syzygy

Given sufficiently clear and dark skies, one can avail oneself of a rare treat in the heavens tonight when six planets will appear to be in alignment. Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus and Saturn all visible, mostly to the unaided eye or with the help of a good pair of binoculars, not actually queued up but along the elliptical disk of the Solar System and happen to be on the same same side of the Sun as us, not in a straight line as in the case of opposition or eclipse but as a great arc as their orbits are only inclined by a few degrees. Time and Date had been a go-to source for me for calculating duration and day-count in between two dates but failed to appreciate that it also features a real-time planetarium based on one’s location as a tool to anticipate the rise of the worlds. If you can’t make this one, you get a second chance on the last day of February with Mercury joining in. Coming from the title from the Greek συζυγία or yoking together, this apparent astronomical union poses no threat to the Earth with a supposed collective gravitational tug (actual oppositions of the inner planets occur about every forty years and have no deleterious effects), as rumoured now and back in March of 1982 when an invisible Pluto made the count that would cause greater incidents of seismic activity or increase pressure on the Sun and result in sunspots and solar flares, with (for those counting) the next such grand lineup, albeit staggered, scheduled for 19 May 2161.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Saturday Night Fever (with synchronoptica), a stochastic parrot plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a minister of loneliness plus Project Crested Ice (1968)

eight years ago: Trump’s inaugural speech was not lifted from the Bee-Movie though it seemed plausible, more on the Europe right-wing plus speculation about a 2020 Zuckerberg candidacy

nine years ago: telephone booths as private raves plus more rogue exoplanets discovered

ten years ago: threat-com levels raised plus artist Rob Gonsalves

american carnage 2 (12. 166)

Don’t visit the official White House website. It’s been thoroughly trumpified already…

coming attractions (12. 197)

As a little preview for Tuesday’s apparent planetary alignment in case the weather isn’t cooperating tomorrow, in the predawn western skies of Germany, one can see, so far, Venus (♀—the Morning and the Evening Star due to its proximity to the Sun but at its most elongated orbit currently), Mars (♂—on the wane and appearing dimmer than the gas giant), Jupiter (♃), Uranus (⛢) and Saturn (♄) staggered along the great arc of the elliptical. 

Ideal views are expected to peak on the twenty-first of this month but can be seen for a few preceding days and for a few days afterwards. Consult local guides for the rise and setting of the planets and share what you see of our solar system.

crowd size (12. 196)

Marking the fiftieth US presidential inauguration, the second swearing-in of Ronald Reagan and deputy George H W Bush was, due to inclement weather conditions, a televised ceremony inside the capitol rotunda, organisers compelled to curtail the public event over sub-zero temperatures, cancelling parades and other fanfare. A repeat ceremony was held the next day in the venue of the Capital Centre basket ball stadium in the Maryland suburbs with attendance of the replacement event in the thousands as compared to the ninety-six that had shown up for the first one. High school bands that had travelled to DC to perform were rescheduled for a Memorial Day march held at Disney’s EPCOT theme park attended by Reagan.

synchronoptica

one year ago:Australia in infrared (with synchronoptica) plus epigraphic letters

 

seven years ago: US government shuts down due to a lapse in appropriations, “Things that Weaken the American” plus more nostalgia for the early internet

eight years ago: updating the chain of command portrait wall plus assorted links worth revisiting

nine years ago: the archetypal wild man, space blossoms plus more links to enjoy

ten years ago: unpegging the Swiss franc plus Japanese onomatopoeia

stablecoin (12. 195)

Whilst throughout history, one official currency has worked to solidify trust and confidence during periods of relative peace and a strong central authority, emperors would often mint their own coinage during times of upheaval and civil unrest with fortune and the passage of time being the ultimate arbiter of valuation and propagation. Hours before his inauguration for inexplicably a second term, the family crime syndicate launched $TRUMP, a memecoin that quickly rose to a market cap of some seven billion dollars fuelled by speculative investment. Despite a rudimentary, dodgy landing-page offering the crypto-currency for sale and lack of clarity as to the purpose of the token which almost definitely forebodes the bait-and-switch tactic of most of these operations once the purported value evaporates. A former critic of cryptocurrencies, calling Bitcoin an outright “scam,” Trump has come to embrace them as the tech sector broligarchs embraced his campaign. This pre-market development comes on the eve of the term of the Biden administration, having passed and enacted progressive policies that many millions have hung their hopes and fears to over a chance that we might globally advance the urgent fight to halt the climate catastrophe or that America could model ideals of equity and project democratic respect for national sovereignty but all those positions will be clawed back, with only some vapid and hollow magic beans as a consolation.

i guess it means there’s trouble until the robins come (12. 194)

Via tmn, we appreciated this corresponding pair of brief encounters that reporter Adam Nayman shares on the entertainment beat of departed director that strike one as about as Lynchian as it gets. The first exchange took place in a hotel room during the 2001 Toronto Film Festival with Mulholland Drive on the circuit and the creator holding a succession of interviews with various outlets. Asking an unvarnished question about the director’s intent that went unanswered, David Lynch delivered a quotable coda after the tape recorder had been switched off of “A thing is what it is—and that’s what it wants to be.” Retreating to a corner of the room after his allotted time was over, Nayman repeated it on tape so as not to forget but inadvertently mimicked Lynch’s cadence in doing so. Overhearing him, Lynch shot him a thumbs up. Five years later, Nayman secured a more extensive session with the release of Inland Empire over the phone, asking more seasoned and nuanced questions to draw out better responses. After it concluded, however, Nayman discovered to his horror that only one side of the conversation had been recorded, with a deafening lacuna present where the responses should have been, not dead air exactly but more “like the whirl of an overhead ceiling fan—or the roar of the ocean as heard through the cochlea of a bloody, discarded human ear” or like how a speech coach was hired to help with enunciation for The Man from Another Place for the lines of reverse-speech not knowing the actor playing the role, Michael J Anderson, a computer technician for NASA’s space shuttle mission control before his acting career, already knew how to talk backwards, having used it as a secret language in school—and in a panic called back Mr Lynch’s assistant to puzzle out the technical difficulties or repeat the interview. The assistant said that his schedule was full but placed Nayman on hold for an interminable length of time before finally returning to explain, “David says he’s sorry—he says that you can say that he said whatever you like, however you remember it is fine.” Lynch’s body of work is not just experiences, those films live with one for years and decades. Much more at The Ringer at the link above.

the man from another place (12. 193)

We enjoyed this appreciation of the soundscape of the filmography of transcended director David Lynch compiled by NPR correspondent Hazel Cillis. Covering Lynch’s own composition “In Heaven” from Eraserhead to the orchestral soundtrack to Dune (see previously), all tracks from Toto (the band best known for their hit “Africa”) except Brian Eno’s ambient contribution in the “Prophecy Theme” and all moody and atmospheric numbers in between, the playlist embodies the surreal and mysterious essence of the creator, especially in the use of standards to disabuse the audience from thinking they know what they’re hearing just because it’s familiar.

field recording (12. 192)

For COP16 held in Cali, Colombia back in October 2024, a team of scientist and musicians went an expedition to nature reserves across the country to sample the cries and calls of forty-one species of native birds, moneys and whales and transform the cacophony of animals sounds of one of the most biologically diverse places in the world into a natural version of the stirring national anthem, adapted from a 1850 poem set to music to celebrate the dissolution of Gran Colombia and the emergence of the independent nations of Colombia and Panama, whose lyrics unfortunately don’t reference this abundance of wildlife but do mention centaurs and the Battle of Thermopylae. Read more about its making and the environment of the host country from Smithsonian magazine at the link above.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: Eastern European vintage animation (with synchronoptica) plus the passage of different units of time

seven years ago: surveying 1950s Americans about the Cold War, unfolding tweetstorms, US dispensaries making their own generic versions of drugs plus Brexit commemorate stamps

eight years ago: defeating an internet censorship bill but speech is still under assault, psychic warriors plus legislating and/or

nine years ago: teletext pages plus the carillon of Oslo’s city hall honours recently departed musicians

ten years ago: Marilyn Monroe building drones plus AI card tricks