mariyinsky palace

Having taken at least a temporary hiatus from his career as a comedic actor on film and television, forming a party eponymous with the sitcom in which he played a school teacher reluctantly, accidental pressed to high office called Servant of the People (Слуга народу) and elected president of in April of 2019 Ukraine with a commanding majority and mandate, Volodymyr Olessandrovych Zelenskyy (*1979) celebrates his birthday today.
Running on a radical reform campaign to rid the government of rather endemic though substantively no different from the grifting-class in the US, Zelenskyy dissolved parliament as his first order of business and dismissed several oblast governors, forming a cabinet and constituting a new government of political outsiders to restore the people’s confidence in government and limiting opportunity for partisanship and influence-peddling. It is too early to say how history will view this administration but significantly one of the first pieces of lawmaking drafted and passed with the cooperation of the executive and legislative branches provided for a mechanism to impeach and remove the president should the office-holder fail to uphold their duties to state and people, enshrining this hallmark of democracy in the constitution.

home-shopping network

From our trusted antiquarian and to file under the category of there’s nothing new under the Sun/programmers are lazy we’re presented with this clipping from 1916 that allows one to virtually try on clothes and test out different fashions. Not to sound cynical or perennially disappointed, the verdict of the encumbering nature of progress exacting more time and effort that it was meant to save stands today and previsions the paternalistic Internet of Things with the very much overlapping magisteria of gimmickry and marketing that it embraces.

les domains français à l’éstranger

Though we cannot say for sure but a minor scuffle during a visit to Jerusalem by the French head of state that echoed a pointed altercation by a popular predecessor—whether a stunt or not—did nonetheless afford a fascinating, convoluted look into the small territorial claims, property-holdings (see also here and here) that the country has beyond metropolitan France.
The Church of Saint Anne—the mother of Mary and erected in the twelfth century during the regency of Queen Melisende under Crusader rule, at the site of a grotto that was believed to be a play spot of her young daughter, was reportedly gifted to Napoleon III by the Ottoman sultan in gratitude for his intervention in the Crimean War. In addition to this medieval structure at the head of Via Dolorosa, France lays claim (all disputed) to three other sites in the Holy Land, the Villa Médici in Rome, seven churches and crypts in the Vatican and the historical home of Victor Hugo on the UK dependency of Guernsey and the ensemble of buildings on Saint Helena where the disposed Napoleon (see previously) was confined.

la belle sauvage or salon seléctifs

Designed by pioneering belle époque architect Henri Sauvage (*1873 – †1932) whose colossal public housing projects informed both successive Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements and whose legacy still is relevant and resonant, the 1902 home for contemporary Louis Majorelle (*1859 – †1926) in Nancy near his studio and factory had undergone some major refurbishment and is open—albeit temporarily—to the public before entering next phase of restoration, closing the landmark attraction for another two years, nearly the amount of time its originally construction took.
The exemplary Villa Majorelle was not only a flagship of the new architectural style but also a showcase for Majorelle’s own experimental furnishings (some of which were part of this exhibition) and a gallery for other artistic friends of his.

meet the neons

Samsung’s STAR Labs have created virtual beings, imbued with artificial and adversarial intelligence that behave convincingly like human beings and are poised to get even better once escaping the laboratory and confines of a consumer electronics exposition.
What do you think? An extension of the electronic personal assistant, a spokesperson (which may be a neon himself and does not realise it) explained that bots are being developed for a future wherein “humans are human and machines more humane” with the new companion especially suited for roles as bank tellers, news anchors, health care providers, financial consultants and lawyers.

thoroughfare

Via the ever-excellent Maps Mania, we are introduced to the easy to use mapping tool City Roads that will generate a raster image of the traffic arteries of any conurbation around the world to download or even order up printed on a mug. From a civil engineering aspect, it’s notable how the negative spaces say as much or more about the character and charter of a city as the streets and roadways designed to navigate and negotiate around or past it and interesting to compare profiles of larger cities.

mirrored melodies

A clever musician named Steve Cruickshank, brought to us courtesy of the always brilliant talent scout Nag on the Lake, has created inverted covers of classic rock anthems and other songs to an interesting, engaging and irresolved effect (see also).
The principle applied—that of negative harmony—was part of jazz theory articulated by London artist Jacob Collier and a progression by fifths is reduced and reflected back as one of fourths, converting, for example a C-Major scale into a G scale in phrygian mode. Here’s a sampling with Toto’s Africa but all are worth checking out, especially the Star Wars theme and march.