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Though it’s traditionally meant ‘last in a progression or series,’ as Merriam-Webster puts it, the word ultimate has been more often used in recent decades to mean ‘the best or most extreme of its kind.’ The name of a recently launched digital archive performs a rare inversion, labeling as last a creation marked not by finality but extremity. Open Culture, openculture.com

💬 By carefully pruning a sugi (Cryptomeria japonica / Japanese Redwood) you get a living tree that is both a work of art, and a source of wood.

We may be conditioned to offering an opinion at the push of a button, but before venturing on the question of whether we can, or should, separate the art from the artist, it seems ever prudent to ask, “Which art and which artist?” There are the usual case studies, in addition to the crop of disgraced celebrities:

Guarda La Linea, le popolari animazioni italiane degli anni '70 disegnate da Osvaldo Cavandoli con una sola rigaLa semplicità non è l'obiettivo. È il sottoprodotto di una buona idea e delle aspettative più modeste.Così parlò il progettista Paul Rand, un uomo che sapeva qualcosa su come fare un'impressione, avendo creato loghi iconici per marchi immediatamente riconoscibili come ABC, IBM e UPS.Un esempio dell'osservazione di Rand, La Linea, alias Signor Linea, un amato e ingannevolmente semplice personaggio da cartone animato disegnato con una linea sinuosa e non fraterna, nato come complice di una cucina italiana. Indipendentemente da ciò che riuscirà a fare in due o tre minuti, è determinato che riuscirà anche solo a scontrarsi con i limiti della sua realtà lineare.@culture openculture.com/2026/04/la-lin

its what it says on the tin

It could be a legendary version of Etemenanki, a Mesopotamian ziggurat built to honor the god Marduk at such a scale that it inspired tall tales, as it were, spread far and wide in the ancient world, such as the rumor that its construction required mobilizing the manpower of all humanity. But it really did exist, as evidenced by its ruins discovered at the site of the ancient city of Babylon — which, in Hebrew, was called Babel.

As he went from country to country, Crowley never met an ancient religion he couldn’t adapt to his own ends. But no gods made as much of an impact on him as those of ancient Egypt, specifically Hoor-paar-kraat, or Harpocrates in the Greek; Crowley claimed to have been contacted by the voice of Hoor-paar-kraat’s messenger Aiwass, from whom he took the dictation that became Liber AL vel Legis. Styling himself as an Egyptian prophet, he preached one way for humanity to push through to a post-Christian age: “Whatever you feel like doing, go and do it, regardless of popular opinion or conventional morality.” After all, it seemed to work for Crowley himself, though the work of a notorious occultist certainly isn’t for everybody.

The first two DVDs I ever bought (before I even owned a DVD player, I had to rent one from my local Blockbuster) were Das Boot and Drunken Master 2.

You may hear the phrase “electronic music” and think of superstar dubstep DJs in funny helmets at beachside celebrity parties. Alternatively, you may think of the mercurial compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the musique concrete of Pierre Henry, or the otherworldly experimentalism of François Bayle. If you’re in that latter camp of music nerd, then this post may bring you very glad tidings indeed. Ubuweb—that stalwart repository of all things 20th-century avant-garde—now hosts an extraordinary compilation: the 476-song History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music, originally a 62 CD set. (Hear below Stockhausen’s “Kontact,” Henry’s “Astrologie,” and Bayle’s spare “Theatre d’Ombres” further down.)

Instead of Oscars.

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Seems that detectives are coming back