This Isn't What You're Thinking
Because we here at the blog just love to throw in scarlet-tinted fish and distract you, and you are no doubt thinking of that Oscar-bait film called "The Brutalist", which is NOT about bare-knuckle boxing despite the title. Art!
Conrad hasn't watched this grim-fest and doesn't intend to, as it's over three and a half hours long, and it delves deeply into misery and squalor, as well as architecture. You can be sure that Adrien Brody does an excellent job as Laszlo Toth, the immigrant Hungarian Jewish heroin-addict (are there any boxes there left to tick?) who comes good as an architect in South Canada. I still ain't going to watch it. Art!
Now, since Laszlo isn't a pugilist, why is it called "The Brutalist"? O I thought you'd never ask! Art?
This is Wrexham Police Station, which exemplifies Brutalism. No fripperies or decoration, just raw concrete laying bare the bones of a building's construction, no colour palette, just shades of grey. Art!
This is Sinister-era brutalism, except in their case it bordered on luxury for the proletariat. Here we see a block of designer flats, and a pair of detached houses, though it's a bit difficult to tell if they were constructed in 1950 or 2020.
Which gentle segue leads us into the meat of today's matter, for we are talking about a Quoran dubbing himself 'Brutalsky', whom hails from Modern-day Mordor, but whom is prone to satirical descriptions of life in land of the Grave and the Dree. I'm not going to give his real name away, just in case; he flies under the radar of the FSB and censors because he posts in English, and excellent English at that. There are South Canadians posting on Twitter who ought to take lessons from him in spelling and grammar. Art!
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| His 'n' Hers |
This, gentle reader, is one of the cleaner and more presentable Ruffian toilets because some are positively dangerous to enter, thanks to the risk of falling in, not to mention spiders and rats.
As Ol' Brutey continues to compare, the Donetsk Oblast, if if were an independent sovereign state (a concept that would send Putinpot into a frothing rage), would rank rank 148th globally in terms of size, alongside Haiti or North Macedonia. Art!
The irony howling louder than a pack of Siberian wolves is that Ruffia is the largest country in the world by area, and it, the dog (or domesticated wolf) is being wagged by the Donetsk tail. The pensions and government wages of the residents are all being subsidised by Moscow, which is now seeing it's own pensioners suffer as inflation eats away at their incomes. By summer of this year the Muscovite pensioners will have the choice of being able to eat or pay rent, but not both, which Conrad predicts they will happily suffer in support of their brethren in the glorious Donetsk Oblast. Art!
Who aren't having such a good time of it themselves. This still is from a clip from a month ago, and the locals of Donetsk are washing themselves with snow, because they don't have any water to wash with. Not just no hot water, no water full stop.
Onward to splendid victory under the unbelievable genius of Putinpot!
We haven't even mentioned about the price of oil yet .....
THEY LIED!
Now it can be told. You may remember that spectacularly deconstructionist Wester "Unforgiven", featuring Ol' Clint as a character about as far as it's possible to be from a White Hat. Where was the height of the action filmed?
In a town called 'Big Whiskey', which, given our coverage of Uisge Beath over the past few days, is quite fitting. Art!
Well, wouldn't you know it, the original film location is up for sale and not only is it not a grubby mid-Western half-horse town, it's not even in South Canada. It happens to be located in Alberta, which is part of Canuckistan (I thought it might cause confusion calling it 'British America'), where everyone is polite and friendly, and the only way to tell you're not really in Big Whiskey is how they pronounce it 'Aboot'. Art!
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| More Urban Shabby than Brutalist |
LOOK! Look how charmingly bucolic it is in the nice bright sunshine rather than nocturnal squalor.
Hollywood lied to us.
Bah! and I can't even drown my sorrows. Day 47 of being sober.
More Grumpy German Gefreiter
Yes, back to the bravely anonymous Teuton corporal, who disliked his company commander, the company 'pets' and the rear echelon fat cats who lived very well in occupied Holland.
30 And 31 August 1944
The chicanery of the company continues against me after my return. For the time we will remain in Burgh D25. The Battalion Commander justifies this at a parade of NCOs. Major-General Sievers spoke to the officers at Steenburgen D63. He lost his third division in France. His 16th Luftwaffe Field Division went to Normandy with many vehicles (easy chairs, canaries, rugs, chicken hutches, etc). All that was missing was ammunition and weapons. This is the typical way in which Luftwaffe units are run.
Conrad's Commentary: The interpreter has used poetic licence to work 'chicanery' into the narrative here, it was probably a lot ruder and cruder in the original Teuton. Art!
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| Ol' Sievey |
GGG isn't actually far off the mark in his snide comments about 16th Luftwaffe Field Division, as it was assembled from spare Luftwaffe bodies when manpower started to get tight. When in Normandy about a third of it was wiped out as soon as it was sent into action, it was then moved to a quieter part of the front where what was left was practically annihilated when 'quiet' became 'inordinately noisy'. Art!
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| The survivors. Possibly. |
That crack about easy chairs and canaries was cruel and not completely false, because the Luftwaffe Field Divisions were notably under-trained, poorly-led and seriously deficient in equipment. Hence GGG's sneering scorn. Reminds me of something contemporary if only I could recall what .....
Tee Hee!
O delicious schadenfreude! No calories, takes up nil room in your kitchen and helps replenish the ozone layer. Possibly.
What am I crowing about now? Another dread headline for Elong Tusk. Art!
O dearie me, Elong. If the "Daily Mail" - which never met a right-winger it didn't fawn over - is criticising you, then things have gone very badly wrong. WRONGITY-WRONG-WRONG!
As you can see, the value of Tesla has recovered slightly but there are many hours left today and we'll see what it ends up at. Art!
I could have been crueller, it might have been "Down The Dustpipe"
Our Journey With Bernie
Is still fraught with a lack of appropriate collector's card pictures, and if they do appear then they don't have his expository blurb on the back. Normally he waffles on about the type of canvas or board he used, or what medium it's in, or points out how eye-popping the gore is. Art!
As you can guess, that upper image is two Snipped and pasted together since I think they belong to #89 'Mementoes'. As for the bottom image: "One of my favourite all-time pictures. Gross and funny at the same time. Just what do you expect from a guy who thinks of Ed Gein as a role model?"
Finally -
Since tomorrow is shopping day, I need to get rid of the old food cluttering up the fridge. It's my civic duty. Honest.
LATE BREAKING NEWS LATE BREAKING NEWS LATE BREAKING NEWS
Thanks to a tip-off on Twitter, I have an update on Tesla share prices. Art!
Tee hee!
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