Everyday Footnotes

"If you’re not from Boston you may not be familiar with a man who lived on the streets of Allston..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:49:43 -0400

“If you’re not from Boston you may not be familiar with a man who lived on the streets of Allston named Mr.Butch. He’s dead now, but during college until his passing in 2007 he was a reliable, eccentric, larger than life character who invaded your day when you least expected it. Original Moog/Guitarist Matt Brown and I were putting up flyers in Allston one evening when Mr.Butch approached us. “Just tape the top of the poster,” he explained, “and let the bottom fly free. Let it wave. So people walk by it, see it flapping, and go ‘what the fuck?’ Then you got people at your show.” We did and it worked!”

- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Trashcan liner notes http://hallelujahthehills.com/portrait/notes.html

I’m not aware of a better way to spend today’s cubicle time than listening to Hallelujah...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:38:07 -0400

I’m not aware of a better way to spend today’s cubicle time than listening to Hallelujah The Hills new album (http://open.spotify.com/album/1Tv6JULJSILBymJDTQAaCk) while reading the delightful album notes (http://hallelujahthehills.com/portrait/notes.html).

The Hitler dream

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:26:00 -0400

My mom says, “We went to see a comedian with the group from the temple. He comes on stage and says, I’m Benny Hitler. I could’t believe it. I think it’s going to be a joke but he never mentioned it again. No one laughed.”

“He has nerve,” says dad.

“If he’s somehow related to Hitler, that’s bad enough, but why wouldn’t he change his name?” says mom.

My dad says, “I’ve never been so offended in my life. Six million Jews die and I have to sit there and listen to Hitler?”

“So what did you do?” I ask.

“What could we do? I said we should walk out but your father didn’t want to make a scene.”

“Was Hitler funny?”

“Very funny but that’s not the point.”

Noah's Ark & Michael Curtiz

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:09:21 -0400

Noah’s Ark is a 1928 American early romantic melodramatic disaster film directed by Michael Curtiz (who won the Academy Award for directing Casablanca).

During the filming of the climactic flood scene, the great volume of water used was so overwhelming that three extras drowned, one was so badly injured that his leg needed to be amputated, and a number suffered broken limbs and other serious injuries, which led to implementation of stunt safety regulations the following year. Dolores Costello caught a severe case of pneumonia.

Bette Davis refused to work with Michael Curtiz again after he called her a “goddamned nothing no good sexless son of a bitch”; he had a low opinion of actors in general, saying that acting “is fifty percent a big bag of tricks. The other fifty percent should be talent and ability, although it seldom is”.

Late Barthes

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:14:16 -0400

In 1977, Roland Barthes’ mother, Henriette, died, aged 85. They had lived together for 60 years.

On 25 February 1980, Roland Barthes was knocked down by a laundry van while walking home through the streets of Paris. One month later he succumbed to the chest injuries sustained in that accident.

1957: Replica of the Mayflower entering New York harbour.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:05:58 -0400

1957: Replica of the Mayflower entering New York harbour.

Boilerplate

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:15:25 -0400

“Boiler plate” originally referred to the maker’s label used to identify the builder of steam boilers.

In the field of printing, the term dates back to the early 1900s. From the 1890s onwards, printing plates of text for widespread reproduction such as advertisements or syndicated columns were cast or stamped in steel ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. They came to be known as ‘boilerplates’. Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation’s largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union.

Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written.

Video

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:45:44 -0400

Pope's Nose

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:32:17 -0400

The pygostyle is the main component of the structure colloquially known as parson’s nose, Pope’s nose, or sultan’s nose. This is the fleshy protuberance visible at the posterior end of a bird (most commonly a chicken or turkey) that has been dressed for cooking.

“Pygostyle” is of Ancient Greek origin, literally meaning “rump pillar”.

The phrase “parson’s nose”, from the notion that an English parson may ‘have his nose in the air’, upturned like the chicken’s rear end. The term must have been known as early as around 1400 AD, when a carpenter had been contracted to provide new choir stalls for St Mary’s Church, Nantwich. The vicar was either slow to pay the artisan, or did not pay at all. In retaliation, on the last misericord in the stalls, the carpenter carved a bird with an image of that Vicar’s face with protuberant nose as rump. The carving is still visible today.

A similar derivation applies to the phrase “Pope’s nose”, which may have originated as a derogatory term meant to demean Catholics in England during the late 17th century.

"You can turn on your phone on in Green Bank, W.Va., but you won’t get a trace of a signal. If you..."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:43:25 -0400

“You can turn on your phone on in Green Bank, W.Va., but you won’t get a trace of a signal. If you hit scan on your car’s radio, it’ll cycle through the dial endlessly, never pausing on a station. This remote mountainous town is inside the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000–square-mile area where most types of electromagnetic radiation on the radio spectrum (which includes radio and TV broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks, cell signals, Bluetooth, and the signals used by virtually every other wireless device) are banned to minimize disturbance around the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, home to the world’s largest steerable radio telescope. For most people, this restriction is a nuisance. But a few dozen people have moved to Green Bank (population: 147) specifically because of it. They say they suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or EHS—a disease not recognized by the scientific community in which these frequencies can trigger acute symptoms like dizziness, nausea, rashes, irregular heartbeat, weakness, and chest pains.”

- http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/04/green_bank_w_v_where_the_electrosensitive_can_escape_the_modern_world.html

"The new Chaplin film is much more important. People actually fought for entrance the other night at..."

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:21:28 -0400

“The new Chaplin film is much more important. People actually fought for entrance the other night at the opening. They applauded all during the picture, and half the house was prostrate with laughter when it was over. Marcel Duchamp brought a whole boxful of friends and the whole crowd comically went through the ceremony of wringing out their handkerchiefs after having tried in vain to dry their tears of joy.”

- October 5, 1925 Letter From Paris, New Yorker.
(Reference probably to The Gold Rush)

“Stay” was written by Maurice Williams in 1953 when...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:30:32 -0400

“Stay” was written by Maurice Williams in 1953 when he was 15 years old. He had been trying to convince his date not to go home at 10 o’clock as she was supposed to. In 1960, the song was put on a demo by Williams and his band, the Zodiacs. The song was re-recorded with one line, “Let’s have another smoke,” removed in order for the song to be played on commercial radio. “Stay” remains the shortest single ever to reach the top of the American record charts, being only 1 minute and 37 seconds long.

Pseudonymous Don DeLillo novel. 1980

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:23:10 -0400

Pseudonymous Don DeLillo novel. 1980

microecos: From Animal World in Color, Volume 8 - Hunters:...

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:02:22 -0400

microecos:

From Animal World in Color, Volume 8 - Hunters: Birds, Fish, and Amphibians, edited by Maurice Burton, Childrens Press: Chicago, 1969 via Radigan Neuhalfen.

fsgbooks: David Foster Wallace’s postcard to Don DeLillo,...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:33:52 -0400

fsgbooks:

David Foster Wallace’s postcard to Don DeLillo, courtesy of Electric Literature:

9-1 (CARDS WERE GIFTS–NO OFFENSE INTENDED)

DEAR D², I AM NOW A LICENSED CA DRIVER, WHICH FROM THE SENSE I GET IS OFFICIAL STATE-CITIZENSHIP IF ANYTHING HERE IS. THERE IS A PALM TREE IN MY BACK YARD THAT’S 11 1/2 FEET AROUND. A BRICK SHITHOUSE OF A PALM TREE. ¶ THANK YOU FOR YOUR NOTE. I HAVE NOT YET READ THE GADDIS, BUT I’M IN CONTACT WITH FRANZEN, WHO’S APPARENTLY BEEN CHARGED THE TASK OF A COMPREHENSIVE GADDIS PIECE BY THE NYer, AND IS ‘STRUGGLING’ WITH IT. ¶ THIS BLOODY MENGENLEHRE BOOK (IT INTIMIDATES ME THAT YOU KNOW THIS TERM) TURNS OUT NOT TO BE DONE — BOTH THE MATH-EDITOR AND THE GENERAL EDITOR WANT REPAIRS — OFTEN THEIR DEMANDS ARE MUTUALLY CONTRADICTORY. I WILL END UP HAVING SPENT 11 MONTHS FULL-TIME ON A PROJECT I’D PLANNED TO KNOCK OFF PART-TIME IN 4. I NEVER WANT TO SEE ANOTHER FOURIER SERIES AS LONG AS I LIVE. ¶ I’D LOVE A CHANCE TO EYEBALL YR. NEW NOVEL IF YOU DON’T OBJECT. AND I HOPE VALPARAISO IS IN GOOD HANDS WITH THE TROUPE.

Y.V.T.
DAVID WALLACE

Photo

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:00:06 -0500

"Robert Greene [the hack writer of the 1590s] may best be remembered for an avian put-down of his..."

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:37:37 -0500

“Robert Greene [the hack writer of the 1590s] may best be remembered for an avian put-down of his young rival Shakespeare, whom he called “an upstart crow.” Almost as notoriously, Greene died of a surfeit of pickled herrings.”

- Ricky Jay, Celebrations of Curious Characters

"In the thirteenth century a noblewoman who slept under a picture of a beast subsequently gave birth..."

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:58:44 -0500

“In the thirteenth century a noblewoman who slept under a picture of a beast subsequently gave birth to a child with ursine fur and claws. A “solution” was instituted by Pope Martin IV. He decreed that all pictures and sculpture of bears in Rome be destroyed.”

- Ricky Jay, Celebrations of Curious Characters. Jan Bondeson, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities.

"You still do not understand. I am going to put it as simply as possible. They of the solar side saw..."

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:27:53 -0500

“You still do not understand. I am going to put it as simply as possible. They of the solar side saw heliocentrically what you saw geocentrically, and unless these two aspects are somehow combined, I, the visualized object, must keep shuttling in the universal night.”

- Nabokov, Bend Sinister

The Cultural History of Chicken, Chapter 913 Founded in 1955 by...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:09:00 -0500

The Cultural History of Chicken, Chapter 913

Founded in 1955 by Friedrich Jahn in Munich, Weinerwald restaurant rapidly grew up to Europe’s largest chain of fast-food restaurants. In more than 1600 restaurants throughout Europe in 1978, they mainly sold rotisserie chicken and other chicken products. In 1978, Wienerwald purchased the 273-restaurant Lum’s chain from former Kentucky Fried Chicken owner John Y. Brown, Jr. The chain’s inability to market themselves as a provider of good tasting chicken, (rather than overcoming the US misconception that “Wienerwald” was a hot dog chain), plus their huge growth in 1978 brought enormous debts. Many of the restaurants in the USA and Europe were forced to close; Wienerwald declared bankrutpcy in 1982, divesting itself of its 880 restaurants in the United States. As of 2005 there were only 63 restaurants left in Germany and Austria.