a side of gloss (10. 640)

Though mostly, exclusively North American foodways and the sort of niche subject that elicits strong feelings one way or another (see also), we quite enjoyed perusing the entries for this volume, an ongoing project of abecedaria, of icons and analogues of for better or worse consumable (and usually) highly-processed staples, regional variants and the last holdouts of once expansive franchises. From salad bars, all-you-can-eat buffets, juice-boxes to Frank Sinatra’s heart-shaped pizzas, this index is brimming with morsels to explore. More from Tedium at the link above.

extremum opus (10. 639)

Via Kottke, this final, no not a farewell version of “Everything is a Remix” from Kirby Ferguson, a remastered edition after over a decade of refinement, an empowering commentary on the art of sampling, repurposing and reimagining, terms very much ensconced but not exclusively in the propagation of meme and is definitely worth one’s viewing pleasure.

il gattopardo (10. 638)

Directed by Luchino Visconti as an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same bame by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, “The Leopard,” premiering in Rome on this day in 1963, starring Serge Reggian, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale and Burt Lancaster as a dissolute prince of a fictionalised version Kingdom of the Two Sicilies unsettled by the turmoil and tumult of the Risorgimento, the push for Italian unification and the insurgency of Garibaldi’s Red Shirt armies, is considered one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking. Shifting allegiances leaves and the vanishing grandeur leaves our prince disenchanted and resigned to the to the future dealt his aristocratic heritage.

eleki bushi (10. 637)

Via Clive Thompson’s weekly Linkfest (lots more to check out there), we are introduced to the musical stylings of the Japanese surf-rock legend Takeshi Terauchi (寺内タケシ) with a new anthology collection featuring among other tracks his instrumental group Blue Jeans performing the eponymous song from their 1972 album Rashōmon (see previously here and here). A fusion of American rockbilly and traditional influences, playing his guitar like a shamisen, Terauchi, despite some of the adverse reactions from the older generations and reputation as a radical, was able to show that these folkways weren’t so different and dedicate his legacy to his mentor and mother, Hatsushige, a music teacher that fostered his creativity.

an account written by the hand of mormon upon the plates taken from the plates of nephi (10. 636)

First published on this day in Palmyra, New York on the tenth anniversary of Joseph Smith’s first series of prophetic visions in 1820, the foundational gospel of the Latter Day Saint movement is a chronology of God’s dealings with the ancient, pre-Colombian contact of the inhabitants of the ancient Americas through roughly a millennium of guidance from 600 BC to 421 AD. Recorded originally in unknown but intuitable characters called “reformed Egyptian” (the stele of the Rosetta Stone was first transcribed in French in 1822), Smith was called by an angel either to translate the scriptures or at least take dictation for this other Christian testament. Despite anachronisms and its freighted association with works like Pilgrims’ Progress and ancient aliens theories, the composition is a present and self-aware text that stands as a compelling saga on its owns and in the context of the time that extends and inculcates social justices and reforms to indigenous and non-white people left out of the narrative with both emphasis on universal salvation and personal revelation.

9x9 (10. 635)

concrete sign: Pope Francis returns marble fragments held by the Vatican Museum to the Parthenon

house of thunder: the everlasting lightning storm over Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo 

queen street: a personal view of the prettiest thoroughfare in Ontario, in Niagara-on-the-Lake plus assorted links to visit 

april showers bring may flowers: the joyful floral illustrations of Iancu Barbărasă  

thinking outside of the box: innovations in pizza 

beauty paget: the varied career and roles of Miss Deborah Paget  

the theory of mediatization: press coverage of pseudo-events, like press-conferences and political rallies, has increased significantly while journalistic rigour in actual reporting (see also) has stagnated—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

master class: Finland offering a crash course in happiness, securing the title for six years in a row  

age-appropriate: Florida principal forced to resign after including Michelangelo’s David in middle schooler’s art curriculum without prior parental approval—see also

modern day presidential (10. 634)

In yet another instance of not being able to distinguish parody from real politic and propaganda, satire from sincerity, Trump has chosen Waco, Texas, announcing the from podium that the 2024 vote as “the final battle,” as the venue to kick off his campaign for re-election—ostensibly picked for its proximity for the state’s population centres (the vicinity was picked for the location of the Super Conducting Super Collider in Waxahatchie by dint of its remoteness) though coinciding with the anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidian anti-government cult members in an armed standoff with the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, regaling the crowd with promises of retribution with menacing praise for the January Sixth insurrectionists. Provocative even by his pandering, violence-, grievance-quenching standards, the event opened with a recording by the men’s choir of incarcerated cosplay terrorists, Trump again urged “potential death and destruction,” calling on supporters to rally to protect him if charged for a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, by chance falling on the fifth anniversary of the tell-all interview by CBS’s 60 Minutes. Disparaging his competition within the Republican party—a select basket of deplorables—Trump promised the crowd, of indeterminate size gathered in an airplane hangar, “You will be vindicated and proud. The thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.” The grand jury investigating the hush money payment reconvenes in court in New York after the weekend.

the fault, dear brutus, is not in our stars (10. 633)

Far afield from the actual cause, on this day in 1345 noted surgeon and author of several treatises on the subject of hernias and cataracts well as the influential and widely-read Chirurgia Magna after Avicenna and Galen, Guy de Chauliac, observed a conjunction of Saturn, Mars and Jupiter in the House of Aquarius following a solar eclipse, which many took as an ominous portent and source of the outbreak of the Black Death that hit pandemic levels three years later. For his part, the resident physician of Paris and Montpellier, chiefly deriving his knowledge from the embalming the cadavers of dead popes during the Avignon Captivity, chose to remain during the pandemic outbreak whist other doctors fled, importantly documenting the difference between the Bubonic and Pneumonic Plague, discouraging social contact and attempting to disabuse people from assigning blame to heretics and the Jewish population, whom many accused of poisoning well water, and accept this superstitious coincidence.