screen-time

We rather enjoyed this glossary of television related terms entering into the lexicon, prompted by the statistic that the average American family consumes five hours and seventeen minutes per day of TV. One really needs to zoom in on this newsprint from 1964 (sponsored content I guess from W-CBS for its home town newspaper and sourced from Nielsen polling) to appreciate the illustrations and terms defined that were once novel but now naturally seem commonplace and needing no introduction to today’s home audiences.  The audio portion, distinct from the video, synchronised and part of the experience.

Further, there’s lick for an ad-libbed musical phrase not appearing in the score, viewer for those watching a television programme, net as an abbreviation for network—that is, multiple television stations linked by coaxial cables or microwave, pan as in following the action of any scene to the left or right by tracking or the above directed zoom, an effect created by a variable focus lens to make the subject appear to move to or from the camera.

the statute of anne

Whereas prior to the enactment of the title law in 1710, re-printing and distribution was regulated by an earlier act to provide for the licensing of the press and enforced by the Stationers’ Company, the parliamentary legislation made the matter of copyright protection and enforcement the responsibility of the government and the courts rather than the domain of private publishers and guilds to settle. The preamble of the statue for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned begins: 

Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families: For Preventing therefore such Practices for the future, and for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be Enacted ... 

From the beginning booksellers, publishers and authors battled to extend their exclusive rights to titles—broadening first with what was interpreted as judicial over-reach by granting universities patent over their associates’ works in perpetuity before being eventually repealed, reworked and adopted in some form in jurisdictions throughout the world.

liber legis

Though with the arrival of the Æon of Horus humanity is supposed to have spiritually evolved to the phase where the precept and obligation to oneself and others was to “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Aleister Crowley (previously) in 1904 along with his new bride, Rose Edith Kelly, was accountable for a bit more clarification and codification as mediums for a supernatural visitor—a disembodied voice—called Aiwass whom dictated to the newly married couple on their honeymoon in Cairo the three chapters of The Book of the Law of Thelema. Thankfully, each day from the eighth through the tenth of April, sessions only lasted an hour from noon, concluding the with the final volume published five years later, with the couple able to resume their vacation once Crowley emerged from his trance in the part of the hotel suite designated as the “temple,” though it seems that they had already done quite a bit of sight-seeing at this point, with a night spent in the Royal Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza two weeks earlier having the spirits in the first place. While the messenger for the whole of the transcript was Aiwass, each separate character was the first person narrative of the avatars represented by the Egyptian goddess and gods Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khnuit and despite the title contain more revelations and prophesies rather than anything proscriptive, with Crowley claiming to disavow the magical document and only having it published to exorcise the weight it held over him.

smells like nirvana

Via The Morning News, we are directed to the Lost Tapes of the 27 Club, an AI-driven homage to the cadre of talent bereft of this world far, far too soon by imagining, synthesising the continued, posthumous hits of musicians who departed prematurely at that age including Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain, resurrected by machine on new technology.

The “strength and stay” of Queen Elizabeth and prince consort for seventy-three years, His Royal Highness Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (*1921) passed away, aged ninety-nine peacefully in Winsor Castle. As is traditional, official notice of his death was posted on the railing of Buckingham Palace, though promptly removed to avoid drawing a crowd. Counter to the strange, immediate praise by the Prime Minister for the Prince’s carriage driving skills, the public figure was first to deprecate himself as a “discredited Balkan royal of no particular merit or distinction” but was nonetheless a pivotal institution in civics and support roles, with the walk-on role that fell onto the shoulders of an individual whose career path seemed to be a naval one, which had he attained the rank of First Sea Lord he would have been required to walk several feet behind his wife according to the protocol of the Admiralty.  The Commonwealth mourns with the Royal Family with further announcements to be made in due course.

7x7

tsugite: software that generates traditional Japanese joinery (previously) that can be 3D printed or precision cut

prince albert in a can: a collection of fish tin labels from a digital museum dedicated to the Portuguese canning industry 

cosmic nature: artist Yayoi Kusama exhibits at New York’s Botanical Garden  

tune-dex: the real-fake book of jazz standards, essential to musicians in the 1970s 

dingbat: thirty select works of Mid-Century Modern print for inspiration 

beer is proof god loves us and wants us to be happy: brew theorems post US National New Beers’ Eve ahead of the anniversary of rescinding parts of the Volstead Act that allowed for consumption of higher proof beer 

ukiyo-e: the unintentional ASMR of a master printmaker at work

responsable de style

Via the always interesting Things Magazine, we are directed towards an appreciation and celebration of the life and work of the recently departed French engineer and automobile creator Robert Opron (81932), head of the design department at Citroën since 1964 and then working with Renault in 1975—headhunted to develop an ultra-compact city car concept before transferring to Fiat and Piaggio a decade later. Custom coachbuilt Citroën Presidentials were commissioned for Queen Elizabeth’s state visit in 1971 as well as this clever CX camera car for the BBC were Opron’s doing and his whole line of models were visionary and iconic whilst working with the major French and Italian manufacturers. Opron’s most innovative and unconstrained design was for the smaller Fiat spin-off Simca with his first foray in 1958 in the bubble-topped, roving UFO called the Fulgur—Latin for lightening. Responding to an industry challenge to create a vehicle for the 1980s, this two-wheeled, gyroscopically-balanced concept (“idea”) car was to be—though not in the demonstration car—was to be guided by radar, voice-controlled and atomically-powered. More from the obituary at the link above.

your daily demon: marbas

Governing from today through 14 April, this fifth spirit and infernal president, ruling thirty-six legions, presents as a lion until brought under the control of the exorcist—whereupon Marbas dispenses wisdom on mechanical conundrums and has the potency and power to both cause and cure disease, leading some to source the name to barba, Latin for beard as well as the plant hellebore—a toxic herb used in witchcraft to summon (and banish) demons.