there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb

Beginning a three-week streak at the top of the US charts on this in 1965, the ballad by Sonny Bono written for and performed with his then-wife Cher (previously) was inspired by Bob Dylan’s folk rock hit for the Turtles “It Ain’t Me Babe” with Bono expressing the opposite sentiment. In 1993, Cher recorded a cover-version with the animated characters Beavis and Butt-Head as a single from their comedy album The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience. That song also rated highly on international music rankings. In 2016, Cher performed a parody of it called “I Got you Bae” with commentary on relationships in the era of social media. Personally, we thought the best version—other than the performance on their variety hour in 1976—was Dorothy and Sophia as the duo on The Golden Girls.

fractal and form constant

Via Pasa Bon!—we are having fun creating colourful mandalas and kaleidoscopic images with this little painting tool from F. Permadi. Brush sizes and palette are customisable and there’s also an auto-draw feature that will generate tumbling vectors for you.  Give it a try and be sure to share your compositions. 

great birnam wood to high dunsinane hill

Historical basis for the Shakespearian tragedy, Scottish king Duncan I (*1001, Donnchad mac Crinain) is killed in action leading a punitive expedition against an uprising in Moray—in the north near Elgin, domains under the control of his cousin and usurper Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich)—on this day in 1040. The character of the play however is portrayed as an old man and is killed in bed by the protagonist, spurred on by ambitious Lady Macbeth (Gruoch ingen Boite), who get the king’s bodyguards inebriated to the extent that they are implicated in the murder. A principal source for the stage retelling was King James’ 1597 volume on Dæmonologie and the royal house’s obsession with witchcraft and prophesy.

heli-home

Via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake we learn that in anticipation of our promised flying cars and jet-set future in the mid-seventies, Winnebago ambitiously teamed up with a helicopter service (that sourced its craft from army surplus) to offer a flying recreational vehicle that could go anywhere, with a spacious and luxurious cabin fully equipped with all the comforts of home, sleeping six with full kitchen, bath, generator and colour television.

Many more details and specifications at the links above, including footage of the model in flight. Though out of the range of most like its predecessor which also burned through nearly three hundred litres of fuel per hour in flight and required a qualified pilot, we also learned from the comments section that such ostentation is not only relegated to the past but there’s currently for hire an amphibious plane, the Grumman Albatross, with similar accommodations.

6x6

clink clink: a snappy little animated short of guests at cocktail hour 

samarkand: an East German couple’s tour of Uzbekistan fifty years ago with photography from 1971 and 2021  

expectation management: a comprehensive look into how the Delta variant changes the pandemic endgame—via Kottke  

noah’s violin: the twelve metre long wooden stringed instrument is a floating stage, inaugurated along with Project Moses to protect Venice from flooding  

the rural juror: a spoof streaming service (see also)—via JWZ  

the effect is shattering: a vodka advertising campaign that became a snow clone

niemand hat die absicht, eine mauer zu errichten!

Dividing the city and nation physically and ideologically until 1989, construction of the Berlin Wall began on this day in 1961, isolating and making an exclave of West Berlin. Officially referred to by authorities of East Germany as an Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (see also — Anti-faschistischer Schutzwall) to protect the population from forces trying to confound their attempts at forming a socialist state, the Burgermeister of West Berlin, Willy Brandt called it “Schandmauer”—Wall of Shame, becoming a metonym for the Iron Curtain and political schism between East and West. As with the above quotation, Communist politician Walter Ulbricht empathetically denied the possibility two months earlier during a press conference despite no one mentioning a wall.  The border closure and following fortification was called by Berliners Stacheldrahtsonntag—that is Barbed-Wire Sunday, some eight hundred fleeing through the temporary barriers before the solid structure was built by the end of the day.

your daily demon: astaroth

Our twenty-ninth spirit is an infernal grand duke ruling from today through 17 August is part of the unholy trinity along with Beelzebub and Lucifer and likely derives his identity from the goddess Astarte, consort of Ishtar. Presenting as a fallen angel and commanding forty legions, Astaroth chiefly lures individuals to do wrong through laziness, self-doubt and rationisation but can be compelled to impart skill in mathematics and handicrafts as well as the power of invisibility. Treasurer of the Underworld, Astaroth is countered by the guardian angel Reyiyel as well as appeals to Bartholomew the Apostle who can repel the archdemon’s vices.

bodice-ripping

Presently an imprint of HarperCollins publishing, Avon paperback and comics was established in 1941 and entered the market as a rival to Pocket Books, copying their successful repertoire and format and though with a reputation for harlequin and romance fiction did take a decidedly demonic turn in the mid-1960s following and informing the popular surge of interest in Satanism coinciding with the founding of Anton LeVey’s church and Rosemary’s Baby, even publishing the gospel of the former in 1969.