5x5

a lad insane: a gallery dedicated to iconic David Bowie persona artwork

kit and caboodle: impassioned curators’ collection of miniature folk-art buildings

blue birds over (dead link): Churchill’s war-time tunnels under the White Cliffs of Dover are open to the public

ewok village: civil engineers design a sustainable city out of bamboo

move along, move along: wookie arrested while escourting Lord Vader to the polls in Ukraine

seeteufel

My furnished workweek apartment has scattered shelves of mostly decorative books lining the room—some visually striking vintage paperbacks, the 1937 definitive edition of a German encyclopedia that’s an interesting snapshot but the selection is mostly of the harlequin and coffee-table (perhaps also the load-bearing) variety.
Dusting the shelves, however, I was surprised to see a title that I hadn’t noticed beforehand, Graf Luckner’s Seeteufel erobert Amerika (the Sea-Devil raids America) published in 1955. A few weeks ago, I first heard of the amazing but mostly forgotten adventures and exploits of gentleman-raider Felix Graf von Luckner. After the wars, the gracious and big-spirited Luckner was reunited was many of his hostages and toured America to great acclaim, recounting his conquests and even ripping telephone books asunder with his bare hands. I will read through the book and suppose that finding a copy just under my nose is testimony to the fame and celebrity that deserves further inspection—happily revived by the curious story-tellers at Futility Closet.

paramour or family planning

Jewish traditions were first exposed to the tale of Lilith, the “Night Hag,” during their Babylonian Captivity from ancient Sumerian sources, and conflating demonology (daimōnion) with fairies, which are liminal beings capable of both beneficence (like a fairy godmother) and wickedness (mischievousness mostly) and from a psychological stance infinitely more fascinating, decided to wed her to Adam. Whether also chthonic or baked in fire, Lilith was understood to be also elemental and thus not derivative, unlike Adam’s second wife Eve, and thus not very keen on the idea of being subservient or second-class.
After having had liaisons with multiple archangels, God decreed this strident, toxic woman to be no suitable mate and surgically excised Eve as Lilith’s under-study. Apparently, with sentiments more in line with those of fairyfolk, however, Lilith did pine for Adam and for her squandered chances of having children—being that she had become too venomous to nurse any child, no matter how immortal its parentage, having garnered the reputation of being a succubus, which is an awful sounding name for a seductress but is usually just rendered as paramour with no paranormal connotations. The different biological-clocks and this asynchronicity remains a theme in folklore throughout the ages, with Lilith’s curse representing fussy babies that have difficulty breast-feeding and her minions intent on kidnapping human-children, replacing them with an identical-looking changeling. It was taken as a near impossibility for fairies to breed naturally, they replenished their ranks by substituting a wizened, geriatric fairy for a new soul—and in disguise, generally the human foster-parents would care for and for the retired fairy in its old age, though sometimes the changeling could be tricked into betraying its true nature as an old, experienced soul by confronting the infant in question with baby-talk or something equally nonsensical, whereupon the old fairy would protest or attempt to correct the illogical behaviour. If this enchantment is not drawn out in a timely-fashion, the supernumerary child would later show a penchant for developmental disorders and neurological abnormalities—at least that’s how maladjusted offspring were explained through the nineteenth century. Only when fairies were pushed back into the woodwork, supplanted by medicine and machinery, did they begin to take on a diminutive stature and the diaphanous wings, and not uncannily human, characteristics that most associate with fairies today.

bolwoningen or apostrophe-s, it shows the things that we possess

In the Brabant capital of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Duke’s Forest)—in the suburb of Maaspoort, the Dutch government awarded funds in 1968 to the architectural firm of Dries Kreijkamp to commission a experimental housing project.
These so-called bubble (Bolwoningen) units were constructed from the early 1970s through to 1984, and being modular, efficient, easy to transport and requiring little in the way of a foundation were among the first environmentally-friendly mass-produced shelters created. The bubble houses are still occupied today and quite popular among the residents. Check out the link above for more images of the unique, retro-future apartments.

kleine wiedervereinigung

The Local (Germany’s daily in English) nicely marked the six decades that have transpired since the “little reunification” when the Protectorate of the Saar voted in a public referendum to reject economic annexation by neighbouring and occupying France as a dependency six decades ago in order to join the reconstituted West Germany, fully implemented some two years later. This decision, couched in the complex history and politics of the small territory, is often forgotten and overshadowed by the reunion of West and East in 1990, represents an important previsioning of sorts of the integration and cooperation that anticipates the spirit of the European Union

not too big to jail

In what’s just an opening salvo to demonstrate (and actually far from the first prosecution of this kind)that no behaviour, no matter how consequential and unconscionable, is above the law, Iceland is sentencing two dozen bankers and financial managers whose greed and collusion resulted in the devastating 2008 economic meltdown of the country. This meting out of punishment is a necessary but bold step, especially compared to the inaction and forgiveness on the part of the US government who allowed its bankers, Masters of the Universe, to precipitate the global Recession in the first place—and of many other countries where immunity has been extended rather magnanimously. Managing other people’s money is just the same as overseeing any other utility, and probably less skilled, and such plumbers and locksmiths (not to insult those professions by comparison, who are much better champions in our hour of need) should not be compensated nor protected differently.

i find your lack of faith disturbing

In response to a law passed by the Ukrainian parliament, Quartz magazine reports, back in April that prohibits the public display of Communist propaganda, a statue of Vladimir Lenin outside of a factory complex in Odessa slated to be destroyed has instead been redesigned as a homage to Darth Vader. The figure even emits free WiFi for the residents.