Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

lost the cutting edge of it by submitting to the Holocaust mantra. Sad, sad,
sad that a people let themselves be pressured into such utter rubbish. It
attests to the refined mental dictatorship that succeeded in enshrining this
nonsense into common parlance, then into law.
I progress well with my ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ mug in pottery. Joe has been of
great assistance in the painting three times with red, black and white, and
then with the firing stage, that process where objects are nicely stacked in
the oven or kiln overnight for firing. Memories of my time at the Merz
School in 1971–73 where I dabbled in such matters come back.
On Tuesday15 September I finally meet Charles Southwood, the pottery
instructor who travels from Adelaide to supervise this rather popular activity
on Mondays and Tuesdays. He is also the assistant chaplain at CTC. As we
converse something did not add up. It was as if I had for years been
listening to Charles’ voice, he seemed to be so familiar to me. When one of
the fellows introduced me to him I went straight for it.
‘Charles?’.
‘Yes’.
‘… and your surname?’.
‘Southwood’.
‘No!’.
‘Yes’.
‘No, Charles Southwood – ABC Classic FM?’.
‘Yes’.
‘F--- me dead. Charles Southwood, ABC Classic FM’.
‘Yes’.
‘Well, well’.
I calmed down. I was in the presence of Charles Southwood, the ABC
Classic FM music presenter, one of the great ones at the ABC. I felt
privileged to meet him. When I was working for ABC-Radio’s Horsham
office in 1989, I appreciated the classical music presentation that the ABC
offered. During the 1960s we could only get 3WV/WL where such music
was offered by John Kager.
I did push the issue a little further and remind Charles that Englishmen
really have difficulty with their stiff upper lip and their appreciation of
music is generally socially determined, not inspirationally, as we see today
with the deconstructionist composer Greenaway whose operatic creations
are pure ugliness.
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