Quotulatiousness

April 10, 2020

“In Flanders Fields” – Sabaton History 062 [Official]

Filed under: Britain, Cancon, History, Media, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Sabaton History
Published 9 Apr 2020

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row.” These words, written by John McCrae in his famous war poem “In Flanders Fields”, immortalize death and dying in the Great War like only a few others. It is said, that shortly after the death of his dear friend, McCrae looked over the parapet and onto the battlefield once more. In all the mayhem, the smoke, the exploding shells and the dead bodies on the ground, he saw that the little red flowers, the poppies, still grew. After a strong wind, their pedals would fly across the field, and lay there strewn, like the blood that was shed by the soldiers that had to die there.

Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory

Listen to “In Flanders Fields” on the Album The Great War here:
CD: http://nblast.de/SabatonTheGreatWar
Spotify: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarSpotify
Apple Music: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarAppleMusic
iTunes: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarItunes
Amazon: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarAmazon
Google Play: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarGooglePlay

Watch the Official Lyric Video of “In Flanders Fields” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPgZn…

Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…

Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShop

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski
Maps by: Eastory – https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory

Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

Did the British Engineer the Yugoslavian Coup of March 1941? – WW2 Special Episode

Filed under: Britain, Europe, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

World War Two
Published 9 Apr 2020

As Hitler pressured Yugoslavia to join the Axis Powers, Britain tried to gain a Balkan ally. Then Yugoslavia did join then Axis… and then there was an anti-Axis coup in Yugoslavia. But just how much were the British involved in that coup? Let’s find out.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

David Stafford, “SOE and British Involvement in the Belgrade Coup d’Etat of March 1941”. In: Slavic Review 36:3 (1977) 399-419, https://www.cambridge.org/core/servic….

Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…
Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Daniel Weiss

Sources:
Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu
IWM HU 55505, D 4311, H 10922
FOTO:FORTEPAN / MZSL/Ofner Károly
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Portrait of Ronald Ian Campbell, courtesy National Portrait Gallery
Portrait of Frank Nelson, courtesy National Portrait Gallery
Digital Library of Slovenia

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
John Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

M1 Carbine: A Whole New Class of Weapon

Filed under: History, Military, USA, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 9 Apr 2020

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

https://www.floatplane.com/channel/Fo…

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

The United States developed the M1 carbine very quickly at the beginning of World War Two, once the German “blitzkrieg” made it clear that highly mobile enemy forces could threaten rear echelon troops in a modern war. The M1911 pistol was seen as a difficult weapon to use well, and a light carbine would offer much greater effectiveness with less training. It was estimated that 500,000 would be needed, and more than 6 million were eventually produced during the war. The M1 Carbine would equip drivers, artillery crews, mortar men, headquarters staff, paratroops, and many more.

The M1 Carbine was developed by Winchester, but they were not participants in the first round of trials, Instead, their design came about when Rene Studler (head of the Ordnance Department) saw Winchester’s “M2” rifle prototype, a lightweight .30-06 intended to compete with the M1 Garand. He urged them to scale it down for the light rifle trials then ongoing in 1941, and Winchester complied. The design used a Garand-like rotating bolt and a gas tappet system designed by David Marshall Williams for the .30-06 rifle. The new carbine was cobbled together in less than two weeks, and is a truly fantastic achievement.

Thanks to InterOrdnance / Royal Tiger Imports for providing this M1 Carbine for filming!

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85740

Char 2C – The World’s Biggest Operational Tank

Filed under: France, History, Military, Weapons, WW1, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Mark Felton Productions
Published 15 Nov 2019

Find out the unbelievable story of the biggest operational tanks in history – the French Char 2C, and their peculiar fate.

Help support my channel:
https://www.paypal.me/markfeltonprodu…
https://www.patreon.com/markfeltonpro…

Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the ‘Comments’ section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the ‘Comments’ section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.

Credits: YouTube Creative Commons; WikiCommons; Google Commons; Mark Felton Productions
Music: “Pursuit” and “Dogma” licenced to iMovie by Apple, Inc.

H/T to @AnonymousFred514 for the link.

April 9, 2020

The True Story of How WW2 Began | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1939 Part 3 of 3 I SEASON FINALE

Filed under: China, Europe, Germany, History, Japan, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

TimeGhost History
Published 8 Apr 2020

In this final episode of Season 1 of Between Two Wars we examine what caused the world to stand on the brink of total war in just two decades after the War to End All Wars. Events that end with three words through a phone line: “Grandmother is dead,” words that launch World War II.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Spartacus Olsson
Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Spartacus Olsson
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Sound design: Marek Kamiński

Sources:
From the Noun Project:
soldier By Wonmo Kang
coin stacks By emilegraphics

Colorizations by:
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
– Olga Shirnina
– Spartacus Olsson
– Daniel Weiss

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “Sophisticated Gentlemen” – Golden Age Radio
– “First Responders” – Skrya
– “Easy Target” – Rannar Sillard
– “The Inspector 4” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “Last Point of Safe Return” – Fabien Tell
– “Death And Glory 3” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “Split Decision” – Rannar Sillard
– “March Of The Brave 9” – Rannar Sillard
– “Mystery Minutes STEMS INSTRUMENTS” – Farrell Wooten
– “The Charleston 3” – Håkan Eriksson

Archive by Reuters/Screenocean http://www.screenocean.com

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

TimeGhost History
1 day ago
Dear friends, this is the 58th and final episode of the first season of Between 2 Wars. Almost exactly two years ago, when the first episode went live, on April 14, 2018 we were three people. We had not started the WW2 channel yet. The TimeGhost Army had less than 100 members, and we had no idea where we would end up. As it turned out, it has been a magnificent journey through twenty years of history.

We are now a team of around sixteen individuals working on three channels and publishing more than five historical videos per week. And this is thanks to all of you who have graced us by watching, liking, commenting, and joining the TimeGhost Army. And it is especially thanks to the now over 4,000 members of the TimeGhost Army and their faithful contributions that we are able to do this at all. Thanks to you all, we can add a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of perspective, and hopefully a little bit of sanity (and also a measure healthy insanity) to the world.

It’s especially in times like these that we feel blessed by your support, so that we can continue our mission of remembrance and education. So it is with humble gratitude and some pride that we deliver this season finale. With your participation we will keep marching on, and try to do even more, even better, and exciting historical content.

Thank you all!

Let’s make history!

Spartacus

Definition note: when we use the term Socialist we always use the academic and dictionary definition: an ideology that aims to abolish private ownership of capital, goods, and enterprise to transfer it to the collective for use rather than profit. The means to achieve that being a violent revolution. We do not use the popular US redefinition of the word that makes it mean something vaguely like “anything the government does.”

Lawrence of Arabia | Based on a True Story

Filed under: Britain, History, Media, Middle East, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Cynical Historian
Published 6 Nov 2015

The classic film Lawrence of Arabia, is one of the most beautiful movies of all time, but it has its flaws.
————————————————————
references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrenc…

http://www.wordandfilm.com/2013/08/wh…

http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-16…

most beautiful movies list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj73a…
————————————————————

LET’S CONNECT:
https://twitter.com/Cynical_History
————————————————————
wiki:
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O’Toole in the title role. It is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young are also highly acclaimed.
The film was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven in total: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography (Color), Best Art Direction (Color), Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film.

The film depicts Lawrence’s experiences in the Arabian Peninsula during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence’s emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army and his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes. As well as O’Toole, the film stars Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy.
————————————————————
Hashtags: #History #LawrenceOfArabia #WWI #Review #BasedOnATrueStory

April 8, 2020

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia – Victim of Circumstance? – WW2 Biography Special

Filed under: Europe, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 7 Apr 2020

A Serb royal with an English heart sounds pretty romantic, but the story of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia is far from it. Trapped by circumstance, he is forced to make decisions that go against his own personal beliefs and leave him condemned as a traitor.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Francis van Berkel
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Tom Meaden
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Carlos Ortega Pereira, BlauColorizations
Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…

Sources:
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
USHMM
IWM MH 26392

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Howard Harper-Barnes – “London”
Farell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

Belgian Model 1915/27 Improved Chauchat

Filed under: Europe, France, History, Military, Weapons, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 9 Dec 2019

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

The Belgian Army was the second to adopt the Chauchat automatic rifle, after the French. Almost all of Belgium was under German occupation during World War One, leaving Belgium significantly dependent on French aid for arms during the war. The initial Belgian purchases were standard 8mm Lebel CSRGs, but by 1917 Belgian engineers were working on a solution to convert the guns to the Belgian standard 7.65mm Mauser cartridge. This was completed by the end of the war, and the Chauchat remained a standard arm of the Belgian military after the war.

Work to improve the design continued, and an upgrades version was formally adopted in 1927. This included the 7.65mm conversion, with the best magazines made for any model of the Chauchat, as well as a series of dust covers to close off every hole in the gun (magazine well, ejection port, charging handle slot, and barrel shroud vents). The Belgians also replaced the original bipod with a much better type (similar to what they would use on the FN BAR), simplified the feed system, and added a tension latch to ensure reliable operation.

This new pattern of CSRG would be standard Belgian front-line armament until the FN BAR was adopted in 1930. The Chauchats were still in service with some units at the beginning of World War Two though, and saw service at that time.

Thanks to the Liege Arms Museum for access to film this for you! If you are in Belgium, definitely plan to stop into the museum, part of the Grand Curtius. They have a very good selection of interesting and unusual arms on display.

https://www.grandcurtius.be

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85704

QotD: Iliad, Odyssey, and Anabasis

Filed under: Books, Europe, Greece, History, Middle East, Quotations — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

I read the trio in the order listed above and the reading got better with each title.

The Iliad is epically epic, rendered in a stiff dactylic hexameter with many, many, many repeating phrases. Between “rosy-fingered dawn” and “the wine-dark sea,” Homer’s epithets lull the reader into a trance, which I suppose was the point in oral storytelling. As a result, the myriad battles and names start blending together.

But, man, those battles are brutal. The semi-divine soldiers are walking Cuisinarts, leading to lovely vignettes like this:

    Next Erymas was doom’d his fate to feel,
    His open’d mouth received the Cretan steel:
    Beneath the brain the point a passage tore,
    Crash’d the thin bones, and drown’d the teeth in gore:
    His mouth, his eyes, his nostrils, pour a flood;
    He sobs his soul out in the gush of blood.

Spoiler alert: Erymas didn’t make it. As you can see, I read the older translations of these works; the above is Alexander Pope’s translation. I wanted the feel of the original, so I didn’t hunt down the modern versions. All three books are decidedly un-“woke.”

For The Odyssey, I chose the Harvard Classics version translated by Samuel Butler. This epic was far more interesting (and fun!) than the grim, brain-splattered Iliad. Ulysses slides into a Mediterranean port, feasts on great food, charms exotic women, grabs a pile of loot, and is off to the next isle.

Granted, the fellow gets in a few scrapes along the way, even being forced into love slavery by an eternally gorgeous nymph (poor guy), but returns home after 20 years to wreak vengeance on the cads trying to bed his wife. (Monogamy was pretty much a one-way street in ancient Hellas.)

After reading both of Homer’s works, I think The Iliad is geared toward young men, especially those of a military mindset. It’s all heroism, glory, and honor. I really should have tackled this in my Navy days.

The Odyssey is an even better adventure, but its themes of home, wisdom, fatherhood, and marriage are aimed squarely at those of us with more mileage on the drivetrain. The heroes still kill their share of monsters and men, but Ulysses always chooses brains before brawn.

The real revelation for me was Anabasis by Xenophon. How Hollywood hasn’t released a trilogy of this epic is beyond me. (No, The Warriors doesn’t count.) Here are the Cliffs Notes for this real-life tale:

Cyrus the Younger wants to topple his brother Artaxerxes II from the Persian throne, so he recruits 10,000 Greek mercenaries (including Xenophon) to help. They march 1,500 miles from the east coast of modern-day Turkey to the middle of modern-day Iraq and, in the first big battle, Cyrus is killed.

Uh oh.

Now, the entire Persian army opposes the Greeks. The pro-Cyrus Persians say, “No actually, we were for Artaxerxes the whole time!” and turn against the Greeks. The Hellenic generals ask the King for safe passage … and he murders them.

Xenophon is more a philosopher than soldier, but he gives an inspiring speech, the troops elect him leader, and they all hightail it due north while anyone, everyone, and everything tries to kill them.

They cross deserts and rivers and mountains through searing heat, waist-deep snow, and constant attacks from ahead and behind by an ever-hostile collection of bronze-age barbarians. Upon hitting Turkey’s north shore, they finally enter a Greek colony. Happy ending, right? Well, that’s when the soldiers start turning on each other.

Granted, Anabasis is an amazing war story, but it also serves as a history, an ancient travel guide, and a primer in leadership, group dynamics, and human nature.

If you haven’t read any of these three books, you should make up that deficit.

Jon Gabriel, “My Month in Ancient Greece”, Ricochet, 2018-01-23.

April 7, 2020

Leopold II of Belgium: The Biggest Coverup In European History

Filed under: Africa, Europe, History — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Biographics
Published 26 Sep 2018

Credits:
Host – Simon Whistler
Author – Shannon Quinn
Producer – Jack Cole
Executive Producer – Shell Harris

Britain AD: The Invasion That Never Was – The Anglo-Saxon Invasion (BBC Documentary)

Filed under: Britain, Europe, History, Science — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Johnny66
Published 21 Jun 2015

A well-considered documentary by the noted scholar, Dr Francis Pryor. The names Cerdic, Ceawlin, Cedda and Caedwalla are not exactly Germanic in origin? Cerdic’s father, Elesa, has been identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the “chief of the region,” met by Germanus of Auxerre.

Classics Summarized: Beowulf

Filed under: Books, Britain, Europe, History — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 28 Aug 2015

Beowulf! The tale of the baddest Geat to ever Geat.

Tolkien said that the Dragon in Beowulf is one of only two *true* dragons in all of literature — the other being Fafnir. The influence of both these dragons is very visible in a lot of our more modern fantasy: for instance, where Beowulf’s Dragon inspired Smaug, o chiefest and greatest of calamities, Fafnir inspired C. S. Lewis to include that cursed bracelet thing that turned Eustace into a dragon in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And I think we all know the badder of those two dragons, so I guess Tolkien — and, by extension, Beowulf — wins this round.

Where was I? Right. BEOWULFFFFF

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4664797

MERCH LINKS:
Shirts – https://overlysarcasticproducts.threa…
All the other stuff – http://www.cafepress.com/OverlySarcas…

Find us on Twitter @OSPYouTube!

QotD: The universal plight of women in pre-modern times

Filed under: Health, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Because giving birth was such a high-risk enterprise, and because so many of the products of that enterprise died before payback of the [pun intended, I think] labor involved in bringing them to the world, it was THE most important work of society. Those members able to do it had to be kept in such a situation that it allowed them to maximize that one thing they could do.

As for “the property of their husbands, etc, etc, blah blah blah” work was so brutal and hard, and providing for a family so difficult, that yes, a man wanted to make sure the children he supported were his own.

Also, because of very early (many women married before even 18) death in childbirth, etc, most women skewed younger than men as a population, which would encourage a certain degree of paternalism. On top of that, hate to tell you, but women while hormonal are often not fully rational. We can sort of compensate for it, but one of the pregnancy hormones is SUPPOSED to make you fat, dumb and happy.

I don’t know if most women need a minder while pregnant, but from both personal experience and watching friends go through it, I imagine many women do.

It is therefore only natural that in a society where most women are pregnant most of the time, men would view it was their duty to look after the puir confused things.

When feminists assume that back in a time with no contraceptive, high child mortality and an horrendous death toll of pregnancy, women should have been recognized as the equals of men, and that men were being evil villains for not doing that, they are demonstrating an astonishingly blind and ideological view of history.

In fact, even back in the middle ages and before SOME women were considered the intellectual equals of men. (And sometimes the military equals.) There are very few of them, again, not because The Man was keeping them down, but because the women attracted to intellectual or military pursuits are (like men) a minority and on top of that they tended to be either unmarried, childless, or the percentage of women not much affected by pregnancy. I.e. a minority of minorities.

Women started making advances in what was considered, traditionally, male realms, like science or scholarship, (the others … well … there is a problem with upper body strength. Sure. Some women. Again a minority of a minority) or being able to vote when two twin advances occurred: the first was the curbing of infant mortality. When it became obvious (after a generation or so) that most of your babies would survive, it was possible for women to spend only a tiny minority of their lives pregnant.

The second was contraception that was cheap, easily available, and safe. Yeah, okay, I have certain issues with the pill, because the medical issues of using it long term are only now showing up in the population at large. That’s fine.

It remains that even the early “horse-dose” pill was safer than anything else anyone else had ever come up with for women to avoid getting pregnant all the time.

Sarah Hoyt, “Wrong Battle, Insane Tactics”, According to Hoyt, 2018-01-15.

April 6, 2020

QotD: North American downtown “architecture”

Filed under: Architecture, Cancon, Economics, History, Quotations, USA — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Real brick-and-plaster substance is, perversely enough, often smooshed then overlain with a plastic parody of some “olde” style. We live today in urban environments which are comprehensively fake — a contributing factor to the fakeness in ourselves. The tactic of developers is to append “poetic” associations from a happier past, to their ghastly provisional installations. This odonymical abuse has been going on for some time: “mountain-view” where there is no mountain, “river-side” where there is no river, “park-dale” with neither park nor dale. “Old-world charm” that consists of ticky-tack boxes, with stacks of brutalist concrete poking through.

The “downtowns” of cities in the eastern half of this American continent were built before the automobile, with pedestrian compactness. So prosperous did we become, so quickly, and so extensive was the building towards the latter end of the nineteenth century, that plentiful evidence remains. The ground-cover is still mostly older buildings, paradoxically thanks to rocketing property values: new buildings must accommodate phenomenal densities, upon tiny footprints. But ten-thousands of apparently “old houses” remain, going on and off market at a million apiece. The principles of money-management have “evolved” over the years, and the idea of “home” as a fungible investment has been universalized. All one needs to acquire one is a small saving and a large credit line. Then one is cut in for all subsequent rounds of poker.

You move in and “re-decorate,” less from personal taste than in anticipation of re-sale. After this process has been repeated a few times, nothing remains of the older building except its “historical” façade, itself somewhat tarted. Travelling about by foot and trolley, I have watched a likely majority of the city’s more attractive “landmark” buildings reduced to fronts only. These are propped by girders, while entirely new (and disproportionately larger) new constructions are bunged in behind.

Thus, nothing remains that is “authentic.” All continuities are destroyed, beyond this tip of the hat — the aesthetic equivalent of that homage which vice pays to virtue.

David Warren, “The scandal of interiors”, Essays in Idleness, 2018-01-25.

April 5, 2020

Rommel Storms Into North-Africa – WW2 – 084 – April 4, 1941

Filed under: Africa, Britain, Germany, History, Italy, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 4 Apr 2020

The British thought they would be safe for a while, but this week they are proven wrong. This week, Erwin Rommel begins his advance towards the East of North Africa.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
– Daniel Weiss
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
– Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
– Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…
– Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
– Olga Shirnina, a.k.a. Klimbim – https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/
– Owen Robinson – https://www.instagram.com/owen.colori…

Sources:
– National Portrait Gallery
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– Bundesarchiv
– Yugoslav military maneuvers at Torlak, 1940, by Boksi from Wikimedia
– US Holocaust Memorial Museum
– Војни архив
– Documents icon by Srinivas Agra from the Noun Project

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress