SCUTTLE BUTT

Does anyone know exactly who this lame twat Oscar is that writes "The Social Scuttle" as I call it? One thing I am sure of is that he wants everyone to know who he is. He goes by "Oscar Jones" on Facebook... I have my suspicions who he is, and I am pretty sure I have met him more than once at parties in the past. It goes unsaid that he's not interesting enough to be that memorable (unless he can somehow attach himself to the famed).

Anyway, Here we have one of many, many obits as tribute to the late great Carmen Rupe who departed this mortal coil on Friday.

http://www.thesocialshuttle.com/2011/12/legendary-carmen-passes-away.html

Except this one is a little different to me, because the hack that tapped it out is familiar from not so long ago.

But before we get to that - he also has some blog about Sylvia & The Synthetics - an infamous, revolutionary performance troupe of the early 1970s starring the amazing Doris Fish, who were over a period of time trailed and eventually arrested by the Sydney Vice Squad for "obscenity". Anyway his endeavors never went beyond posting one photo. Which can only be a good thing - given that his utterly vapid scribblings (I am being generous) are wildly inaccurate as it is and the publish button is hit with a devil-may-care-less, not-a-fig-give-I attitude. He should try for a job at the Daily Telegraph cadet pool that has replaced all the real journalists, he'd fit right in. Possibly because...he's worked there before perhaps.

For those who don't know (very few at this point in time), I am working on an art book about Sydney performance over a thirty year period. Yes, that over to your right. Up the top there. That's it. License to Thrill, which now has over 630 members. I've been researching on and off for more than three years, so while no expert (and there probably never will be one on the subject no matter how hard they try) I actually do pay attention when someone pulls me aside and lets me know "you got that a little bit wrong..." I don't have a problem with that because when it comes to history, being as accurate as possible is so important if you want it to be worth anything at the end of the day.A little bit of humility can go a long way.

2011 minus 1935...equals...oh darn it! Yes, really. That is probably enough said on its own and I'd close this category except I'm not finished yet.


Just a sample (from a good friend who knows what she is talking about since she was a long term star of Les Girls): "He got who owned what, and who worked where and when, completely wrong". I suppose he could reveal his sources, ie. the other articles he lifted most of the text from, and make an excuse that it's everyone else's fault. Maybe he learned that from my little friend Excusie. Speaking of which -

This thing on Carmen is practically a masterpiece of facts compared to the guff he wrote on my book a few weeks back, and that's saying something.

http://www.thesocialshuttle.com/2011/11/in-houses-of-muses.html

Well, I wrote to him and listed all the things he got wrong including leaving me out completely as co-author ("not that I am at all surprised by that" I sniped) and I had no response and no corrections were made. Not that I demanded or even expected them. It's lucky I have low expectations. Thankfully this fraud won't be elaborating on Sydney history further by the looks of it. I doubt he even knows anyone that ever performed in Sylvia & The Synthetics anyway. A couple of years ago when I first saw it appear I assumed he must be old school crowd, perhaps someone I knew using a moniker - but he's clearly just some exploitative, half-arsed never-will-be who has to live his life vicariously through celebrities he hardly knows.

Now, I may technically be an amateur historian, since I am not officially qualified in the field - however I have won some grants and awards, a few actually. But the big difference between me and "Oscar Jones" of Bourke Street, Darlinghurst is that I give enough of a fuck to read something back at least once after it's finished. Perhaps he could change the title of his on-line rag to "So-Called Shut Hole". It has a ring to it - a ring of much longed-for silence from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about and has WAY too much airtime to express it.

The picture above of Carmen working as a snake dancer and stripper in Kings Cross, 1960 (photographer unknown) is of course a pun on the famous "I'll be a stripper" meme. http://imagemacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/stripper-lrg.jpg