it’s all too beautiful (10. 933)

Peaking at number three after entering the UK singles charts on this day in 1967, bested by Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco” (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) and The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love,” The Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park” was among the first songs to use the technique called flanging that can be heard in the post-refrain bridges—the swooshing audio effect is produced by mixing two identical signals one with a delay of a few milliseconds that resolves in harmonisation. Classed as psychedelic-pop, the identity of the titular park has been subject to debate, proposals ranging from Manor Park or Wansteads Flats in East London to Little Ilford or Valentine’s Park in Charring Cross—regardless of the location, so nicknamed for the preponderance of stinging nettles. Regarded as “refreshing” and inspired with their other hits “All or Nothing,” “Lazy Sunday” and “Tin Soldier,” The Small Faces’ classic had a 1995 techno version released by M People.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 1970 promotional short from Bell Labs plus an artist homage to cinematic classics

two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus the 1975 Song of the Summer

three years ago: science lost to aggressive formatting, an anthology of Tarot cards, more links to revisit plus St Edith Stein

four years ago: a short by Ishu Patel,  Nixon tenders his resignation (1974), Solomon’s Paradox plus more US gun-violence

five years ago: the bombing of Nagasaki (1945), bokeh plus a search-and-rescue robot

33 spaceships for another planet (10. 932)

Via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake, we thoroughly enjoyed contemplating these otherworldly compositions by Karla Knight that use schemata and alien glyphs to craft evoking something ancient and pictogrammatic. Check out Knight’s whole portfolio here and explore how her work is a study in evolving diagrams and flow-charts.  

synchronoptica

one year ago: Nixon resigns (1974) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: your daily demon: Berlith plus another MST3K classic to enjoy

three years ago: motivational sessions for the long-distance runner, Xanadu (1980) plus a selection of LEGO user-interfaces

four years ago: Abbey Road (1969) plus more on the very American problem of gun violence

five years ago: more McMansion Hell,  a World War I Allied advance, Trump brand asbestos plus more links worth the revisit

walled garden (10. 931)

JWZ turns our attention to the tectonic landscape of the internet with a pair of excellent geo-political maps from Randall Munroe of xkcd (click through to embiggen here and here) which are incredibly only three years apart—with the latter being already over a dozen years old. Not sure whether it would be exactly a “fun” exercise to make a contemporary version in a unipolar world of nonoverlapping magisteria that doesn’t respect sovereignty and stokes civil war and internecine fighting but it does show that the downfall and demise of platforms is nothing new. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Come on Eileen

two years ago: St Donatus, letters postmarked from the Moon, more dazzle camo, an unpopular emoji plus “Marriage Trees”

three years ago: more on the end of a naval tradition plus wine windows are making a comeback

four years ago: flying through the Arc d’Triomphe (1919), the Fevres Ranger plus a privately-funded Moon Shot

five years ago: everything apps, a climate tipping-point, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s FBI files plus the US blocks trade with Iran

a desilu production or the first frontier (10. 930)

Born this day in 1911, comic, actor and accomplished producer was assuredly iconic for sense of timing, tolerance and advocacy as well as a real American hero for having detected and reported underground enemy radio transmissions intercepted through the lead fillings in her dentures, Lucille Ball should be remembered for hatching her star to a little project she called a “Wagon Train” to space, helping Gene Roddenbury develop the script and pitch the pilot to the networks.  Read more about the unmatched Ball at the link above.

i don’t listen hard—i don’t pay attention to the distance that you’re running (10. 929)

Originally conceived in 1990 with the intent of selling it to Hall and Oates for an anthology album, “Stay” (I Missed You) by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories (named after the J D Salinger collection of short fiction) as the lead single from the Reality Bites soundtrack—included in the scoring after neighbour and friend Ethan Hawke heard the song and recommended it to the film’s director Ben Stiller—began a three-week run at number one on the US charts on this day in 1994. The below accompanying music video, that completes the piece’s status as an artefact of a very specific time—running over the movie’s end credits—was shot in Loeb’s New York apartment and features Hawke’s cat, Mardot, who also directed the video.  So I turned the radio on—I turned the radio up.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (1806) plus assorted links to enjoy

two years ago: Klaus Nomi, the banners of the Akan people, Olympic trivia plus unworthy subjects

three years ago: more street photography,  anime Spongebob plus some poorly translated Latin

four years ago: a Martian meteorite, highly agglutinative languages plus more on endlings, the last of their kind

five years ago: more links worthy of a revisit, the US Voting Rights Act (1965), Japanese terms for rain plus more computer cameos

the smoking gun (10. 928)

Released to the prosecution on this day responding to a subpoena decided by SCOTUS a few weeks prior that ruled executive privilege did not confer immunity from cooperating with the courts, one recording among the cache of tapes documented the preliminary stages of the Watergate coverup, with Nixon and H R Haldeman, Chief of Staff, overheard in a meeting in the Oval Office discussing how to thwart the ongoing investigation by the FBI of the break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters. Acknowledging both the risk involved if the plan came to light and giving the approach his approval, this revelation ran counter to the narrative presented that Nixon was not involved in the scandal nor had interfered with the FBI’s work—assigning the jurisdiction to the CIA. Political and public support evaporated immediately and the ten Republican senators on the impeachment jury who had initially voted to acquit the president changed their position, prompting Nixon’s almost immediate resignation in lieu of conviction and removal.

7x7 (10. 927)

strange new worlds: Star Trek’s upcoming musical episode  

peaceful transition of power: US Department of Justice requested to issue protective orders following Trump’s threats to go after prosecutors during a fund-raising event in Alabama 

nuclear noir: a selection of psychological thrillers at the cusp of the Cold War and the malleability of McGuffins  

carbon black: Massachusetts Institute of Technology develops supercapacitors that store energy in cement

family-friendly: the Kids On-Line Safety Act is posed to severely curtail speech on the internet and anonymous browsing—see also—via Waxy  

and until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable—the rebel alliance is too well equipped: the US Space Force headquarters to remain in Colorado Springs  

english, do you speak it: a foretaste of Pulp Fiction—the musical

akte x (10. 926)

Our gratitude to the always interesting Maps Mania for referring us to the Anomaly Observatory has been documenting paranormal activity focused mainly on Berlin and environs since 2008 but monitoring the unexplained—from the mundane to the phenomenal—which deviates dangerously from the norm. Like with this instance with the map centred on this location on the Museuminsel recounting how one night last December a torrent of water washing away hundreds of exotic fish causing huge and disruptive flood appeared, nearly eliding over the fact that the source was the sudden and catastrophic explosion of a hotel aquarium, it is difficult to tell if it’s an earnest investigation or a facetious commentary on such endeavours but regardless wonderful weird and dedicated to urban mythos. More to explore at the links above.

synchronopitica

one year ago: Que Sera, Sera,  The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), assembling the globe by various demographic factors plus more city map generators

two years ago: assorted links to revisit,  identifying the location of a sketch by Leonardo plus a Beatles single with an equally good b-side (1966)

three years ago: America tries to ban TikTok, the invention of telegraphy was first dismissed as a gimmick, more links to enjoy, an alternate ending to The Giving Tree plus the Portsmouth Sinfonia

four years ago: air traffic controls in the US strike (1981), the craze of purikura plus a look at the hodiernal verb tense

five years ago: a preview of Star Trek: Picard, a planned remake of 9-to-5 plus more links worth revisiting