t minus 1 hour

MATK Exclusive

Soho, London

Everything is ready for tonight's 1st Global Greek Gay Bloggers Meeting at London's Soho.

Last night I met the one and only. In about an hour I'll get to meet many of my online friends and fellow-bloggers.

Watch this space for an update.

Bring it on baby!!

Thomas Jefferson's letter to Maria Cosway

[My Dear] Madam
Having performed the last and sad office of handing you into your carriage at the Pavilion de St. Denis, and seen the wheels actually get into motion, I turned on my heels and walked more dead than alive, to the opposite door, where my own was waiting for me.... I was carried home. Seated by my fire, solitary and sad, the following dialogue took place between my Head and my Heart.

HEAD: Well, friend, you seem to be in a pretty trim.

HEART: I am indeed the most wretched of all earthly beings. Overwhelmed with grief, every fibre of my frame distended beyond it's natural powers to bear, I would willingly meet whatever catastrophe should leave me no more to feel or to fear.

HEAD: These are the eternal consequences of your warmth and precipitation. This is one of the scrapes into which you are ever leading us. You confess your follies indeed: but still you hug and cherish them, and no reformation can be hoped, where there is no repentance.

HEART: Oh my friend! This is no moment to upbraid my foibles. I am rent into fragments by the force of my grief! If you have any balm, pour it into my wounds: if none, do not harrow them by new torrents. Spare me in this awful moment! At any other I will attend with patience to your admonitions.

HEAD: On the contrary I never found that the moment of triumph with you was the moment of attention to my admonitions. While suffering under your follies you may perhaps be made sensible of them, but, the paroxysm over, you fancy it can never return. Harsh therefore as the medicine may be, it is my office to administer it. You will be pleased to remember that when our friend Trumbull used to be telling us of the merits and talents of these good people [Mr. and Mrs. Cosway], I never ceased whispering to you that we had no occasion for new acquaintance, that the greater their merit and talents, the more dangerous their friendship to our tranquillity, because the regret at parting would be greater.

Thomas Jefferson, "A Dialogue Between the Head and the Heart", letter to Maria Cosway [October 12 - 13, 1786].



what an appropriate description of my feelings on that Sunday when, after having found you, i let you go back... i saw the wheels of your carriage get into motion and turned on my heels and walked more dead than alive...

The Awakening of Europe's (New) Working Classes

Those who thought that last year's riots in the suburbs of Paris, and the rejection of the EU constitution by France and the Netherlands were isolated events need to think again.

Across Europe students, teachers, pensioners, civil servants, local government employees, public utility workers have been mobilising extensively against neo-liberal policies and anti-welfare / social state draft bills (such as Labour's pension scheme, and de Villepin's CPE).



...Across France:
Massive demonstrations organised jointly by students and trade unions against the CPE [Contrat Première Embauche - Contract of First Employment].

From Libération: Partout en France, les manifestations sont beaucoup plus fournies que lors des précédentes journées de protestation contre le contrat première embauche • A 19 heures, les syndicats parlaient de 2,71 millions de personnes dans la rue • 1,055 million selon la police •



...Across Britain:
The biggest strike since the 1920s as unions protest against 'unfair' pension scheme.

From the BBC: Union officials say the UK-wide strike was joined by more than 1m workers, closing many council-run facilities. Tuesday's action, by 11 unions, was the biggest stoppage in the UK since the 1926 General Strike...



...Across Greece:
Pensioners, academics, bank clerks, public utilities civil servants, workers' unions, petrol station owners and employees, public transport workers, and many others, have carried out or are planning strikes.

From To Vima: Κλιμακώνουν μέσα στον Μάιο τις κινητοποιήσεις τους οι καθηγητές της ανώτατης εκπαίδευσης - Τι προκαλεί τη σύγκρουση των AEI με την κυβέρνηση - Σε όλη την Ευρώπη χιλιάδες πανεπιστημιακοί αντιδρούν στην «ισοπέδωση» της παιδείας

end of term / spring

i need a break.

and i'm having one.


From Wikipedia:

Αγρανάπαυση ονομάζεται η προσωρινή διακοπή της καλλιέργειας ενός αγρού για να αποκτήσει ξανά την παραγωγικότητα του. Συνήθως διαρκεί ένα χρόνο και εξαρτάται απο το είδος του εδάφους και τις κλιματικές συνθήκες που επικρατούν. Η αγρανάπαυση είναι περισσότερο αναγκαία στους αγρούς που εφαρμόζεται εντατική μονοκαλλιέργεια που έχει ως αποτέλεσμα την κατανάλωση των θρεπτικών συστατικών του εδάφους.


end of term.
19 lectures, countless seminars, workshops, essays, focus groups, meetings, papers and admin forms.
blog posts, telephone calls, emails, text messages, books, films, operas, concerts, tv programmes, late nights, early mornings, early nights, late mornings.

spring
and the beginning of something very special, beautiful, pure.

i miss the sun. i miss it like hell.
but it's sunny on the inside.
and the winter is over.

"Spring has come and joyfully the birds greet it with happy song, and the brooks, while the streams flow along with gentle murmur as the zephyrs blow.

There come, shrouding the air with a black cloak, lighting and thunder chosen to herald [the storm]; then, when these are silent, the little birds return to their melodious incantations.

And now, in the pleasant, flowery meadow, to the soft murmur of leaves and plants, the goatherd sleeps with his faithful dog at his side.

To the festive sound of a pastoral bagpipe, nymphs and shepherds dance under their beloved roof, greeting the glittering arrival of the spring."

[Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring - Sonnet Text]

time to mark, and write, and present, and co-ordinate.

but also:

time to breathe.
and relax.
and think.
and feel.

Dedicated to A.

Dissecting David Mamet's Homicide

Flashback.

Back in September i wrote this post on David Mamet's 1991 masterpiece Homicide. The post was partly about the idea of conspiracy and how it links to the film.

Since then a lot has happened.

I ordered one of the last three copies of the script available on the internet (and the last copy on British soil). The script was lost / stolen? in the mail. I was refunded but it meant I had to order it from the US, double the price.

Still, as i'm sure you've figured out by now i'm kinda stubborn, so i did pay over £25 to get the script from the US. The retailers asked me to email them when i receive it because it was "rare" (!).

Anyway, eventually the script arrived but that wasn't the end of my trouble.

Amazingly, one of the key essays written on the film, William Van Wert's excellent essay entitled "Conspiracy Theory in Mamet's Homicide", which was originally available here, disappeared from the internet! In the 11 years of my online existence, I've seen many sites go out etc but we always manage to find stuff via search engines etc. Van Wert's essay disappeared from the face of cyberspace - along with several mentions to it. That is to say, websites that appeared to cite/link to the essay (on Google) had taken out their links. And all that happened like within the last three months or so. I was wise enough to print out a copy - a single copy, which i now keep locked in a secret location, a safe house, in Vancouver.

Anyway, all that was as a means to an introduction for what i'm about to report.

Last Monday i organised a 4-hour workshop on Mamet's Homicide with my 2nd-year communication and media students. The workshop started with a screening of the film. The four seminar groups were then assigned specific briefs looking at:
a) dialogue
b) narrative / plot
c) symbols and visual signs
d) identity and conspiracy.

They convened separately and came up with some brilliant ideas, which they presented at the last hour of the workshop.

It would be impossible to summarise the entire workshop in one blog post. We literally took the entire film and script apart, and put it back together. I'm sure not even Mamet himself is aware of things that we found in his film.



If you've seen the film and are interested in finding it out more let me know, i can forward you the briefing pack and the powerpoint presentation that we produced.

In the meantime, here is a small sample.
**Attention: Spoiler Alert!**

There are TEN coincidences driving the plot - and Bobby Gold in his journey of self discovery. In other words things that appear really key and pre-planned in the mystery / conspiracy / story are actually based on wafer-thin coincidences. Is Mamet taking the piss out of his own hero (by implying that conspiracies are in our own heads)? And is he implying that seeking our identity is a futile or even dangerous activity?

1. Driving by the murder – being picked up by the Jews / Chief to investigate
2. Found the photo because of the housekeeper leaving the frame off centre
3. Being in the Jew family’s house when there was disturbance
4. Finding the piece of paper (GROFAZ) on the floor of the terrace [next to the pigeons, we now know it was torn off a feed sack]
5. In the old lady’s store, he breaks the stepladder then stumbles upon the crate with her lists and invoices from the war
6. In the library, the rabbi asks him to place the book on the shelf (and he accepts) and then he overhears the librarians, otherwise he would have never had heard of 212, which is where they were expecting him?!
7. He then chooses to look at the librarian’s leftover clipboard (coincidently put there?)
8. He chooses to go to 212 Humboldt St.
9. After being kicked out of 212 he doesn’t leave – he ‘accidentally’ meets the woman
10. The woman is reluctant to give him the bomb – what if he hadn’t volunteered? They wouldn’t have got the polaroids to frame him

Cascardi (quoted in Calhoun) argues that “The modern subject is defined by its insertion into a series of separate value-spheres, each one of which tends to exclude or attempts to assert its priority over the rest”.

Nagel 1998: 239 notes that “Ethnic identity is most closely associated with the issue of boundaries. Ethnic boundaries determine who is a member and who is not and designate which ethnic categories are available for individual identification at a particular time and place. Debates over the placement of ethnic boundaries and the social worth of ethnic groups are central mechanisms in ethnic construction. Ethnicity is created and recreated as various groups put forth competing visions of the ethnic composition of society and argue over which rewards or sanctions should be attached to which ethnicities.”

It is this sort of questions that Mamet is asking:
- are identities ‘natural’? [essentialist view – cf. racism, chauvinism]
- do we construct our own identities? (how?)
- do others construct our identities? (how?)
- does ‘society’ construct our identities? (and what is society?)

His hero, Bobby Gold, is facing a struggle between his identity as a police officer serving the United States of America (with all the ethnic and religious issues that that brings) and being a Jew. Or is he? What makes a Jew? Is it language? He can't read. Is it religion? He's not practicing. Or as the members of the Jewish cabal tell him:
“You say you’re a Jew and you can’t read Hebrew. What are you then?”
“Where are your loyalties? You want the glory, you want the home, you are willing to do nothing”
“Do you have a shame? You belong nowhere...”
“Do you call that loyalty?”
“Are you a Jew? Then be a Jew!”

Family, as a key venue of post-ethnic identity and belonging, is also a core theme in Homicide. While scholars have hinted that Mamet is supporting family as an alternative socialisation paradigm, every notion of family is assaulted in Homicide:
- the guy who killed his wife and 3 kids 'to protect them'
- Randolph's mother betrayed her son 'to protect him'
- Bobby failed to protect Tim (his real family)
- Bobby failed to integrate within the Jewish cabal (his natural family).

Tribal identity, cabals, ethnicity and race, religion, even gender and sexuality, loyalty, belonging, nationalism, us and the Other, are the key themes of Homicide. Quoting my September 2005 self, "Homicide is like these oil-on-canvas paintings by the old masters which hide several layers of paint and drawings." You have to dig really deep, and you'll be compensated with more and more hidden clues, symbols, signs, messages and meanings.

Review: Good Night, and Good Luck

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Amazing.

Last night i watched George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck one of this year's best films, and one of the best political films of the last decade.

+ Succinct. 93 minutes (feels like a Woody Allen movie). But shocking. Credit to Clooney, and fellow-script-writer Grant Heslov, for picking a story and an issue which is as contemporary today as it was in the 1950s. This film will be compulsory viewing for all my journalism students next year. It's like having condensed four lectures (on objectivity, on television, on ethics, and on media effects) into a 93' drama.

+ Performances. David Strathairn gives what for me is one of the best male performances in absolute ages. He manages to go well beyond the superficial mannerisms of Ed Murrow and captures the very essence of his thoughts and humanity. Frank Langella gives a subtle but fine performance as CBS boss William Paley. Patricia Clarkson is good in whatever she does, although admittedly her role doesn't allow her to reach the depth of Far From Heaven or Dogville.

+ Robert Elswit redefines black-and-white cinematography and proves that it's as relevant in the 21st century as it was in the 20th. James D Bissell, Christa Munro, Jan Pascale and Louise Frogley designed sets and costumes that make you feel like you are in the 50s, but even more importantly they serve the story.

- 93 minutes?? Come on man, give us more. I mean this is my favourite genre; someone has finally decided to open our eyes; and it's over before it even started?!

No seriously, this is an excellent, compelling film. It's about Iraq, Bush, Blair, CNN, the BBC, the licence fee, Postman's thesis, the Frankfurt School, as much as it is about McCarthy, Murrow and CBS. But above all - and i think that's Murrow's (and Clooney's) message, it's about us.

Because "Cassus was right, the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Good night, and good luck.

the limits of blogging

just a short post to say that during these last few days i have discovered the limits of blogging, or to be more accurate my own blogging limits.

i love blogging, when i'm reporting on remarkable or indeed unremarkable experiences.
thoughts, ideas, rants, raves, reviews, analyses, absolutely everything.

and i've never had a problem putting my dirty laundry out, indeed i've been criticised many times for not keeping anything in private, for being too open, especially given that this is an eponymous blog and that every day i go out there and face 250 or so students. some have argued that i'm too self-possessed and that all this ...literature on me, myself and i is a vanity trip.

i always thought that this is me, these thoughts are part of me, i have nothing to hide, nothing to fear. if these things are harmful to my future career then so be it, i wouldn't want to work for an organisation that doesn't accept me as i am.

but these last few days have shown me that actually there are some things i don't want to talk about, or reflect on, publicly or semi-publicly.

the fact that i'm truly, madly and deeply in love with Anthony is not one of these things, as i'm confident that even my dead grandmother is familiar with it (i.e. that fact) by now.

but there is no way i can report or reflect on the last few days or what i'm currently experiencing in this blog.

it's not vanity, i'm not trying to be intriguing, and it certainly is not an issue of privacy.

it's partly the fact that words would belittle it.

it's also that sometimes you need to stop typing, and start feeling.

that's when it's no longer 'me against the keyboard', but as a loved friend put it 'me in him' and 'he in me'.

no words...

since there are no words to describe what i'm feeling, i'll just keep blogging like normal and pretend that i'm still part of this reality. Next post will be a summary of today's workshop on David Mamet's Homicide.

ELLIE
Quadruple system... incredible...
don't recognize any background
constellations... hundreds, possibly
thousands of light years from Earth
now. So beautiful. So...

Ellie growing woozy; trying to snap out of it.

ELLIE
The physics must be a thousand, ten
thousand years beyond us but... oh
God... oh God something's...
happening...

Ellie is overwhelmed with emotion -- we think she's about
to cry but then she bursts out laughing --

ELLIE
It's beautiful. It's beautiful. I
keep saying that but I can't... my
mind can't... words... should've
sent a poet. I'm a poet and don't
know it...
(sings)
Ground control to Major Tom...
(struggling)
Relativitistic side-effect? Or --
induced by the transport medium?
The gas...

Now Ellie is crying, sobbing uncontrollably.

ELLIE
Oh, Palmer, I wish I'd had a baby.

[Contact, written by Menno Meyjes, Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan, Michael Goldenberg, Jim V. Hart, based on the novel by Carl Sagan]

and they lived happily (together) everafter...

...The End...

αφιερωμένο εξαιρετικά σε όλους μας τους φίλους

black-out

Me Against the Keyboard will be back with you on Sunday.

always... the hours...

always the years between us
always the years...
always the love...
always the hours...

[David Hare / Michael Cunningham, The Hours]

new game: find Roman's heart

NEW INTERACTIVE GAME: LOST AND FOUND

Story:
Scotland Yard has launched a massive search for Roman's heart, which was lost sometime last week. Some witnesses say that they saw a bleeding heart somewhere in south London, near Kennington station. The police investigation will continue throughout the night tonight, and all day tomorrow. It has been confirmed that his mind was found earlier today in a gutter near the Oval.

Mission:
Your mission is to spot Roman's heart on the map above and take it back to Bournemouth. The first person to find the heart will win a £10,000 kitten.

ok, last one

hello? who's there?

1 + 1 = 1

Two people, just meeting
Barely touching each other
Two spirits greeting
Trying to carry it further...

[Jean Jacques Smoothie, 2 People]

shhh......

my baby is asleep.

La-La-Land

I just can't get you out of my head
Boy your loving is all I think about
I just can't get you out of my head
Boy it's more than I dare to think about

Every night
Every day
Just to be there in your arms

Won't you stay
Won't you lay
Stay forever and ever and ever and ever

There's a dark secret in me
Don't leave me locked in your heart

Set me free
Feel the need in me
Set me free
Stay forever and ever and ever and ever

[Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis, "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"]

is this really happening to me?

i mean, like, really.
like, actually happening.
like, to me, of all people.

is it?

Can the Democrats grab the opportunity?

Hillary is carefully building an election-winning machine around the country.

Al Gore is born again; never better. The (real) winner of the 2000 election is much more relaxed, popular and focused. The dream candidate of the left with a cutting-edge, progressive agenda on things that really matter (energy, environment, education).

Both of these candidates could really take forward the Clinton legacy.

The majority of Americans believe that the Democrats are better in handling the economy (53% v 38% for GOP). It's the economy, stupid. Bush's rating hit a new low today with job approval down to 36%. Democrats enjoy a 16 point lead over Republicans when it comes to November's mid-terms.

Obviously, the Republicans are not stupid. We may hate everything they stand for but they're not gonna just let go. They will fight, and they will fight hard and dirty, as they've always been fighting. In fact, i'm more scared when Bush's popularity is in the mid-30s than if it were in the mid 40s, because the former may force them to take extreme measures so as to regain the initiative / control.

Still...

John Kerry. John Edwards. Howard Dean. Nancy Pelosi. Ted Kennedy.

this party has real heavy-weights.

it can really put forward an argument.

it can win back power - at least in the Senate, less likely in the House where the Republicans' gerrymandering has "locked" every future election until 2070 or so to their favour.

but enthusiasm and good intentions are not enough on their own, although they are the perfect starting point.

The Democrats need a strategy, they need a structure, they need war rooms and communications experts, bloggers, activists, fundraisers, journalists, media, volunteers, anything. They need a Carville and a Stephanopoulos (or a Josh and a Toby in West-Wing-speak); people who know how to win elections. And also they need a feasible and tangible plan on Iraq because that's holding them back big time.

Let's see.

I.H.T.F.

I

Hate

The

Flu.


I HATE THE FLU!

okay?

ill? moi? never!

future engagements

no it's not what you think. (yet).

thinking about work for a minute, here's what's happening in the next few weeks:

Monday, 13 March 2006:

CPCR Research Workshop on Content Analysis - i'll be talking about web content analysis, its problems and prospects, as well as presenting my own coding sheet which i'm currently using for my research on civic engagement websites. Superstar researchers Chindu Sreedharan and Dan Jackson will also feature. The event is open to all staff and students. Room: P405 [definitely not big enough for 'all staff and students'].



Monday, 20 March 2006:

The 'Homicide' Workshop: a special four-hour Media: Messages and Meanings workshop dissecting David Mamet's 1991 masterpiece. For BACOM Level 2 students. More info available on Media 2, although if you're part of this and don't know what's happening then you've probably been dead for the last 6 months.



Thursday, 23, and Friday, 24, March 2006:

i'll be returning draft dissertations for BACOM Level 3 students. Time slots to be confirmed.

NB: for BACOM Level 2 students, the date for the return of your MMM essays tbc later in the week.

Monday, 03 April - Thursday 06 April, 2006:

The 56th Annual Conference and Graduate Conference of the Political Studies Association. The details are yet to be finalised but basically this is what's happening:

Monday - PSA Graduate Network (PGN) Annual General Meeting (AGM), that will be my last appearance as PGN Communications Officer as my term is ending, i will not seek re-election and we will soon be having an election for all posts. Being a CO for the PGN has been an amazing experience and i would strongly encourage political studies graduates / doctoral students to consider running.

Tuesday Main conference starts, likely to have at least one Greek Politics Specialist Group panel.



Wednesday Main conference continues; the GPSG's AGM has been provisionally scheduled for 12:15 - 14:15, room tbc shortly. Two more GPSG panels, along with the PSA's AGM and the Conference Dinner. Let's hope the jokes and the food are better than last year. Wednesday is also the day when yours truly will be presenting a paper entitled "A Deficit of Civil Society? An in-depth analysis of UK youth engagement websites".

Thursday Last day of the conference (phew!), and the last GPSG panel - in collaboration with the Political Marketing Group (PMG).

Busy times ahead, but who cares. The best smile on the planet is on my desktop. And in my heart.

Thus Spoke Anthony...

"yesterday was yesterday, today is today, tomorrow will be tomorrow"...

how can you not LOVE this person?

fever

Never know how much I love you
Never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me
I get a fever that’s so hard to bear

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever in the morning
Fever all through the night.

What a lovely way to burn...

κόλλησα τη γρίππη του Κόκι...

like a prayer

God?!

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like ...home.

are you ready for this?

love is definitely in the air...

i just spoke to Pedro (Almodovar of course).

he said he wants to make a film about us bloggers.

he asked me to prepare the movie poster.

and that i did.



apologies to those of you who didn't make it this time. Pedro promised that there will be a sequel.

i'm sorry

you don't want to hear,
you don't want to know,
you've heard it all before.

a collective apology to my blog-roll for ignoring you during the last few days. things have been a bit mad lately. blame him. nah, just kiddin.

anyway, i've now got an hour scheduled so that i can read my favourite blogs.

starting with George and Koki...

bring it on baby!

what do you wanna be when you grow up?

...i wanna be myself.

Shutdown

MATK Special Report from the official picket line, Bournemouth University.

Beating the wind, torrential rain and freezing cold, NATFHE members went on strike throughout the country today.

Most NATFHE lecturers at Bournemouth either did not come to work or took part in the picketing around the campus.



I stayed at the line for two and a half hours, holding placards and handing out soggy leaflets. That reminded me of how awful it was to work as a flyering boy for G-A-Y distributing flyers by the Thames at 11pm (wearing a tight t-shirt under 5 C cold). Anyway, i digress. Participation to the strike and picketing was very successful with several lectures being cancelled at the last moment.



I also gave three interviews live-on-camera to student journalists who are producing their news packages. They were looking for 'human stories', they wanted to cover the more human aspect of the strike, so i did my best to sound miserably poor and suffering. A bit like Jerry Springer on campus then...



Let's hope that the government and the employers are listening and that they sit down for some serious talks and negotiations.

During the last 20 years academics have literally lost 40% of their salaries (in real terms), while other professions - much less socially important - have been going up and up. Universities are getting 3.5 BILLION pounds next year because of top-up fees. They had promised to give teaching staff one third of that money so as to help us catch up with the rest of the professions. Then they backtracked on their promise and said that they can't guarantee anything. Meanwhile, our productivity (i.e. the number of students per lecturer) has gone up by 150% during the last two decades.



FAIR PAY NOW!!!
SUPPORT NATFHE

to whom it may concern

Just one look from your eyes
Was like a certain kind of torture

Once upon a time
There (i) was a boy

Just one touch from your hands
Was all it took to make me falter

Forbidden love
Are we supposed to be together

Just one smile on your face
Was all it took to change my fortune

Just one word from your mouth
Was all I needed to be certain

Once upon a time
There (i) was a boy

Hearts that intertwine
They lived in a different kind of world

Just one kiss
Just one touch
Just one look
Just one love

[Madonna, Forbidden Love, from Confessions on a Dance Floor]

you know it, don't you?

i'd give anything to know too (that you know). anything. at. all.

a sign, maybe? please?

just let me go to bed people. just for a couple of hours. please??????

oh. my. god.

Best Picture: Crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what-ever!

Academy Award Winner...

...George Clooney! (wow, i'm quite surprised, but well-deserved).

light at the end of the tunnel

for the first time in 3 and a half years i can say in some confidence that i'm actually going somewhere with my PhD.

papers, book chapters, reports, conferences, workshops, seminars, questionnaire, survey, pilots, initial review, prel results, Iraq, 9/11, Blair, Labour, internet, youth, democracy, public sphere, participation, Live 8, Make Poverty History, Fairtrade, activism, blogs, survey, content analyses, issue crawler, power laws, focus groups, students, transfer viva, supervisors, allnighters, reading, writing, presenting, hyperlinked network analysis, results, discussion, writing up.

my single most important worry throughout the last 3 and a half years has been coherence. as most PhD students do i started by wanting to reinvent the wheel. i ended up reinventing a molecule of the wheel, but hey that appears to be good enough.

it just all seems to be falling into place.

big day tomorrow. focus groups with user evaluations. let's hope the second year students come to the sessions and that the mic works!

Review: Syriana

Last night i watched Stephen Gaghan's Syriana, a powerful political thriller in the tradition of 1970s film-making (Z, All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor etc).

+ Syriana succeeds where last year's The Interpreter failed - it doesn't use the political message, the 70s 'look' and the all-star cast to build a popular flick. Syriana just does what it says on the tin; the 70s look and the all-star cast serve the political message, which while in The Intepreter was buried under the romance, in Syriana - as in The Constant Gardener - it is crystal clear. You could say that Syriana is this year's The Insider focusing on big oil (and big terrorism) as opposed to big tobacco.

+ The cast are collectively brilliant. While George Clooney may well walk out with the Supporting Actor Oscar tonight, he is no more impressive than Jeffrey Wright (in completely different character than the one in Angels in America), Christopher Plummer (who keeps maturing with every film), Chris Cooper (ditto), Alexander Siddig and Matt Damon.

+ Alexandre Desplat composes a second brilliant score within a year after De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté

+ Tim Squyres (editing) and Robert Elswit (cinematography) manage to put together the pieces of an unending, global jigsaw puzzle... Texas, Maryland, Georgetown, Langley, Geneva, Beirut, Gulf, Tehran.

+/- At times, especially in the first half of the film i felt there was no narrative, no plot, but merely disjointed bits and pieces of information. Gaghan really tests the audience's patience with a narrative that is quite fragmented and does not 'settle' into one place but keeps moving around like an MTV video-clip. Yet, towards the end of the film it all comes together, it really does. Everything just falls into place and suddenly makes sense.

I'm not gonna go into the substance of the film, you just need to watch it. But by the time the end credits and the disclaimer that "while this film is based on a non-fiction book [Baer's "See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism"] the characters and situations depicted are fictional and any association with real people or situations is unintentional" rolls, you can't help but smile - bitterly - at the mess that this planet has come to be, and at how powerfully and perceptively Syriana describes the current situation.

So basically i stronly recommend that you watch this film as soon as possible, ideally on a film screen rather than on DVD.

UPDATE: 2006 Oscar predictions v. actual winners

Ok, are you ready for the annual allnighter?

Here are my final predictions for tonight.

Picture: NO
Brokeback Mountain

Director: YES
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain

Original Screenplay: NO
Good Night, and Good Luck

Adapted Screenplay: YES
Brokeback Mountain

Leading Actor: YES
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

Leading Actress: YES
Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

Supporting Actor: NO
Matt Dillon, Crash

Supporting Actress: NO
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain

Art Direction: YES
Memoirs of a Geisha

Costume Design: YES
Memoirs of a Geisha

Cinematography: NO
Good Night, and Good Luck

Film Editing: NO
Munich

Make-Up: YES
The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Original Score: NO
Memoirs of a Geisha

Original Song: NO
"In the Deep", Crash

Sound Editing: YES
King Kong

Sound Mixing: YES
King Kong

Visual Effects: YES
King Kong

Animated Feature: YES
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Foreign Language Film: NO
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days

Documentary Feature: YES
March of the Penguins

Documentary Short Subject: NO
God Sleeps in Rwanda

Live Action Short Film: NO
Cashback

Animated Short Film: NO
One Man Band

Categories promising to provide us with the most drama:
Original Screenplay
Supporting Actor
Cinematography
Editing

If Brokeback Mountain does not win screenplay and/or a supporting role and/or cinematography then it's in deep s*it. If Crash starts sweeping minor awards (Editing, Supporting Actor, Screenplay etc) then it may make the surprise in the Best Picture category. But all that is very unlikely.

The 78th Annual Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 05, 2006, at 17:00PT (20:00ET) live from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood. In Britain the show will be broadcast live by Sky Movies 1 since BBC decided it's not worth it (perhaps we should decide that it's not worth renewing our licence fee next year...).

Honestly, I CANNOT BELIEVE that i will miss the Oscars again - especially this year with so many great films, with Brokeback Mountain, with Jon Stewart presenting!! (The dude ROCKS!).

Still, keeping with tradition, i'll be spending the night at the office preparing for tomorrow's lecture and focus groups plus listening to 790 KABC which features exclusive snipets from the ceremony as it happens.

In preparation for the big night i'm listening to the music of the late Elmer Bernstein for Far From Heaven and The Rainmaker; Bernstein was one of Hollywood's most talented composers having composed absolute classic scores such as The Age of Innocence.

Για τα δύο χρόνια της "Νέας Διακυβέρνησης"

[apologies to non-Greek speakers but this has to be written in Greek.]

Δεν είμαι μέλος κανενός κόμματος. Όταν πριν από δύο χρόνια έγιναν οι εκλογές, τα αεροπορικά εισιτήρια τα πλήρωσα από την τσέπη μου. Ήρθα στην Ελλάδα για 2 μέρες, ψήφισα και έφυγα. Όπως όλοι οι σκεπτόμενοι πολίτες έχω τις δικές μου αρχές και συγκεκριμένη ιδεολογία / αξίες, και αναγνωρίζω σε όλα τα κόμματα καλούς και κακούς πολιτικούς, καλές και κακές πολιτικές. Προφανώς και στην παρούσα κυβέρνηση υπάρχουν κάποιοι υπουργοί που προσπαθούν να φτιάξουν πέντε πράγματα. Αλλά αυτό δεν αρκεί. Ο χρόνος κυλάει, οι αποφάσεις λαμβάνονται διεθνώς, οι ευκαιρίες χάνονται.

Γιατί δεν ψήφισα (και ούτε πρόκειται να ψηφίσω) τον κ. Καραμανλή:

- Διότι το αξίωμα του Πρωθυπουργού είναι το πιο σημαντικό επάγγελμα στη χώρα – ένας τίτλος και μία θέση την οποία αξίζουν να κατακτούν (και να αποκτούν) οι καλύτεροι πολιτικοί μας. Άνθρωποι που μας εμπνέουν, άνθρωποι με όραμα, με σχέδιο, με πείρα, με κύρος, με προϋπηρεσία, με προσφορά. Πολιτικοί με επιχειρήματα, με άξιους συνεργάτες, με βαθιά γνώση της πολιτικής θεωρίας και πρακτικής, με διασυνδέσεις, με στόχους και συνείδηση, με πάθος.

- Διότι στο Γραφείο του Πρωθυπουργού ανήκουν μόνο άνθρωποι που έχουν αποδείξει επανειλλημένως την αξία τους όχι μόνο σε τοπικό, κομματικό, περιφερειακό ή εθνικό επίπεδο – αλλά διεθνώς. Πολιτικοί που δεν φοβούνται να κάνουν την τομή, να αναλάβουν το πολιτικό και άλλο κόστος των ευθυνών τους. Άνθρωποι που έχουν συνείδηση της ευκαιρίας του να δημιουργήσουν, και της ευθύνης του να μην καταστρέψουν.

- Διότι η διακυβέρνηση της χώρας παραείναι σημαντική και «ακριβή» (με την παλιά έννοια του όρου) για να την εμπιστευτούμε σε κομματόσκυλα και βαρόνους, που τα βρήκαν όλα έτοιμα και το μόνο που έχουν κάνει στην «καριέρα» τους είναι να κολλάνε αφίσες, να πίνουν καφέδες στις Νεολαίες των κομμάτων, και να συντηρούν κλίκες προυχόντων με άρωμα Ελλάδας του 19ου αιώνα.

- Διότι μέσα σε δύο ολόκληρα χρόνια διακυβέρνησης, το μόνο που έχει καταφέρει ο κ. Καραμανλής είναι να κόψει κορδέλες έργων του ΠαΣοΚ, να ρίξει την Ελλάδα στον πάτο της Ευρώπης, να αναμιχθεί (αθελώς κατά πάσα πιθανότητα) σε σκάνδαλα, κακές αποφάσεις και ατέρμονες επικοινωνιακές κρίσεις, να αφήσει τον κινηματογράφο και το θέατρο της χώρας σε βαθύτατη κρίση, να αφήσει να ρημάξουν τα έργα των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων, να αφήσει να αναγνωριστεί η ΠΓΔΜ ως Μακεδονία, να αφήσει να απορρίψουν οι Κύπριοι το Σχέδιο Ανάν, να αφήσει, να αφήσει, να αφήσει...

- Διότι σπάνια στην Ιστορία του Σύγχρονου Ελληνικού Κράτους έχει υπάρξει ένας τόσο άβουλος, ανίκανος, άσχετος, αφελής και - εν τέλει δυνητικά επικίνδυνος - Πρωθυπουργός, ο οποίος οδηγείται από τις εξελίξεις, από τους υπουργούς και από τους επικοινωνιολόγους του αντί να οδηγεί αυτός τα πράγματα. Ακόμη και ο Κ. Μητσοτάκης, στον οποίο πολλοί προσάπτουν όλα τα κακά του τόπου, προσέφερε πέντε πράγματα: κατάφερε να βγάλει τη χώρα από έναν φαύλο κύκλο ακυβερνησίας με τον εκλογικό νόμο, υπηρέτησε τις αξίες στις οποίες πίστεψε (άλλο το εάν διαφωνεί κανείς με αυτές τις αξίες) και εισήγαγε έναν κάποιο ρεαλισμό και εκσυγχρονισμό στην πολιτική, που αν και άκριτα νεο-φιλελεύθερος, ανάγκασε τα άλλα κόμματα και ειδικά το ΠαΣοΚ σε αναθεώρηση του δικού του λόγου και προγράμματος.

- Διότι η θέση του Πρωθυπουργού είναι πάνω απ’όλα θέση manager. Καλά είναι τα λόγια, τα χαμόγελα και τα δίδυμα, αλλά όταν έρθει η ώρα για να κάνουν οι πολίτες «ταμείο», θα βρουν μπροστά τους ένα τεράστιο κενό. Ένα κενό απραγματοποίητων υποσχέσεων (τί απέγιναν οι 6 μήνες θητεία;), κακοδιαχειρισμένων κρίσεων που εξευτέλισαν τη χώρα («απογραφή», ΔΕΗ, Voda-gate), και εσωστρεφούς κυβέρνησης που το μόνο που την απασχολούσε είναι το να κερδίσει τη Β’ Αθηνών και να διορίσει τα «δικά της παιδιά» στη «νέα διακυβέρνηση». Ποτέ μία κυβέρνηση δεν ήταν τόσο, μα τόσο, ανασφαλής και ανοργάνωτη. Σαν, ακόμη, να προσπαθεί απελπισμένα να εκλεγεί.

Κύριε Καραμανλή, ο Ελληνικός λαός καλώς ή κακώς σας εψήφισε – αυτό είναι πλέον ιστορικό γεγονός είτε μας/σας αρέσει είτε όχι. Επιτέλους σταματήστε να φοβάστε τη σκιά σας και κυβερνήστε αυτή την έρημη χώρα – για όσο καιρό σας μένει.

Για το καλό αυτού του τόπου, που μετά από πολλές δεκαετίες αναταραχών είχε αρχίσει να βρίσκει μία κάποια σταθερότητα.

Breaking News: Odeon Bournemouth changes schedule following MATK campaign

Oh. My. God!!!



Today Odeon changed Bournemouth ABC's schedule for the week so as to include Syriana following MATK's campaign launched yesterday.

More specifically, the programme circulated via email to Odeon subscribers yesterday morning included only three films:
Chicken Little
Final Destination 3
Lucky Number Slevin
which were also the films appearing on ABC's page in the Odeon website.

Today, they added Syriana to be shown all week starting from tonight!

the empire strikes back

Following yesterday's complaint, Odeon replied to my email with the following message - which btw surprisingly does not appear to have been sent by a robot, (unless they have robots called Pam, as in V.I.K.Y. @ I, Robot!)

Thank you for your email.

In answer to your question, the decision as to whether or not a film shows at a particular cinema rests neither with the cinema manager or [sic] with Odeon, but instead it lies the hands of the distributor (the company that owns the rights to the film ). Whilst the distributor's advertising often states that a certain film "Opens Nationwide" on a certain date, what they neglect to say is that it won't be in every cinema on this date.

The distributors base their decision on whether or not to open a film at a specific cinema using a number of deciding factors (such as the demographics of the surrounding area) [yeah ok we know that Bournemouth is God's waiting room, you don't need to rub it in our face!]. Often, if they only have a limited number of copies available, these go to the areas with the highest density population centres such as London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester etc. Similarly, if the content of the film is more likely to appeal to the highly educated, the distributors are more likely to want to place their product in areas with high a student or business population [so not only do you call us morbidly old, but you're also implying that we're thick?!].

However, whilst we may not get these films at the time that they are initially released, if we get enough requests such as yours, we can put pressure on the distributors to allow us to show their films after a few weeks (once they are no longer needed elsewhere). Whilst I cannot confirm anything at the moment, do not give up hope just yet!

I hope this has answered your query, but if there is anything else that I can help you with, please feel free to contact me again.

twice within the week

the last week has been good. busy but good.

all 'my people' are well, i'm well, my mum has been cooking for me (mother of God, that's so typically Greek), work is well, and there is a bit of 'play' in the radar.

twice in the week i felt happy. like the real thing, which lasts for a few seconds. the last one being on Wednesday at 10:40am.

this post is for Amvro, who's also happy today.

it's also for Anthony, who made me laugh quite a lot during the last few days - and who's also been happy this week.

and finally it's for Kokovios, who made me cry a couple of times this week.

here's looking at you kids.

now: go home and write the fucking lecture, orite?

what's wrong with Odeon?

i really don't know what the F*CK is happening with Odeon at Bournemouth.

Okay we know that you guys have the monopoly over our fucking lives.

We know that you keep feeding us SHIT made up of J-Lo flicks, failed blockbusters, z-movies that no-one wants to watch and children's films that were released 6 months ago (indeed these four caterogies are all one and the same).

We know that you never bring any art-house, alternative, independent or non-Western films or documentaries.

But this is getting out of control.

Capote? Sorry, no.

Good Night and Good Luck? Nope, you can't have it.

Syriana? What's that! Is Britney Spears in it? No? Then sorry, no.

The entire country is watching the month's hottest releases that will be fighting for the Oscars and we're stuck with:
(don't laugh, this is the genuine list of films for next week)

Chicken Little

Final Destination 3

Lucky Number Slevin

Big Momma's House

Date Movie

Flight Plan !!!!! (like 6 months after its release for fuck's sake!)

Little Polar Bear: Mysterious Island

Last Holiday

Zathura: a Space Adventure

The Matador

the only proper films are Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line, which we've obviously watched like 2 months ago.

I mean the only culture around here is frigging BACTERIA!

Give me a break.

There is only one solution:

BOYCOTT ODEON



please copy-paste this banner to your site.

p.s. emails are down to 19. good effort, huh?

GRIDLOCKeD

phone is off and door is locked as my voicemail and my inbox are going crazy - 100 urgent emails to reply to, so if you've sent me one please be patient - you'll get an answer within the next ...millennium...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
ggggggggggggggggggggggggg
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!