Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Eternal Rome
(April/May 2013) From the hell of Fiumicino Airport, an official looking chauffeur took us on a mid afternoon drive past the Forum, Trajan’s Column and the Colosseo and deposited us, bang on cocktail time, at the Hassler, atop the Spanish steps. The Varnished Culture knew from the H.H Kirst novel* that we were due a treat and so it proved. The hotel guests were just as exotic: Japanese in fluorescent sports gear, dancing a jig; a rich Italian with a blond 2/3rds his age; an odd couple feted by the staff; a short, plump American with dead, gold hair, accompanied by…
Continue Reading →Glenelg Greats and Royal Glory
(Queen’s Birthday Weekend, June 2015) Glenelg, under the pump, hosted a glorious celebration of its brace of premierships in the mid 1980s, a gilded age when players could run through their opponents and the phrases were ‘goals’, not ‘structures’, ‘marks’, not ‘non-negotiables’, ‘winning’, not ‘point spread’ (OK, that’s gridiron). What a night! For a Glenelg supporter, it was Fan Heaven, a panoply of the very best of the recent past…Laurie Rosewarne received a special honour as a Great of Glenelg, joining 16 luminaries who have served the Club over its 95 years. Inductees to the Hall of Fame this year…
Continue Reading →Primary Colors
"Aw, c'mon, Henry. This is ridiculous: you've gotta be with me."
(Dir. Mike Nichols) (1998) Probably the best political road movie, almost a primer of American Democratic Presidential politics. Great direction by Mike Nichols, solid performances and a sensational script (by Elaine May). The book published by Anonymous (Joe Klein) is a roman à clef about the Bill Clinton comeback campaign of 1992. Profane, salty, clever, hilarious and sad, it is a fascinating story of the politician’s challenge to be all things to all, a marathon, run as a sprint. John Travolta is uncanny as Governor* Jack Stanton. In P’s favourite scene, where Stanton addresses a union crowd in a cold, closed-down factory,…
Continue Reading →Dante and His World
"Men go to preach, and if they get a laugh their cowls puff up with pride. They ask no more." (Image Giotto, photo Wolfgang Sauber)
(By Thomas Caldecot Chubb) You might call this an inspired remaking of Dante’s life and thought through his art, with the eye of a poet and scholar, on intimate terms with Aretino, Boccaccio, Dante. Speculation, necessarily, as much as history but highly informed. We love the cover that tells us not only is Mr Chubb a graduate of Yale, but he “commutes between his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, and his plantation in southern Georgia.”
Continue Reading →Wagner on TV
(Dir. Tony Palmer) (1983) 4 DVDs, 10 episodes, 9 hours – what else from a Wagner bio? A sprawling, at times maddeningly repetitive and almost redundant film (originally foisted on the world as a one-off cinema release!) is none the less painstaking, illuminating, and beautiful, as good as you could expect in fact. Richard Burton gives a great rendition of that other talented belligerent named Richard, suggesting the inner arrogance, drive and sacrificial impulse of the master composer. The episodes are linear, essentially, with flashes forward, backward and sideways. One for those who know and care about Wagner and his legacy. [*Clive…
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