BDS on Wagner

May 16, 2017 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | HISTORY, MUSIC, POLITICS, Ulalume, WAGNER |

Forget the picket at Max Brenner’s, the Jewish chocolatiers!  There’s a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement against the playing of Wagner‘s works in Israel.  We learn from an interesting piece in ‘The Australian’ of 13 May 2017, by Vic Alhadeff, the chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, that there is a longstanding unofficial ban, despite recent attempts to overcome it by such luminaries as Daniel Barenboim. Mr Alhadeff refers, as part of his case, to the repulsive pamphlet, “Jewry in Music” which is certainly strident and virulent, but might more properly be seen as a reflection of Wagner’s…

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Eurovision 2017

May 15, 2017 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Annabel Lee, Modern Music, MUSIC, POLITICS |

The Boy with the Ice Cream Face...Isaiah Firebrace - A Song for Australia and Europe

Kiev, May 14, 2017 The Varnished Culture can’t reveal the results of our unique Eurovision drinking games, but we can report upon our patented ‘Euro-Points’ results. You’ll recall that Euro points are given for: 1. Dry ice 2. Contortionists 3. Bad Dancing 4. Any item of Clothing being Torn Away 5. Dwarves 6. Angel Wings or Mock Flying 7. Clowns 8. Piano as Furniture 9. Bearded Ladies 10. Puffs of Smoke This year was marked by really bad dancing (Norway even had a cavorting gimp), poor retro fashions, the odd dopey prop (Belarus perched on a fake hovercraft; a chap from Moldova pretended…

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Monkeying About

water-colour of Charles Darwin by George Richmond

May 5, 1925: Teacher John Scopes is charged with having taught evolution in a Tennessee school. Originally designed as a means of putting the town of Dayton on the map, the case became a circus when Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan rolled into town as defence and prosecuting counsel.  The whole affair became a hoary old film of which The Varnished Culture has previously spoken. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 (which was overturned on appeal because, unusually, the penalty had to be stipulated by the jury rather than the trial judge). But Dayton did great business that summer….

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Where We Are Now

April 24, 2017 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Australian Politics, LIFE, POLITICS, Ulalume |

Kylemorrison74: "the earth will be a wasteland of lava and charred rock, and covered with vortex' that are an eternity of pain and agony. in a nutshell hell will ascend and there is no safe place to hide except in religion"

The South Australian Circle of Hell, 2017 Our littoral is a burning shore – lit by a million candles. The water burns. The air burns. The wind is uncomfortably warm. The rain is as blood. Drones hover. Wind turbines whine uselessly. Our power-grid hangs on a fraying thread, all insulation melted away. Water bursts through the earth on the hour, coursing water, vermin and ordure into homes and shops. Infrastructure crumbles. Bridges fall. Black dust swirls and eddies about once pristine sands. Our old folks are bound, gagged, doused with turpentine and they scream with pain. We await the wintry day when the crippled and…

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Try to Forget…

April 20, 2017 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | HISTORY, POLITICS, Ulalume |

Ein Urlaubstag des Kanzlers in seinem Hause auf dem Obersalzberg bei Berchtesgaden. Auch in der Urlaubszeit arbeitet der Kanzler, neben ihm sitzend Ministerpräsident Göring. 490-38

Adolf Hitler (born 20 April, 1889 – died 30 April 1945) This garrulous monk of ravenous bent, Of whom the Duce said “Non mi piace“, Who in every message sent Sold fear at length and very archly And much that he meant. While promising Germany greatness again His goons torched the Reichstag, thus warming-up A war-ready State that was greedy for gain, Enlivened by monstering Röhm and Krupp, Tagging a part of the people as bane. He chewed upon hunks of shriveling maps, He bit and swallowed, he gulped and blew, While better men showed convulsive flaps, Appeasing while his confidence grew, Setting and priming…

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