space: 1999

Though only running for two seasons, the titular BBC programme (renewed the second year by ITC Entertainment) that premiered on this day in 1975 was quite ahead of its time and established among many other tropes the “cold open” scene that preceded the credit sequence, itself boldly a spin-off of a narrative in the Supermarionation production Thunderbirds by the same creative duo Sylvia and Gerry Anderson in non-puppet form. A radioactive waste dump on the far side of the Moon, detected by the research staff at Lunar Base Alpha, experiences a magnetic anomaly, which causes the material to reach critical mass and triggers a thermonuclear explosion 13 September 1999 and propels the Earth’s satellite into deep space. This spaceship Moon wanders into a black hole and several “space warps” to continue its exploration of the Cosmos.

tales of the old web

Via Web Curios, which has been an absolute wealth of Wunderkammer ideas lately, we discover a repository of the old, weird internet of mostly personal webpages that despite link-rot, abandonment and isolation have endured in a discoverable state since the mid- to late 1990s curated by 404Pagefound, an established source that’s been gathering moribund websites going on seven years but new to us. Browse through the exhibitions—all clickable and not archived—and do some time-travelling in Web 1.0.

coming attractions

 

Again via ibīdem, these movie posters generated by a neural network struck us as intriguing, created after being feed a brief description of the film, and while the range was wide and varied and saw some of the elements that the artificial intelligence may have been picking up on retrospectively after the answer was revealed, we admit to really only getting without being told though still needed to verify Monty Python’ and the Holy Grail (1975, see also) and Space Jam (1996) for their cinéma vérité and appreciable observation mode. 

 

#30ua

Via Web Curios, we thoroughly enjoyed this scrolly-telling celebration of Ukrainian independence, having just recently observed its thirtieth anniversary, adopted by parliament on 24 August 1991 in the aftermath of the failed coup when party hardliners tried to reassert control and reverse the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, which not only presents the country’s history but moreover lauds its accomplishments, culture, attractions and other highlights with splashy call-outs and a touch of Doge-level mawkishness that compels one to read through to the end.

fantastic fungi

We appreciated the documentary suggestion and preview from Open Culture that not only features chapters on the accrued benefits in biodiversity, innovation (dyes, building and packing material), culinary, mental wellbeing and spirituality and the arts that mushrooms and the fungal kingdom (see also) have to offer but also provides some interesting insights in how cinematically these developing fungal blooms are captured on film for study and curation. This will get us excited to do some foraging this weekend.  Much more to explore at the links above.

it’s the plumber—we’ve come to fix the sink

Under the direction of US presidential advisor John Ehrlichman coordinated a team of burglars who would go on to attempt the Watergate break in (previously) to infiltrate the offices of Washington, DC psychiatrist Lewis Fielding also on this day in 1971. Dr. Fielding was treating former US Department of Defence contractor with the RAND corporation Daniel Ellsberg, whom had leaked the “Pentagon Papers” the prior year to the press. Although they found Ellsberg’s file, the operation yielded no useful information.

viermächteabkommen über berlin

On this day in 1971, the four wartime Allied powers concluded the negotiation through their ambassadors for the Quadripartite Agreement (see also) which reaffirmed the rights and responsibilities of the occupying forces and compelled the Soviets to respect the western sectors and generally improved ties between both parts of the divided city. Drafted and drawn up in French, Russian and English, there was no authentic, authoritative German version and translations be each state had subtle but marked differences. The agreement came into force the following summer and is considered among the first in a series of thawing of chilled relations and a move towards reconciliation.

gumbasia

Released on this day in 1955 and with jazz accompaniment by Mel Powell, this short—named in homage to Disney’s Fantasia, was Art Clokey’s first stop-motion animation in the medium (Claymation is something else and proprietary and believe it only applies narrowly to the studio that made the California Raisins), produced while attending the University of Southern California under cinematic studies professor Slavko Vorkapić (see previously). The surreal short with abstract figures pulsing to the rhythm was filmed on a ping-pong table and informs the later franchises of Davey and Goliath and Gumby and Friends.