5x5

colour-coding: three young people in the UK invent a condom that changes colours when it detects STDs, sort of like that Elfin dagger that glows in the presence of Orcs

zero, my hero: typoman, a gaming platform where the adventure hinges on switching single letters

snowden effect: majority of Germans no longer believe that USA respects personal freedoms

all gussied-up: interesting and in depth look at the history of cosmetics and glamour maven Helena Rubinstein

way-back: via the inestimable Kottke, an appreciation of the TimeMachine archives from a marketing and design angle

nizza des nordens

A few years ago when the search for gainful employment was a dicier and more urgent manner, I remember lamenting over the way the fair city of Wiesbaden was described, ad nauseum, on a jobs website, wondering whether a place sometimes called, “the Nice of the North” might not be causing undue confusion—aside from the fact I had never heard it called as such outside of having the phrase beaten into me while worrying about my future in Germany. Happily things are more stable presently and I finally happened on the city being referred to by this slogan—auf Deutsch, Nizza des Nordens and in vintage bumper sticker form, the most reliable form of communication.

fire and ice or fisher king

Vice magazine interviews a pair of questors, one Italian cryptographer and Dante Alighieri scholar and one British psychic, who’ve been inspired to seek out the Holy Grail in remote part of Iceland based on certain clues and allusions found in the epic poem the Divine Comedy and an entry in the national register that mentions a mysterious delegation who met with statesman and fellow poet, Snorri Sturluson. This meeting took place during the height of the Crusades in the Holy Land and it’s supposed that these uniformed strangers were the Knights Templar, guardians of the Grail, and hid this cache of knowledge on the island for safe-keeping. What an idea—though there are much stranger legends. Quests, of course, have established objectives but part of the adventure is in the journey and this sounds like one I’d like to tag along for.

ex-libris oder mind-manifesting

Having been shown now it is strikingly apparent but before I never knew that not only the artwork that typifies the free-love and ecologically-grounded ethos of the hippie culture but also the movement itself were the direct inheritors of German fin de siècle sentiments. A counter-culture naturalist association known as the Wandervogel (migrating bird) spread these early Nature Boys, as they were called, throughout Europe and beyond. Members espoused ideas of personal freedom, vegetarianism, volksmusic and psychedelia and eschewed traditional bourgeois values—the suppression and persecution of this alternative lifestyle by the ruling classes caused waves of immigrants to settle in England and America, especially in the post-war years.
As above, an even more transparent donation of the turn of the century was in artistic influence and sensibilities, the filigree and fretting found in surreal and psychedelic posters originated in the style of Secessionist artist Hugo Höppner, who was nicknamed Fidus (Faithful) for serving a jail sentence in protest over a trumped-up charge of indecent exposure. The themes and rich symbolism of Fidus are reflected in the graphic arts of the 1960s. The artist himself descended into obscurity with the outbreak of World War I, deprived of the periodicals to which he regularly contributed, including a magazine called Der Eigene—the Unique, the first (anarcho-) gay journal. Despite joining the Nazi party and securing a few commissions (and despite himself, Fidus agreed with some of their ideologies regarding racial purity and not just their esotericism and fashion sense), his studio was eventually shut down and his art condemned as degenerate. Around a decade after his death in 1948, Fidus’ collected works were re-discovered and became again symbolic of a sub-culture.

5x5

lovely rita, meter-maid: traffic cop in Karlsruhe tickets a public sculpture

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: more DVD döppelgangers from Bob Canada 

vexillology: a humorous look at the other US state flags that are in need of a face-lift

no fortunate son: the long history of artists requesting politicians not use their music for campaigning

ornamentation: eulogy for Don Featherstone, inventor of the pink flamingo

felix, fido

Though the Urban Dictionary may yield a more colourful definition, someone described as fidious takes something on faith alone. One can find this element in the word perfidious, which jaunts off in rather the opposite direction to connote treachery or faithlessness, although the latter’s antonym is unperfidious—something that is not considered a breach of faith. A perfervour, again drifting off toward the other course is a zealous, patriotic individual—wholly fervid, heated and impassioned. Fidiousness is about belief and reliability, however, and not confidence and would probably be best opposed to a sceptical attitude.

5x5

volksmedizin: collection of unusual health tips from Austria

best face forward: social networking giant is developing algorithms to identify people from their backsides (auch auf Deutsch)

on the bedpost overnight: an absurdist’s look at paparazzi culture, framing celebrities with an old wad of chewing gum

cats and dogs: collection of foreign idioms for heavy rain

turnip princess: apocryphal assortment of newly re-discovered fairy tales