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.

ultimate rendering

Via our peripatetic pal Everlasting Blört, we are shown a gallery of artists’ final works, curated with a bit of context and perspective for their parting paintings. Quite a few seem a little too on the nose as to otherwise deny the creator their reflection and prescient swan song, like this still-life executed by Frida Kahlo (previously, 1907 – †1954) with watermelons (síndria) part of the iconography of El Día de Muertos and completed eight days before the Mexican artist’s death. Watermelons were also the subject of the last painting of Diego Rivera (*1886 – †1957), whom took Kahlo as his third wife.

totem guide

Via the always engaging Friend of the Blog, Nag on the Lake, we are invited to learn more about the rich cultural traditions and customs of the Haida Nation of the Haida Gwaii (Xaaydaga Gwaay.yaay) archipelago of British Columbia through this custom set of emoji that created by indigenous artist Jaalen Edenshaw, renowned the world over for his incredible totem poles, ritual masks and other native art, whose study and talent inform and inspire these new glyphs and engender interest in this severelt endangered though reviving language (see also here, here and here). Edenshaw‘s extended, creative family have devoted their careers to preserving and promoting their heritage including Gwaii Edenshaw who made the first Haida language feature film and artist Guujaaw (Eric Edenshaw), folk singer and political activist. Much more to explore at the links above.

some at a very high level

As an encore to his threat to bomb fifty-two undisclosed Iranian targets (one for each American hostage detained from 1979 – 1981), some of which are cultural sites (Iran hosts twenty-four places on the UNESCO World Heritage registry) and whose willful destruction, putting US might on the level of the Cosplay Caliphate and al Qaeda, constitutes a war crime, should the Iranian government or actors retaliate in response to the unprovoked murder of its top paramilitary commanders, Trump threatened further punishing sanctions on Iraq should its parliament pursue the expulsion of foreign troops (including thousands of US soldiers, materiel and installations).

Committing to remaining entrenched until a return on investment materializes, Trump conditioned any decision that led to redeployment or eviction with repaying the US billions on the new air base being built there, much in the same manner than Mexico is reimbursing the US for its racist folly of the border wall or the suggestion that host nations pay more for the privilege of quartering the US military. “If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.” Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament decided to drop its commitments to the 2015 brokered nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew unilaterally in May 2018 much to global consternation, conditional on America relieving its tariffs and trade restrictions. All sides, I think, are running short of capital to leverage but America especially so.

namändg

On this day in 1938, outside of the courts and with the signature authority of the Reichs-Chancellor, the Interior Minister and nominal participation from the Ministry of Justice, Nazi Germany ratified its Decree Concerning the Changing of Surnames and First Names (das Gesetz über die Änderung von Familiennamen und Vornamen, kurzform NamÄndG) in order to facilitate external identification of those with Jewish backgrounds. Fully articulated and enforced by August of the same year, unless Germans and non-citizen residents identified as Jewish already had sufficiently typical Jewish first names—according to a list authorities drafted—the men were to be called Israel and the women Sara and their former identities stripped away in all official documents and registers.