Among the latest tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice, there was an email with the above subject line picturing an unidentified couple at various tourist attractions of the French capital in July of 2009. Not only is the woman’s face obscured with redaction but so is for whatever reason the visage, arguable amongst the most-well known in the world, of Leonardo Da Vinci’s portrait of Mona Lisa—possibly betraying the use of AI or poor taste and certainly reaffirming the rather sloppy job that’s characterised this mandate, which the department has claimed to have satisfied its legal obligations but has failed to uphold its own expressed pledge and excuse for the months of delay of protecting the identity of the victims of Epstein and associates’ sex-trafficking and rape, including so far the names, images and personal information of around a hundred survivors of the the expansive scandal.
Sunday, 8 February 2026
simply paris (13. 157)
general directions (13. 156)
Via the weekend links of { feuilleton }, we enjoyed this profile of Margaret Calvert whose work in graphic design and typology brought together road signage in the UK under a standard for uniformity and visibility still in use today, in Britain and beyond. Her pictograms and eponymous typeface, the slab-serif Transport font, the result of a survey that reformed protocols more in line with European conventions with the expansion of expressways, shifting away from traditional fingerposts are used not only for motorways, the rail system, airports and for warning of potential hazards, the farm animal caution based on a cow called Patience Calvert recalled from her childhood and the wildlife iconography inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of animals in motion. More from the Guardian interview at the link above.
draft pick (13.155)
Courtesy of Strange Company, we learn that sometime in the early months of 1926, the exhibition basketball team that uses athleticism and comedy to break down racial barriers that exist in the professional sport was formed as the Savoy Big Five to promote flagging attendance at he storied jazz venue of the ballroom in Chicago’s South Side, 
rebranded independently as the Harlem Globetrotters (see previously) within a couple years and touring the US Midwest and Eastern seaboard, the international tournaments would not start until decades later but the name helped build their cosmopolitan mythos. Signalling a significant thaw in American-Soviet relations, they played a game in Moscow in 1959 with Khrushchev and fourteen thousand spectators in attendance (see also), with numerous media appearances, cross-over episodes, and their own Saturday morning cartoon (a later animated series gave them superpowers) and an soundtrack album produced by frontman Meadowlark Lemon, honorary membership has been extended to Henry Kissinger, Bob Hope, Nelson Mandela, Whoopi Goldberg, Popes John Paul II and Francis and Jesse Jackson, whom at first was highly critical of their style of showmanship but then in reevaluation decided that the franchise were overall ambassadors of goodwill and positive role models.
someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets (13. 154)
Released on this day in 1976, the neo-noir drama by Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader set in a decaying New York City stars Robert De Niro as Marine veteran and taxi driver Travis Bickle and follows the decline of his mental health working nights in the metropolis with the supporting cast of Cybil Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks and Jodie Foster. 
Documenting his deterioration in a diary to combat his loneliness, chronic insomnia and intrusive violent thoughts, disgusted by the crime and exploitation he witnesses, punctuated with aphorism and affirmation, Bickle eventually channels his rage and frustration into an intense regimen of physical conditioning, and armed, embarks on a mission of vigilantism, first in a foiled assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, after having his overtures for one of the politician’s campaign staff, Betsy (Shepherd) rebuffed and then killing the pimp (Keitel) of child prostitute Iris (Foster) and freeing her—an act for which Bickle is hailed as a hero. Despite being blamed for inspiring the shooting of Ronald Reagan by John Hickley Jr (the elevation of the anti-hero—the role offered to Dustin Hoffman originally with Al Pacino and Jeff Bridges also in consideration) itself inspired by the media treatment of Sara Jane Moore’s assassination attempt on Gerald Ford), the film’s acclaim has been a constant over the ensuing decades.
Saturday, 7 February 2026
zeuhl (13. 153)
In the conlang Kobaรฏan invented by drummer and founder of the experimental prog rock and jazz fusion French band Magma, Christian Vander, the title means in combination with แบortz means “celestial force” and has become a sub-genre unto itself distinct from the related Space Music and Kosmische Musik sound. 
Established two years after the death of John Coltrane, unmatched and unmeted, Magma’s members sought in all reverence and humility to carry on the transcendental tradition and create something new and never before experienced. The band’s tracks, stretching across seven albums and with a couple of inspired surrogates, notably in Japan, Belgium and Sweden as well as garnering French compatriots, also extensively sampled from the neoclassical canon, including the structure of Carmina Burana. The chief and often exclusive lyrical language for Magma’s songs, the group still continuing in one form or another to the present, the libretto for a literal space opera about a group of human refugees settling on the distant world of Kobaรฏa after the Earth was rendered uninhabitable. Much more from John Coulthart’s journal {feuilleton} with performances, appearances and cross-overs at the link up top.
telegraphed intent (13. 152)
Following on the heels of memoryholing the CIA World Factbook and aligned with the revisionist history (altering the narratives for the January Sixth storming of the Capitol and the COVID-19 pandemic) and erasure of the administration, the US State Department is removing all social media postings made the on the platform formerly known as Twitter prior to Trump’s return to office at the end of January last year.
Taken down from public view, the foreign ministry assures that travel advisories, programmes, press releases and images (from department leadership as well as individual missions and the accounts of ambassadors) will be archived internally and can be accessed through a FOIA request should anyone be demotivated to see what’s aged well and what has not—messaging from Trump’s first term included as well as posts from the Obama and Biden years. Less ideological and more for controlling the message moving forward, systematically eliminating and forging the inconvenient historical documents to match state propaganda, according to reporting, it’s as of yet unclear whether this daily record of diplomacy will disappear from other platforms as well. More from NPR at the link above.
the dark side (13. 151)
crimewatch (13. 150)
Via Curios, we are referred to this fun little character creation game that draws of the assets of the 1983 Smith & Wesson (American gun-makers so make that what you will for their role in the field of forensics) Identi-Kit Model II used by law enforcement authorities since the late 1950s 
(the UK version, Photofit, was introduced in 1970) to make facial composites of suspects and perpetrators in attempts to reconstruct their appearance and identity them based on eye-witness accounts. This feature-based selection system, foregoing the talent of a professional sketch artist in consultation with victims and by-standers, became standard issue in many precincts and has a certain, sinister aesthetic if one is so inclined to build an mugshot quality avatar (without involving the machine and one’s own likeness and being an agent of chaos and confounding the AIs) in the style of DB Cooper, the Unabomber or other most-wanted individuals.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a gift from Netanyahu for Trump (with synchronopticรฆ), a calming reflecting pool plus a banger by Shocking Blue
twelve years ago: trilateral tensions with the US, the EU and Ukraine
fourteen years ago: scribes and penmanship plus diminishing returns
fifteen years ago: Mubarak flees to Germany
