Buckets of snow fall on Australian ski fields as cold front lingers
“America is a Gun,” Brian Bilston
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
Bohemia, Pilsner beer in hand.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
Dr Cope’s special day
Benjamín Labatut profile
In The Guardian Sam Leith has a profile of the We Cease to Understand the World1-author, in ‘People say my book gave them a panic attack’: When We Cease to Understand the World author Benjamín Labatut.
The Slow-Motion Heist Of Pre-Columbian Antiquities From A Fort Worth Storeroom
A diligent bookkeeper of coital encounters, Sylvia Plath kept careful track of her dalliances. To what end?... more »
New Books
The history of taste. No work of art, even so-called classic, is timeless. Every age finds its own style... more »
Essays & Opinions
Is a public philosophy still possible? Don’t confuse intellectual titillation with the examined life... more »
Out of the shadows
So, we’re now secure. Apologies for what might well have been several months of downtime for many readers. The mysteries of secure sockets, certificates, caches and domain records has hopefully been sorted by the good people at Nethosted, leaving us with a mighty backlog of links (as always).
On to the links and the thinking. The rising tides of slop are creating a ‘zombie internet’ / half of this post could be given over to AI-bashing, but let’s try not to just in case the bots read things too. Nevertheless, our slow descent into AI mush continues apace, even though (right now), it seems obvious that current AI toys struggle hard with practical applications, invoking schadenfreude rather than sympathy. Clippy gets spliced with Deep Thought and power consumption, protocols and thoughts of unwanted consequences go out the window(s). We can remember it for you wholesale!, Microsoft promises, fingers firmly crossed behind their sweaty backs.
All the while, a Johansson-a-like whispers sweet synthetic nothings into your ear. What will happen when the new era of total recall collides with the oodles of dross shovelled at us by online retail platforms: Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here’s how they get made. See also Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins / a glitch in the matrix of online, or why online shopping is a complete nightmare / more wretched retail: Super Cute Please Like, the not so shiny world of Shein.
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Other things of a (mostly) less insidious nature. An interview with Erno Rubik to celebrate the half century of the eponymous cube / a new map from Herb Lester Associates, ‘Facts concerning H.P.Lovecraft and his environs‘ / Out of the Shadows / How the occult bewitched London art / Reign in Blood / Losange Magazine, for Renault enthusiasts old and new, featuring vehicles like this wonderful 1956 camper / a great big collection of National Geographics / Unwrapping the Terry’s Chocolate Apple.
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Technology. A Floppy Disk MIDI Boombox: The Yamaha MDP-10, at Nicole.Express / a truly massive speaker / VEEB Projects bring old clocks back to life, amongst other things / Rocket Man No More, the rarest Boba of them all / Map Happenings, a blog about the mapping industry / Cybertruck moaning / The Forbidden Toys, alt plastic entertainments / I Never Could Get the Hang of Thursdays, a book about the Hitchhiker’s Guide radio show / the final edition of Electronic Plastic
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Music. Farewell, Steve Albini. Another obituary. An excellent Oral history of Shellac / The Loft, Live at the Moth Club / skip a few decades: interviews with Ride and the Mary Chain / the pioneering women of shoegaze / a look back at Hex by Bark Psychosis / Cindy Lee’s new album, Diamond Jubile / a colossal selection of drum loops / Your Community Hub, a new release from Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan / Andrew Womack finds great new music / Reverb, a new show at 180 Strand, London / Robert Parkin takes videos of gigs / music by Obfusc / the 50 best post-rock albums / sort of related, Mastery Bridges & The New Rise of Offsets / scroll down for Francis Bourgeois’ commuter playlist.
Art. ‘Of Nudes, a Peeled Orange, and a Loaf of Challah: What I’ve learned about Instagram and the suppression of figurative art’ / art by Sarah Hamilton / art by Graham Little / geometric art by Morgan Echols / an essay on Paul Nash and death from the sky / a guide to the best pizza in Milan / the typewriter-powered art of Raffaella della Olga / a selection of photography by Vivian Maier / collages by Jess Stone / art by Space Goose / some thoughts on the art of framing / Nothing Personal – The Back Office of War Book, a photographic study of arms fairs / art by Leonie Boss / Beautiful plotted paths by Florian Markus / illustrations by Iris Hatzfeld / The Photo Registry, a tumblr (tumblr! Remember those?).
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Architecture. Snarky but on the nose assessment of car-branded residential skyscrapers / the Rural Indexing Project, via Meanwhile, which also pointed us in the direction of Owen D.Pomery’s excellent KIOSK / the Twentieth Century Society is saving dinosaurs / why has a £40m property in North London failed to sell for over four years? “It is quite idiosyncratic, the décor. Therefore, it needs someone to understand it, to appreciate it — and to pay for it.” / domage, zéro étoile pour Daniel Daggers / the concept of ‘Storyliving by Disney’ at the town of Cotino. Prediction: in the future, lots of people will live in branded cities. Wainwright weighs in.
Ron’s Place, Birkenhead, a piece of living outsider art (could Disney do this?) / The inaccessible and abandoned islands of New York / The beauty of concrete, or the economics of ornament / drone views of London / skateboarding with Alvar / some more ludicrous and depressing Line news / a visual explainer of container ships / mid-century musings: That mysterious font is Festive, not Stymie / What ever happened to mass design? / the function of colour in public buildings / the Lucky Dice Cabinet by Diederik Schneemann.
A Thousand Suns, online short sci-fi movie series / a review of Dorian Lynskey’s Everything Must Go / a collection of short online 3D games by Little Workshop(via MeFi / Riviera Style, a visit to MIPIM in Cannes / Astana, new writing about architecture from a South Asian perspective / hopefully it won’t be another two months before we