8x8 (13. 955)

highland refusal: an open letter to the NYT crossword editor about Orkney Scots, the canonical home of Groundskeeper Willie, and the problem of other dialectical misappropriation—via Web Curios  

sweet are the uses of adversity: Trump’s downfall through the lens of Shakespeare’s As You Like It 

stay in your lane: a bizarre 1970 animated short about how daily routines strip us of our individuality  

grands magasins dufayel: monumental Parisian department (the Palace of Novelty, the first offering consumer credit) store hidden in premium office space  

taking it in stride: the mechanics of walking are working against shoe-laces with every step—see also  

pivot table: Maria Tomazou made a “pointless” film in MS Excel—see previously here and here—via Waxy 

the ugly car that sucks has died: Elon Musk, following his half a billion wasted interfering with Texas politics, announced the discontinuation of Cybertruck production—see previously, see also  

banderole: audio, video, disco means I here, I see, I learn in Latin—a nice personal motto (from “mutter”) or slogan (from the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm for “battle cry”—which comes at the top of a heraldic achievement whilst a motto goes at the bottom)

rout of office replies are turned on (13. 954)

Our friend folk-singer Jesse Welles, previously—courtesy of Nag on the Lake, has some thoughts on the US midterm elections now that we’ve had some time to collectively reflect on the implications of this flip in the political landscape in America unseen since the aftermath of Watergate, too big to deny—even for Trump. “Who would’ve ever thought Iran would go and change out our regime?” The rebuke was driven not just by the hostility towards Black and Brown people, the disdain for the electorate and America’s allies, the corruption and self-enrichment, the monuments to his ego, the dismantling of the administrative state, the affordability crisis exacerbated by tariffs and an unconscionable war of choice, a slate of awful candidates the president supported but also the disillusionment many sobered up to in the MAGA movement. Though their power is limited in a divided government, we hope the Democrats can deliver on a mandate that goes beyond negative partisanship (voting against rather than for) and are not just saddled with taking the blame for the messes that GOP created and perpetuate the cycle of hard swings back to the right. The US is starting to get this sorted and should be proud to have corrected course (to relief of everyone, except perhaps the puppet-masters and parasites who hang their hopes on useful idiots) but for now they are still on probation.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a dystopian novella from E M Forester (with synchronoptica), flight safety and the US government shutdown, more AI blind-spots plus a compendium of English nonce words

two years ago: Germany’s coalition government faces collapse, an archive of military uniforms, America’s first Red Scare plus assorted links worth the revisit 

three years ago: Operation Able Archer (1983), Ukraine to change the date on which Christmas is observed plus a gallery of bad Jane Austen book covers

five years ago: a documentary on picking the wrong venue, a bombing in the US capitol plus the Riace bronzes

six years ago: your daily demon: Bifrons,  awaiting US election results, the collection point for cataloguing art looted by the Nazis plus the first female US vice-presidential candidate announced

seven years ago: an unused deck of tarot cards by Salvatore Dalí

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit, Nixon’s concession speech (1962) plus more from the Center for American Politics and Design

 

day two hundred forty two (13. 953)

Qatari Sheikh Al Thani urges Tehran and Washington to reach a peace deal immediately and not wait for the perfect moment as more US ballistics strike Qeshm island. Following Israel’s inconclusive elections, president Isaac Herzog faces decision on which camp gets to make the opening attempt to form a government, Netanyahu or opposition leader Eisenkot. The unconvincing narrative on the Iran war costing his party control of congress, Trump claims that the military intervention saved Israel from imminent destruction. Ghoul Stephen Miller replaces departing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Torrential rains flood displaced persons camps in Gaza. Saudi forces narrowly intercept a Houthi launched cruise missile over Riyadh. De-sanctioned diesel tankers from Russia have been diverted and are apparently no longer heading to US ports and are perhaps going to Havana to break the American embargo on the fuel-starved county. Moscow supplies Iran with ninety helicopter missile launchers. Buoyed up solely by irrational exuberance over Trump’s Super Intelligence, a major sell-off in the markets of AI stock sublimates trillions in valuations as tech companies foresee more regulations under a Democratic government in the US. A spate of bomb threats disrupt flights across Europe.

martini & rossi asti spumante (13. 952)

Our gratitude to Web Curios for encouraging us to delve deeper into de facto and de jure and de jour superficial topic of dilettantism to find it very resonant and feeling seen, in the same vein as I am a proud soi-disant vaguely Jesus-y bon vivant—a phrase I’ve apparently deployed several times—flaneur and how amateurish ought to be spared derision as something pure. Whilst at first glance as spectator in spectacle and ranked beneath experts and influencer underwritters, we weren’t sure than the term for a non-professional interest, though derived from the Latin for to take delight in, could be redeemed in a specialised, hyper-focused world, the dabbler’s fixation and curation is presented as an anti-hero, liberated, and the sort needed to buck preference and privilege from pigeon-holing to the pluralistic.

synchonopitica

one year ago: inflation factors (with synchroptica) plus Time Bandits (1981)

 

two years ago: Democrats concede

 

three years ago: DAK Industries Inc 

 

four years ago: assorted links to revisit, a Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes classic plus Gustavus Adolphus Day

five years ago: a classic from Cher plus more links to enjoy 

six years ago: clashes in the Gutenberg workshop plus even more links worth revisiting

seven years ago: the geometrical art of Lorentz Stöer

eight years ago: low-angle satellite imagery, Meet the Press,  recreating the Old Dutch Masters with packaging material plus an illustrated Roman iterarium

 

day two hundred forty one (13. 951)

Tehran, through Qatari intermediaries, reportedly sends a nuclear compromise to Washington for review whilst awaiting the seven original conditions as agreed in the MoU to be satisfied. The American president says that the rest of Iran may be destroyed with rebuilding taking a quarter of a century. Civil defence chief Gholamreza Jalali formulates an emergency economic plan in case of renewed Israeli-US aggression. The Revolutionary Guard asserts that any country helping or hosting American forces is a legitimate target. Midterm election results present a new calculus for the Knesset to build a coalition government, informing negotiations. Trump issues a reminder that he is still in charge, whilst Secretary of War Hegseth announces he is unimpeachable.

7x7 (13. 950)

elder gods: the menacing Neo-Pagan illustrations of Marian Wawrzenski 

random walk: the digits of pi—see previously here and here and here  

the greater trumps: the supernatural thrillers of Charles Williams and their cover art by Jim Lamb 

l.a. law: court sketches from Parisian magistrates—see also 

third place: Chinese Starbucks franchises announce a purchase requirement for hanging out and enforces a no loitering policy 

never tell me the odds: a scifi short in which a stranded rebel tries to make his way back to friendly territory whilst contending with the nagging AI agent implanted in his brain  

die sammlung prinzhorn: a revisit of the Outsider Art of the Heidelberg mental institution—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Uptown Girl (with synchronoptica), US supreme court strikes down Trump tariffs plus a campaign to reduce food waste

two years ago: America votes, Trump and Guy Fawkes plus medieval produce in art 

three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, a word of the year: AI plus another MST3K classic

four years ago: the Gun Powder Plot, a Commodore accordion, more McMansion Hell plus a Wikipedia list of common fallacies

five years ago: the Saint Felix Flood (1530) 

six years ago: a tri-lingual dictionary (1499), a flashpoint labour strike (1916), a séance on a wet afternoon plus the Rebel Rabbit GIF

seven years ago: more on Guy Fawkes, Voyager 2 leaves the Solar System, ghoulish guacamole plus Facebook’s shift to the right

eight years ago: representative Shirley Chisholm, an ancient boardgame, photographer Denise Scott Brown, words for the Winter Blues plus mapping the US mid-terms

 

day two hundred forty (13. 949)

Stock markets surge and the price of oil plunges as Trump may now “be inclined” to end hostilities in Iran though the American president remains unwilling to accept defeat in his war of choice as Iran marks the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

The Supreme Leader dismisses the suggestion that the seismic shift in the US political landscape signals a significant change for hostilities but the new composition of congress could have net positives for geopolitics and marks a historical overturning not seen in generations if ever, with Georgia, Florida, Nevada and Wisconsin electing Black governors, New Mexico a Native American woman, and California and Texas with more firsts for female, LGBTQ and Muslim representation and many states and polities, particularly in the Midwest, like Kansas and Ohio, and the southern Sun Belt changing parties for the first time in decades and reversals unseen since the Reconstruction Era after the civil war. Democratic leaders reflect on what the dismantling of MAGA through elections means for their agenda and way forward once the new congress is sworn in.

copy shop (13. 948)

Through the lens of his 2001 short film—in correspondence with his next project, we are introduced to internationally acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Virgil Widrich considered a parable on the ease of duplication, with or without degradation and loss of fidelity, and identity at the cusp of the digital age. After a copy shop employee accidentally photocopies hand, the machine, either through magic or malfunction, begin to reproduce fragments of his life that eventually result in the clerk encountering clones of himself until the entire world is populated by his imperfect duplicates. Whilst not an animated feature, the technique behind its production does traffic with cartoons and is a recursive statement, footage shot initially on a digital camera, edited and then printed frame-by-frame and re-filmed as a succession of photographs. Though using modern office equipment, mimeographs, carbon-paper and ditto machines, means of reproduction that involved the destruction of the original copy were living memories and the reel captures the misprints and breakdown over the course of the film—early days but also speaking to the nature of democratised self-publishing awash in repetition and derivatives, cheapening the value of the information, experience or artefact with inexact replicas. More from { feuilleton } at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Bayesian analysis of Mambo Number Five (with synchronoptica), patent pending plus NYC elects a new mayor

two years ago: Saint Carlo Borromeo plus reimagining Slaughterhouse Five 

three years ago: worthless NFTs redeemable as grocery store coupons plus leap seconds

four years ago:  the discovery of King Tut’s tomb (1922) plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: haikus on the Periodic Table plus a competition to replace Laocoön’s lost arm

six years ago: the folk etymologies of the hangover

seven years ago: a protest rally and ultimatum in East Berlin,  Pigovian subsidies plus the science of voting

eight years ago: back at the scent lab,  a love letter to the US Library of Congress plus more links to enjoy