Scratch List Fever - January/February 2023

Updated: Nov 1

Part 1 of a running list of things I'm interested in.

As part of a New Year’s resolution, I decided to catalog all of the things of interest I found on a daily basis into a giant “Scratch List,” so I knew when and where I was going down certain rabbit holes. Now that I’ve started compiling them into a spreadsheet, I’ll collect the most interesting ones and share them in case anyone else wants to chase those particular rabbits too.

Leonid Pasternak's "The Passion of Creation" (click to follow source)

Here’s some from January/February 2023:

Zengakuren (added Jan. 3, pg. 1) – Japanese university student associations, mostly known for protests during the 1960s to 1980s. If you’ve seen any Japanese movies from that part of the Showa period and notice protesters wearing helmets and carrying banners, this is who they were. Zengakuren (found here)
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (added Jan. 5, pg.2) – In the beginning of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, he tells the story about how this discovery led to developing what we know of as the Big Bang Theory. The story about how it all happened makes it read almost like a comedy at times…
Steve Brodie's jump off the Brooklyn Bridge (added Jan. 9, pg. 2) – Apparently this was a point of arguments for people during the first half of the 20th century…
Xica da Silva, Zumbi, and the Quilombos (added Jan. 9, pg. 2) – One of my favorite albums is Jorge Ben’s Africa Brasil and he has two tracks about Afro-Brazilian legendary figures Xica da Silva (a slave who became a wealthy free woman) and Zumbi (a freed slave who became a resistance leader). This led to reading about the quilombos, which have a cool and important history.1
Naruto whirlpools (added Jan. 13, pg. 4) – Never heard of these before but it makes sense why the fish cakes in ramen are referred to as “narutomaki.”
The Asante Empire, the Fanti societies, and the Kingdom of Oyo (added Jan. 13, pg. 4) – It should go without saying that for a continent as huge as Africa is, its history should be far better known. The three entries highlighted here were mentioned by an essay on Aeon by Prof. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò about getting rid of the concept of “precolonial” Africa when discussing African history. Reading that essay is also highly recommended.
The Estado Novo and the "Carnation Revolution" (added Jan. 13, pg. 4) – I have an interest in Cold War history and would like to visit Portugal, so these periods are fascinating reads for me.
The "umbrella assassination" of Georgi Markov (added Jan. 26, pg. 7) – Found out about this while reading an article about assassinations during the Cold War.
Stromatolites (added Jan. 26, pg. 7) – We were going on a cruise to the Yucatan the first week of February and found out about these formations caused by bacteria while reading up on Lake Balacar.
Set It Off, dir. F. Gary Gray (added Jan. 27, pg. 8) – I’ve never seen this movie (is it any good?) but the description seemed interesting and I love the En Vogue song from it (“Don’t Let Go (Love)”). [2]
Tin foil swans (added Jan. 29, pg. 9) – Knew this existed but only really knew about it from Archer. My spouse pointed out it was indeed a real thing and now I want to see it for myself. [3]
Garden hermits (added Jan. 30, pg. 9) – Someone posted this topic on their “things they learned in 2022” list and I read this out loud to my spouse. We both agreed: this would’ve been nice work if you could get it.
Geneivat da'at (added Feb. 1 pg. 12) – Don’t remember why I put this one here, though it might’ve been due to watching old episodes of NCIS and I think this had to do with one of Ziva’s storylines. [4] It’s a Jewish legal term concerning the morals of deception.
The Mayerling incident (added Feb. 12, pg. 12) – A story about rich Austrian royals in a murder/suicide plot that inspired several movies and a ballet.
Marimos (added Feb. 15, pg. 14) – A marimo is a type of algae that often appears as a perfect green sphere. Someone on Facebook joked that they would make the perfect pet/houseplant. I don’t know about that but they are pretty adorable.

Marimos (courtesy of Wikimedia)

Gerhard Richter (added Feb. 18, pg. 15) – Out of the all the artists who I saw at San Francisco MoMA, Richter was the one that stuck with me the most. The fact that he was skilled both at abstract painting and photorealism is truly impressive. Favorite piece was Seestück (Seascape), which is one of his later works.
Kathy Kallick and April Verch (added Feb. 19, pg. 15) – I went to Berkeley and just stumbled across The Freight & Salvage, so I just picked up a ticket to a bluegrass show. It was a double-bill with Joe Newberry & April Verch as the first half and the Kathy Kallick Band for the second. Not being a big fan of bluegrass, I had no idea what to expect but was more than pleasantly surprised by what I head and glad I ended my Berkeley excursion with that. [5]
Helmholtz resonance (added Feb. 25, pg. 16) – Went to the Exploratorium with my spouse during the Adults-Only Night and had a blast (it’s deceptively big, since we only did a fraction of the exhibits in 4 hours…). One of the exhibits dealt with sound waves and the Helmholz resonance, so I wanted to learn more.

This list only covers 24 out of 446 entries for January and February and excludes the 30 or so I’ve already got for March. I’ve also gone ahead and added video for some of these in the addendum below.

Once May comes, I’ll post another one of these for March/April 2023. Until then, enjoy!

Endnotes

1 Posted in the addendum both related songs from Jorge Ben’s Africa Brasil (“Xica da Silva” and “Africa Brasil (Zumbi)”) and a documentary from Brasil de Fato about the quilombos.

2 Posted the movie’s trailer and the music video for “Don’t Let Go (Love)” by En Vogue in the addendum.

3 Posted a video from Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon Ramsey tries to make one of these things and another one with the joke from Archer that comes to mind when I see these things in the addendum.

4 Don’t quote me on that, though…

5 Posted a song from each of them in the addendum - “Four in a Row” for April Verch with Joe Newberry and “Foxhounds” from the Kathy Kallick Band.

Addendum

Update 5/21/2023 - Realizing I prefer the actual blogging potential of the Wix site over Substack, I'm going to start posting both the main listings and the addendums over here instead.

I'm now going to start using the Substack site for my longer write-ups but since I have no idea how videos and playlists can be added there, I'm going to post that stuff here. If you want further context, please visit the post here.

If you came from that post, welcome and enjoy the related media posted below:

Xica da Silva, Zumbi, and the Quilombos (added Jan. 9, pg. 2)