Having a passing familiarity with one of the more radical and controversial figures in the field of psychiatry, Wilhelm Reich, we were rather absorbed with his 1945 illustrated essay, Listen, Little Man!—call-out quotations limned by cartoonist William Steig (best known for his 1990 children’s book Shrek! and the basis of the animated movies) a personal friend and originally self-published by Reich’s Orgon Press. 
Aligned with overarching philosophy that neuroticism, self-destructive behaviours and fascism were rooted in sexual frustrations, the tract, translated with multiple reprintings and influencing the likes of Saul Bellow, William S Burroughs and Norman Mailer and Joan Didion among others as writers of creative non-fiction, documents the evolution of a psychoanalytical session from the point of view of the derided therapist, Reich himself as a stand-in for the whole backlash against the industry and skepticism towards expertise in general, from bemused naรฏvety, amazement to panic and horror about how resistant the patient can be to being disabused, esteeming his enemies and persecuting allies, becoming crueler than through grievance than the power structure one hopes to supplant. Much more to discover at the links above.
Wednesday, 4 February 2026
rede an den kleinen mann (13. 144)
ลdako (13. 143)
Dedicated to a legendary giant octopus guarding a sacred sword at the bottom of the sea in the nearby Straits of Hayasui, the Hayasuhime shrine in Oita prefecture is unique Japan and popular with locals and prayed to for good fortune and safety on the water. 
Enshirement of a new deity recently crafted, however, was delayed due to neighbourhood cats, who used the cardboard sculpture as a scratching post and as a shelter during the winter cold and now installed, the sculptor may have found himself committed to an unending task of upkeep with these feline devotees. The kraken-like sea monster (see also) is called the Akkorokamui (ใขใใณใญใซใ ) from Ainu folklore and has a variety of myths associated with it—a mostly benevolent kami in the Shinto tradition, it does have a chaotic side and must be approached carefully—much like a cat. More from Spoon & Tamago at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: real estate development plans for Gaza (with synchronopticรฆ)
twelve years ago: hardwired for social media
fourteen years ago: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement plus an antiquing side project
fifteen years ago: biofuels
sixteen years ago: Iranian space ambitions
Tuesday, 3 February 2026
doughcon 4 (13. 142)
Via Quantum of Sollazo, we gain more of a purchase into the Pentagon Pizza Index and how spikes in ordering and deviation from the routine of usual business can give away a busy night at the US department of war, like DEFCOM despite all other OPSEC precautions
. While US command and control has several concessionaires and a central barista called Ground-Zero, there are no on-base amenities to fulfil a late night wargaming and local franchises step in. This monitor also tracks open-source intelligence (OSINT), relevant newsfeeds and the pulse of betting markets to calibrate their own minute by minute Doomsday clock—for those who might be inclined to wager on geopolitical outcomes.
rรซลt แปf wลrld (13. 141)
DJ Earworm’s (previously) reprised mashup, Tops of the World, features the number one song in one hundred forty nine countries from the past twelve months, showcasing some one hundred five hits (obliviously some cross-over) is back online. 
This lesson in geography, music and culture expressed through dance, instrumentation and fashion as a global exchange is ambitious and inevitably ran into some legal entanglements and take-down notices due to the range of copyright laws that one would expect to have to navigate. Annotated, click through for a full listing of the samples and learn more about each source track and artist and inclusion methodology. This compilation might end the need for international song competitions. Let us know your new favourites and what you have learnt.
money feeds my music machine (13. 140)
Though the success of the single was unmatched by the short-lived Lemon Pipers, the song topping the Billboard charts on this day in 1968, the band could not be fairly classified as merely a one-hit wonder as “Green Tambourine” is regarded as the breakthrough song for bubblegum pop and psychedelia, exposing the listening public to both seemingly disparate genres in one track. 
Cowritten by Shelley Pinz, a writer and lyricist working at the Brill Building in Manhattan’s historic Tin Pan Alley neighbourhood—housing offices of industry executives and studios, producing the American songbook of influential and popular music from the Big Band era through the 1970s with the address bestowing a signature sound—the words were inspired by a busker Pinz saw on the street one day and wrote a verse wondering what happened to him. Arranged for tambourine and electric sitar, it introduces the dechronicisation elements of time signature changes, fades and tape echo that no one was certain would be received well in a mainstream release. The Lemon Pipers had some moderate follow up success with “Jelly Jungle,” “Rice is Nice” and “Blueberry Blue”—also by Pinz but did not like working for a label after they were discovered feeling stereotyped and only allowed to record what was intended to capitalise on their initial hit and disbanded in 1969. Outside of US markets, more radio play was given to a cover version that appeared on the eponymous debut album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo.
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synchronoptica
one year ago: the acting FBI director (with synchronopticรฆ) plus assorted links worth the revisit
twelve years ago: cross-border pizza deliveries
thirteen years ago: Shakespearian words
fourteen years ago: tensions in the Middle East
fifteen years ago: the Twitter revolutions
sixteen years ago: US military embraces social media
seventeen years ago: chain-of-command
Monday, 2 February 2026
ada violation (13. 139)
Not impacting the US general public and only a cadre of government workers left on the payroll, the partial government shutdown which began on midnight Friday is being characterised by many agencies as a “soft-lapse” and absent guidance or flagrantly ignoring the Anti-Deficiency Act, 
enacted by congress to prevent incurring obligations and or making commitments in excess of appropriated funds codified by congress during the reconstruction era following the US civil war to attempt to counter coercive over-budgeting encouraged by the executive branch to deplete fiscal expenditures prior to being replenished, this disdain—on Groundhog Day—of the regular ritual of furlough, exceptions and exemptions is yet (regardless if it lasted a weekend or weeks or tardy over time-zones) another sign that the Trump administration is shrugging of norms and statute. Guidance has not trickled down the hierarchy for many and are instructed to conduct business as usual until further notice, considering that many were written up for such transgressions during the last one, incurring more debt without backing and causing conflict in the casual chaos.
hohlerde (13. 138)
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, deflect, gaslight and push tolerance, for Nazi boosterism and the vicious cycle behind it.
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.
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