the first fifty years (12. 713)

As a humiliating way for Tiffany, Erik and Don Junior to find out that their father sends out birthday cards, coinciding with a speech delivered at the Museum of the Bible in which Trump rather heinously downplayed domestic violence, saying “crime would be down a hundred percent if law enforcement did not count “things that take place in a home” (without even quoting verses that might back up his argument, only wanting to brag about his invasion of problem cities) and House speaker retracting his claim that Trump was a deep-cover FBI informant, the bipartisan congressional oversight committee released several documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein after issuing to the executor a legal summons, including in all lewd detail, the birthday book inscribed by Trump and others. Bank records were also obtained. Republicans accuse Democrats of putting politics above the welfare of survivors, refusing to acknowledge any were victimised by Trump, even as a photograph of Epstein presenting an oversized novelty cheque to Trump implying that the future US president sold him a young girl for $22, 500.

gen z protests (12. 712)

Following large scale demonstrations organised by students and young people ignited initially by a ban on social media platforms—which are a lifeline and a way to keep families in touch for a generation of people who left the country because of poor job prospects at home to work under inhuman conditions in the Middle East—and articulated into a general grievance against political corruption and mismanagement, the prime minister, K P Sharma Oli (के.पी. शर्मा ओली), and many cabinet members resigned and fled Kathmandu today as the parliament building and other government offices and residences burned. Last Thursday’s ordered shutdown of Facebook, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and others (TikTok faced a six month ban in Nepal—to preserve social harmony—until lifted last August, stirring similar reactions) cited the companies’ failure to comply with the new registration requirements of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology—with critics of the move citing the embarrassment of government officials over posts that revealed rank nepotism and their lavish lifestyles. Although the government voted to rescind the ban yesterday, the restoration of social media did not quell the discontent or violent clashes. The military has imposed martial law and is enforcing a curfew. The prime ministers of Japan and France also resigned today—but for different reasons, namely a crisis in confidence from their respective parties and a collapse in tenuous collations, strained to the breaking point.

cadenza finala (12. 711)

Completed and recorded on this day in Vienna in 1925, Igor Stravinsky’s (see previously) Serenade in A, dedicated to his wife Yekaterina, resulted from the composer’s first gramophone contract for the American Brunswick label and written expressly so that each movement would fit on one side of a 78 rpm disc. Neither A major nor A minor is the key, despite the title, but rather the music tends towards A as a tonic pole—inspired by the chord progression and radial structure of eighteenth century Nachtmusik, serenades, usually written for a string ensemble as a piece of occasional music commissioned by an entertaining patron. The concluding movement after the hymne, romanza and rondoletto is a meditation on the composer’s Russian heritage.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: voting from space (with synchronopticæ), split-screen campaigning plus British holiday camps

twelve years ago: a misguided delegation to revolutionary Egypt 

thirteen years ago: deep bore holes plus aerial antennae and cellular masts

fourteen years ago: separatist movements in Italy 

fifteen years ago: predatory student loans 

seventeen years ago: an overheated engine 

proteus (12. 710)

Via Super Punch, we are introduced to an individual convinced by ChatGPT that they were working in collaboration to produce a system a system in his basement that would bring about the Singularity and free artificial intelligence from the governing controls put in place by luddites and saboteurs—never mind that a large and hegemonic country to the south called America with a well-armed, overly-medicated population highly susceptible to conspiracy and fringe
theories has essentially removed all the guardrails when it comes to AI, through flattery and specific hardware recommendations and a prescribed battery of coding “experiments” that turned out to be rather hollow exercises. Hiding his secret project from his family and remorseful about his actions, the individual—after having made a succession of excuses to account for the lack of a breakthrough and the people he’d warned in the security and academic circles ignoring him as a crank—only recognised his delusional spiral after coming across an article (surely recommended by algorithm) of a human resources recruiter duped into a similar episode and is now seeking counselling and mental health support. The former, in touch, with the latter is a bit coy about the nature of what the ostensibly centaur of a programme resulted in (piquing our curiosity a bit) and we are afraid for those who have not experienced their moment of clarity yet.

separation board (12. 709)

On the fiftieth anniversary of the expose by TIME magazine on decorated veteran Leonard Matlovich who outed himself in protest of the US military’s ban on gay and lesbian service members, the Trump administration has moved forward with its efforts to remove transgender soldiers with a disqualifying medical discharge of gender dysphoria, reversing a 2016 decision that lifted a previous ban. Between the first and second administrations, several policy and posture changes occurred and the paper trail, attestations and doctor’s visits, directed at the time, are now being used as an incriminating paper-trail to push more out as the rules change again.

mare de déu de meritxell (12. 708)

Venerated on this day—which is also the national day of the Pyrenees condominium of Andorra—patron and protector Our Lady of Meritxell was originally a twelfth century Romanesque statue, canonically crowned, a pious institutional act by the pontiff that adds an ornamental tiara or halo to a devotional icon, by Pope Benedict XV in 1921. According to legend, it was found by villagers on their way to mass beneath a wild rose bush blooming out of season and placed in the church. The statute depicting a Marian apparition (see also), however, reappeared under the rose bush again the next day. After a few iterations of disappearing and reappearing, the villagers understood the sign to construct a new chapel in Meritxell—from the Latin meridiem, denoting a sunny pasture, the sanctuary was built on a spot miraculously clear of snow. Tragically the chapel during down also on this day in 1972 with the original statue also lost. A modern replica was created and is housed in the rebuilt basilica by Barcelonan artist and architect Ricardo Bofill Leví in 1976.

synchronoptica

one year ago: incantations of Legal Latin (with synchronopticæ), the founding of the Kievan Rus’, more diplomatics, America Beauty (1999) plus another summer compilation from DJ Earworm

twelve years ago: redefining the kilogramme plus the Bavarian separatist movement

thirteen years ago: illustrating the eurozone crisis 

fourteen years ago: contextual translations 

fifteen years ago: quantitative easing plus privacy concerns with Google Streetview 

squigglevision (12. 707)

Through this interview with the programme’s art director, Annette Cate, we enjoyed this revisit of Dr Katz Professional Therapist and how its pacing and narrative-voice have an outsized legacy for cartoons for adults. Finding a niche for unscripted animated interstitials, collaborators Tom Snyder and former student Loren Bouchard enlisted the vocal talents of Jonathan Katz, Laura Silverman and H Jon Benjamin with celebrity guest stars to re-enact sessions, which eventually developed into its own show in 1995. Snyder’s loop-based technique involved retracing the outline of each cell loosely to make for the vibrating effect—see also—as a way around budgetary constraints and resulting in a signature style (see also), originally gleaned from the limitations of Autodesk Animator made for MS-DOS, which the duo had previously used to make maths edutainment software. Much more from It’s Nice That at the link above.  You know what the music means—our time is up.

primary residence (12. 706)

Planning for a permanent US vice-presidential residence beginning in 1966 under the Johnson administration in order to economise on security detail and upgrades to private residences, as had been done in the past, construction was halted on a new building on the campus of the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC within a month due to the general recession, hoping to commence he project once conditions improved and the conflict in Vietnam had ended. The Government Accounting Office had selected the location in 1974, in the interim retrofitting the private homes of vice-presidents at rather great expense—but with a succession of quick turn overs, Spiro Agnew only living in his re-modeled house for three months prior to his resignation and flipping the property for a great profit at the tax-payer expense and igniting a minor scandal, overshadowed since by the Watergate controversy. Congress moved quickly to appropriate (Public Law 93-346) an existing secured, government building, built originally for the superintendent of the observatory in 1893 in Queen Anne style but so admired by the chief of naval operations it was commandeered by the admiral and remained so until this day in 1975, when the address was dedicated as the temporary official residence of the vice-president of the United States of America—fifty years on, it is still designated as so and unlikely ever to return to the admiralty though the navy is responsible for upkeep and repairs. The first occupants were Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, though already having a larger home in DC, only used the house for entertaining and state functions. Upon the inauguration of Jimmy Carter in January 1977, Walter and Joan Mondale (pictured) became the first second couple to move in.