Category: Society

“The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Reclaiming The Commons: Part 1

The USA gets its own version of the Criminal Justice Bill, only there are no riots, merely more faces buried in iPhone screens. Reclaiming The Commons: Human Lessons in the Era of Corporatism and...

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Prayers and Promises: An Academic in Africa

Our resident screamer has been upping the ante of late and I heard a live performance for the first time the other night.  George had just finished moving to the third bedroom (a saga in itself,...

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Furyon: Interview

Furyon singer/frontman Matt Mitchell explains all to Trebuchet interview Meltem. ...

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‘Someone who has seen the world, and doesn’t much like it’ : An Academic in Africa.

Trebuchet's Academic in Africa is amazed by the talents of Nigeria's ambulatory merchants and sedentary guardsmen. Plus nostalgic reflection on Wine Gums. There are a huge number of things...

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Love on a Pillow: [DVD]

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this week is the curiously titled Love on a Pillow. (Its original title, Le Repos du Gerrier, or Warrior's Rest, made no sense either.) Also curious is the fact...

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Wilfred [Comedy Series]: Review

Every now and then, a very silly concept will come along and sweep you off your feet, rendering you genuinely mournful when it's all over. A dog that thinks it's human, is fiercely possessive...

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Anomie Belle: Interview

Scheduled for release on April 2nd, Yppah's Eighty One is an album of glossy synth texture and crunching gravel percussion. Reflecting Yppah's move to southern California to be closer to the...

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On Regaining a Spirit of Defiance: Part Two

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. — T.S. Eliot The vehemence of the imagination motivates. It rages against oppression, as it, in equal...

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Interview: Ian Jones (KARNATAKA)

It is very common to hear people moaning about clichés, especially when it comes to our ‘soul feeder’ music. Even Rock music, which once was a controversial movement against the...

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Columbus Circle: Blu-Ray Release

Columbus Circle is one of those films that you find yourself entertained by, but you're not entirely sure if this might be because it's very good, or perhaps instead the kind of very bad...

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On Regaining a Spirit of Defiance: Part One

 'I'm Worried Now but I Won't Be Worried Long' The course of action taken by the present day U.S. political class in addressing the era's rising tide of economic hardship and...

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An Academic in Africa: Plagiarism

Second week of term, and we start to acclimatise ourselves to having all of these damn students around.  Although the first intake (ie. the 17 that have already done one term) have been pissing...

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End of Empire: Part 2

I ask you this, if the defining aspects of our existence were constructed of concrete, would not the world be made of the material of a prison? Moreover, is this not the building material and psychic...

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Forecast: Cloudy

A little while back, the results of a survey commissioned by the subscription online music store eMusic were released, and they were notable. The survey targeted people who buy music online. Among...

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A Journey To The End Of Empire: Pt. 1

It Is Always Darkest Right Before It Goes Completely Black "When the poet stands at nadir the world must indeed be upside-down. If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself,...

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The British Expeditionary Force: Interview

With scant weeks to go before the March release of their album Chapter Two: Konstellation Neu, The British Expeditionary force are at that tricky pre-publicity point in their album campaign. A spring...

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Decapitation: An Academic in Africa

I’d like to share a story with you.  It comes from an online newspaper here. Suspected ritualists on Tuesday in Lagos beheaded an unidentified man and chopped off his manhood. Residents of...

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Legendary J.D. Wilkes: interview

The Legendary Shack Shakers never miss and have wowed the hardy fools of the hip underground over the course of six energetic punk blues albums. Inteview with JD Wilkes...

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The sound of us not dismissing anyone’s ideas (Islet)

Islet's stunning debut album, on which 'Guitar figures drone in and drown out vocal lines, cymbal-heavy rhythms pile in and utterly demolish all that is in the rest of the sound-picture, discordant...

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Spirits, Madness, and Love.

Life as lived in a late empire, in which one's humanity is deemed only worth its value in dollars to the corporate state. Wherein one's identity is flooded by the come-ons and emotional...

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Ronin: Interview

Interview with OVO drummer Bruno Dorella about with dark folk group Ronin...

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Straylings: Interview

Vulpine and ragged, dropping effortlessly from the plaintive minors of her upper range down to throaty growlings all earthy and powerful, Straylings' Dana Zeera throws her voice around in ways...

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Rolling Thunder: Blu Ray Release. Review

From Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, it is wonderful to see Rolling Thunder make it to disc, Blu-ray, no less. Titled after Operation Rolling Thunder, the US campaign against...

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Negotiating a Landscape of Hypocrisy

When Bill Clinton and his scary, scary libido stalked the public realm, Republicans warned his presence was so anathema to all things holy that his hot breath served to salt the wings of choirs of...

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Wikithink: An Academic in Africa

The first week of term has arrived, and with it about 100 students.  Frankly, this is a bit of a shock to the system.  And not just mine, the whole delicate ecology of the university is...

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Punishment Park

As the UK slips further towards the more and more real prospect of a police state — some, myself included, would argue we’re already there — this 40th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Peter...

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Interesting Times: SOPA

Politics has rarely concerned itself with the intelligent. The art of persuasion is neutered by the intelligent person's demands for data. Where will the money for schools, libraries, hospitals...

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Double Hammer: The Scarlet Blade and The Brigand of Kandahar

Out today, making their world DVD premieres, are these two Hammer classics, The Scarlet Blade (1964) and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965). Both tales of conflict written and directed by John Gilling,...

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Fawlty Towers Syndrome

The melancholic experience of visiting a declining English hotel out of season reveals some suggestivaly ominous parallels with the current state of the nation. After almost forty years, John Cleese...

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OWS 2012: Still Resisting

In my opinion, when people opine that the OWS movement is about — or should be about — the airing of this particular grievance or that it must bandy this or that particular demand —...

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