoping to foment unrest and outrage and secede from the Austro-Hungarian empire with the provinces reconstituted as an independent Yugoslavia.
Friday 23 April 2021
halfway between the gutter and the stars
Featuring Bootsy Collins, the accompanying music video for the Big Beats artist Fatboy Slim’s 2000 “Weapon of Choice,” reprised on the occasion as a stand-alone single, directed by Spike Jonze, was first aired on this day in 2001. Depicting Christopher Walken dancing around an empty lobby, the choral refrain of “You could blow with this or you could blow with that” references the Native Tongues’ “The Choice is Yours”—the titular album an homage to Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (“some of us are looking at the stars”) and the lyric advising to “walk without rhythm and it won’t attract the worm” quotes Frank Herbert’s establishing novel.
Friday 2 April 2021
i wanna hear those sugar bells ring
Reaching top spot on the American Hot R&B/Hip-Hop song charts on this day in 1988, Wishing Well from singer and songwriter Terence Trent D’Arby—now known as Sananda Maitreya having meditated for a new identity after the slow, agonising albeit noble death of his former self in October of 2001. Expressing high opinion of his debut album, D’Arby said it was the most significant recording since Sgt. Pepper, ultimately paid off.
Thursday 1 April 2021
de twee bruidegommen
Passed by the Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer) of the States General and affirmed by the Senate during the December before, same-sex marriage (Homohuwelijk) became legal in the Netherlands on this day in 2001, the first country in modern times to sanction and recognise marriage equality. Registered partnerships were introduced on New Year’s 1998 as an alternative for homosexual couples, which under the law convey the same rights, duties and responsibilities as matrimony, and have since become nearly as popular as civil marriage among heterosexual couples as well.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ณ๐ฑ, ๐ณ️๐, 2001