I realise that writing a note on Facebook does not guarantee that anyone will read it. But if you do, I hope my jargon is both coherent and worthwhile enough to provoke thought and response. You might assume that, being a music student who is often quite judgmental about what he does and does not like is about to list through this year's bands at Reading Festival and explain what their failings (or relative strengths) were. However, you would be wrong. I could spend several pages pointing out how many indie bands still think they can get away with the same formula and format without a particularly good singer or vocalist fronting them. I realise it is unpopular perhaps to admit this, but Hayley Williams from Paramore seems to be an exception.
But enough about her. The real problem was leaving Reading Festival, and I'm not on about mud, overflowing toilets and packed public transport. In fact the latter ran quite smoothly. What was left at Reading Festival was what appeared to be the site of a disaster; tents, chairs, gazebos, plastic bags, beer cans strewn over several fields. It takes some time for it to all be cleared, having seen the site from a train a few weeks after last year's festival. So, my beef (or issue) isn't with the clean up because it does eventually get cleaned up. I find it disappointing that festival-goers are this disrespectful of their surroundings to turn up and ruin a green area in four days but I am reassured by the fact it doesn't stay that way. (It gets cleared up for the process to repeat next year.)
I genuinely don't wish to sound cynical, critical or a hater of fun. I love festivals. And most festival-goers. They are great events and any situation where people get together and celebrate music I am in favour of. However, there seemed something unsettling to me. People pay large sums of money for tickets, tents and camping gear, alcohol and food, with money which we value highly in this "age of austerity". However, it seems that the majority of festival goers have enough disposable income not just to attend the festival but casually submit to a low-priced "consumer culture". If we can pick up a tent for £20, why bother to take it home with us? If our gazebo cost a tenner, why bother putting it down? It isn't laziness per se that I take issue with but that the attitude towards our possessions is one of careless disinterest or part of an addiction to consuming. It made me wonder if we no longer invest in quality goods to last long periods, goods that we take pride in. I am not, politically speaking, a person who would promote seeking identity in goods and inanimate objects but here I could be persuaded otherwise. What makes us turn away from sustainable, long-term roles for the goods we need, goods that we use to assert our individuality, save up for, care for and take pride in and instead choose neutral, bland "one size fits all" goods that we cast aside without another thought?
My ramble isn't intended to be charged in a directly political way, although you can obviously draw an opinion from it. However, when I arrived at Reading I was excited. When I was there I enjoyed, listened and worked. When I left, I was troubled. Not because, like in Toy Story, I believe that these things have personalities that will be emotionally damaged by abandonment, but because as we left, many people elsewhere will require shelter, sanitation and food. I want to refrain from spreading guilt, that isn't my intention. I know I am myself wasteful even when I try hard to preserve my tent and re-cycle as much as possible. I don't even think it is appropriate to take the "aren't you lucky to have...?" approach, or at least not directly. I mean, I would love people to take their tents etc to charities and charity shops and hope many will. However, what I could see was a visual realisation of an attitude which I find deeply unsettling. Until as a group of people we have an awareness of the world outside our own events and activities, which I realise is often hard to do, I wonder how we can go about transforming the world around us.
As disgusting as toilets at festivals are, I have to admit I was aware of what a privilege they are. As many people in Pakistan are facing the threat of water-borne disease and urgently need the kind of sanitation we had at the festival, I wondered how people could so readily abuse this provision. The basic value tents, although they are not fancy, could provide the kind of temporary shelter many might value more highly than we could ever conceive of. But many feel able to let these shelters go without a second thought. I don't wish to concern others and I hope that doesn't seem to be what I have done. But I do see a problem. Why do we not give that second thought? When did these most basic things, shelter and sanitation become not second nature, not something we take for granted, but something we consume. It's not that we think of ourselves first but that we think of ourselves first, second, third, fourth and so on. People will come back next year and go through more tents and damage and abuse more toilets so that new ones are sought.
I don't claim to have a solution or answer to this loop, or that the details I have pointed out are thoroughly accurate. I just wonder whether we will eventually have a shift in attitude where we think of our own need first, but then preserve the provision made for our needs so that we can turn our attention to others. Should we be consuming in a "single-use" disposable manner the basic requirements for a healthy life. I can't help thinking they are more valuable than any camera or mobile phone and should therefore be treated with the higher regard. Surely the non-essential items in our life need to return to the bottom of the hierarchy and those that allow us to live the healthy life of a person in the developed world should be cared for and prized at the top. When we remember their value, perhaps people will then remember and see why it is essential to share them with others.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Friday, 6 August 2010
Banned saucy seaside postcards by Donald McGill go on show
Bawdy seaside postcards that sold by their millions before World War Two are to go on display for the first time since they were banned for indecency in 1954. The risqué collection by Donald McGill, which features corpulent old ladies, drunk middle-aged men and salacious vicars, have been put on show at a new museum.
McGill was a prolific artist, designing more than 12,000 cards over six decades, and selling more than 200 million cards in British seaside towns.But a particularly raunchy collection was banned due to their inappropriate content during a clean-up of British seaside resorts in 1954, and the artist charged with publishing obscene images.
Now each can be viewed at a museum in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, which is home to the world's largest collection of McGill's work. The artist's fame was such that George Orwell termed him "the most prolific and by far the best of contemporary postcard artists." At the height of his fame McGill only earned three guineas a design, but today his original artwork sells for up to £1,700 in auction and up to £2,500 in London galleries.
James Bissell-Thomas, owner of the Donald McGill Postcard Museum, said: "What is startling is how innocent the majority of these 'obscene' cards were... "It seemed to be a bit of a witch hunt and was really very sad. Many of the images had been on display in the 1930s and 1940s and they were suddenly seen as a threat to society. "
The artist's career began in 1904 when he sent a cartoon to a nephew in hospital which featured a man up to his neck in a frozen pond and read "Hope you get out!" It was submitted to a publisher who commissioned his work, and he went on to design a number of cards riddled with double-entendres ranging from the clever to the vulgar.
James Bissell-Thomas, owner of the Donald McGill Postcard Museum, said: "What is startling is how innocent the majority of these 'obscene' cards were... "It seemed to be a bit of a witch hunt and was really very sad. Many of the images had been on display in the 1930s and 1940s and they were suddenly seen as a threat to society. "
The artist's career began in 1904 when he sent a cartoon to a nephew in hospital which featured a man up to his neck in a frozen pond and read "Hope you get out!" It was submitted to a publisher who commissioned his work, and he went on to design a number of cards riddled with double-entendres ranging from the clever to the vulgar.
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| Self Portrait By Donald McGill |
The Indecent Little Mermaid
Managers at Chessington Sea Life Centre have covered up a topless mermaid sculpture, "Young boys, and not so young boys, spending a lot of time ogling her in the walk-through ocean tunnel"
Mona Lisa is Toast....
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| A Mona Lisa mosaic artwork made of 6,000 slices of toast on show at a shopping mall in Hong Kong |
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Deal or No Deal .... ?
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| Was 96p now £1.27 Not the best deal I've seen in Sainsburys if I'm honest.... |
Tamagotchi: Day 4
Today my Tama transformed into its adult form! it now looks like a girl with strange hair. I was half expecting it to transform into a giant blob with the amount of snacks I fed it to keep it happy while I was out.
I also found that you can connect these newer versions to the internet and get lots of items for your tama to play with, so that what I did this morning....
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| www.tamagotchieurope.com |
I'm sure children will have hours of fun on there, but I just didn't have the patience to spend more than 20 minutes looking around, or listening to the music!
So now Funci is an adult, soon the Tama Matchmaker will be coming round, trying to convince my Tama to give up her innocence and become a mother. That is provding a suitable match can be found. If she doesn't she will grow into old age alone and die.
I don't want to push her into it though! =D
Monday, 2 August 2010
Cosmic Chameleon ... ?
Is a cosmic chameleon driving galaxies apart?
"Dark energy flings galaxies apart with gusto, but it has never been seen or produced on Earth"
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| The fifth fundamental |
Tamagotchi
So while cleaning out the house I found a Tamagotchi. For any of those who are unaware of what it is I'm talking about, they are a virtual pet, first sold in 1996. Tamagotchis are housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an interface usually consisting of three buttons.
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| Revival of my Tamagotchi |
So with fond memories of my V1 I decided to revive it and see if I could keep it alive for longer than a week. Today is day 2 (2 yrs in tama world) and it has reached Child/Teenager stage and looks like a flying duck head (?) This version is not my very original pink and yellow V1 from secondary school but a V3 I was brought a few years back.
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| My Tama aged 2yrs- weighing 48lb |
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| Name: Funci |
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| Statistics |
Beneath the Waves
"Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelengths of ours all they hear is a continuous scream."
Iris Murdoch 1919-99
Big Events.....
3.8 Billion Years Ago: The Oldest Rocks Form
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| Meteorite Example From Oxfords Natural History Museum |
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