petard hoist much?

VICE magazine has an interesting dialogue about the broader political ramifications of the Panama Papers, whose depths are barely plumbed but the biggest travesty so far to me appears to be that much of what will be uncovered is (barely) legal and within that exculpable framework of protection that skirting the law has crafted.
The immunity of the elite to the tax-regimes of their own creation, fashioned as a cushion in some instances to buoy what’s too big to fail in this whole global Ponzi scheme, adds insult to the injury of pervasive economic injustice. The early analysis is pretty captivating, mooting its impact, whatever the revelations, on the US elections, as antithetical to America’s zealous persecution of Swiss and European banks and the expatriate population, that country is a tax-haven itself, with many splintered jurisdictions. Despite what bombshells might drop, sadly probably no more heads will roll and we’ll be made to suffer less transparency and distracting debate of gilded escapades that draw attention away from bigger social problems—still I am hoping that this preliminary assessment is wrong and there will be some gore and shame to watch.

bardolatry or oh no-etry

Coinciding with US National Poetry Month, there’s a clever sonnet-generating algorithm that creates convincing, natural sounding Shakespearian stanzas that adhere to the rules of grammar and scansion, informs Boing Boing. Here is an example, Sonnet № 3959816917:

When I perhaps compounded am with clay
I tell the day, to please him, thou art bright
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night
I grant I never saw a goddess go
In so profound abysm I throw all care
Receiving naught by elements so slow
And buds of marjoram had stol’n thy hair
If my dear love were but the child of state
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you
Such civil war is in my love and hate
Robbing no old to dress his beauty new
Her audit, though delay’d, answer’d must be
If ten of thine ten times refigur’d thee

There is some repetition with certain conceits and stock-phrases reappearing but that’s able to dull the machine whirring in the background and allow the rhythm, rhyme and even meaning come through. I wonder if true scholars could pick out what’s computer-generated sentiment from Shakespeare’s own collection of 154.

personification and post-constructivism

We are treated to designer and illustrator Michael W Lester’s latest project called Character Building, in which a series of twenty recognisable modern structures from around the world are anthropo- morphised in a way that highlights their particular personalities and the way good architecture engages its environment and occupants, via Mental Floss. I particularly like this one of the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur and Lester’s take on the Hallgrímskirkja of Reykjavík, with its accordion wings made welcoming arms.

fujiyamarama

Staff writer Rebecca Onion for the thriving Slate blogosphere presents us with this beautifully crafted woodblock print map of Mount Fuji from circa 1848, which cleverly folds into the peak’s iconic cameo, and presents us with the tale behind its publication as trail marker and spiritual focus for pilgrims, both those physical present for the climb and those who might only mediate on the ascent. At The Vault, there’s an interactive version of the map (not pictured here) that lets one explore the points of interest referenced and various shrines along the many paths to the summit.

oration or the sound and vision

Thanks to a sharp eye perusing a 1984 edition of some teen Tiger Beat magazine, the response to an inquiring reader’s question about the rumoured role of the Great Emancipator to be portrayed by none other than David Bowie, we learn about an unperformed but still immense spectacle that was to be played at one of the Olympic venues of the Los Angeles games that summer.
Far outstripping those cross-over, special guest-star sitcom episodes that kept my rapt attention (like when Fred and Ethel Mertz appeared as Darinn Stevens’—the second Darrin—parents or when the Harlem Globe-Trotters were shipwrecked on Gilligan’s Island or the angry ghost of Valerie Bertinelli haunted the Love Boat), an experimental, day-long bit of musical theatre was being orchestrated, called CIVIL warS, it was to feature the musical stylings of Mister David Byrne with libretto that included Mister Bowie as Abraham Lincoln, delivering the Gettysburg Address in Japanese. Corporate sponsors were a little anxious, and with the boycott of the American games by the polarised Communist world, the project was shelved. Read more about this amazing opera that would have perhaps been too grand and overwhelming for this Universe at Dangerous Minds. The closing ceremonies did include a UFO landing to the fanfare of Thus Spake Zarathustra and a giant grey alien that saluted humanity’s peaceful coming together.

case study house

An extensive gallery of familiar, homey images—as opposed to official photographs or appearances in film—of Mid-Century Modern and Modernist architecture is coming online that will make these iconic and inspiring structures available to everyone. Though many of these places have deservedly been afforded landmark status and thankful the protection and preservation efforts that accompany it, many of these marvels, commissioned as private residences of course are not regularly open to the public—if ever. Discover many more scenes of America’s answer to the Bauhaus movement at Hyperallergic and the vast collections of University of Southern California’s school of architecture.