say do you remember (12. 748)

 It’s that time again. Love was changing the mind of pretenders while chasing the clouds away—see previously here and here. Don’t forget to put out a plate of cookies for Earth, Wind and Fire tonight.

 

television dreams of tomorrow—we’re not the one you’re meant to follow (12. 747)

On this day in 2004, Green Day released their seventh studio album—their first in four years—American Idiot, an overtly political and socially critical record, the tracks, especially the title one, expresses the disillusionment and decent of a generation whose prospects were informed by 9/11 and the resulting forever wars. A telling of the gospel of Jesus of Suburbia, a precarious working-class anti-hero figure, the suite of songs were put together as a concept album for a punk rock opera, taking inspiration from Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Charting worldwide, it was also against the media apparatus, which in the band’s view had crossed from journalism to sensationalism and reality TV, glorified violence of combat in Iraq intercut with advertisements. An enduring protest song, lyrics have been subtly updated from redneck to “I’m not a part of the [MAGA/ELON] agenda” and “subliminal mind-Trump America.” Wake me up when September ends.

10x10 (12. 746)

the dominator model continues to run the world: Lydia Lunch’s timeless feminist manifesto 

jut: a new way to measure the magnitude and magnificence of mountains—via Metafilter  

and i’m floating in the most peculiar way: a cover of Major Tom by Magdalena Bay—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links  

bequest: an assortment of old customs and curious donations and charities 

red noise: the French musical underground’s decade of synths and situationists—via { feuilleton }  

𒀾: writing lessons in Cuneiform  

being of sound minds and body: collection of captivating wills and last testaments—via Strange Company  

you’ve really made the grade: a scroll through the archives of David Bowie  

pathfinder: a look into the inner-workings of Google Maps  

me and bobbie mckee: the forgotten inspiration for the gender-swapping ballad of Kris Kristofferson and Janis Joplin—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Weird Al parodies Bob Dylan with palindromes (with synchronopticæ) plus more gerrymandering

twelve years ago: a possible clue to hidden Nazi loot hidden on sheet music 

fourteen years ago: the Pope comes home to Germany 

fifteen years ago: GMO salmon 

forced perspective (12. 745)

Interested in the ways brains process visual information and the influence of context and frame of reference, psychologist Jules Beuchet first described his eponymous chair illusion in the mid twentieth century, and while popular for museum installations and retaining the effect in photographs unlike some others (see also here and here), we learn that the compelling dissonance, accidentally exemplified by this image of the giant Bidens with the tiny Carters without set up—courtesy of Futility Closet—we discover a new, more portable technique for disabusing this trick, staged easier with a tripod, a miniature frame and piece of upholstery, requiring much less space and focal length to achieve the result.

an irwin allen production (12. 744)

Very much enjoying these tales of recycled props and sets (see previously here and here), we were thrilled that not only did the author get to see his namesake disaster flick on the big screen for the first time, that cinematic experience allowed him pinpoint the provenance of elements of the decor.  The golden panels that clad the walls of the cruise ship’s mess were repurposed from Cleopatra, and feature Egyptians and hieroglyphics although the boat is named the SS Poseidon after the Greek sea god for a bit of mixed mythology. The skylight “ceiling” of the ballroom is also the backdrop of the Harmonia Gardens number featured in Hello Dolly!—both the Taylor and Streisand films being a huge expense for the studios, it made sense to do some double-dipping. Much more from Poseidon’s Underworld at the link above.

readout (12. 743)

Whilst transcripts of the telephone call between Trump and President Xi of China emphasis progress on trade amid the American tariff war, curbing the supply of fentanyl and the divesture of TikTok in order to stop a ban on the popular social media platform, the released summaries failed to make any mention Taiwan, and given the timing of the reported decision for a pause in US aid and weapons sales to Taipei, it is feared that US dropping its support—a “temporary tactical concession”—for neighbouring Republic of China is being used as leverage for open markets and better positions Beijing to annex the break-away island which has long enjoyed American backing over symbolic promises like to quell the flow compounds that can be used to make drugs.

synchronoptica

one year ago: residential fire safety (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus anti-social media

twelve years ago: the constellation of Nintendo games 

thirteen years ago: smear campaigns, wine pairings plus the banner of the Sámi people

fourteen years ago: EU monetary policy 

fifteen years ago: regulating speech on the internet 

sixteen years ago: yearbook yourself 

9x9 (12. 742)

admissible evidence: AI translations of animal vocalisations in the court room and other assorted legal stupidity  

mulholland drive: the Mid-Century Modern estate of David Lynch (previously) in the Hollywood Hill is up for sale  

happy blogoversary: Damn Interesting turns twenty 

õhuruum: more incursions of Russian fighter jets into NATO airspace, this time over Estonia—see previously  

⠝⠕⠍⠕⠎: overcoming wartime injuries that took both his sight and hands, a Greek youth taught himself to read Braille with his tongue and became a lawyer 

ministry of public enlightenment and propaganda: from the wires, 4 February 1939  

phlegmatic: the ancient origins of personality typing  

yawaraka jazz: an individual in Japan expertly DJs their collection of vintage vinyls with no commercial interruptions—via Web Curios 

feme covert, feme sole: Brigitte Macron, wife of the French president and whole human being in her own right, has agreed to provide scientific evidence to a US court to prove that she is biologically female from birth—via the New Shelton wet/dry

this week tonite (12. 741)

Via Super Punch, we glean this little fact of television heritage and show-DNA, though mindful that this is the news and crisis that the US administration wants us to be talking about rather than war, trade, financial misdeeds or sex-crimes: Live! hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel debuting in January of 2003 was the mid-season replacement for Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect when ABC (under its then newly acquired parent corporation of Walt Disney) cancelled the late-night panel show after the moderator took exception with US foreign policy and with the characterisation by the Bush government that the 9/11 terrorists were “cowards”—“although terrible people,” they were not cowards, “What was cowardly, Maher rebuked, “was America’s relationship with the rest of the world.” Too soon perhaps but far from a full-throated endorsement of al Qaeda, causing complaints to roll in and advertisers retreat from the programme. Of course back then, there was also no coercion from hypocritical government officials to self-censor editorialising or free-speech.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Oscars of US government workers (with synchronopticæ), getting to philosophy, Israel attacks Hezbollah with booby-trapped walkie-talkies plus sinkholes and megaslumps

thirteen years ago: a theme song for a blog plus auditory cues

fourteen years ago: Germany’s Pirate Party 

fifteen years ago: Moore’s Law and quantum computing 

seventeen years ago: a turn in the weather