7x7

hello, little friends: Ryoji Akiyama transversed China in 1981 and 1982 capturing images of young people in a rapidly changing country

a class divided: a powerful, pivotal lesson in discrimination revisited

the plot to overthrow america: a round-up of fear-mongering ploys baited by Trump’s declaring an acronym a terrorist group, plus a case of deicide

simrefinery: Chevron commissioned the makers of SimCity to make a training programme for workers at their petroleum plants back in 1992

little green men: investigating the anonymous, unaccountable army policing Washington, DC—via Pluralistic

subjective cityscapes: Natalie Christensen focuses her lens on the intersection of architecture and automobiles in the US Southwest—via Plain Magazine

heavenly palace: more details surface regarding China’s space station, with construction beginning next year

tpv-15

Though this image is just about three years old, one of the parting shots of the Cassini probe before it descended into the atmosphere of Saturn, we appreciated the reminder, a sense of proportion that’s much needed right now, from Strange Company of the Earth and the Moon framed by the Encke Gap of the gas giant’s rings—see previously—and for couching it in the POV of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s Total Perspective Vortex, a device (see also) originally built as a heuristic tool to demonstrate causality by extrapolating a model of the Cosmos from a single atom.
In application, however, exposing the mind to such a humbling vision of reality was overwhelming and the technology was mainly useful as an instrument of torture—execution, that is, with a final moment of clarity and transcendence. The only biological brain subjected to the Vortex to survive unscathed, protagonist Zaphod Beeblebrox, was only able to do so through the protective bunker of a computer-generated universe that was created specifically to shield him, and with the confidence, hubris that he in fact was the most important person in his paracosm was able to get through the ordeal with minimal amount of insight to put him in his place.

mug shot

Via Colossal, we are treated to the hundred-day challenge and rather incredible achievement of potter Lalese (Lolly) Stamps with her project exploring variations on the design of handles on coffee cups with all manners of rings, knobs, grips and treads. See more examples of tool and ornament at the links above.

jetway 707

Having a cameo in no less than All the President’s Men featuring Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and clocking in at an impressive eight-and-a-half metre length, via Things Magazine, we’re pleased to be acquainted with the wonderfully outlandish airport stretch limousine (produced from 1968 to 1970) from Oldsmobile and its subsidiary American Quality Coach designed to shuttle VIPs (seating twelve to fifteen) and their luggage from the terminal to the tarmac (see previously). Much more to explore at the links above.

the bold knight, the apples of youth and the water of life

Compelled amidst the confusion, conspiracy and urban legends to find and give voice to the archetypal and shared experiences, storyteller and graphic artist Maria Fedorova is soliciting lived anecdotes from life under lockdown to recast in the tradition of Russian folktales, the definitive collected and classified anthology explicitly modeled off of Grimm’s Fairy Stories. The first evening’s entertainment in this modern-day Decameron relates the dilemma of a woman wanting to rescue her neighbour stuck in her apartment building’s lift but is also terrified at the prospect of have to come within too close proximity with others during her intervention. Much more to explore at the links above.

no time for this kind of love—no flag waving high above

Via Nag on the Lake, we are treated to a roiling new release from Elvis Costello, recorded in February in Helsinki where the artist wanted to sample the sounds of anonymity sure that no one would recognise him but perhaps the Finns are too polite to make a big fuss over someone wanted to remain incognito, but shared now with this lyric video as it spoke to the times and current angst and anxiety. After playing with Sheryl Crow and friends to benefit the Musicians’ Emergency Fund charity, Costello will join Rosanne Cash next week Live with Carnegie to perform songs of protest and memory.

northwest quadrant

Not only did Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser petition Trump to remove extraordinary police forces and military presence from the city and allow muralists to paint in giant yellow letters BLACK LIVES MATTER on the pavement leading up to the official residence, the People’s House, she also officially renamed the section of 16th Street directly in front of the White House to be renamed (see also) Black Lives Matter Plaza.

novarupta

Located in the present day Katmai National Park and Preserve covering the Kodiak archipelago, Kenai Peninsula and Bristol Bay of Alaska, the caldera and volcanic dome of Новарупта, Latin for “newly erupted” began forming on this day in 1912, expelling ash and lava over the next sixty hours in volumes that equalled thirty Mounts St. Helens.
The largest event of its kind under the twentieth century, it is only comparable with the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. One notable legacy to be found in the reserve originally established as a monument to protect the volcanic field is the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, hewn out by the pyroclastic flow of the eruption, which still colour the canyon to the present day, the feature having been named by a member of the National Geographic Society, Robert F. Griggs—a botanist by training, who came to study the aftermath of the volcano in 1916.