peau d’âne

With the folktale classification of Aarne-Thompson 510B—unnatural love—the 1695 poetic adaptation of the French fairy tale Donkeyskin by fabulist Charles Perrault already promises to be unhinged but this 1970 cinematic version (see also) by Jacques Demy starring Catherine Deneuve seems to be a veritable masterpiece. With fantastical filming locations as the Château Chambord made even more surreal by the talented production team, the recently widowed king of the realm is being pressured by his advisors to take a new wife and produce an heir.  The king promised the dying queen, however, he would only remarry if he found another as virtuous as herself. Royal counsel convincing the king that the only course of action is to marry his daughter. Duly horrified, the princess tries to put the king off his plan, at the advice of her fairy godmother, by requesting increasingly impossible wedding (see previously) gifts.  The king manages, nevertheless, to fulfil the bridal registry with dresses the colour of the Moon and Sun and weather and finally the enchanted pelt of a donkey that sweats jewels, the kingdom’s Golden Fleece and source of its wealth. The princess flees disguised with the donkey skin. In a faraway land, the princess earns her keep as a managing a pig sty but captures the attention of that kingdom’s prince, whom marry—the party crashed by Donkey Skin’s father the king and fairy godmother arriving to announce their engagement. Much more at Messy Nessy Chic at the link above.

kartoffelbefehl

The last of fifteen so called potato decrees, also known Circular-Ordre, was issued on this day in 1756 by Friedrich II to encourage the cultivation (see also) of the food crop in the Prussian provinces addressed to the landholders of Silesia. Spurred on by a famine in Pomerania in 1746, government administers enforced the planting of potatoes for human consumption and for livestock and enlisted itinerant pastors known as “tuber preachers” to monitor implementation and compliance and teach farmers how to grow them and cook them. Reportedly, in order to reduce scepticism and encourage people to eat this strange, New World vegetable by planting a patch of land with them on the palatial grounds of Sanssouci, guarded by soldiers to pique the curiosity of neighbours and farmers, a bit of reverse-psychology and overlooking the pilfering of the potatoes.

prepared piano

We were happy to be introduced to a new type of technique, intervention signature to French composer and pianist Benoît Delbecq’s style and showcased in his latest album “Weight of Light.” Inspired by John Cage’s 1938 Bacchanale, the preparation involves careful selection and placement of items, reeds and twigs being Delbecq’s preferred disruptors, between or on the strings and hammers to create a mysterious, uncanny timbre outside of the instrument’s characteristic range, as illustrated in the video below.

near wild heaven

Topping the charts this week in 1991, R.E.M.’s seventh studio album Out of Time including the tracks Losing My Religion with Grammy-winning music video, “Radio Song,” “Texarkana” and “Shiny Happy People” helped raise the band’s profile from a cult following to the international face of alternative rock. The packaging in the form of a CD longbox included a petition in support of the Motor Voter Act (previously) in support of a less onerous registration process for franchisement.

phys ed

From Weird Universe we learn that in 1943 the University of St. Louis added utility pole tossing to the curriculum as a general conditioning exercise, demanding strength, rhythm and coordination as a group to pass around these ninety kilogram logs. The coach who instigated this regiment was inspired by the Highland Games and the traditional caber toss, said to have been developed out of a need to throw timber over streams and ravines in order for lumberjacks to cross them. More at the link above.

88x31

Via Pasa Bon!, we are directed towards a gallery of thousands of vintage GIF button ads—some call to action ones as well, technically micro bar banner advertisements—from the nineties and the noughts. How many of these do you remember? When space was more at a premium, it was a challenge fitting one’s message within these confines. 

shelter-in-place

This day marks the one-year anniversary of the United Kingdom imposed with a national lockdown to quell the spread of COVID-19 so that health services would not be overwhelmed, reversing earlier thinking once we were better informed epidemiologically that suggested we should aim for herd-immunity rather than curfews and quarantines. The announcement coincided with the restrictions on movement placed on residents of Wuhan were being cautiously rolled back after two-months of total shutdown and followed measures enacted earlier in the month in Italy and France. The stay-at-home order banned non-essential travel and in person contact, the closure of most businesses with the mandate to telework when possible and those with symptoms to self-isolate. Measures were gradually eased in June through July with a resurgence in October, a so called second wave, that resulted in another month-long shutdown.

deorbit

After fifteen years of service, funding running out its orbit degrading and the International Space Station crewed for the first time, on this day in 2001 over the course of five hours, Mir (previously) was decommissioned by a series of manoeuvres that caused the craft to graze the upper atmosphere and break up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Though no significant debris hit land or populated areas, residents in New Zealand and Japan were told to stay indoors as no object of this size had been subject to re-entry prior.