lisztomania

The 1975 cult film by Ken Russell, a kiss-and-tell style biopic loosely based on the 1848 book by Marie d’Agoult’s sordid love affair with the composer, was self-styled as out-Tommying Tommy, the soundtrack vehicle released earlier in the same year starring Roger Daltrey as the Pin Ball Wizard, strikes us as something of a cross between Amadeus and Barbarella and was the first movie screened with Dolby Stereo Surround Sound.
Taking its title from the observation of author Heinrich Heine of the overwhelming, swooning adoration that the public had for the virtuoso performances, Lisztomanie, Daltrey portrayed the main character as a charismatic and compelling rock-star and features the music of the prog-rock band Yes (rather than The Who) adapting samples from compositions by Liszt, Mahler and Wagner in the film’s score. Though critical reception was generally not positive and it was not the movie that Russell wanted to make, his druthers being for a picture on the life of George Gershwin starring Al Pacino or at least a project featuring Mick Jagger as the Hungarian composer, the concept is worth entertaining and reflecting on what its legacy might have been. Much more to explore, including several more posters and lobby cards with Dangerous Minds at the link up top.

table d’hôte

Via the always brilliant Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to a fine dining experience in a restaurant in the cellars beneath Stockholm’s City Hall (previously, quite literally Stadshuskälleren) where one can sample from the multicourse banquets served during Nobel awards ceremonies from years past or by laureate of one’s choosing.
Just below the actual VIP dining area, the Blue Hall that can accommodate thirteen hundred invited guests, and helping cater the event, their kitchens have been recreating the historic menus (here are some examples) for guests for the past fifteen years and put some serious research into the preparation and present, locally-sourced and sustainably plated (on actual Nobel porcelain), to make it as authentic and reflective of the fare presented as possible.

8x8

it putteth away dumpishness & sadness, and bringeth mirth: a 1559 recipe for mulled wine

fox and liberty forever: the chaotic General Election of 1790, the polling and purdah lasting from 16 June to 28 July, via Strange Company

the power of youth: the photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva behind the iconic image of Greta Thunberg’s TIME cover—we personally found this honour to be pretty moving as well

link in bio: the insidious nature of Walled Gardens (see previously) and social media’s attempts to corral the free Internet

the land of the asuras: a Buddhist monk leads a solemn ceremony to eulogise untaken time off from work in Japan—hardly done despite legislation that all workers take a minimum of five paid vacation days per year

🙀: this feline face filter underscores how poorly we understand our cats’ cognition

flight and blight: a survey of some of the historic character lost in New York City over the past decade

your branches green delight us: a tour of London’s Christmas trees 

ærostats

Excuse my dotage if this is a repeat observation as it’s one of those coincidences that I would have thought I would have written about before but can find no evidence to demonstrate that I did, despite a strong feeling of presque vu, but strikes me as an interesting quirk of history that the first reliably documented achievement of human flight took place on this day in 1782 in an experiment conducted Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, with an albeit unmanned hot air balloon rising aloft and traveling a distance of two kilometres before landing.
Less than a year later, they demonstrated their accomplishment—this time with a manifest of a sheep, a rooster and a duck that returned safely to the ground (going against the king’s suggestion of sending up convicted prisoners), to the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, with two humans taking a test flight on 21 November 1783. The distinction of being the first human passengers did not go to the Brothers Montgolfier themselves but rather to the chemistry teacher Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and army officer François Laurent d’Arlandes. Leap forward to the winter of 1903 when on the same day (maybe there is something about that time-frame) the Wright Brothers (see previously) made their first trail with their Wright Flyer at the Kill Devil Hills outside of the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight of a heavier-than-air, powered craft came five days later.

model-t

Via Kottke, we learn that in 1966 that the Ford Motor Company developed a concept pickup truck called Ranger II, whose chassis not only bears a passing resemblance to the Cybertruck (previously here and here) but also included features like an unbreakable windshield. Hopefully Tesla’s design will emerge successfully from the drawing-room and on to road-worthiness.

luciatåg

According to tradition martyred on this day during the Diocletian persecutions of the third century, the solemnity of the Feast of Saint Lucy of the Greek colony of Syracuse in Sicily was somehow translated from her native Italy to darkened, northern climes to become a major Advent celebration in Scandinavian lands.
She is depicted wearing a crown of candles so as to free her arms up to carry as many provisions as she could to fellow Christians hiding in the city’s catacombs to hold mass in secret and evade capture and punishment to navigate the passages and locate her community. Until calendar reforms that didn’t take effect in Nordic countries until the 1800s, Saint Lucy’s Day fell on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year—to which she brings light and traditionally marked the beginning of Yuletide. Festivities include choosing a local representative for Saint Lucy and an early morning, pre-dawn procession of children—it being also customary to barge into one’s parents’ bedrooms, even the visiting Nobel laureates still in town since the honours usually fall around the same time being treated to the special intercession, and being served a breakfast of Lussekat, baked buns flavoured with saffron. The day is bookended also with Lucy’s counterpart, Lussi the Witch taking flight and bringing general mischief and possibly misfortune for those who didn’t finish holiday preparations and obligations in a timely manner (see also here and here) from Lussinatta until Christmas.

brabofontein

Though some academic might take exception to this bit of folk etymology, the city of Antwerp is named after a legendary practise of hand-hurling ([h]ant werpen) commemorated with a bronze figure of the Roman soldier who put an end to exorbitant tolls.
According to local lore, trade was hindered by a despotic giant called Druon Antigoon, whom exacted a high price for passage (like Three Billy Goats Gruff) and would cut off a hand of a vessel’s captain who failed to pay the fee for docking and unceremoniously toss it into the harbor. A Roman captain of the guard named Silvius Brabo slew the menace by decapitating him with his sword and for the sake of poetic justice also cut off his hand and hurled it as far as he could. The scene was executed in bronze as a fountain before the guild halls in the main market square in 1887 by sculptor Jef Lambeaux in part to celebrate the end of the revanchment policy of imposing high tariffs—though without dismemberment.