the abominable doctor phibes

Via Messy Nessy Chic and premiering in UK theatres this month back in 1971, this comedy-horror film starring Vincent Price (previously here and here), Joseph Cotton and Virginia North with its melodrama, arch, dark humour, a solid soundtrack, sequels planned and Art Deco scenery that harks back to an earlier time makes this Robert Fuest vehicle a cult classic. The eponymous doctor of theology and classical organist is thought to have died in an automobile accident in the Swiss alps in 1921 whilst rushing back to attend to his dying wife, killed in Phibes’ opinion by incompetency during surgery. Horribly disfigured and disabled, Phibes survives the crash and reconstructs himself with prosthetics and restores his voice-box to resurface in London. With the perfect alibi, Phibes along with his silent accomplice called Vulnavia exacts revenge on the surgical team responsible for his wife’s death, taking inspiration from the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament, killing his victims with ravenous locust, frogs, raining blood, etc.

a baneful herb

In a quite round-about way, I learned the identity of these plants that appear in the woods in early spring: hellebore (Nieswurz) also called Lenten roses due to the timing is a type of buttercup that is mildly toxic and eschewed by most, distasteful and deadly in sufficient quantities and dangerous to touch. Sometimes recommended as a purgative in traditional medicine, the plant can also cause a host of horrible things including the birth-defect of cyclopia, characterised by the failure to properly divide the eyes into two orbits, tinnitus, vertigo and slowing heart rate, and though commended in Greek mythology as a curative for madness and possession including releasing the princesses of Argos from the spell of the Maenads and the inducements of Dionysus modern witchcraft does not endorse its use beyond the wild and ornamental.

6x6

berggeschrei: Saxon princes collected, modelled miniature mountains and enjoyed miner cos-play 

#oddlysatisfying: the hypnotic and self-soothing qualities of visual ASMR  

it’s not a cult thing: an interview with the real estate agent selling this ‘sexy funeral Goth house’ in Baltimore—via Super Punch  

erard square action: a tool that measures a piano key’s up- and down-weight  

slamilton: a basketball musical of Space Jam meshed with Hamilton—see previously—that works better than it should, via Waxy  

den hügel hinauf: Amanda Gorman’s inspirational US presidential inaugural poem (see also) will be published in German

retronymy

Despite having encountered such constructions previously by name and even using all the time when speaking of evolving tastes and palettes and obsolescence, we failed to appreciate how retronyms build vocabulary and track those changes and advances mentioned just above. Distinct from backronyms and neologisms, the term was coined by journalist and NPR president Frank Mankiewicz in 1980 and refers to a newer name given to an existing object or artefact to differentiate it the original version from a more recent one, whereas no need for clarification had been required beforehand. Some examples include land-line, snail mail (as distinct from email—see also), plant-based meat, American-English, Game Boy Classic and reduplication as in requesting ‘coffee’ coffee. Many more to ponder in the podcast episode below, which also includes a discussion on the twenty-seventh letter of the English alphabet, the ampersand.

listen to me coppertop—we don’t have time for twenty questions

Going into general release in US theatres on this day in 1999, though the tropes and themes have been to an extent ironically co-opted by more right leaning and extremist elements, The Matrix (previously) written and directed by the siblings Wachowski, whom years after their movie debuted came out as transgender women, acknowledged some subtle allegory in the plot and dialogue:“an error in the Matrix,” that sense that something is fundamental wrong—“like a splinter in your mind” suggests body dysphoria and the red pill that for some in the above-mentioned circles has become representative for throwing down the gauntlet for seeking truth inside conspiracy did for others draw comparisons to red oestrogen pills that transitioning individuals might take. In the original script, the character of Switch (quoted above) was to be portrayed as male in the real world and as female in the Matrix but that idea was dropped during filming.

satan’s sneakers

While we don’t claim to comprehend exactly what is going on here, a string of double standards is underpinning the career of Nas X, in saying that his Country and Western song didn’t qualify for the genre (because of the identity of the artist) and now his music video tie-in with some unauthorised limited edition trainers, replete with pentagrams and other demonic symbolism plus the signature swoosh is painted with human blood has prompted the athletic shoe company to sue the artist and his collaborators, though an earlier edition of Jesus Shoes—white and containing holy water—didn’t raise the same level of objection over infringement. What do you think? More images at Dezeen at the link above, and we especially liked the attention paid to the shoebox—a collectors’ item itself I suppose with the detail from the lower half of Jan van Eyck’s (previously) Diptych with Calvary and Last Judgement (Diptiek met kruisiging en laatste oordeel) printed on the inside, with a warning from verse Matthew 25:41 inscribed along death’s head and wings Ite vos maledicti in ignem eternam—Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, which fits with all the other embedded messages and Easter eggs in the sneakers and associated video.

west coast sound

Through the biography of the once promising career of crooner Dane Donohue, the soi-disant lost prince of the genre, we find ourselves introduced to the classification of the very familiar broad musical category and aesthetic filed under Yacht Rock. This easy-listening, adult-contemporary playlist includes Christopher Cross’ emblematic song Sailing, Toto’s Rosanna, Poco, Santana, Steely Dan, REO Speedwagon and Donohue’s 1978 break-through hit Casablanca and focuses on themes exploring isolation, male loneliness and suburban mindsets—a significant departure from the protest anthems of the previous years and accidentally united by a class of performers who played into the genre. Learn more about Donohue and how his career as anthemic as it was was cut short at Narratively at the link up top.

rawhide and stagecoach

Outside of the Washington Hilton on this day in 1981, Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr., severely injuring the US president, the Press Secretary, a police officer and secret security agent in the attack. Diagnosed with erotomania and later acquitted by reason of insanity, Hinckley was obsessed with actor Jodie Foster and stalked her around the country, going as far as enrolling at Yale University where Foster was a student. His advances rebuffed, Hinckley reasoned that the fame or infamy of killing a public figure of that stature would make Foster interested in him. Nine days prior, Reagan had held a fundraising event in Ford’s Theatre, gesturing towards the presidential box where Abraham Lincoln had been watching My American Cousin the night he was shot and recalling “a curious sensation” that even with the Secret Service protection (his codename and the codename for the limousine above) that it was “probably still possible for someone with enough determination” to get close enough to shoot a president. No formal succession order was invoked as vice president George H. W. Bush was rushing back from Texas and erroneously Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced that he was in control, whereas according to Amendment XXV the next individuals in line were the Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Strom Thurmond, coming before him.