IDEAS FROM POP CULTURE TO POLITICS, TECHNOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, BUSINESS, MEDIA, SPORT, AND LIFE
Friday, October 12, 2007
What on earth is going on in Switzerland? The poster on the right is plastered all over bus stops, train stations and post offices in Swiss cities (except in Geneva where the campaign was banned by city council) in anticipation of federal elections on Sunday, 21 October. It is a rallying cry from the SVP (Swiss People's Party) to "create security" through the expulsion of foreign families who have broken the law. Activist groups in Switzerland and the United Nations have complained that it is blatantly racist but the SVP probably isn't worried about that as the party opposes Swiss membership in the EU and the UN. Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey is worried that Switzerland's image as a "bridge builder and promoter of dialogue" was tarnished by violent demonstrations against the SVP campaign last week in Bern. But if you subscribe to the any publicity is good publicity school of public relations than maybe all this tension and worldwide coverage is a good thing for the SVP (known as the UDC in French and Italian).
The last time the SVP were at the center of such a political storm was when they led a call for the banning of minarets (mosques) in the country: "We don't want minarets," said SVP member of parliament Oskar Freysinger. "The minaret is a symbol of a political and aggressive Islam, it's a symbol of Islamic law. The minute you have minarets in Europe it means Islam will have taken over". Despite this almost absurdly simplistic rhetoric and action the SVP is currently leading in polls and looks likely to form the next government in Switzerland. The Guardian calls the SVP campaign "racist, Europhobic, isolationist - Switzerland for the (white) Swiss".
"Foreigners", many of whom are born in Switzerland but are denied citizenship, comprise a quarter of the Swiss workforce and make up around 20% of the population of more than seven million.
Labels: culture, politics, religion
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
They say some people are suckers for punishment. But how can it be bad if it feels so good? Eleven years ago Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire entered Glastonbury folklore with the quote: "They should build a bypass over this shithole". But low and behold if it isn't those same Nicky and the Preachers playing the Pyramid stage this Sunday. It is just too good to stay away. And on this subject I can speak with a little bit of authority given my tent's position in the flooded plains of somerset circa Glastonbury 2005.
This year I've learned from all the mistakes from the last festival and am rip-roaring-ready to make a whole bunch of new ones. But I won't be watching the Manics on Sunday evening as Beirut is playing the jazz stage at the same time. Of course it is always a matter of opinion and taste but feel free to download my crib sheet for the
Glastonbury 2007 festival recommendations and must sees.
Labels: culture, music
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Surreal is a beautiful word that has been hijacked by continuous flagrant misuse so that little apparently remains of the original meaning. In the
Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930)
Andre Breton states that the surrealists strive to attain a "mental vantage-point (point de l'esprit) from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, communicable and incommunicable, high and low, will no longer be perceived as contradictions."
It was my misfortune to be woken today by a BBC radio broadcast where no less than two segments in a row featured interviews with people whose experience, attending a large rock concert and gaining celebrity at breakneck speed, were "so surreal". Basically it is serving as a somewhat upmarket replacement for "unreal" when it is so much more.
Surrealism is based on stressing the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery arrived at automatically. It challenges through startling juxtapositions and exists at the nexus of reconciliation between representation and perception . Something is surreal when it reveals something that is disturbingly true but defies our habitual thinking and logic. This is generally something that we seek in our lives as we look to expand our ideas and perspectives in interesting ways. Poor surreal - caged like a wild tiger. Let's hope we can free it before it gets bored in the zoo. Some are already getting started.
"When it comes to art and literature, surreal more accurately means "super real". We'll examine how the wildly original Surrealist movement was -- and, for some, still is -- more than a school of art and literature. It's a way of living a life that embraces childishness, the importance of dreams, and the idea that everything happens for a reason."Labels: culture
Friday, January 26, 2007
Photo by Paul HallidayVisual sociology is a still emerging but exciting form of social practice as researchers seek to harness the powers of multimedia to contribute to understanding social life.
At Goldsmiths College, University of London my colleague Paul Halliday recently completed a 20-year photographic project of London faces and public places first inspired by a series of walks around Greenwich with his late father that opened up a new way of thinking about history, place and memory. As a module leader in Live Sociology Paul inspired my own first attempt in Deptford at exploring visual practices as an input to sociological methods.
Paul leads the MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths and outlines his approach to his London photographs on the project website:
"The work is a kind of auto-ethnography of my day-to-day life harnessing the power of photography to speak a language that resonates with a part of my on-going experience of being a Londoner - in a city that fascinates, infuriates, perplexes and at times leaves me utterly lost for words. A city that I have a deep sense of shared belonging with, that continues to intoxicate me, and that I am happy to call my home."
Labels: academia, culture, london, photography, sociology
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
As a teenager in the process of establishing social and political consciousness I was swept away by John Stuart Mill's
On Liberty and questions of "the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual".
Witnessing the erosion of civil liberties first hand in London over the past 10 years is only slightly less startling than the appetite for public acceptance that accompanies it.
In June, 2006 Steven Jago was
arrested for carrying a placard without permission bearing the George Orwell quote: "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act". Police seized Jago's photocopies of Henry Porter's expose in pop culture magazine Vanity Fair on the erosion of civil liberties in Britain and termed it "politically motivated material".
Porter's story is a fascinating piece of journalism featuring thunderous email exchanges with Tony Blair on questions of liberty. In this contradictory land of the Magna Carta and Superman CCTV Porter's quote from Labour peer Baroness Kennedy resonates: "What we seem to have forgotten is that the state is there courtesy of us and we are not here courtesy the state".
In a continuing political spin culture of "war on terror" respect for civil liberties has taken a battering. In a 2007 survey of British Social Attitudes by the National Centre for Social Research, 80% of citizens support detention without charge for more than a week, 25% back police holding suspects for up to a week without letting them see a lawyer, and seven in 10 support compulsory identity cards for adults. In December, 2005 a peace campaigner was arrested for reading out names of soldiers killed in Iraq within half a mile of Westminster.
In the storm and rush to contain through legislation and law, liberty has found an unlikely ally in the form of UK director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald : "It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon our values. I think it important to understand that this is one of its primary purposes."
London is a city and scene of contrast, on one hand priding itself on a steely business-as-usual response to the transport bombings and on the other accepting glaring changes in the relationship of society and the individual without compliant. Macdonald reflects: "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'."Labels: culture, liberty, london, sociology
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
One of the most annoying things about living in a capitalist
culture of consumption is the way third rate shysters can follow a successful and legal path to material success. Of course everyone loves a
good spammer, filling his pockets and your inbox with trash that earns on 5 in a million. That's a sweet five for his flourishing trade. The larger question is why this spamming is a successful social and economic act. But this is not strictly an internet issue.
Television viewers almost have to shield your eyes to watch the new "quiz shows"
dominating the late night UK digital airwaves. These guys take it to a whole new level by asking questions like: "Name 13 items commonly found in women's handbags". Viewers respond in mass at 79p per minute on shows like The Mint and Quizmania but
miss obvious answers like
balaclava and
raw/Rawlplugs (trade name for plugs that allow screws to be fitted into masonry walls) . But of course only a portion of viewers can get through the jammed phone lines and most of the money is made from
those who don't even get a chance to compete.
Labels: culture, economics, internet, media
Monday, January 08, 2007
When considering life living in London I am equal parts Samuel Johnson ("bored of London, bored of life") and the Guardian's Lucy Magnan ("sit in a bathful of your own sweat and burn twenties"). But there is a quiet sensitivity to the city that is often underplayed. As life moves in a buzz, most of what you find comes later, like after the shutter clicks. London demands reflection.
Labels: culture, london, photography
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Back in 1999 I took a trip to within 100km of the North Pole to experience a slice of real Canadiana outdoor spirit. Coming back for Christmas from my Phd studies in London this year made me realize that this spirit lives in every outdoor ice rink, ski trail and breath of cool fragrant oxygen. It's a case for the senses really. Pine needles on the snow, looking at the stars once again but only seeing them for the first time and community, a forgotten word save the politicians. Make no mistake the reality of a Canadian Christmas at the lake is people popping by for a skate or a hot chocolate, children dancing in snow forts above their ears and friends shoveling the walk for friends. It really is like that.
Labels: canada, culture
Monday, September 11, 2006
It feels fitting on the fifth anniversary of the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre in New York to watch the film United 93 -- an informed fictional account of the only plane not to connect with its target on that fateful day.
What strikes the viewer is the suffering of the innocents as the plane descends into the Pennsylvanian countryside. Everyone fights for their lives and are shocked to find themselves in the situation. We have all run the thought experiment of what you would do in the last minutes of your life if the end was inevitable. Most of the actors in the film declare their love.
Is it interesting that North Americans (perhaps westerners) can so easily understand the context of the film. Innocents are caught in the crossfire of global political tension and the result is tragedy. But we don't seem to be able to extend this to people from other lands and cultures. Over 40,000 civilians have been killed in the was in Iraq. One can imagine if they could make movies that reached North American audiences the same impact would be felt.
The photo that accompanies this post was taken three weeks after 9/11 on a trip to New York for a friend's wedding. It is absolutely true that if you visit the site when people are thinking about what happened a fog hangs in the air. On the plane from Toronto to New York an Egyptian man sat three rows behind me. I noticed him as soon as I got on. I watched his movements as he went to the bathroom with his bag and was about to say something (feeling guilty of racial profiling later) when a 10-year-old kid between us told the stewardess: "... that man has been in there for a while and he has a turban". She banged on the door and there was some excitement in the plane before he emerged a minute later. Turns out he was a Coptic priest with piles.
Nothing speaks with greater urgency to our understanding of the world than 9/11. Perhaps it is because it represents the anarchy of the unpredictable. A bomb on our plane is no different from a sudden bomb in our house. The continued tragedy of the innocents does not speak well to the development of humanity.
See also Evil Genius and Misinformation and Spin on the Chris Brauer Media Project
Labels: comment, culture, politics
Monday, July 03, 2006
Some of life's most valuable lessons are learned the hard way. No rocket science in that statement. But sometimes hard learned lessons don't offer much value at all. Like shopping for titles in an airport bookstore. No matter how many times I am disappointed by my choices I still turn up minutes before departure, make a snatch and grab purchase, and regret it the following week. The biggest problem is usually those damn top-ten bestseller fiction lists. Who buys those books?? Is it a similar phenomena to why truly brainless and predictable blockbuster films attract such massive audiences? Recently it was my great misfortune to pick up copies of
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka and
The People's Act of Love by James Meek. Here's a brief synopsis so you don't make the same mistake.
- A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is inexplicably supposed to be a funny book. That's why I bought it for a bit of light summer fare. Well if you think eastern-Europeans-trying-to-speak-english and asides on the flippy-floppy organs of old men are funny this is your book. It reads like a first novel in the sense of a weekly suburban meeting of amateur sparetime authors and less like a candidate for major literary awards. Tentative explorations into identity and gender are cliche and uninspired. I won't even bore you with the plot. The only problem is that after selling millions of copies we might have to brace
- The People's Act of Love is one of those strange books that should have been a movie first. It has all the elements of a terrific action-adventure big screen lollapalooza. Guardian journalist Meek has a real knack for translating words into visual imagination and the story ambles on convincingly enough. A critical plot device is the strategy of a Siberian prisoner to bring along a fellow prisoner on an escape plan so he can eat him when he runs out of food. Another is how a group of voluntary eunuchs relate to Czech soldiers led by a madman stationed in their town. There is plenty of romance, some sex, wars, escapes planned and foiled, magic, swordfights, children in distress, communists, czars, princes, revolutionaries, heroes and heroines. It's not that I didn't like this book it is just that I wasn't turning the pages with angst or hope. Like watching a blockbuster when introduced to the characters you could guess their fate. Coming soon to a Cineplex Odeon near you.
- ourselves for the release of The Long History of Tractors in Ukrainian sometime next year. If so I suggest we add reading this book to the banned list of human rights anti-torture laws emerging in the world courts.
Labels: culture, literature
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
London Project is underway at
City University in the Department of
Journalism and Publishing. Students in the MA International Journalism program hit the streets from March 6-17 telling the stories of
London places between 12pm-1pm each day. Visit the website for already published stories of
London faces and
London icons that describe the London experience. Make sure to visit
journalism blogs from the same
students to see their talents for electronic publishing.
Labels: academia, culture, education, london
Saturday, January 21, 2006
King
Midas was the richest man in the world but when even
food and his daughter solidified he begged
Dionysos (Bacchus) to take his golden touch away. The god relenting he was allowed to eat.
Inspirations behind the myth comes from the real King Mita's 8th century BC funeral featuring a banquet of honeyed stew, BBQ meats, and lentils. The food bowls in his tomb contain dusty mould but modern science feasts on the preserved conditions. Dr Rodney Young and his archaeological team found the tomb in the burial mounds of western Turkey in 1957 but the mass spectometry and infared spectroscopy of the 21st century can reveal the 'chemical footprints' of the food residue within. Here's the menu and recipes.Labels: culture, food, history
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Written after a jaunty visit for New Year's Eve 2005 in the lyrical literary style of the Italian master Italo Calvino and his Invisible Cities.
After a long swim in the Atlantic and a choppy hike over sand dunes and sinkless dykes one arrives in Amsterdam, city of gezellig and ghosts.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Dutch capital, 15-feet below sea level, features both companionable, sociable, convivial gezelligness and the karmic footprints of secret and adventurous lives lived.
You see them when squinting to shield the sun's reflection off streetcars or with a sudden spin of the head to catch a fleeting glance of one hanging from those hooks on top of deep, narrow houses used to move grand pianos in through windows the size of casio keyboards. Really these purposeful hooks are there to snag the shirt collars of nasty apparitions in nasty moods before they drift down to the streets to whisper sweet nasty nothings in the ears of some poor susceptible traveler intent, but suddenly failing, to keep proclivity for temptation in reasonable check. That's of course why everyone has an Amsterdam story they won't tell anyone, or at least they change it in the telling.
You see the swirling entropy of Amsterdam -- the culture, the drugs, the coffee and Heineken, the sex, the diverse architecture, the art, the hundreds of drawbridges passively threatening to lift -- is really contained at all times within a single moment, within a single dot of life on a landscape portrait of one of their great artists.
Subtle trickery bedevils this fact, like the way the canals studiously reflect the sky to give an illusion of space, but look more closely and the observer becomes the observed. As you are jostled by crowds or stampeded by the all-too-close herald of a 3-speed bike bell on the congested streets, look over shoulders at the angelic muses and dapper dans that flutter wings to provide the gusts of cool air keeping the city alive and in motion.
Gaze from any point and you gaze from all. Just watch out if one those slippery tricksters is freed from a house hook and finds comfort on the shoulder of your mind. Sweet nasty nothings are still nasty after all. In a Gezellig kind of way.
Labels: culture, travel
