I proposed the notion of song covers as palimpsest earlier on this blog. This version and video of ‘I will survive’ by Cake forms a wonderful palimpsest on the famous Gloria Gaynor song from 1978 which became a number one hit in 1979. It went on to become an anthem in Disco Culture of the …
I’ve been interested for a while in challenging notions of human exceptionalism and the nature/human civilization divide. A definitional paper I’ve come across. Carlos Roberto Bernardes de Souza Júnior, “More-than-human cultural geographies towards co-dwelling on earth.” Mercator – Revista de Geografia da UFC 20, no. (2021):1-10. Redalyc, https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=273665153007 Abstract: Established as a counterpoint to culture-nature …
All the warnings of pre-pandemic researchers about open plan offices have of course come home to roost. The article below links to a new edition of a much awarded book by Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber titled Healthy Buildings first published in 2020 and updated in October 2022 with additional research conducted during …
I’ve found that recently I have been spending far too much time reading Twitter. As everyone knows the interfaces of various social media are deliberately designed to be addictive and the infinite scroll and chaotic ordering on Twitter was playing havoc with my researcher brain, trained over the years to find all the information and …
Reassuring findings for numerous academics – and other writers! Helen Sword (2016) ‘Write every day!’: a mantra dismantled, International Journal for Academic Development, 21:4, 312-322, DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2016.1210153 Abstract Numerous books, blogs, and articles on research productivity exhort academics to ‘write every day’ even during the busiest of teaching times. Ironically, however, this research-boosting advice hangs …
I am currently watching an entertaining and well made Young Adult TV series – Dwight in Shining Armor. In one episode a random character, a history teacher, declares, “History is the story we tell about the events we have chosen to remember”. A nicely succinct formulation. No doubt a script writer who was dying to …
Weapon of Choice is a short 3 minute video clip of a Fatboy Slim track directed by Spike Jonze. I wrote this review back in 2002 for my defunct Walken Works site when the internet was still fun and starting to emerge from its wild and woolly experimental frontiers. This video, which of course predates …
This is not strictly speaking a music video, but a scene from a film set to Bob Dylan’s song ‘Ballad of Thin Man’. It appears in Todd Hayne’s highly creative 2007 biopic I’m not there about Bob Dylan. Six different actors play six different characters, representing Dylan at different stages of his life and career. …
David Beer provides some really useful quick tips on writing on his blog The Fragment. 19 very brief thoughts on writing. Not rules, guidance or advice, just some thoughts. I particularly like these tips: 9. If you aren’t enjoying the writing, change the writing plan to bring forward a project you will enjoy (or, alternatively, …
Applying a Marxist framework, this could be described as a story of the alienation of the worker in an industrial and urbanised consumer society. This wonderfully directed video/short film features a very strong central performance, striking characterisation of the car factory robots and seamless special effects. The driving industrial music perfectly sets the tone of …
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