I’ve just put up free full versions of my two albums. It will be a little while before there’s anything new, and it’s been nine years (!) since the last new stuff! You can find them on the Music page. Enjoy!
Monthly Archive for April, 2010
Cory Doctorow’s latest.
The entertainment industry’s willingness to use parliament to impose censorship and arbitrary punishment in the course of chasing a few extra quid is so depraved and terrible that it has me in fear for the very underpinnings of democracy and civil society.
Indeed, the swiftness with which the DEA went through the British parliament is something that does not bode well for democratic processes. A scant debate, a paltry showing of MPs, and blatant ignoring of public outcry marks the very opposite of engaged and responsible government. Add to the this that the substance of the law is largely the construct of profit-driven (i.e. not concerned with democracy) private industry, we have here authoritarian rule by the unelected and the unaccountable. A travesty.
So what, it’s just music and movies, right? Cutlral production plays a massive part in the circulation of ideas, social norms, possibilities and potentials, etc. This move represents the continued imposition of control in the name of profit on the very texts that might hold the key to new discoveries, that might open up posibilities for better worlds. In process and in content, this law is an attempt by a powerful elite to suppress the common, to lock down communication, and to punish those who dare to dissent. It is absurd.
On the right sidebar you’ll see a link to a Book Depository “wish list.” Book Depository because of the free shipping anywhere in the world (though it does not save my shipping details, you’ll have to email me for my address). There is also an Amazon list for those more familiar and comfortable with that venue (though there are shipping costs, it does have the advantage of saving my shipping details so you won’t have to email me.)
This is a list of books that I want/need for my research and general edification and enlightenment. I’m not trying to monetize this blog, even though I pay for the hosting of the site. For a while I toyed with doing a Google Ads thing on here, just to see how the process worked and see if there were a few cents to be made. But no, that’s a little too brazen and I hate ads anyway. Then I thought about a straight up PayPal “donation” button, to which I thought “no, that would make it appear that education should be thought of as a charity, which I definitely disagree with.” The booklist seems like a nice thing to publicise. On the one hand, you get to see what types of books I like to read, on the other, maybe you will feel a twang of generosity and decide to buy me one! Not that I expect it, this is more of an experiment than anything else. Also, you can find a bunch of free music on this site, which will increase over time. I won’t sell my old recordings again, I prefer to just give them away on this site. So, you could think of the book wish list as a “books for music swap” if you like.
Thanks!
A brilliant piece from TruthOut, The Market Colonization of Intellectuals, by Louis R. Gordon.
In many forums over the past decade, public intellectuals seem unable to talk about pressing social issues without performing the equivalent of an academic literature review. Although reasons range from trying to inform their audiences of relevant debates to efforts to demonstrate erudition, that many public intellectuals present their work as the basis for rewards in academe and the entertainment industry suggests influences tantamount to the colonization of intellectuals by the ever-expanding market.
There was a time when the divide between academic intellectuals and those whose primary vocation was the common weal was marked by location. The former worked in universities, colleges, professional schools and seminaries. The latter worked in public organizations, advocacy groups, civic and religious associations, political parties and given the consequences of dissent, a good number of them produced their work from prisons and the trenches in times of war.
These two spheres offered communities for intellectual development and, crucially, they offered, albeit in the past, modest employment. To think, everyone needs also to eat.
Along the way, some academics became public figures and some public figures became academics. But the political legitimation of either depended on the impact of their work on public institutions and social movements. Then came a wave of reactionary policies in the 1980s into the past decade in an effort to push back the achievements of the 1960s. Accompanying these efforts was a war against left-oriented intellectuals.
This is a fantastic interview with Dr. Anthony Stewart of Dalhousie University’s Department of English in which he discusses the recent cross burning in Nova Scotia and issues of race in the academy.
Information on his book, You Must Be A Basketball Player, is available here.
@paaitken