antonio di padua

Priest and Franciscan friar and Doctor of the Church, Anthony of Lisbon (*1195 - †1231 in the commune west of Venice) is one of the most popular and quickly canonised among the cult of the saints and was acclaimed in his lifetime for giving powerful and persuasive sermons, even keeping a school of fish in rapt attention once and reputation for care for the poor and sick. Invoked in the name of lost things—credited first with the restoration of his own psalter full of notes when Anthony feared it was gone forever—his extensive patronage (see previously) includes things prone to going missing like mail, mariners, shipwrecks, travellers and lost souls, though not all who wander… Anthony in the extended sense is also the protector of the elderly, fisherfolk, amputees, Native Americans, harvests, watermen, horses, travel hosts and counter-revolutionaries.

mostly ghostley

Despite this first failed attempt to adapt this James Hilton novel (previously) about a veteran member of the British diplomatic corps accidentally discovery a utopian community hidden high in the Himalayas who must then choose between remaining or returning to the flawed civilisation he knows not being able to thwart future tries or reprises, the musical version from Albert Marre and Donald Saddler with ensemble cast including Jack Cassidy, Alice Ghostley and Shirley Yamaguchi opened on Broadway on this day in 1956. Running for only twenty-one performances (later produced as a Hallmark Hall of Fame television spectacular and somewhat derivative of The King and I), numbers included “Om Mani Padme Hum,” “The World Outside,” “What Every Old Girl Should Know” and the titular “Shangri-La.”

g7 action figures - limited edition

 

sympathy for the devil

Via Boing Boing, we are treated to a delightful animated overview of Satan and his tripartite forms, counterweight of a righteous god, trickster spirit and rebel, forms in this TED-Ed short from priest and historian Brian A. Pavlac and how we limn our experience and understanding of evil and temptation in art, theology and scholarship. Shem HaMforash!

it belongs in a museum

Highest grossing box office film of the year, the collaboration between Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Kasdan, Philip Kaufman and George Lucas, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was released in cinemas on this day in 1981. Though there are problematic elements including the push for acquisition, appropriation and the noblesse oblige that precludes repatriation of artefacts and treasure, the film and the ensemble franchise launched has had enduring cultural impact and outsized influence. Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood join forces to stop a rival archaeologist from helping the Nazi German forces from obtaining the Ark of the Covenant and harnessing its supernatural powers. Tom Selleck was originally cast in the lead instead of Harrison Ford but was unable to commit to the shoot due to prior contractual obligations with the television programme Magnum P.I.

deep throat

Written and directed by Gerard Damiano and starring Linda Lovelace—though later reframed by the actress as coercion and sexual assault, considered one of the first pornographic films to include a plot and character development and heralded, along with Behind the Green Door, as “porno chic,” seen as a normalising, legitimising force for the subject matter for conservative US audiences, with many prominent celebrities, public figures and journalists admitting to having watched it, including Truman Capote, Spiro Agnew, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson and Barbara Walters, the title piece premiered on this day in New York City’s New World Adult Theatre in 1972, the use of the film as a culture reference and touchstone was cemented almost immediately when the managing-editor of the Washington Post chose “Deep Throat” as the code name for the secret Watergate insider (see also) who informed on Nixon—revealed thirty years later as assistant FBI director W. Mark Felt (*1913 - †2008).

pcфcp

Called the Day of the Adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR, a transitional state during the dissolution of the USSR) or Russia Day for short, this national holiday of the Russian Federation commemorates the passage of structural reform by the First Congress of People’s Deputies on this day in 1990, establishing primacy of the constitution, equal rights for all citizens and political parties and the separation of powers among three co-equal branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial. The acclaim is not universal with quite a lot of ambivalence towards celebrating this declaration but the holiday is generally marked with awards assemblies, firework displays, parades and concerts.

focal-plane

Via Kottke, though arguably—patently less satisfying that the mechanical nuance and engineered lag of these various film cameras punctuating the background music, we are exposed to the sounds of shutters all the time, albeit artificial sound-effects (an audible skeuomorphic cue) often muted out of respect for one’s fellow paparazzi but in some jurisdictions unable to be silenced lest the subject not know a picture’s being taken. Despite the omission of the Leica model, we agree with the overall sentiment that the sound of a closing aperture is like blowing kisses.