This will hurt me...

Is that a Russian on that yacht? The Derwent, as seen from Alexandra Battery, Sandy Bay. January 2012. Tuesday Q and A and I am already back at work after losing my week's break to the flue. BAH! This week it is The Battle of the Memes 1. When you buy a greetings card are the words or the picture more important to you? I don't buy 'em! 2. Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them? I have been known to both make and buy gifts for people. 3. Are you going on holiday this year? If so, where? We are headed to the Tasmanian Rivera , the sunny north-west coast! 4. What was the best party you've ever been to? I have never been much of a party-person. Anything relaxed and laid back is more my scene. 5. If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like? Our wedding was nigh on THREE THOUSAND kilometres from home, with nobody else about to bother us. I'd say that's pretty ideal... 6. What's the most roma...

Ez and Henry recreated the landings at Omaha Beach when we were in Burnie (from a German perspective). You can see that there is not a lot of room in that pillbox for more troops. Coincidently, I am currently reading Antony Beevor's D-Day , and it feels like the definitive work. Check it out.

So here we have yet another mercilessly bleak wartime recruitment poster from that war that we had because that war that we had that was supposed to end all wars really didn’t and what it actually did was set up the preconditions for another, bigger war. Yeah, that war. Now, when it comes to war, I can see the attraction of a) going off to defend your country, c) being embarrassed by girls , c) impressing the ladies , d) being nagged by greedy women, e) plain old fashioned ignorance , f) getting fired up because the other guys are a bunch of rotters and scoundrels , or even g) have a bit of adventure, see the world, meeting interesting people and killing them in all sorts of interesting ways. However, when push comes to shove, it’s best not to let me know what I’m really getting myself into before you have my name on the dotted line. Seriously, I’d see this poster and feel sorry for the poor bloke, but c’mon, the dude doesn’t have any hands ! As the kids at the bus stop say, that sh...

A week ago know I wrote of wartime propaganda and its role in recruitment drives. Now, I was bold enough then to suggest that the old “ irate guy with a bullet in his head ” approach may not be the wisest or most successful tactic. Here we can see a far more effective approach: question their manhood . The logic here is clear: if they could, girls (dirty, stinkin’ broads!) would get out there and slaughter krauts and japs all day long. Unfortunately, steadfast patriarchal structures limit the opportunities for our feminine friends to get blood on their hands. That leaves it to men . Big, tough, hairy-chested MEN to do the job. What’s that? You don’t wanna kill japs and krauts? What are ya? Some kinda fairy...?

You may well be familiar with the maxim “sex sells”. It is a feature of advertising as old as the craft itself, I would suspect. Indeed, I have featured a number of vintage advertisements on this here very blog over the past six months. You might remember Lolita on the comfy bed ; or, Girl next door likes to suck on the most disguising things (and enjoys it!). Who could forget Hot babe in bikini lounges on the beach slowly cooking, but becoming ever more beautiful ; a clean home = frisky husband ; or (a favourite of my Church of Latter Day Saints-splinter group friends) he has a nice tie and a couple of girls on the go . Of course, there is the good old “ treat her mean and keep her keen ” approach; the brusqueness of a beautiful, proud Soviet cock standing to attention ; and the sexy through the ages “ hot babes with even hotter lawnmowers ”. So, despite this technique being as common as the little minx that can be found in the first link, it still jars me ever so slightly to see i...

The mysterious Jennifer makes one of her rare appearances in the Photo of the day bit, headlining with the banana-munching Henry. They are catching a few winter's rays checking out a book while Ezra concentrates on his sit ups, chin-ups and crunches in the next room. I think that he's preparing for a tilt at Ultimate Fighting, but he's keeping his cards close to his chest. Seeing the littlest bloke in the house prepare so diligently, I cast some thoughts over some of the nasty business currently going on in the Caucuses . The present position of Georgia reminds me of a fellow that I used to go to school with (some years ago now). A hot blooded fellow, little more than five foot tall, he spoke a good game. Easily led, on occasion a number of older colleagues would manage to convince him that he could 'take down' some of the bigger, nastier lads (I'm talking about dudes with attitudes and runs on the board). Naturally, he would choose the patented little bloke mo...

I was having a fiddle on teh Internets the other evening, and I happened upon a website project that I thought that I would share with everyone. The project is Picture Australia and it is connected to the National Library of Australia . It has only been up for a little while, so I am sure that it will only get better. The point of the project is to Re-Picture Australia . This essentially means that the site itself allows ready access to public domain images from participants, ready for people to download, mash-up and reload with new meaning into Picture Australia via a Flickr group . I’ll quote from the media release to give you the general idea: The aim of the project is to encourage the creative use of the nation’s collections and attracting new audiences who play and work in the visual industries. We are encouraging image-makers to creatively reuse, reinterpret and ‘Re-Picture’. Picture curators from libraries, archives, galleries, and museums from around the country have provided ...

I have blogged on Kate Beaton's comics previously . Kate has uploaded a bunch of new comics and I couldn't look past this one featuring a meeting of the minds that we have all been waiting for. Yes, Garfield (the cat) and James A. Garfield (twentieth President of the United States, most famous for being assasinated). I really like her work, so if you are into this sort of thing check it out. [Note, I do like very much how she has continued envisioning Pope John Paul II as a 'boyz in the hood' kind of guy.]

Here is a shot taken this afternoon right outside my building. I liked the mix of colour in the sky, the iron work of the lamp and the sandstone building. So I have posted it for your ocular gratification. On another tangent, I have been reading a remarkable little book from the late 1970s titled The Meaning of Hitler , by the terribly interesting Sebastian Haffner . It is a brisk read and offers a broad analysis of the life, work and meaning of Adolf Hitler in a calm, rational and neutral manner. This is not something always associated with work around such a notorious figure. Without wanting to make a song and dance about it, I would recommend it to anyone interested in a first-class, accessible exploration upon a theme not easily entered into. In the words of David Beckham, “It makes you fink, ya know?”

A lazy link for you all today, particularly history buffs. I like the concept, and the execution is pretty cool too. For the uninitiated, a reportret is a reconstructed portrait. As the site says: In many cases a contemporary image of a specific personality from world history is not on hand. In order to still form a clear picture of those personages affected, Reportret was set up as a gallery of reconstructed portraits: without anachronisms, respecting contemporary style, and based on historical sources. Read more about it here , and make sure that you have a browse around their gallery, it is well worth the effort!

As a fellow with a keen interest in history, I heartily support Baudrillard's Bastard's attempt to solve one of the greatest puzzles of American history: Why do so many prints published during the American War for Independence feature dogs urinating of things? If anyone knows, please help us out!

Today I've found an interesting ad for US Savings Bonds from 1952. Essentially, They have decided that the best way to promote the bonds is by drawing up a map of Communist Party members in each State. One assumes the thinking was that the terror provoked by the knowledge of five fifth columnists in Alaska potentially getting up to no good would be enough to scare the housewives out of a few dollars to stump up for another H-Bomb! This is one of my all time favourite ads, as it reveals a certain mindset (paranoia) at a time when the Cold War (still in its infancy) threatened to turn hot. I'm sure that the Bonds people saw this as a public service announcement of sorts, kind of like mapping of the outbreak of some horrible disease. Maybe the implication implicit here is that Bobby Joe down in Kansas better start rooting out the seditious six! When I look at this map though, there is one thing that I can't help but ponder. I wonder about that lonely Red down there in Mississ...

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) long-range frigate HMAS Warramunga has been in Hobart this week, and I managed to take a snap of her while leaving work last Thursday (these ships generally berth right across the road from my office). Warramunga is capable of air defence, surface and undersea warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. Their website tells me that her main armament comprises one 127 mm gun capable of firing 20 rounds per minute, ship launched Mk 46 torpedoes and a Mk 41 vertical launch system for the Evolved Sea Sparrow point defence missile. There is no word on whether or not they paid any parking fees. I would wager few parking officers would stick their hands up to collect.

Today's ad is best seen as a counterpoint to the previous one . Accordingly, if cute 'n fluffy, sweet little lambs with flowers in their hair cannot stir your loins for a fight, perhaps extreme violence will! I like the touch of Rambo about this one.

This comic is for Vince: I have been enjoying throughout the day these little cartoons by Canadian Kate Beaton (in my sanity breaks), who draws from all sorts of things, particularly interesting little titbits from history. As an aside, the spellchecker says 'titbits'. Funny, I've always said 'tidbits', but it is TITbits. Filthy. Well there you go! Anyway, if you liked this, here is her website , and some other links to some of her work.

This is a poster that appeared during the Spanish Civil War, seems to be encouraging roosters and their girlfriends to have more and more little chicks. Perhaps there was some grand plan to train and arm these revolutionary offspring and send them to the front to tackle Franco and his troops. Or perhaps there wasn't. Anyway, I am a sucker for chickens, especially cute little fluffy ones, and I feel that this is a good companion piece to the last ad that I posted, which I lovingly titled “Soviet Cock” . I’ve no doubt that a crucial factor undermining the eventual goal of communist domination of the entire globe was not enough chickens. Or at the very least, a lack of revolutionary zeal in the chickens that were produced. Now if you doubt my reasoning, and are actually interested in the real story behind this poster, the title maybe gives it away. “Intensificar la reproducción es hacer obra revolucionaria” pretty much translates as “Intensifying reproduction is revolutionary work”. ...

A very interesting discussion can be found in the New Yorker around the American Civil War and the impact of the resultant deaths on the US. Adam Gopnik's essay "In the mourning store" is well worth a read. Gopnik's essay revolves around three new works that explore the war and the impact of death on US society: Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War ; Mark S. Schantz’s Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and America’s Culture of Death ; and Mark E. Neely Junior's The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction . Especially interesting to me is how - in order to deal with the horrors of war - new forms of social ritual emerged. As Gopnik points out, these rituals were "designed not so much to 'blind' survivors to the reality as to make them believe that the reality was necessary and noble". In many respects, this has been echoed in most subsequent wars. Even more interesting to me is the reflec...

Robert Edwards, White Death: Russia's War on Finland 1939–40 One of the most captivating (yet little known) stories of World War II concerns the valiant Finnish defence against the invading Red Army through the winter of 1939–40. The Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in November 1939 prompted a combination of shock and outrage in the international community. Yet, three months after the invasion of Poland by Germany, reaction amounted to little more than the Soviet expulsion from the already dead League of Nations. In all respects, the results of what became known as the Winter War conflict seemed a foregone conclusion. The Soviet Army was reputed to be the best in the world, and the Finns outnumbered 4 to 1 in men, 200 to 1 in tanks and 30 to 1 in aircraft. However, to everyone's surprise, the Finns resisted the Soviet advance and became an international cause celebre. For over three months and with little outside assistance (much to the shame of the West), it looked ...

Continuing the attempt to catch up, here are another couple of reviews. Erich Maria Remarque, The Night in Lisbon Solid little story about the difficulties faced by refugees who’ve fled Nazi Germany. Although hampered by rather staid and pedestrian dialogue, the story itself moves briskly enough to keep things ticking over. Though lacking when measured against All Quiet on the Western Front , Remarque manages to construct a disturbing account of courage and cowardice, love, faith, evil and everything in between. I’m somewhat surprised that this hasn’t been made into a film, because it has all the ingredients of a tragic romance. Although the love story remains a little clichéd and predictable, it does manage to reconstruct the little known (to me at least) world of those who left Germany in the face of persecution, but struggled to find anyone prepared to take them. The fact that Remarque himself faced this brings authenticity to the tale. Mildly recommended. Giles Foden, Mimi and Tou...

In this brief but engaging book, Kalashnikov's story is told in an engaging and colloquial style. It is a fascinating portrait of a man of ingenuity and vitality in the context of the harsh and often brutal Russia of the twentieth century. Against what appears to be the effort of the publishers (or at least whoever designed the book sleeve), this is not a text for serious firearms or military enthusiasts. Despite the title, this book is less a story of the AK-47, and more the story of its designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov. The autobiography of Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the renowned AK-47 assault rifle, recounts a far more interesting story than his most famous invention. In it, he shares his life story for the first time: his deportation to Siberia with his family while still a child; his time as a soldier in a tank regiment; his invention of the world's most famous weapon and his experiences of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yelts...