she’ll say i’m not so tough—just because (12. 853)

The doo-wop single from the Billy Joel’s ninth studio album, An Innocent Man, inspired by the sound and energy of Frankie Valli’s Four Seasons and released late September climbed to the top of the UK charts on this day in 1983, holding the number one spot for five weeks—eventually displaced by “Karma Chameleon” one to become the best-selling song of the year. Conceived originally by his relationship, which Joel judged as asymmetrical, with supermodel Elle Macpherson, Uptown Girl ended up being about his new girlfriend and soon-to-be spouse Christie Brinkley. The music video portrays Joel (previously) and backup performers as blue collar auto mechanics presaged by footage of “Tell Her About It” shown on a portable television with a poster of Brinkley on the wall of the garage. “Keeping the Faith,” “All About Soul,” “River of Dreams,” “Leningrad” and “A Matter of Trust” were all dedicated to featured Joel’s wife, whereas as his amicable ex- has “And So it Goes” plus “This Night.” Predating them both, “Just the Way You Are” was written for his first wife and business manager Elizabeth Weber, who were against including the track on his 1977 album The Stranger, but was persuaded by Linda Ronstadt, whom was recording in a neighbouring booth in the same studio, sessions for Simple Dreams featuring “It’s So Easy” and “Blue Bayou.”

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica 

one year ago: America votes (with synchronopticæ), Trump and Guy Fawkes plus medieval produce in art

twelve years ago: NYT on mindfulness, a guide for gentleman farmers plus more on US mass-surveillance 

thirteen years ago: bully pulpits 

fifteen years ago: mad-bombers 

we did it, zoh (12. 852)

Progressive Democratic Socialist candidate Zohran Mandami wins the New York City mayoral race—with Californian voters also moving forward with a proposition allowing for redrawing congressional districts to boost Democratic seats ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, prompted by Republicans’ disenfranchisement in Texas and other jurisdictions. Democrats are also elected to governorships in Virginia and New Jersey.

patent pendency (12. 851)

A long established fact about the US Patent Office is its signature agnosticism regarding submissions and filings, only the competent authority of whether a proposal can be trademarked and copyrighted “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” and not a judge of an idea’s quality or utility, though happy to collect registration fees, with any surplus above overhead operating costs being diverted to the general Treasury. Accordingly we appreciated this context-free gallery—via Things Magazine—of the figures and schematics (for applications recently submitted—see previously). There’s something that defaults to a little sinister when trying to surmise what’s being conveyed in this illustrations. Of course the details behind the pictures and prototypes can be easily and fully researched on the registry. Examiners, whilst specialists in their respective fields, are not necessarily lawyers, whereas trademark attorneys field work involving intellectual property.   

posterior probability (12. 850)

Via the always interesting Quantum of Sollazzo, we are directed towards this rather fascinating data experiment, a quarter of a century after the release of Lou Bega’s iconic hit, which seeks to find out if one can accurately predict when the song came out using Bayesian inference on the names of the women mentioned in the song and analysing the popularity of the chosen names over the decades (see also), whose net likelihood distribution maps nicely to the year it was recorded.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Saint Carlo Borromeo (with synchronopticæ) plus reimagining Slaughterhouse Five

twelve years ago: reinventing the internal combustion engine 

thirteen years ago: a proposed special tax on fast food and take away detritus, Laika for president plus Germany’s take on American democracy

fourteen years ago: changes to Google’s search algorithm 

sixteen years ago: rounding up agewise 

seventeen years ago: Dadaism in signage 

i never lie when i’ve got sand in my shoes (12. 849)

Exactly as it says on the tin, every episode in chronological order of Star Trek: TNG encapsulated in a three-second clip (keeping with the numbering convention for two parters, like the pilot or season finale cliffhangers that list them as a single show). Inspired by one-second clips of the whole of TOS, like Captain Picard said (S6:E25, Timescape, “He just kept talking in one long incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic so that no one had a chance to interrupt—it was really quite hypnotic.” What’s your favourite out of context sound bite or scene? We are partial to “Star Base 12—your mother?” and Troi saying, “So you like horses for romance?”

irrgarten der leidenschaft (12. 848)

Premiering in München on this day in 1925—though not released in the UK until the following April, the silent, joint Bavarian-British production The Pleasure Garden marked the directorial debut of Alfred Hitchcock, a cinematic adaptation of the 1923 melodrama by Oliver Sandys (one nom d’plume of Marguerite Florence Laura Jarvis who also wrote under the aliases of Countess Barcynska, Armiger Barley and others) about the misadventures of two chorus girls engaged by a theatre in London. Though the interview and audition of one young dancer, Jill—played by American import Carmelita Geraghty, is marred by a purse-snatching right before, she is taken in by a sympathetic member of the company, Patsy (Virginia Valli, another US actor) and ultimately lands a part. Initially a ménage à trois, a throuple Jill eventually succumbs to the overtures of aristocratic guests and leaves her benefactors, abandoning them in the time of the greatest need. Filmed principally in Germany and Lake Como, the movie was deemed too European and without redeeming qualities, hence the delay of it being screened in England and in America regarded as highly objectionable and unwholesome. Whilst not critically well received, one can see some of the motifs of Hitchcock’s later films storyboarded in the opening scenes, anticipating Vertigo, Rear Window and Family Plot.

hey mabel black label (12. 847)

Founded in 1898 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the Fenton Label Company Incorporated specialised in commercial stickers, makers’ marks and gummed labels (see previously) and produced these wonderful sample sheets, like the pictured image from a 1940 catalogue, to advertise their range to potential clients. A wonderful graphic design and typological specimen, we can’t tell if all these North American businesses were actual brick-and-mortar shop fronts or were mock examples meant to demonstrate their printing possibilities but it proved to be a fun exercise to try to trace them down. The Hotel Barlum of Detriot did exist but it’s more of a challenge to track down the more generic brands, shops, services and agents and there are some choice vintage products to be found, such as non-poisonous salmon eggs, fruit tingle and something called original Canadian lotion. More from Present /&/ Correct at the link above.

halloween massacre (12. 846)

With echoes of Nixon’s purge from two years prior—with reporting identifying Donald Rumsfeld as instigator although Gerald Ford later claimed sole responsibility for the firings and expressed deep regret of his cowardice by conceding to ultraconservatives and not insisting it would be himself with Nelson Rockefeller “whatever the consequences”—the major cabinet shakeup of the administration—to redress clashing personalities and legislative priorities and palace intrigues among the staff occurred on this day in 1975,

with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger ousted to be replaced by Brent Scowcroft (though remaining Secretary of State), CIA director William Colby swapped for George H W Bush, Chief of Staff Jame Schlesinger dismissed in favour of Rumsfeld’s protégé Dick Cheney, Rogers Morton out as the Secretary of Commerce for Elliot Richardson, whose resignation during the Saturday Night Massacre precipitated the crisis of confidence that compelled Nixon to step down, and the vice-president (see above) announcing he would no long seek reelection on the ticket. The personnel changes were effective the next morning on election day, an off-year but Ford was very present already on the ballots in anticipation of the 1976 presidential race. 

synchronoptica
one year ago: Kamala Harris and her avatar appear on SNL (with synchronopticæ) plus the Japanese instrument of surrender (1946)

thirteen years ago: footwear styles, the influence and legacy of Tetris plus competition for Germany’s national rail-carrier

fourteen years ago: The Tin Drum Song 

fifteen years ago: legislative gridlock, US political theatre plus the Foundation X conspiracy

seventeen years ago: an unbirthday celebration