Thursday 26 February 2015

Cartoonist Erich Ohser (1903-1944)


Serving the Nation 

                  
Cartoonist Erich Ohser, a victim of denunciation,  hanged himself in his cell at Berlin-Moabit rather than appear before a so-called People's Court. His friend and editor Erich Knauf (b. 1895) was taken before the court and sentenced to be executed. The sentence was carried out  at Brandenburg-Görden in May 1944.              

Today the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo is back on sale in Paris and elsewhere. I applaud all concerned for having the courage to continue. 

German cartoonist Ohser showed readers, with one simple drawing titled Serving the Nation which was published in Neue Revue in 1931, why irresponsible journals (such as Charlie Hebdo today) play a vital role in highlighting the ever present threats and dangers, from outside and inside, and attempts to undermine our hard won  freedoms here in Europe. 

Freedoms for which tens of millions paid with their lives,  we should always remember.


Tuesday 24 February 2015

Nightmare on Elm Street


History is a matter of options.

You pay for education and if you are lucky you get to make your choice.

It's more than 50 years since the American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered. For today's children this is ancient history. But they need to know about it.

Here is a look at one schoolbook's two versions of what might have happened on that fateful day:

Nightmare on Elm Street is an appropriate title for Chpt. 13 of John Clare's schoolroom text book (National Curriculum in History at Key Stage 3) for it deals with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Friday 22nd November 1963 in Dallas, Texas, a nightmare which began at the junction of Houston Street and Elm Street.

At 12:30pm as JFK's car drove through Dealey Plaza and turned into Elm Street a number of gunshots rang out and the President of the United States was struck and killed.

The official report (The Warren Report) offers up the lone gunman option. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald who acted alone. Oswald fired 3 shots from the 6th floor window of the Dallas School Book Depository. The first shot went through Kennedy's neck, the chest of Governor Connally, and struck the right wrist of Governor Connally and ended up in Connally's left leg. The third shot struck Kennedy in the back of the head and emerged on the right side of the head. The second shot presumably missed.

Oliver Stone's film JFK presents a 6 shots (or possible 10 shots) and 4 gunmen version of events. It's another option. The first shot missed Kennedy. The second shot hit Kennedy in the throat. The third shot hit Connally. The fourth shot hit Kennedy in the back. The fifth shot hit Kennedy in the head. The sixth shot hit Connally in the wrist.

And naturally to help the student, there is the now customary collection of odd facts pertaining to the assassination, and several of them highlighted by the author include:

Fifty-eight witnesses said they heard shots from the grassy knoll.
A bullet taken from Connally's leg was given to FBI agents and never seen again.
A bullet taken from Kennedy's body was given to FBI agents and never seen again.
A bullet found on the pavement by an FBI agent was never seen again.
A bullet was found under the stretcher on which Kennedy was taken to hospital. It had a pointed tip  indicating that it had not hit anything.
A film taken by Abraham Zapruder shows there were two seconds between Kennedy being hit and Connally being hit.
A film taken by Orville Nix shows a gunman firing from the grassy knoll. The film was given to the FBI and subsequently lost. Fortunately Nix had made a copy which he had given to a friend.
Two other private films were given to the FBI. In the first, the Muchmore film the relevant frames were ruined. The second film, known as the Oliver film, was lost.
The Dallas Police Department's audiotape of the assassination on which 6 shots can be heard was not made public until 1978.
Photographs showing Kennedy's wounds were tampered with. One shows the back of his head intact.
Three men were arrested on the car park behind the grassy knoll. They were later released. The records of their arrest were lost.

And so, here we are today, living in times of "an announced need for security", the phrase John F. Kennedy used when he warned the world about what lay in store for humankind.

As I said, history is a matter of options, and when we look back over the last half century we see that we have made our choice. Or rather, we see that it has been made for us. Not all options are, or will be the ones we might prefer, not all will come gift-wrapped and  cozy and comfortable. There will be nightmares.

Sleep tight.
Mind the bed bugs
Don't bite.




Thursday 19 February 2015

ET has Landed. First Pictures, Message.



 


Be not afraid. We come in Peace. 

We cannot remember not being afraid, nor Peace. How did it look ...

 
Which of you can take us to your Leader?

The Leader's words and image
are known to all.


Two at Peace


Sunday 15 February 2015

Valentine Weekend Haiku



Valentine Chocolates 

And melting Hearts 

Love in the Air 


And a Meditation (after R K Singh) . . . 


Wingless flights 

In Stars and Clouds 

Of purple Haze 


A Happy Black Valentine





It's a street sign in the Austrian city of Graz. I cannot imagine what it signifies. Perhaps it means: Here You Wear Black.

With a touch of lipstick someone created a romantic Black Valentine card. Well done! to that artist!


Friday 13 February 2015

ACGLOP




Readers familiar, or even unfamiliar, with Ernst Jandl's famous sound poems (link to Jandl in the sidebar) might like to sample my freshly cooked Jandl-style poem ACGLOP.

Words* like ACGLOP have recently appeared on all menu cards in European Union restaurants and cafes! For dramatic effect the poem may be read out loud with a full mouth of dangerous food. 

ACGLOP
ALOP
ACLOP
ACLOP

ACGLOP
ACGLOP
ACGLOP
AS
ACL

AGMO
ACMO
ACGMO
ACGMO
ACGMO
ACGMO

ACMO
ACGM
ACGM
ACGMO
ACGMO
ACOM
ACGMO
A

AG
AG
AM
AM
AM

A
A
AG
ACG
A

ACGMO
ACMO
ACGMO
LMOP
ACGLOP



*from a European Union Directive on food allergies which includes (for the sake of my poem):
A=gluten, C=eggs, G=milk, L=celery, P=lupins, M=mustard, O=sulphates

Bon appetite!

Thursday 12 February 2015

Corners of Creation VI*







A work of art is a corner of creation
seen by a temperament. Emile Zola 

*The Roman number will increase each time a new photo is added. 



Wednesday 11 February 2015

Zip!


Written after reading Simon Armitage's poem Zoom! 

Zip!

It starts
with three days of growth
and two squeezed blackheads
in front of the telly
  ah...ah...ah...splot...and 
ahhh.....gotcha


One zips 
like  a rat 
flies over the mat 
skirts 
a bored semi-detached
wife 


And this is the house
where they lived
him and her
and their ex-kid
three sets of darts
a pool cue
previously broken over a bloke's head
in a corner pub
real ale
on tap
 happy hour sessions
for broken men
 with strong bladders


Once in the heads

 something went down your leg 
is it piss ? 
someone laughed


No

he said
 zipping his fly


it's only the drink. 

Tuesday 10 February 2015

The Bank to Suit your Packet


"I'm thinking of starting a bank. It will be known as TBSP, which stands for The Bank to Suit your Packet. As far as I can make out it works like this: Money in x 10 = Money out. But seriously TBSP means The Better Savings Project. Actually it should be Savings and Loans, but I left out the mention of Loans. When you save with me, I mean us, we will charge you a small fee, not too small of course, for taking care of your hard earned money. Well, not really taking care of it because I, sorry I mean we, will lend your money to another bank who will look after that side of things. This other bank will be, I should say is,  a bona fide subsidiary of TBSP. It will be known on the High Street as HCLS. There's a picture of the head office just below. HCLS means Honourable Cash Loan Service. HCLS is an offshoot of our sister company and affiliated to an international cartel with an office in . . . , well you'd be surprised if I told you.  I like to say 'our' because that's how we bankers like to talk. It makes us sound more trustworthy. Excuse me, did I really say that?  Yes. So you see our money is safe with us. No need to lose any sleep over it. No need to tax yourself with another restless night on a lumpy mattress. We will take care of everything. And should the worst happen, there will be a government official on the scene before you can say bankers-bonus to bail out the boat, which is to say the Happy Cuckoo . . ."



Monday 9 February 2015

Cold War Heating Up


Washington.

Like the stale pie in the microwave the cold war is heating up. I've just heard Obama talking some evil nonsense, bragging about his fancy weapons*. At least Angela Merkel currently visiting him at the White House is trying her best.


I'm seriously pissed-off with the irrational thinking of many international political leaders with regard to the Ukrainian civil war. Ukraine troubles me more than ISIS, the War on Terror, Ebola and everything else. One false step and Ukraine could end up in Armageddon. Possibly taking a good portion of Eurasia with them.


The first intelligent thing to do is to revoke the tit-for-tat sanctions as a sign of goodwill, and the second thing is to send somebody to the Ukraine to take away their deadly toys. God knows we have enough trouble and disaster in the world without political stupidity unnecessarily adding to it.

Having solved the Ukraine problem we could then focus on improving the sad and tragic lot of much of mankind. 

Peace Talks
What's it to be? 
Beautiful women and music? 
Or woe? 





"Ask the right questions and demand the right answers. Question more." - Larry King.


*"lethal defence weapons" as Obama now terms them. 



A Good Russian Joke


"VISIT RUSSIAN ARCHITECTURE, ENSURE ITS SURVIVAL"

As you can see from the images and text on the make-believe travel posters in the make-believe tourist agency housed in the Russian pavilion in Venice (picture of the pavilion in the post below) modern Russian artists have a wonderful off-the-wall sense of humour. 

It is an unfailing delight to explore the Russian pavilion which is a lot more than can be said for the German pavilion nearby which is probably the most boring building in the Biennale Gardens. 


German  artists struggle without much success to be creative in the cultural vacuum of their over dimensional post-Nazi edifice. Short of a fascist  rally I can't think of anything to do in the monstrosity. The best thing would be to knock it all down and begin again. 

Pavilions within a short walking distance of the Russian pavilion and worth a look include The Main Pavilion (Italy and Others), Denmark, Hungary, USA, Britain, France, Korea, Japan, and Australia.

Venezia Undici

PIAZZA
CANE

GATTO


VENTO
PITTURA


VICOLO


RUSSIA


GUERRA
SPECCHIO



MODA
STORIA




Saturday 7 February 2015

Who was the Chicken?


"In the Beginning was the Egg"  Anon

Ask.

Who was the Chicken?

Ask.

Which came first?

The Egg or the Chicken?

Or,  

Who cracked open the Egg? 

Or, 

Who boiled the Egg?

Or, 

more correctly, 

Who microwaved It. 

Ask. 

Was it the Chicken? 

Or,

Was it the Cook?
  

Mystery of Mysteries,

And Riddle of Riddles,  

A thousand* Religions 

Scrambling to tell . . .

How some of them dwell 

on Heaven and Hell. 


In the Beginning was the Egg

* 1,000 is a low figure. There are an estimated 4,200 religions in the world. And all of them are right.


Thursday 5 February 2015

Hope Abandoned



Hope Abandoned is my new book. It's very thick, so it will take me some time to read it. It's about the life and times of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) and it was written by his wife. My new book is 40 years old. It cost 1.00 €.


This is my new bag. It's large and sturdy. It's very thick and robust and its purpose is to enable me to carry my plastic, glass, paper and metal rubbish to the recycling containers at the end of the street. It was a freebie from the city's Refuse Department. Hope Abandoned will be 'recycled' elsewhere.

Here's a poem from Osip Mandelstam:

'Eyesight of Wasps'

Armed with the eyesight of slender wasps,

sucking at the earth's axis, the earth's axis, 
I feel everything that ever happened to me,
and I memorize it, but it's all in vain. 

I don't draw and I don't sing, 

and I don't play the violin with a black-voiced bow.
I drive my sting only into life, and love
to envy the powerful, cunning wasps. 

Oh, if I could be compelled

by the sting of the air and the summer warmth
to pass through the worlds of dreams and death,
to sense the earth's axis, the earth's axis . . . 


You can find a short biography and two more poems HERE.


Wednesday 4 February 2015

The latest EU gag



















The EU / TTIP discussions are taking place in secret. Delegates like the UK's Molly Cato have to sign a declaration of secrecy. They are NOT allowed to say anything about what has been discussed. They have been gagged.

TTIP will affect us all. We should be told ALL the facts. The health of future generations is now at stake.


". . . the pismire* is equally perfect"




I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

/p47

*pismire - ant obs
Song of Myself verse 31: 1

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, 
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, 
Not one is dissatisfied, not one demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

/p48

Song of Myself verse 32: 1-2


Holiday Cats


CLICK CAT TO ENLARGE


I've been attending to next-door's cats
 For the family has gone away;
The couple and their two children
 Have taken a holiday.

They've left me two timorous cats 
  To tend and feed each day:
Their toilet tray is under the stairs,
 The feeding bowls you'll find in the hall.

Today at last I glimpsed the two cats;
  The first one was lying beneath a bed 
And the second was crouching under a chair
  Another one vanished through the cat flap . . .





Monday 2 February 2015

Junior European Smoking Champions




If God wanted me to smoke He would have put a chimney in my head. 


Years of gasping for a smoke
Till like a frog my voice did croak.

I  kicked the habit. Saw the joke. 
(And now detest the smell of smoke).

N was my friend! "I've stopped!" he said. 
Death took both legs, and then the bloke.

_________________

There is a mild smoking debate going on here in Austria. Recently released is the statistic that more young people smoke here than in any other European country.

Many youngsters do not realize that smoking can cause many debilitating and dangerous illnesses and diseases apart from lung cancer.

To address the statistic of shame, the government is considering a ban on smoking in bars and cafes. This, unfortunately, may take some time.

Not very long ago laws were supposedly brought in which resulted in customers being segregated into smokers and non-smokers and there was much expenditure on adapting premises.

However, these so-called laws quickly became something of a joke and were in the main blatantly ignored.

I can recall, for example, watching a football match on TV in the so-called No Smoking section of a pub, when a dozen men entered the room and started smoking. The landlord was quickly there to remove the offending No Smoking signs and distribute the ashtrays.

There used to be a joke on the English language radio station FM4:
To those who say Austria always lags behind, we say that we are now on your heels.

Sadly, the poem tells a true story.

'Rest in peace' NP.