unit 4 + 2

Topping the UK charts this week in 1965 with the single “Concrete and Clay” by band members Tommy Moeller and Brian Parker. The ballad extolls the indestructible nature of the singer’s love and appealed to listeners with its rather unique Latin beat and acoustic guitar, and as with other successful songs at the time, four international cover version, Finnish, French, Swedish and German, were produced as well. With numerous other renditions, it was also featured on a British toothpaste jingle and a Dutch chocolate commercial.

the principle of plenitude

While there is surely some artistic license for exuberant abundance at work in these Belle Époque parlours, drawing rooms, studies and grand halls, especially if commissioned by the landed-gentry to show off their ostentation in the best light, we quite enjoyed this conspicuously non-minimalist gallery of interiors. It’s quite the look book. The above title could apply to the taste in decorating these room, but is generally used to refer to a cosmological stance that the Universe contains all possible forms of existence, either always and forever in diversity or in a state where the range of miscellany accrues over time. Some houses and collections do the latter.

nüẉa

Framing what was formerly the stuff of science-fiction into fact that’s seeming just within our reach, we are treated to a virtual fly-through tour that one architectural studio envisions for Martian habitation with the cliffside self-sustaining settlement that could eventually accommodate a quarter of a million Earthlings at Tempe Mensa (see also) with construction beginning by 2054. Learn more at the links above.

sofagate

Though wanting to focus on substantive issues, rehabilitating diplomatic and economic ties and address a host of social issues including gender equality rather than standing on ceremony or protocol, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen found herself sidelined and snubbed during a high-level meeting in Ankara (previously), forced to sit on an adjacent couch, whilst her interlocutors had a more domineering position. Ahead of the meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attracted criticism over his announcement to withdraw the country from the International İstanbul Convention of 2011 to prevent and combat domestic violence because, as Erdoğan characterised it, was an attempt by the LGBTQ+ community to normalise homosexuality and impose their views on society as a whole. The awkward meeting was not wholly unproductive von der Leyen owns as the slight only sharpens her focus on upholding the highest standards of human rights.

under the sea

Informed by the futuristic pavilions constructed for the World Expo in Osaka (previously here, here and here), we were delighted to pay a virtual visit to the Ashizuri Underwater Observation Tower (see also) built in 1971 by architect Yoshikatsu Tsuboi (坪井善勝). Seven metres under the waves, submerged guests can view fish, coral and other marine life in this reserve along the Tatsukushi coast in Kochi prefecture. More at Design Boom at the link up top.

play mstie for me

Having well surpassed and then trounced its modest crowd funding thresholds (angel investors every one of you), Mystery Science Theater 3000 (previously here and here) is coming back for a third iteration after two seasons were produced in 2016 after a similarly successful and enthusiastic sponsorship campaign and the creators and cast pledge to continue making episodes as long as the fans keep watching. Learn more from Gizmodo’s io9 at the link above.

you’ve got to be carefully taught

Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning book published two years before, the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical South Pacific debuted on Broadway on this day in 1949 and was an instant success with audiences for its standards and candid portrayal of prejudice—particularly with the lieutenant’s song in the title. Preambled by the spoken line that “racism is not born in you… it happens after you are born” before breaking into song, while the show was touring on a junket in the southern United States, law makers in Georgia introduced a bill banning subversive, Moscow influenced entertainment—adding a showtune justifying interracial marriage was a fundamental threat to American values and the American way of life. The number stayed in the show and is also referenced in Hamilton’s “My Shot”—“I’m with you but the situation is fraught, you’ve got to be carefully taught.” The musical won ten Tony awards and a medley of standards from the 1958 movie version can be found below.

7x7

silvagunner: an appreciation of the remixing collective from Kicks Condor 

film festival: curate one’s own streaming series from a vast, public domain archive  

re-branding: artist FAEL redesigns corporate logos with a perfect balance of retro and progress 

prompts and cues: remedies to exhausting monologues and fostering better conversations  

metronome: a fascinating look at synchronicity  

братство кольца: a 1991 Russian television version of The Fellowship of the Rings (see also) resurfaces on the internet—including an appearance by Tom Bombadil whose otherwise left out of the adaptations  

the only post-punk supergroup: the musical stylings of the New Age Steppers