I've had this conversation a few times this week: what would you do with the £45,000,000 lottery win scooped by a couple in Wales and by a syndicate of workers?
One thing I'd do is pick my least favourite people in the world and hire a team of people to follow them everywhere they go. You could have a bunch of people shouting 'sanctimonious war criminal' at Tony Blair or 'read a book' at George Bush 24 hours per day, or perhaps hound the director-general of the BBC with quotations from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Bargain Hunt or Cash in the Attic or most Radio 4 'comedy' until he made a personal apology to every licence payer.
Then it struck me: we don't need lottery wins. We just need a lot of people to donate a small amount of money to cover flights, loudhailers and bail money, and get volunteers. We could, and I'm sorry to use such terribly trendy language, 'crowdsource' the cash. Who's with me? I said, WHO'S WITH ME?
Monday, 9 November 2009
Joe Crow, we salute you
He's a lost genius. Ex-Prefect/Nightingale, he's a bit of a cult icon, one who, according to his ex-bandmates, has a huge collection of music he's never released. Here's the track which made his name - a study in electronic isolation - Compulsion.
Culture alert
It's November and my choice on The Culture, Cheese and Pineapple. I've proposed some reading (Kate Roberts's wonderful Feet in Chains, originally Traed Mewn Cyffion) and a creative task - responses to autumn, because I want to kick piles of leaves over.
By the way, does the phrase 'there are pockets of excellence' mean that there's a lot of very poor work done? I can't help thinking that it does. Insulting…
By the way, does the phrase 'there are pockets of excellence' mean that there's a lot of very poor work done? I can't help thinking that it does. Insulting…
You have a day off, you lucky people
I'm appearing in court tomorrow. No, it's not the libel courts, nor have I been arraigned on some horrendous crime (stealing books, stalking people with hairstyles). I'm giving evidence - hopefully. This trial's been cancelled before, and it's dragged on for over a year now… getting more like Jarndyce v Jarndyce by the week.
I'll tell you all about it on my release. Return! I meant return!
Try to survive without me, and without speculating on what I've been up to.
I'll tell you all about it on my release. Return! I meant return!
Try to survive without me, and without speculating on what I've been up to.
Justice?
You may know that Britain's libel laws are heavily skewed in favour of rich people and corporations. Being right is no defence, and nor is freedom of speech, unlike the US. Lots of foreign people are suing in the UK courts over articles published elsewhere in the world because they'll get what they want here and not elsewhere. Books which have never been published in the UK have been subject to libel judgements because a single person has ordered one from Amazon US, newspapers with a circulation of 100-200 in the UK have been sued out of existence too.
It's got so bad that the US Congress has passed laws setting aside UK libel judgements, and now US newspapers (a couple of hundred are sent over for expats wanting the baseball results) are planning to cease publication here at all, just in case.
Madness. This country has become a playground for the corrupt and oppressive, thanks to the sterling work of people like Mr. Justice Eady.
It's got so bad that the US Congress has passed laws setting aside UK libel judgements, and now US newspapers (a couple of hundred are sent over for expats wanting the baseball results) are planning to cease publication here at all, just in case.
Madness. This country has become a playground for the corrupt and oppressive, thanks to the sterling work of people like Mr. Justice Eady.
Us 10-Them 0, pointlessly
Rounds of applause for coherent, intellectually well-founded comments from the staff: lots.
Rounds of applause for management - nil.
No doubt both sides (and it's very sad that we're on sides) left the room muttering that the other lot are pigheaded, recalcitrant bastards, but we're right. I made a point, and a lot of other people made detailed, precise and relevant comments which won't make the slightest bit of difference, but at least they know how strongly we all feel. Not a single comment made was supportive of what's being done to us and the students.
A good debate ensued about what 'consultation' means. As far as I can tell, we mean 'a process in which changes are made by discussing and designing them through dialogue between interested parties'. From what they said, it means 'we'll decide stuff (vaguely) and then tell you to do it'.
Oh yes, the bosses were upset by the suggestion that students might not like the changes. Apparently, none of you should know anything about it. I wonder when you will be officially informed, as many of you will be taking modules next year and it's a completely different system.
Anyway, it won't make any difference. The decisions are made - these meetings are useful only because we can let off steam.
Rounds of applause for management - nil.
No doubt both sides (and it's very sad that we're on sides) left the room muttering that the other lot are pigheaded, recalcitrant bastards, but we're right. I made a point, and a lot of other people made detailed, precise and relevant comments which won't make the slightest bit of difference, but at least they know how strongly we all feel. Not a single comment made was supportive of what's being done to us and the students.
A good debate ensued about what 'consultation' means. As far as I can tell, we mean 'a process in which changes are made by discussing and designing them through dialogue between interested parties'. From what they said, it means 'we'll decide stuff (vaguely) and then tell you to do it'.
Oh yes, the bosses were upset by the suggestion that students might not like the changes. Apparently, none of you should know anything about it. I wonder when you will be officially informed, as many of you will be taking modules next year and it's a completely different system.
Anyway, it won't make any difference. The decisions are made - these meetings are useful only because we can let off steam.
Ding! Round 2
Off to another meeting with The Exalted Ones. Will try not to preface my comments with 'Still here then?'… It's about the new system. My thoughts: rushed, pedagogically unjustified, liable to damage recruitment, and imposed without consultation.
There - opinion expressed without unpleasantness. Perhaps this is the way ahead.
There - opinion expressed without unpleasantness. Perhaps this is the way ahead.
Polymathic showoff
I'm a big fan of John Adams's post-minimalist music (if you aren't particularly into this stuff, but have seen The Truman Show, he wrote the soundtrack and is the beardy guy playing keyboards in the control room).
However - he can also write, rather brilliantly, as this short story on his blog shows. There's something quite haunting about it.
However - he can also write, rather brilliantly, as this short story on his blog shows. There's something quite haunting about it.
Another brilliant pronouncement
I don't watch The Apprentice. I can't stand Tories or yuppies, and despise its brand of capitalism. However, Alan Sugar seems to have soaked into the fabric of society like some kind of ineradicable pollution. His announcement today:
calls for the simple rejoinder 'Not while you're around Alan'.
Remind me again why everyone from the BBC to the government think he's some kind of genius rather than a shameless and rather dim self-promoter with a mouth bigger than his brain. The Clarkson of business, without the charm or self-awareness.
Women are their own worst enemies
calls for the simple rejoinder 'Not while you're around Alan'.
Remind me again why everyone from the BBC to the government think he's some kind of genius rather than a shameless and rather dim self-promoter with a mouth bigger than his brain. The Clarkson of business, without the charm or self-awareness.
Urge to kill - rising.
Morning humans. I've had a very relaxing and pleasant weekend, so obviously I'm raring to snark, though I was challenged to spend a week being relentlessly upbeat here on The Plashing Vole.
I reject that challenge.
As you know, I'm a big fan of LibraryThing, especially the Early Reviewers section - last month I was sent a free proof copy of Paul Auster's latest book, Invisible. However, some synopses tell you all you don't need to know. I certainly haven't requested this one:
I reject that challenge.
As you know, I'm a big fan of LibraryThing, especially the Early Reviewers section - last month I was sent a free proof copy of Paul Auster's latest book, Invisible. However, some synopses tell you all you don't need to know. I certainly haven't requested this one:
The basics of The Five-Minute Miracle came to Tara Springett, a psychotherapist, in meditation one day.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Friday conundrum again - a serious one
Do I delete everything I've said about work and never mention it again, and pretend that everything's fine? What are the implications? Good friends are pointing out that in a sacking situation, people with loud mouths are likely to go first.
TF it's Friday
It's been a bad week - illness, stress, requesting the Maximum Leader's resignation, then walking into an academic racial minefield, so I'm bunking off for the afternoon, once the admin's done. Stafford's Italian market, a wander round the marshes (very Dickensian) with the Map Twats, and no ranting about anything. No, really.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
NO ATTACHMENTS OR VIDEO STOP ART OR OBSOLETE STOP
An amusing columnette in the Guardian on the (slight) return of telegrams, terse little haiku which can overturn a life. My favourite of the ones quoted is childish but funny:
When Lord Lovat led a massively destructive commando raid on the Lofoten Islands in 1941, he sent a telegram from the local post office to one A Hitler in Berlin: "LAST SPEECH SAID GERMAN TROOPS WOULD MEET BRITISH WHEREVER THEY LANDED STOP WHERE ARE THEY".
Capitalism's bizarre appropriations
We're all used to - and I'm still infuriated by - adverts buying up music by bands I like, especially when the band has lost control of their work. But it's the way of the world. Capitalism refreshes itself by appropriating the energy and attitude of youth and other cultures, killing them in the process.
Now, Alex Ross points out that a certain manufacturer of very expensive jeans which aren't intrinsically better than any other brand, has incorporated Charles Ives and Walt Whitman into an ad. Ives was a brilliant modernist composer, though he never let during his successful career as an insurance executive, and Whitman was the demonstratively homosexual bard of 19th-century American expansionism. It's always possible that the company thought it was buying the music of Owen Pallett, who's mixed Ives into his own piece, but it's weird, nonetheless, and culturally insensitive. Does it cheapen the music, or bring the ad to the level of art?
Now, Alex Ross points out that a certain manufacturer of very expensive jeans which aren't intrinsically better than any other brand, has incorporated Charles Ives and Walt Whitman into an ad. Ives was a brilliant modernist composer, though he never let during his successful career as an insurance executive, and Whitman was the demonstratively homosexual bard of 19th-century American expansionism. It's always possible that the company thought it was buying the music of Owen Pallett, who's mixed Ives into his own piece, but it's weird, nonetheless, and culturally insensitive. Does it cheapen the music, or bring the ad to the level of art?
Your opinion please
I spent the afternoon firstly at a union meeting (very productive), then showing Laurence Olivier's Othello on DVD. It's the only performance the university had available on DVD - there are some ancient video tapes, but one has white man Anthony Hopkins playing Othello. Another features Laurence Fishburne, but it's only 'based on' the play, and the Willard White version has its own problems (and I didn't see it on the shelf).
Olivier plays the lead role. He's a brilliant actor, but there's no getting round the fact that he's blacked-up for the role, and looks ludicrous. It's a fascinating insight into the racial politics of the 1960s, and of the theatre world - but it's also very uncomfortable, to put it mildly.
The question is: should this performance not be screened, ever? My class is racially diverse and (I hope) antiracist. Olivier's film is 45 years old. Should we show it and talk about the cultural situation which somehow made it OK for him to black up, or should we see it as so unquestionably racist that it should never be seen again? Should students of colour be protected from seeing this stuff? Some would say: it happened and needs talking about. Others would say: these students have plenty of experience with racism, why add to it?
So - what would you have done? At least one student is upset, and it's really on my mind. Here's a clip - Olivier appears about 3 and a half minutes in:
Olivier plays the lead role. He's a brilliant actor, but there's no getting round the fact that he's blacked-up for the role, and looks ludicrous. It's a fascinating insight into the racial politics of the 1960s, and of the theatre world - but it's also very uncomfortable, to put it mildly.
The question is: should this performance not be screened, ever? My class is racially diverse and (I hope) antiracist. Olivier's film is 45 years old. Should we show it and talk about the cultural situation which somehow made it OK for him to black up, or should we see it as so unquestionably racist that it should never be seen again? Should students of colour be protected from seeing this stuff? Some would say: it happened and needs talking about. Others would say: these students have plenty of experience with racism, why add to it?
So - what would you have done? At least one student is upset, and it's really on my mind. Here's a clip - Olivier appears about 3 and a half minutes in:
Dead or alive, it's all binary oppositions round here
Amidst all the excitement yesterday, I failed to mark the passing of Claude Lévi-Strauss, without whom linguists, anthropologists, literary critics and many others would simply be wandering around describing everything as 'nice' or 'interesting'.
Astonishingly, having died at the age of 100, the inventor of structuralism (alongside the structural linguists) outlived not only his own theory, but its successor, poststructuralism (both approaches are fascinating, and still 'work', but other critical trends have supplanted them, such as postcolonialism).
Lévi-Strauss was a little suspicious of his ideas being used outside anthropology, the field in which he challenged Western concepts of civilisation and primitivism. His insight was to posit that 'reality' is a mental concept of comparisons and alternatives - binary oppositions - rather than an objective fact. The linguistic demonstration is simple: 'cat' has no relationship to the small furry animal referred to, but it's distinguished from 'rat' - another small furry animal - through the subsitution of a single letter: the opposition determines the way we understand the world.
For Lévi-Strauss, structural linguistics was a branch of social science, because the principles by which we organise experience (such as symbolism) could uncover the structures of the brain. His work has become central to cultural studies and important for literary criticism - a great thinker has passed away.
Astonishingly, having died at the age of 100, the inventor of structuralism (alongside the structural linguists) outlived not only his own theory, but its successor, poststructuralism (both approaches are fascinating, and still 'work', but other critical trends have supplanted them, such as postcolonialism).
Lévi-Strauss was a little suspicious of his ideas being used outside anthropology, the field in which he challenged Western concepts of civilisation and primitivism. His insight was to posit that 'reality' is a mental concept of comparisons and alternatives - binary oppositions - rather than an objective fact. The linguistic demonstration is simple: 'cat' has no relationship to the small furry animal referred to, but it's distinguished from 'rat' - another small furry animal - through the subsitution of a single letter: the opposition determines the way we understand the world.
For Lévi-Strauss, structural linguistics was a branch of social science, because the principles by which we organise experience (such as symbolism) could uncover the structures of the brain. His work has become central to cultural studies and important for literary criticism - a great thinker has passed away.
Oh Captain, My Captain!
Yesterday, I posted a newspaper article which expressed the rules about what constitutes a completing student, from 2006.
A colleague has found the proper government rules - in force since 2004. Our institution's Wizard of Oz described all this stuff as unknown, 'arcane' and not relevant to modular courses.
Let's see what the rules state, shall we?
A colleague has found the proper government rules - in force since 2004. Our institution's Wizard of Oz described all this stuff as unknown, 'arcane' and not relevant to modular courses.
Let's see what the rules state, shall we?
1. A student, who fails to complete (that is, undergo the final assessment of, or pass) any module within the year of programme of study is to be returned as a non-completion for all activity in that year. However, an exception is allowed for full-time students where the module is in addition to the standard requirements for full-time study.
Non-completions
14. Non-completion is defined in terms of modular programmes of study.These rules have been in force for 5 years, the leadership board is very highly paid and receives 'performance related pay' as a 'contractual right', they've instituted an intellectually vacuous new curriculum, are sacking 250 FTEs and being fined several million pounds. What would you suggest 'taking full responsibility' means?
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
We're at the mercy of Luxembourg now
David Cameron has listed the stuff he plans to demand from Europe should he become PM. Amongst them - withdrawing from the 'charter of fundamental rights' and the 'social chapter', because he obviously believes that British citizens and residents should be free from pesky restrictions such as safe employment conditions and human rights.
Luckily, these things need a unanimous vote of EU nations. So let's pick a small one, such as Luxembourg, and beg them to vote no. Alternatively, let's all NOT VOTE TORY. Just an idea…
Luckily, these things need a unanimous vote of EU nations. So let's pick a small one, such as Luxembourg, and beg them to vote no. Alternatively, let's all NOT VOTE TORY. Just an idea…
Science 1 - Government by tabloid 0
Professor Nutt, recently sacked as head of the government's advisory council on drugs for… er… giving advice on drugs has written a guest editorial in New Scientist. It's, well, calm and sensible.
A little taster:
A little taster:
The message for the British government is a simple one: don't exclude rational argument in order to exploit a visceral public response. Politicians have to win the hearts and minds of their electorate. If your policy is informed by an underlying moral imperative, be open about what that is, and don't try to disguise it with a veneer of pseudo-science. We ignore scientific evidence at our peril.
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