THESISVILLE!

Edgy and moody

2006-06-14T10:59:00.000Z

Shit. Everything seems to be coming to an end. Time, quite problematically, although typically. My wit, which is fast disappearing, along with my patience. And, most troublingly perhaps, I’m looking down the barrel at my final funding instalment that should arrive at the end of the month. What – the big question looms – happens next?

Unlike some of my more mobile peers, I have to stay put for at least the next year. I arrived in my current location clinging to the coattails of my supervisor, while clinging to mine was B. Now it’s time for me to cling to B’s coattails, as she has secured gainful employment as an English teacher at a school not too far away. It’s great news for us, but it means the next year has to be liminal to say the least. I’m most probably going to have to weave together a patchwork of employment and sustain my gypsy scholar status.

This doesn’t suit my personality. I like to know where things are going, but academia is absolutely useless in that respect. I can feel myself getting edgy and moody in all the bad ways I try to ignore (and pretend it’s not me but other people who have the problem). So I’m in the middle of writing up and in the middle of an existential crisis. Business as usual then.

World Cup

2006-06-09T08:22:00.000Z

Yes, the greatest show on earth is finally here. After what seems like months of build up, the world cup starts today with the mighty Costa Rica taking on some team called Germany. I’m so excited, I’ll be watching every single match (apart, rather annoyingly, from England’s opening match tomorrow, when I have to teach. But I’ll be watching when Wayne Rooney returns to have his foot stamped on and career ruined against Sweden or Trinidad & Tobago). England can win, they really have a chance. If they don’t I’d like to see a new team win for the first time, either Holland or Spain, but the likelihood is it’ll be one of the old guard. Also, keep your eye on the USA for some upsets. (Isn’t it funny when you hear England fans interviewed on the radio, they all sound like Cockneys – why is that?).

Quite a lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. Summer has finally arrived, which is very up lifting! My old pc laptop containing all my PhD interview data, including the original recordings, died. It just didn’t work. So I had to dash back to Kent to get the HD ripped out and all the data saved. That’s to T for saving the PhD!

Now I’m making a hermit of myself, anchored to the computer, writing manically. So that’s going to be the next month. Frantic writing in the morning, then football all afternoon and evening. Perfect.

Lower than average driving ability

2006-06-06T13:19:00.000Z

Just gotta love this...

Vampiric

2006-05-23T13:20:00.000Z

For years I've been saying that to live in a society where it was possible to own a second home without any substantial penalty was an outrageous injustice. Finally someone else agrees with me and it's probably not too suprising that it's George Monbiot. What should also be taxed prohibitively is the practice of buy-to-let, as the people who do that are even more vampiric than the multi-homeowners who clog up the airwaves on the dreadful Location, Location, Location.

Are you?

2006-05-22T09:26:00.000Z

The age of steel

2006-05-21T12:38:00.000Z

My previous worries about the Cybermen were allayed last night. The second part of their returning story, The Age of Steel, proved to be very good indeed. In this episode we see them with more autonomy than before, as they force Lumic into his upgrade to Cybercontroller. This story had everything that was good about the Cybermen, especially stylistically. Two points stood out for me: the smashing through the windows in Rise of the Cybermen, and the line of Cyber-units in the tunnel in The Age of Steel. As a long-term fan who knows far more about the series than he cares to admit (at least in public) it’s wonderful to see the new series being made by people who really care about what they’re making. If only more television was made with this kind of zeal there wouldn’t be so much crap stinking up the airwaves. I’m looking at you Big Brother producers! (Although there is an awful lot of evil zeal going into that show). Having said that, I’m watching this series of BB with interest. Let’s see what happens in the first week and then bring judgement crashing down upon it.

Eurovision

2006-05-21T12:08:00.000Z

Wasn’t Eurovision great last night? It has to be the weirdest and greatest contest for many years. My particular favourites ‘No No Never’ by the German entry Texas Lightning (I didn’t know they had cowboys in Germany, but there you go), ‘We Are The Winners’ by LT United from Lithuania (what incredible balls to do a song like that), and the winners Lordi (from Finland) with the magisterial ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’. It’s brilliant that this song won for several reasons, but principally because it’ll mean there should be far fewer ‘budget divas to vaguely eastern sounding rubbish’ in the future. And in their place there will be plenty more freaks – or at least let’s hope so. Not that the songs are supposed to be good of course: they're meant to stink. But hey, that's why we love it isn't it? The UK entry finished much lover than I thought it would. It was certainly the right way to go and our 'best' entry for some time, but you have to do produce something special to break through the political block voting. Overall though, this year I give the whole event.... 12 points!

Tosca

2006-05-19T11:35:00.000Z

We saw a reasonably good performance of Tosca on Wednesday evening. Last year we saw a concert performance as part of the Welsh Proms, featuring the excellent Bryn Terfel, which was really great and very well paced due to the lack of scene changes. I found that with two 20-minute intervals this full stage production suffered, even though the cast were strong and the vocals extremely powerful. Of course, we missed Arsenal lose – bad luck to all the gooners.

Arsenal

2006-05-17T11:25:00.000Z

Even though I'm a Chelsea fan I have to wish Arsenal good luck against Barcelona tonight. I hope it's a good match. I'll miss it as we have tickets for a performance of Tosca. Great planning eh?

AUT

2006-05-16T12:40:00.000Z

Having just listened to a debate on Radio 5 about the current strike action by my union the AUT I'm experiencing a strange mixture of emotions. On the one hand, I'm feeling great sympathy for the students who are caught up in all this, while on the other my blood is boiling with rage at the pathetic arguments of the employers and the way they are deliberately misleading people about this action and its root causes.

The fact is the academics are poorly paid in relation to all other professional groups. After at least 7 years of education and training (all undertaken with student loans and minimal research funding - i.e. skint) we start off at roughly the same level as teachers and junior doctors, and then we progress far, far slower up our pay scale. With the large amounts of new money coming into the HE sector from fees and top-up fees it is time employers ended this ridiculous situation.

None of us wants to take action, but clearly the time has come to make a stand. So much is expected of modern academics and very little is given in return. We do this job because we love it - we're not motivated by money and we're certainly not greedy. Hard work deserves a just reward.

Gypsy scholar

2006-05-16T09:21:00.000Z

While I do work in academia, I have to admit that very often I have a limited understanding of certain aspects of it. It's not that universities are clandestine institutions (like Dan Brown's version of Opus Dei), rather than no one ever really explains anything to you unless you ask, beg or pay (for books on careers for example). And this often results in a form of cryptic response that leaves you no more informed and worried that if you enquire again you'll be on the receiving end of an astonished and annoyed look from your senior colleague, who will gaze down at you with a gurning expression of disgust akin to that displayed by someone sporting a turd moustache.

So I was interested to see that, when checking out the wiki definition of 'professor', there is some easily digestible information at hand. I've decided to borrow a phrase from wiki which is used in the States and refer to myself as a 'Gypsy scholar' as it seems quite fitting in my current situation.

"Gypsy scholar: is an informal term given to some academics who either move several times between institutions and/or work at two or more institutions at a time. There are several possible reasons explaining the existence of gypsy scholars, among these are the fact that many teaching jobs are now either part-time or terminal (1-3 years)..."

There was no information, however, as to whether I need to get myself a caravan.

Heartwarming

2006-05-15T19:12:00.000Z

It's really heartwarming to know that my 'virtual' friends are glad I'm blogging again! Thanks so much for leaving lovely messages for me.

Today has been really productive and, as I sit here post-bean chilli and beer, I feel pretty satisfied with myself I must say. I managed to work part of an old conference paper into what should be a short (2000 words) submittable article in a few hours this afternoon. It's filled me with confidence. What's good about it as well is that, not only do I know the editors of the journal I'm sending it to, there is only a five month wait for publication. That is just amazingly quick for an academic journal. It's also very important as it allows me to (hopefully) get another publication in press/published by the time I finish, which is essential if I'm going to stand any chance of getting gainful and meaningful employment when the current funding runs out in September. That's not too long away - I'm beginning to worry, but only a fraction of the future is in my hands. Who knows what jobs will become available in the next few months? More on this tomorrow, it's time for another well earned beer. Cheers!

Theo

2006-05-14T09:08:00.000Z

I’m a bit concerned for the state of men in the UK. With the sprightly 17 year old Theo Walcott selected for the provisional England World Cup team, what kind of affect can this have on the moral of all the blokes in their 20’s, let alone 30’s? Are we to conclude that they are over-the-hill already? When we saw Oasis play at the Millennium Stadium last December I was entertained by the large number of 20something and 30something men who relished the opportunity to play at taking make-believe corners and head pretend goals past their friends as we all congregated on the covered pitch. How will they cope with knowing that that really is as close as they’ll come to glory? We could very well have a psychological crisis on our hands. I suppose, like most of us, they’ll have to spend their time arguing over a few beers as to what the starting line of the World Cup team should be.

Deep throat

2006-05-14T09:00:00.000Z

Ruth Kelly – a.k.a. deep throat – has never been a favourite politician of mine. Until recently of course, she was Education Secretary, which meant she was in the firing line of most of the people I know (those that work in schools, FE and HE anyway) as she spouted crap about unwanted and quite possibly socially damaging educational reform. Now she’s taken over the work from what was the ODPM and it has come to my attention that not only is she a) a member of Opus Dei, she is also, unsurprisingly, b) apparently homophobic. Not only has she abstained from all recent votes on homosexual rights, she also refuses to say whether or not she considers homosexuality a sin. If she’s a devout Catholic she must believe this is the case, so why can’t she admit it? I don’t think that holding religious faith should exclude anyone from holding political office, even if I do dream of a secular republic. But I do think she should come clean about her beliefs. All she needs to say is something like: “yes, my personal belief is that…. But as someone who holds public office I will defend the rights of all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality, religion, region etc...” If she can’t hold her hand up and say this then she’s not fit for office and worse than even I suspected.

Animal testing

2006-05-14T08:59:00.000Z

Yeah, yeah, I know. Big can opened, worms all over the place. (Probably being injected with some kind of toxin). I’m no expert on this issue (although on the whole I would prefer that there was no testing of any kind that used animals) so I’m not going to embark on some kind of argument here, but I was really pissed off to see that Blair has signed some petition in support of animal testing. Now, I know that he’s some kind of ‘only God can judge me’ nut-job who probably thinks that the Almighty put animals on Earth so we can slaughter them, but what offends me more is his ‘only the markets can judge ethics’ nut-job Neo-Liberalism. Clearly he’s signed this petition because he doesn’t want to scare away a very lucrative form of business from the UK. I myself would never, ever, support the animal rights extremists rightly sent to prison this week for a number of horrible offences. But I can’t help but find this a particularly slimy move by an increasingly creepy PM.

Cybermen

2006-05-14T08:31:00.000Z

I was so happy to see the Cybermen return to Dr Who yesterday. I think the new ‘art deco’ design is brilliant. The only thing that concerned me slightly was the way they seemed to be a little too much like slaves under the control of the evil tycoon John Lumic (aka Trigger from Only Fools and Horses – I REALLY hate that programme!). In the past the Cybermen had minds of their own, albeit minds stripped of emotion. I don’t like the idea that they’ve become unthinking, programmed zombies. I understand that they’ve changed them from the body horror of the 1960’s and the techno-horror of the 70’s and 80’s, and made them into emblems for the info-corporate horror of the 00’s, but I can’t help feeling a little cheated. Hopefully in the next episode we’ll see them overthrow Lumic and get some kind of autonomy, and this will become a ‘genesis’ type story. They always scared me a lot more than the Daleks, so they’ve always been my favourites.

Birmingham

2006-05-12T20:03:00.000Z

I went to a meeting in Birmingham today and it turns out I was quite wrong about the place. I thought it would be really horrible, but actually the city centre was lovely. It did help that it was a bright, sunny, warm day, but I do admit that I was very wrong about the place. Not sure what it's like at night or outside of the city centre though.

The meeting was too dull to commment on, so I won't waste time talking about it.

Pardus

2006-05-10T11:43:00.000Z

In an attempt to draw more people into the excellent Pardus, I thought I pop a few graphics from the game on here.

It really is very good and FREE! It gets the Thesisville 5* rating (which I've just invented).

Get involved and join the Union!

The past

2006-05-10T11:37:00.000Z

So, a few notes about what’s been going on in the world of Thesisville for the past, oh, couple of months.

Most importantly, I’ve finished working for the government. This, as any regular readers will already have guessed, is a great relief. It was certainly an interesting and educational experience, but not a very fulfilling one. In the end I completed several chapters for a consultation document, working up to the arranged completion date (‘Easter’) only to find the whole thing was (as one civil servant put it) ‘end-loaded.’ But luckily I bailed and didn’t pick up any of the extra work offered. Frankly, I’ve got more important things to do, and for once have to think about myself and the ‘big picture.’ That’ll be the thesis then!

Mostly teaching has finished for the academic year, which means much less travelling and free Tuesdays. Hooray! There’s the distance learning students to look after, but they’re always fun to work with and hey, they actually read the books on the course. Gotta love ‘em for that.

There’s been some good (and bad) rugby. Well done to the Cardiff Blues for a late surge towards the top of the Celtic League. A season ticket may well be in order for next year. Congrats of course also go to Chelsea for another premiership title. Blue is indeed the colour.

The Spring break (a.k.a. Easter) was very busy. A trip back to Kent to see family and friends was fun but exhausting. This was closely followed by the second visit of the year to Harrogate, this time for the British Sociological Association conference (I know, it hardly sounds rock ‘n’ roll does it?). It was a good few days though, with sunshine and, somewhat surprisingly for Harrogate, the discovery of a good club. I also met some really interesting and charismatic people, and that’s what conferences are really about. The few papers I saw were of a reasonable but hardly inspiring standard.

And hazzah! Dr Who is back on our screens. For that we can all surely be thankful. Well done to David Tennant for keeping up the high standard set by the first series. Coupled with nightly episodes of the Sopranos on DVD the Thesisville media interface has been of the highest quality of late.

Urban Dead has become a little tiresome (although I’m still hacking away) and has been superseded by Pardus, which I very highly recommend. Given time, this is a very rewarding and completely free online game.

Right now I’m coming back to the world after a week or so of complete R&R. My mind is slowly clicking back into thesis mode and I really, really feel like writing again. Thoughts are falling into place for the first time in months. But more of that later…

Right now I have to prepare a presentation for tomorrow. Nothing spectacular, just an overview of my research to present to the department. Surely nothing can go wrong….?

I'm still here

2006-05-07T14:30:00.000Z

You don't get rid of me that easily!

Inner peace

2006-04-01T11:29:00.000Z

I'm passing this on to everyone because it definitely worked for me, and we could all do with a little calm - particularly those of us who are balancing too many jobs while trying to finish a PhD. By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace. The article read:

"The way to achieve inner peace is to finish off all the things you have started".

So I looked round the house to see all the things I had started and hadn't finished. And before starting work this morning (on a report for an independent review body - thanks for asking) I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Baileys, the Jack Daniels, the Prozac, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how bloody good I feel.

You must pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace.

Grip on reality

2006-03-14T20:37:00.000Z

Our boiler has broken, so half my day has been spent freezing my arse off. The other half the day has been spent with my sanity being melted by some really poor undergrad essays that I’ve been marking – honestly, some of them can’t even bloody spell (where’s the pride?).

In between times I’ve been working hard with Sgt Partridge in Malton (the city in Urban Dead – link in post below). We’ve got a good strategy going and seem to be working up our Experience Points. Any other survivors who want to join our ragtag group should head for the north west of the city, where we’re scouting out police and fire stations.

Grip on reality seems to be finally giving way…

Go Jenson

2006-03-12T18:53:00.000Z

A few years ago I discovered the wonders of Formula One (F1). Previously I’d just regarded it as a bunch of cars driving round in circles for 90 minutes (I was wrong – this is what the Americans do), and while the first few seasons of my F1 fandom were the Schumacher dominated ones, I still enjoyed learning all about the sport – and then relearning every year as they changed all the regulations once again.

This season got off to a belter today, with a win for Alonso, just ahead of a resurgent Schumacher. I’m inclined to think that we’ll have one hell of a years racing in store.

Everyone has their favourite drivers of course – I’m always cheering Montoya on, and I think Alonso is so cool-headed – but as always I’ll be right behind Button, waving the flag and being mildly patriotic (against all my better judgement). As long as he gets a win this year, I’ll be happy. And several podiums. And finishes in the top 3, or maybe even… who can say?

Today, Thesisville officially says: GO JENSON!

Undead

2006-03-10T13:50:00.000Z

It’s Friday so, despite the huge workload that I can’t cope with, here’s some fun. Get along to Urbandead.com and join the ranks of the survivors or swell the ranks of the undead. Great old-school text based fun.

I’m holed up in a hotel somewhere, popping out to hack a few limbs off every now and then…

The turning point

2006-03-09T21:04:00.000Z

What’s the point? I mean, really: what’s the point? Research; is that really how I want progress in my career?

Academia is hierarchical, as I’m sure most people would be aware. Research, by virtue of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is on the top of the pile, and teaching is pretty much at the bottom. This is something I’ve never really understood, as I always thought that research and teaching should, in the best possible circumstances, be joined. I myself have internalised the notion that research is the pinnacle of the academic mountain, and I’ve worked hard to position myself in such as a way as to have a blistering research career. No I’m beginning to think this was my biggest mistake.

What I love about academia – or rather HE – is teaching. It’s teaching that gives me the biggest buzz. Over the last 3 years, nothing has given more pleasure, excitement and happiness than teaching. This is what I want to dedicate myself to.

I’ve known for sometime - but didn’t really want to recognise it – that research is an economic activity. It’s all about funding and building the reputation of institutions, which are invariably already rich (and powerful/influential). Balls to that. Teaching in my eyes is about activism, engagement and communal intellectual growth. Although it’s been spoiled by the introduction of ridiculous fees and the overall marketisation of HE, it still has massive potential.

So it seems as is this might be the turning point, when I finally realise what it is that I want to do with my life.

I know. It scares me too.

Strike

2006-03-07T14:13:00.000Z

So I’m on strike today along with the rest of the AUT. Whoowo. It doesn’t feel particularly, urm, strikey though, as I seem to be at home doing all the work I usually do. Although this is a Tuesday and the means that I should be in Bristol teaching. But I’m not. I’m all strikey here at home.

No one’s driven past my house and beeped their horns yet. Perhaps I should have put up a sign or gone to the picket line (but then it is pissing down with rain and I can’t afford to take a day off because I’m so busy). I’m such a crap union member.

Where I've been

2006-03-06T18:24:00.000Z

It’s been a while since I last blogged and some people might be wondering where I’ve been. The simple answer is: nowhere. To all intents and purposes life has been carrying on here just the same as usual. This might seem like a banal thing to say, and it would be, but something quite horrible happened a few weeks ago. One of my undergraduate students was killed. No one prepares you for what it feels like to lose a student.

I won’t and shouldn’t go into detail here – I blog (more or less) anonymously anyway. All I’ll say is that he was a great young man who I feel privileged to have known and to have taught, and he died as the result of completely senseless and nasty events. I’ll never forget him. There’s very little I can do in this situation – death always leaves you feeling helpless – but I know I’ll be dedicating my thesis to him.

After this short break, I now feel like getting back to business on all fronts, but you’ll understand I haven’t really felt up to things for a while.

But it feels good to be back.

Shroudy

2006-02-11T10:17:00.000Z

As the world gets ready to got totally apathetic over the Winter Olympics, officials reveal the new and controversial 'Shroudy' mascot...

Three Rs

2006-02-10T14:20:00.000Z

Am I getting old? (Is that even a sensible question to ask?) My students this week hadn’t heard of the three Rs, which I found odd. When did this phrase drop from common parlance? Admittedly it is a dreadful phrase that should have led to some kind of compulsory redundancy in the coinage section of the education department, but have 18 year really olds never heard it? I felt like such an idiot trying to explain what each R stood for; suffice to say I lost them after the first one. And they say the youth of today is lacking in common sense.

You only have to listen to the lyrics of the Arctic Monkeys to hear what the youth of today know about. There was a piece in the news recently about a lyric in one song that contains a part that goes something like ‘all gone a bit Frank Spencer’. But how, the reporter asked, can spotty toe-rags such as the Arctic Monkeys know who Spencer was? Do they have DVDs of Some Mothers Do ‘Av ‘Em on their tour bus. Surely, we’ve found the person responsible for the idiocy of the three Rs? I myself am 30 and wasn’t alive in the heyday of Hancock’s Half Hour, but I know what it was. ‘A pint? That’s nearly an arm full!’ Etc. Etc.

See, the generations do talk to each other sometimes. And it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not a clear-cut case of the older generation being the brightest. You know what? The kids are alright.

Value matrix

2006-02-07T21:09:00.000Z

On the whole, despite the troubles of the past month, things are looking up and I’m getting back into the academic groove again. The post doc application has been rewritten with an eye on getting it submitted within the next month. It feels like a stronger application now, as I suppose it should, given the amount of time I’ve spent on it. It’s full of ‘value ladders’, which is a useful phrase I learned from some civil servants I’ve been working with. You should show (so the logic goes) how certain elements feed into each other in a chain that makes the case you are forwarding simply irresistible (i.e. you get the nod and then cash).

I came up with a new phrase for what I’m doing, which is ‘value matrix.’ Given the shape and structure of the system one has to use to submit the fellowship application, it seems a fitting phrase. One must make a case that involves diverse connections, the ‘value’ growing across many layers. It makes me think of rhizomatic logic; the idea that it is best to think of knowledge and thought as growing horizontally. More like a root of ginger that an oak tree. It gives me some solace to think that I can frame this uncomfortable and troubling document through this radical philosophy. Now, Show Me The Money. Show Me The Money.

Saatchi gallery

2006-02-06T22:51:00.000Z

Searching around for art resources on the internet I came across the website for the Saatchi Gallery, which I’d not seen before. Not only is the website itself a work of art (smooth, intuitive) the content is sublime (highly recommended). I can’t wait to visit the new gallery when it moves to Chelsea.

Fuss

2006-02-03T10:01:00.000Z

Amid all the fuss about the cartoons that have caused a resurgence in the vogue for flag burning a voice of sense rings out. And not for the first time it comes from Stewart Lee, creator of Jerry Springer the Opera. Download an interview with Lee and Inayat Bunglawala from the Muslim Council of Britain from the BBC Radio 4 Today website. Also available on iTunes as a podcast. Listen, consider, and stop publishing the cartoons.

Busyness

2006-02-01T20:31:00.000Z

It’s been one of those periods of ridiculous busyness in Thesisville recently. Average or normal busyness I have no problem with, but ridiculous busyness is another thing entirely. It’s one of those times when I seem to be doing things all day long and never actually achieve anything, or at least, have very little to show for it.

Had the first supervision for an absolute age on Monday, which when very well. My thesis outline was appreciated and applauded: only problem is that they want to see some solid chapters now! These are cooking along nicely, although it’s difficult to show this when each chapter is occupying a separate simmering pan across the intellectual Aga of the Mac bound section of my intellect. I’m nearly over 40,000 words, so everything is looking pretty rosy. Fortnightly supervisions commencing in a couple of weeks should ensure momentum is maintained.

There have been a few things I wanted to talk about but I fear they have passed me by now. There was the story about the French man who attacked an artist's celebrated porcelain urinal with a hammer has been ordered to pay a fine of 214,000 euros (£147,000). [Duchamp was a genius, this guy is an attention seeker].

And there was the story about a £600,000 bronze sculpture, which would have taken "at least eight people" to carry, being stolen from the grounds of a university. [So are you seriously telling me that philistines are now activists? And that they own trucks?]

Then there was the report about genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans revealing striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolved that set them apart from the others. [Reclassification now please – but humans should be bumped down – we’re not special, just deluded].

In other news, I’ve finally got a new digital camera. This means travelling posts will now be accompanied by glorious photos, starting this weekend: hurrah!

Dumb joke

2006-01-30T07:15:00.000Z

It's early in the morning. It's Monday. The whole week is ahead of us. So here's a dumb joke my uncle sent me. It's a nice little poke at middle class parenting. For those who wish to psychoanalyse me: yes, it probably does say a lot about my relationship with my mother...

A mother was working in the kitchen, listening to her five-year-old son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son saying,

"All of you b*****ds who want off, get the f**k off now, cause we're in a hurry! And all of you b*****ds who are getting on, get the f**k on, cause we're going down the tracks".

The horrified mother went in and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."

Two hours later, the son came out of the bedroom and resumed playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for travelling with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one."

She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."

As the mother began to smile, the child added..........

"For those of you who are pi**ed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the fat b**ch in the kitchen".

The devil has all the best music

2006-01-28T11:05:00.000Z

There was quite a fuss when Jerry Springer the Opera aired on BBC2 last year. The BBC received something like 500,000 complaints from Christian types disgruntled at the portrayal of Jesus as a ‘little-bit-gay’. I was simply amazed at the number of times the chorus sang the word ‘cunt’ and how clever the whole thing was (I agree with Larry David that swearing can be big, clever and funny, when done well). I bought tickets for the tour, which will reach Cardiff in June.

Now, it seems that the church are making some effort to invade the public arena and capture people's imaginations in a similar fashion. The following is a genuine article from the Times.

Jesus and Judas in pop Passion

The BBC will mark Easter with a procession through Manchester that will feature Jesus singing the Robbie Williams hit Angels, accompanied by last year’s Celebrity Big Brother winner Bez, from the Happy Mondays, as one of his disciples.
The hour-long programme, Manchester Passion, will culminate in Jesus and Pontius Pilate performing a duet of the Oasis hit Wonderwall. The Messiah will also duet with Judas on Blue Monday by New Order. Among other music stars from Manchester will be the former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. Bez will lead a crowd carrying a white cross through the streets.
Manchester will represent Jerusalem as part of the programme. The show will go out live on Good Friday on digital channel BBC3.
The event will end with the resurrected Jesus singing from the top of Manchester’s town hall.
Gillian Oliver, a Church of England spokeswoman, said: “We are working with the BBC on this and are very pleased to be taking the good news of the Gospel on to the streets of Manchester.”

You have to wonder don’t you. The whole thing comes across as so stupid that I almost want to wish them luck. What they seem to have forgotten though, is that the devil has all the best music.

Thanks to Danny for sending me the link to this.

Plesant Day

2006-01-26T20:13:00.000Z

A while back I posted a scam email I received offering me the opportunity to traffic money out of Iraq. Although I resisted the urge to fantasise that I was in the movie Three Kings I did think it was the most inventive scam I’d seen (although all the PayPal one’s I’ve been getting look the slickest). Today, however, I got the worst I’ve ever seen, and here it is (I like the bit about the FBI getting involved the best, I wonder if they're trying to appeal to the rebel in me?):

Plesant Day,

I have a Part Time Job to Offer you, if you Might be intrested in, My name is Lawrence Williams,I am the Director of Kingston Inc. Ltd in Singapore. we Extract Raw Materia From Africa to produce textile and fabric which we supply to Our Client in North American Geographical Region (United State) and Other Europian Country for cloth Making. We are In search of a Representative in Europe and North America to Work for us as Part Time worker and we are willing to pay a Sum of $1000. Dollars for every Transaction you Recieve and Process on Our Behalf, and I can assure you That this is Not goin to Affect your Current state of Work. Though we are Working on Setting up a Branch in the U.K But for Now we need a representative in the United United Kingdom. The Main Scope of Work for this Representatative will be to Accept Payment Via Check or Wire Transfer in the United Kingdom and then Remove his/Her %10 Working Allowance and Send Down the Rest to Our Head Office In Singapore. Sometimes FBI get Involve in a case where someone is trying to Run with the Companys Money. I Hope that is Okay with You, If you are Intrested Kindly Get back to me with your Full name, Phone Number and Residential Address and i will forward an Employment Form to you as soon as IRecieve your Responce. Please Note that it wouldnt Cost you anything to Recieve Payment on Our company Behalf all Payment wil be Deliver to you Via a Register Courier Service from Our Numerous Customers in Europe.

I look Forward seeing your Reply Soonest.

Best Regards,
Lawrence Williams.
Kingston Inc. Ltd.
Singapore.

Thanks for the music, Wilson

2006-01-20T10:48:00.000Z

I’ve been in quite a few bands (although my gigging days seem to be behind me now). Between 1998 and 2000 I was the singer in a soul band while I was at university. It was a big group, with 14 members, and we had a blast, rehearsing, playing shows and being minor campus celebrities, until we imploded with the usual rash of egoistic nonsense that inflicts these kinds of ventures (I walked, too tired to be involved any longer). I was remained of this time by the news that Wilson Pickett had died. It was strange, hearing that a man whose songs I had sung on an almost daily basis for 2 years had passed away. I didn’t feel sad directly because of his death – I didn’t know the man and had no connections to him – but I, like many others, had inhabited his songs for a short period. And for that I feel grateful to him, because, although I’ve only just fully realised it, he was a huge influence on me at a time I will always remember fondly. Thanks for the music, Wilson.

Neo-McCarthyism

2006-01-18T16:33:00.000Z

An interesting coincidence in my reading happened today. Of a late evening I’m currently reading ‘After Modern Art 1945-2000’ by David Hopkins, which is an entertaining account of the many developments in post-war art in the West. In the opening chapter Hopkins discusses the way that the critic Clement Greenberg’s writings shaped the way that much modern art – especially the work of Abstract Expressionists like Pollock and Rothko – was interpreted and viewed. To begin, Greenberg was heavily influenced by Trotskyist Marxism, but by the early 1950s he had switched positions and sympathised strongly with McCarthyism. The ideology of the Cold War therefore became the backdrop for dominant art criticism (and the canonisation of the Greenbergian concept of ‘Modernism’ in the 1960s). This set me thinking about the way that the War On Terror™ influences our contemporary culture, particularly in terms of how artistic texts are read and indeed produced.

Then I read this article by Ariel Dorfman in the Guardian today. Dorfman presented a paper in the US at a forum on the "role of the intellectual in the 21st century" in which he pretended to have been detained at the airport by Homeland Security, who impounded his plenary speech because it posed some kind of threat. He says:

“It was all a gigantic fabrication. Throughout my talk, I sprinkled numerous clues that this was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to illustrate the contradictions of intellectual life in our times of turmoil. I referred to Jorge Luis Borges and Vladimir Nabokov, masters of deception and false manuscripts. I speculated that my interrogators were part of a secret division of Homeland Security whose mission was to weed out scholars with "dangerous" academic leanings”.

It seems as if few of his peers would share in the joke, which was, at heart, a jab at the self-importance of a certain breed of intellectuals and fears about the freedom of speech. The audience took the story to be true and shared their worries with him after he had spoken. The joke back-fired, as Dorfman explains,

“When I lamented the naïveté of my sophisticated audience, the response was unanimous: I was the naive one… My fraudulent yarn was apparently terrifyingly plausible in a country where citizens can be held indefinitely without charges, where wire-tapping without warrants is rampant, where the vice president defends the use of torture, and where the president invades another country under false pretences. The sad truth about my story is that it comes straight out of the trepidation and terror caused by 9/11. Before that date, I would not have thought of concocting it, because most Americans would not have understood what I was talking about”.

There are plenty of ways that this story can be taken. What I’m most interested in, however, is the notion that there is truly a Neo-McCarthyism at work, not so much in relation to the erosion (disappearance?) of civil liberties (though this is an issue of massive importance, whatever position one takes), but in the ‘idea’ that there is. How, we might ask, does this backdrop frame our readings and understandings of cultural texts and works of art; and how, from a psychosocial perspective, does it affect the anaytical endeavours of intellectuals? Or anyone for that matter?

Shooting blindly into the crowd

2006-01-17T18:39:00.000Z

I don’t know if people who visit here ever take a look at the ‘quote of the day’ over in the sidebar, but I find it fascinating to wait and see what comes up. Sometimes there are some gems, but often (and maybe this has something to do with what I suspect in an American source) they simple add up to truisms or rather lame pop-philosophy. But still I find it interesting to see what pops up, who said it, and think about how our culture goes about categorising things as ‘quote-worthy’. Today’s I like as it chimes with my own convictions:

“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.”
Jacob Bronowski

But here’s one I like that you will be unlikely to see pop up anytime soon:

“The simplest surrealist act consists of going into the street with revolvers in your fist and shooting blindly into the crowd as much as possible. Anyone who has never felt the desire to deal thus with the current wretched principle of humiliation and stultification clearly belongs in this crowd himself with his belly at bullet height”.
Andre Breton

The question is, what happens now?

Incompetent, careless and inconsiderate bastards

2006-01-16T17:08:00.000Z

To say I’m a little disgruntled at this time would be an understatement. Frankly, I’m gutted. Last week I worked my arse off to get a postdoctoral fellowship application finalised on a complex online submission form, only to have my department let me down right at the eleventh hour and balls-up the whole thing. Well done them.

Just to put some flesh on this, previous readers will have noted that I finished writing the application exactly one month ago, on the 16th of December, submitted this draft text, and sat back, waiting for constructive feedback from the top brass in the department. Winter break week aside, that means it sat dormant for 3 weeks before someone took a cursory glance at it and thought it could do with a bit of a restructure. Content is fine. Restructure would take a couple of days. Tell prospective applicant at the last possible minute.

I don’t mean to be rude, but what a bunch of incompetent, careless and inconsiderate bastards they are. Perhaps they think PhD students don’t really matter and they can just pick up work anywhere? It makes me sick, whatever the reason. Luckily I’ve got good friends, a couple of great supervisors and a caring other-half. Honestly, I’d have jumped off a bridge otherwise, and not for the first time would that thought have entered my head while doing the damn academic-apprentice-business.

I’m really reconsidering my life priorities now. Is that what academia is? Can I really put up with this bullshit for the next couple of decades? Can I pursue my intellectual and political goals more productively elsewhere? Is there another way? Maybe. A new quest may well begin soon.

Twisted portraiture

2006-01-11T21:19:00.000Z

Over the last couple of days I’ve been taking advantage of bookshop sales and stocking up on art books. Through this I’ve come across the work of John Currin for the first time and I’ve been really drawn to his oeuvre. I can’t put my finger on it right now, but there’s something about his painting that absorbs my attention and catches my gaze.

I find this kind of twisted portraiture fascinating. His characters have a strange consciousness about them, and they strike awkward yet traditional poses. The way that Currin presents each of his characters with black disks at the centre of their eyes, makes them difficult to read on any recognisable emotional register. Instead, it is their entire bodies conjure the performance of an identity. His style has been described as ‘caricatured realism’ and I find it mesmerising.

Dawkins

2006-01-09T22:09:00.000Z

Richard Dawkins. Richard. Dawkins. Can’t say I really like the man. I find him arrogant, rude and very annoying, but I have to say that I agree with much that he said on his current TV show ‘The Root of all Evil’. I’m an atheist and find the world a wonderful place without the need for archaic myth, plus I agree with many of the points Dawkins makes about the truly nasty side of religious dogma – the Catholic Church and the devastation of communities in Africa by HIV/AIDS is just one strong case among many, many. But I’ve got two pieces of advice for Prof. Dawkins.

Firstly, let’s be clear: science does not move endlessly forwards through the process of falsification. Dawkins story about the elderly professor who shook the hand of a researcher who ‘disproved’ his cherished theory is contrary to much that the sociology of science has to say about science as a social practice. Given egos and intellectual property rights, the world of science just doesn’t work this way.

Secondly, Dawkins should calm down a bit and perhaps read some Cultural Studies. If he just stopped putting his fingers in his ears and shouting about how it’s all relativism (or whatever) he might benefit from the deeper and richer understanding of culture this would bring (I mean really, ‘memes?’ Is that the best you can do?).

In other news, I was really shocked by the vitriol being thrown at Jodie Marsh by the other ‘celebrities’ in the Big Brother house. She is filthy (and I certainly don’t have a problem with that myself) but there was no way she deserved to be the butt of the comment ‘you can take a whore to culture but you can’t make her think’. Misogyny has a new catchphrase it seems.

This is not Richard Dawkins.

The royal road to the unconscious

2006-01-08T18:21:00.000Z

Ah, dreams. The royal road to the unconscious. I mentioned in my review of ‘the Shock of the New’ the other day that looking at Modern Art for hours on end was giving me weird and frankly odd dreams. Last night these dreams changed again and I got back to the usual thesis-is-all-bullshit paranoid hullabaloo. Must remember to get stuck into the art books again.

One of my latest purchases is a small book on the surrealist movement – and of course, the surrealists were all about the unconscious, dreams and similar forms of symbolism. This small tone should get the dreams back in check. I may even keep it at bedside and stare at some of the pictures before I drop off – who knows what the results may be?

In other dream news, I found this site the other day called ‘Slowwave’, which is a collection of cartoons drawn from people’s dreams. Here are some examples that caught my eye.

Blind or deaf

2006-01-07T15:15:00.000Z

According to a piece on one of the Guardian Blogs all of us iPod lovers are going to be deaf within a couple of years. It's not going to gigs and having your ears pounded, but listening to headphones that really fucks your ears up. So what am I supposed to do? I couldn't possibly imagine managing without music during at least 90% of my waking life. I can hardly work (and I mean writing) without it.

I've often wondered whether it would be better to be blind or deaf (obviously with a preference for neither). I suppose I'd have to chose blind, although you understand that's not a request.

Hmmm, ok, here's some of my reasons not to be deaf.

Music by everyone from Death Cab for Cutie to Mozart; B’s voice; the laughter of good friends; listening to student’s making epistemological breakthroughs.

And some of my reasons not to be blind.

Reading Foucault, Deleuze, and countless other scholars; the work of Magritte, Picasso, Matisse, Freud, Klimt, Johns and so many artists; sunrises, sunsets and other cliqued features of nature; cinema in all its glory; the faces future babies.

Couldn't make the choice. I've just had another thought though. Would it be better to lose an arm or a leg?

Yuck.

I'm gonna have to stop because I'm freaking myself out.

Cubism

2006-01-05T09:14:00.000Z

As I’m now a self-appointed art critic (more so than before) I thought I’d throw a few of my current favourites up for pleasurable viewing.

Following my recent reading of Robert Hughes excellent book ‘The Shock of The New’ (see my Media List on the left) I’ve started Douglas Cooper’s ‘The Cubist Epoch’. In honour of this monumental artistic movement of the early 20th Century, here are a few of my favourites.

Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles d' Avignon (1907): Commonly held to mark the beginning of cubism.

Georges Braque - Piano and Mandola (1909-10)

Pablo Picasso - Three Musicians (1921): Commonly held to mark the end of the cubist epoch

The reason I love cubism is because of the way that it represented and caused a paradigm shift in the art/act of interpretation that changed 450 years of representation (moving on from one-point perspective and natural light). It also represents a time when people really believed that art and creativity could change the world. Although this sounds very Modernist these days I think there’s something of this spirit that needs resurrecting. Otherwise all we have to look forward to is Max Weber’s ‘iron cage’ of rationalisation. And you thought the prospect of another series of Celebrity Big Brother was bad?

Shit

2006-01-04T16:57:00.000Z

In the news again today is the shit-peddling holocaust-denying bastard David Irving. Professor Deborah Lipstadt, who was involved in the heated trial with Irving a few years ago is calling for him not to be tossed into an Austrian jail and left to rot for 10 years or so. And you know what? I agree. There’s no sense giving the extreme right another hero.

Also, despite his troubling and frankly stupid views the best place for him (with all respect to Austria’s laws) to be punished is in the view of the public where he can have his arse spanked by credible academic historians and bumble his way into some infamous and shit-filled crack of history. Like Lipstadt I’m seriously against locking people up for saying things, no matter how hate fuelling they may be.

A new age of productivity

2006-01-04T15:50:00.000Z

Ok so here’s the plan. I know it’s going to sound terribly instrumental, but desperate times call for desperate measures. No, there’s no point in protesting, I’ve made my mind up and I feel pretty damn good about it. So what am I talking about? It’s a new writing plan of course. Now I’m a pretty organised kind of chap and I’ve got a lot done on my thesis, albeit in bits and pieces right across the whole thing (a couple of thousand words in chapter 3, a couple more in chapter 8). But it’s not gelling together in the way it needs to so that supervisors can pass praise/damnation over solid lumps of prose.

So the plan is, 500 words a day.

Not the most revolutionary plan, I’ll grant you, and not the most original either. But I know things will get done this way. Obviously they’ll be days of over-production (like today with 1,200 in the bag) but there won’t be underproduction (hopefully).

This means my scraggy yet genius (!) draft will be a wonderful whole in a mere 5 months. So let’s get it on.

A new age of productivity has just dawned. Get used to it baby.

Presents and absences.

2006-01-03T09:12:00.000Z

Well, that was the holiday. How was it for you? The annual Thesisville winter tour of Kent turned out to be a tale of presents and absences.

I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas or the New Year as any one who knows me will surely be aware. Christmas doesn’t make sense to me: as an atheist it just seems pointless, while as a socialist it seems grotesque. New Year is just about compulsory drunkenness for most people. I’m deeply uncomfortable about rituals like these where non-participation is cast as socially pathological. And before anyone thinks it, no, I’m not full of humbug. I like to party, but I also want some sense of my own agency in it. Any doubts would be dispelled by the sight of my doing the washing up while dancing to Jamiroquai on my iPod…

I do join in though, mostly for B, because these are my battles, not hers. Mostly I like to take the opportunity to catch up with old friends, but due to a mixture of snow and bad planning, this didn’t really happen. Still, at least we can get to ‘normality’ now. It’s a few weeks before I get back to teaching, so it really is writing time and I have to make the most of it.

Porn movie with Daleks

2005-12-21T09:38:00.000Z

It seems as if the world has once again gone Dalek mad. Yes it's true, the Doctor's oldest and deadliest foes are back in fashion. It's like the 1960s or 70s all over again.

Just for the uninitiated, here’s a picture of a Dalek for you.

Hmmm, looks pretty mean eh? For more information and a detailed fan history, check this out

Now, two stories of interest about Daleks in the press recently. Firstly, there’s been some coverage in that wonderful rag The Sun about the making of a Dalek porn movie. Before your mind boggles out through your nose while you try and figure that one out, here a screen grab.

Ah, you see, it’s just a ‘normal’ porn movie with Daleks in. Perhaps they riff on the 1970s porno movie narrative about coming round to do the plumbing? Who knows.

The other story was on the BBC news last night. Apparently all the shops have sold out of toy Daleks this Christmas (here’s a little picture of some Daleks enjoying the festivities). Good thing I bought mine years ago when it was all kitsch to be into DW. If only my mother hadn’t ‘lost’ my toys from the 70s. Sometimes it really sucks to be a generation Xer.

Difficulty: Easy

2005-12-20T16:11:00.000Z

And here's today's Oliver recipe (I'll only be posting the veggie one's you understand...)

Spaghetti with Wild Mushrooms

9 to 11 ounces (250 to 300 grams) wild mixed mushrooms (I would probably buy around 14 ounces (400 grams) mushrooms, as you have to trim a bit off)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 to 2 small dried red chiles, pounded or very finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 pound (455 grams) dried spaghetti
A small handful grated Parmesan
1 handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped
2 ounces (55 grams) unsalted butter
Brush off any dirt from the mushrooms with a pastry brush or a tea towel. Slice the mushrooms thinly, but tear any larger mushrooms, like girolles, chanterelles. and blewits in half. Put the olive oil in a very hot frying pan, and add the mushrooms. Let them fry fast, tossing once or twice, then add the garlic and chile with a pinch of salt (it is very important to season mushrooms slightly, as it really brings out the flavor). Continue to fry fast for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing regularly. Then turn the heat off and squeeze in the lemon juice. Toss and season, to taste.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain and add to the mushrooms, with the Parmesan, parsley, and butter. Toss gently, coating the pasta with the mushrooms and their flavor. Serve, scraping out all of the last bits of mushroom from the pan, and sprinkle with a little extra parsley and Parmesan.
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

The swing of things

2005-12-20T15:21:00.000Z

It looks as if a holiday is upon me. It's not one I'd choose to have you understand, but one that culture kind of dictates I must have. But I'll make the most of it, and if things get to me, well, I'll just post a few moans up here and that'll help me deal with it.

A couple of things of note today, both from the Guardian.

Firstly, Susie Orbach updates the introduction to her seminal book, Fat Is a Feminist Issue.

Secondly, the ever eloquent and cutting George Monbiot takes a shot at the road-rage lobby and everything behind them.

As for me, I'm heading back to Kent tomorrow for my 'holiday', so it'll be Thesisville on tour for a while, as we get back into the swing of things.

Mental siesta

2005-12-16T17:05:00.000Z

Well, a week has passed since the last post and I've been hard at work trying to secure some kind of future post-PhD. It's difficult to say how sucessful I've been getting my post doc application together, but it's looking pretty good, although that's no indication that I'll get the award. I know the competition is extreme and there are several of us in my department going for it. The system has changed for this year, so on one seems to have much clue about what's going on - students, academics, administrators - everyone's in the dark.

But it's done now, at least until everything gets back into motion after the winter break at the start of Jan. All the applications (I think there are 4 in all) will be going to the top brass next week for them to take a look at and make sure there are no duffers. I met my prospective mentor this week and it seemed to go well, so I'm feeling confident. She told me (after picking some of the thinner bits of the proposal apart) that it's looking strong and is, in fact one of the best she's seen. Coming from an academic of considerable standing that was quite something! Let's just hope the people considering it for the funding body agree.

My thesis work has been shot through this week. I feel like I've acheived nothing in the last speedily vanishing days. I've got a supervision on Monday where I'm supposed to be talking through my work, which should have been forwarded today. Insead, it's just laying round my mac in bits and pieces, joined together in my own head but with little evidence on any page. Don't get me wrong, it's all good, it's just growing across the lenght of the full thesis, rather than in some chapter-by-chapter way. This is no disaster. In fact it makes perfect sense with my perspective on writing and analysing texts. I'll send them my application and that will have to do. And I'll take along my newly formed thesis plan, with all chapters, subheadings and paragraphs accounted for - that should please them!

I need to take a little while off and rest my mind. So I've ordered an intersting looking book on Feminist Methodologies from Amazon and I'll be putting my mind into this picture here for the next couple of days. It's time for a mental siesta. And maybe a couple of tequilas...

Leftie poststructuralist Marxism

2005-12-09T18:07:00.000Z

The very kind people at The Sharpener have just put a link to me on their lovely website and have noted that I'm on a blogging hiatus - although this is true it's only going to be for a week or so and is just a comment on the level of engagement. Moreover, I'm not fucking off for an extended period of time! I'm just trying to make sure I've got some kind of income after I've finished my PhD.

More 'leftie poststructuralist Marxism' to follow shortly...

Hiatus announcement

2005-12-08T18:13:00.000Z

Dear Reader

Just a short hiatus announcement today. The pressures of work overload are growing due to the looming date for a certain application deadline (details will follow!) and 15 hour days are leaving little time for quality blogging. So rather than just garbling out some rubbish without any thought (where's the change you may ask?) I'm going on a short blog break, but will return soon...

Love
Thesisville

The miracles of Thesisville!

2005-12-07T11:13:00.000Z

The headline should read 'BBC stretches meaning of facts'. Scanning through the BBC website I found an article about the Winter and Spring seasons on BBC 1. To be welcomed (obviously) is the new series of Doctor Who, with the copiously talented David Tennant now in the titular role. Perhaps less appetizing is the prospect of the ubiquitous and VERY LOUD Davina McCall hosting a chat show. What I really love about this piece though is the closing line, which is as follows:

"Other factual programmes include Rageh Omaar exploring The Miracles of Jesus".

Somewhere along the line I seem to have missed this new usage of the word 'factual'. Factual? I await with great interest to see what this is about and to be enlightened as to the factual basis for miracles. I shall then endeavor to perform some myself and report back with results. Coming this Spring! The miracles of Thesisville!

Blue deja vu

2005-12-06T22:09:00.000Z

So all the extended faff of the Conservative leadership election is over and, guess what, it was Cameron who won (as if we didn't see that one coming...). When I got home after a long day and slumped in front of his victory speak I couldn't help but sense both the genuine revitalisation in the Conservatives and a deep rumbling, foreboding case of blue deja vu. He's young, charismatic, full of fresh ideas... Didn't we see this about 10 years ago? And the thin smile on my face disappeared, at least until Prime Minister's questions tomorrow lunch time...

What a pukka combination

2005-12-05T18:12:00.000Z

This is either the greatest piece of copyright theft I've seen in a long time or a very elaborate hoax. This afternoon I received an email with an attachment that is supposed to contain ALL the recipes from the new Jamie Oliver book. I have no idea if this is true , but it sounds authentic (although it could be from an older book of his) i.e. like the bumblings of some crazed lunatic. Here's a taster for you:

Watercress, Rocket, Sweet Pear, Walnut and Parmesan Salad

What a pukka combination, simple and classy. Don`t try to make this when you feel like it, make it when you can find perfect pears and watercress, otherwise it will taste naff.

For one person I normally use around half a pear 2 big handfuls of watercress and 2 big handfuls of rocket. If the skins are nice just give them a wash, if not remove with a peeler. Then cut them in half and deseed. It doesn`t really matter how you cut them up. Sometimes in big rough chunks, maybe sliced up or even grated. Then place into the bowl with the watercress and rocket. The pepperiness of the leaves works so well with the sweetness of the pear. Drizzle with a good extra virgin olive oil just to coat, a small squeeze of lemon juice (because the pear juice is slightly acidic but very tasty), and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss all this together and serve. Shave over some Parmesan or Pecorino, crumble your nuts over and tuck in. I love this salad with roasted meat or as a starter on its own.

Let me know if you're interested and maybe I'll serialize it! It'll save you paying £20 for a copy and I'll even thown in a few pictures of the gurning prat too!

Oh dear, he doesn't look happy does he?

Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville

2005-12-03T18:17:00.000Z

As will become clear when I blog in more detail about my actual thesis over the coming months, my work is about romance and romantic love. On of the ways I’m looking at this concerns the ways the popular images of heterosexual romance are used – their cultural lives – in late capitalist societies.

Take this picture for example, “Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville" - Kiss at City Hall – by Robert Doisneau.

This photograph has an interesting history. Despite what many people believe, it doesn’t show a spontaneous display of passion, but was in fact staged, the couple being asked to pose by Doisneau. However, what this picture went on to signify was a particular kind of spirit of ‘freedom’ that was often articulated in summaries of post-war Europe. It’s story tells us something about the ways that our personal relationships - our emotions and our understandings of them – are shaped by cultural and societal forces that exist both ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ us (clearly I’m not too comfortable with the simple inside/outside division for many reasons). In this case, the popular romance of the second half of the 20th century was linked intimately to forces of the economy, especially consumption. The full explanation of what I’m on about here will be reserved for my dissertation, but I thought it would be interesting to throw this out here as a little thinking piece about culture and selfhood. In important ways what we feel isn’t under our control but is shaped but cultural texts such as this, which are, in turn, deployed at specific moments in the history of western societies. The ramifications of this are of massive importance to all of us. And the kinds of personal relationships we find ourselves in.

Cameron or Davis?

2005-12-01T14:19:00.000Z

During the next week we’ll find out who the next leader of the Conservative party is. The question is, will it be Cameron or Davis? Although it might be putting it lightly to say that I don’t really have too much time for this jumped up bunch of right wing tosspots, I do think the outcome is very important. In simple terms, it seems to me that the outcome is important for democracy in this country. If a weak leader of the opposition is elected, like they’ve managed on the last 3 attempts, then a Brown lead Labour administration will surely sweep to victory at the next election in about 4 years time. This shouldn’t be made a certainty. The health of our democracy depends on it. I’m not saying that we need a change in government. I happen to think that Cameron will win and take leadership of the conservatives, but there’s no way I’d want to see him as PM. There are hundreds of reasons for my saying this, not least because of certain comments he made about ‘family life’ on Radio 4 a few days ago, but let’s not go into that now (let’s have a good dig at him IF he wins). I think that if Davis wins the Tories will remain as grey as the have for the last… um, when have they not been grey post Mrs, T? If Cameron wins at least he’s someone people will hone in on and rally around. This resurgence on the right could, COULD, make the left buck up it’s ideas. I know this is completely fanciful, but it’s a thought. What will probably happen though, is that we’ll get the ‘Tory Blair’ (as if we don’t have that already) and we’ll enter a new low period of political battles being conducted in hyperbole rather than on the ground of substantial debate. If this happens, I’m going to climb into my computer and live in cyberspace. You’re all welcome of course, just keep off my land, right? I’ve got my eye on you…

Aygo-a-go-go

2005-11-30T17:41:00.000Z

Goodness me we’ve all gone Aygo-a-go-go here in Thesisville today. No, before you ask this isn’t a reference to some kind of traditional South American dance, or a euphemism if losing one’s marbles (i.e. grip on reality). The reason for all the excitement is our shiny new set of wheels, and boy have we made an improvement! A few years ago, when B was living in York and I was residing in Kent I needed a new car that would be reliable on the fortnightly trips up the A1, so I plumped for a Daewoo Matiz, which was hardly the most fiery vehicle. In fact, the dealer actually said to me at the time ‘I always think these would be great cars for a retired couple’. At the time I was 26. Oh dear. Today we waved goodbye to our Matiz shame and welcomed our new Aygo into our lives. It looks a pretty much like the one in this picture, but it’s the 5-door version.

It drives pretty well, although the steering is a little heavy going into corners. I have to say though that the Aux input on the stereo is simply amazing as the Aygo turns into a massive iPod on wheels. It’s a little beauty.

So now we’ve joined ‘Club Toyota’ what can we expect? Well, we’ll have to wait and see as this new set of wheels settles in. One thing that is troubling me is that I’ll have to draw the blinds when the new F1 season starts next year. Obviously everyone in Thesisville has to support Jenson Button – it’s compulsory – but of course he drives for BAR Honda, Toyota’s archrivals. Just make sure no one tells the Aygo, keep it hush-hush OK?

Sometimes, it's a really amazing feeling to be Welsh

2005-11-28T09:13:00.000Z

WALES 22 - 24 AUSTRALIA

Urban Myth

2005-11-27T13:26:00.000Z

OK, so here’s the thing right, I’m fascinated by urban myths and contemporary folklore. If you’re not familiar with this sort of thing then a trip to the Urban Legends Reference Pages is definitely in order. Now, some of this stuff is relatively harmless, but some of it certainly isn’t. As a case in point I’d like to share this email that was forwarded to me over the weekend. Here is the text in full:

"The following information has been received from the Defence Fire and Rescue Service.

A couple of weeks ago, in the Odeon cinema, Festival Park, Birmingham, a person sat on something sharp in one of the seats. When she stood up to see what it was, a needle was found poking through the seat with an attached note saying, "You have been infected with HIV".

The Centre for Disease Control in Birmingham, reports that similar events have taken place in several other cities recently.
All of the needles tested have been found positive for HIV. Reports have also been received of needles found in the coin return areas of pay phones and drinks machines. Everyone is asked to use extreme caution when confronted with these types of situations. All public chairs should be thoroughly but safely inspected prior to any use. A thorough visual inspection is considered the bare minimum.

All Brigade personnel should notify their family members and friends of the potential dangers as well and to pass this information on to as many people as possible."

This has got some of the classic traits of an urban myth. It’s just about believable enough, it plays on people’s contemporary fears, and it is ripe for being passed on between people and, thus, into legend status. But while I find many of the stories about killers hunting babysitters, bizarre sexual exploits, microwaved pets and the like reasonably entertaining, this is a pretty sick case. A quick google search and a scan of the news reveals this as a false story. This means someone has invented it, fabricated the story, even (as far as I can ascertain) founded the fictional disease control centre in Birmingham. All this means that there’s a pretty malicious, sick bastard somewhere out there enjoying a laugh at the expense of quite a few good, honest and helpful people who care for the safety of their friends and family.

I myself have contemplated starting an urban myth and seeing how long it takes to travel the world and get back to me, but I’d never come up with something as sick as this because this could really scare people and alter their behaviour.

I also wonder what it is with Birmingham, because I’m sure it was around that area that there was the panic about some ‘real’ vampires going around biting people. And of course, vampires and HIV/AIDS are connected by the common factor of blood, which is a recurring issue in the horror stories of western culture. It makes me think about what kind of society can create and then re-produce these kinds of horrific myths. Perhaps it has something to do with fears of pollution, and I mean ‘social’ pollution, like immigration (Birmingham is a particularly ethnically diverse city) or panics about terrorism and attacks at our most vulnerable places (what do cinemas represent to people?). We Brits have a long history of this kind of hysteria. We need to go on the couch quite frankly.

Whatever. It still means that some nasty shit is making up this disgraceful stuff for a cheap laugh. In which case I say, get a life loser.

Boffinhood

2005-11-25T17:07:00.000Z

I get really annoyed when scientists are called 'boffins' in the media. It's just one of those things that gets to me. Especially when they do it on the Radio 1 news (aka Newsbeat) because loads of kids will be listening and the last thing we need to do is make scientists look more nerdy than they already do in the eyes of children. Anyway, I'm beginning to think there may well be circumstances when the moniker boffin is actually fitting. Scientists who split atoms are clearly not boffins. Nor are those who develop drugs to fight cancer. These people we will, in fact, be happy to call scientists and resist the use of the name boffin in such cases. Boffins, I would suggest, work on less useful things, stuff that might not really demand the spending of public funds. Things that are often social and cultural issues, which are ill suited to scientific analysis, unless it's the kind of analysis that begins and ends in the bar.

So to my first case of boffinhood proper. According to the BBC today, some scientists have worked out an equation for the phenomenon of 'beer googles', just in time for our new 24 hour drinking culture. Yes, you read correctly, they have worked out why it is that people go for complete (insert your own term here) after a beer/glass of wine/litre of Frosty Jacks (e.g. an evil cider).

And here it is:

This is how it works:
An = number of units of alcohol consumed
S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)
L = luminance of 'person of interest' (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)
Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)
d = distance from 'person of interest' (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

So now there really is no excuse. You have been warned by boffins. This is probably the best of the article:

"A formula rating of less than one means no effect. Between one and 50 the person you would normally find unattractive appears less "visually offensive". Non-appealing people become suddenly attractive between 51 and 100. At more than 100, someone not considered attractive looks like a super model."

So there you have it. The further scientisation of that illusive thing that is attraction. It's bollocks, but I guess it's entertaining bollocks. The problem comes when other kinds of bollocks, like the majority of evolutionary psychology, goes unchallenged because it takes itself far too seriously. I myself have a sword that I'll be sharpening over the coming years, ready to cut it down to size.

Our digital voice

2005-11-24T08:05:00.000Z

I'm annoyed at the moment because my digital camera has broken. I have no idea why, but it has. One of the strange things about living in late-capitalism is that I seriously have to consider whether it's worth getting the damn thing fixed. I bought it over 2 years ago at a cost of approximately £200 - a substantial investment, this is certain. So you may think it would be made not get it fixed. But what would the cost of this be? £25-30 perhaps? This is a 2 million megapixel camera and I can now get a 4 million megapixel camera from about £60. So, in a way, if I get my current camera fixed, I'll be mending something that, in terms of technological development, obsolete and can be replaced with something twice as good for a fraction of its original price. No wonder people from older generations has problems understanding the way things work in our contemporary culture. Yes, it wouldn't be an issue (or at least probably shouldn't be) if the damn thing still worked - to me, a digital camera is a camera is a digital camera. Cars are another good example. When I started to drive in the 1990s a car could be 'tinkered' with and fixed at home. Now cars are not some much mechanical as computerised, and fixing them has become a matter of complex diagnostics. I also hear that the new Playstation, PS3, has a processor in that means if it had existed in 1998, it would have been the most powerful super-computer in the world. All this raises some interesting questions about what's going on in our society and culture in the infancy of the 21st century.

Technology does have a massive effect on culture, although it does not guide it in any simply deterministic fashion. There's an interesting piece in the guardian today about digital photography and the democratisation of the photograph. I would say that, as with the supposed democratisation brought by other digital media, not least of course media such as this very blog, this is not a simple or complete process. Digital snappers and webloggers alike do not 'take' power from where it traditionally resides in the media, but we do have a voice in a way that has seldom been witnessed before, and this can, I'm sure, lead to the disruption of power. Not a bad thing really. But the fact that everything becomes obsolete in a matter of months means we must always keep buying or risk losing our internet connection, our inter-product compatibility, and thus our digital voice. So we're still consumers under the power of another system and late-capitalism rolls on.

Pompous and sometimes ridiculous spectacles

2005-11-23T21:55:00.000Z

I admit it. I'm shattered. I'm over-working myself. But what the hell, I've still got a smile on my face most of the time. Gonna try and make a little more time in the day for short blog up-dates from now on as loads of interesting stuff is passing us by with no comment - and this simply will not do! Attended a great seminar this afternoon with a presentation about power in the relationship between PhD students and their supervisors. Interestingly, because no senior members of staff were present, it was one of the most open and interesting discussions I've taken part in. I know that some present didn't have much in-put and that this was most probably because they are at the beginning of their studies, so power was still present of course. But it was still a great session. if only the pompous and sometimes ridiculous spectacles of showmanship that are the departmental seminars were more like this.

And honestly folks (in other news), I'm with Mr Bell on the issue of nuclear power. I mean, what the fuck is the government thinking?

Be the third king

2005-11-21T08:58:00.000Z

Email scams are one of the most irritating things, but this one made me smile. It might as well say 'Yes, you sir could be the third king!'

FROM: Sgt. Gordon James

Dear Sir/Madam,

Good day to you
My name is Gordon James, an American soldier serving in the US military of
the 1st Armored
Division in Iraq. We have just been posted out of Iraq to Germany but I am
presently in Kuwait at the mean time.

My superior and I moved some large funds belonging to Saddam Hussein,worth
$25,000,000.00
(Twenty Five million US dollars) This money is being kept safe in a security
company. Click on this link to read about

events that took place here.

http://somescamlink

Basically since we are working for the government we cannot keep these
funds, but we want
to transfer and move the funds to you, so that you can keep it for us in
your safe
account or an offshore account. We will divide the total funds in three
ways, since we
are three involved.

This means that you will take 30%, I will take 30%, and my superior will
take 30%.
10% will be kept aside for expenses.

This business is confidential, and it should not be discussed with
anyone.There is no
risk involved whatsoever. If you are interested i will call you to discuss
more about the business.
Can i trust you? When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail
signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone/fax
numbers for quick communication as well as your contact details. Not that I
will call you immediately I recive your number.

This business is risk free. Please reply me via this email for security
reasons.

Respectfully submitted

Sgt. Gordon James

I often wonder who would be stupid enough to answer these things, but I suppose someone must be. Can I trust you indeed. I have to say that I prefered Kelly's Heros. Although quite why Donald Sutherland (aka tank commander Sgt. Oddball) is a hippy, given the movie is set in the 1940s, has always escaped me. Probably the best amoral war movie of 1970.

Blast from the past No.4

2005-11-17T20:42:00.000Z

The thesis is really ruling my world at the moment, so to keep things ticking over here in the blogsphere, here's blast from the past no.4. You might be glad to know this is one of the last bits of interesting old stuff I've got laying around so the horizon is filled with lovely new posts (hopefully). Thinking about making a new purchase on the weekend to replace our bust digital camera, so things may spring to life soon in glorious colour here in Thesisville. Then again, they may not.

Alexander the Gay?

There's been quite a bit of fuss about the new Oliver Stone movie 'Alexander.' The film, staring Colin Farrell and portraying the life of Alexander, king of Macedonia has not been well received in Greece, where people have been angered by the suggestion that Alexander had a male lover and is therefore, they suggest, represented as gay.

To think that way is to be blind to history. Sexual identities are historically and culturally specific and it makes very little sense to take contemporary concepts about particular sexual identities and project them back in time onto other eras and places. Given the time he was alive it would have been odd if Alexander did not have 'sexual' relations with men, as it was quite normal at the time. In fact, he would have been pretty 'queer' if he didn't. These relations were not so much about gender - they were about power and position within societal hierarchies.

So these people who are complaining are very silly.

Unless they are using gay in the archaic sense meaning 'happy.'
Or in the contemporary sense that kids use it, meaning 'lame.'

Colin Farrell
Hmmmmm,
You would though, wouldn't you?

Blast from the past No.3

2005-11-13T21:10:00.000Z

Hey, it's Sunday and I'm feeling pretty lazy so here is blast from the past no.3. The reason I've picked this today is because my own ethnicity has been negotiated on several occasions over the last few days. It's something I'm going to come to in the thesis at some point too, so this will probably be the first post of several on this theme.

Are you the token white guy?

Ethnicity is one of those things that only seems to exist in the margins. I read so much stuff that seems to suggest that a person can only have an ‘ethnicity’ or a ‘race’ if they are non-white. Whites, it appears, are without race. This is something I’d like to overcome in my academic work and also of course in my everyday life, but because of the cultural white-blindness (I have heard it called snow-blindness) it is very difficult to trouble the invisibility of white ethnicities. (To make myself visible I should say that I am white and, although I was born in England, my family are from Wales, so I have Welsh ancestry). I’d like to reproduce a large section from an article from the Guardian by Gary Young. You can find the full article here and it’s certainly worth a look, but this is the section I’d like to quote.

“Do you think of yourself as white or British or both? Does it worry you that you got your job just because of your race? Where are you from? No, but really? Since this is where you live, don't you think you should try and integrate with other races more? Is your first loyalty to your God, or to your country? Is it true what they say about white guys? Given the genocide, slavery and colonialism unleashed in the name of Christianity over the last two centuries, do you feel your religion is compatible with democracy? Mr Grant, do you think of yourself as a white actor or an actor who happens to be white? I don't mind white people, but if they want to live here then why shouldn't they have to fit in with our traditions? Shouldn't the police be doing more to tackle white-on-white crime? Given the objectification of women in your culture and the rise in teenage pregnancies, don't you think it's time to ban young girls wearing make up? What do you make of the tribal conflict in Ukraine? I thought you asked for flesh-coloured tights? Don't you feel that this politically correct belief that we have to respect white people's feelings has stifled honest discussion and debate? Isn't it a shame that white people cannot pick more responsible leaders? What do you mean, you can't Morris dance? Don't you ever worry about being pigeonholed as a white person? Why aren't you doing more to check the rise in Christian fundamentalism? Who are your community leaders? Why should we balance our belief in human rights with our tolerance for Christians? What do white people think about Jews? How would you define "white" style? Mr Amis, why do you write about white people all the time? Don't you find that limiting? What are you doing for your people? Have you seen what the Bible says about women? Are you the token white guy? Don't take this personally, but why are white men so aggressive? Now the Olympics are over, can we finally admit that white people are genetically equipped to excel in archery and rowing? What is it with white people and homophobia? You know what white women are like, don't you? I understand that as a white person you come at this from a particular place, but can't you try to look at it objectively for a moment? Why do you people have such a chip on your shoulder? Don't get offended, I was only asking.”

Tiny feet

2005-11-12T10:59:00.000Z

A good evening was had by all yesterday, as we made our first visit of the season to the Millennium Stadium to see Wales take on Fiji. The atmosphere was fabulous even though the rugby wasn't up to much, as a second-string Welsh team scraped a one point victory. I really enjoy going to these matches because there are always so many children there (often school parties) and you can tell it's the first time they've ever been to a big event like this. I feel really lucky to be able to share part of that experience with them - plus, it makes me look forward to sharing these moments with children of my own, although it'll be a while before we heard the patter of tiny feet in Thesisville...

Thank you Abi Titmass

2005-11-09T20:22:00.000Z

The web is a wonderful thing, of this there is surely no doubt. I have my favourite bits and these tend to involve news, music, blogs and study. Other people have other interests. For a great number of people, these involve naked people: specifically naked women. Strangely, for someone who works in the area of sexuality studies, I don't end up clicking onto flesh as much as I used to. There was a time, I seem to remember, when every first result in a search engine used to involve flesh. Not so anymore it seems. Maybe I'm a better searcher who's Google input is specific enough to weed the stuff out? The other night, when searching for something for a lesson plan on 'puns', B managed to find herself staring at a 'screen full of tits' (her words).

Now, the point of this post is that on taking a casual look at the 'referral' pages on site meter I noticed that many people had ended up in Thesisville having searched for sites about 'media savvy' Abi Titmass. Well Abi, I've found a flaw in your plan to take over the world with you chest. Following my rather vitriolic post the other week on men's mags my little site is ending up as number 2 or 3 on people's web searches for your grotty little pictures (I assume they're not looking for biographical information about you previous nursing career). Whadda ya think about that Titmass? Pretty funny eh?

So all I really wanted to say today was thank you Abi Titmass, because all I have to do is mention your name and my traffic is increased! Next week Thesisville will be featuring posts about Charlotte Marshall, Lucy Becker, Sophie Howard, Orlaith from Big Brother, Jerri Byrne and a host of other 'babes.' But then again, it probably won't. But let the Great Porn Link experiment begin! (Cynical? perhaps...)

Visit 1000

2005-11-08T21:57:00.000Z

And so the first major landmark of Thesisville is reached as visit 1000 pops up on the site meter counter. Many, many thanks to everyone who has ever dropped round. I'll put the kettle on shall I? Tea all round.

The Deal

2005-11-08T21:42:00.000Z

Ok, catharsis alert people, catharsis alert. Will someone please explain to me why students never, ever prepare for seminars - or if they do, they turn up unable to talk? What is it that causes this ridiculous phenomenon? I spend far too much time explaining to them that it makes no sense just turning up and expecting, accepting even, to be lectured at for yet another hour. We all know that lectures are perhaps the most useless way know to people and beasts for imparting information, yet this is what students desire! How can we have done this to them? How can we justify an education system that pumps out passive ‘learners’?

I’m finding it difficult to know what to do with my teaching at the moment. Previously I would carry on regardless and rely on the students’ resourcefulness to get us through the seminars. I would explain at the start of the module that it was their course and they could have it as they wanted. And it worked. At least when it was in Cardiff and the students were 3rd years (although the ghost of instrumental learning did rear its ugly head toward the end of the year). The young people at my current teaching post are fresh faced 1st years, straight outta school and deeply invested in the patterns of learning that they got from GCSEs and A Levels.

It strikes me that no one here (and I mean the place where I’m sitting writing this in a teaching break this afternoon…) has any clue what is going on. The staff are a bunch of completely disorganised, dishevelled hobos – such levels of incompetence I have seldom seen. The students seem to come to (most) seminars out of some kind of unconscious obligation, like the zombies in a Romero movie. In fact, it’s a miracle anything actually ever goes right here. This place proves chaos theory! But then, of course, it wouldn’t. It would be just like that scene in Spaced where they talk about Chaos theory but get interrupted when Tim remembers he’s got some Jaffa cakes in his coat. I myself am ambivalent about Jaffa cakes, but then I’m not stoned at the moment (…).

Being here has really pushed me though, as a teacher. I’ve learned new strategies, how to work at various levels and teach one seminar 3 times in a row to varying groups in terms of personalities and competencies. And although I stand by my slagging off of the staff (they are supposed to be professionals after all), I’ve really very fond of the students (I mean, as Certeau said, it’s best not to treat people as if they’re idiots…). Many of them want to take responsibility for their own learning, they just don’t know how, so I’ll help them as much as I can. I call it The Deal. I give them as much as I can; prepare for the seminars, answer their questions and give them fair marks in assessment: and they come ready to work. If they haven’t prepared I’ll forgive them, as long as it’s not every week. When it comes down to it, I really love teaching.

The lazy teaching with the videos is still to come this afternoon, and there’s no guarantee it’ll go ahead at all due to the ‘mystery of the video box key’ that has yet to be unlocked (in both senses). I’m feeling de-motivated I must admit, and this black coffee is doing very little to perk me up this afternoon. Perhaps by the time I post this this evening my outlook will be rosier?

At least in the car on the way home I have the joy of The Consultants on Radio 4. A wonderful comedy show that I’ve enjoyed every series of. Hopefully it’ll follow The Mighty Boosh and the like onto our TV screens before long. If it can manage to be so brilliant that would be a bonus. It’s probably not the best thing to listen to while hurtling down the M4 in the rain and driving wind (yes, international folk, the winter is finally upon us here is Blighty).

Later that night…

Well, watching Bob Geldolf go on about his personal grievances three times in a row wasn't the greatest experience, but guess what? My students did me proud once again, by coming up with ten minutes of good discussion in each session, proving once again how engaged and engaging they can be - well done to all of them. I raise my glass of wine to you all! (Now, if I can only get them to read something.....................................)

A little tidy up

2005-11-07T20:41:00.000Z

Just in case you're wondering, I'm having a little tidy up around Thesisville at the moment. As the site begins to mature I want to refine my links and so on, so that I'm really happy with them. One problem I've been having with using the mac to blog from is that the 'create hyperlink' button seems to have disappeared for no apparent reason. This is annoying when you want to put plenty of links in the text and can't be bother with typing a?/whatever each time. Anyone know why I can't see the hyperlink thingy? Oh well, such is life.

So please keep an eye on the side bar over the next week or so as it'll be overhauled somewhat.

Looking forward to some ‘lazy’ teaching tomorrow. We'll be working from a video on Absent Fathers*. I was supposed to have been supplied with a copy of this last week, but as readers of previous posts about this particular teaching job will already suspect, thing have not go quite that smoothly. I've been given several videos, two of which are of the same programme. I swear (and this is no lie) that the module leader is an alcoholic. He's got some serious problems. I have never seen anyone so dishevelled how wasn't living on the street. And his book! My goodness, I've never seen so many mistakes and typos. His module guide is worse. This puts me in a deeply compromised position, because some of the smarter students have caught wind of this (especially the one's who have been reading around and have some sense of perspective on his text). How can I deal with this? It compromises my teaching ability when I have to be vigilant of his mistakes and be prepared from his incompetancies. It’s not fair on me and it’s certainly not fair on the students.

* Not sure I think videos are really the way to be teaching in Universities – they really do seem lazy to me. We’ll see how it goes, but can it really take the place of conversation and debate?! I doubt it. Surely seminars are about student voices, not the passivity of television viewing.

Hollow hopes

2005-11-06T12:27:00.000Z

Well it has to be said that the Autumn Internationals didn't exactly start the way we might have wanted yesterday. Following an abysmal display by the Cardiff blues on Friday night, I was really hoping that Wales would be able to put on a good display against the All Blacks. But these were hollow hopes indeed. Although it would have been delusional to expect Wales to be able to run out a total victory, it would have been great if they could have at least reproduced the form that they produced in a thrilling game last year that I was lucky enough to attend. Congratulations to the All Blacks on a masterful display. They were so fast in the turn over it was devastating, and I'm wincing at the prospect of what they'll pull out against Ireland next Saturday. As for Wales, I'll now looking forward to Friday night against Fiji, when all at Thesisville will be making their first trip to the Millennium Stadium for this year. We should be able to walk away happy from that one at least! The sense of anticipation about the South Africa match is also rising - I hope that this time when Springbok Andrew and I roll out of the stadium into the November drizzle and chew through the match over a pint of Guinness at the street bar outside the castle, that it's me who can celebrate the victory. Whatever happens, I hope it's worth the ticket money!

Because there have been no Friday jokes for a while, here a lame one about the rugby.

The Welsh team is playing New Zealand and just before kick-off Alfie slips, pulls a muscle and can’t play. Ruddock is so desperate as there aren’t any other full backs in Wales that he is forced to play a goose (it’s OK, it's got Welsh grandparents) at 15.
Rather surprisingly the goose has a brilliant first half. One minute it's clearing off its own lineand making cover tackles, the next it’s joined the line linking up perfectly with the backs. At half time MR is very pleased and everyone runs back onto the pitch for the second half.
On the way the ref starts chatting with the goose. "Great first half goose, you must be really fit".
"Thanks", replied the goose, "I try to keep myself fit but its difficult finding the time so I try to do an hour in the gym each morning before work".
"What do you do then?" asked the ref.
"I'm a chartered accountant" replies the goose.
At which point the ref immediately brandishes the red card and sends the goose off. The bemused team mates gather round the ref and start complaining.
"Sorry lads", says the ref, "I had no choice. ..................................................................................Professional fowl".

Work. Buy. Consume. Die.

2005-11-05T11:37:00.000Z

I love graffiti. I really want to write a book about it one day and publish it through Taschen (they love that kind of stuff). For a while I thought I'd photograph all the interesting examples I came across. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at keeping up with these plans and there have only ever been two good examples. The first was in York, where someone had simply sprayed 'POST BOX' onto, yes, can you believe it, a post box. Something about that just tickled me. Can you imagine the thought processes and the story behind that?

The other example is from down near Cardiff Bay last year, which was on an advert for an insurance company. I reproduce it here. I don't think it needs any commentary.

Quite suitable for bonfire night don't you think? And our annual celebration of religious persecution, torture and execution?

The briefest of reviews

2005-11-04T17:03:00.000Z

Just for today the briefest of reviews as an interim.

'Translations' at the Sherman Theatre - very shoddy.
Martha Wainwright at Cardiff University - bloody marvelous.

Details to follow. Come on the Blues! (For this evening). And for tomorrow... COME ON WALES!!!!!

Would it be better for people who believe in an afterlife to just kill themselves now?

2005-11-03T17:29:00.000Z

If you've ever pondered the true nature of loyalty, or whether it would be better for people who believe in an afterlife to just kill themselves now (now there's a thought...) you mind do much worse than check out Ask Philosophers. I'll be popping round most days to see what's bugging people, because, of course, the choice of questions posed to the worlds 'greatest minds' will be more interesting in many ways than the answers provided.

In other news, I very seldom have a good word to say about Prince Charles (anti-monarchist republican that I am), but it was funny to see him stepping into King Ape George W's own manor and 'suggest' he might like to start cleaning up the environment before we all, like, die. Well done Charlie. Just this once.

Apologies to Led Zeppelin

2005-11-02T08:08:00.000Z

Well apologies to regular readers and recent commenters because it’s been a long time since I blogged and rolled (apologies to Led Zeppelin and all pun-haters). The last week has been rather work-clogged, but I feel as if I’ve come out the other side with a refined vision and an engaged passion. This is true of my teaching and my thesis. As far as the teaching is concerned I’m planned (in outline at least) until the end of the term. I’ve been reading Weber again for the classes, which has been thoroughly enjoyable even though I’m not into more of what he has to say. Despite this, the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is an outstanding piece of work. Thesis-wise it’s clicked – it really has. I can feel the chapters forming from underneath me link some beautiful, rhizomatic offspring. I’m pregnant with ideas rather then saturated with data, and the wonderful experience of writing has truly begun at last. Oh how I love it! How I adore the planning, the process, the creation!

Last weekend was a lot of fun. A good friend, I, from my former life as a bookseller came to stay and we showed him the sights and sounds of Cardiff, including an excellent Johnathan Rice gig at the Barfly. Johnathan and his makeshift band were outstanding, but the crowd was mixed in its response, so we missed out on an encore. Got to meet Johnathan though, and drunkenly tell him how great he is – beer removes all traces of shame (until the morning). Also chatted to his stern faced bass-player who handed me a card, which leads to this bizarre, website: BlueberryLounge.
Take a look if you wanna peak into the strange world of the New York art-rock scene…

Another action paced week this week, including research group meetings, a production of Translations, a Martha Wainwright gig (joy!) and the Blues v Munster on Friday evening. A hazy review of all these to follow!

Before I go, here's a little oddity from today's Guardian. Don't ask me why, but this story really struck home with me...

"A recent auction on eBay ended with a pair of leather trousers being sold for $102.50 (£58) after 22 bids. Buyers may have been attracted by the following short essay written by the owner:

You are bidding on a mistake. We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants.

I can explain these pants and why they are in my possession. I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman whom I believed to have taste. She suggested I try them on. I did. She said they looked good. I wanted to have a relationship of sorts with her. I'm stupid and prone to impulsive decisions. I bought the pants.

The relationship, probably for better, never materialised. The girl, whose name I can't even recall, is a distant memory. I think she was short.

Ultimately, the pants were placed in the closet where they have remained, unworn, for nearly a decade. I would like to emphasise that aside from trying these pants on, they have never, ever been worn. In public or private.

I have not worn these leather pants for the following reasons:

I am not a member of Queen.

I do not like motorcycles.

I am not Rod Stewart.

I am not French.

I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.

These were not cheap leather pants. They are Donna Karan leather pants. They're for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men. In fact, I'll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.

Again, they're men's pants, but they'd probably look great on the right lady. Ladies can get away with leather pants much more often than men can. It's a sad fact that men who own leather pants will have to come to terms with.

They are size 34x34. I am no longer size 34x34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown - perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate - I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.

These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren't worn onstage. They didn't straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.

Someone, somewhere, will look great in these pants. I'm hoping that someone is you, or that you can be suckered into buying them by a girl you're trying to bed. Please buy these leather pants" .

English subtitles

2005-10-24T15:28:00.000Z

Gosh, when time flies it really does fly doesn't it? Time for a little catch up I think. My birthday weekend passed very comfortably and happily, with much of our time being spent in the cinema. I decided to use the opportunity of everyone telling me I should do exactly what I wanted to go and catch up with a lot of new films that have hit the screens. Cinema land has been a little barren over the last few weeks, so I was very glad to see the arrival of Night Watch, which I enjoyed very much. Going to see this also involved an amusing moment with the cashier warning Bartlett and myself that the film was in Russian and had English subtitles. He seemed more annoyed by this than I did (the warning that is) as I'm sure there are loads of people who wouldn't go and see a film with subtitles. That's fair enough, it's their choice, but then they'll miss all the amazing films produced in other languages and their lives with be so much the less richer. Whatever. And I think the cashier was just covering her arse too - I can only imagine the abuse someone working in a multiplex must have to put up with. The second film of the weekend was Wallance and Grommit and the curse of the Were Rabbit. I'm going to try and coving this in a future post about horror movies, but you know me, I'm all broken promises on the post front (oh yeah, where's that post about opera?)! Third was a curious little film Guy X. One to check on DVD if you get the chance - an interesting examination of masculinity, the army and folklore.

Tuesday saw another gig, this time K T Tunstall at the University. As usual she was outstanding. There's something about a performer who so obviously enjoying just getting the chance to play that makes me enjoy their music even more. K T is the epitome of this right now. Great gig.

Bartlett's birthday celebrations were last Friday and much ale was consumed and layered with Indian food. Yum. Amazingly there were no side effects on Saturday, so we headed into town in reasonably high spirits to watch the Cardiff Blues. First half = sent me to sleep. Second half = where did that come from?! Cardiff 40 - Leeds 13. Wonders will never cease.

And just in case you thought one Mac wasn't enough.... we now have two. I know, I know, it seems excessive, but it became clear a week or so ago that B and I both need to work in the evening, so it's a small price to save a relationship! Last Monday I traveled ALL over town in a hunt for a laptop only to discover after several hours of determined searching that a) nowhere has any stock on a Monday, and, b) they don't come with Office so you have to buy it separately which would cost another £100 approx for the student and teacher edition. What a bunch of bastards Microsoft are. So I ordered one of the 12" G4 iBooks, which is superb and much, much preferred to some PC rubbish. So now I can have my Apple and eat it! Get in!

Where have all the public feminist intellectuals gone?

2005-10-23T10:42:00.000Z

The Guardian magazine yesterday featured an article on men's magazines. Now, I've had a lot to say about these things, but for now let me restrict myself to an underlying point. Regardless of what the proprietors and editors say about these magazines - and I'm talking about Zoo, Nuts, FHM, Loaded and the like - they are NOT harmless fun. In fact, I was amazed to see people actually having the guile and audacity to make such claims, because in my eyes these publications are at the forefront of the contemporary cultural degradation of women.

Janice Turner, who wrote the piece, actually admits that she found it difficult and uncomfortable to question the portrayal of woman in such magazines when face to face with the editors. But then she's not the only one. There's a something about this vision of sex that is incredibly difficult to challenge. Perhaps it's something to do with the position of this kind of heterosexuality historically in British culture? The magazines certainly hide some of the worst excesses of misogyny behind the slap-and-tickle silliness of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge genre displayed in the likes of the 'Carry On...' movies. Another telling point is that there is a stylistic convergence between porn and men's mags. The two genres are feeding off each other in a chase for readers in an ever competitive market. But I guess that's the point: sex sells. This is all very well, but at what cost? Behind all the silliness of the supposedly harmless portrayal of women as sexual objects (or, more accurately, assemblages of sexual objects: breasts, bums, legs, etc) there is an incredibly powerful capitalist machine and a highly honed, destructive male gaze.

Do we really want to live in a society where heterosexual desire is so forcefully shaped by this small group of powerful, juvenile men with sweaty palms and pockets stuffed with cash? This is not to discount to ability of audiences to digest and contemplate such material within their own cultures. The reader, as cultural studies has shown, is an element that should never be ignored. But I would argue two points here. Firstly, these portrayals of woman saturate our culture so deeply that they hold incredibly powerful positions. Witness the difficultly of challenging the 'oh, it's just a bit of fun' position. Secondly, as the porno-sexual and popular-sexual discourses on women feed off each other the nature of fantasy is being altered. These weekly reads draw heavily on the notion that the readers 'really could' get together with one of the women photographed. The gaze-from-the-page so synonymous with porn stylistics is now worn by women far more 'everyday' than the uniform starlets of the Hefner oeuvre. There are also narratives - often in the form of interviews - where each woman professes a desire to sleep with ordinary guys: readers of this very magazine even! Jordan and Abi Titmass are prime examples. What this drawing together achieves is misogyny and degradation by the backdoor.

How can we deal with this? How can we make an argument against this stuff without seeming anti-sex (as that is surely what would be leveled against us)? There are certainly not significant numbers of us on the feminist-left that are anti-sex! When we need them the most, all I can ask is where have all the public feminist intellectuals gone? How do we deal with whole generations of men who grow up receiving these notions of women on a weekly basis? Despite the rhetoric of Phil Hilton, editor of Nuts, is this not an outmoded argument. For the same reasons I outlined in my recent post about women's bodies and biology, we need feminism now as much as we ever did. Don't be fooled just because the rules have changed in the neo-liberalism of late-capitalism. Something has to be done.

Blast from the past No.2

2005-10-22T20:41:00.000Z

Here's blast from the past No.2, a piece on smacking children I wrote almost a year ago. Again it appears here with no alterations.

Against Smacking
Monday, 08 November 2004

I think it is disgraceful that the UK government has failed to pass a full ban on the smacking of children. It seems obvious that many MPs did not wish to be at risk of accusations of trying to run a ÂnannyÂ state with a general election about six months away.

Unfortunately the MPs have missed an important opportunity to redress a disgraceful discriminatory element within British law.

Children are citizens within our society every bit as much as adults and should be accordingly protected from physical violence in the same way as adults. Physical violence against children by adults in school Â corporal punishment Â has been outlawed in this country for some time and for good reason. It is cruel and has no place in the education system of a contemporary, progressive liberal democracy.

The problem is that it is commonly held that the state has no place interfering with what people get up to in their own homes, and certainly not in the ways people wish to bring up children. One does not have to spend a great deal of energy in demolishing this rather flimsy point of view with relation to the issue in hand. It should be sufficient to remind people that there was a time when it was culturally accepted that physical violence was a fine method for correcting the behaviour of oneÂs wife. Just as this view is abhorrent, archaic and sickening, so is the view that hitting a child in the confines of oneÂs home is an acceptable form of ÂdisciplineÂ or Âcorrection.Â

The point is that the state should always protect its citizens from the pain, humiliation and dehumanisation of physical violence. Such violence is dehumanising and degrading to both the sufferer and the perpetrator. Much of the problem is caused by are cultural view of children as incomplete beings or adults-in-waiting who must sometimes be forcefully and aggressively socialised Â corrected through physical disciplining. This systematic, regulated and institutionalised dehumanisation of children is outrageous and the fragmented privatisation of the family within our society does not in any way legitimate it.

The pro-smacking argument proposes that light, non-marking smacking that causes no mental anguish is OK. No, IÂm afraid it simply is not. Light smacking is still physical violence so it does not change the situation at all as the dehumanisation and humiliation remains. Also, by what system is the risk of mental anguish being measured? A great deal of research (on bullying, for example) has shown that mental anguish is a complex, contextual phenomena. Saying that a light smack will unproblematically cause no mental anguish would be laughable if the issue was not so serious and the situation so dire.

Pro-smackers also claim that they themselves were smacked as children and it never did them any harm. There are two problems here. Firstly, extrapolating from a single case that just because one person supposedly turns out as an apparently well adjusted adult anyone who is smacked should turn out well adjusted as well is at best a rash generalisation founded in anecdotal evidence and at worst a morally disturbing form of wishful thinking. Secondly, how can they be sure? Anguish, anxiety and mental disturbance can manifest in ways that are often misunderstood or just not recognised. Indeed, the claim that Âit never did me any harmÂ is often simply false. In sum, in no way can either of these points be regarded as acceptable defences of physical violence against children.

It is worth remembering that we should be doing everything we can to eradicate cultures of violence. Promoting the idea that physical violence is acceptable if you are in a position of power where someone vulnerable is not behaving in a way you would wish them to is unbelievably irresponsible. Physical correction is not Âthe only language children understand.Â An inability to immediately grasp concepts of morality, etiquette or safety does not lead in any straightforward way to regulation and discipline through physical violence. I disagree with anyone who suggests that it does.

The social and mental lives of children Â their cultural worlds - are as important as Âadult societyÂ and should not be considered in any sense inferior to adult cultures. Children, as individuals and a social group, deserve respect. As a vulnerable social group the also need protection. By continuing to make it legal for parents (no matter how well meaning) to physically punish children we fall painfully short of our duty to respect and protect them.

All children deserve better than this.

A tour of Cardiff Bay (circa 2004)

2005-10-20T15:37:00.000Z

As we work through the photo backlog here in Thesisville, I thought it might be good to transport you all back in time for a tour of Cardiff Bay (circa 2004) when we used to live in flat down there. Enjoy!

A view across the bay towards Penarth.

It's the world famous Norwegian Church (possibly made from Norwegian wood?)

Looking the other way from the church back across the bay. The wooden structures in the water are about all that remains of the once vibrant industry that flourished here.

St. David's hotel. It's a 5 star but I think it looks horrible.

St David's again. This time trying it conceal it's crapness by standing in front of a dramatic sky. Not fooling anyone.

The bar Terra Nova and some walkways.

Our old flat (first floor - that's UK first floor - on the right).

One of the assembly's buildings. Much better looking than St. David's.

The road our flat was (is) on. Dull and with far too many traffic lights.

Oberon and Rufus

2005-10-19T09:06:00.000Z

Finally. Finally! It's taken a while - actually, bloody ages - but finally we've got around to getting our digital picture backlog onto a cd down at Boots. I've uploaded these to my iphotos and hey presto, the world can take a little look into the world of thesisville at last. Unfortunately our digital camera has broken, so for now we'll have to rely on old photos, but seeing as the backlog has been a couple of years in the making we should be just fine. So to commemorate this minor event in the blogsphere I here present two pictures of my little darlings when they truly where little and darling. This is Oberon and Rufus when they were both with us on their first days in their new home. Oberon is black with a touch of silver underneath. This picture is from last August and is in our kitchen. Rufus is a classic ginger tom. This picture was taken in February this year and Rufus is asleep on the sofa bed in our back room.

Blast from the past no. 1

2005-10-17T20:30:00.000Z

It might seem really lazy, but because there are a million things going on here in Thesisville all at once this week, I thought I might pop in a blast from the past. Last year I had my first attempt at blogging, which I aborted after a short while. However I did back up all my posts. In the process of moving from my office back to the old homestead I found all the saved files and have transported them forward through time to the present day. I thought it might be interesting to just throw them up here with no revision and see if people are interested or have anything to say about them.

Those Crazy Stoners

There’s plenty in the news today about the apparent links between cannabis and psychosis. One article in particular is in The Independent. These types of story pop-up all the time, so let’s have a look at this one.

To begin, let’s be clear about some things up front. 1. Smoking cannabis is not evil and it does not unproblematically lead to the use of ‘harder’ drugs like cocaine or heroin. 2. What cannabis isn’t is socially acceptable in the way that alcohol is. 3. Being stoned (assuming moderate consumption based on each individual) is much better than being drunk, for both the user and those around them (no aggressivity in a stoner). This well trodden ground, so let’s look at the article.

The reporter notes that cannabis use can cause psychosis in “psychologically vulnerable individuals.” So, despite the way the story is covered, the medical studies argue that individuals with pre-existing mental problems can develop psychosis, rather than cannabis ‘causing’ psychosis. The point here is that the psychological health of individuals is too complex to pin down to single determinants. But that doesn’t make good copy for newspaper editors. There is also a complete (and I would add scandalous) lack of discussion about the social determinants to both recreational drug use and psychosis.

Here is an interesting list from the same Independent article.
HEALTH BENEFITS
* Cannabis has been called the "aspirin" of the 21st century with evidence that its compounds may protect the brain against the effects of ageing.
* The world's largest study of the medical effects of cannabis reported in November last year that it could reduce pain and improve the lives of people with multiple sclerosis.
* Like alcohol, in moderation the drug promotes relaxation and enjoyment which are beneficial for human health.
HEALTH RISKS
* Regular cannabis smoking is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia and depression.
* Up to 80 per cent of new cases of psychosis seen in psychiatric hospitals are triggered by cannabis abuse.
* Smoking three joints a day causes the same damage to the lungs as 20 cigarettes.
* The drug distorts perception, affects short-term memory and may cause hallucinations.
* Habitual users suffer from de-motivation
The first thing one notices is the way that use of cannabis can only be measured in terms of ‘health’ benefits and risks. Leaving aside the listed benefits, the listed risks are illustrative of the problems faced by anyone trying to understand the ‘facts’ about cannabis use.

Point one – who are the people using cannabis ‘regularly?’ What constitutes regular use? Once an hour? A day? A month? A year? ‘Use’ in this sense is a social and not a medical factor. How are the risks increased and how does this stand in comparison to ‘risks’ from other activities, like alcohol consumption or other legal consumption or everyday activity, like driving on congested inner-city roads?

Point two – Cannabis abuse is not the same as cannabis use. Is this a case of binge-stoning? What else might have triggered psychosis in these individuals? Is it possible that they were suffering from psychosis before they used cannabis, perhaps because of poverty, low pay, poor work conditions, unemployment, or resultant low self-esteem? What social factors can cause psychosis? If these people were “psychologically vulnerable” are you saying they were predisposed to psychosis? Is cannabis a ‘trigger?’ What else could be a ‘trigger?’

Point three – OK, I’m not arguing that smoking anything is good for your health, but what kind of joint are you talking about? Resin? Grass? Mixed? Pure? King-size? Normal? Camberwell Carrot? This is a spurious measurement.

Point four – That’s the point. But don’t forget that smoking is a social and cultural activity too. Recreational substance use should not be considered in simply medical terms as if the medicalised individual exists as an objectified, scientific body in a socio-cultural vacuum. The uses of a drug are social and cultural, and never reducible to the medical-psychological.

Point five – De-motivation from what? And anyway, why should relentless productive activity be the only way to understand human worth? This is a symptom of late-capitalist society’s lack of recognition for activity that cannot be audited in any quantifiable sense (see Ivan Illich’s work on useful unemployment for example).

To summarise – it is important to think about the use of recreational drugs in terms of the social and cultural. Reducing people to medical entities that can be measured, or units of productivity that can be audited is unsophisticated and silly. This way of thinking relies on fictive biomedical and economic constructions of ‘the psychological subject’ and ‘the rational self’ that are particular to our culture and history.

Happy Birthday to Me

2005-10-16T11:42:00.000Z

There IS a Swansea

2005-10-15T09:14:00.000Z

Arrrrrg. Bit of a bleary head this morning. Went to the 'The League of Gentlemen: Are Behind You!' last night in Bristol, which as you might have guessed in their very twisted version of a panto. It was a greatly enjoyable evening, if a little silly. The problem with this kind of stage version of something 'cult' on TV is that there's a little too much 'fan boy' pleasing - i.e. the characters come out and get rapturous applause for just being, eh, well, those characters. Maybe I should have drunk more IPA before going? One of the lines that got a big cheer was 'The IS a Swansea' which makes no sense out of context and is thus perfect for cult comedy. In the summer when I was visiting friends in Denmark there was a similar thing going around my friends. They made me watch this show where a large hippo shouts about the state of the world (in Danish of course, so I can't provide much in the way of direct translation) and ends each sketch by shouting "YES SIR'. If you are Danish it's my understanding that you'll be wetting yourself right about now, though I have to admit that it left me rather cold. Culture eh? What's it all about?

Stupid

2005-10-13T12:15:00.000Z

Here are some stupid pictures.

Not very clever I know. But sometimes we all have off days. Right now thesis success seems a very long way from becoming reality. What I need is a good birthday weekend to perk things up a bit. So be ready to raise a glass of your favourite poison and toast the aging process this coming Sunday cos I'm gonna be 30 - 'the new sub-middle age'. I might even have a sub-middle age crisis, but then, who would notice?

Red in tooth and claw

2005-10-13T09:00:00.000Z

Here's a link to a very timely piece by Natasha Walter. It's about women, men, gender and biology. Rather than paraphrase it here I thought it would be a good opportunity to say a couple of simple but very, very important things. Principally, there have been some very insidious things in the media recently about the disciplining of women and of women's bodies. These arguments, supported by discourses from biology, have seriously alarmed me. I'm very glad somebody with the position has stood up and said something so concise about it all. My only hope is that enough people read this and do something about it. I know that for my part I'll be handing copies of this out to my students as part of up-coming seminars. I don't want to preach to them, and let's face it, some of them get a little confused by a man teaching feminist ideas (at least to begin with), but this is vital stuff. As Walter suggests, the idea that nature - red in tooth and claw - is a burden women must accept and be subdued, and men must accept and be freed from responsibility is disgraceful and must be fought.

More willing, or perhaps more gutsy

2005-10-12T10:35:00.000Z

Before I started teaching in my new post I have to admit that I had a few preconceptions, not all of them positive. Because the university I'm teaching at is a 'new university' I had been told (and I must admit anticipated myself) that the students wouldn't be as switched on as I've been used to over the past years teaching in Cardiff. With a few weeks of seminars under my belt I can happily report that this isn't really the case. Of course, the entry standards for this place are lower than Cardiff, much lower I suspect, but to think that's the end of the story is to be mistaken. I'm having more fun teaching now than ever before. It's not so much to do with the quality of the courses, which are both introductory Sociology modules, because there really is nothing special about them. It's the students, pure and simple: They get involved, they have opinions, and they're not afraid to share them, to speak out. That's not to say all of them act this way - certainly there are some seminar groups more willing (or perhaps more gutsy) than others, but the general atmosphere in far more inclusive and participatory. Another bonus is the mixture of students at this place. Previously I've been teaching, well, there's no other way to put it: middle class, white folks. No the situation couldn't be more different. For example, yesterday I was discussing social class with one group and asked who identified as working class - half raised their hands. This would never have happened before. Plus, it might well go without saying, but the ethnic mix of the student body is very different to Cardiff. All these factors, with others, are making for a great new pedagogical challenge that is exactly what I was hoping for this year. So far things are turning out really well - let's hope it continues for the rest of the year! No, if I can only get them to do some reading before coming to class...

The first casualty of work is the blog

2005-10-10T16:44:00.000Z

It would appear that what they say is true - that the first casualty of work is the blog. The information age is stuttering a little here in Thesisville at the moment as we await the arrival of Office 2004 for Mac in the post, and this is making posting seem more trouble than usual. Plus of course there has been the hectic social ligging of the past week. So in the spirit of sharing, here's a little catch up...

Thursday - Jonathan Miller gives a public lecture on humour and comedy. He is good value for money (the tickets were free) but I think he makes several important mistakes in his discussion. Most crucially he constructs some odd argument about humour being of some evolutionary importance because it is a way of (to paraphrase) remembering and relearning the rules of social interaction. Memory and time mean it's difficult to recount all the finer points of the evening, but although I found the talk somewhat lacking, I had great fun critiquing it all the way home to bed.

Friday - Parents visit for the weekend. Go to a much talked about Indian for dinner, where the company far out-strips the food in quality. Won't be returning in a hurry.

Saturday - Enjoy a day in town and am rewarded for my immanent birthday with a DAB radio. Sound, quality and appearance are all fantastic. Go to see the WNO's production of The Merry Widow. As it's an operetta it turns out to be far to light for my tastes and really rather chatty. If the people in it could act then maybe this wouldn't have been a problem, because it could have been played wonderfully camp. They couldn't. It wasn't. Disappointing.

Sunday - Amazing GP from Japan: best of the season, gripping from start to finish with some of the best driving I've seen. Next season will be a classic, I can feel it in my bones. Evening at the Uni to see the Magic Numbers. Despite some ropy support they play a blinder and we head home happy and just in time to catch minimal psychological horror The Bunker on TV. Wanted to see it for ages and very much enjoyed.

So. Now we're all up to speed!

Barbara Savile

2005-10-06T09:44:00.000Z

Contrary to what some people I've been talking to recently have thought, last night we didn't go to see 'Barbara Savile', but rather the 'Barber of Seville' as performed by the WNO. The production was entertaining enough, but there were certain factors that detracted from my enjoyment somewhat. One of these I have to admit is my own fault. We're in serious danger of burning and then extinguishing our candles at both ends this week - I was pretty tired when we took our cheap seats and the warmth of the auditorium lent itself to creating a lethargic atmosphere. Getting past this, another problem was certain elements within the audience. I don't want to sound like an opera sob (goodness knows I'm not one of those) but surely you don't go to the opera to talk through a performance?! And rustling sweets?! What the hell was that about! At least I've now discovered that I can deploy a dirty and disciplining look that out-strips my tender years (in opera years that is: in these terms I'm a mere babe). All the performances were pretty good, although I'm not really sure what my position is regarding performances in English. Sometimes the delivery of particular lines jarred a little as the English words were jammed into a phrase where they didn't really fit. Unfortunately this messed up Figaro's opening piece (the most famous bit in the opera for those who don't know - Figaro high, Figaro low etc etc all at high speed: typical of Rossini's style). Also, I'm not sure why they do away completely with the surtitles when the opera is in English - PLEASE NOTE OPERA DIRECTORS this doesn't make it simple to understand. There are still large passages that are incomprehensible. How can you possibly make this wonderful art form accessible to a wider audience if when they do come along they have trouble understanding parts of the performance? Not everyone has my patience or dedication (or even the means) to study each opera before attending. As usual it was possible to play the 'spot the young person' game. Rules as follows:

1. A young person is defined as anyone under the age of 40 (opera years are longer than human ones and adjustment is required).
2. Young people must not be either a) present under duress: e.g. accompanying an elderly relative, or b) a music student (easy to spot when you know how).

Wednesday's Result = More young people at this performance than usual, but not as many as Magic Flute.
Conclusion = Opera has a SERIOUS problem because it will have no future if it doesn't reach out to younger audiences.

Also, because it's been, oooh, about three weeks since the last one, I had a job interview yesterday. Details and a bloody good moan to follow....

Plus I promise to get around to adding and changing links here soon as they're looking a little old now.

Joseph Arthur

2005-10-04T23:33:00.000Z

Goodness me, what a way to start a busy (socially that is) week. Just saw Joseph Arthur in a tiny club in town and he was fantastic. What a genius he is - a real performer. I'm absolutely shattered but I just had to post today and throw a personal thank you to Joseph into the cyber-ether.

As seems to be usual at gigs these days, the support was great and we ended up buying their cd at the venue. This time it was Nerina Pallot, who seems pretty good. My MediaList rating to follow soon...

And so to bed...

The return of Friday jokes(!)

2005-09-30T15:45:00.000Z

Due to laziness, haziness and craziness, this very lethargic post will herald the return of Friday jokes(!).

So here we go, with a few jokes from Emo Phillips that were in the Guardian yesterday, having a good ol' bash at religion:

When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised, the Lord doesn't work that way. So I just stole one and asked Him to forgive me ... and I got it!

So I'm at the wailing wall, standing there like a moron, with my harpoon."

A Mormon told me that they don't drink coffee. I said, "A cup of coffee every day gives you wonderful benefits." He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, it keeps you from being Mormon ..."

I'm not Catholic, but I gave up picking my belly button for lint.

When I was a kid my dad would say, "Emo, do you believe in the Lord?" I'd say, "Yes!" He'd say, "Then stand up and shout Hallelujah!" So I would ... and I'd fall out of the roller coaster.

And relax...

An html magpie

2005-09-29T15:54:00.000Z

I think it would be hard to deny that if I was an animal, I'd be an html magpie. In what the popular press might call a 'post modern ironic twist' (and they'd be half right I suppose) I've found this thing below which contradicts my assumption - thanks to Julie at http://lifeinthenhs.blogspot.com/ for bringing it to my attention.

Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Eagle

Animal You Were in a Past Life: Whale

You are active, a challenger, and optimistic.
Hard-working, you are always working towards a set goal.

The Animal Personality Test

It's amazing really how many of these things there are. I guess in a way they draw on people's need to be categoriesed and to have their identities confirmed and compartmentalised. That isn't meant to sound condescending - I was up until the small hours playing around with a whole host of such 'tests'! I'm as drawn to them as anyone else I suppose. As with all things in life that are really fall under the umbrella of 'pop psychologies' they're ok in some ways, but not particularly in others. There's actually a new magazine out in the UK called something like 'Psychologies' which is full of the same kind of thing (although it's dressed up rather differently). There are two principal problems that I have with stuff that falls broadly under this category. Firstly, the people peddling this stuff often back it up with some of the most spurious so-called science I've ever seen - and I'm looking at you Deepak Chopra! Secondly, rather dangerously it can give people really flimsy and half-baked narratives to live their lives by, when what they really need is to work through problems in much healthier ways. Most dangerous in this camp are those disgusting 'psychics' who claim they can speak to the dead. The kinds of distress and twisted damage these idiots do to people's mourning processes truly enrages me.

But these little bits of htlm are fun enough - they certainly save having to think too hard in a daily posting!

A late summer nights dream

2005-09-26T21:56:00.000Z

Where to start? I feel as if I've fallen so far behind recently, which was something I hoped wouldn't happen. But now I'm sitting here with a glass of Shiraz, up loading cds on iTunes, perhaps we can catch up with a few moments from the rather hectic last week. Just to give this a little more context, on Saturday morning Oberon disappeared and didn't reappear until 7 this morning. He's quite a clingy cat so it's been horrible to think of he lost or in distress. Happily though, he's back with us now and I can get some proper sleep this evening. This has been difficult not only because I've been having tons of weird dreams about Obi returning or being injured - a late summer nights dream you might say - but also because Rufus (missing his love) has been sleeping with us. He's not the perfect bed-mate that's for sure. But as I say, all is back to normal now in Thesisville and life will go on.

So firstly I'd like to say a little about Don Carlos, which we went to see last week. To those who don't know, this is a rarely performed opera due to its 5 act, 5 hour length. Although this might sound rather worrying it really wasn't a problem sitting through it. It was a master piece and performed with such passion one couldn't help but be brought to tears one moment and wrapped in ecstasy the next. All the performances bar none was excellent. And to see this amazing work performed with the back drop of the conflict in Iraq was particularly poignant. At one point, the immortal line 'how can you sow for peace, when what you sow is death' hangs in the air. Perhaps George and Tony should pay attention? But I doubt they will.

The first day of the new job went really well, although it will be quite sporadic. Each month I will go to a meeting in a near by hotel and take notes as a review panel (made up of the high and mighty) are presented with and discuss evidence and policy about part time education provision. Although it doesn't sound like an amazing way to pass time, the first meeting was very interesting, and it's got good soap opera potential with some classic characters. I need these things to keep stuff interesting. Plus, there a free lunch and so much coffee I can feel myself getting the shakes in anticipation. The other writer that's employed in a nice guy and I think he'll be easy to work with.

preparation for the new teaching job has been far from perfect. So here's a big moan about it. Firstly, having arranged to meet the head of department last week and traveling 40 miles to see him, the fella doesn't show - I mean, what the fuck! Yes, as you might have noted I was quite miffed. Getting passed that, I contacted the module tutors who both have ABSOLUTELY no help for me whatsoever. Fine. I can organise a whole bunch of seminar but if it was my course I would want to meet my new colleague, but hey, I must be odd. Then I contact the timetable people to find out if the provisional details the I need the enigma machine to decipher have changed or remain the same. No answer. Email the HoD. Ditto, no answer. So tomorrow I'm heading off to the place I think the seminars are taking place with the hope that I'll meet my new students, perhaps bump into the module tutors and maybe teach some sociology. Stranger things have happened.

Had to register at the university today so I'm now kinda officially in the final year. As usual it was the pointless ceremony of wandering off to some enclave of the uni at the other end of town and having a form stamped - why it couldn't be done online I really have no idea. I was under the crazy impression this was the 21st C but duh! I guess I was wrong. When we got up there the queue went round a couple of buildings so being very unBritish (but perhaps not too unStudent like) we ducked into the bar for a few while things calmed down. Lovely. A much better way to waste an afternoon.

Would you please leave without making any fuss?

2005-09-22T20:08:00.000Z

How much work is too much work? This is the question I'm asking myself at the moment as I try to undertaken the tremendous balancing act that is running several lives simultaneously. Just a little news up date... Although I didn't get the job I was interview for last week (I was indeed, punching above my weight) I did manage to get some other work from it, working as a writer for a government review group. This is a review of the provision of part-time study in Wales and it's a big deal. I mean really big. I went to the first meeting today, which lasted all day, at a hotel not too far from here (home). Man, if I thought I was chancing it with the teaching job, that was nothing compared to this!! Policy is not a world I thought I'd ever have to much involvement in but this is my second slice of policy work within six months. The people involved are all high ranking academics and practitioners (there was a university vice chancellor there for goodness sake), which makes me feel like a total interloper. I have enough trouble on the best of days. Most of the time I'm just sitting around waiting for the tap on the shoulder and the soft but insistent voice that says 'I'm sorry, there's been a terrible mistake, would you please leave without making any fuss?' Still, it was a good day and once I'd settled in and the paranoia has passed it was very interesting. My part in all this will be to write the report with another 'scribe' and turn over some drafts in double quick time, then knock out the full report. This might prove to be suicidal in terms of getting thesis chapters done simultaneously, but my twisted logic runs that if I'm writing loads then the momentum will carry me along. I'll let you know how that one works out.

I guess that the thing that might push me over the edge is my willingness to say 'yes' to everything, coupled with our financial situation plus the fact that everyone seems to want to give me jobs at the moment. I know that sounds odd but it's true - they really do! I'm not sure if it's because of my approach to chatting with people, which basically entails smiling and laughing a lot with the hope that looking comfortable and fun will hide the creeping anxiety and self doubt that riddles me. Whatever, it seems to work. Twice in the last week I've received phone calls from a university offering me jobs. Crazy, I know, but true. I only hope that this happens next year when I'm looking for a permanent position (fat chance). I might actually accept one of them. Could this, in fact, be the straw that broke the thesis' back?

Prep for teaching will be under way during the next week, but this weekend will be a planning one. I've got some tricky decisions to make about how I'm going to get my thesis together, but more of that over the coming days I'm sure. At one point I wanted to do something wacky and challenging. On reflection, this seems like less of a good idea with every passing day. I'll have to do something 'conventional' but keep some edge to it: make it exciting to write and great to read. How on earth is this possible?! The year long count down to September 30th 2006 starts next week and I'm going to set myself some goals or 'thing to have done by then' over the next couple of days. The thesis is obviously number 1, but I'm gonna go with this whole momentum thing. It's a crazy plan, but hell, it might just work...

In another slice of news, this time great, Johnathan Rice is playing again in the city and I have just about managed to scrape together enough pennies to get tickets - fantastic. Hopefully he'll bring his whole band to play this time.

Hooked up

2005-09-20T23:42:00.000Z

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, we're hooked up to broadband. If only I had the time at the moment to do something with it! Actually, it's really great that Thesisville now has a proper home to call its own - it may even develop a new 'night time' vibe rather than the blurry eyed morning one!

Need Zen

2005-09-19T00:45:00.000Z

I'm just too busy to post anything of clarity today, so the report of a busy weekend will have to wait... Until then, I suggest everyone takes a trip to Piled Higher and Deeper and reads these fantastic little comicstrips all day long. This one here is my fave so far. Need Zen. Need Clarity. Must find strong coffee....

Reality really is a mess

2005-09-16T09:53:00.000Z

There are a couple of science related stories that are of interest on this, the first distinctively chilly morning of early autumn. The first relates to Horizon last night on BBC2, which focused on the career of Stephen Hawking and his problem regarding what happened to matter when it crossed the event horizon and entered a black hole. I have no competency to challenge or even explain any further the physics and the equations that this involves, so I’d like to focus on a single particular (Oooh, pun alert!) part of the show. This related to the first day when Prof. Hawking revealed his ideas about what happened at the event horizon to several esteemed colleagues. At the crossing point, he explained, things were sucked in and could no longer escape. BUT, according to his apparently water-tight equations, they actually disappeared out of existence. His colleagues didn’t appear to like this idea, and even I can see why as it does seem to ignore pretty much fundamental laws of physics that help us explain everything in the universe. But my point here is about the reactions of his then-to-be adversaries. Prof. Susskind reports having said something along the lines of ‘I knew straight away this had to be wrong: it couldn’t be right’. I think that this says a great deal about the way that science works – so much for a rigorous ‘scientific method’. Not that I have a problem with this. It’s important to recognise that in reality science isn’t simply about the disinterested pursuit of ‘out there’ knowledge, but a social system that organises the construction of knowledge. Incidentally, it’s also interesting to note how the idea of ‘genius’ works to hide the haphazard way that science moves through the course of cultural history – Genius is a narrative that helps tidy up what reality really is: a mess. Of course, physicists probably wouldn’t like the idea of mess because they have a tendency to search for order. That’s what makes conversations with them so interesting, because I’m always trying to cause mess. I’m happier with mess. I trust mess. While there is mess, systems of power are less likely to have solid footholds. And I suppose it’s fair to say that from time to time, sociologists talk a bit about order too…

The other story is in the news this morning and it concerns women’s fertility. A group of doctors writing in the BMJ have advised women to have babies between the ages of 20 and 35, arguing that it is against the biological clock to have a child later than this. Apparently they say that “women want to ‘have it all’ but biology is unchanged.” Hmmm, we’re on dodgy ground here methinks! One of the medics does pull things around a bit by saying “the reasons for these difficulties [in conception] lie not with women but with a distorted an uninformed view from society, employers, and health planners”, but we can see very clearly, I think, the disciplining of women’s bodies in the piece. This is perhaps epitomised in the phrase “Where we can, we should be helping women to have children earlier.” The mind boggles when I consider what this might amount to. If I had the time I’d go into a lengthy diatribe about fertility (yes, you guessed it, more mess) and the so-called ‘biological clock’, but alas, other activities call me away… Do note though, the rather lame inclusion of men in the article (who’s bodies are, apparently, not immune to a little aging too, shock! Horror!). I’m sure these Docs would be doing everything possible to keep the chaps ‘firing live’ until they were a sprightly 127 if the situation were reversed.

Some kind of masochist

2005-09-15T14:28:00.000Z

Oh boy (as Dr. Sam Beckett would say on an episodic basis) what a week this is turning out to be! Post conference I had thought things might calm down a little, but hey, you can’t be right all the time I guess. Today I had an interview for a new teaching position as an associate lecturer for a postgraduate course with a distance learning university (I know it’s probably obvious who they are, but anonymity is important people!). Before hand I had to prepare a full outline for the first tutorial of the course based on course materials and arrive ready to explain and defend it – a daunting prospect. Having thrashed out some major points of the philosophy of social science (for that is the centre of this course) with Bartlett yesterday I nipped home and tried to put some of this head-spinning discourse into some kind of tutorial plan. As I was still recovering from post-Oxford sleep deprivation this was some task! Everything turned out fine though, as my plan, according to my very friendly interviewer, picked out all the central points they had in mind when designing the course and writing their books – how’s that for discourse analysis! In many respects it was less like an interview and more like a great 90 minute conversation. Because I don’t think I’ll get the position I didn’t really get any bouts of nerves and just settled into it. I also get the feeling that my interviewer thought I might have been punching above my weight, but he gave me decent respect for doing so. He even accepted my points about the lack of feminist critique in the materials I’d been provided with. I’ll find out what happens next week sometime, so until then… who knows? Tomorrow I’m off to ANOTHER university to chat through new courses I’ll be teaching there. I must be some kind of masochist – surely interviews are supposed to be horrible experiences?!