magic lantern

As the bloc has expanded from twelve member states to twenty-eight, office space at the European Union headquarters buildings is naturally going at quite a premium—not counting the attendant actors accompany the “travelling-circus.”
The councillors that represent the executive officers of the member states, the other chamber that acts as a counter-weight to parliament (it’s all terribly complicated and byzantine and enough to make people shutdown rather than engage), and support staff are moving—or rather, are expanding into, after some delays and misgivings, from their purpose-built structure, the Justus Lipsius hall that the Council occupied since 1995, to this new building, occupying a space donated by the city Brussels and just separated by a span of footbridge (next to rest of the ensemble that makes up the rest of the supranational government). The glass façade encloses an orb that comprises eleven storeys of conference rooms, cafeterias, galleries and offices. The whole edifice is a marvel of passive engineering and highly energy-efficient, and much of the construction material was recycled and salvaged from demolition sites across Europe. No word yet what this new headquarters might be called but the Samyn and Partners commission will be ready to host its first sessions in 2017.

the bear retreats to his den

Via Spoon & Tamago with reinforcements courtesy of Hyperallergic, we’re treated to the traditional Japanese concept of the microseason, that divides the cross-quarter year into smaller, poetic subdivisions (seventy-two ko) that marches on in segments of four or five days like a natural calendar.
With wonderful smoothing descriptive names like “first peach blossoms,” “rainbows begin to appear after a shower” or “eastern wind melts the ice,” these gentle transitions (this is when the bear starts its long winter’s nap and next week is when the salmon swim upstream) are a much nicer and more accessible yearly planner, at least for those who get to enjoy at minimum the basic four seasons and can find nuance in between. Both links above feature a beautifully crafted application for one’s mobile device that helps one keep up with the sekki and ko and includes explanation of the symbolism drawing from other traditions and where one might journey to see the phenomenon that marks the season—or imagine one’s native equivalent and rhythm.

judge dredd

In this era of fake news—which has always been with us but I suppose it’s easier to peddle anything as truth nowadays, especially as there is always the critical-mass of people who want it to be true to be found and who are willing propagators to people who might otherwise be sceptical or dismissive, the wise eschew unconfirmed rumours, particularly those that spontaneously pop into existence in the tabloid cloud-chamber, but given what 2016 has already managed to deliver (and I think that perhaps that this year is evidence of time travel and the altered time-line is desperately trying to preserve itself that tossing out unlikelihood after unlikelihood) we suppose that actor and erstwhile artist Slyvester Stallone could end up being the chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. This independent body is responsible for issuing grants for art projects and education across the country and works closely in partnership with community organisations to promote local theatre and orchestras, and has dodged attempts to defund and dissolve the trust several times, at the hands of Republicans whom found showcase work objectionable. Perhaps it is a hopeful sign that the president-elect does not want to defang the endowment outright and signals that there is some future for it, but given the patronage, one has to wonder what sort of proposals get funded. Any time-travellers looking to make amends for 2016 seeing this notice, please know that we can’t handle much more implausibility.

palimpsest

A series of religious tableaux dating to the Middle Ages in the Guild Chapel of Stratford-upon-Avon was conserved thanks to chamberlain John Shakespeare, father of the village’s most famous son, has recently been fully restored and is now available for public inspection.
In the wake of the iconoclast movement and the turmoil of the Reformation in England, such allegorical murals were ordered destroyed and replaced by, well, blank, unadorned walls in line with Puritanical customs and later painted over as styles changed, but reluctant to wipe out such ancient works of art, Shakespeare the senior directed workers to limewash the walls, preserving the originals under all those layers to be teased out later. Be sure to visit Hyperallergic at the link above to marvel at this unique gallery of images, rich in symbolism and narrative that are sure to contribute to our understanding of the medieval psyche as well as that of the Elizabethans.