be acceptable in thy sight here tonight (10. 739)

Beginning a five-week run at the top of the UK singles charts on this day in 1978, Boney M’s (previously) cover of The Melodians’s song “Rivers of Babylon” with B-side “Brown Girl in the Ring,” composed originally by the Jamaican reggae group, it is taken from Psalms 19 and 137 (one of a handful of best-sellers taken directly from the Bible, along with Pete Seeger’s and the Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and U2’s 40 (“How long must I Sing this Song?”—Expectans expectavi Dominum) as an allegory of oppression against members of the Rastafarian faith, though the Kingston government banned it from the airwaves as potentially subversive anyway. From their third studio album Nightflight to Venus, both—the latter based on a traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme—propelled the eurodisco group to fame worldwide. The below performance is from 1979’s Sopot Festival:

sancta maria ad martyres (10. 738)

Gifted to Pope Boniface IV by Byzantine Emperor Phocas and rededicated as a Christian basilica in honour of St Mary and the Martyrs on this day in 609, the ancient Rome temple, built half a millennia earlier by Hadrian and commissioned to replace an earlier structure that had burnt down during the reign of Marcus Agrippa (hence the inscription, M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT, “son of Lucius made [me] during his third term as consul,” is unique for its rotunda and oculus skylight (telling the time like a sun-dial but with light instead of shadow) and counted among the best preserved works of Roman architecture by dint of its continuous use. Though probably not a shrine sacred to the every deity since it was prescribed that temples should be devoted to a single god or goddess lest a single building be struck by lighting or be otherwise desecrated and probably a popular nickname for the many statues that lined the portico or for the vaulted ceiling that opened up to the heavens. In order to dispel pagan demon worship and sanctify the space, twenty-eight cartloads of remains—said to be Christians put to death during the Diocletian Persecution—were brought up from the catacombs and reinterred in a porphyry tomb beneath the altar and stripped the interior of its decoration, shipping the ornaments off to Constantinople. Used also as a final resting place for members of the House of Savoy, the interior niches have been richly decorated over the centuries and structurally is one of the most architecturally influential buildings, typifying the neo-classic style and echoed in many government buildings and public institutions.

8x8 (10. 737)

what is a strikebreaker: past gameshow champion Ken Jennings to host Jeopardy! during its final episodes for the season, crossing the picket line during the Writers’ Guild protest  

captain’s table: a tour of the Hamburg-America Line’s SS Prinzessin Vitoria Luise—the world’s first purpose built cruise ship, launched in 1900 

the big four: the dominant professional services networks providing auditing and assurance advise clients on how to cheat their way through compliance inspection 

bull-boards: more on the Osborne brandy mascot that’s become an icon of Spain 

get your kicks on route 66: ahead of its centenary, the historic American highway gets a much needed refurbishment—via Miss Cellania 

c’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison: ahead of tonight grand prix in Liverpool, a look back on the geopolitics of Eurovision—see also, see previously 

lucky duck gets private equitied: the latest cartoon fro, Ruben Bolling—see previously, see also 

home port: despite the ban, cruise ships are still docking in Venice  

scabs: Starbucks announced closure of three franchises in Ithaca, New York has nothing to do with the workers’ decision to unionise

beflix (10. 736)

Via Waxy, we a directed to this thoroughgoing study of early computer art of the 1950s and 1960s by Amy Goodchild, beginning with the moment of inception with Babbage and Lovelace speculating on the creative potential of their difference engine to the realisation of mathematician Ben Laposky using sine functions and oscilloscopy to produce “electrical compositions” and one of the earliest interactive applications called MusiColor that generated patterns and light mapped from audio inputs. There are profiles of the pioneers in this field with images and video presentations of various pivotal works and installations as well as the above programming language for computer animation—from Bell Flicks—made for educational and engineering applications 1970 to explore, which are really remarkable considering the time and labour put into each project and makes one reflect how pace and patience temper the creative process in an age of instant iteration.

here are the things we percieve (10. 735)

Via Web Curios, we are finding ourselves rather engrossed with this site that glosses classic philosophical arguments in bro language created by Tommy Maranges—author of a like adaptation of Descartes’ Mediations—and quite enjoyed, though one’s tolerance for the tone and didacticness may well vary and hinge on one’s familiarity with the source material, revisiting some of these ponderings presented and broken down (see also) through the accessible and humorous lens of stoner revelation—particularly the mailbag edition on paradoxes and Plato’s annotated Myth of Er and Gottfried Leibniz’ condensed Monadology are worth a read, though not necessarily fit to reprint here. Turtles all the way down, dude.

executive branch (10. 734)

On this day in 1973, US president Richard abandoned his plans to reorganise government with the creation of a “super cabinet” consisting of three appointed secretaries who would over the the running of federal departments and agencies, having met staunch resistance from Congress and the broadening of presidential purview through delegated powers and the creation of an imperial post by dint of past failed attempts. Fresh from roundly defeating George McGovern to secure re-election, Nixon announced on 5 January, the inauguration, an “administrative” cabinet shuttle proposed during his first term (not without precedent as Harding, Taft, FDR and Truman had tried subject to legislative veto) to create a council to overstep consciousness bureaucracy. Although corrected by the press to the American spelling convention, Nixon’s orders and communiques named counsellors, senior advisors, equivalent to a minister without portfolio in the British system, a sinecure posting that had plentipotent, encompassing responsibilities and therefore none as a special conduit to the chief executive and so a triumvirate beholden to none. The Watergate scandal having brought this reshuffling to an ignominious end when exalted staff tendered their resignations but had this experiment continued one wonders what now might be considered executive overreach and regard for competent authorities.

we made a lot of news—that is our job (10. 733)

Let’s hope that the debacle hosted by CNN for Trump’s townhall, excused as a newsworthy event as the GOP’s twice-impeached frontrunner to contend with Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election, was more eye-opening and indicative of a network under new leadership amidst the vacuum for sensationalism left by Fox News and the general erosion of journalistic outlets rather than the pandering platforming that played out over ninety minutes as the counterweight to the criminal charges levied agains the former Commander-in-Chief that’s telling of the shamelessness that characterises American civic sense. The incredulity of presenting a line of questioning, whether open-ended or on point, could have elicited anything other than rehashing past grievance and unleashing a firehose of misinformation—2020 election denialism, misogyny, the imperial executive, vacillating on Russian and Ukraine—is not to be taken lightly and verges on irresponsibility. One would

boulevard of broken dreams (10. 732)

Via Miss Cellania, sort of in the same vein as those ubiquitous posters of nail salons, we take a deep dive into the equally omnipresent cafe and restaurant mural featuring variations on the fantasy gathering of celebrities—the usual suspects being Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart when an artist called Gottfried Helnwein, best known for album covers, created a homage to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks in 1985. The mass-reproduced piece, intended as a bit of humour, took on a life of its own with other painters taking up the trope of the ‘Fakehawk’ foursome in different settings that do not only echo a singular facet of Hollywood nostalgia but also serves as activity placemats for adults with meaning to decode and hidden Easter Eggs embedded in the backdrop. More from Ryan H Walsh for The Believer at the link above.