Capture: Roamin' Holiday
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Ugh, I find the painting in that link really quite abhorrent.
One person's art and all. Tucker's 1947 pen & ink from Hiroshima is almost the kind of thing that wouldn't frighten the chooks in a corporate corridor, provided they didn't know what it was about.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
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Geoff Lealand, in reply to
Julie: thanks. I would recommend a cautionary note; this 'hymn' was a version of events driven by resentment and prejudice, rather than comradeship. History is seldom pretty when the motivations for events are investigated. I should be proud, for example, that my father was a major ringleader in the mutiny by the Second Echelon soldiers who refused to return to Egypt and Syria from leave in NZ. But it is tempered by a realisation that they mutinied because they wanted those they perceived as 'slackers' or 'shirkers' to go instead.
But it is a history worth telling, I believe. I imagine that your average GI was a more interesting and exotic creature for many NZ women than your average Kiwi bloke, in these times. -
Russell Brown, in reply to
Speaking of endearing proto punks, some of you may have heard that Oliver Lindsey Scott (Olly) died in Invercargill on Christmas Day, he was 60 years old.
Olly! I didn't know him well, or long -- and it was, um, 30 years ago -- but I certainly remember him. A lovely man, who seemed like a bona fide slice of 70s London.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I imagine that your average GI was a more interesting and exotic creature for many NZ women than your average Kiwi bloke, in these times.
That's certainly the folklore I recall from my youth. Americans troops were stereotyped as pampered (canned xmas pudding, ffs) and inept - much was made of supposed 'friendly fire' incidents. Their largesse towards local females was legendary, from the 'fine dining' available to guests at their officers' club in Parnell (baked Alaska!) to their apparently endless supply of nylons. Did they issue them with nylons?
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Ugh, I find the painting in that link really quite abhorrent.
The feeling (and explanation) of that painting was still felt when my dad was based in Christchurch in the fifties. And mum did go down to the wharf (with the older sister who needed her for a "blind date" with a couple of Marines ). Happy I am, that turned out well, for they got married soon after. Plus I , one of their little bundles of joy, arrived to confirm their (Catholic faith) enduring love for each other. Ahh, the luck of the Irish huh? ;)
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
But it is a history worth telling, I believe. I imagine that your average GI was a more interesting and exotic creature for many NZ women than your average Kiwi bloke, in these times.
Aye. Exactly as my parents tell it.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
The feeling (and explanation) of that painting . . .
Albert Tucker's skull-beneath-the-skin sensibility was shaped by his being assigned by the army to document before-and-after reconstructive surgery of war wounds. At the time of his Images of Modern Evil series he'd been discharged and was plainly not a happy man, though the uncompromisingly gothic element never left his work.
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Hebe,
Back to flowers: the centre of a huge double red poppy
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Joe and Sofie, I'm trying to think why I reacted so strongly to that picture. My best guess is that I do have to deal with the reality of the kind of attitude it portrays. On rare occasions it's a Chinese person objecting to seeing this white guy with a Chinese woman - once the woman in question was only a colleague, which is even more ridiculous. Far more often, unfortunately, it's one of my foreign colleagues talking about our students as if they're all evil, subhuman monsters, or just spouting racist nonsense about the Chinese in general (and no, they haven't yet pushed me to the point of telling them if they hate the Chinese so much they should just fuck off to whatever shithole it is they crawled out of, but I have been tempted). Basically, the dehumanising of some Other I saw in that picture is something I have to deal with regularly that I really, really hate.
But yes, it's art, and perhaps even good art in that it very vividly and powerfully conveys its message, and it does portray something that is still a very real problem in this world, which is one of many things we need art to do. But it did inspire a very violent reaction in me.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Far more often, unfortunately, it’s one of my foreign colleagues talking about our students as if they’re all evil, subhuman monsters, or just spouting racist nonsense about the Chinese in general (and no, they haven’t yet pushed me to the point of telling them if they hate the Chinese so much they should just fuck off to whatever shithole it is they crawled out of, but I have been tempted). Basically, the dehumanising of some Other I saw in that picture is something I have to deal with regularly that I really, really hate.
It seems reminiscent of the days of the Shanghai Int'l Settlement. And if you've read the Tintin book The Blue Lotus, it makes even more sense.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
I find that aspect of China expat society extremely frustrating, but yes, there are a lot who still behave as if they were in the International Settlements (and it wasn't just Shanghai - Tianjin (birthplace of Eric Liddell) was another famous one, Qingdao is still marked by its German architecture, and many other Chinese cities hosted them). But even in the days of the International Settlements, there were those (e.g. Rewi Alley) who went out of their way to actually get involved in Chinese society. The expats I find it easier to deal with here are those who make sure they don't get caught in the China Expat Cone of Arrogant Ignorance, and for all my whingeing, there's actually quite a few of them these days. It also seems to me that the Chinese themselves are finally deciding that enough is enough and are demanding a bit more basic respect from the expats they host.
And I'm a big fan of Tintin and I've even managed to collect a few of his books in Chinese translation, some in a format very close to the original Franco-Belgian bande dessiné format, but most in a traditional Chinese format which I wish I had access to when I was a kid, because the Chinese format is just the right size for a young lad to slip into his pocket, and slip back out again when school gets boring.
Wow, seems I've pulled off a pretty big threadjack. Since it's Capture, I'll add a photo. Tintin in Chinese.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Since it’s Capture, I’ll add a photo. Tintin in Chinese.
O, what the hey, not a great shot yet, but here is a dragonfly :)
They are feisty lil' buggers. Out in the open they are a lot harder to capture.
Keep up your good work Chris. -
Is anyone in Dunedin? I've just read The Larnachs by Owen Marshall. Bloody good holiday reading. I take my hat off to him - wish I could wander up to the castle and have a look at the setting.
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
Very interesting history, that place. On our sojourns around the Sth Island, from the time I was a young girl to my young adulthood, Larnach Castle was a regular stop. You could feel the ghosts, I swear.
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Islander, in reply to
Larnach's Castle was where I discovered spiral staircases as a kid - it wasnt in very good nick 54 years ago, but was still well worth the visit.
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
It wasn't that flash 3o yrs ago but I loved it. It was the first time I'd ever thought about the existence of servants, and all the staff required to run a big house. I was particularly fascinated by the bell system that it had to ring "downstairs". We started going there in 1974, 7 years after the current owners' bought it, so it was still a work in progress. I would love to go there again.
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Cecelia, in reply to
Marshall has done a fantastic job of recreating the snobbery and privilege of the time in his book. I was always fascinated by the fact that NZ had a real castle but what's with the Victorian verandahs?
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Don't forget Cargill's Castle - NZ also has a real live ruined castle. But I'm surprised to read in that article that there are four castles in NZ. I'd never heard of the other two.
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3410,
I'd never heard of the other two.
Not sure about "Merkleworth" in Takapuna. Seems to be Merksworth, more correctly.
Might be another name for Algies' castle (1926) (don't laugh; it's a bit more impressive from the beach side), but Google does not clarify.
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Well, Algies' castle does look a little stumpy by castle standards, but it does look a lot more like a mediaeval fortress than it's southern cousins. Cargill's and Larnach's always struck me as being much more like palaces than castles.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Algies’ castle
I remember from back in the early 90s the occupant, or whatever their title was, complaining of people turning up unannounced and expecting a guided tour.
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Little babies on my buddy Shane's amazing avocado tree, on Waiheke, this morning.
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
I’ve never heard of Firth’s castle – or Clifton House . Maybe it's this one? I’m not sure where it is.
But yes, Algie’s Castle is on Hurstmere Rd down the Milford end. Because I was born and brought up in Takapuna, it was a fairly large part of my childhood. Although we always used to call it The Castle, I think we always knew that was a bit of a misnomer.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
I think all of NZs castles are a bit of a misnomer, really. A proper castle has been sitting there guarding places for centuries.
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