the freedom to use, the choice to choose

Since our previous exposure to corporate singalong show tunes was more cast in the golden era of American industry, we appreciated revisiting the theme as big business begins counting on government support and subsidies over innovation typified in this Big Oil revue released in 1976 to extol and mildly indoctrinate associates with the virtues of laissez-faire economics and minimal government regulation with a judicious dose of lobbying. “America’s way—the free enterprise way / That’s what got us here today!” Find more tracks from the Exxon Singers and related choral arrangements at Boing Boing at the link above.

read mean tweets

Obloquy is, to most men, more painful than death; that is one reason why, in times of collective excitement, so few men venture to dissent from the prevailing opinion.

—Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, 1921

jade helm

The same trolls (foreign and domestic) that championed conspiracy theories that mass-scale military exercises conducted in the summer of 2015 that proffered they were an overture to a hostile coup are now eager to live out fantasies and be deputised a defender of the homeland—since whatever consortium of government assets that comprise the secret police don’t have the manpower, organisation or wherewithal to carry out disappearing all the thought-criminals on their own and need more than the complicity of ignoring the growing problem but also active support.
This patchwork of paramilitary units is necessary because the actual US military has so far resisted most of the egregious orders to cross the Rubicon and mobilise against its own, especially for peaceful, unprovoking demonstration against those institutions that uphold the status quo of white privilege and racial injustice. Except this time, the crackdown on the resistance is real—even by their own admission—and under the auspices of quite a different administration with a different target and a professed agenda who has activated this contingency not on suspicion of a meteor impact or any number of speculations but to further capitalise on a global pandemic that’s been siphoned off to enrich the few and the deadly disdain of the public whose response was badly botched—citing the mandate to protect statues. Liberal strongholds are under assault and the attacks and abductions will continue until a permanent state of emergency can be declared to suppress the election and ensure the party remains in power.

i get lockdown

Whilst initially sad to learn that a work by Banksy (previously here and here) on the Underground would be rather uncere- moniously wiped away before it could be properly appreciated, it was doubly upsetting to realise that this message of solidarity included a reference to the song Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. “If you don’t mask—you don’t get it.”

a man, a plan, a can

Appropriately called out for its stereotypes and gendered biases that do not advance equity in the kitchen—though I do admit that it is often the most help and the least harm I can do is in setting the table and clearing up—we were struck with the illustrations of this vintage Working Couple’s Cookbook—via Weird Universe but curated then culled by our astute librarians (previously), which are strongly suggestive of adversarial graphic generation.
A Nitty Gritty production, written by Peggy Treadwell with artwork by Carl Torlucci—I can see that he specialised in this signature style but can’t find anything outside of this one collaboration unfortunately, with complimenting an author’s words seeming like an especially democratising task that is relatively accepted and well established as gender-neutral.

канонизация царской семьи

Formally glorified—elevated to sainthood as martyrs and righteous passion-bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 November 1981 and then in 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) the murdered last imperial family, the Romanovs (see previously), and the domestics that died along with them are commemorated on this day (Old Style, 4 July), the day after they were assassinated by Bolshevik operatives in 1918 at Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Two members of their entourage were not canonised owing to the fact that their professed faith was respectively Roman Catholic and Lutheran, and the whole veneration was certainly not without controversy with opponents pointing out that the Romanovs were not killed for their faith and the flagging leadership of Nicholas II had caused suffering and enabled the revolution in the first place, counting some proponents who advocate the doctrine of tsarebozhiye (Царебожие, Tsar-as-God, deification) and that the last emperor was capable of spiritually redeeming the Russian people.

8x8

houstonia: a century of the Texas city told though iconic photographs—via Things Magazine

bovine flatulence: a strange fast food campaign touts its efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and improve animal welfare

triple word score: a Star Wars round-up including Scrabble tiles in the script of Galactic Basic, Aurebesh (previously)

eggs over easy: an introduction to Britain’s influential pub rock scene of the 1970s and its lasting legacy

when she walks, she’s like a samba: a deconstruction of the complex Girl from Ipanema (see also July 2019), the second most covered song in history

le vetture tranviarie: engineer Arturo Tedeschi redesigns a tram car for social distancing (see previously)

eponymous first album: quarantined residents in of a senior assisted living centre recreate iconic record covers

unclaimed baggage: more on the small town Alabama store (previously) that resells the world’s lost luggage—via Duck Soup

be our guest, be our guest

Via Nag on the Lake, we are treated to an appropriately scathing reaction to Disney’s irresponsible decision to reopen its biggest theme park in the midst of a resurgent pandemic with this arrangement of its promotional piece that references visually and musically the 1994 ABC (the network I guess owned by Disney now as well) miniseries of Stephen King’s The Stand, starring Molly Ringwald and Gary Sinise and Rob Lowe. At work, there were always abundant crows but now they absolutely rule the roost with most staff teleworking and the sight for me always evokes a haunted image from the television saga.