7x7

barras de mono: vintage playgrounds of México

😷: Centres for Disease Control’s facial hair grooming recommendations for mask compatibility—see previously

open access: the Smithsonian Institution releases millions of images and model instructions into the public domain—via Kottke

mad props: a behind-the-scenes look at the exquisite visual artefacts Annie Atkins creates for cinematic productions—via Nag on the Lake

jodhpurs: these weirdly delightful inflating trousers on the catwalk

minitel: more on the ascent and decline of France’s early internet—see previously

cheesweet: an unlikely Swiss cheese candy that got a mention in a John Steinbeck anthology

i’m awfully fond of you

Voice by Jim Henson as an ode to the Muppet character Ernie’s bathtub toy, Rubber Duckie’s first performance aired on this day in 1970 on an episode of Sesame Street. An unexpected hit, it inspired homages, cover-versions and was even nominated for a Grammy.
The latex toy itself—which the number greatly popularised—was conceived by Georgian-American sculptor Peter Ganine (*1900 – †1974) whom otherwise worked with ceramics and produced rather avant-garde chess pieces, including those used on set in Star Trek’s tri-dimensional version of the game—there’s a franchise cross-over. Musical contributors Jeff Moss and Joe Raposo also collaborated to produce the Sesame Street and the Electric Company theme songs as well as [It’s not Easy] “Being Green” and “C is for Cookie.”

burolandschap

As part of a larger project rehabilitating and restoring its lake district and wetlands in Bokrijk National Park in Limburg, authorities have commissioned landscapers to replace some of the traditional plank bridges with unique, submerged, sunken trails to allow hikers and cyclists to experience the ponds and lakes from a periscope’s perspective. More at designboom at the link up top.

fox-cull

In order to distance the media empire and its paracosms from the toxic propagandizing subsidiary masquerading as a news outlet, Disney’s studio mergers (themselves the product of a string of prior consolidations beginning in 1933) will be known henceforth as Twentieth Century and Searchlight Pictures.

ポスター

We enjoyed reviewing this gallery of the official posters created for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (previously here, here, here and here), the committee inviting prominent artist to contribute works promoting cultural understanding through sportsmanship and a celebration of friendly competition. We especially liked the piece entitled “Olympic Cloud” by graphic designer Taku Satoh and the vintage aesthetic it evokes. Be sure to visit the Guardian (see also) at the link up top to peruse all twenty and to learn more about the artists and studios behind them.

8x8

mudras: nifty exercises for your hands and wrists

holy rollers: A reformed, formerly anti-LGBTQ fast food franchise announces it will make amends

konmari: life style guru and evangelist of de-cluttering now wants to fill that tchotchke-shaped void in your soul

flea circus: the marvelous performing Savitsky cats, via Everlasting Blört

between two ferns: eight-two famous and infamous interviews animated

anti-archiv: a massive cache of photographs and home movies from the DDR, via Things magazine

discerning audiences: light entertainment from 1972

self-policing: a browser extension uses machine learning to highlight AI generated content, via Waxy

6x6

avoir un jour de courage: the immortals at l’Académie Française suggest a replacement for the English phrase “coming out”

notorious rbg: a leopard print camouflage homage to the Supreme Court Justice

vennbahn: a scenic bike trail following a former train track crisscrosses the border between Belgium and Germany multiple times, via Super Punch

acqua alta: tragic images of Venice drowning

mechanisms of affection: artist Maria Antelman explores how the tools of technology reflect the user

i’ve been called ruby giuliani: a drag queen entertained spectators during opening public testimony for the impeachment hearings

2.0

The always engaging Kottke directs our attention to an online museum that documents and curates various social media and productivity platforms, operating systems and video games from their earliest forms (see also) until the present. Much more to explore and reminisce over at the links above.

videojuego

We enjoyed perusing this gallery of vintage and antique sporting and summer travel posters going under the hammer. We were especially taken with the vibrant and angular design of artist Josep Renau Montoro exhibited in this 1941 commission for the Revolutionary Games held at the behest of Manuel Áliva Camacho. The artist was most famous for his murals and political propaganda during the Spanish civil war before being exiled first to México and then to East Berlin. There are other painters of note to be found in the auction preview including Sergio Trujillo Magnenat, Boris Artzybaseff and others.

8x8

blood meridian: two animated maps (see also) chart Manifest Destiny from contrasting perspectives

lobby cards: the iconic film posters and title sequences of Saul Bass (previously here and here)

strong to the finich: because of the leafy green’s steroidal qualities, some are calling for it to be banded like other doping agents

scientific method: brilliant vintage middle school text books via Present /&/ Correct

nineteen eighty-four was not meant to be an instruction manual: workers trialled with beacons and bracelets to monitor performance and productivity

best in show: a curated selection of the winners of the National Geographic travel photography competition

lj: going into production in 2021, the Lightyear One represents the industry’s first long-range and untethered electric vehicle, via Design Boom

pomological catalogue: the 1886 US contract for watercolour depictions of all the world’s fruit

now that’s a horse of a different colour

Though the title idiom is much older than what Dorothy exclaimed upon entering the Emerald City and pertains to horse-trading and how the coat can change colour as the animal matures and what’s listed in a registry may not match what’s before one’s eyes and is first cited as “a horse of that colour” by the duplicity maid Maria in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1601), we nonetheless enjoyed reading about the 1926 caper that a horseman of Scottish extraction nearly got away with at a race-track in Chicago.
Referred to as ringing in gamblers’ circles, the horseman, possessed of a special and nonpareil talent (sadly squandered on grift and crime) for a quick and convincing dye and rise, bleached and painted the thoroughbreds so that the track stewards and jockeys failed to notice when their horses were switched, handicapping the odds and virtually guaranteeing a big win. Targeting small, remote racing operations at first, the horse painter was able to skip town and evade repercussions once the truth was realised but luck eventually ran out with Pinkertons in hot pursuit.  Discover more hidden histories at Narratively at the link above.

7x7

horton plaza: a study of the postmodern ghost mall built to revitalise downtown San Diego

for hire: riotously brilliant hand-painted signs from South Bengal

big top: Germany’s touring Circus Roncalli replaces animal acts with holograms

cat walk: balloon apparel deflates on the runway and transforms into practical garments

normay: a projection map skewed by the mentions various places get from Donald Trump—via Maps Mania

team breakfast: a fun montage of musicians eating their morning meals, via Everlasting Blört 

toward a concrete utopia: a revival in interest for Yugoslavia’s monumental architecture—previously

6x6

someday my prince will come: life lessons gleaned at the Princess Academy

decolonise this place: a collection of maps presented from an aboriginal perspective, via Nag on the Lake

bathyscope: a ten-hour montage of mesmerising ocean footage

if you just smiled more: an epic discussion thread uses classical paintings to illustrate everyday sexism

the master and margarita: a compelling reading recommendation for Mikhail Bulgakov’s Soviet satire

берёзка: the floating step of a ballet ensemble founded by choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina 

macroalgae

Instead of the usual plastic cups or bottles of water offered to parched runners, for this past London Marathon participants were handed out some thirty thousand gulps of a sports drink encapsulated (previously) in a seaweed-based edible container. Among the newest wonder material, designers and the industry are just beginning to appreciate the potential of seaweed as a sustainable bio-plastic which, incorporated dietarily, can also combat the bio-genesis of methane.

hall of fame

Graciously, the Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life invites us to seek refuge from the hustle of the High Street and hide a bit in an old haunt—The Champion located in the West End, just off the retail monotony of Oxford Street—and soak up the atmosphere.
Though the pub has been there on the corner of Wells and Eastcastle since the mid-nineteenth century, a contemporary of the Victorian explorers and sports pioneers depicted in stained glass, these were much later additions, commissions from the accomplished artist Ann Southeran installed in 1989 to give the place some added character, and include the subject Captain Matthew Webb (*1848 - †1883) who was the first recorded individual to cross the English Channel under his own power. In 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in just under twenty-two hours, fighting the powerful rip-tide and painful jellyfish stings. Sadly, Webb’s later stunt of crossing the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls proved to be too treacherous and Webb died during his swim. Webb’s life and legacy are remembered in the poem “A Shropshire Lad” by Poet Laureate John Betjeman and the caricature of him that appeared on a brand of weatherproof matches is said to have been the model for Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau. Much more to explore at the link above plus a detailed gallery of the Champions at the link above.

avon calling

Though more glaring and fraught examples are to be found among the ruling, grifting crime syndicate (here and here especially) of the US, we appreciated the spirit in which the origins of both Cobra and its foil the elite paramilitary unit, G*I* Joe, was shared. Loosely based on conservative pundit William F Buckley (*1925 – †2008), Cobra Commander of the Marvel canon was a used car salesman in Springfield, Anytown America whose brother served on multiple deployments to Vietnam in order to spare his brother from being drafted.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress, Cobra Commander’s brother took towards increasing self-destructive behaviour—ultimately leading to his demise in a car collision. Inconsolable, Cobra Commander blamed the crash on the survivor, another veteran who afterwards sequestered himself from the world and studied the martial arts in Japan. Hungry for vengeance, Cobra Commander contracted the services of an assassin, who mistakenly killed the ninja master rather than the student—persuading the survivor to reenlist later as Snake Eyes. After this debacle, Cobra Commander sought to return to his dealership but his wife discovered what had transpired in Japan and threatened to come forward to the authorities. Cobra Commander abandons his wife and takes their infant son on the road to eke out a living, conning the unsuspecting and setting up a pyramid scheme to attract followers and accrue funds, appealing to the disenfranchised for whom he finds a resonant kinship. Cobra Commander begins wearing a blue hood during his motivational talks to disguise his identity.

7x7

bathdoom: interior remodelling as a first-person shooter game

philosophical zombies: the Turing Test for AI consciousness

waste management: budget cuts are rubbishing recycling programmes and good intentions on the municipal level in the US and elsewhere, via Digg

das botenkind: a radio host who broadcasted for the US Army in West Berlin had her sobriquet translated as “Newsbabe”

human hoberman: an mesmerising synchronised dance on a slick floor

brick-and-mortar: gorgeous letterpress posters of artful arranged Lego reminiscent of printed circuit boards

lotus eaters: parrot junkies are having the poppy harvest in Madhya Pradesh

6x6

don’t seem to rouse themselves for anything besides the birth and death days of idolised rock stars: a Stasi guide of negative-decadent youth subcultures in East Germany

backboard: neglected community basket ball courts revived and rehabilitated as canvases for monumental paintings

sandbox: the development of electronic music owes a debt to songs aimed at a very young demographic

what pedantry is this: more questions and answers from the Chicago Manual of Style—via Coudal Partners

i’ll be waiting for you on the dark side of the moon: Earthrise from above the lunar far-side from the Longjiang-2 orbiter

tilt-shift: an immersive tour of the North Korean capital

you said it would last but i guess we enrolled

Our faithful chronicler informs that on this day, among many other momentous occasions, during a US Super Bowl commercial break—a showcase and vehicle for maximising the exposure of new releases—Apple aired its “1984” advertisement (previously) directed by Ridley Scott. Thought police pursue a rogue runner through a monochrome, dystopian landscape but fail to prevent her from hurling a sledge hammer at the main telescreen where Big Brother—portrayed by David Graham (voice actor who played the Darleks and several characters on Thunderbirds Are Go!—is addressing the gathered throngs of labourers:

Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

The screen shatters into smithereens at the Big Brother proclaims victory and the grey scenery is replaced with the company’s rainbow logo.

9x9

aaron burr, sir: Alexander Hamilton’s mostly fraught relationships with the first five US presidential administrations

four baths in the course of a month: how to bathe in January, according to seventh century philosopher Hierophilus the Sophist

faux châteaux: drone footage reveals surreal failed real estate development project between Ankara and Istanbul

messrs. 1569 and 1571: some of the strangest declassified artefacts that are stumping the investigative team at Muckrock

got to catch ‘em all: custom-tailored Pokémon dress shirts

népzene: a quick-sort algorithm demonstrated by Hungarian folk dancing

heatseekers: night time skiing guided by overhead flares, via Memo of the Air

muzzy von hossmere: a fond appreciation of the life and career of the late Carol Channing (*1921 – †2019)

the president shall from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union: until 1913, most State of the Union addresses were delivered in writing