The Cordeaux River Chronicle

Vale: Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, 1945-2007

Jan 18, 2008
Post a comment

http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/activist-used-humour-as-his-best-defence/2008/01/16/1200419882255.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Welcome to The Sydney Morning Herald. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content. Text Version.

www.smh.com.au

Home » Obituaries » Article
Activist used humour as his best defence

Email
Printer friendly version
Normal font
Large font
January 17, 2008
Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, 1945-2007

Lord Bloody Wog Rolo.
Advertisement
LORD Bloody Wog Rolo was an electronics engineer who made his living as an auto-electrician and installed car alarms. He called himself a professional alarmist. Others call him one of Australia's great stirrers.

He is best known for his involvement in BUGAUP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions), the movement which "refaced" tobacco, alcohol and other billboards it deemed harmful or offensive. He stirred against the monarchy, creating the British Ultra Loyalist League Serving Historical Interests (BULLSHIT) and against racism, founding the Keep Australia Black Movement (KABM).

He drove vehicles painted with graffiti challenging religion, royalty and corporate interests. This led to attention from the police. Not to be intimidated, he responded with slogans against police harassment, so aggravating the situation.

Rolo, who has died from cancer at 62, was born Rolando Mestman Tapier to Alberto Yapur and Juanita Mestman in Argentina. He qualified as an electronics engineer, did national service as a paratrooper in the Argentine Air Force and came to Australia in 1970 because he thought Australia was like Argentina but more democratic.

After becoming an Australian citizen in 1979, he renounced his pledge of allegiance to the Queen, claiming that as a republican he had perjured himself. Many, including the RSL, were offended and called for his deportation. Rolo responded with a one-man campaign against the monarchy. When he wore a sandwich board bearing anti-monarchist slogans to an Australia Day parade he was charged with serious alarm and affront. The charge was dismissed but Rolo would find himself arrested time and again under similar circumstances.

In 1981 he realised that humour was the most effective form of protest and publicly apologised for his past disrespectful behaviour. He changed his name by deed poll to Lord Bloody Wog Rolo. He reasoned that he was called "bloody wog" so often he may as well make it official, deflating it as a racial slur. The "Lord" was added, he said, because supposedly classless Australians were easily impressed by titles.

Rolo scored an early victory for the anti-smoking cause when he sabotaged the trial marketing of cigarette ads on supermarket shopping bags. His protest led to poor customer acceptance of the bags and the store returned to blank bags.

In 1983 he met Rosalyn Anderson, a fellow BUGAUPer. She was waiting for a lull in the pedestrian traffic to paint a billboard when he started painting. "Hey, that's MY billboard!" she shouted. They both laughed, and the two atheists were married in 1985 by the Reverend Ted Noffs, who commended their struggle against those who push legal drugs.

The now Lord and Lady B.W. Rolo moved to western Sydney and became local celebrities, taking part in community parades and civic functions. They had two children, Alex and Robin, whom Rolo called, at least for a while, Woglets.

BUGAUP members included Simon Chapman, now a Sydney University professor, and Ian Cohen and Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, who became NSW MPs. The group was formed as a breakaway from the Movement Opposed to the Promotion of Unhealthy Products (MOPUP), which had its inaugural meeting at the city morgue.

Active with many causes, Rolo showed the strength of his convictions by going to jail rather than pay fines. Most people use formal channels to struggle for justice. Rolo revelled in his unorthodox approach. He obtained a driving licence in 1989 while wearing a monocle without a glass in it. His monocle meant his licence was stamped for the wearing of spectacles, although he had 20-20 vision. In 1993 he was charged with not complying with the licence provisions. After scrutinising the monocle, which now had a clear glass lens, the magistrate cut Rolo's fine from $250 to $50.

Rolo had a favourite poster, which showed rows and rows of grey houses, and one painted pink and purple; police were arresting the owner of the coloured house.

The lord and his lady were married for six years until she found that the things that made him an interesting character made him impossible to live with. She later remarried, he liked her new husband and moved to Tasmania to be closer to his sons. Rolo is survived by his children, Alex and Robin, and his friend, Rosalyn.

Tony Stephens

Email
Print this story
Normal font
Large font
Add to Facebook
Add to del.icio.us
Digg this story
RSS Feed
When news happens:
send photos, videos & tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764), or email us.
Pick up a good habit this new year- subscribe now to save 32%

http://www.smh.com.au/letters/?page=3

Lord of the billboard

After the late Lord Bloody Wog Rolo ("Activist used humour as his best defence", January 17) changed his name by deed poll, the police, with reluctance, had to charge him under his new name.

Unlike many waiting defendants, Lord Rolo did not sit in the court room waiting for his charges to be reached. Instead, he waited in a corner of the cavernous vestibule of the court complex with the milling police, lawyers, rogues, prostitutes and vagrants.

When his matter was reached and he did not appear in the court room the magistrate would direct the court constable to "call the defendant", whereupon the junior officer would have to leave the court room, enter the vestibule and, amid the considerable din, call out: "Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, Lord Bloody Wog Rolo, Lord Bloody Wog Rolo."

He would then walk into the court room and the officer would announce: "Lord Bloody Wog Rolo before the court, Your Worship".

Lord Rolo obviously attained great satisfaction at this public acknowledgment from a rather embarrassed young police officer.

Tom Kelly Balmain

What is a "normal" Christmas?

Dec 26, 2007
Post a comment

Pauline at Admiralty House 2

Not everybody has a "normal" Christmas, despite the best attempts of the barrage of advertisers that have been swamping us over the past few weeks.

Just speaking at random, I have met the following folk who don't have a "normal" Christmas:

The lady taxi driver who jointly owns a taxi with her husband. She does day shift (3am to 3pm), he does night shift (3pm to 3am). They are together once per week on Sundays, and otherwise just pass each other at change of shift. They hope to have a "normal" Christmas yesterday afternoon.
The lady at the fruit shop, where her family celebrates Orthodox Christmas on January 6. Yesterday was a welcome day off after the pre-December-25 rush but otherwise nothing special.
Our friends who are single, divorced, or have no children (and the last point includes us).

If you believe the flood of advertisers on TV, there's somethin g wrong with us. But I don't think so.

Merry Christmas, everyone! (From your friendly local curmudgeon.)

PS (December 29): The picture is of Pauline with 2 Australian Federal Police Officers on guard outside Admiralty House, the Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia. I bet these 2 blokes don't have a normal Christmas either.

Launching into Christmas with music: the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Chorus

Dec 17, 2007
Post a comment

On Saturday night, Pauline & I attended our first concert with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

They presented a concert of Christmas music from a variety of European cultures and at differing points in history.

Beautiful! Wonderful!

And I thoroughly agree with the Sydney Morning Herald reviewer that music, well done, is a perfect way to get into a good and proper contemplation of Christmas.

The review is presented below.

And may I wish you, dear reader, a merry Christmas too!

-----

Festive cheer of this quality something to sing about

Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham

December 17, 2007

Noel! Noel!, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, City Recital Hall, December 15

It's common, even fashionable, to feel jaded about Christmas - the cliches, the consumerism, the endless loop of Jingle Bell Rock.

But music can also be the ultimate antidote to Christmas sneer. An hour or so with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, at its annual Noel! Noel! concert, and Scrooge-like symptoms should diminish rapidly.

The key is the quality of the music and performances. The Brandenburg Orchestra is a classy act, and its Christmas program is a well-judged mix of intriguing discoveries and old favourites.

This year the choir is once again the focus, and once again its members sing beautifully under the accomplished direction of Paul Dyer. Some of their entrances are magical: the canon in Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen, the refinement of Arcadelt's Ave Maria and the rude enthusiasm of Riu, Riu, Chiu.

The sound is solid and sometimes ever so slightly stolid, but mostly refreshingly open and free of overproduced vibrato. All the soloists come from within the choir and barely linger for applause before returning to the choir, which creates a rather touching sense of community and humility, especially in Tommie Andersson's homely arrangement of Silent Night.

As for the band, they play with poise and transparency. An addition to the usual line-up is a trio of sackbuts - the predecessor of the trombone. Led by Nigel Crocker, they provide a rich, warm and occasionally virtuosic flair to the choir's measured tones.

Other instrumental highlights include Lucinda Moon's immaculate performance of Biber's tricky but beautiful sonata The Annunciation, and the swoon-worthy slow movement from Bach's Concerto in C minor, a duet for Moon and oboist Kirsten Barry.

This concert will be repeated today and tomorrow at 7pm at St Francis of Assisi Church, Paddington.

Hail and greetings to Chairman Rudd

Nov 25, 2007
Post a comment

Kevin Rudd in Chinese propaganda

Part 2 - after the election victory

In honour of Kevin Rudd's victory as Prime Minister yesterday, I re-present hmatkin's homage to our new Prime Minister on YouTube.

I think this is item is very funny at an ironic level, given

our new Prime Minister's fluency in Mandarin
the neo-communist bogey which his political opponents kept dragging out in an attempt to discredit his side of things
at an entirely different level, the "Chinglish" captions and their apparent discrepancy to the soundtrack (which a YouTube correspondent states is a commentary on the China-Vietnam war of the 1970s)

This film reminds me of every high school history lesson I had to sit through in the 1970s, when the late Brother Rupert of the Marist Brothers warmed us spotty and beardless lads of the red menace about to sweep down from the north. (And Kevin Rudd is am ex-Marist boy too.)

This is very well done! Enjoy.

QotD: My First Single

Nov 15, 2007
Post a comment

Music-wise, what was the first 45, single or download you bought?
Submitted by Paddy Melt Wagon.

Lily the Pink by The Scaffold. 45RPM, bought from a record shop in Sydney for $1 (Australian) = 1.5 weeks' pocket money. How embarassing.

Whatever you do, don't mention the German Coast Guard

Nov 13, 2007

Usually I do not forward on email jokes. This is a matter of policy - they clog up mailboxes, take up bandwidth, and usually are not really funny.

But this is an exception!

I trust my source as extremely trustworthy and having a sense of humour in tune with my own.

This appears to be an advertisement for the Berlitz language method.

And by the way, does Germany have a coast? I must check an atlas.

Yomigaeru-ga-ii, Iron Chefs!: sole

Oct 27, 2007
Post a comment

The Featured Ingredient on tonight's episode of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...

Boot

Sole

Once again I am pleased to report that the Featured Ingredient was dead, so it did not try to run away. Nor did we have to have a Reader Advisory at the start of the program warning viewers that scenes might be "distressing to some viewers".

I have also commented in previous posts on Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") that Chairman Kaga is no Bert Newton. He might be a great actor but he is hopeless at improv. A sample.

-----

Chairman Kaga (to Challenger): So you have heard about my show i n San Francisco? (where the Challenger works)

Challenger [waxes lyrical at great length about how the show is famous amongst all chefs great and small].

Chairman Kaga [after a pause, looks deep in thought]: Really?

-----

Admittedly these are the sub-title renditions of the conversations. But ... really?

Unfortunately, no sooner have I got back into the Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") habit that SBS announce that it is going off for a few weeks. Oh well.

Earlier reviews of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") may be found on The Mount Kembla Chronicle.

Viva Laughlin: "Let us count the number of ways it bombs"

Oct 23, 2007
Post a comment

Poor old Hugh Jackman. This journal was last year lauding his performance in The Boy from Oz. And now we have Viva Laughlan.

Good luck to actors who set up production companies. They are obviously intent on diversifying their involvement in their vocation. And good luck to such an obviously-talented bloke like Our Hugh for taking a gamble on this program.

Trouble was - it was awful!

Glenn Owen

Maybe Hugh was being adventurous in casting the British actor Lloyd Owen. Last time I saw him, he was settling into life as laird of Glenbogle. Now he has half-gained a very frail American accent and an even dodgier singing voice.

Not that you'd know this from the advertising on Channel 9. This advertising suggested that the program was wall-to-wall Hugh Jackman - who, apparently, was only going to be in every 3rd-or-so episode.

Well, as it turns out, he was in 100% of the episodes aired in Australia because it was axed yesterday after one (count them: 1) program - following the axing of the series by CBS after 2 programs.

What went wrong? I subscribe to the Sydney Morning Herald writer's theory that "Viva Laughlin has the fingerprints of nervous network executives all over it."

Maybe, given a chance, it would have developed into something. (Certainly, I would have hoped that Lloyd Owen's outrageous accent would have gone to something beyond his unintentional vocal impersonation of Billy Crystal.)

This might have given the chance for the bastard-behaving casino owner (played by Owens) to redeem himself. I mean, who cares about a casino owner's fortunes?

Anyway, its all over now. This however does not hold the record for rapidity of dumping. That belongs to Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos - axed in mid-broadcast, reportedly on the orders of late station owner proprietor Kerry Packer.

The quotation in the headline of this post is from the New York Times of 18th October 2007.
Article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Yomigaeru-ga-ii, Iron Chefs!: sardines and ham

Oct 20, 2007
Post a comment

The Featured Ingredient on tonight's episode of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...

Sardines
Ham

Ingredient # 1 was straightforward (and it was already dead, so it didn't try to run away).

Michiba Rokusaburo

Ingredient # 2 refers to the bad acting of Iron Chef Michiba Rokusaburo. Now I do not doubt that he was, at this stage of the series, ill. Indeed, he did have to drop out soon after. But the bad acting was so bad that it put me off the pendin gSardine Battle.

And he didn't look like he was in hospital, unless Japanese hospitals are particularly homely.

This man is one of the Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking" !!!! He shouldn't be showing weakness like this (and in such an unconvincing manner). His opponents will rub his nose in their sashimi.

By the way, the propaganda-style poster of Michiba san comes from Dashiell Dunn's website www.maestrosync.com. His posters and his website are well worth reading.

Previous reviews of Iron Chef may be found at The Mount Kembla Chronicle.

Ode to an overly spinning politician

Oct 19, 2007
Post a comment

I'm desparately trying to avoid any reference to the current federal election campaign in Australia. But this is too good to pass up.

Malcolm Turnbull flips 2 children

Politicians are very good at spin, but The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull MP got a little bit out of hand with this yesterday when he flipped 2 children over at Fox Studios in Sydney.

Now Mr Turnbull is a big bloke. I actually met him once, and i suspect that he has similar weight battles to me because he is of strikingly similar build.

But blokes of our dimensions usually (or at least should) know how to harness and control The Awesome Power At Their Command. Not so Malcolm.

The ensuing photo op of weeping children, paramedics tending broken limbs (no! Just joking here) must be every politician's public relations nightmare.