ポスター

We enjoyed reviewing this gallery of the official posters created for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (previously here, here, here and here), the committee inviting prominent artist to contribute works promoting cultural understanding through sportsmanship and a celebration of friendly competition. We especially liked the piece entitled “Olympic Cloud” by graphic designer Taku Satoh and the vintage aesthetic it evokes. Be sure to visit the Guardian (see also) at the link up top to peruse all twenty and to learn more about the artists and studios behind them.

the last of the beothuk

Kidnapped during a raid on her encampment over some allegedly stolen fishing equipment that resulted in the deaths of her family and sent away to live with a priest in a parish house in the capital of Newfoundland who christened her Mary March (for the Mother of God and surname in deference to the month she was abducted in), Demasduit died day in 1820 (*circa 1796) from tuberculous contracted during a failed attempt to repatriate her with her tribe.

While in St. John’s, the governor’s wife Lady Henrietta Hamilton painted Demasduit’s portrait, the people of the city and broader Notre Dame Bay raising funds for her journey home. Having expired aboard the ship as it crossed Red Indian Lake, her coffin was deposited on the shore with members of the Beothuk—only some thirty left at this point reunited her body with the grave of her husband Chief Nonosbawsut and her infant child. Demasduit’s niece who died a decade later, called Shanawdithit (“Nancy April”), also from tuberculosis, is regarded as the last of her tribe.

nolle prosequi

Via the inestimable Kottke, we’re directed to a profile of illustrator and court reporter (see previously here and here) Wendy MacNaughton and her time visually documenting the 9/11 military tribunal held at the US detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba September of last year. MacNaughton’s experience of her journalistic commitment clashing with the strictures of censorship and a rather byzantine vetting process overshadows (but hopefully foreshadows the rigour overall) the arraignment and peremptory pleas.

braeburn and bismark

Our heirloom tree having taken this season off, we really enjoyed perusing this gallery of uncommon, and in many cases threatened, apple cultivars (a selection of the seven and a half thousand varieties out there) from around the world, beautiful captured by William Mullan and curated by the intrepid explorers at Gastro Obscura. We especially enjoyed learning about the Api Etoile (la pomme d’api) raised in orchards in France and Switzerland, so named for its star-shaped form.  More to explore at the links above.

tatoveringer

Archival research and interviews with other members of the Danish royal family has enabled a team at Denmark’s public broadcasting service to create a composite, three-dimensional image of King Frederik IX (*1899 – †1972), bearing his torso to show off his tattoos and to tell the authoritative lore (legends of course abound) behind his  affection for body art.
Reigning during a time of rapid and sweeping societal change and with the reputation as a monarch of the people and quite personable, Frederik would have probably appreciated the attention paid to his ink and those Johnny Weissmüller leopard-print trunks aren’t not just a bit of creative license on the part of the modellers but based on an actual article of apparel from the king’s wardrobe.

levensloop

Everlasting Blört shares with us the animated headers of the 1551 songbook compiled and published at the behest of Renaissance Brugge writer, textile merchant and city administrator Zeghere van Male (*1504 - †1601), the initials above the sheet music and in the marginalia mostly by composer Gheerkin de Hondt of ‘s-Hertogenbosch brought to life by Kajetan Obarski. The accompanying static image is an ex voto executed by Pieter Pourbus for the family in 1578.

police procedural

Portrayed by Don Quine (*1938, The Fugitive, Peyton Place, The Virginian), swinging Sixties bachelor stock character Don Miles ushered in the new decade with some controversy that American audiences were unprepared for in an episode of Hawaii Five-O aired once and never shown again—even in syndication nor much later in commemorative box sets, called “Bored, She Hung Herself” in which our charismatic gigolo is implicated in the death of his sometimes girlfriend Wanda, played by Pamela Murphy (*1945, All in the Family, Silver Spoons, Dallas), found hanged dead in their apartment. Wanda’s death wasn’t at issue since crime and murder were stock and staple of this sort of television programming, but rather how it presented as accidental, “was she under the diabolic influence of her mystic boyfriends—or was it murder?” a hazard of practising yoga with a noose, as Miles offered as testimony of the couple’s engaging in the activity for health reasons. Though not named specifically, the episode described in some detail auto-erotic asphyxiation and tragically a viewer died while trying to replicate the technique. The family of the victim sued the network and the controversial episode was wiped from CBS archives.