x marks the spot

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are treated to a rather endearing review of how educational literature, abecedaries broached the subject of that little-used as a leading letter X before the discovery of x-rays or the introduction of xylophones, mostly ingratiating readers in the personages of the Persian King Xerxes the Great (𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠, Ξέρξης) or Xanthippe (Ξανθίππη, meaning Yellow Horse)—Socrates’ supposed scold of a wife—or Xanthus (Ξάνθος, a blond stallion), one of Achilles pair of immortal horses whom Hera temporarily granted the power of speech in order to defend himself when Achilles accused him causing Patroclus’ death on the battlefield, retorting that it was a god that had killed Patroclus and that Achilles would soon follow. There’s numerous examples—some lazier than others—and nonetheless an interesting look at the antepenultimate letter and nineteenth century print.

bekende deense meubelontwerper

I’ve always thought that this fabric wall hanging that came with my furnished workweek apartment was pretty keen and hoped that I might be able to arrange to have it move out with me, when that day comes, but didn’t realise until just recently that it is a piece of Danish graphic designer and interior decorator Verner Panton’s Mira-X Collection.
A student of the psychology and working in the studio of architect Arne Jacobsen, Panton (*1928 – †1998) is probably best known for his line of furniture, including his signature moon lamps and chair still licensed and in production by the company Vitra and for incredibly psychedelic office spaces like the cantina for Spiegel magazine headquarters in Hamburg, executed in the same style as this indoor swimming pool shown at the link.

caffettiera

Architect David Chipperfield has redesigned and reissued the iconic Moka Pot for Italian design line Alessi, launching it at the Salone de Mobile of the Milan Design Week.
The original was introduced to the public in 1933, invented by engineer Alfonso Bialetti (*1888 – †1970), this percolator making it possible for more of the coffee-drinking public to enjoy an espresso at home—since previous contraptions were large and unwieldly and not well-suited for domestic use. The trained metal-worker also introduced aluminium for kitchen-use whereas it had not been a common feature beforehand. The redesign is of course informed by Bialetti’s conception but is a hendecagon and closer to circular than the octagon. Perhaps this homage, Alessi being known for commissioning architects to create signature everyday items, will give the struggling Bialetti company the boost to recover and become fiscally solvent again, the once ubiquitous and must-have appliance having lost ground to coffee pads and pods.

oldtimers

Previously H and I had enjoyed touring the sister campus in Speyer where a 747 and the Buran, the Soviet version of the Space Shuttle, are on display and recently redeeming one of H’s birthday gifts, we got to take a look at the sprawling museum, amusement park and cinema das Auto- und Technikmuseum Sinsheim, the largest private exhibit in Europe that curates some three hundred classic automobiles (Oldtimers auf Deutsch), forty racing cars, thirty locomotives, one hundred and fifty tractors, dozens of player pianos and calliopes plus over sixty aircraft, including the two supersonic commercial planes built the Anglo-French Concorde and the Russian Tupolev Tu-144, visible when passing by on the Autobahn.

The vast halls contained a really impressive amount of Mercedes (including some infamous ones custom-made for Benito Mussolini and Heinrich Himmler) and some extraordinary Maybachs produced for the anonymously, forgotten well-off, with a significant portion maintained in fully-function condition.

Also on display for inspection were an original model DeLorean and a motorised unicycle from 1894, whose time has come around again. Of course the exhibits are worth marvelling at and pretending to sit in the driver’s seat and quite a few are up for demonstration, but moreover it’s something inspired to think about the level and depth of engineering that went into each of these machines, some three thousand all told.

7x7

yokohama-e: early depictions of Westerns (previously) by Japanese illustrators—via the Everlasting Blört

uncanny valley: the secret (related) and sometimes glamourous life of fashion mannequins

periodicals: the Avocado has a regular column on reading vintage and antique magazines—via Things Magazine

spriting: fun and informative pixel-art animation tutorials

millinery: curating the illustrations of Joanna Spicer to celebrate the hatmaking industry of Stockport

reading room: Massimo Listri’s amazing photography of European libraries

what-ifs: illustrator Tom Stults envisions films created in another time and place

ye butcher, ye baker, ye candlestick-maker

Public Domain Review features a slim, quirky volume that at first glance seems like eighteenth century pulp fiction but is actually a 1908 light-hearted lament over the modern state of everyday occupations (to wit), satirising a host of old professions with ballads that address contemporary and resonant scourges—like over-regulation, quackery, fake news and copyfight, some perhaps landing a bit too close to home.
Click on the image to enlarge plus a word on the anachronistic use of “ye olde:” it should be and was always properly pronounced with the th sound, Early Modern English employing the now obsolete Old English letter thorn (þ), which in handwritten form could look like a y, especially when used in the scribal abbreviation of the article, the e a sort of superscript. Be sure to visit the link up top for more discoveries from the world’s print archives.

7x7

paying it forward: a comprehensive and inspiring look at the “I Promise” school of Lebron James

archival quality: an object lesson on the durability of microfilm, via Slashdot

mercator-projection: Google Maps shifts to depict the Earth as a globe, helping to ameliorate geographic perspectives (previously)

achoque: a convent near Lake Pátzcuaro is saving an endangered salamander from extinction—the nuns producing a cough syrup from its skin, via Kottke’s Quick Links

jingfen: a Finnish comic about social anxieties finds resonance with millions of Chinese people

lossless compression: organisms seem pretty indifferent to the effects of squeezing their whole genome into a single DNA molecule

the oxygen of amplification: exploring the conundrum of covering tabloid politics and some advice for journalists on how to not fall into the manipulative traps 

jinbaori

Via Present /&/ Correct we are treated to a lovely antique collection of Samurai clan banners and cloaks from the 1850s, the late Edo, Bakumatsu era, sourced from two woodblock printed manuscript books. The name for the traditional garment draped over the Samurai’s armour is a specially tailored kimono tabard (a surcoat designed to show off one’s heraldic pedigree) called a jinbaori (陣羽織). Find a whole gallery of arms and supporters and learn more at the link up top.

main street, usa

Our gratitude once again to Nag on the Lake for acquainting us with the enigmatic and extensive catalogue of historic, nostalgic photography of Barry L Gfeller.
A seemingly solitary person who lived and died in his childhood home was surprisingly well-travelled and his survivors were shocked to find among his legacy over fifty thousand snap-shots documenting over two decades of road-trips across the United States and Canada, fossilising impressions of Main Streets that in many cases no longer exist. Caretakers are actively searching out a permanent home that could host all the pictures and make them available to the public and to researchers. The current host website is pretty sophisticated, nonetheless, and features interactive maps where one can trace Gfeller’s travels and perhaps find a vintage scene of one’s own town. Be sure to visit the links above to learn more.

8x8

radiant babies and deified dogs: hidden behind protective cladding for thirty years, a large Keith Haring, mural to be revealed in Amsterdam, via Nag on the Lake

socios hostes facimus: Latin mottoes for Trump era government agencies and entities

leading by example: municipalities across the US picking up the slack on innovative, responsible energy production where the federal government is failing

illuminated manuscripts: James Joyce’s crayon-coloured drafts of Finnegans Wake

by jove: lightning storms on Jupiter

magnificent modifiers: the history and legacy of the Speak & Spell

star-struck: a vintage scrapbook of the Golden Age of Hollywood, compiled by an anonymous fan

side-scrolling: a short video game vignette that seamlessly combines the best elements of the Mario universe into one

tabletop

The curatorial staff over at Hyperallergic feature an absolutely amazing collection of board games acquired by ardent collectors Ellen and Arthur Liman that reach back to the conception of the evening’s entertainment in the early nineteenth century. A spinoff from advances in printing technologies, as ephemera, the topics emphasised and values signalled (here are a few other examples of select messaging) offer a rather unique glimpse at the popular imagination of people the UK of Georgian and Victorian eras. Be sure to visit the link up top to peruse a whole gallery of wholesome pastimes and to learn more about the collection’s recent compilation in book form.

6x6

screen time: a curated collection of flip-books that delivered movies that fit in the palm of one’s hand a century before smart phones

star wars, nothing but star wars: Meco Monardo’s disco remakes of Hollywood film scores

first ladies: gender reassignments for all the US presidents

blue planet: stunning underwater photography competition winners and honourable-mentions

dot-matrix: computer-generated artwork from 1969 by Frederick Hammersley

virtue signalling: White House budget proposal (again) is very disaspirational and sets the US even further behind in the sciences

aeroplanette

Though popularity and thus signalled acceptance for the concept of heavier than air propulsion as a viable and reliable form of conveyance took some time to cement itself in the minds’ of the public—as told through product tie-ins—was more gradual than, say, the appetite for all things space related. Nonetheless by 1912, there was a parlour game, a version of roulette, which in this variation had a tethered propeller-powered plane that was wound up and stayed aloft for around thirty circuits. The winner of the wager was the player who choose the correct world capital that the craft would touch down in. In the illustration, it looks to me like a dispute is about to ensue with the plane landing exactly on the line between Berlin and Wien.

xxoo

In an era—perhaps just a bit more enlightened –when we are at one and the same time keenly aware of the routes and vectors of disease transmission and are beginning to understand the complexity of the micro-biomes that inhabit us and promote health and inhibit infection, it’s strange to consider the US National Pharmaceutical Society’s endorsement for this germ-chastity screen for a couple to kiss through—it also reminds me of a modern counterpart in this kiss by wire.
Much illness came about due to over-sanitary conditions and we are stronger for exposure and we benefit by cross-contamination and swapping the survivor-stories among one’s beneficial bacteria. One can even arrange a transplant procedure from a donor to rehabilitate the health of one’s gut floral that’s been compromised by diet, disease or over-medication. And like yesterday’s over-emphasis on sterility, we’re facing a similarly (probably much more dire) threat with the abuse of antibiotics which has severely dulled their efficacy, and seemingly the only thing that might rescue us until we can develop new weapons against pathogens that we’ll use responsibly (and we were warned) is our shared herd-immunity, perhaps with some unfiltered kisses.

tincture

Colossal introduces us to the colour-classification system that was devised by a German geologist called Abraham Gottlob Werner to create a standardised nomenclature for describing minerals and then expanded by Scots painter Patrick Syme to include subjects for students of Nature in 1814—which the Smithsonian is reissuing. Each poetically-named hue cites occurrences in the animal, vegetable and mineral domains, and a copy of this volume accompanied Charles Darwin on his journeys in the HMS Beagle. Like with the rich and precise language that heralds use to describe armorial bearings, before photography and the general portability of information, accuracy of transmission was paramount for identification and faithful reproduction.

meta-gallery

We are certain that the curators over at Coudal Partners are very excited any time that the get to open up a new wing on the Museum of Online Museums (MoOM) and there are quite a few enticing and novel collections to explore—foremost of which was the Sheaff catalogue of ephemera with exhibits on postcards, cabinet cards, marbled paper, stamps, tokens and an assemblage on Anamorphic Writing. To decipher the hidden message, one was meant to tilt the puzzle cards at an angle as to almost look flat across the surface. Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!

6x6

hi-res: an interesting exploration into the world of pixels and dots per inch (DPI)

tiki room: Messy Nessy Chic treats us on a tour of one of San Francisco’s last bastions of kitsch and abandon, the Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar

lipograms: further examples of challenging, experimental works of fiction that seek to avoid one or more of the conventions of writing and usage

potemkin village: a global tour of the fronts and façades (previously) of artificial urban environments

°c: ageing but iconic capsule hotel in Tokyo is retrofitted and revitalised

composite-artist: Microsoft neural network draws realistic, imaginary birds based on vocal commands, via Fast Company 

domino effect

We’ve encountered the commercial artwork of Theodore Geisel (Doctor Seuss) beforehand, including advertising for Exxon/Esso, but we hadn’t seen this series of signature complex contraptions from cartoonists and engineer Rube Goldberg, commissioned by a motor-oil company to promote fuel-efficiency and automotive maintenance during World War II. See more at the link above.

manifesto

Our antiquarian JF Ptak directs our attention to a 1923 pamphlet from one Mister William Dee of Willimantic, Connecticut that outlines fifty-seven theses on “Things that Weaken the American”—offered mostly without explanation or elaboration.
I am not sure if I could be called a reliable narrator exactly given the adumbration of present rhetoricians but a lot of these snap judgments (and we’re not sure why Mister Dee stopped at fifty-seven—but perhaps there was to be a follow-on volume—or why indeed that none of these enumerated woes actually were threats to America or in fact any nation) had a strangely familiar off-the-cuff ring to them and a few pearls of wisdom bear repeating.

• Love Letter Writing: “Very bad. Marry the girl.” 
• Home Talent Shows: “Utterly ruinous to those who work for a living.” 
• Hard Study: “Avoid as much as possible.” 
• Houses: “They should be small and easy to burn in case they become infected by germs.” 
• Public Opinion: “Bad if against you.” 
• Exercise: “Hurtful to those who are already over-exercised, by a hundred times, from modern efficiency.”

7x7

see? it’s ok. he saw it on the television: sophist and spokesliar Huckabee emblematically argues that Trump can’t be racist because of his long, illustrious career on t.v.

raupe des monats: an 1837 German guide on caterpillars that introduces them calendar-wise through the year

bloodhound gang: in the mid-70s an Ohio public library experimented with a fragrance- based card catalogue system that associated scents with different sections and encouraged readers to follow their noses
 
mystic krewe: Swedish artist Bror Anders Wikstrom brought fantastic symbolism to Mardi Gras revelry

infinite regression: animated examples of the Droste effect on packaging

philogrobilized: a celebration of outmoded English words (citations needed) just as resonant today as in the past

mi, a name i call myself: an illustrated history of the constructed language Solresol where words are formed from musical notes