day forty-eight (13. 355)

Contradicting earlier pronouncements that the tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran would not be extended and then it would not be necessary as the second round of peace negotiations were imminent and that the war is nearly over, Trump and Iranian leadership seem poised to prolong their truce in anticipation of another summit to be hosted by Pakistan over the weekend. Despite rumours that Israel is contemplating a one week armistice in Lebanon, actions seems to rule out the possibility of a respite, Netanyahu seizing a historic opportunity to route out the Iranian backed terror group once and for all, declaring land south of the Litani river a Hezbollah “kill zone.” The US claims it maritime blockade to be water-tight though telemetry suggests that some ships are transiting the Strait of Hormuz and exiting the Persian gulf, whilst Iran threatens to close of access to the Red Sea and the Suez via their proxies in Yemen, the Houthi rebels should the US keep up their embargo, an economic pressure campaign that has repercussions for worldwide markets.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Hartsfield-Jackson airport of Atlanta (with synchronopticæ) plus an infinite botanical quilt

fourteen years ago: the murder of Trayvon Martin plus a papal birthday

fifteen years ago: donkey rescue society 

sixteen years ago: fire and ice 

seventeen years ago: clearing one’s cache 

stalemate (13. 354)

One of the most popular variants of the game, in reverse or losing chess, the objective is to be the first to have all their pieces captured, the players obliged to act on taking an opponent’s square if availed to them. Aside from compulsory capturing and the lack of royal succession—no pawns become queens and pieces are not promoted in rank—the rules remain the same but without careful opening strategies, the game tends to result in a draw, with greater regularity than in standard chess, and a dead board. Originally codified in the late nineteenth century as “take me,” this anti-chess has seen a surge in popularity in recent decades with its own clubs and tournaments, players intrigued with challenge of competitive exposure and creating vulnerabilities.

setlist (13. 353)

Via Kottke, we are directed to the Aadam Jacobs’ collection of bootleg concert recordings of over ten-thousand venues now online with the help of archivists at the Internet Archive. Starting taping live-shows in 1984, the massive, high quality bank features early performances by Stereolab, Björk, Sonic Youth, Tracy Chapman, REM and many, many more including forgotten and disbanded collaborations held in bars and nightclubs that are a distant memory. Not considering himself an obsessive nor an archivist, as many call him, Jacobs labels himself a fan and a documentarian, a fixture especially for the Chicago touring scene, eventually invited in by club owners with the express purpose to unofficially record sessions.

day forty-seven (13. 352)

As the the US announces that it will not extend the pause in sanctioning Iranian oil at sea and the blockade continues of the Persian gulf, Trump hints that negotiations could resume within the next couple of days in Islamabad, urging the Tehran delegation to stay put with JD Vance saying a grand bargain is in the offering which would make the country thrive in return for giving up its nuclear ambitions. European nations are working on an independent plan to open the Strait of Hormuz without the involvement of belligerents. Talks between the Lebanese government and Israel take place on the sidelines as the world roundly condemns the killings of more UN peacekeepers and the targeting of healthcare workers in the Beirut suburbs and over a million residents remain displaced, those remaining fearful that a coup is being stoked for their nation dragged into the conflict.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Great Seattle Windshield Pitting Panic (with sychronopticæ) plus the Gleichschaltung 

 

thirteen years ago: Germany reacts to Russian oppressive and regressive social policies 

 

fourteen years ago: rubbish superpowers plus Olympic demands

 

fifteen years ago: a proposed giant see-saw for Berlin 

 

sixteen years ago: data dressing 

 

seventeen years ago: a slow day for blogging 

daddy, what’s sundowning? (13. 351)

The most memorable and harrowing instalment of the series of commercials from Time-Life, aired first in December of 1985, the twenty-five volume serialisation of the conflict bookended the Reagan administration, released from 1981 to 1988, The Vietnam Experience sought from a mostly American perspective to bridge the rifts across the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers and generations next through exposure of tactics, cultural gaps, secret, parallel waging of conflicts by assaying the social and political aftermath and reckoning. To these ends, the two-minute spot features a plaintive question as father and son (the other timely response is “Look it up, dear” promoting Encyclopaedia Britannica from the following year and maybe prompting a generation of independent-research) whilst touring the newly dedicated and controversial veterans’ memorial wall of Maya Lin. The gravelly narration is provided by Martin Sheen, delivered with the intonation of his role as CPT Willard in Apocalypse Now, framed as a “question a child might ask” and followed by several others in the same vein, “Daddy, did we win?” and portentously warning that these queries must not go unanswered. Though in the fullness of time technically not forever wars as eternity will eventually embrace the Sun’s supernova, we have to wonder what cold-comfort we might offer in terms of explaining what’s a late night rage tweet, what’s a golden shower, covfefe, self-own, projection, deflection, hamberder, etc to someone who has not directly lived through these time.

9x9 (13. 350)

reference desk: harness Google’s secret card catalog—via Kottke  

nitrate divas: a remarkable 1928 amateur film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” 

📍: a Scrabble Map commissioned for the word play game’s (previously) international commemoration, celebrated yesterday  

middle powers: Carney’s Liberal Party secures supermajority in parliamentary special elections  

print gallery of an artist: an MC Escherque exploration of recursive spaces—via Waxy 

infallibilità papale: ally Meloni (previously) breaks with Trump over criticism of Pope, cancels security arrangement with Israel  

dutch cartocubism: an overlooked approach to simplify mapping from the early 1930s from the figures behind ISOTYPE—via Quantum of Sollazzo—see also  

connie converse: rediscovering the forgotten folk-music genius 

огас: the 1960s proto-internet that the Soviet Union passed on—see previously

day forty-six (13. 349)

All NATO members refuse to participate in the US naval blockade of the Persian gulf as a sanctioned Chinese flagged tanker transits through the strait, testing the seriousness of the American resolve, as France and the UK devise other strategies for reopening the vital waterway. Trump refuses to apologise to the Pope for his harsh and crude language and in response posts an AI-generated image of the himself as a Christ-figure—although Trump claims he thought it was “supposed to be me as a doctor making people better…And I do make people better, I make them a lot better.” Hezbollah is urging Lebanon to not engage in direct talks with Israel and pledges to not abide by any deals made.  JD Vance, following a failed first round of negotiations with Tehran says the ball is in their court for compromise and concession, with Iran hinting it may accept a five year moratorium on nuclear research, counter to American demands a two-decade suspension.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ)

 

fourteen years ago: the new Great Game plus an impossible typeface

 

fifteen years ago: bad faith Big Ed plus antique hunting

 

sixteen years ago: a rival tablet computer, reversing a mandate to replace old traffic signs plus a satirical recall of the US flag

trust in chariots (13.348)

In a semi-annual tradition, a consortium of international literary bloggers gets together online to champion books published in a given year—this time for the class of 1961, a pivotal range that bridges the transition from relatively conformist writing of the 1950s and anticipate the coming counter-cultural movements of the decade ahead. Neglected Books features an array of titles from the club for one’s reading enjoyment and edification, but not the necessarily the timeless classics, which also might merit reevaluation and reflections through a fresh reading, like JD Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” Solaris by Stanislav Lem, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Gabriel Garcia Márquez’ No One Writes to the Colonel, etc, and rather the more obscure and forgotten ones, like the titular work by Thomas Savage, a later travelogue by acclaimed the acclaimed author of The Power of the Dog, whose prose was sadly only afforded the moment before consigned to obscurity to be revived as a belated cinematic adaptation—the story informed Annie Proulx’ Brokeback Mountain. Though not a part of the webring myself, if I were to nominate a title for the book club, maybe I would choose the novella The Curious Sofa by Edward Gorey (published under the anagrammatical pseudonym Ogdred Weary) and subtitled as “a pornographic illustrated story about furniture. Whilst portraying nothing explicit, there is a great deal of suggestive innuendo, in turn inspiring other fictions with a kernel of truth. The German translation was banned in Austria on the grounds that it promoted lustfulness and misleading sex-drive for youths. What titles would you recommend from 1961? More at the links above.