pict, png and svg (10. 987)

Although a bit surprised that the fabled auction house is yet trying to make NFTs a collectible, no matter has the public now gets to enjoy a never-before seen series of digital painting from the artist Keith Haring. From Boing Boing, Haring was gifted an Amiga computer in 1986 from his friend Timothy Leary in hopes that the artist would contribute to his project to promote a planned cinematic adaptation of the cyberpunk novel Neuromancer after witnessing Haring engaging with a Macintosh Steve Jobs brought to the birthday party of John Lennon’s son Sean (see also)—mostly to entertain the kids but other guests, including Andy Warhol were rather taken with the medium. Neither above venture quite came to fruition though, Haring was happy to experiment—and proceeds from the sale go to a good cause.

all mod cons (10. 986)

Lead single from the band’s fifth studio album, The Jam enjoyed yet another number one on UK charts beginning on this day in 1980 (one of eighteen consecutive songs to rise to this distinction for the mod revival group) with “Start!” Though opening with a riff very similar to the Beatles’ Tax Man and echo Revolver-era psychedelia, the arrangement and tone of the song takes an immediate departure, combining influences of the 60s and a 70s lament and protest. Never released as singles domestically, Sound Affects also includes the tracks “That’s Entertainment” and “Who is the Five o'clock Hero?,” which are regarded as two of the most popular and defining of the decade.

 synchronoptica

one year ago:  Boris Johnson says ta-ta for now plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: more links to enjoy, Jimi Hendrix’ last performance (1970), St Petersburg gets its original name back (1991) plus some special Roman dice

three years ago: Trump finally makes the cover of Time magazine plus a visit to Germany’s Little Switzerland

four years ago: links worth the revisit plus day-old bread in Iceland

five years ago: assorted links, lodestars plus more Supermarination

9x9 (10. 985)

built on sand: UN monitoring reveals the alarming scale of marine dredging 

but the meteor men beg to differ, judging by the hole in the satellite picture: revisiting a cringey faux academic essay on “All Star” to realise that Steve Harwell (RIP) had more to tell us  

j-mouse: a procession of dead-end peripherals—I would get the PC in an ottoman 

⡆⠄: LEGO’s braille bricks offered free-of-charge to parents and educators now available to the general public 

the secret-sharer: a confessional box from Simone Giertz (previously) where one’s messages are only present for a few seconds before self-destructing  

phil a. o’fish: a short-lived McDonaldland mascot and early beef alternatives—via Weird Universe  

mixed media: experiential scale-models of Tracey Snelling inspired by the architecture of Berlin—including the Mäusebunker 

premeditatio malorum: fifty short rules for better living from the Stoics  

thermohaline circulation: scientist support using the oceans’ inclination for equilibrium to pull in excess atmospheric carbon-dioxide—see previously

 synchronoptica

one year ago:  Tainted Love (1981) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a film from D W Griffith, armorial bearings plus the debut of the Muppet Show (1976)

three years ago: the opening of the Gotthard Tunnel (1980)

four years ago: the greenwashing of the recycling movement plus a legendary kingdom in Bretagne

five years ago: a Freddie Mercury birthday bash, a Queen arrangement in brass, outsider artist James Henry Pullen plus reconciling with the end of coal through art

hot labor summer (10. 984)

Amid ongoing strike actions by the Hollywood Writers’ Guild and pushes to unionise workers for increased leverage in bargaining with big manufacturers and retailers and the growing precarity of news outlets, this round-up and review on the US observance of Labor Day (see previously here and here) presents both hopeful and fraught factors for the movement’s reception and success. While a strong jobs market and with historically low unemployment has advantaged many workers in many industries and has momentum, changing paradigms, which companies can cite with varying levels of credulity, like generative content, cloning (the last time actors in 1960 joined the writers, a six-week stoppage awarded creators residuals from re-runs and syndication) as well as shifting to less labour-intensive manufacturing techniques—electric vehicles take few machinists to build and maintain, signalling major changes in productivity and the makeup of the workforce. While many in the US give vocal support to the ideal of unions, only ten percent of workers belong to one and the US Supreme Court has issued recent decisions that erode the right of workers to strike when negotiations, stalled and forced into a stalemate by business executives sold on technological utopias that have failed in many cases to materialise. The empires of off-license lodgings, gastronomy and taxi cabs haven’t translated to savings for consumers and are either petty kingdoms or indentured servitude for providers and streaming is just as expensive, exclusive, walled-off as cable or the studio-system. This changing posture of course has global implications and could further undermine workers’ rights.

fireworks (10. 983)

Filmed on a sixteen millimetre camera received as a birthday gift from his grandmother and a significant upgrade from his former hand-cranked camera at his home in Beverly Hills whilst his parents were away for a long weekend in 1947, the debut short from Kenneth Anger (previously) was one of the first works in this media to focus on a homosexuality as a subject. Inspired by witnessing a group of US sailors attacking men with Mexican heritage during the Zoot Suit Riots, which is manifest in dreamer of Fireworks—the filmmaker to later add that “this flick is all I have to say about being seventeen, the United States Navy, American Christmas and the Fourth of July”—and is scored with the tone poem Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi. American sexologist Alfred Kinsey bought the film’s original print, and although the first cinema owner who screened it was arrested on obscenity charges, the case was overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court of California, ruling that homosexuality—even overtly referenced—was a valid theme for artistic expression.

did my time, took my chances (10. 982)

Released as a single a day after the premier of Rocky III, the American rock band Survivor’s theme track hit number one on this day in 1982 on the UK charts. Written at the request of director and star Sylvester Stallone after Queen him permission for “Another Bites the Dust,” the demo version appears (though without tiger growls) in the film and the irregular time signature is meant to evoke throwing and landing punches. A success worldwide thanks in part due to extensive air-play on MTV, “Eye of the Tiger” won a grammy for vocalist Dave Bickler guitarist Frankie Sullivan and keyboard artist Jim Peterik. Used without authorisation as walk-on music for a number of Republican presidential campaigns, the band successfully sued to have the candidates—Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee—desist, although most lawsuits launched by artists are toothless as it is the host venue—sports stadiums, auditoriums—that have the licensing agreements with record companies to play music and both artists and hopefuls get to be obdurate about their politics.

synchronoptica

one year ago: dams and reservoirs in Thüringen

two years ago: an AI generates movie posters,  Tales of the Old Web, Space 1999 (1975), A Sein of Blue, the double statue of Goethe and Schiller (1857) plus another MST3K classic

three years ago: Trump’s undermining public confidence in the voting system 

four years ago: megaliths in Bretagne, cultivating mindfulness plus a fast food franchise given consular powers for Americans abroad

five years ago: the comic book art of Jeffrey Veregge, Google incorporated (1998), monopolies and monopsonies, self-driving cars with emotive eyes plus the Curators of Sweden

 

diskžokej (10. 981)

Courtesy of Fancy Notions, we are directed to Czecho-slovakian animator Jiří Barta’s 1981 short Disc Jockey, that documents the day in the life of a DJ with a day-job in a world dominated by circles (as opposed to rectangles) where their beats evoke the mechanisms of the gears of the daily grind—as consolation in kind for music fests missed due to the climate catastrophe. Specialising in stop-motion techniques, Barta created an adaptation of the Pied Piper fable whilst working in the studio of Jiří Trnka and later became a member of the teaching faculty at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in addition to continuing to produce projects in film and theatre.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to the Saalfeld Fairy Grottos

two years ago: Gumbasia (1955), The Quadripartite Agreement renewed over a divided Berlin (1971), attempts to discredit the Pentagon Papers leak, more mushroom mania plus Ukraine at Thirty

three years ago: pioneering journalist Marguerite Higgins Hall,  a peaceful transition of power in question in the US plus assorted links to revisit

four years ago: a diplomatic gaffe in Iceland, la Maison du Gouffre plus the founding of San Marino

five years ago: right wing activity in Germany plus more links to check out

team badger (10. 980)

Launched on this day in 2003 on b3ta.com and looping indefinitely ever since, the flash animation meme by Jonti Picking (also known as Mr Weebl) was a benchmark of the on-line cognoscenti before virality could be otherwise gauged and consists of badgers performing calisthenics (with a snake and a mushroom) to a beat inspired by Whigfield’s Saturday Night with the placeholder lyrics making the final cut. Several different versions were produced over the years, including a zombie and an Advent special—as well as a tenth anniversary appeal to stop badger culling referencing Flash Gordon with the help of Brian May and Brian Blessed and a twentieth anniversary retrospective. More to explore from Miss Cellania at the link above.