Guglielmo Marconi Posing. Mental Floss.
Bret Stephens has commented on how the relatively new technology of radio was received enthusiastically in 1930s Germany. Effort was made to produce and distribute a cheap radio — the Volksempfänger, or people’s receiver — “that could bring the Führer’s voice and message into every home.” (“World War II and the Ingredients of Slaughter,” NYTimes, 8-30-19)
I think of the Volksempfänger as the Volkswagen of radios, hearkening back to a Beetle — the people’s car — that drew hard service during my student days.
It’s fun to muse speculatively on the arc from radio to Twitter. In the annals of mass communication, television may go down as an intervening blip, a mere enhancement of radio leap-frogged by Jack Dorsey’s Marconi-level hop.
Dorsey called his invention “Twttr.” He emitted the first tweet in 2006: “just setting up my twttr.” On 15 July 2006, TechCrunch reviewed the new Twttr service:
Odeo released a new service today called Twttr, which is a sort of “group send” SMS application… People are using it to send messages like “Cleaning my apartment” and “Hungry.” (“Who Invented Twitter?” ThoughtCo)
And here we are, cleaning our apartments. Thank you, @Jack.
(c) 2019 JMN
EthicalDative 
“Reach Out from Within”
Helen Frankenthaler in her studio “in the woods” in Provincetown, 1968. Working on the floor, she poured thinned paint directly onto raw, unprimed canvas, a technique that established the Color Field movement. Credit Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; J. Paul Getty Trust; via Alexander Liberman Photography Archive; Getty Research Institute.
Karen Rosenberg writes that this exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler’s work at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY,
A “desired void”! Frankenthaler had a way with words as well as paint.
Clement Greenberg suggested in 1950 that she study abstract painting in Provincetown with Hans Hofmann. I’m intrigued by the distance she travels from her small oil titled “Provincetown Bay” (1950) …
Frankenthaler’s “Provincetown Bay,” from 1950. Credit Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Portland Museum of Art.
to paintings such as “Orange Breaking Through” (1961).
Frankenthaler’s “Orange Breaking Through,” from 1961. Credit Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Collection of Audrey and David Mirvish.
Paraphrasing Rosenberg, cautious, muted gray-greens and a distinct horizon line give way to simple black outlines disturbed by unwieldy splotches of tangerine and crimson. It’s an exhilarating reach.
(c) 2019 JMN