Or the strange case of The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (aka Marat/Sade)
Valhalla Cinema, Glebe. Being turned into another filing cabinet for yuppies.
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In many ways, the demise in 2005 of the Valhalla Cinema was the final nail in the coffin of Sydney, Australia, as a valid cultural epicentre in the greater kosmopolites. It was a final kick in the groin to a city that had once boasted an underground arts and music scene to rival London, Frisco, New York or Berlin. Of course the rot began some two decades earlier, the deadly combination of easy wealth and imbeciles saw the gentrification of its inner city. Music venues closed, replaced my slot machine casinos and retarded techno/dance clubs with bright lights and mirrors to hypnotise the vapid. It was a descent into narcissism and shallow spectacle, a playground for nouveau riche vulgarity, a culture effectively placed in a coma. And it was a scene replayed the world over. As a testament to the abject hollowness of what Sydney has become, the Valhalla hasn’t even merited its own Wikipedia entry from any of its residents – all a google search reveals now are a former map location, some minor footnotes in irrelevant blogs and some private photo galleries. It may as well never have existed. (more…)
grey lining 