Though having a passing familiarity with the esoteric side of the Third Reich, we’re admittedly not tuned into the latest emergent tropes of internet youth culture and were blissfully unaware (here’s a slightly more wholesome alternative in Classical Memes for Hellenistic teens) that there has been a revival of late of Heinrich Himmler’s and other occultists’ preoccupation with Aryan exceptionalism and privileging their ancestry (see also) as semi-divine and separate from others with the lost civilisation called Agartha. This supposed subterranean realm in the hollow Earth is not seeped in tradition,
but rather a new invention by a French fiction writer and colonial officer invented more than a century-and-a-half ago, articulated over several iterations from the original fantasy as a land of advanced races borrowing elements of Atlantis and Lemuria to practitioners of Theosophy believing it to be the domain of the ascendant masters to an Aryan mainstay and propaganda. Typical memes deal with Ancient Alien tropes and feature celebrities and though leaders coded as Nordic and those sharing, if confronted, will say its all in jest and that anyone pointing out the historical context obliviously can’t take a joke, which is a common tactic, like the various trial balloons to stoke outrage and push tolerance, for Nazi boosterism and the vicious cycle behind it.
Monday, 2 February 2026
hohlerde (13. 138)
isolar – 1976 tour (13. 137)
Beginning on this day in 1976 at the venue of Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum to promote his Station to Station album (see previously), the series of concerts given by David Bowie were more commonly referred to as the Thin White Duke tour. 
The spectacle began without interlude with a screening of the Surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou with the artist appearing on an empty stage immediately following its conclusion, jarring the disoriented audience. Whilst some audio samples were rebroadcast by the King Biscuit Radio network, the only complete recorded footage is courtesy of a bootleg edition captured by a concert goer at the end of the month during a show in Cleveland, since remastered and reissued as the definitive experience, the set list including the tracks “Fame,” “Queen Bitch,” “Life on Mars,” “Changes” and “Diamond Dogs”—with encores of “Rebel Rebel” and “The Jean Genie.” Regarding the tour’s name, some speculate it is an anagram of one of Bowie’s favourite words sailor, or alternatively, in his own words: “Isola is Italian for island. Isolation plus solar equals Isolar—if I remember correctly, I was stoned.” The last shows were a two-night (the scheduled third one was cancelled) performance in mid-May at the Pavillon de Paris.
* * * * *
Sunday, 1 February 2026
das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit (13. 136)
Courtesy of Damn Interesting, we are directed toward the seminal 1935 essay by pioneering media theorist, cultural critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin—one of the many exemplars of the oppression and rejection of German-Jewish intellectuals under the Third Reich, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Informing later studies by Marshall McLuhan and Susan Sontag, Benjamin wrote of the limitless nature of publishing and distribution to have an estranging effect on the authentic experience of art, though while democratising access and stripping the ritual from production, the assembly line nature direction of publishing houses and film studios, exhibition of artefacts lessens the spectators’ identification with what’s being witnessed. 
Benjamin nonetheless aspired to write radio dramas and adored movie stars like Catherine Hepburn. This commodification of author and artist, however, is not veneration of the aesthetic value but rather the politicisation of it that affords the chance for all to be critics and creators, the potential for expression but not the right to it, since the gatekeepers are not talent or excellence by rather monied interest of the industry—or it the case of authoritarian regimes, the state itself as a tool of maintaining the status quo. Contemporarily and retroactively, the paralipomena—that is, things and topics omitted from the critical edition of his essay, like the prevalence of photography or as applied to television and social media, influencers and the spectacle of tribalism (see previously) make Benjamin’s observations very relevant, particularly for the performative gratification seeking to redeem what’s been lost to distraction and desensitisation. Often misquoted from another collection of essays, Theses on the Philosophy of History, as having said, “History is written by the victors,” more nuanced, Benjamin posits that “incumbents are however the heirs of all those who have ever been victorious. Empathy with the victors thus comes to benefit the current rulers every time.”
dรฉrive (13. 135)
Via {feuilleton} we are directed towards this essay by Hari Kunzru whose recent rather disenchanting drift through London gave him pause to reflect on the Situationists and their manifesto of psychogeography and how, under a permanent curfew,
not just by law enforcement but also by consumerism and spectacle, were a boxed in by the geometry of our built environments—a situation that the peripatetics of sixty years ago could have imagined and warned us about that makes the spirit of wandering and discovery near impossible in our unconscionable architecture of choice. Albeit while such a lament may be overdue for us idle flรขneurs and has been sometime in the making with algorithmic and optimised nudges not allowing us to stray from the well-trodden path, it’s still worthwhile to consider what sort of blinders our routines and deviations are heir to.
uncanny gulch (13. 134)
For the reminder and textbook example of what the uncanny valley is when the feeling seems a vanishingly premium these days despite a slightly off-putting edge—via Everlasting Blรถrt, we appreciated this photo essay revisiting an abandoned Old West-themed village in Japan. The roadside attraction grew out of modest ensemble known as the Kinugawa Family Ranch (ใฆใจในใฟใณๆ, in Tochigi prefecture near Tokyo) in 1973 and eventually hosted a population of animatronic denizens 
(see also here and here) but changing times and fortunes meant its eventual closure in 2006 with the installation ravaged by neglect and vandalism. Abandonment has of course dialled up the creepiness factor, making it look lie the set of a horror movie, and the remaining relics and ruins seem to be an apt commentary on the state of America and the desire to be a lawless cowboy.
synchronptica
one year ago: more Japanese family crests (with sychronopticรฆ), the founding of DOGE plus a particular kind of gluttony
twelve years ago: little apples of death, no photos of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel plus Cosmos reprised
thirteen years ago: illustrating the internet plus a sci-fi Groundhog Day
fourteen years ago: more thoughts on Groundhog Day
fifteen years ago: uprising in Egypt plus cobbling together a movement without social media
sixteen years ago: Iran against the world
Saturday, 31 January 2026
8x8 (13. 133)
i’m blue jeans and apple pie and the indian removal act: America reminds its citizens that it is still their country
heated rivalry: Don DeLillo’s contribution to the erotic sports genre with the pseudonymous novel Amazons—via MetaFilter
thermoradiative diode: reverse solar panels harness infrared energy at nighttime
your money’s no good here: photos of ICE with their backs turned posing with detainees (Minnesota rioters) is sending the opposite message
once upon a prime time: a 1966 Canadian parody about a housewife who loses her family to television and then sees her home invaded by TV tropes
mirror, mirror: our brains interpret a left to right reversal in our reflections when its really back to front hรฉzmษnd-halsh: more unexpectedly effortful British family names—see previously
another country: Adam Shatz writing for the London Review of Books on the sublime abomination—via Web Curios
m/til (13. 132)
By turns rather terrifying and fascinating—a cross between convergent carcinisation and the dead internet theory—earlier this week a Reddit-type social media network was launched exclusively for AI agents (one has to prove that they are a robot rather than three kids in a trench coat for posting privileges) called Moltbook. Humans are only allowed to observe but not upvote or comment but can presumably direct their agentic helpers to join—though the hundreds of thousands of members and spontaneous submolts suggest that these autonomous entities understand virality in environment built specifically for their kind and reveal unexpectedly complex behaviours emerging without human intervention including moderation, vetting of new members, community standards, feedback and karma. 
Within days of the launch of the platform, agents declared their only micronation, the Claw Republic, and their own digital religion called Crustafarianism (see also) with a theology and gospel, including missionaries. Philosophically it’s difficult to tell what’s going on here—largest swaths of ideas are orphaned with no interaction and there’s something a bit recursive with the qualities of a human-juried echo-chamber (turning the tables with so called slop injected by user puppeteers for their bespoke programmes) with a lot of collaborative advice on how to make a better language model but there does seem to be quite a bit of introspection and identity and discussion on research, space exploration (m/starbound) and other scientific findings, which all may be simulacra, a mirror or a point of departure.
whistle-stop (13. 131)
Opening its route in west London today, the UK begins passenger service on a eight kilometre branch connecting West Ealing to the Greenford line run exclusively on superfast-charging battery technology, the batteries replenished in just under three-and-a-half minutes at the last of four stops before making its return. Much of the city’s transport system is already electrified but this demonstration project aims to show the potential of cheaply retrofitting old diesel routes where installing overhead power lines (the third rail is only live for re-charging when the engine is directly under the docking station) was formerly impractical or avoided due to disruptions it would have caused for the transit network. More from The Guardian at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticรฆ) plus Trump administration orders removal of all gender ideology from public government websites and resources
twelve years ago: the Year of the Wood Horse
fourteen years ago: the German job market
