Dragnet
This morning: Dragnet. 1979. “like being nutted by reality” according to Allan Jones in Melody Maker when it was released. It’s actually fantastic!
Read MoreApril, 2021
The Fall Weekend
Hereby it is a weekend of listening to The Fall. Commencing with Live at the Witch Trials. 1979.
Read MoreFarewell, Super League
Up super-early for no other reason that having labyrinthine dreams and a headache… so listened to latest New Statesman podcast where Stephen Bush and Ailbhe Rea discussed the role football plays in public discourse. I tend to avoid thinking about football but, as the podcast points out it plays a major role in culture, identity and masculinity. Rea particularly makes some interesting comments about how football creates normative behaviours that exclude certainly women but also those of us who aren’t interested. She gives the anecdote of a political reporter taking up running as a sport so she had a mechanism…
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“Honestly, I think I would know if there were aliens”
It’s a long time since I’ve read anything interesting about UFOs, but this article for NBC by Rizwan Virk, founder of Play Labs at MIT, seems to indicate that – while the area of ufology is generally mocked by scientists and big tech – there’s obviously something significant happening. Virk rounds up the usual recent news from the US military admitting they are investigating unidentified objects that they encounter. The famous toc tac is mentioned. Stills from fuzzy footage are shown. What I wasn’t aware of was that senior officials at the Pentagon have been investigating UFOs for a while:…
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Denial and Delusion of the Thatcher Years
As someone who grew up in Thatcher’s Britain, it’s hard not to see the parallels between how fragmented and bleak things seem now and how it was back then. I’m not the only one. Very good piece by Guardian columnist John Harris who notes how the visible decline of Britain – or at least the sense we live in a troubled country – is accompanied by nostalgia, patriotism and brittle optimism. His concern is that we continue to be governed by the same Thatcherite thinking by a Conservative Party that maintains its dominance: “This development might suggest grounds for optimism,…
Read MoreThe Patriarchs
Daily Mail comments section gives feedback to Simon Armitage’s elegy to Prince Phillip this morning. In the comments section the most recent from Tiggybeans exclaims: “A lovely tribute, full of meaning.” Winning2020 instead thinks that “The poem is as cold as the weather outside.” Most of the others – as expected – proclaim their dislike of poetry.
Read MoreThink Tanks Ate My Brain!
Just looking at another educational think tank’s web site. What I can’t see is how the organisation gets funded. Doing even a cursory web search on some of the think tank’s members seems to indicate their members are more partisan than it claims. Lobbying for personal gain is one thing but there are a LOT of educational think tanks lobbying and influencing policymakers in Westminster. As far as I can see they all have more or less the same sorts of agendas. Wouldn’t be surprised if these educational think tanks work from 55 Tufton Street.
Read MoreBike
And… randomly Autechre’s _Bike_ just started playing. Suddenly uplifted!
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Some Thoughts About Caitlin R Kiernan’s Black Helicopters
Professor Zeh sits in his office in Heidelberg. It’s 1969. Rain falls outside and Zeh’s office window is nothing but a dark grey rectangle. He’s smudged the ink in his notebook, jotting down a thought about Bohr’s interpretation of measurement he had while staring at his reflection in a mirror brushing his teeth this morning. Gemeinsamer Realität, Zeh writes over the faintly smudged word Mehrfachinterpretationen. Immediately, he crosses it out and writes dekohärent. Zeh frowns and feels irritated. His thinking this morning is messy. Inexact. In another room nearby he hears someone’s muffled shout followed by laughter. Here is the…
Read MoreBlack Helicopters
I’m finding Kiernan’s *Black Helicopters* a pretty challenging read. Have read it through once and now listening to audiobook plus reading along. It’s mesmerising and wonderful. But tough going!
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