your daily demon: vassago

Ruling from today until 3 April, this infernal prince is of the same benevolent nature as his immediate predecessor, gregarious and a friend to beginner exorcists, and governs twenty-six legions. Compelled to reveal hidden things by the sign of his sigil and versed in the art of courtship, Vassago is opposed by the angel Sitael.

cult classics

Via ibīdem, we are directed to a gallery of some of the now dwindling fringe spiritual groups of California showcasing their chapels, meeting halls and reading rooms, which through the lens of decades of separation though a few are still active and claim many followers seem positively benign and even refreshing compared to the movements and gimmicks that we’re made to endure these days. What do you think? So long as they don’t take all your money or supplant science—particularly medical science—with woo, they seem as OK as any other organised religion. The Guardian correspondent pay visits to our old friends at the Unarian Society, the Lermurian Fellowship and many others like the pictured altar of Aetherius (that reminds us of the set of I Dream of Genie), whose congregation is communing with the Cosmic Masters for our collective benefit.

casa sperimentale

Though ostensibly informed by the Brutalist movement, this experimental vacation home, a concrete treehouse in the seaside town of Fregene outside of Rome, was meant as a statement about organic architecture and a statement of co-existence. Also known as Casa Albero, it was built by a family of architects, Uga de Plaisant and her husband Giuseppe Perugini with the assistance of their son over the course of seven years in the late 1960s, the structure has been abandoned and fallen into ruin, tragically. Explored by a group of urban spelunkers, here’s a short drone fly-through of the property. Hopefully this extra attention will inspire someone to save it. Much more at Things Magazine.

7x7

disaster capitalism: paintings of banks alight and other artworks by Alex Schaefer (previously) via Everlasting Blört  

convergent evolution: sea life becomes the plastic that is polluting it 

do geese see god: a documentary about the world palindrome championship  

full-stop: punctuation can really set a tone—see also  

№ 2 pencil: a fantastic Eberhard-Faber catalogue from 1915 

r.u.r.: online sci-fi dictionary (see previously) sources the term robot to 1920

living with the consequences: government austerity raises COVID deaths

marcus didius julianus

Reigning for a scant nine weeks, Didius Julianus was the second to hold imperial office during the Year of the Five Emperors (see previously), submitting the winning bid and acclaimed by the Prætorian Guard on this day in the year 193 as the elite troops auctioned off the throne, having just assassinated the previous incumbent Pertinax. A promising government and military career sidelined by Emperor Commodus—ostensibly afraid that the prætor in charge of Mogontiacum (see link above)—Didius Julianus was recalled from Dalmatia and Germania Inferior and put on tax-collecting and charitable duties and never quite recovered from this impolitic slight but for the bargain of promising each soldier twenty-five thousand sesterii (𐆘, the silver coin having the purchasing power of a sextarius, roughly half a litre of good wine or a little more than double a year’s pay) he was able to restore his honour. Rivalry amongst generals angry to see high office sold ensured civil war and competing claims and Didus Julianus did not help his popularity by immediately reversing monetary policy which significantly devalued the currency, and was executed in the palace on 1 June by a soldier. His successor Severus disbanded the Prætorian Guard and the Senate passed a damnatio memoriæ motion to erase his legacy and strike his rule from history.

notions

Via Nag on the Lake’s always splendiferous Sunday Links (lots more to explore there), we are directed to a wonderful collection of antique trade cards of various London emporia for all one’s clogg, peruke, bunnbaking needs and more—retail or wholeſale. Developed at the end of the seventeenth century parallel to rise of cheap priniting, the advertising ephemera were business cards of a sort and included specific, detailed directions to the merchants’ stores, referencinf signage that could be quite elaborate, as no standardised system of street addresses existed at the time—see also. Be sure to check out Spitalfield’s Life bookshop for more treasuries of old London.

radio caroline

Named after the daughter of JFK photographed dancing in the Oval Office and interpreted by the founder and chief backer Aodogán Ronan O’Rahilly (*1940 - †2020) as representing the playful disruption of government business and joyful rule-breaking, the pirate broadcaster (see also) that was never actually circumventing the law as it operated from international waters aired its first regular programme set on this day in 1964—transmitting from a retrofitted passenger ferry anchored off Felixstowne, Suffolk, just beyond the jurisdiction of any one who could object to their activity. Established like its Dutch and other European counterparts to undermine the monopoly that the BBC had over the radiowaves and the pressure that record companies exerted on stations, dictating that their popular songs dominate, Radio Caroline broadcasted from five different ships through 1990 before moving to satellite radio and community AM bands in select areas, continuing today on the internet. Limiting programming to day time hours so as not to interfere with Radio Luxembourg, the station, with news reports at the top of the hour, was extremely popular with homemakers and children and left a lasting impression and alterative from mainstream commercial music. Do give them a listen.

stringozzi o prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale

Privileged to have recently witnessed the birth of an innovative new noodle to add to the vocabulary of pasta shapes, we enjoyed being introduced to a series preserving the heritage of artisanal pasta-making traditions of Sardinia and Italia through watching and learning from venerable nonne—and possibly a few nonni too—the patient art of making some of the world’s rarest varieties. From the delicate spiralling andarinos, only produced in the village of Usini to the fabric like su filindeu—the yarn of God—whose warp and weave has been mastered by few, passed down over the generations. Much more from Messy Nessy Chic correspondent Valentina Peana, including videos and recipes, at the link above.