► Let’s Work Together from William Shatner’s forthcoming blues album, with special guest Canned Heat…and special special guest, original Canned Heat member and amazing blues guitarist, Howard Mandel. ※ If this taste isn’t enough, you’ll be glad to know Shatner will soon be releasing not just one, but two new albums ※ On the other hand, if you need a palate cleanser, ► listen to Canned Heat’s original from their platinum album Future Blues ※ Even better, check out Wilbert Harrison’s ► 1962 original “Let’s Stick Together” or his reworked ► Top 40 version from 1969.
Withheld: July 19, 2020
People being yanked off public streets by unmarked federal law enforcement officers with no identification (because this isn’t the place and I assume the neckbeards addicted to the 2nd Amendment to form a militia will obviously be protecting these citizens) ☡ Princess Beatrice’s wedding (because who?) ☡ Baseball bans (because that’s a sport?) ☡ Twitter hack (because Breaking Bird isn’t bad) ☡ The [forced] opening of the American school (because eternal cravenness)
Responses: July 19, 2020
- Reader J.: “Under Milk Wood! Yay! ¶ Also Typography – katexic is always a treat. ¶ Loved the Parks/Manzotti link as well, but was sorry to see Manzotti devolve into externalist mysticism at the end.
- Reader M.: “…how fun about the weird fungi–I just today got word that, although not a botanist, I was able to contribute photos of two types of fungi, Shoehorn Oyster and Leafy Brain, to the Belle Island Species Count, a project that “aims to identify and track all living organisms observed on Belle Island in Kingston, Ontario. Besides its history and spiritual significance, this small piece of land provides home to great diversity of species. By documenting the biodiversity of the island we are hoping to improve its protection.”
- Reader S.: went on an illuminating journey…thanks so much for sharing! They write:
This morning, when reading katexic clippings I became intrigued by this “xanthic laugh” of Beckett. I was trying to find deeper the origins of this phrase – it seems he took it from the original phrase in French which is “rire jaune” (yellow laugh).
But where did “rire jaune” come from?
Then I stumbled upon an article in Le Figaro (typically, politically, a right-learning newspaper but occasionally worth a read for other content) and learned that (putting aside for a moment its positive symbolism in gold) “When the yellow is dull, it becomes on the contrary the symbol of evil, of sulfur, of hell and ultimately, of betrayal. “It is associated with adultery when the sacred bonds of marriage are broken, like the sacred bonds of divine love, broken by Lucifer,” notes the Dictionary of Symbols. Thus was born during the medieval era a whole mythology around the color yellow. An imagery of the evil one, notably reinforced by the biblical figure of Judas, whom painters and customs very often represented dressed in yellow.”
Also it seems that Jews, during the Spanish Inquisition, were made to dress in yellow, a symbol of heresy and betrayal, according to Claude Duneton in “La Puce à l’oreille”…
As for the original expression, “rire jaune”, Duneton attests the locution at Oudin in 1640. He writes: “He laughs yellow like flour.” Flour does not refer here to food, but to “concealers” in slang, says Georges Planelles. It eventually becomes an expression that refers to a sort of hypocritical laugh.
And then suddenly, “xanthic laugh” made more sense.
So thanks for the little journey your katexic sent me on this morning!
Newsletter! July 19, 2020
“big pulp” – The latest newsletter is hitting email inboxes right now, featuring: Yaa Gyasi, friable, Hamilton, circular, quarantined hippies, boobslang, old food, new cakes, ice cream day, Shatner, Grey Gardens and more! Subscribe today to get it all before everyone else.
XLV (Pablo Neruda)
XLV
Is the yellow of the forest
the same as last year’s?
And does the black flight
of the relentless seabird repeat itself?
And is where space ends
called death or infinity?
What weighs more heavily on the belt,
sadnesses or memories?
—Pablo Neruda (translated by William O’Daly)
—found in The Book of Questions (1974; this translation 1991)
xanthic
xanthic · /ZAN-thik/ · /ˈzanθɪk/. adjective. Yellow or yellowish in color. A class of organic acids containing sulphur. From Greek xanthós (yellow). See also: Xanthippe, Socrates’ wife, now generally a scolding, nagging woman; canary; saffron; flaxen; fulvous; flavescent.
[Read more…]Links: July 12, 2020
- A great online exhibit → Creative Black Music at the Walker ※ Support Black artists: The Black Artist Fund
- A BLM protest goes bad → What Happened In Bethel, Ohio? ※ Ahmaud Arbery will not be erased ※ The Long Walk
- Fast but not fair is a good characterization → Why algorithms can be racist and sexist ※ For respite after that sobering read, here are some LOLfunny AI (well ML) examples from Janelle Shane:Court Cases // All your questions answered // Escape Rooms // Candle Scents + Candle Scent Descriptions
- Just watch Hamilton, even if you are allergic to all things hyped. I was fortunate to see it twice onstage and I can’t express how much I loved it → Hamilton on Disney+: Why we’ll never stop fighting about this brilliant, frustrating musical – Vox ※ Debating ‘Hamilton’ as It Shifts From Stage to Screen (NYT) ※ A fascinating exploration from an unexpected source: How does ‘Hamilton,’ the non stop, hip-hop Broadway sensation tap rap’s master rhymes to blur musical lines? ※ Everyone has a theory: Why Eliza Gasps at the End of Hamilton
- Why? → Why weed makes you laugh, according to science // Why time feels so weird in 2020 // Why a Struggling Rust Belt City Pinned Its Revival on a Self-Chilling Beverage Can // Why Literature Loves Lists // Why we can’t stop practicing physiognomy // Why Clocks Run Clockwise (And Some Watches And Clocks That Don’t)
- Boccaccio’s Decameron was a collection of 100 tales told in the voice of a group sheltering in place in Florence to escape the Black Plague. The New York times commissioned a modern day version with 29 authors writing short stories that are “inspired by the moment,” with authors from Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat to Victor Lavalle and Rivers Solomon → The Decameron Project ※ ► Listen to two of the stories ※ Rivka Galchen on The Decameron
- Time for a typography walk → Letterforms / Humanforms // The Alphabet Lithographs of Jean Midolle // Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men // The Last Word on the Ampersand
- I’m not trying to police your language. I’m trying to do better with mine. Some of these surprised me → Everyday words and phrases that have racist connotations
- Variety Pack → Creepy Fungus (dead man’s fingers and jelly ears) // ‘Please Scream Inside Your Heart’ // LOL Antique Road Show // Endangered California condors in Sequoia National Park for the first time in 50 years // The International Eraser Museum // Thread “Typography”
- Today in 1960, the Etch A Sketch—originally called the “L’Ecran Magique,” or Magic Screen—that two-knobbed (though initially outfitted with a joystick), aluminum plotting wonder toy, is unleashed on the world by the Ohio Art Company. Still sold today, the National Toy Hall of Fame member Etch A Sketch has not only outlived a wealth of competing toys, but also its own younger, modernized siblings, the Etch A Sketch Animator and the Etch A Sketch Animator 2000, with their fancy built-in digital screens. ※ In what now seems like a much simpler time, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign was victimized by the Etch A Sketch, leading to a memorable commercial. ※ In Breaking Bad (the television show, not Romney’s campaign), Walter White used an Etch A Sketch to burn the lock off a door. ※ You haven’t seen Etch A Sketch drawings until you’ve seen the amazing art by Nicole Falzone and others.
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