TIIRoaC

disney symbol

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 19:28:56 +0100

Now that I'm home from uni, I can watch a bit of t.v again; I was just watching tool time downstairs with dad; I haven't seen that programme since I was ten. At the end, a very strange thing happened - I saw the Buena vista logo, with the walt Disney castle, and a warm glow came over me....

rethinking culture

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 17:34:10 +0100

Perhaps the only way one can determine a culture is a culture, independent of other cultures, is by what it produces. That is to say, the only way one can differentiate between cultures is through it's art, and the same applies to subcultures. I've been reading Henry Jenkins'* seminal work on fan culture as part of my research into cinephilia, and I naturally started to reflect on disability culture....

brooding

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 22:17:32 +0100

For a while now I've been brooding over something, unsure whether I should blog about it. A few weeks ago I was having an argument online over the contents of one of my blogs, and I put it to her that I had just as much right to comment on the subject of disability as anyone else, that the fact that I have cerebral palsy gave me as much authority as her or anyone in the subject. She said I didn't....

bags

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 16:07:19 +0100

Its official: I have too much crap. I have spent today trying to sort through it. I'm home from university, so the task I have now is to try to compress the contents of two rooms into one. I could, I suppose, leave it in the bags, but then I'd have to navigate round 3 big bags of assorted clothes and paperwork each time I enter my room. So I'm just taking a break from trying to put everything away, which isn't going well: my shirt draw looks like a bomb has hit it. Moreover, I seem to have accumulated an extraordinary amount of girls clothes, which, although I love it, is causing me a problem. Where, exactly, does one put leotards? I must admit its getting silly....

theoretical musings.

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:39:55 +0100

For most of my life I was only into books. As a kid as far as I was concerned literature was the truest and most direct form of artistic expression; after all, how could we express ourselves if not through words? As a child, my parents read to me and my brothers every night, and it was there that I acquired a profound love for words: their flow, their timbre, their very meaning. Indeed, there was a time when I used to deride other art forms, especially visual arts, as inefficient at conveying meaning and therefore inferior to writing....

blame thatcher not bbrown

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:51:41 +0100

People are obviously getting increasingly pissed off with this credit crunch thing, and especially at the fact that companies are still making profits, albeit reduced ones, when the working classes are being asked to tighten their belts. Frankly this angers me too, but it isn't so surprising when you think about it: private companies are designed to make profits. They have done nothing wrong, and the government cannot stop them....

interesting article

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:35:02 +0100

I must admit this guardian article has given me considerable pause for thought. Things are indeed going wrong under new labour - a lot of people are becoming disenfranchised with it, forcing people to swing to the far right. This isn't just happening here, but in Europe too. It certainly is a worrying trend: the labour back bench is sharpening knifes, the bnp are winning more and more seats on councils, and David CaMoron is measuring the curtains of number ten. ...

true or false or both or true

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:34:31 +0100

One of the best things about going home for the weekend, apart from the food and the chance to watch top gear in comfort, is getting to read the new scientist. I could read it in the library at university of course, but it's not quite the same. This week, there was a feature on reason itself, which interested me greatly....

perspective

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:08:46 +0100

There can be no doubt that yesterday's bi-election in Scotland was the death-knell for Gordon brown. As much as I loathe that weasel CaMoron and his image-obsessed Tories, I cannot see any way out for labour. The thought of an election turns my stomach with fear but I now think one is probably imminent. If only people would see CaMoron for what he is; more and more people are turning back to the Tories. If only they had the brains to realise that, under the Tories, the situation would be much worse....

fan culture

matthew@matthewgoodsell.co.uk — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:26:01 +0100

I must say that, even though I've had multiple distractions recently, I'm finding my research as fascinating as ever. It has, of course, taken something of a diversion recently, into fan culture. I must say that I find the discourse of the fan hugely engaging; it isn't too far removed from that of the cinephile, and yet it is also very post-modern in the way it merges media. Yet there are places where the two discourses overlap, too: they both fixate on the contingent, for example....