Panchromatica

Envy

I've just subscribed to Sky, after much resistance over the years on my part. Idly skimming through the hundred's of channels now available I was struck by a number of things.

First (and the reason behind my reluctance to date) is the huge quantity of plain crap.

Second, the large number of channels devoted to property. I don't mean creative or useful programmes like Grand Designs or Property Ladder, or mildly entertaining like the many variants on Location Location. The ones I mean seem to have no purpose other than promoting envy - 'this house is huge, way out of your price bracket and you are never ever going to get anywhere near it."

Are people really interested in the grotesque ego trips of some unknown rapper, or the often hideous monstrosities erected in sunny locations across the world? I know I can turn these programmes off, but the poor unfortunates who have to see these things every day don't have that luxury.

Third, the huge quantity of plain crap (yes I know I have said this already, but there is just soooo much of it...)

Hiatus

No posts for a while and this is unlikely to change soon because of a combination of personal and family issues. Watch this space...

Freeze!

Found via my namesake on Crooked Timber. I think he's right - don't try this at Paddington...

The bizarre workings of bureaucracy - revisited

Following on from this, comes this exchange of letters between the anarchist writer, Paul Goodman and the US information Agency dating from 1968. Clearly it was ever thus...

Sounds like politics to me...

Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move. In that respect it differs from almost every other game. The primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed.

Christian charity

I did a craft/art fair on Saturday that was over an hours drive away (in Cheddar). Attendance was very disappointing, with long periods when no-one came in. Everyone was puzzled by this, since previous events at this venue have apparently been well attended. All was revealed late in the day however, by one visitor who quite openly admitted that because her local church was having a Christmas Bazaar on the same day, church members had been going around taking down the small posters publicising the fair, in order to reduce competition. It became clear that of the 130 signs erected, only 30 were left, when the organiser went to remove them at the close of the show...

So - thank you whoever you are, I'm sure you would like to know that thanks to your Christian charity, most of us made a thumping loss on the day.

The Extraordinary Case Of The Pagan And The Multicultural Prayer Room

From the National Secular Society site

An extraordinary — one might almost say unbelievable — industrial tribunal case in Manchester in March gave a rare insight into how attempts to accommodate “multicultural” religious needs at work actually appear only to apply to Muslims. It developed around a spat between Muslim employees at the Royal Mail and a member of the Odinist Fellowship (a group that apparently worships the old Nordic gods).

Widgets

Just to let you know, I've added a widget that supposedly adds links to Amazon automatically from relevant text. I'm not convinced it is working properly, so if you see any gross errors let me know - and if it gets too annoying!

Disclosure: I'm an Amazon Associate, which so far hasn't brought me a penny! However clicking on the links to buy will bring me a small sum, that will I hope go some way towards my blogging subscription and ISP fees.

More on fairs and festivals

Some time ago, (2003 in fact!) I posted asking for information about the economic impact of markets fairs and festivals. Some time later, (2006) I made a separate post about so-called Anti-Social Behaviour, that touched in passing on a phenomenon known as Charivari. I was intrigued therefore to discover a research project at City University in London, that focussed on economic outcomes from such events, but in one of the academic papers linked also to some of those other ideas inherent in Charivari.

Throughout the academic literature, carnivals and festivals are associated – by historians and anthropologists alike – with altered social forms, excitement, even danger. Opinion is divided over whether the carnival is a locus for radical transgression, or simply an escape valve for revolutionary energy, which acts to reinforce the status quo (Cohen 1993; Waterman 1998; Webb 2005). Either way, attention is drawn to the tendency for popular festivals and carnivals, in many parts of the world, and in many historical periods, to be characterised by risqué reversals of hierarchy, ludic mimicry, flamboyant and celebratory cultural expression, and a sanctioned overstepping of conventional rules and norms of behaviour. Arguably, carnival is also associated with spontaneity, and with a sense of being carried away by the momentum of the event through improvised action and kinetic excitement. Although many carnival arts involve meticulous attention to form, structure, even ritual, there remains a strong feeling that participation is more than can be conveyed through an account of moves, music and costume. The element of risk, of unpredictability – not, in any sense, of anarchy, but of an altered understanding of authority, whether actual or imagined – is at the heart of the experience of carnival.

There are also links here with the idea of the feast of the  Lord of Misrule

This is misnamed a feast, being full of annoyance; since going out-of-doors is burdensome, and staying within doors is not undisturbed. For the common vagrants and the jugglers of the stage, dividing themselves into squads and hordes, hang about every house. The gates of public officials they besiege with especial persistence, actually shouting and clapping their hands until he that is beleaguered within, exhausted, throws out to them whatever money he has and even what is not his own. And these mendicants going from door to door follow one after another, and, until late in the evening, there is no relief from this nuisance. For crowd succeeds crowd, and shout, shout, and loss, loss.

This fear of the reversal of power, of disturbance of the common good runs deep. After all, we can't have public officials made fun of can we?

Only in America #3421

Link: North Carolina pair feud over leg.

A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.