7x7 (11. 047)

haus zum walfisch: explore horror film shooting locations of 1970s and 1980s classics, including Suspiria filmed in a townhouse in Freiburg im Breisgau  

concrete feats: a tour of Italy’s Brutalist architecture  

rapid electric vehicle retrofits: an Australian student wins James Dyson Award for an inexpensive conversion kit to make gas-powered vehicles hybrid 

earthshapes: fantastic geography from pilot Joseph N Portney 

larva convivialis: the miniature dancing skeletons of Roman banquets—via Strange Company 

jungian individuation: the Swiss psychoanalyst on the predictive power of Tarot cards 

tune-on: veteran television producer and director on the revival of his Laugh-In spin-off five decades afterwards  

31 days: a month long celebration of the Spooky Season from Laura E Hall—via Waxy

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit, World Postal Day plus to slander one’s good reputation

two years ago: more links to enjoy, happy birthday John Lennon, Karl-Marx-Stadt, drag queen tarot plus a visit to the Osterburg

three years ago: The Watcher in the Woods, more Phantom plus more links worth revisiting

four years ago: major military exercise in Germany planned by US forces plus other European trade colonies in China

five years ago: Trump’s legacy of failed businesses, more on the fight to save an ancient woodland plus moving Tokyo’s historic fish market

play well (11. 046)

After growing quite well acquainted with the non-traditional medium whilst playing (as building co-facilitator) the iconic toy with her toddler, Vancouver-based artist Katherine Duclos began producing pieces of fine, gallery-worthy art with LEGO herself, with her young son now as a very helpful and accomplished emmanuence and block organiser. See more of Duclos’ meticulous studies and multidisciplinary compositions in an interview with Print Magazine at the link above and her personal website here.

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)