Sound Different

Today the Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door has done yet another version of Apple’s Think Different commercial. This time under the heading ‘klink anders’ (Sound Different): what are the real innovators in popular music. After two weeks of regular updates by various music professionals and journalists, this is the final list:
Kraftwerk, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Ramones, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Carole King, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Prince, Little Richard, The Beatles

Here is the final commercial (not yet on YouTube, so I cannot embed).

Let’s see how many of these we can find in Europeana:


Ramones?










Prince?

Very interesting stuff, expecially all of those wondeful videos from INA. Through the video archives, Europeana still has a lot of material covering 20th century popular culture.
Only two I could not find (yet) anything for the Ramones and for Prince – he may be in there, but of course he has a very generic name 🙂

Пушкинский дом (Pushkin House) opens in St. Petersburg

On the 15th of December –

the Pushkin House opens in 1905, commemorating and preserving the legacy of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin House is the Russian state institute for literature. It is not the same as the Pushkin museum, which is an art museum and has nothing to do with the poet.

Here is some Pushkin in Europeana, ranging from a portrait, to literature history to music inspired by his work to commemorative coins – take your pick:
                  

Roald Amundsen and his team reach the South Pole

On the 14th of December –

In the middle of the Arctic summer, In 1910 Roald Amundsen and his team (Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting) reach the geographic South Pole. In collective memory, his competitor Scott usually gets more recognition. Scott reached the pole a few weeks later, and died on his way back to the Antarctic coast. Amundsen’s expidition was later criticized for just getting to the pole and back, rather than doing extensive surveying, as Scott did. I find this an interesting way of looking at the world: focus and success appear to be worth less than fuzziness and failure.

Here are some images of Amundsen and his expedition:

This is the iconic photograph of Amundsen and his team looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole:

Amundsen’s ship the Fram:

One of Amundsen’s expedition team members, Oscar Wisting:

An English translation of Amundsens own account of the expedition:

University of Leipzig is founded

On the 2nd of December –

in 1409 (!) the Universität Leipzig is founded, so today it celebrates it 602nd birthday, or Dies Natalis as academics are wont to call that.

In 1909 they celebrated their 500th anniversary, and we have the pictures to prove it:
                                                

Ice cream cone machine is invented

On the 13th of December –

In 1903 Italo Marcioni from Hoboken, New Jersey takes out a patent for a machine to produce edible ice cream cones:

some more ice cream in Europeana:
            

Mona Lisa recovered

On the 12th of December –

in 1913 Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa (la Joconde) was recovered in Florence, after being stolen two years earlier. Believe it or not, both Appolinaire and Pablo Picasso were brought in and questioned in relation to the theft. In fact it was stolen by an Italian Louvre employe by the name of Vincenzo Peruggia from a mixture of patrotic and monetary motives. He was caught when he tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence – not the brightest kid on the block, this Peruggia. The story of the kidnapping of the painting did much to strengthen its public appeal.

Here are some of the many, many images, renditions, parodies and detailed photographs in all manner of spectra we have in Europeana for the Monal Lisa:
                                    

Herculaneum rediscovered

On the 11th of December –

In 1738 the inscriptions at the entrance of the theatre in Herculaneum were discovered, confirming that there was indeed a substantial city buried beneth the rubble there. The excavations that followed were an inspiration for much of neo-classicism.

Here are some objects from Herculaneum, and some art and books inspired by the finds, in Europeana:
                                     

Dutch Marine Corps founded

On the 10th of December –

In 1665 the ‘Korps Mariniers’ (Marine Corps) was founded on the initiative of Grand Pensionary (now we would say: Prime Minister) Johan de Wit and Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.

Johan de Wit:

Michiel de Ruyter (not a very flattering image…)

And some Marines:
                

Barbados joins the United Nations

On the 9th of December –

In 1966 Barbados, former British colony and since 9 days a member of the Commonwealth, joins the United Nations.

Here is some Barbados-related material in Europeana:
                

Top 10 most viewed Europeana objects for November

So, the time has come to see whether the changes we have made to the Europeana portal and the mechanisms we have there of featuring items have indeed had an effect on what the most viewed objects in Europeana are. November was the first whole month after the changes, so this data should be relatively reliable.

1. A Romanian apple cider press (facebook share)

2. A German theological book from 1752 (facebook share)

3. Czech-Gipsy and Gipsy-Czech dictionary

4. a London city map (used as an example on data.europeana.eu, our Linked Open Data pilot)

5. Dante’s Divine Comedy (featured object on europeana.eu)

6. a bookbinding for Emperor Charles V (featured object on europeana.eu)

7. The musical score to Mozart’s Requiem (featured object on europeana.eu)

8. Rembrandt’s picture of an old woman (probably his mother) reading (featured object on europeana.eu)

9. A late 16th century mediacal text by Pierandrea Matthioli (featured object on europeana.eu)

10. an advertizing brochure for Citroen cars (featured object on europeana.eu, and one that I added personally – yes, I wield awesome power)

So, what can we learn from this? The best way to get ‘Most viewed object in Europeana’ is a bit of a surprise. I had expected it to be the featured objects that would be most viewed. And that is important, but easily trunmped by being shared on Facebook.
We keep learning about this stuff as we go along – which is exactly why we keep monitoring these and also valyue your input and comments.