folio (11. 045)

Via ibīdem, we found this vintage 1985 text book cover from D P Schultz (third edition) quite intriguing and so checked out the rest of the graphic design collection curated by Kristen Lound to be an equally captivating resource for ephemera, event posters, advertisements and album art with many interpretative representations on the topic of psychology and sociology. 

 

🌀 (11. 044)

Via Pasa Bon!’s regular link roundup (lots more to check out there), we are referred to this clever project by Steven Tey that uses artificial intelligence to generate fantastical spiralling compositions (see previously) from a text prompt with a single click. The application accepts very elaborate instructions and really excels in surprising ways. Do give it a try and be sure to share your collaborative creations. 

 

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the cast of Star Trek in an energy company advert plus Saint Reparata

two years ago:  your daily demon: Raum, Baghdad’s House of Wisdom plus a bi-directional typeface

three years ago: assorted links to revisit, Les Misérables (1985), poorly drawn animals plus Trump requires wildlife conservationist organisations to celebrate America’s hunting heritage

four years ago: visualising Wikipedia updates in real time, Trump abruptly withdraws from the Syria-Turkish border, Call Me By Your Monet, The Million Eyes of Sumuru plus discouraging frivolous lawsuits in the Middle Ages

five years ago: the degrading web plus calling attention to the problem of space junk

the third intifada (11. 043)

Nearly coinciding with the 1973 Yom Kippur War when a coalition of Arab states fought to retake the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights territories occupied by Israel, the militant governing authority of Palestine, Hamas, together with other nationalists groups launched a large-scale surprise offensive against Israel from the Gaza Strip, breaking through barrier and crossing the Green Line, in the first such incursion since 1948 with a barrage of thousands of rockets and hostages taken. Declaring a state of war, Israel has retaliated in what may escalate into a regional conflict. The near complete blockade of Gaza in force since 2007 (when Hamas was elected to political power) and denial of statehood to Palestine or any meaningful form of self-determination, though commanding officers cite tensions that occurred six months earlier at the Temple Mount / al-Aqsa Compound in Jerusalem and under Israeli jurisdiction when Passover, Eastertide and Ramadan occurred all at the same time and Muslim worshippers were forcibly removed after clashes with police.

dschungelweg (11. 042)

Deciding to try again to find the route we were searching for yesterday but from a better trodden starting point and walked through the vineyards on another educational trail (Lehrpfad) that this time had information about the different varieties of grapes grown and harvested here with more views of Escherndorf, Nordheim and the Main valley, passing the Vogelsberg and the orchards on the other side of the Weinberg. 

We entered an ancient old-growth stretch of woods hugging the bank of the river, untouched except for a very narrow footpath through the forest. Passing Fahr and back up to the top of the ridge through a second nature path for some more views of the valleys and vineyards before returning to the campground. 

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago:  absinthe banned in Switzerland, the Feast of Sergius and Bacchus plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a cool ghoul and your ghost host, the Cyrus Charter, a bird wife plus a catalogue of invasive toys

 

three years ago: most senior US government officials in quarantine,  a typing tutor, a birdhouse apartment plus more historic maps

 

four years ago: a minimum wage machine

 

five years ago: more links to check out, East Germany’s Tag der Republik, a visit to an automotive and aviation museum plus himpathy and related neologisms

the great debate (11. 041)

Via Slashdot, we are directed towards the centenary of when astronomer Edwin Hubble imaged a cepheid variable star (not a nova, N) in the constellation of Andromeda and ultimately settled the above, long-standing cosmological quandary concerning whether the Universe consisted of more than our own Milky Way, greatly expanding our horizons and astronomical perspective in demonstrating that the object heretofore regarded as a nebula and stellar nursery was a complete galaxy similar to our own some two-hundred fifty million light years distant. Sponsored by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the debate held on on 26 April 1920 pitted astronomers Harlow Shapley, who maintained that the spiral nebulae observed were within the confines of our galaxy, against Heber Curtis who argued that they were independent galactic structures (“island universes,” as Immanuel Kant proposed in 1755 but never accepted by the scientific community due to the scales involved), very large and far, far away. A decade later, Hubble would go on to demonstrate that the apparently static Universe was in fact expanding.

mainschleife (11. 040)

Driving around a bit for provision, we stopped at a rather uniquely outfitted supermarket on the outskirts of Volkach. Whilst this chain’s affiliates are family-run and there’s a degree of individual decor—like the franchise at home that has a rather offensive figurine of a banana boat loader standing proud over the produce section dating from a time when this kind of caricature was more tolerated—but this style of decoration was decidedly strange, like it inherited the stock of a Bed, Bath & Beyond with throw pillows piled high at every aisle and fixed to the walls and a bank of music boxes that one could attach I guess to one’s trolley and randomly placed oversized plush llamas. 

Along the way we visited the well-conserved village of Prichsenstadt, a walled settlement virtually unchanged since the fourteenth century, earning the Altstadt the moniker “the Rothenburg of Lower Franconia.” Local lore tells of a legend of a figure marauding in the woods called the He He, basically a headless horseman (see also) that sometimes took the form of a monstrous black dog.  

Returning to Escherndorf after finding our route for a hike fenced in by a flock of grazing sheep at the other ferry crossing the Main at Fahr, we stopped at a Winzer to get a case of local Silvaner we had sampled the night before. The purveyor manning the shop seemed to have sampled a bit too much also as when completing the transaction, dropped his eyeglasses and trying to retrieve them, slipped off his chair and faceplanted into the floor. Gotten his lumps from the local varietal called Lump, the man was uninjured but a bit embarrassed and terribly apologetic but it was an understandable occupational hazard, H later recognised him for the He He with detachable head.

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: more research in the paranormal plus a 1975 McDonaldland mascot specification manual

two years ago: more streamlined designs,  a unique underpass plus a beloved Soviet cartoon character

 

three years ago: Trump emerges recovered from COVID, fascist nihilism, assorted links to revisit plus the first exoplanet confirmed (1995)

four years ago: German-American Day

 

five years ago: more fascist nihilism plus Carter debates Ford (1976)

days of wine and quinces (11. 039)

From the campground in Escherndorf, we took the dog on an extended hike up through the vineyards to the Vogelsberg perched atop the Weinberg. A thirteenth century monastery built on the foundations of a much older Celtic fortification (Burgstall), it was deconsecrated in favour of the neighbouring Carthusian chapterhouse in Astheim but has since been restored as an active religious community under the bishopric of Würzburg—which also assumed the wine production and includes a restaurant and guesthouse. 

After pausing for some lunch there, we continued down the other side of the hill along a path leading through a restorative nature project that alternated between rewilding and low maintenance orchards of cultivated through native and naturally occurring Quitten (quinces) of all sorts and information tables between groves about their history, culinary and medicinal significance. Tasting like a mix between an apple and a pear, the ancient, hardy fruit was rediscovered during post war rationing as a source of sugar and older recipes brought back in service for jellies, gin, wine, soap and a paste referred to as cheese. Sacred to Aphrodite , the signs also touched on the mythological references to quinces as binding symbols of oaths and probably the Golden Apple of Discord. In the evening we tried a pizza from a restaurant a ferry ride away made with the local produce of rosemary, honey, walnuts and not Quitten but rather pears on mozzarella that was a really superb flavour combination. 

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: the tarot of Austin Osman Spare, the world’s mass transit systems plus Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1996)

two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Tubular Bells

 

three years ago: Civilisation comes to American audiences, Athens’ underground, the blessed Rosario Longo, a glass model of the coronavirus, IKEA’s back catalogue plus apologies in good standing

four years ago: late Thursdays in Germany, more links to check out plus more poetic graffiti

 

five years ago: an outstanding collection of vintage travel posters, legislating Scotland on maps plus more memorable fonts

malerwinkelhaus (11. 038)

Having set up camp at the ferry crossing at Eschendorf at the bend, loop in the wine-growing escarpment on the Main River (der Mainschliefe by Volkach), we traveled a bit further into Franconia through County Kitzingen and passed some familiar places including the ancient trading port of Marktbreit (previously)—important as the southernmost point and shortest natural connection between the Rhein-Main-Donau before the canals were built—and saw the picturesque Haus am Maintor, constructed in the late 1700s on the bridge next to the Rathaus as a merchant’s warehouse (like the mercantile exchange along Erfurt‘s Kramerbrücke). 

Over the centuries, the building was a spice emporium, green grocers, hair salon—ultimately named for a cafe opposite that acknowledged the view had been a favourite subject of painters for a long time. Now the Malerwinkelhaus hosts a museum on the history of Markbreit, including artefacts from a rather unexpected archaeological find from 1985—one of the first discovered by aerial surveys in the form of a completed and fully stocked castrum legionarium. Finished but never occupied, no one expected to find a Roman defencive outpost that far behind the Limes and in hostile territory and it is speculated it was abandoned after Varus was defeated in the battle of Teutoburger Forest in 9 AD.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: The Tornados’ Telstar plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: The Final Programme (1973)

three years ago: the Feast of Francis of Assisi, cross-section infographics plus Sir David Attenborough as insects

four years ago: a pastel makeover for London’s subway carriages,  cinnamon-roll day plus award-winning laundromats of Japan

five years ago: a sketch a day for October, the International Geophysical Year plus Bavaria’s plans for a Space Force of its own