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Water of Life – Johnnie “White Walker”

Now, Johnnie Walker.

Marius Mueller Westernhagen’s go to.

If you are remotely into Scotch, there is no way you would not have come across it.

Johnnie Walker Blue remains a go to, especially when I am traveling internationally, and the watering hole of choice is not able to hit my weak spots for smoke and peat.

Yes, it is a blend but at that, it is ensured that all components are of prime quality and not that age is the ultimate indicator, but none of the individual whiskies used is young than twenty years. The borderline iconic presentation has become one with the liquid emission.

Now, what we got here is a limited edition “White Walker” edition release.

As any HBO aficionado would be able to tell, it’s of course a Game of Thrones themed release coinciding with the winter coming in most parts of the world and paying homage to the humanoid ice creatures of the show.

The beauty of this release starts with the GoT themed packaging of the bottle – a villainous White Walker is gracing the updated logo of the frosted bottle dressed and prepped in the trademark Johnnie Walker way. In other words, Mr Walker has gotten the zombie treatment with gleaming blue eyes and he comes equipped with a sword. To top it off, once the flagon is exposed to the freezer and temperatures descend into minus territory, a secret message appears, i.e. a reminder that “Winter is here”.

I was a bit suspicious as to the nature of this release – is it just a gimmick?

So, this is just a gimmick whisky, right?

Upon sampling the dram, I was pleasantly surprised as opposed to JW’s trademark flavours, this one makes an excellent breakfast whisky with its delicate aroma, citrussy nuances and spicy hints with an elongated fruit finish.

White Walker still harbours the velvety vanilla creaminess and hints of the characteristic Johnnie Walker smoke, but it is complex in the sweet department, very well balanced and very approachable – I’d imagine this to be palatable even to those who would normally not be enticed to sample whisky outside cocktail territory.

The fact that due to the nature of this special edition, one is encouraged to skip the ice and chill the bottle instead, makes it ideal for sipping it neat.

Summer is coming on terra australis and it is going to be an enjoyable one, walking with long decisive steps side-by-side with the chilled White Walker.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Photo provided

Hitler’s Monsters: A supernatural history

Yale University Press

Now, this is an interesting one on a subject that has been explored in manifold approaches of both serious and amateurish manners. The occult nature of the national socialism movement. No matter is you think it is nonsense or if you are intrinsically interested, Hitler’s Monsters and its author Eric Kurland is tracing the German infatuation with “border science”, i.e. “dousing” or geomancy” – which was often practiced with a pendulum and a map. The interesting bit is that Kurland does not rest there but documents how German susceptibility to magical thinking did create systemic problems throughout the war effort.

The book does do a good job underpinning that Hitler’s interest in the natures that supercedes what can be proven scientifically was both less doctrinaire and more utilitarian, and how he used the material it provided for his political propaganda and manipulation of the public.

Hitler’s Monsters is a itler’s

well-written elaboration that sheds a powerful light on Nazi Germany.

The book comes in three chronological parts composed of three chapters each. One traces the role of the occult and its influence on the Nazi Party from its intellectual antecedents in the late nineteenth century through the seizure of power in 1933. Part Two is about the role of the occult  during the first six years of the regime that was meant to last for a thousand years. The last part is about the supernatural and World War Two.

There are chapters on astrologers, magicians, parapsychology, biodynamic agriculture, radiohelia and natural healing and the use of the World Ice Theory, which was used to explain how the human race and the Aryans evolved from ancient gods and not from apes, thus making Himmpler employ much effort to sponsor this theory as a state science.

The last part of the book discusses the role played by the Werewolves, who were supposed to guard the Reich and protect it from its enemies. These Werewolves could, according to the perverted Nazi thinking, change from humans into animal, not unlike Siegfried has done in the Nibelungenlied. Goebbels even created his own "Radio Werewolf" station, in which many broadcasts started with the sound of a wolf howling and a song by a woman named Lily.

Eric Kurlander bases his investigations on archival research and shows how the Third Reich was more monstrous than commonly supposed. Although not an easy read, I believe that this book will become a classic in a very short time.

A thorough "post-revisionist" balance to recent claims diminishing or explaining by other means the reasons so many under the so far darkest period of Germany sought guidance through "border sciences" of Thule-obsessed, and other dodgy speculation.

A book recommended for anyone interested in Nazi Germany or the impact of superstition on a nation.

Logic: The Laws of Truth

Nicholas J.J. Smith

Princeton University Press

It was Arthur Schopenhauer who claimed that logic, should be capable of being deduced from self-evident premises. The focus of Logic: The Laws of Truth is not such on the necessity of evidential substantiation but on Socratic and Aristotelian logic, which is a pity as I perceive logic to be based on verifiable evidence rather than because authority figures have told you so, or because it is widely held to be true which is a formula that for disappointment.

What the tome provide does provide is a well-founded, clear, precise and comprehensive introduction into the underlying principles of first-order logic, truth preservation, validity and soundness, which are backed by exercises, and explanations.

Despite the complexity of the sujet, the vocabulary used is consistently informational and the use of trees and tables aid the understanding of semantic content.

For the uninitiated, Logic: The Laws of Truth is a great resource for anyone remotely interested in philosophy and a great addition for the ones who are already familiar with other books on the subject, e.g. Sider's Logic for Philosophy, which goes a bit further and covers many topics not covered by Smith.

A more than viable foundation for what is the varied and often very subjective theology of truth.

MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Contemporary and Modern Art

National Gallery of Victoria

New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s incarnation at the National Gallery of Victoria was a tremendously successful exposition that allowed Australian to experience such greats as Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Mark Rothko and many more that do not need further introduction firsthand.

The diversity of the exhibition was underpinned by more than two-hundred creative emissions spanning a period from the genesis of what is commonly referred to as present-day craft by pursuing a distinctly multi-disciplinary approach – i.e. from architectural pieces to exhibits rooted in the realm of free form performing arts and everything in between - and it was the first time that an exhibition occupied the whole of the first floor of Melbourne’s NGV.

The book is an ode to this eclectic display and documents the themes that served as the foundational conceptual foundation for the exhibition.

Choosing Roy Lichtenstein’s simplified composition that made his Drowning Girl from 1963 as the cover image for the catalogue, which an example par excellence for his unemotional reproduction from newspapers and magazines and contemporaneous pop art at large, signifies the DNA of this well-curated tour de force that did not need to rely on the big drawcards as it served enough substance by highlighting finer nuances to carry itself.

The fact that the NGV did not rely on e.g. Andy Warhol as a flagship creative for the exhibition and instead juxtaposed his oeuvre with that of Ai Weiwei in the preceding exhibition speaks volumes about NGV’s curators’ foresight and skill, which adds not only additional levels and dimensions to the emissions of idiosyncratic creators but results in something more integrated than the aggregate of its components would suggest.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

Prince University Press

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a Victorian algebraist wrote a fairy tale the influence and standing of which would only enhance in the years to come, which is partly due to the underpinning, subtle merging of philosophical, scientific and artistic components.

The result was the creation of a masterpiece based on an unheard of, not only genre pushing but forming unique melange.

As time and reissue after reissue went by, publishers looked at different avenues of making the book appealing to fans and the uninitiated alike: Commissioning the services of the spearhead of the surrealist movement, i.e. Salvador Dali, was a smart move of the publishers as Dali’s input helped not only to make the book contemporary but to elevate Carroll’s emission by adding yet another psychedelic dimension.

The resulting collaboration quickly became a much sought-after collector’s piece, which has been recently re-released a couple of years ago to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’s first release.

Scholarly introductions point out the similarities between Carroll’s and Dali’s approaches, which is well-intended, yet I find the juxtaposition and the contrasts between both more striking and enjoyable than commonly shared ground.

The book is, well, as you would expect - eye candy with its beautifully illustrated fantastic imaginations framing a story that needs no further introduction with its trademark clever humour, neologisms, psychedelic excursions, word play and at time non-sensical yet always eccentric characters.

A classic that is further enhanced by the talents of two maestros being fused and a beautiful addition to any bookshelf, which firmly grounds Victorian fantasy in a surreal world and could not have asked for a better collaboration.