someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets (13. 154)

Released on this day in 1976, the neo-noir drama by Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader set in a decaying New York City stars Robert De Niro as Marine veteran and taxi driver Travis Bickle and follows the decline of his mental health working nights in the metropolis with the supporting cast of Cybil Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks and Jodie Foster. Documenting his deterioration in a diary to combat his loneliness, chronic insomnia and intrusive violent thoughts, disgusted by the crime and exploitation he witnesses, punctuated with aphorism and affirmation, Bickle eventually channels his rage and frustration into an intense regimen of physical conditioning, and armed, embarks on a mission of vigilantism, first in a foiled assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, after having his overtures for one of the politician’s campaign staff, Betsy (Shepherd) rebuffed and then killing the pimp (Keitel) of child prostitute Iris (Foster) and freeing her—an act for which Bickle is hailed as a hero. Despite being blamed for inspiring the shooting of Ronald Reagan by John Hickley Jr (the elevation of the anti-hero—the role offered to Dustin Hoffman originally with Al Pacino and Jeff Bridges also in consideration) itself inspired by the media treatment of Sara Jane Moore’s assassination attempt on Gerald Ford), the film’s acclaim has been a constant over the ensuing decades.

 *    *    *    *    *  

 synchronoptica 

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), Superbowl ads by AI, a Tantalean punishment plus skibidi toliet

 

fourteen years ago: exploring a massive subglacial lake in Antarctica 

 

sixteen years ago: the Passion Play of Oberammergau 

zeuhl (13. 153)

In the conlang Kobaïan invented by drummer and founder of the experimental prog rock and jazz fusion French band Magma, Christian Vander, the title means in combination with ẁortz means “celestial force” and has become a sub-genre unto itself distinct from the related Space Music and Kosmische Musik sound. Established two years after the death of John Coltrane, unmatched and unmeted, Magma’s members sought in all reverence and humility to carry on the transcendental tradition and create something new and never before experienced. The band’s tracks, stretching across seven albums and with a couple of inspired surrogates, notably in Japan, Belgium and Sweden as well as garnering French compatriots, also extensively sampled from the neoclassical canon, including the structure of Carmina Burana. The chief and often exclusive lyrical language for Magma’s songs, the group still continuing in one form or another to the present, the libretto for a literal space opera about a group of human refugees settling on the distant world of Kobaïa after the Earth was rendered uninhabitable. Much more from John Coulthart’s journal {feuilleton} with performances, appearances and cross-overs at the link up top.

telegraphed intent (13. 152)

Following on the heels of memoryholing the CIA World Factbook and aligned with the revisionist history (altering the narratives for the January Sixth storming of the Capitol and the COVID-19 pandemic) and erasure of the administration, the US State Department is removing all social media postings made the on the platform formerly known as Twitter prior to Trump’s return to office at the end of January last year. Taken down from public view, the foreign ministry assures that travel advisories, programmes, press releases and images (from department leadership as well as individual missions and the accounts of ambassadors) will be archived internally and can be accessed through a FOIA request should anyone be demotivated to see what’s aged well and what has not—messaging from Trump’s first term included as well as posts from the Obama and Biden years. Less ideological and more for controlling the message moving forward, systematically eliminating and forging the inconvenient historical documents to match state propaganda, according to reporting, it’s as of yet unclear whether this daily record of diplomacy will disappear from other platforms as well. More from NPR at the link above.

the dark side (13. 151)

Unsure if this is clickbait or ragebait, but it is undoubtedly—courtesy of Miss Cellania—the most triggering take on Star Wars imaginable, now lodging in your head rent free as well. Asking with seeming earnestness, “How did [Darth] Vader survive his encounter with Luke [Skywalker] on Dagobah,” followed with some non-canon ideas to fill in this apparent (for the questioner) plot-hole, the post, what ever curiosity or maliciousness was behind it, speaks to the Dead Internet theory, driven solely by engagement and not communication, invention or exchange, and stealing away a fleeting second of one’s attention by hook or by crook with disposable reactions to throwaway stimuli.

crimewatch (13. 150)

Via Curios, we are referred to this fun little character creation game that draws of the assets of the 1983 Smith & Wesson (American gun-makers so make that what you will for their role in the field of forensics) Identi-Kit Model II used by law enforcement authorities since the late 1950s (the UK version, Photofit, was introduced in 1970) to make facial composites of suspects and perpetrators in attempts to reconstruct their appearance and identity them based on eye-witness accounts. This feature-based selection system, foregoing the talent of a professional sketch artist in consultation with victims and by-standers, became standard issue in many precincts and has a certain, sinister aesthetic if one is so inclined to build an mugshot quality avatar (without involving the machine and one’s own likeness and being an agent of chaos and confounding the AIs) in the style of DB Cooper, the Unabomber or other most-wanted individuals.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a gift from Netanyahu for Trump (with synchronopticæ), a calming reflecting pool plus a banger by Shocking Blue

twelve years ago: trilateral tensions with the US, the EU and Ukraine 

fourteen years ago: scribes and penmanship plus diminishing returns

fifteen years ago: Mubarak flees to Germany 

does she walk, does she talk, does she come complete (13. 149)

The lead single from their tenth studio album Freeze Frame (with the b-side Rage in the Cage) climbed to the top of the charts of the US Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1982, holding the spot for six weeks, the record also reaching number one at the same time with parallel success in Canadian and Australian markets. Though arising a few years late, “Centerfold” for its hook and chorus is counted among the album-oriented radio hits, a play format that embraces the full-repertoire of a group and exploring deep-cuts, originating out of a 1964 US Federal Communications Commission regulation prohibiting simulcasts for stations’ AM and FM broadcast bands and programming pivoting to exploration to balance out regular rotation of the latest most popular songs, giving rise to speciality call-signs and defining the genre of classic rock. Narratively about a man shocked by the discovery that his former high school unrequited love interest has appeared in an adult magazine, the singer’s lustful thoughts continue to the end. The previous hit of the J Geils’s Band, “Love Stinks,” informed the guitar riff in “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and caused their shift from Blues to Pop-Rock.

9x9 (13. 148)

times new resistance: a typeface disguised to appear as the US government endorsed font but furnishes subversive autocorrect suggestions  

there are four lights: Star Trek: TNG episode “Chain of Command” is an allegory for domestic abuse  

prosperity gospel: at the US National Prayer Breakfast (see previously) Trump announces upcoming ceremony to rededicate America to Jesus  

dominotier: the guild of wallpaper makers and the many applications of their craft  

plasticine dream: render yourself in claymation in real time  

🦞: more on the theology created by AI agents—see previously—via Web Curios 

almanac: US Central Intelligence Agency in an act of cultural vandalism is not only sunsetting its World Factbook but also deleting its archives  

ill may day: Sir Ian McKellen masterfully recites from the apocryphal Shakespeare play about a sixteenth century anti-immigrant riot  

blackletter fraktur: on how the Gothic typeface, based on French handwriting, became synonymous with Nazism despite Hitler’s ban on its use—see previously—via Kottke

❄️ (13. 147)

Reminding us of the collection of Vermont meteorologist Snowflake Bentley’s collection, we enjoyed discovering the volume Sekka Zusetsu (雪華図説) published in 1832 by the fourth daimyō of the Koga shogunate, representing two decades of careful observations of snow flowers (sekka, せっか) through the lens of his own microscope imported from the Netherlands. The book, originally privately printed for the feudal lord and his family and friends, was released to general readership soon thereafter in an expanded version with the patterns incorporated as motifs in porcelain and textiles (including decorative elements in local buildings, sidewalks and manholes) throughout Japan. More from Public Domain Review at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Andean textiles (with synchronopticæ), demon mode/pious mode plus Wikipedia rabbitholes

twelve years ago: UN critical of the Vatican plus the tense backdrop of the opening of the Winter Games

thirteen years ago: repairing the Greek economy plus living in a computer simulation

fourteen years ago: the Queen’s diamond jubilee  

fifteen years ago: a drive through the Haßberge 

sixteen years ago: holiday overlap