in 1973, an australian catholic nun on a religious mission in singapore recorded a psychedelic and indie-folk, proto-synth pop album inspired by the gospels. itโs one of the most unique records iโve ever listened to
thinking about how, in 2014, the pope released two doves in vatican square as a symbol of peace for ukraine. both doves were immediately and randomly killed in front of THOUSANDS of people, one by a seagull and one by a crow.
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The doves were not killed in the attack but escaped. It is not known what happened to them afterwards.
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in 2012, a random guy shopping at a thrift store found lost homemade cassette tapes recorded in the 1960s-70s by a vietnam war veteran from memphis, tennesse. these gospel-inspired soul songs were by johnnie frierson, suffering from PTSD, who passed away 2 years prior in 2010.
an irish pharmacist looking through the national archives in dublin accidentally unearthed a forgotten and lost short story by bram stoker, author of DRACULA. unknown even to scholars, itโs being published for the first time in a century. first new mozart, now new bram stoker
vladimir lenin had this painting framed above his bed, hitIer bought one of the originals, freud had a print hanging in his study, rachmaninoff composed a musical piece inspired by it, & it influenced salvador dalรญ. nabokov wrote the painting โcould be found in every berlin homeโ
xi jinping memorized goetheโs faust by heart while exiled to a cave in rural china, once walking 30 miles just to borrow a copy. when he met german chancellor angela merkel, he casually recited lines from it to flex. he also likes stendhal, tolstoy, balzac, and hemingway.
this is the oldest known surviving cartoon and one of the worldโs first animations, made in 1892 by french inventor รฉmile reynaud. it consists of 500 individually painted images and was released 3 years before the invention of cinema. itโs a rom-com about a love triangle
in 1867, dostoevsky almost had an epileptic seizure when he saw this life-sized renaissance-era painting of christโs body. his wife had to physically drag him away from it. โthat picture! that picture! why a manโs faith might be ruined by looking at that picture,โ he wrote.
thinking about how the founder of the nation of islam was a guy who used 58 different aliases, randomly showed up in detroit one day and started preaching to the black population, then disappeared. heโs never been found and almost nothing is known about his real identity