Vale / in Memorium
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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| David wrote: | I find Leunig often politically didactic and that his whimsy becomes a little less cute when he's asking us to take him seriously (see his anti-vaccination cartoons etc.). But I do have a book of some of his '70s work which I feel is more impressive and interesting than what he's doing today, and I do understand the regard he is held in.
Perhaps I find the political cartoon a strange art form in general it's great at pointing out hypocrisy and irony, but otherwise I find it the art form that is most naturally disposed to propaganda. Leak's work in particular rarely seemed funny or insightful; it really did seem like it belonged in the right-wing counterpart to some revolutionary leftist tract say, the Spectator. Perhaps it's a testament to where the Australian has moved politically that Leak was their go-to cartoonist.
Oh, and Jezza, I really must respond to your claim that he was a 'free speech hero'. Let's get one thing straight: those of us who are passionate about defending free speech are often called upon to defend crude, idiotic, deliberately offensive work. Being the subject of a censorship row is not inherently praiseworthy; any bigot or empty provocateur can do that. Let us reserve our praise for those who have actually done something to advance the cause of freedom of expression, as opposed to those whose chief purpose in life is to serve as the thin edge of the wedge. |
I didn't know Leunig had turned into an anti-vaxxer, David. That is a shame, if so, but it is the 70s and 80s work that I am familiar with, and it is often poignant, generous and very original. I agree that Leak's work seems a bit like propaganda, and it is too often shot through with what seems like spite, rather than wit. It's not worthless, but it's not high quality just because it is "edgy".
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sherrife 
Victorian Socialists - people before profit
Joined: 18 Apr 2003
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| Quote: | "Trevor was a sports enthusiast, an avid golfer and a member of the Collingwood Football Club to the end. But he cringed at the profiteering so frequently visible at the highest levels of professional sport. He believed that human values, and the lives of athletes, too often were sacrificed on the altar of success and, ultimately, the altar of profit.
Trevors world view had been shaped by his father, who was a member of the Communist Party. Accumulation of wealth on one end, Trevor often said, is equal to accumulation of misery on the other end. He grew more radical with age, rather than more conservative. In retirement, most settle down and smell the roses; Trevor joined the socialists and paid dues to the CFMEU." |
https://redflag.org.au/node/5718
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I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks... - Eugene Debs
Last edited by sherrife on Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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If he was paying fees to the CFMEU without being forced to, he must have really lost his mind toward the end
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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sherrife
Victorian Socialists - people before profit
Joined: 18 Apr 2003
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| stui magpie wrote: | | If he was paying fees to the CFMEU without being forced to, he must have really lost his mind toward the end |
Nah, just indicates that he strongly supported working class people in one of the most dangerous industries getting organised against the shonky builders that dominate the industry.
From supporting the Pies to the CFMEU, same smart guy, same excellent instincts.
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I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks... - Eugene Debs |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Please don't put Collingwood and the CFMEU in the same sentence, it makes me feel ill as a Collingwood supporter.
You know what CFMEU stands for? Come **** My Employer Up.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David 
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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A more charitable obituary from Guy Rundle:
https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/03/13/rundle-an-obituary-for-bill-leak/
| Quote: | An obituary for Bill Leak, and his monstrous exploitation by The Australian
Guy Rundle
De Mortuis Nisi Nil Bonum, especially when you suspect your exit may be in the same manner as the decedent. In this case, Bill Leak, who after 30-plus years of high-functioning alcoholism, drug use, injury and mishap, and a decade cleanish after the last of these, has died at the age of 61. Rock star heart, they call it, the vital muscle hard as a hockey puck from overwork. Sixty-one is young to check out. Leak is lucky he got that. That pitch off the balcony that nearly killed him also saved him.
De Mortuis Nisi Nil Bonum. Leak was a great artist, a genuine master, and he was a genuinely funny cartoonist about once a week, which is about as often as anyone is genuinely funny. Good newspapers rotate their cartoonists for that reason, but the Oz needed Leak, as a forward force for their multi-front culture war.
The Left hounded him to death, said his far less talented mate Rowan Dean. Bill was obsessive, working to 4am. So 30 years of $$%^%%$ your own shit up, and then, in grand fashion, replacing the piss with politics of an obsessive order, something the Oz editors were only too happy to use. Who killed Bill Leak? I, said the ed, wanting four cartoons a week.
De Mortuis Nisi Nil Bonum, but really, the man is being utterly overrated. Bill Leak was the most courageous man I knew, said Greg Sheridan in the Pravda-style memorial to him on the weekend. He was outdone by Jennifer Oriel this morning, it what may be the worst piece of writing published in a major paper in the last 20 years, something that does not appear to have been even cursorily edited. What sort of service is this to a colleague, to use his death as something more to lob out of the trenches? How pathetic. How shaming. How absurd too, for their argument that the vociferous criticism Leak received from many quarters over past years hurried him onto his demise. Surely that would indicate that words are not simply the exchange of free speech, but have a material power. I mean, if you thought, really thought, that criticism could directly cause fatal heart attacks, what person would not consider curbs on free speech, what monster would not consider restrictions upon them? Dean, Oriel and others appear to be using Leaks death to make Gillian Triggs argument about the justification for 18C, that words are acts.
De Mortuis Nisi Nil Bonum, but Leak was like many right-wing cartoonists (Spooner in a different mode is another example): men, mostly men, whose artistic ability limits their capacity for reflection on the source of their own beliefs. Left-wing cartoonists like Petty or Pope retain their ratiocinative ability. Right-sided ones collapse into muttering misanthropy, let themselves be put to work by forces who couldnt give a shit about the genuine artistry that goes into a cartoon. Leak needed such in the end, because hed lost a lot of his friends from the libertarian left, and a lot of the beliefs that animated him in his more expansive, optimistic years. Hes not the only one to use politics to stay off the piss, but hes the most spectacular example of it. His oeuvre will last, but like most of us, hell be forgotten in five minutes, and this Stalinist hagiography hes been used for will look embarrassing and cynical.
De Mortuis Nisi Nil Bonum. |
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"Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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yeah, grundle.
It's interesting that leak polarises opinion so much. Are the lefties so put out that the same edge he used to support their causes was turned against them?
I can't help wondering if he changed much after the accident that nearly killed him.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Pies4shaw 
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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Culprit 
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Location: Port Melbourne
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| Sad day for Rock n Roll. One of the first lead breaks I learned playing guitar. RIP Chuck. |
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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"The main guy was Louis Jordan. I wanted to sing like Nat Cole, with lyrics like Louis Jordan with the swing of Bennie Goodman with Charlie Christian on guitar, playing Carl Hogan's riffs, with the soul of Muddy Waters."
Now, there's an aspiration for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57rrb_95PGU |
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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90, passed at home, nice.
Brilliant memories, such great songs, for ALL generations,
Have a well deserved RIP.
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You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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Piesnchess
piesnchess
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
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| Post subject: Chuck Berry, true Legend of Rock n Roll ! | |
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Buddy Holly, Elvis, john lennon, brian jones, Bowie, Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison, Johnny Cash, etc, well fellas, the real King of Rock n roll, the immortal Chuck Berry, has just arrived to lead the Band. Rock on !!
Rest in Peace Chuck, you truly were the last man standing. 
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Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
Chess and Vodka are born brothers. - Russian proverb. |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
First man up, one of the last to fall
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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watt price tully
Joined: 15 May 2007
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Wow, Sad. Wonderful musician.
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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