Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Celebrate Else Steinhardt. People should not be defined by their victim-hood. Fraulein Else is the name of the novella Arthur Schnitzler wrote in 1924. It was a forerunner of Joyce's stream of consciousness writing and it incorporated some of the psychosexual ideas from Freud's theories. It's about a young girl of 19 who lives in Vienna and is cornered into stripping for an old voyeur by her own mother. The father is having financial problems and the man will help the father if the girl obliges. There are some parallels with our Else. She was roughly the same age as the character in the novella when it was written, and she probably moved in the same circles as Schnitzler, as a young opera singer. Moreover, Else was, if not classically beautiful, highly flirtations and attractive. In the pictures of her she is often arch: she licks ice creams, sits on laps and embraces naked statues. In other pictures she is dressed in loose, flowing clothing, matching the ope...

Great-grandpa  Isidore Steinhardt, the Foreign Editor of the Neue Freie Presse,  is third from the right.   Isidore Steinhardt, it seems, was partly instrumental in promoting the annexation of Bosnia Herzegovina to the Austrian empire. He was involved in Count Alois von Aehrethal's machinations. On the back of this picture it says : "Papa Steinhardt just before World War I."  If the picture was taken in 1912 then the figure on the left is probably  Count Alois von Aehrethal. Perhaps they are at Bachlau.  Great Grandpa Isidor features as the person who put George Nastic up to writing the Statute for the Liberation of the Southern Slavs along with his brother.  in   The Inside Story of Austro-German Intrigue Or How the World War was Brought about , by Joseph Goricar and Lyman Beecher Stowe:          "Now that George Nastic had become a notorious character, I resolved to acquaint myself more fully wi...

. Uncle Wilhelm was made into a non-comissioned officer, a Master Sergeant (feldwebel)  in the Luftwaffe in 1942 which suggests that he had a career in the army from the beginning of the war. He was a Nazi. Perhaps he was an involuntary Nazi. He sent his love to Babylein and Lisa. He wasn't bad hearted. But Lisa and Heini said that he was an unambitious boy. He had few dreams and ambitions and so let the army give them to him. And so, I suppose, he, involuntarily, was a war criminal. In the last days - when the Luftwaffe was all but destroyed. He was sent to fight and die on the Eastern Front in late 1944. He was probably drafted from the Luftwaffe into the infantry later on when the forward airbases in Poland where he might have worked were all but destroyed.

The Pintailed Whydah is a bully. To comment on the cleverness or stupidity of birds, one has to be anthropomorphic – how else translate their actions, and give them a meaning? So that’s the way I’ ve tried to think about it and I’m afraid I’ ve  come to the conclusion that they’re nothing but a pretty face - the “bird brain” label sticks. Chickens are stupid. When they’re scared, they huddle together and suffocate each other; and they rush across roads in the face of oncoming traffic. In fact their brains are so redundant that they can still run around without them. From my experience, geese too are stupid, never mind what the Romans say – they can’t in fact tell friend from foe, and gaggle indiscriminately. My landlady in Harare had a flock of them in her garden that refused to recognise me as a legitimate, fully paid-up tenant. What’s more stupid looking (and actually, bloody frightening) than seeing 12 geese rush at you, necks outstretched, hissing? Hadeda ibi...

Korpiklaani is Folk- metal band  from Lathi in Finland. The band has six members. Jonne Järvelä – vocals, guitar Jaakko "Hittavainen" Lemmetty – violin, jouhikko and woodwinds Kalle "Cane" Savijärvi – guitar Matti "Matson" Johansson – drums Jarkko Aaltonen – bass Juho Kauppinen – accordion The band has been active since 2003 and signed on to the "Nuclear Blast" label and onto "Napalm Records". They started as a Sami folk music group called "Shamaani Duo". Sami people are from  the Northern Countries in Europe and many of them were reindeer herding. They have their own Sami language which is different from any other. Later they got new members and renamed themselves "Shaman". Sami's are famous for their Shaman. After they recorded two albums they changed their name again to "Korpiklaani". They also changed the language of their Lyrics. They now sing in English and not in their Sami languag...

Dearest Family and friends,

To: Mr & Mrs J. Hall, Box 49 Eikenhof (TVL) Johannesburg Afrique du Sud. 28.3.76 Dear John and Nola, Today a week ago we were still in New Delhi with Eve and Tony and the boys and the whole thing looks like a dream. We arrived on the 28.2 in New Delhi and were happy to see the whole family fit and in good health. The boys have grown very much, Phil is just about the size of Tony and the twins are above average. We stayed untill the 22nd March, as our visa ran out and we did not want to go through all the ceremony of asking for an extension. It also got hotter and I don't know how I would have supported the heat. The extra week would also have passed, so we decided not to go to all the trouble with the authorities and leave on the 22nd. I cannot tell you how happy we have been to see such a lovely family, so happy and united. It is rare to experience sucha thing and we have both all the reasons to be proud of them (when I say goth I mean you and us ). There is su...

British Curators are getting a bit above themselves. Curators as collage makers. Curators as story tellers. Jackanory, Jackanory Darwin ...was a triumphalist and fetishistic exhibition. It started with two little wrens in a glass box, pointing out how their beaks were different and then ended with a propaganda booth where dumbed down evolutionary theory was regurgitated from the craw of the scientific establishment and fed to visitors in an overwening patchwork of colourful metaphors. Shah Abbas It purported to show how the Shah cleverly united his country and used used Shia Islam to do so, in the process helping boost the arts and sciences. But it ended with the regulatory orientalist sting in the tail about the Shah and young boys. Maharajah Now there the curators told a tale of cultural emasculation. There was some explanation of how the British came to dominate India and the only natural response to the big painting towards the end of the exhibition was to snort with laughter at th...

With an Eye to the Future: ILO Refugee Programmes in Africa   By Eve Hall Infocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction.   Working paper # 12   ILO April 2003   Recovery and Reconstruction Department         Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................iii 1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................1 The ILO and refugees ..................................................1 Built-in focus on human resources ...............................2 Refugees in Africa ........................................................2 2. THE ILO PROGAMMES IN SOMALIA AND SUDAN Somalia..........................................................................6 The setting..................................................................... 6 The Quick Impact Income Generating Project .................6 The Integrated Refugee Camp Development Projec...

Peter Broderick, by Snagt I haven't admired a songwriter for a long time, as much as I admire Peter Broderick Softly freezing Not at home And it's alright Below it With the notes in my Ears Diverge Games Games again Esbern Snares Glade Maps

There are many contrasting approaches to the arrangement of funerals, from the relgious to the secular. But after five deaths and four funerals over the last two years, it seems to me that the humanist way of death is the most salutary. This is because it accepts one simple truth. Human life is constructed like a story. It has a beginning, high points, low points and then ends – definitively. The humanist way of death recognises the fact that you will die and that when you do, that will be the story of you. From the viewpoint of a our human, third person narrative, isn't the idea of heaven a little irritating? A life, like a good book, should never end in: " ... to be continued." Life only really makes sense as biography. In contrast, religious funerals, where a stranger usually officiates and witters on about heaven, often fail to commemorate a life well lived properly. Religious funerals can be a whimpering anti-climax. When Uncle Heini died this month at...

Unkindness to fellow travellers   Memorandum To: MR. PULAT, Ministry of [Soviet] Civil Aviation MR. ARDYMOV, Transit Manager INTOURIST From: M.A. HALL, PASSENGER ON SU Z44 HELD IN TRANSIT SINCE 12/7/81 Date: 19/7/81 Subject: TREATMENT OF AEROFLOT TRANSIT PASSENGERS               (TO BE READ WITH ATTACHED MEMO. OF 16/7/81) Tonight, one full week after arriving at Moscow airport too late to catch a confirmed onward flight to Mogadishu, myself and six other passengers are finally die to be released from Sheremetyovo transit hotel to fly to our destination. The missed connection was no fault of our own. Nothing was achieved in finding us an alternative flight within a reasonable time. I regret to say that in the following three days since I sent my memorandum of the 16/7/81, I can record no improvement in the treatment of transit passengers, except some improvement s in the quality and vari...

Trabazon port, by Feyza Darling Mom and Dad, In a few hours we'll be arriving in Istanbul. We caught the ferry from Trabzon on Friday and it's been a very pleasant and restful two days sailing on the Black Sea . It's beautiful, and the little ports are crowded and not too expensive. We've stayed on deck, as it was much cheaper even than the dormitory beds. To and Phil slept on deck in sleeping bags, while the twins and I slept in the VW - everytime we stopped we bought bread and fruit and kebabs to eat on board. Only today did we have a meal in the restaurant and it was pretty expensive. It's fun, but alas, no place to wash, except your face! So after over 48 hours, we're pretty grubby and smelly! Yesterday, the twins birthday - not really celebrated, except that they got a few extra cokes, and a German lady in a Kombi made them each a chocolate pudding! The deck is pretty crowded- and agains we met a couple we first met at the border in Pakis...

From New Delhi to Nice Helmand river Tony Hall's plans and notes based on Mary Barnett's log book 5th July Delhi to Amritsar 7am Leave. Arrive around 4pm - stay at Mrs Bandare's Guest House. 6th July Amritsar - Lahore Level fertile country - allow time for border crossing. 7th July Wednesday Lahore - Peshawar (443km = 275 miles) Industrial areas, then across fertile plains to Jhelum. Mountain road to Rawalpindi - busy fairly wide GT road to Peshawar 8th -10th July (Thursday to Saturday) Peshawar to Kabul (205kms = 90 miles) Peshawar to customs 56kms Khyber road, quite winding and narrow in parts, but not very difficult. Pass closed sunset to sunrise. 30 Afghanis toll payable at Sarobi (80kms before kabul) - through gorge to Kabul Sunday 11th July Kabul - Kandahar - pre-dawn departure Take ample petrol and food. 512 kms - 318 miles Modern highway, Resthouse (Petrol) at Ghazni (146 kms from Kabul) Gradual ascent (Highest point 9000ft) then ea...

By Eve Hall Published in TRANSITION Volume 4, number 16, 1964 They called her Shiela, because that's what she was, a Sheila, a Johannesburg Moll. She had three different surnames I knew of, Dreyers, the most infamous. She came to the prison with Victor as her alias, and I think she had used van Wyk not long before. She was not quite 19, and very pretty, tall, with short wild blond hair, (the black dye had grown out when I met her), blue eyes, a very snub nose, long firm legs, large perfect breasts and a small waist. She slouched badly and it was her pride that she had, in the seven months she had been there, worn out three pairs of the prison's shoes. She had tatoos on both her arms and an ornate Micky Mouse on one large thigh. When I was first hustled into the communal eating room, harassed by the very thorough search given to political prisoners, naked under my striped dressing gown, staggering under a load of blankets, sheets, uniforms, I hardly saw the women sitt...

Picture of Bosham sunset from Jakeof  Andy , did a portrait session with Patti Smith , and while he took her picture he remarked: "My brother Phil used to really like you." "Yeah? Really. Well that's it. I have to go now." "Come on", said Andy, "it's only been a few minutes". "Well you got more time than I gave Robert Mapplethorpe " , she said, and left. Andy meets a lot of well-known people in his line of work. He said Roman Polanski was a wanker. Or was he talking about someone else? But you have to admire Polanski as a director: Le Locataire scared the hell out of me. In one scene the protagonist sees the sillouette of a man looking out at him from a toilet across the courtyard, and so he runs around the block through the corridors to find out who it is who it is. He finds the toilet. It is painted in yellow, and covered in Hieroglyphs, but there is no one there. He looks out back at his own apartment an...

From the picture gallery of cars in South Africa Women's NATION - Kenya The Friday Commentry By Eve Hall, 1966 I have often wanted to write a dirge on "cars I have known" - or more specifically, on one car.  Araminta a little green Austin who was born in 1935, and died an ignoble death at the age of 17. She was beautiful in her prime. Square as a little box, and just as comfortable. She embarassed our relatives, annoyed and frightened our friends, and invariably made us late for any appointment. She was also, unhesitatingly, not to be relied on; but she rolled down hills wonderfully - except for the time a fool mechanic forgot to tighten the screws on one of her wheels. She limped painfully down a very steep hill, with her family sitting inside her, unconscious of impending disaster.We didn't notice the extra wobble from the everyday ones, but it did seem that passing motorists looked at us with more than usual horror. But with a fine instinct of ...