Category Archive: AUSTRALIANIA
Uncomfortably Close…the Lawyer in the Freezer
This story is one of the many lurid crime sagas that feature in staid and leafy-green Adelaide. And whilst The Varnished Culture staff all have impeccable alibis, this being Adelaide, we are far-away-so-close to the macabre events of 1979 and beyond. Unfortunately, it is one of several local causes célèbre where the jury’s verdict is in question because they may have been led to rely on tainted evidence – not corrupt evidence; just misleading, or dead-wrong. THE PLAYERS: Derrence Stevenson, specialist criminal lawyer (the victim); David Szach, Stevenson’s teenaged boyfriend; Dr Colin Manock, forensic pathologist, who gave crucial evidence at trial…
Continue Reading →Contempt on Peptides
10 Ways the Australian Football League conglomerate shows its contempt for grass roots football Despite various subterfuges and secretagogues to hide it, the AFL:- 1.Endlessly tinkers (ludicrously) with rules of the game during the summer, abandons them in the regular season, but maintains their imposition on the so-called lower leagues. 2. Sets its competition, not around fairness, but around TV Scheduling. 3. Swamps us with so much advertising (for fast food, beer and gambling) on such a high rotation, that nausea ensues. 4. Provides nil local coverage. 5. Doesn’t bother to provide local scores. 6. Rapes and pillages young talent whilst imposing trickle-down funding of below-subsistence…
Continue Reading →We Told You So
The Varnished Culture had some observations, scrupulously avoiding any prejudicial fallout, about the art fraud case concerning Whiteley’s alleged painting of, inter alia, “Orange Lavender Bay.” Concerning the alleged victim, the chap who bought the piece later accused of being a fake by certain experts, we suggested: When you pay, not for the work, but for the provenance, you get what you deserve. The defendants were convicted and copped custodial sentences, but we had commented in our earlier piece that serving of the sentences had been stayed pending appeal, the trial Judge commenting “I think there is a compelling argument that the verdicts are unsafe.” Quoted…
Continue Reading →Cats and Dogs
Glenelg Tigers vs Central District Bulldogs, April 29, 2017 Well, what a day! Beaten-up by Central District all day (they’ve hated and monstered us ever since 1975), the Tigers looked, to this jaundiced eye, a little soft and incompetent. We had plenty of possession (374 disposals to 286) but frittered it away with sloppy delivery, such that our usual potent attack was left stranded, while the Dogs rebounded with method and precision – they looked cleaner, and tougher. We were a little startled by the presence of ‘foreigners’ in our viewing box – and stunned at the half by a spray from…
Continue Reading →On the Wallaby Track
(1896 – Frederick McCubbin) Wondering why the wife in Frederick McCubbin’s “On the Wallaby Track” looks so despairing and drained? Is it because she is in a really dreary painting? No…Look more closely….is it because she and her husband are poor, itinerant workers who live on billy tea? No…Look closer still….is it because she is tired and her clothes are old and dirty? No. Is it because her hands are deformed? Maybe… Nooo…most likely it’s because she gave birth to a huge, hideous cannibal baby…. No wonder they live under a tree.
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