opsec

Wanting a bit of a respite from his War on Christmas that not only has forcibly separated some fourteen thousand young children from their parents who’ve yet to be reunited, a partial government shutdown whose consequences portend untold collateral damage—especially for those living precariously and counting on that one reliable paycheck for the holidays plus some unwelcome disabusing that’s really tarnishing and not in keeping with the spirit of the season, the Grifter-in-Chief decided to take a swing at those who criticised him for failing to visit a combat zone and staged a surprise three hour publicity stunt at a US airbase outside of Baghdad.
Such photo-ops are usually harmless and might otherwise be a nice morale boost, even if we are still reeling from the announcement to withdraw from Syria and the subsequent resignation of the defence secretary—except the detachment that Trump’s handlers chose for him to greet is a group of special operations forces, likely on some covert operation in the region, and revealing their identities seriously compromises their mission if not putting the troops’ own lives at greater risk.  If the social media exposure was not bad enough on its own, Trump further jeopardised the deployed soldiers and the hospitality of their host nation in refusing to meet with Iraqi government officials during his trip but also gave a campaign speech defending his recent military decisions and suggesting that they use Iraqi bases as a staging-ground for the Syrian nation-building that he had pledged to quit. 

take a jumbo across the water, like to see america

The cover art of Supertramp’s 1979 LP is not only famous for its latter day conspiracy lore but also for the contemporaneous success of its design which prompted the band to bring the actress who appeared as Libby the Waitress on tour with them as a master-of-ceremonies.
Kate Murtagh had appeared in numerous roles from Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961 to Ed Silverstein’s 1977 horror film The Car before appearing on the cover and going on to feature as a walk-on part to the music video of “It’s Raining Again.” Murtagh continued to have credits to her name, decades later stepping down from show business in 1999 but keeping busy as a student and coach for improvisational classes many years into her retirement, passing away just in 2017, aged ninety-six, ironically given the nature of the conspiracy surrounding the cover, on 10 September.

artistas no figurativos

Born this day in Buenos Aires in 1925 (†2004), we have found ourselves enchanted with the artwork and geometric abstractions of Martha Boto.
Known for exploring reflection through repetition, Boto sought through her work to defuse those anxieties that only art itself can address and considered her pioneering statements to be programmatic, placeholders where the audience might find themselves amongst the kinetics and pattern. Here are some pieces from various collections but Boto’s portfolio is surely deserving a comprehensive gallery of its own.

8x8

marci playground: an assortment of brilliantly mismatched audio-swapped musical performances 

i’ll level with you, virginia: the one time Trump might have been expected to be liberal with the truth, plus some additional background 

misery loves company: those within the Beltway and beyond are commiserating on the effects of the partial government shutdown

eye on the workforce: exploring the photography of Lewis Hine that transformed the way America and the world regards labour 

regift of the magi: newborns are hard to shop for

bantamweight: check out these portable, pad-like typewriters from the early 1900s, via Messy Nessy Chic

chariots of frolic: incredible Indian wedding carriages

metafilter: Miss Cellania begins curating year-end superlatives with 2018’s top books with the aggregated list available here

cga

In the Christmas package from my parents, they included a picture of a young master Johan at seated at the helm of one of my first personal computers—though not the first foray into programming but possibly the first home model that came as a package with floppy disk drives and monitor and not cassette-tape memory that one hooked up to a television set. I don’t recall if the display just didn’t show up on film or if in a fit of intense privacy, I was driven to shut the screen off, but in either case, I still give the same look (according to H) if I’m bothered or feel someone’s looking over my shoulder.