Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Mein Kampf is Back
(photo by Heinrich Hoffmann, 1927)
Hitler’s 1927 double-volume book of hate is back. Out of copyright, the feeling is that it should be out there, to stand as an example of the dangers of messianic self-belief [as H.R. Trevor-Roper put it], excessive unification movements (e.g. the pan German movement and lebensraum to the east) and racial purity (and vilification). William Shirer noted “it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe. For whatever other accusations…
Continue Reading →The Gandhi of Rock
(Pete in Toronto, 1974 - photo by Jean-Luc Ourlin)
Peter Gabriel (b. 13 February 1950) Gabes grew up in public. Precocious and vulnerable, his relatively privileged upbringing (he schooled at Charterhouse) inured him from fear of failure. This gave him, for a time, freedom to make Genesis a really innovative group, who came up with several interesting albums before they morphed into a somewhat blander supergroup. He left Genesis just as it began to take-off, with a gnostic note to the world that said “I had a dream, eye’s dream. Then I had another dream with body and soul of a rock star. When it didn’t feel good I packed it in…” And…
Continue Reading →General Relativity
In 1915, Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity. I have no idea what it means. Something to do with nothing being straight, the universe being finite, and rather than having a fence, it closes on itself. So space and time are relative and can only be measured by magic rulers and Dali clocks. The universe has no universals. But at least the General Theory didn’t lead to a bomb – merely the event horizon. I don’t know what I’m talking about. My random words don’t satisfy the theory of descriptions (linguistics’ homage to relativity). Einstein knew what he was talking…
Continue Reading →Go See the ASO in 2016!
Photo of ASO from "The Australian"
Great season ahead for ASO, in its 80th year, with newbie Nicholas Carter. He’s a Wagner fan (yay!) and opens the season (13/2/16) with Die Walküre, Act I. Dare we dream to ramp-up Adelaide again as a second Bayreuth? It’s a natural fit – small, picturesque, bankrupt as the Master, and full of chancers! But beautiful. Like the canon on offer this season – Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Dvorák, Handel, Berlioz, Strauss, Ravel, Prokofiev, Smetana, Elgar, Mahler, Debussy, Sibelius, Delius, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Yes…The Varnished Culture has ranked them, not chronologically, but on merit. But see and hear what you can…
Continue Reading →Books of Their Year
'Can you believe ______ liked this...?' (by Berthe Morisot)
We have already confessed our love for the ABC Book Show. As for the Show’s Big Five Books of 2015, as voted by the ABC audience, we have one response, and one response only: For the record, the titles were: 1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 3. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson 4. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood 5. Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover
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