synchronoptica
one year ago: AI-generated cityscapes (with synchronoptica) plus Swedish PhD traditions
seven years ago: US-Iranian tensions plus US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal
eight years ago: Belphegor’s Prime, Trump’s interference with the justice system, Banksy’s Brexit mural plus a suitably gilded property
eleven years ago: a hoard of paintings of unknown provenance plus the question of Scottish independence
twelve years ago: Nazi Germany’s capitulation and a fateful date
Admittedly the headline briefly turned me Anglican, and like many who could not countenance the idea of an American pope—especially after the brashness and endorsement of Trump and Vance and the near-schismatic behaviour of the American conservative Church—with its ugly superpower status and general cultural hegemony—reading a bit into the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, walked back my aversion and apprehension somewhat. Aside from his chosen namesake, 
as lately created a cardinal by his successor and appointed to the important clerical office of the prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops, charged with selecting new senior advisors after serving as the head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and before that general of the Augustinians, Robert Francis Prevost from the South Side of Chicago, son of immigrants of French, Italian and Spanish heritage, spent many of his formative years in Peru, earning robust credentials in seminary as well as an educator. After elevation to cardinal-deacon, the lowest rank whose appointment derives from administrators of the Papal Household and assigned governance of one of the districts of Rome, Prevost was made protector of the chapel Santa Monica delgli Agostiniani just outside of the Holy See, designed by architect Giuseppe Momo, most celebrated for his Scala Momo which visitors descend to the Vatican Museum, as a dormitory for the order and those attached to the mother church. His first messages of peace, love and understanding were reassuring and one has to hope his fellow nationals can’t make too much hay out of this incidental kinship or smuggle in nationalism and authoritarianism under the guise of being a good Christian.
Berlin, for the first time since reunification, observed a public holiday for this eightieth anniversary of VE Day with political leaders—pointedly excluding the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus—gathering in the Bundestag to commemorate liberation from Nazi dictatorship. 
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told guests assembled in the chamber that Germany must never downplay its burden of responsibility for the second world war and the Holocaust as the perpetrators that caused the Shoah and were unwilling or unable to resist the regime orchestrating these crimes against humanity. Steinmeier went on the acknowledge the role of the Red Army, comprised of Russians, Ukrainians and many others, in freeing Europe from the regime—but adds that the “liberators of Auschwitz have become the new aggressors,” rubbishing long-standing regional peace and security which stood as a sign of hope that we had retained some lessons from the past and revising and inverting the historical records—excusing his war of aggression as a fight against neo-Nazism—with imperial ambitions. That war casting a pall over solemnities that were otherwise celebrating the beginning of an unprecedented period of liberty and freedom, many others recognising the dire need for recommitting to the defence of democratic values and harmony.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Hard-Hat Riot of 1970 (with synchronoptica) plus locomotive music
seven years ago: a Prohibition Era Isle of Pleasure charted plus assorted links worth revisiting
eight years ago: HH Holmes’ murder castle, the French far-right, PC clones plus the cartographic trope of the land octopus
ten years ago: a utopian factory town plus an ingestible password
eleven years ago: a self-massage technique called she-do
kanzlermehrheit: Bundestag selects Friedrich Merz chancellor after secure a majority in the second round of voting, averting a constitutional crisis
fuzzy maths: an unsure calculator that produces a range of histograms to assess one’s unknown factors—via Pasa Bon!—from home economics decisions to the Drake equation
reaction time: a car brake engaged by one’s eyebrows
top billing: the movie poster and album cover art of Dick Ellescas that fuses Art Deco and Mod
architektonisches gesamtkunstwerk: the Junkerhaus of Lemgo articulated over the decades whilst the jilted artist awaited his betrothed who would never return—via Messy Nessy Chic—more here
habemus papam: first round of voting fails to produce consensus—plus live chimney cam
The cinephiles of the Flop House with a special guest deliver a very thoroughgoing treatment of the Italian murder-mystery film genre called giallo (the title an alternate native term) popular from the 1960s through the late 1970s—which although declined subsequently with other exploitation movies leaves a lasting legacy and influences in subsequent movements like slasher and supernatural narratives. 
Derived from a series of crime pulp novels published by the Milano-based Mondadori house who distinguished book themes by their cover colours, in this case yellow—including in their catalogue translated titles from Agatha Christine, whose And Then There Were None (originally called Ten Little Indians or Dieci piccoli indiani) was widely read and considered the template for the genre, laying out the essential elements later adopted by filmmakers of a killer hidden amongst a cast whose identity and motive are not revealed until the end—translated to the screen with psychosexual horror, an atmosphere of suspense, camp, lurid Technicolour, bombastic scoring (see previously here and here) and gratuitous violence. Suspiria is sometimes included for its stylistic similarities but rejected by purist for its supernatural character, though director Dario Argento made other films, with typically baroque and non-revealing titles, like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, that are considered classic gialli. .jpg)
Another interesting artefact was the prevalence of J&B scotch whisky in the films across the range of directors as a signifier of sophistication and manliness—Justerini and Brooks Ltd, founded in Bologna in 1749 and receiving a royal warrant to supply wine and spirits to the aristocratic households of London and later purveyors to hotels and restauranteurs. With shifting values, condemned as misogynistic, gialli fell out of favour but their later homage has occasioned a reevaluation of their consistent, if not indirect, message of the victims, almost exclusively women, not being listened to when airing their suspicions and fears. Be sure to listen to the podcast for expert movie recommendations.
Coinciding with tactics being employed by several toy manufacturers to mitigate the worst impacts of the US administration’s ruinous trade war—addressing specifically the comment from Trump that for Christmas that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls and maybe they’ll cost a couple of dollars more”—including “pricing action” and differing “price points” for consumers, we enjoyed this latest comic from Ruben Bolling that’s an excellent alternative stocking stuffer for MAGA cultists with this printable dress-up Donald, though card-stock and printer cartridges will probably get pretty scarce as well by the time the holidays roll around, so it might be best to make one’s own.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus a treasury of unsolved mysteries
seven years ago: a visit to Nordheim vor der Rhรถn, Go Fact Yourself plus EULA boilerplate
eight years ago: aggressive cuts to funding for the arts, concept low-cost housing communities plus Trump’s Dark Triad undermining the government
ten years ago: Nazi kidnappings, more links to enjoy, wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack plus US resistance to engaging in WWII
eleven years ago: a trip to Hannoversh Mรผnden plus strained US-German relations over survelliance
Whilst apologists and Trump’s re-shoring spokesmen declares that new US factory jobs will make up for redundancies manufactured elsewhere (despite the fact that even if heavy industry enthusiastically embraces the chaotic invitation, most labour has been automated and manpower replaced by machines), we were quite enthralled by this resonant 1925 parable endorsed by Lenin and Stalin for the potential for counter-messaging with children’s literature and adopting a method of propaganda reputedly employed by the bourgeoisie. Vintik-Shpintik (The Little Screw, ะะธะฝัะธะบ-ัะฟะธะฝัะธะบ) by Nikolai Agnivtev was agitprop for young readers, the best seller, quickly adapted into an animated short, relating how a factory is kept chugging along only with the cooperation of its smallest members. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link above.
Having expressed concerns about overseas movie production for quite some time and appointing conservative actors Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood as it burned, charged with bringing the film industry back bigger, better and stronger, over the weekend per social media post Donald Trump directed the Office of the US Trade Representative to levy a one-hundred percent tariff on “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” despite the hegemonic surplus enjoyed by American studios and their exports. 
Describing the luring away of domestic filmmaking as messaging and propaganda and a threat to national security, it remains unclear how redirecting the flow of commerce could be implemented for international films—more like an applied service that could be taxed, with the authorisation from congress but not tariffed, most bigger budget motion pictures being cosmopolitan in nature and shot on locations around the world, other countries and states outside of California offering tax-incentives to make filming more favourable aside from any creative license or sense of authenticity. Domestic movies, produced anywhere, dominate the US box-office and it’s unclear by even what metrics a tariff would be imposed—American cultural imperialism means that international ventures would have less avenues for reciprocation but could translate into more quotas for US intellectual property, promoting native creative projects and possibly opening the door to incubating other intangibles, undercutting more sectors where American advantages reigns. Following his unilateral takeover the Kennedy Center as artistic director, Trump only wants to control the narrative but is instead inviting others to write the script for him.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a classic from T-Rex (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the Swiss guard to get 3D printed helmets, a floppy disk musical instrument, an ancient town without street names and numbers, the environmental toll of palm oil plus turnstiles for Venice to control tourist crowds
eight years ago: Trump regime accidentally discloses its agenda, kaiju rap plus WWII propaganda
ten years ago: more terror attacks in Germany plus formulaic writing
eleven years ago: a political rally in a skate park, Russia’s role in the Great Patriotic War plus the Pinocchio clause for thinking machines
