Kangaroos for Christmas

There are no Kangaroos in Austria.

It took me awhile at the T-shirt shops in Salzburg to figure out why they were selling Australian T-shirts. This is a consequence of Austrian beer. I'm sure of it. On the side the T-shirt merchants will also sell you a bottle of cold water while you sweat out your lunchtime beer in the ozone heat.

“Would you,” they ask you, themselves completely worn out by the crowds, too, “like that with or without gas?” You have a half second to decide.


Don't let Austrian Beer Make an Ass of You Over the Holidays.
but if it does, go out in great style, eh!

Or maybe not.

Here we have a bunch of German art collectors and critics poking fun of a sculpture that definately has the upper hand on them.


Hermann Goering and Friends Abandoning the Artistic Project
Don't they know that cigarettes contain formaldeyde?
Nope. They don't yet have the benefit of Canadian Health programs.
Only in Canada, eh? ... Pity.

That was in Dresden, in 1936.

Beer doesn't seem to have been involved. Cigarettes seem to be the poison of choice.

Negro Art, the Nazis called it.

There are, you see, two civilizations on earth. Let's hope that in this holiday season they can find, at least for a moment, a little space for each other.


The Square Dance of Civilization and the Oil Industry Allemand Right.
Desert Storm Chess Set, by E. Howard Kellogg, Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, ca. 1991
Gift to President George Bush. Wood, plastic, tile, 2 x 20 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches

In early January, I will continue with Ezra Pound and what his attempts to break the stalemate between them have to say for our contemporary cultural wars.

Blessings on you and your house.