Tag: archives

biweekly links 11-20-2019

Archives everywhere this week, plus a change of pace at the end:

The Internet Archive Is Digitizing & Preserving Over 100,000 Vinyl Records: Hear 750 Full Albums Now: though a fervent vinyl fiend as a teenager I’ve embraced the digital revolution with both arms – I still marvel that the heavy record crates I used to have to haul (up stairs, both ways) to my 1990s college radio show now fit on an object the size of a pack of cards with room to spare. And the Boston public library vinyl collection is just the tip of Archive.org’s audio iceberg: behold.

Speaking of archives, Extra-terrestrial collection touches down: The University of Manitoba Archives receives local UFO collections: this time it’s UFO researcher Chris Rutowski’s papers. Why do the Canadians get all the good UFO archives?

Finally, The Casebook Project has digitized the medical records of astrologer-physicians Simon Forman and John Napier.

John Cleese at desk: ...and now for something completely different

Lest you think all I do is look at archives all day (I wish!): David Bowie wanted to play the role of Rorschach in Terry Gilliam’s ‘Watchmen’ adaptation: my gut impulse is “would watch”. Incredibly it sounds like Alan Moore was on board with this adaptation as well. What do you think?

biweekly links 10-16-2019

Literary mysteries: 5 Books that remain a mystery to the greatest minds of humanity: Plus another 4 in part 2 of this article. Of course, it kicks off with the Voynich manuscript but I’d not heard of the Prodigiorum Ac Ostentorum Chronicon or the Rohonc Codex.

The Artist Who Embraced the Occult and Defied the Surrealists: the first time I heard of Ithell Colquhoun was in China Mieville’s “The Last Days of New Paris” and I always meant to follow up but good Google Alert-fu got ahead of me and found this article about her embrace of the occult. Most of the surrealists had an interest in the occult but Colquhoun’s systematic study set her apart and ultimately alienated her from her artistic peers. I’m especially intrigued by her use of automatism – automatic writing, but with art. Now I definitely need to read up on her, along with Doreen Valiente, Rosaleen Norton, and other 20th c. women occultists.

Head2 by Ithell Colquhoun - male and female figures entwined
Not an example of Colquhoun’s automatism, but one of the only public domain versions of her art I could find (courtesy Wikipedia). You can find more at Ithell Colquhoun’s officlal website.
Archivist delighted to comb through mountain of late UFO researcher’s records: and I’m delighted to discover that late UFO researcher Stanton Friedman had the foresight to donate his records to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Nothing’s likely to be available for a while, at least online – the archivists have 300+ (!) boxes to wade through – but this means his years of research won’t mildew away in a forgotten garage or similar. Agree with Friedman or not, I’m all for the preservation of historical materials, particularly about unusual topics.