synchronoptica
one year ago: Suddenly (with sybchronopticรฆ) plus more boating adventures
thirteen years ago: life lessons from mythology
fourteen years ago: cruciform variations plus corking fun
sixteen years ago: travels in the States
synchronoptica
one year ago: Suddenly (with sybchronopticรฆ) plus more boating adventures
thirteen years ago: life lessons from mythology
fourteen years ago: cruciform variations plus corking fun
sixteen years ago: travels in the States
For the first time in television history in the United States on this day in 1975, the three major television networks declined a request to interrupt broadcasts and pre-empt their line-up for a speech delivered by the American president. Gerald Ford’s nationwide address was only carried by ABC and was a relatively anodyne presentation regarding fiscal discipline for an economy just emerging from a recession, laying the blame of inflation and job scarcity squarely on an “overzealous bureaucracy” and urged congress to make federal tax reductions permanent to encourage hiring with a commensurate cut to government spending, threatening to veto any legislation passed in in keeping with a balanced budget. This decision by TV executives was seen as the first challenge to the use of the bully pulpit of the president and the reach of high office to the public ear. The next day, congress and the senate overturned Ford’s veto by an overwhelming margin bi-partisan support to extend federal school lunch and nutrition programmes.
synchronoptica
one year ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate (with synchronopticรฆ)
thirteen years ago: the Venetian independence movement, more flea market finds plus twinned-towns
fourteen years ago: computer lab plus thirty-one days of Halloween
fifteen years ago: customary Nobel cool-off period
toastbusters: Florida woman relates the story of her demonically possessed appliance on nationally syndicated morning television in 1984
less cowbell: short-form AI generated videos flooding social media incite confusion, nihilism
hot stuff, hot postula: vintage American cheerleading calls and college yells
dob, doa: statically, one is slightly more inclined to die on one’s date of birth—via Nag on the Lake—see previously
ghost waltz: a Louie Zong spooky season tradition—see previously
in this economy: venerable coffee roaster—also under assault from tariff-pricing—changes its name to something more achievable
uav: mysterious drone sightings across Europe are signs of collective anxiety (see more) and echo the panic over Chinese spy balloons over North America
workplace etiquette: the story of the woman who xeroxed her bottom, becoming front page news
Beginning with comic books in mid-1970s Yugoslavia before working as a graphic designer for journals and political weeklies, we enjoyed this introduction to Mirko Iliฤ through a retrospective of his work, which would go on to include album art for the Croatian punk scene, Mรฉtal Hurlant, Marvel then TIME, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal as art director. Working with Milton Glaser (see previously), Iliฤ created the title sequence of You’ve Got Mail and presently in a teaching role has co-authored several books on the principles of design with Print magazine’s own Steven Heller. More of the artist’s work including several iconic covers at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: circumambulation (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a houseboat on the Havel
twelve years ago: the mysterious Codex Seraphinianus, US government shutdown plus universal basic income
thirteen years ago: the Bond franchise, dissecting partisan politics plus photographer Bastian Kalous
fourteen years ago: one-percenters plus travels in Ireland
fifteen years ago: terror threats across Europe
catagories: ๐ญ๐ท, ๐, ๐️, libraries and museums
Although some polities issue currency bearing the obverse of their current reigning monarch, most including the United States of America and many others only impress images of departed historic contributors and presidents—the heretofore exception for the US being the commemorative coinage passed by congress in March of 1925 to feature portraits of the current incumbent Calvin Coolidge with George Washington for the sesquicentennial half-dollar to be sold to the public at a premium above their face value and much of the specie returned to the minters for reuse after disappointing reception (the one-hundred-fiftieth year celebration of the the nation’s founding also going down in the annals of the most poorly executed and received—see also). We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, people will puzzle over why so much ink was split over a has been, fascist country and their daily drivel. The draft engraving of the semiquincentennial dollar coin—introduced during the government shutdown—features images of Trump both on the obverse and reverse (perhaps inspired by Charles III on the new ten £ note after his recent visit) with the latter struck to match the defiant pose after his attempted assassination in Butler County Pennsylvania—already the iconography of his cryptocurrency.
synchronoptica
one year ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted (with synchronopticรฆ), an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt
twelve years ago: US government shut-down disrupts NASA projects plus capture houses and bait cars
thirteen years ago: more tarnished smiles
fourteen years ago: the Occupy Wall Street movement
fifteen years ago: reflections on twenty years of German unity
synchronoptica
one year ago: a banger from Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (with synchronopticรฆ), the Berlin Freedom and Unity monument plus thirty-one days of Halloween
thirteen years ago: ohaguro
fourteen years ago: flag-counters plus der Tag der Deutsche Einheit
synchronoptica
one year ago: The Taking of Pelham 123 (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a giant hybrid sheep
seventeen years ago: out-of-body experiences
synchronoptica
one year ago: digital divinity (with synchronopticรฆ), ghost-writing, ambient music from a surveillance system plus up-selling
twelve years ago: reporting on the US government shutdown
thirteen years ago: DIY month, wine and cheese advertising, vintage community calendars plus the risks of the agriculture lobby
fourteen years ago: hidden messages in song lyrics
seventeen years ago: the fiscal new year