children's television workshop

On this day half a century ago, Sesame Street (see previously) made its debut on the US public television network to a rather high viewership (considering less than seventy percent of households at the time owned a television) and generally positive reception.
It represented the first educational programming aimed for young audiences based on laboratory trials and with a curriculum informed by the input and feedback of teachers and social-workers.  By its second year, it had been nominated for over twenty accolades and has earned more awards than any other programme for children and by the tenth anniversary, over nine million under-six year olds were watching it daily, generations growing up with the characters of this cultural touchstone now having gone international.  The pilot episode as it was originally broadcast can be viewed below.

weekly top forty

Via Miss Cellania, we really enjoyed seeing the meteoric rise of Elton John, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen (plus their retreat and eventual resurgence) and the tenacity of The Beatles, ABBA, etc. in this presentation charting the best-selling artists (from aggregated certified sales world-wide, adjusted by a twelve-month trailing average) of the past fifty years, and admittedly we’re a bit out of touch with the music scene today, we found ourselves, after the turn of the century a bit bewildered and baffled by the bands vying for the pole position and the not so much of a photo-finish. Were there surprises for you? See previously.  Probably not spoilers and bombshells for anyone else, but we were pleased to learn that the career of a Canadian child star of Degrassi: TNG carried its own nearly as well as some of the confirmed legends in the running.

secret agent man

While better known for his role as the music director for the Godfather franchise of film and for his award-winning score for Pizza Connection (1985, originally called The Sicilian Connection until realising that that title had already been taken, composer Carlo Savina (*1919 – †2002) was incredibly prolific, behind the soundtracks of dozens and dozens of movies, including for numerous Spaghetti Westerns, Sword-and-Sandal dramas (previously, known as pepla in Italian, after the Greek full body gown, ὁ πέπλος, a period costume from those movies) and the later profusion of Eurospy features of the mid 1960s. This 1966 Goldsnake ‘Anonima Killers’ (with plenty of alternate titles for foreign markets) is a good number to start with. More to explore at the link above.

kandinsky park

The always inspired Keir Clarke, as part of an on-going challenge that follows in the tradition, spirit of Inktober, showcases her next cartographical creation that rather beautifully overlays Manhattan’s Central Park and environs with a symphonic palette of colours informed by the style of painter Wassily Kandinsky (*1866 – †1944), who executed some of the first European purely abstract compositions and taught at the Bauhaus until the institute was closed. Learn more about the methodology of generated charts and graphs and the Thirty Day Map Challenge (with previous entries) at the link up top.

compère

Born this day in 1859 (†1923) in Lausanne, Art Nouveau printmaker Théophile Alexandre Steinlen first apprenticed as designer in a textile mill in Mulhouse before joining an artist colony in the Montmarte quarter, where he was introduced to the cabaret owner and entertainer Aristide Bruant (the dashing man in the bold red scarf who was the subject of many Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings), helping to secure Steinlen commissions for poster art in Paris and beyond.
Le Chat Noir (Bruant performed there as well and his most well-known ballad was eponymously titled) itself was the pioneering enterprise, established in 1881, of fellow impresario Louis Rodlphe Salis and is considered the first modern night club, with food, drinks and live entertainment and which soon outgrow its original venue, and the revue was taken on the road and held in music halls across the city.

das tritt nach meiner kenntnis …ist das sofort… unverzüglich

On this night in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down through the cumulative actions of countless brave individuals and a shift towards political reform and market liberalisation but the flash point occurred due to a press-conference held earlier in the day with a spokesperson who hadn’t bothered to attend the full internal party briefing.
Having just forced out long-term party leader Erich Honecker in favour of Egon Krenz, Günter Schabowski (*1929 – †2015), chief of the Politbüro and trained journalist, was installed as the care-taker government’s public affairs officer. Schabowski took a cigarette break during discussions that outlined proposals for a temporary relaxing of travel restriction and was given notes by Krenz to prepare him for reporters’ questions. Schabowski, however, improvised under pressure and built up expectations that the East German government had not intended. One reporter asked when would these new travel policies go into effect—to which Schabowski replied, “Right away, as far as I know—effective immediately without delay.” Upon on hearing this, thousands massed at border access points in Berlin, demanding that they be let through.

7x7

a gender-neutral zombie: representation is important, via Kottke’s Quick Links

flotsam and jetsam: an ingenious barrier of air bubbles traps plastic waste in Amsterdam’s canals

ok boomer: a powerful and withering epithet

rurikids and romanovs: traditional Russian female garb, via Everlasting Blört

book of dreams: Argos back-catalogues from 1974 on, via Things Magazine

merijää: a combination of rare weather conditions converged to cover a beach on Bothnia bay with ice eggs

equine anatomy: rating every horse emoji across different platforms (see also), via Waxy

minor arcana

For the eighteenth iteration of James Bond in the film Live and Let Die (1973), producer Albert Romolo Broccoli (not to be confused with an Alan Smithee credit, a pseudonym adopted by individuals wanting to disown the movie) commissioned from Salvador Dalí a deck of tarot cards to be used as a prop for a pivotal scene featuring a psychic played by Jane Seymour. Over budget, the studio went with another artist in the end but Dalí nonetheless completed his assignment, limning all the seventy-eight trump and numbered suites.