sonic screwdriver

The always brilliant Dangerous Minds have uncovered a trove of Doctor Who episodes portrayed in the style of vintage Penguin paperbacks. This serialisation was imagined by Sean Coleman and more can be found at his tumblr blog and etsy shop, via the link up top. Whose Doctor Who was not an actual canon chapter but rather a 1977 documentary on the Whovian phenomenon hosted by presenter extraordinaire Melvin Bragg (In Our Time), and coincidentally this omnibus featured clips from most of the other episodes featured on the retro covers.

lost in translation

The Local, the German daily in English, recounts the unlikely misadventures of a Chinese tourist, who after losing his wallet, in Heidelberg, attempted to report it as missing, only to find himself in a asylum processing centre for over a week before be allowed to continue on with his European vacation. It’s unclear how this chain of events went unbroken for so long, but compliant and obliging, the man surrendered his passport in exchange for refugee documents and accepted the daily allowance that the centre distributed. Perhaps it’s not so strange or naïve to imagine that that might (or ought to) be the customary and expected reception for a traveler potentially down on his luck.

ring and spring

Courtesy of Kottke’s assorted links, we are treated to the keen and discerning eye of Milton Glaser, graphic designer who gave us I ❤ NY and the DC Comics shield, who reviews the Olympics logos throughout the ages.
It’s a little remarkable, independent of any other context, to think about what’s captured over this relatively short career in terms of typography and abstraction. One of my favourites has always been the Olympiad held in Mexico City (eighty out of a hundred) and venues around that time, from a stylistic perspective, but there is a lot to jar one’s memory here. I’d like to see the submissions of the failed bidders as well to see what criteria won the day.

plush and pile or the worshipful company of upholders

BBC Autos magazine examines that often observed but seldom questioned universal truth of the otherwise invisible upholstery that constitutes the patterns and fabric that adorn the seats of buses, trains, trams and planes through the lens of a textile epicure from Germany (which has particularly hideous and garish designs for their fleet of public buses) who ventured forth on a series of railway journeys camouflaged in clothes tailored from the same stylish fabrics that covered her carriage: why so ugly?
What asking the question prompted was pretty fascinating. Though fashion is prone to date itself, bus seats rarely show their age and worn out upholstery, sturdy and made out of a wool called moquette, is seldom the cause for refurbishment as they can last for decades, despite constant use, abuse and rough cleaning. The patterns are designed to disrupt the gaze of the passenger, as well, drawing attention away from neglected stains. Further, because of the enormous amount of fabric generated at a go, it’s likely a passenger will encounter multiple times, anywhere in the world. It’s a bit like the laser backdrop for picture day in grade school, and realising it was not unique to one’s class. Even for newly outfitted means of mass-transport, there’s the matter of upholding tradition, that being the antique term of course for the guild of upholsters. 

5x5

mama don’t take my photochrome away: hand-selected photographic wonders from the archives of the US Library of Congress

photobomb: family vacationing in Quebec struggle how to politely tell shirtless prime minister to leave them alone

pokébooth: the Icelandic branch of the Pirate Party is planning to use augmented reality to lure young people to voting stations

soma: the intersection of drugs and story-telling, from experiment to creative burden to the confession genre

le singerie: depicting monkeys aping human mannerisms was a way of deflating artists’ egos

night gallery

As a sneak-preview of an upcoming exhibition in Santa Monica, California, Dangerous Minds has curated a small selection of the bizarre and unsettling art of Clive Barker.
Better known for his work in horror film, Barker is also a prolific writer—having authored and adapted the Hellraiser franchise himself, and painter. Be sure to check out the link to see more grotesques and learn more about the creative force behind them—if you dare.

cardinal, ordinal

Atlas Obscura has an interesting article on the rather surprising difficulty the world has faced in adopting a universal “phonetic” code for communicating numbers.
Unlike the NATO alphabet employed for spelling out words and instructions in a way that minimises confusion across the distant crackle of radio communications or across different languages, there’s never been an internationally-recognised way for ensuring clarity in numbers. The entire essay is well worth reading, and among the more clever proposed but failed ideas was from the ITU in Geneva at a 1967 congress: using a redoubling of English numerals and their Italian equivalents—nadazero, unaone, bissotwo, terrathree, kartefour, pantafice, soxisix, setteseven, oktoeight, and novenine. I rather liked that, reminding me of the yan-tan-tethera of sheep-counting.