Via Strange Company, not only do we learn that a medieval token of affection, a tin badge in the shape of a turtledove with the inscription “Amor vincit omnia” was found by the port crane of Gdรกnsk, we also find out that its discovery is owing to an extensive renovation project to preserve the thirteenth century technological and architectural marvel on the Motลawa. The crane, human-powered by crew running hamster wheel fashion on treadmills was capable of hoisting cargo and shipbuilding materials weighing several tonnes, has been closed to the public since 2020 but will soon reopen with new exhibits on the city’s mercantile history with holographic docents and period characters to act as guides. More from t he History Blog at the link above.
Against the backdrop of the Munich Security Conference during which his widow was scheduled to speak, the Russian presidential election less than a month away, Trump’s rubbishing of the NATO alliance, the US withholding foreign aid for Ukraine and the prospect of another term locked, vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and official corruption Alexei Navalny has been found dead in the remote arctic penal colony where he has been transferred recently, detained for the past three years, foregoing exile in Germany. Recuperating from a case of poisoning in 2021 that was blamed on the Kremlin, Navalny choose to return to Russia and register to run for the presidency (having finished in a close second against the incumbent mayor of Moscow in 2013 despite the backing of Putin’s political machine) and accept almost certain arrest in order to continue his oppositional stance. Navalny was serving a nineteen year sentence, charged with the crime of extremism.
Although trialled previously by other platforms to varying success, via Waxy, the new text-to-video generation models from OpenAI’s Sora does seem like prising open another Pandora’s Box. Producing rather crisp and wholly convincing clips up to a minute in length from prompts and instructions, a gallery of samples have been released and for safety and further testing, the vignettes were made by user’s within the company with the participation of a select few artists and cinematographers to assess its strengths and weaknesses. Currently there are no plans to release it to the public and given the pace of change, will probably be impressive for a very short amount of time, though checking out the videos I cannot believe what I’m seeing. Building from adversarial static that transforms over successive steps, the neural network, named after the Japanese word for sky to express its limitless potential, can also extend existing footage forward and backward in time and replace missing frames. The project however has shown difficulty with continuity, the physics of causality and knowing right from left.
Premiering on this day in 1867 with a performance of the Vienna Men’s Choral Association, the waltz by Johann Stauss II was originally met with a rather tepid response from the audience but has since become one of the most enduring compositions in the classical repertoire and an unofficial anthem for Austria—the national hymn “Land der Berge, Land am Strome” a tune by Mozart. The lyrics were added after the orchestral part was finished about a year earlier by the Mรคnnergesang-Verein’s resident poet Joseph Weyl as a carnival song, with eleven satirical verses lightly lampooning the country’s loss in the recent Austro-Prussian War:
Weit vom Schwarzwald her
eilst du hin zum Meer,
spendest Segen
allerwegen,
ostwรคrts geht dein Lauf,
nimmst viel Brรผder auf:
Bild der Einigkeit
fรผr alle Zeit!
Alte Burgen seh’n
nieder von den Hรถh’n,
grรผssen gerne
dich von ferne
und der Berge Kranz,
hell vom Morgenglanz,
spiegelt sich in deiner Wellen Tanz
Prevalent in popular culture, in Austria, it is played at midnight on New Year’s as well as being the traditional sign-off tune for the end of the broadcasting day, a coda sung to Mexican birthday gatherings as “Queremos pastel, pastel, pastel” to serve the cake and played during the 1970s and 1980s over the PA systems of Chinese domestic flights as reassurance to passengers on landing. Die Donau so blau, so blau.
planisphere: explore the fifteenth century Mappa Mundi—made by a Venetian cartographer and monk map who never left the lagoon
high rollers: the character and history of burlesque shows
robots.txt: a tiny text file that has been the underpinnings of the internet is unravelling due to AI
a load-bearing day: the confluence of several celebrations, including Ash Wednesday (be furiousing rather than fasting), Valentine’s and the Luni-Solar New Year
The US presidential campaign season has been underway for a long, long time already and with ten months to go, we are already feeling the fatigue and feeling a bit overwhelmed keeping up with it all, and it’s remarkable to notice how much is already packed into the events of one day. Whilst arguably from the present perspective of just a few days hence it does not quite rise to the constellation of reporting on the seventh of October 2016 that saw the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Obama announcing Russian election meddling, a possible case of Kompromat for Trump and the leak of Clinton’s campaign manager’s emails, incredibly the backhanded and cruel exoneration of Joe Biden for retaining classified materials over his perceived failing memory and mental acuity, was overshadowed by Donald Trump, speaking at a campaign rally, nearly simultaneously, dragging out a tied and false accusation of the NATO alliance being full of freeloaders dependent on the US and taking advantage of its largess, not only said that he would not defend a fellow member under attack by Russia, he would moreover encourage the invasion. While some media outlets are refusing to turn their attention from Biden’s gaffes and lapses—pulled selectively and from testimony given during interviews conducted (also on 7 October) just as Hamas began incursions into Israel, and some still take a dismissive tone on Trump’s words, the rest of the world is understandably grim and anxious at the thought of another term.
Premiering on this day in 1924 at the UFA-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, the first part of the epic silent adaptation of the Nibelungen saga by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou (prevously) is considered a milestone in film history. Having surpassed his master, the apprentice Siegfried leaves the forge and as he readies to depart as a journeyman sword-smith, he hears of the magnificent and eligible princess Kriemhild of Worms and resolves on the spot to seek her hand in marriage. Deliberately misdirected towards the lair of the dreaded dragon (Lindwurm) instead of the city on the upper Rhein, Siegfried survives this fool’s errand, slaying the menacing beast, and soaked in dragon’s blood attains a degree of invulnerability and his heroic reputation preceding him, catches the attention of the royal court. After an encounter with the king of the dwarves which he outwits, Siegfried arrives at the hall of the Burgundians, with the dragons hoard and styling himself a powerful ruler of twelve kingdoms, and courting Kriemhild agrees to aid her brother Gunther in winning over the fierce warrior queen Brunhild of Iceland in matrimony, she only willing to submit to one who can beat her in combat and feats of strength. Under the guise of Gunther, Siegfried uses trickery to defeat Brunhild before allowing the Gunther the coup de grace. Defeated but still harbouring suspicion, a double-wedding takes place in Worms—afterward Brunhild uncovering the suspected deceit. The sequel is entitled Kriemhilds Rache—the Revenge of Kriemhild.
Building off the success of Dr Mabuse two years earlier, the filming was impacted by the period of hyperinflation in Germany following World War I, making it the most expensive yet made, producer Erich Pommer continued to finance the project, confident in Lang’s directing abilities with a score commissioned from Gottfired Huppertz to distinguish this version from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The colourised (tinted) restoration below, with English subtitles, is an attempt to recreate the original theatre-going experience.
Via Strange Company, not only do we learn that a medieval token of affection, a tin badge in the shape of a turtledove with the inscription “Amor vincit omnia” was found by the port crane of Gdรกnsk, we also find out that its discovery is owing to an extensive renovation project to preserve the thirteenth century technological and architectural marvel on the Motลawa. The crane, human-powered by crew running hamster wheel fashion on treadmills was capable of hoisting cargo and shipbuilding materials weighing several tonnes, has been closed to the public since 2020 but will soon reopen with new exhibits on the city’s mercantile history with holographic docents and period characters to act as guides. More from t he History Blog at the link above.
