synchronoptica
one year ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate (with synchronopticรฆ)
thirteen years ago: the Venetian independence movement, more flea market finds plus twinned-towns
fourteen years ago: computer lab plus thirty-one days of Halloween
toastbusters: Florida woman relates the story of her demonically possessed appliance on nationally syndicated morning television in 1984
less cowbell: short-form AI generated videos flooding social media incite confusion, nihilism
hot stuff, hot postula: vintage American cheerleading calls and college yells
dob, doa: statically, one is slightly more inclined to die on one’s date of birth—via Nag on the Lake—see previously
ghost waltz: a Louie Zong spooky season tradition—see previously
in this economy: venerable coffee roaster—also under assault from tariff-pricing—changes its name to something more achievable
uav: mysterious drone sightings across Europe are signs of collective anxiety (see more) and echo the panic over Chinese spy balloons over North America
workplace etiquette: the story of the woman who xeroxed her bottom, becoming front page news
Beginning with comic books in mid-1970s Yugoslavia before working as a graphic designer for journals and political weeklies, we enjoyed this introduction to Mirko Iliฤ through a retrospective of his work, which would go on to include album art for the Croatian punk scene, Mรฉtal Hurlant, Marvel then TIME, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal as art director. Working with Milton Glaser (see previously), Iliฤ created the title sequence of You’ve Got Mail and presently in a teaching role has co-authored several books on the principles of design with Print magazine’s own Steven Heller. More of the artist’s work including several iconic covers at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: circumambulation (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a houseboat on the Havel
twelve years ago: the mysterious Codex Seraphinianus, US government shutdown plus universal basic income
thirteen years ago: the Bond franchise, dissecting partisan politics plus photographer Bastian Kalous
fourteen years ago: one-percenters plus travels in Ireland
fifteen years ago: terror threats across Europe
Although some polities issue currency bearing the obverse of their current reigning monarch, most including the United States of America and many others only impress images of departed historic contributors and presidents—the heretofore exception for the US being the commemorative coinage 
passed by congress in March of 1925 to feature portraits of the current incumbent Calvin Coolidge with George Washington for the sesquicentennial half-dollar to be sold to the public at a premium above their face value and much of the specie returned to the minters for reuse after disappointing reception (the one-hundred-fiftieth year celebration of the the nation’s founding also going down in the annals of the most poorly executed and received—see also). We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, people will puzzle over why so much ink was split over a has been, fascist country and their daily drivel. The draft engraving of the semiquincentennial dollar coin—introduced during the government shutdown—features images of Trump both on the obverse and reverse (perhaps inspired by Charles III on the new ten £ note after his recent visit) with the latter struck to match the defiant pose after his attempted assassination in Butler County Pennsylvania—already the iconography of his cryptocurrency.
synchronoptica
one year ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted (with synchronopticรฆ), an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt
twelve years ago: US government shut-down disrupts NASA projects plus capture houses and bait cars
thirteen years ago: more tarnished smiles
fourteen years ago: the Occupy Wall Street movement
fifteen years ago: reflections on twenty years of German unity
synchronoptica
one year ago: a banger from Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (with synchronopticรฆ), the Berlin Freedom and Unity monument plus thirty-one days of Halloween
thirteen years ago: ohaguro
fourteen years ago: flag-counters plus der Tag der Deutsche Einheit
synchronoptica
one year ago: The Taking of Pelham 123 (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a giant hybrid sheep
seventeen years ago: out-of-body experiences
First spied as we approached the campsite, we took a trip up to the Chรขteau du Haut-Koenigsbourg, the remains of a strategically located castle surveying the plains of the Upper Rhein below with views over Alsace extending to the Schwarzwald. Unknown when it was first built, the first documented mention predated the reign of Frederick Barbarossa in the tenth century, calling the fortification an illegally constructed incursion by the dukes of Swabia into French territory, and besieged during the Thirty Years’ War by Swedish Protestant forces in 1633, the burnt and abandoned outpost was left in ruin—the inspiring remnants subject of numerous romantic poets and painters over the ensuing centuries. Just after given the status of a monument historique by the Second French Republic, the region was taken over by the German Reich at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War as Elsaร–Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) with Kaiser Wilhelm II eager to solidify a sense of nationalism and unity through monument-building (see also) and entrusted the restoration of the ruin to architectural historian Bodo Ebhardt, whom had previously overseen the redevelopment of Veste Coburg, the Wartburg in Eisenach and many other projects—Edhardt himself called to his vocation growing up in Sankt Goarshausen. Completed in 1908, the work was inaugurated with an elaborate medieval re-enactment by the emperor present. Scenes from Jean Renoir’s 1937 La Grand Illusion were filmed there and a exact copy in of the castle and Colmar built in Malaysia outside of Kuala Lumpur and along with the canine-accessible Petite Kลnigberg—la Chรขteau de l’Oedenbourg along the apron walls it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in France.
Next we went to Kaysersberg (the Emperor’s Mountain, previously) on the eastern slopes of the Vosges range on the Route des Vins—one of the chief members of the Dรฉcapole (Zehnstรคdtebund) of Alsace within the Holy Roman Empire to maintain their status of imperial immediacy. Among the finest wine-growing regions, owing to vine stock originally from Hungarian roots, the pinot gris is a particular speciality. French-German polymath—theologian, philosopher, organist and physician, Albert Schweitzer, hails from here, whose 1906 Quest for the Historical Jesus informed Christian mysticism and eschatology. And although holding paternalistic views and accused by some of forwarding the idea of the White Man’s Burden, Schweitzer’s clinics in then colonial Gabon helped advance hygiene and medical care for all of Africa. The village and hike through the vineyards are dotted with his eponyms, including “Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing”—the so-called eponymous Effect for pedagogy for instilling trust for professional opinion through lived experience.
synchronoptica
one year ago: digital divinity (with synchronopticรฆ), ghost-writing, ambient music from a surveillance system plus up-selling
twelve years ago: reporting on the US government shutdown
thirteen years ago: DIY month, wine and cheese advertising, vintage community calendars plus the risks of the agriculture lobby
fourteen years ago: hidden messages in song lyrics
seventeen years ago: the fiscal new year
Whilst most attention was focused on Trump’s upstaging of the some eight hundred top generals and admirals from American military outposts from all over the world at great expense and distraction summoned to be presented a speech on warrior ethos that could have frankly been an email or at most a TEAMS virtual meeting only to then be lectured by the commander in chief regarding physical fitness of the force, woke- and fat-shaming the US military into a plaything exclusively by and for white, straight males with liberal bastions declared as training grounds, the federal government entered a shutdown after successive refusal by the Republicans to entertain negotiations over extending healthcare subsidies and defunding public broadcasting. 
The standoff preceded by congress blocking the swearing in of a Democratic representative from Arizona for fear of loosing the GOP‘s narrow margin and compelling the release of the Epstein files, replacing the official portrait of Joe Biden in the White House gallery with a crude picture of an auto-pen and continuing the violent vitriol against the radical left—out-of-office auto-replies are to specifically blame the opposition for the closure and lapse in nonessential services–a clear violation of the Hatch Act. The last significant shutdown lasting more than a few hours was during Trump’s first term in 2018 and 2019 when the government closed for thirty-five days
