States of the Disorderly...

King of the Chi-Town Blues...

2008-04-07T15:49:00Z

Last month I was privileged to be able to interview Blues legend Buddy Guy. Here is the article:

Buddy Guy was a mere toddler when he first heard the sound of sweet gospel, drifting through the windows of a rural church, deep in the Louisiana Delta.

Music, from the very beginning, was the sound of hope.

The son of a sharecropper, Guy never had much money, but fell in love with the blues in the early 40s, when his dad first installed electricity in the house and the swampy rhythms of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters poured from the phonograph.

Famously, the young boy carved a makeshift guitar from a few bits of wood, flyscreen and his mother’s hairpins, and amidst the muggy plantations he sat for hours, dreaming of a different world, which his music would emancipate.

50 years on, George “Buddy” Guy is a quintessential Chicago electric blues legend and undoubtedly one of the most revered living guitarists.

Truly of another era, Guy carries the weight of a history and sound which set the course for modern rock n’ roll, inspiring a platoon of devotees as varied as Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.

Before heading to Australia for his current tour, Buddy was rugged up inside his Chicago home, sheltered from the snow, cooking some good old-fashioned Creole food. Modern day Chicago is a futuristic playground compared to the gritty streets that defined the city when Guy first arrived in 1957, clutching a satchel of southern fried chicken and a busking hat.

“We’re all very religious and I believe God put us here for a reason, not a season,” laughed Guy in his crackling southern accent.

“The guitar was just something natural that came to me, to fall in love with, but none of us ever dreamed this music could take us to all kinda places, all nationalities, to the world. These guys, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, would just be playing with a hat on stage, hoping for enough dimes to get a quart of beer, then you’d pay all night.”

Chi-town blues, as it is commonly referred to, was the sound of liberation for Black America, imbued with the cultural and racial symbolism of a changing nation. Yet, ideologically speaking, the themes of blues music were mild compared to the hip-hop lyrics that dominate Black music today. Guy’s daughter, Shawnna, is an MTV glamour girl, famous for her brashy up-front lyricism and work with the rapper Ludacris.

“My daughter Shawnna, she say to me, ‘Dad, we’re playing your music, what we’re doing is just like what you did back then,’” said Guy.

“I didn’t ever used listen to what these Black kids were saying in this hip-hop but when I did I realised they were saying things that Black kids weren’t even allowed to walk past the studio and whisper back in my day.

“But that’s what music is doing these days, and as long as you makin’ people happy, you doing something good. Music is like the automobile. When it come out it have no radio or heater, damn you gotta crank it up to get it started, but now you press a button it cranks up before you even get in it.”

Of course, it’s hard for Guy to conceptualise the impact of his music. Put it this way, Jimi Hendrix would never have lifted a guitar above his head for those mammoth solos if he hadn’t seen Guy do it first. Equally, as Stevie Ray Vaughan famously quipped: “Without Buddy Guy, there would be no Stevie Ray Vaughan”.

At 71 years of age, time waits for no man, but Guy is safe in the knowledge of one thing at least: the blues is alive and well.

“At my age you just gotta sit back and say wow,” said Guy.

“You wake up, you go to bed, you wake up, you do you’re thing, but then one day you’re a senior citizen, and you the maker of ‘old Black music’.

“The future’s bright, but there ain’t never going to be another Muddy Waters, another B.B. King. They’re the ones, they made the blues, so who gonna fill those shoes? Well ain’t nobody gonna fill those shoes, but the blues’ll still be playing long after we old men long gone.”

Article Published in The West Australian.

Discourse Paper...

2008-04-02T07:11:46Z

Last month I had the following article published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (please see abstract below):

Savage, G. (2008). Silencing the everyday experiences of youth? Deconstructing issues of subjectivity and popular/corporate culture in the English classroom. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Vol. 29, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 51-68

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of popular/corporate culture texts and discourses on the subjectivities and everyday social experiences of young people, and the extent to which such influences are critically analysed in the English classroom. I present two levels of synthesised information using data analysis born of a mixed-methods postgraduate research project with a group of 15- and 16-year-old high school students in Perth, Australia. First, I argue that popular culture texts position young people to assume subjectivities that are heavily informed by the ideologies and discourses of popular/corporate culture. Moreover, I argue that young people’s social currency is often defined by the extent to which individuals demonstrate an alliance to such ideologies and discourses, and that individuals who deviate from popular norms experience subjugation and exclusion within peer and social settings. Second, I deal pedagogically with subject English and areas of it that hold relevance in terms of the integration and analysis of ‘the popular’. I argue that many students feel their teachers are ‘out of touch’ with the everyday realities of young people and their popular culture influences, and that there is a lack of commitment by teachers to critically analyse popular culture texts in the classroom. The paper concludes by arguing that such failures risk producing students whose everyday experiences are silenced and who are denied the critical learning spaces necessary to deconstruct the ways they are positioned to adopt certain subjectivities. Moreover, critical and progressive pedagogical praxis need to be further deployed by educators in order to effectively analyse the relationship between youth subjectivities and popular/corporate culture discourses.

Klaxons Interview...

2008-01-31T15:46:45Z

I guess this posting is a case of 'better late than never'...

I interviewed the Klaxons in their hotel lobby late last year, in Perth, just before a live show at Capitol Nightclub (see interview/review below). Before the rest of the band arrived, I sat with Simon Taylor-Davis for around an hour, chatting about the band's crazy year. My initial intention was to transcribe the whole interview word for word; which I may get around to doing when I get two seconds spare. Sitting with Simon reminded me of an interview I once heard with Damon Albarn, in Blur's early days. The two bands have many common threads, two decades apart. Anyway, for now, here is the interview/review:

If not for the Klaxons, 2007 would have been very different, and a lot less neon.

Capitol, resplendent in a hyper-colour sea of the young and glamorous, was testament to the band’s newfound celestial fame; proving the dance-meets-indie ‘nu-rave’ scene is now firmly a subculture and quasi-religion.

Glo-sticks aplenty, eyes glazed in fervour and mouths ajar, a carnal atmosphere greeted the scene’s demi-gods when they finally emerged through a miasma of sparkling lights. The stage was set for one of those special nights. Hours earlier, Klaxons’ guitarist, Simon Taylor-Davis, cradled a fresh cup of English Breakfast tea, ensconced in the quiet comfort of his hotel lobby.

In beautiful juxtaposition to the madness to ensue, Taylor-Davis was keen to chat about a year which has seen his band’s debut album, Myths of the Near Future, eclipse all expectations, win a 2007 Mercury award and forge a fashion-music beast inconceivable when they jokingly quipped in 2006, “we’re a ‘nu-rave’ band”.

“Not long ago, in London, there was a sense of urgency, the brink of losing control, and we became the ‘catalysts for carnage’,” laughed Taylor-Davis.

“We had friends bring glo-sticks to gigs, it all became a party, a joke, and suddenly we were poster children for our own revolution. Now on high streets everywhere, you can buy your complete ‘nu-rave outfit’.”

But was it all a beautiful plan?

“Of course it was!” chimed bassist Jamie Reynolds, bursting into the room with keyboardist James Righton, fresh from radio promo and cradling piles of free CDs.

“From day one it was about ideas. We couldn’t play instruments, but we started writing about fantastical nonsense, stole ideas from nineties dance music and played with weird concepts about the apocalypse.”

“In the end, we became a cut n’ paste pastiche pop band, with a collage of sound that we took to the mainstream,” said Taylor-Davis.

“Pity is, now we haven’t written a single song for 18 months!” said Righton, “and we need to sit down and make a new one. The next record is honestly going to be so much better. We’re really ready to start pouring ideas.”

In the meantime, however, life continues as a roller coaster of debauchery and endless sell-out tours. Carnage, of course, the operative word.

Later that night, the Klaxons literally assaulted Capitol with a wall of stripped-back, rough and raw sonority, paying homage to their post-punk influences.

Decidedly heavier than on record, Atlantis to Interzone, Totem on the Timeline and Golden Skans were affectingly delivered to a writhing pit of pheromones, serotonin and sweat.

By the time Two Receivers reached its crescendo, Capitol, the most painfully ill-conceived venue in history, was a messy feast for the zealous, and the Righton vs. Reynolds trademark vocal duo resonated beautifully.

“F**k New York and London, Perth is my new favourite place!” screamed Reynolds, before launching into their debut single, Gravity’s Rainbow.

Instrument swapping aplenty, guitar pedal mastery and vocal gymnastics all seemed effortless. Perth’s rapacious audience simply sapped the sonic energy.

Unfortunately, by the time Isle of Her and It’s Not Over Yet graced fans, the band was almost out of songs. It’s easy to forget the Klaxons are indeed a very young band with merely a handful of tunes to their name.

Returning for a raucous version of The Four Horsemen of 2012, there was no doubt the Klaxons are indeed the scribes of our musical future.

Later on, caked in post-gig sweat, amongst a landscape of beers bottles and grimy discarded glo-sticks, Simon Taylor-Davis had an epiphany: “You know what? I’m ready for the future! Bring on 2008, let’s rinse these ideas out and serve ‘em up.”

Article Published in The West Australian.

Silencing the everyday experiences of youth?

2007-10-14T17:04:46Z

Late last year, an arduous process of research and writing culminated when my Masters thesis was submitted.

My thesis, studied at Murdoch University (Australia), specifically investigated the influence of popular culture texts on the subjectivities of young people and argued that critical pedagogical practices need to be further deployed by English teachers to interrogate popular culture texts in the classroom. My data analysis synthesised information born of a quantitative survey and in-depth interviews with secondary English students.

Although the thesis will predominately interest researchers in the fields of education and cultural studies, I believe it also offers something unique in terms of the autoethnographic-styled narratives which punctuate its structure throughout. In many ways, the four narratives are more enlightening than the data itself, in terms of explicating the personal process of 're-birthing' which I endured as a result of delving into the theories therein. Academic work is too often stripped of individuality in the seemingly futile process of attempting an 'objective account'; and these narratives certainly 'fly in the face' of traditional edicts.

The thesis was examined by Jane Kenway (Monash) and Michael Kehler (Western Ontario) and published early 2007, but now the time feels right to put it up on this site. You can download the abstract, the entire thesis, or the individual narratives (see below, all in PDF form).

Alternatively, the full thesis is also available via this link, as a part of the Murdoch University Digital Theses Project.

A distillation of my research will be published in an article in Discourse - Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, in March 2008. I will post the abstract closer to the date of publication.

Regards,

Glenn

Abstract

Full Text

Narrative #1 - The Whirling Vortex

Narrative #2 - Anarchy in the UK [and Perth, Western Australia]

Narrative #3 - The dislocated teacher

Narrative #4 - 2006: A reconceptualizing self...

Ash - Tim Wheeler Interview...

2007-08-10T07:55:22Z

Fifteen years ago, three Irish boys cooped themselves up in a garage all summer with a spattering of dilapidated instruments, turned up the amps to head-split volume, and sparked a teenage revolution.
Little did they know, their lovelorn lyrics about summer flings and a girl from the intergalactic would catapult them into the limelight of Brit-pop mega stardom and kick start an illustrious chart-topping career, outrunning the majority of their languid contemporaries.
Tim Wheeler, Ash’s scribe and soul, opened his A-Level results live on BBC Radio in 1995, the week Girl From Mars was released, and that event pretty much set the tone for a decade of madness to follow.
In 2007, Wheeler is a somewhat changed man, and a quiet chat from his New York apartment reflected an increasingly mature and retrospective artist.
After all, he is almost 30!
Nonetheless, listening to Wheeler talk about the band’s new and self-proclaimed final album, Twilight Of The Innocents, one can almost smell the fervency that set aflame the hearts of Ash fans all those years ago.
“Ash is back and it feels fucking great,” cried Wheeler.
“This new album just feels like we’ve returned to what we love and do best, which is to be Ash.”
In fact, Twilight Of The Innocents is so ‘typically Ash’ that even fans could be forgiven for mistaking the opening track, I Started A Fire, for a long lost B-Side from Ash’s debut magnum opus, 1977.
“It’s funny because when we were recording our manager walked into the room at one point and said ‘I’m getting a 1977 feel from this and I like it’,” said Wheeler.
“The best thing about this album is that it’s got that kind of classic Ash sound to it but it’s different as well and reflects more about who we are right now.”
Twilight Of The Innocents, however, is an album that could easily not have happened. After the portentously titled 2004 LP Meltdown, Ash devolved into a whirlwind of confusion and soul-searching.
Meltdown was an atypical and patently metal release, which Wheeler described as the band’s chance, for better or worse, to indulge their teenage metal-god fantasies. Inadvertently, it divided both fans and critics, and scepticism mounted over the band’s future.
Wheeler said Ash desperately lacked direction and decided on big changes after the Meltdown world tour. In the end, Wheeler and bassist Mark Hamilton relocated to New York. Equally momentous was the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, who played with Ash for nearly a decade.
“We all went through massive changes and Charlotte leaving was just one of them,” said Wheeler.
“Things got pretty dark there for a while. I was living in the most vibrant city in the world but I was deeply introspective.
“I was very conscious of the fact that Twilight Of The Innocents would be a big pressure album so I spent eight hours a day in the studio stressing and experimenting.
“I’m so glad the album is finally out now and doing well. I realise now there’s still interest in our group. Plus, we’re smart enough to adapt and grow with the times.”
Akin to this desire to evolve in an ever-changing music industry is the shocking decree that this will be Ash’s last full-length release.
“This is definitely our last album,” said Wheeler.
“We’ve reached the end of our contract and we’re just a bit sick of the frustrating slow process of albums. We plan to release downloadable singles on a more spontaneous basis to keep everything fresh.”
As such, the end of an era is clearly nigh, but should Twilight Of The Innocents be considered an epitaph?
“No way man, it’s not the death of Ash,” asserted Wheeler.
“Ash 6.0 is here, the future is still coming!”

This article was published in The West Australian, August, 2007.

Lily storms the port...

2007-08-02T16:58:05Z

Hey all... I had a great night on Tuesday, watching Lily Allen down in our port city, Fremantle. I wrote this review, which was published in The West yesterday... p.s The Cure is tomorrow night! Good times!

Lily Allen is the tough talking, celebrity hating, MySpace blogging glamour girl of the year.
Her raw sardonic lyricism and stark social commentary on post-teen London life continues to dazzle music lovers worldwide and has earned the 22-year-old a deservedly controversial place in the galaxy of tabloid fame.
Amidst this recent flutter of paparazzi and gossip columns, Allen’s music is often and regrettably overlooked in favour of the voyeuristic attention given to her notoriously brash and humorous net blog.
At the end of the day, however, Allen’s lucid musical talent is the fundamental ingredient to her success and her brilliantly progressive 2006 debut, Alright, Still, is the reason she’s been selling out venues all over the country.
Metropolis was no exception. Packed to the rafters and abuzz from the word go, fans and inquisitive sceptics alike were happily crammed to catch a glimpse of the haughty starlet.
Allen was over the road enjoying one of Gino’s favourite pastas when Melbourne’s Macromantics kicked off the night, gracing punters with her brassy Aussie hip-hop, which was generally well received, given nobody seemed to know who she was.
All eyes and hearts, however, lit up when the distinctive opening riff to LDN permeated through the speakers, and everybody’s favourite ‘mockney’ emerged through a barrage of synths, drum-machines and a neon clad three-piece horn section.
Straight away the night was destined to be a sing-a-long affair, with Allen leading the charge and displaying far more finesse than recent scathing US reviews would suggest. It was also going to be the kind of up-front and personalised affair only Allen could provide.
Straight up, the crowd was drawn into the frank world of Lily the pop princess: “I’ve just arrived from Japan and I’m f**king knackered,” she screamed.
“Somebody get me a Jägermeister! … This next song is for all the models and actresses who try to prove how thin they are by dieting, but who are really just on heroin!”

Everything’s Just Wonderful suitably followed, ironic given that a fight had already developed between two boozed up geezers in front of the sound desk.
After Nan You’re A Window Shopper and Shame For You, Littlest Things emerged with a beautifully demure and minimalist live treatment that allowed Allen’s vocals to glow and gave hyped-up fans an early breather.
“This next song is about guys with small dicks,” laughed Allen as she introduced Not Big, which really got girls dancing and a handful of boys looking somewhat bashful.
The horn section retired for a few songs, and accompanied solely by her proficient bassist and keyboardist, Allen launched into Everybody’s Changing by Keane, and Naïve by The Kooks. Both covers were given a light absorbing two-step interpretation, which unlike typical live re-works added a fresh dimension to each track.
Upon the band’s return, the album favourites were rolled out and an increasingly drunk Allen ordered an increasingly drunk crowd to pretend the weekend had landed before launching into Friday Night. Knock ‘Em Out followed and had female fans screaming in unison for revolution, and Smile ended the set as the clear pinnacle of the evening.

www.myspace.com/lilyallen

Les Confessions... Spark my heart, Baroque-style.

2007-07-16T00:31:15Z

Very rarely, in my somewhat cankerous and cynical late-20s, do I read literature that truly 'burns through me' and speaks so completely to my heart. In fact, for months now I have been longing to have my acrid exterior pierced by a piece of art, to deliver ardor and excitement once more. Well... Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Les Confessions has not only delivered in this hope, but shines so brightly I am somewhat aghast.

Several years ago, when I was up to my knees in reading subjectivity theory, I read the Book I of Les Confessions and regarded it as an excellent book; something I would need to 'get back to' when I had more time. And then, it was forgotten...

In fact, I ended up reading Émile ou de l'éducation, which certainly spoke wonders at the time, and then Du contrat social which inspired all kinds of idealistic revelry and reactionary hustle and bustle within, however, it has unfortunately taken me this long to finally get stuck in to Les Confessions.

Not only have I taken to this book like a fish to water, but in more romantic moments (of which there is many) I have become convinced that Rousseau is a kindred spirit, a Doppelgänger of sorts, 'alive' in 1700s Europe. In particular, I've connected so completely with Rousseau's descriptions of his artistic temperament, to the effect that it is quite unnerving.

I don't want to write a review of Les Confessions, as doing so is highly unnecessary and I would not do it justice. However, I do want to make the point clear that Rousseau's writing has once again allowed me to transcend everyday reality in the best way that literature can. Moreover, its light and absorbing style has positioned me to question any claims to the disparity of human experience over time. What I mean, specifically, is that although Rousseau's everyday antics were penned in reflection over 300 years ago, the latent humanity is so relatable to the core of everyday experience and human emotion right now that I wonder whether we are any different to our revolutionary ancestors?

This feeling has been nourished by recently re-watching Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, a film which in my mind re-creates the sensual and artistically provocative passions of the immediately post-Baroque period with potency. Coppola represents Antoinette and her royal entourage as a bunch of chivalrous libertines, who share more in common with our conception of modern day rock-stars than they do with their often antiquitised and dreary historical contemporaries. Knowing that Rousseau was of significant influence to Antoinette, I feel a strange sense of order having linked the two and I feel an unusual relevance in the way Coppola managed to construct within her film, a feeling of illustriousness similar to the more ecstatic moments in Rousseau's work. Rousseau's writing is imbued with discourses of revolution and hope, and Coppola has injected this feeling into the veins of her characters. I want to know: did Coppola actively draw-upon the work of writers of the period in order to capture such emotions?

Overall, my best advice is to read Les Confessions, and alike me you may finish it feeling that you have in fact, lived twice. When I opened up the book, I was looking for excuses, after a significant period of feeling dormant, to re-ignite my passions for writing, literature, music, etc. The book has succeeded in this aim and re-ignited my drive. To be lame, I can now say that I feel somewhat like a teenage Rousseau, turning away from the closed gates of Geneva, having decided to re-commit myself to self-discovery: to keep dreaming, living, discovering, and to follow the dream of the wandering vagabond. Art before rationality, and all that. :)

This day, this year...

2007-03-23T09:32:52Z

Sparks fly, slipped within sheets, like dark whispers.

Does it all connect? In this world, meanings, shapes, sighs and letters; the shifts from A to B?

I’ve lately rendered myself mute, somnolent. Words don’t connect, the dots don’t join, it all, falls. Shreds. Trawling through the dark corners of this transitory haze, I’m figuratively in parts.

Day to day, like most of us, I unwillingly shine beacons for the mindless revolution; yet night to night, in the thick recesses of my mind, I am a burning self. Grounded in my humanity. Alive.

Now be sure, I try not to flaunt worthless ambiguity or petty activism, but rather to make a point about the contradictions of my daily expression. I’ve found lately that we conveniently express our ‘languages of choice’; our complex ‘preferred’ narratives, in which we reveal the elements most effectively poised to communicate our variously assumed personas. I realise this and I feel transparent to no end.

Surely, therefore, our personal ‘whole’ is impossibly known, if not ridiculously felt. If only it were possible to transcend these daily fictions; our momentary desires and prerogatives. Surely then, we could more authentically conceptualise and relocate? But too often such hopes are inevitably fruitless.

It’s sad, this plight and descent to dull madness. As the lights spark and fly, we chime lowly as it all passes by. As clients and managers of our own futures, we standardise, marginalise, reconceptualise and prioritise to no end. To our end.

As such, I’m mute, until visions soar.

Sunshine, always...

2006-10-23T07:23:29Z

Very rarely do I find myself crying with laughter...

Little Miss Sunshine is the best film I've seen in ages.

Go see it!

An(other) Orwellian Turn...

2006-10-23T02:38:31Z

This week, Australians have been subject to yet another Orwellian turn in politics, as the Howard government's "relaxed" media ownership laws breezed through parliament with remarkably few voices in protest.

Unsurprisingly, the ALP failed to muster any credible oppositional tactics and provided the mainstream media with very little choice than to construct a week of news synonymous of a parade on the upper decks of Titanic.

Night after night I found myself gawking in horror at the wealth and 'majesty' of our powerful media big boys who were splashed all over Australian TV screens. The same men, of course, on whom we are now increasingly reliant upon to provide access to 'credible' information. The constant replays of John Howard cajoling and hand-shaking with James Packer served neatly to epitomise the pro-corporate Liberal Party position, and provided chilling hints of what is no doubt yet to come.

In a surprisingly 'left' turn, The Australian ran an interesting opinion piece by Errol Simper (19th October) in which Simper rightly deployed the terms "Cold War", "Soviet", and "Kremlin" to describe the media ownership laws and Howard government tactics generally. He begins, succinctly, with:

"WE must get rid of this federal Government. The Howard Government must not be returned next year. It is media-irresponsible in the extreme and it has to go. It's showing dangerous tendencies, echoes from the Cold War Soviet Union."

He follows:

"It's all very Kremlinesque. The Canberra Kremlin doesn't, of course, have to worry too much about the Ten network. Its content is about as political as a bar of soap. Seven is slightly different. Its proprietor, Kerry Matthew Stokes, can be unpredictable. His acquisition on Tuesday of a strategic 8.5 per cent stake in West Australian Newspapers indicates Stokes may like to merge Seven with Perth's The West Australian newspaper. Watch out for Stokes being hurriedly summoned to Canberra.

"So far as media policy is concerned, this Government is recklessly irresponsible. It gives no heed whatsoever to the public interest. The Howard administration is consciously trying to turn Australia into a bland, unquestioning society that believes every word that emanates from the ACT Lubyanka."

It is refreshing to realize that not all writers at The Australian are pandering conservatives, and moreover, it is nice to see 'the right' tarnished through the deployment of the extreme - hark to evil communism - tactics regularly used to deride any PC or left-leaning perspectives. In this current climate, conservative voices of the New Right dominate media discourses and it has become standard protocol for such media to feature regular and slanderous attacks on 'the left' - or more correctly, any Australians who dare to argue against the growing Liberal empire.

This empire, of course, currently threatens "the right" of every Australian to access forms of information necessary to actively function as informed citizens in 'our democracy'. I worry more and more over what kinds of information I will draw upon when I head to the polling booths to cast my vote.

We are certainly heading towards dark times and now more than ever is it apparent that Australian politics and everyday life are increasingly subject to the edicts of broad conservative Neoliberal forces, of which one obvious symptom is the further diminishment of the once sacred line between corporate and political interests.

So... as citizens, what are WE going to do about it?

UWA Seminar...

2006-09-12T05:44:14Z

Next week, Thursday 21st September, I will be co-hosting a seminar at The University of Western Australia, with fellow researcher Brad Gobby. I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who is in Perth and who is interested in coming along to discuss issues pertaining to Neoliberalism, subjectivity, corporate culture or sexual difference in education. Entry is FREE and you do not have to RSVP. Just turn up on the day and enjoy some coffee/tea and conversation. Brad and I will present some of our recent research and then there will an open discussion. Below is the official abstract, which can also be found here on the WAIER website.

Subjectivity and the advance of Neoliberalism: Investigating issues of corporate culture and sexual difference in the field of education.

This seminar draws upon the distinct yet intrinsically linked research of Brad Gobby and Glenn Savage who deliver a compelling challenge to acceptance of the status quo as they recognise the way our Western culture is shaped by the indomitable forces of Neoliberalism. These two young exciting researchers argue:

* That Neoliberalism, as a conservative force, poses a threat to the aims of critical progressive educators.

* That there is a need for educators to critically negotiate the discourses that inform their own subjectivities, as a necessary prelude to critically positioning young people in the classroom.

* That conservative notions of sexual difference in educational debates align with neoliberalism in problematic ways.

* Escalating corporatisation of popular culture texts, symptomatic of Neoliberalism, radically influences the subjectivities and everyday experiences of youth.

* Progressive educators must engage in pedagogical 'politics of change' towards positions that challenge the discourses of corporate culture and provide young people with spaces from which to potentially transform their subjectivities.

Brad's research draws upon Deleuze and Guattari and Australian corporeal feminist Elizabeth Grosz while Glenn's work uses a methodological perspective informed by Foucauldian theories of subjectivity and critical autoethnography.

Invited Chair: Felicity Haynes

Thursday 21 September, 4.30 to 6.00 pm
Venue: The University of Western Australia, Conference Room 2.34, School of Education, cnr Hampden Road and Stirling Highway

Visitor parking off Gordon Road. This is a free seminar open to both members and non-members. Light refreshments from 4.00 pm onwards... then time for discussion and interaction after 5.30 pm (Gold coin donation towards refreshments).

Heady times...

2006-08-23T11:11:51Z

This past month I have been blinded with engagements of all kinds. Work, write, study, sleep, work, write, study, think, stew, write, work, study, etc. You get the picture. At one stage I bordered on psychosis, but I’m slowly re-emerging with promising signs of coherence. Interspersed with all this madness has been the calamity of broken bones. I shattered my foot in multiple places whilst trying to emulate Ronaldinho, and haven’t walked on two feet for over 7 weeks. The initial cocktail of pain-killers and agonising night-time swelling has given way to the mundane frustration of a foot in traction and a life on crutches. Hopefully the taken-for-granted beauty of customary movement will re-emerge over the next month.

Of late, I have been busy collating ideas, looking to the future, and presenting at a few venues. I presented a paper at the annual WAIER conference in Perth on August 5th, detailing my recent research into the effects of corporate ideology and popular culture on the subjectivities of youth. Using some data samples from interviews I conducted with a range of Australian teenagers, I argued that young people’s social currency is often defined by the extent to which individuals demonstrate an alliance to the ideologies of popular media, and that the ideologies and discourses in these texts position young people to assume subjectivities that are increasingly defined by branding and corporate ideology. All in all, the forum was an interesting experience that has led me to reflect in some detail over a range of issues. One in particular is the extent to which postgraduate research is becoming increasingly defined by corporate influence and Neoliberal political ideology. I had an interesting yet terse conversation with a fellow student who sternly challenged my suggestion that the increased corporate presence in Australian schools was sending us on a dangerous and critically demobilizing trajectory. Apparently it is good to have school principals assume purely managerial roles, and for the entire hierarchy of state school institutions to re-model as corporate entities. I can’t help but feel charged to proliferate a whopping plea for understanding that the issue isn’t as simple as Coke machines in quadrangles or Domino’s pizza in school canteens. Rather, the ‘corporate school’ signifies a deep-seated shift in the ideological fabric of education—the end result (amongst others) being a continued devolution of education as a public good. My attendance at the forum also highlighted the extent to which even mildly left wing or critical views are under threat in this current climate, as a large number of postgraduate presentations were heavily steeped in conservative ideologies, all too congruent with current right-wing policy.

Looking ahead now, and the up-coming months are also jam-packed. On September 21st I will be joining fellow researcher Brad Gobby to host a forum at The University of Western Australia. It will be an informal event and I’ll use this opportunity to invite any interested parties along. Our presentation is titled 'Subjectivity and the advance of Neoliberalism: Investigating issues of corporate culture and sexual difference in the field of education'. I will post an abstract on this site soon.

On October 5-8th, I will be in Brisbane to present at the annual ATOM Conference. It is a national conference with a strong range of international speakers. You can check out my abstract here on the ATOM website. Again, I will be canvassing research born of my recent thesis. My presentation is titled 'Silencing the Everyday Experiences of Youth? - Why issues of Subjectivity, Corporate Ideology and Popular Culture require critical deconstruction in the Media and English classrooms'.

In other news, I am in the early planning stages of an online journal to be launched late-2007. I am seeking interested writers and creative people with a concern for politics of representation, art, culture, subjectivity, music, the environment, branding, corporate resistance and pedagogy. Personally, I have a particular interest in work that intends to incite a culture of questioning in its readers, regarding the complex cultural landscape in which we reside. Of course, this is just a storm if ideas thus far—too broad at present—and nothing major will happen for a while, but in December, I will be sitting down with a few good friends to discuss the creative direction of the proposed site. At this stage, the plan is for a blog-styled site similar to this States of the Disorderly page, but one that may include writer profiles and content targeted more specifically.

Glenn
August 2006.

07:06 - Quote of the month...

2006-07-01T14:38:36Z

"... alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can."

Henry David Thoreau, Walden.

Definitely [Maybe] the greatest?: The best UK Albums 1956-2006

2006-06-08T06:50:27Z

Polling albums is always fraught with difficulty. In fact, it conjures a warm smile to reflect on the countless nights I have spent over beers and bars with music aficionado friends, all too preciously debating our 'All Time Best Album' lists. You know, I’m endlessly surprised and amused to delight in the various and embarrassingly complex reasons that us ‘music types’ offer as to why one album deserves more esteem than another. Really, why do we care so much?

In truth, I’ve always inhabited a fairly perplexed position towards matters of "the best". The most useful I can usually offer is a handful of records that light up my world, but anything close to a stern ranking has always eluded my reach. I have, however, been known to suggest that right up there in the upper echelons of potential “best” albums would have to be Definitely Maybe (Oasis)** and Revolver (The Beatles).

As such, I feel somewhat vindicated by this week’s NME/Guinness “Best UK Album Of All Time” list, in which Definitely Maybe polls at Number 1 and Revolver comes in at Number 3. Fortunately, unlike many “best of” lists, this one actually features a reasonably broad range of artists, and only has two albums that have been released in the last five years (which is a most welcome change, given that “best of” charts typically seem to ignore anything written more than a decade previously).

Despite this, however, I have found myself stewing over and disputing several elements of the chart (I mean come on, you think I’m actually going to wholly endorse an NME poll?); and as such (and without staging a comprehensive rant) I feel compelled to drag a few niggling bits to the spotlight that have baffled and/or offended and/or interested me personally. I know, I know, it’s just some chart list put together by a popular culture fad-band pulp mag, but still… just hear me out for two seconds!

Firstly, I am interested as to how in the hell The Beach Boys failed to appear? It is almost blasphemy, I feel, to leave Brian Wilson’s epiphanic/earth-shattering Pet Sounds out of any ‘best of’ list, and in fact, Pet Sounds usually features right up there in polls of this nature. Secondly, where is The Cure???!!! (I can safely say that my girlfriend would demand blood over any poll that featured The Libertines in the Top 20 at the expense of anything blessed by our cherished Robert Smith). Thirdly (and maybe most significantly), where is Blur? My life was bound to the compass of A Modern Life Is Rubbish in 1993, and whilst they may not be the most universally adored band, their influence on the rise of Britpop culture and 90s music generally is in many ways unsurpassed.

Fourthly, I am particularly interested at the ranking of The Libertines’ Up The Bracket at Number 15 and The Strokes’ Is This It at Number 20. In fact, as I’m living in near isolation at this point, I email-discussed this point with my level-headed popular culture encyclopedia—aka: my good friend Luke Schulze—who made the important point that "if we cast our minds back to the year 2000, music was very disjointed and The Strokes took it upon themselves to determine how this decade was going to sound". He then added that The Libertines, therefore, took it upon themselves to follow that lead, but in Britain. This is a good point; as was his suggestion that artists such as Kelly Clarkson are really just commercial offshoots of that genre. This latter point is in line with an argument I made last week (yes, over the bar with beers and music aficionado fiends) that if it weren’t for the fashion-fucking between new-rock and pop-punk, we would have missed out of the joys of The Veronicas, and as a result, the face of Tween fashion would be a very different beast (probably, I fear, far more Britney-esque). Put in these terms, I guess for better or worse, guys like Julian Casablancas and Carlos Barat have generated a broad and significant influence that has eventually and uncontrollably transcended its initial womb of indie rock clubs and hyperbolic early-noughties hipster press.

Yet of course, I guess I should have stopped before I started with this excursion into the land of ‘think-piece’. I mean, firstly, who really cares what NME polls say (well, me obviously... shhh!), and secondly, what does “the best” mean anyway? Thirdly, what real purpose do such lists actually serve? I guess at their most useful they provide a contextually specific snapshot of the currency that a certain population places on music at any moment. Oh, and they give people like me something to stew over, of course.

At the end of the day, great records, I feel, should ideally possess qualities capable of transcending contextual borders and critical historical markers. As such, amazing music is often universally adored.

Moreover, the magic ingredients of a good record may always be (thankfully) elusive. Music paints me, and you, a thousand different shades, and I like it the way we all float together in its sea of beautiful disharmony.

Links -
NME (check out the full Top 20 list) - http://www.nme.com/news/oasis/23227
Guinness British Hit Singles & Albums - http://www.britishhitsingles.com/

** Unsurprisingly, Noel Gallagher agrees with me—regarding Definitely Maybe at least. In fact, when I interviewed him last December he rammed home his usual haughty charge that Definitely Maybe was undoubtedly the greatest album of all time. I told him that I thought Revolver was also pretty damn good, to which he replied, “yeah it’s alright”.

Trawl, smash, rape, destroy... it's World Ocean Day!

2006-06-08T04:14:26Z

In light of Western cultures' addiction to the frivolous distractions of popular culture, materialism, competitive individualism (and, of course, the very real struggle for individuals to make a crust in increasingly demanding and stressful lives), I can understand how it's very easy to turn a blind eye to the catastrophic damage that the campaigns of various multinationals are having in oceans the world over. I mean, who cares about the majesty of the seas, when we’ve got delights such as Big Brother, Kept and Surreal Life to keep us numbed-out? It really is a case of 'outta sight, outta mind'.

Today, however, is World Ocean Day, and as such, I think it’s important for us all to take a moment to reflect upon the many important issues facing our oceans at present. One of these in particular is deep-sea trawling—an activity that causes unprecedented and irreversible destruction to the health of our seas.

Trawling simply involves dragging a huge net along the ocean floor, held down by heavy metal plates and rubber wheels, which in effect scoops up everything in its path. Imagine one day we were to wake up to find our cities and homes being scooped up in a gigantic net, leaving only corpses and rubble behind. Such is life, it seems, for a deep-sea creature. What’s more, trawling's destruction is wide in scope (approximately 10 football fields worth of deep sea is taken every four seconds!)

Scooped up in trawling nets is an unfathomable range of plants and animals, of which only a minute quantity are retained for use in the commercial fishing market. For example, precious corals that are often over hundreds of years in age—and the full spectrum of organisms that rely upon them for survival—are regularly tossed back by fishermen; left to rot.

The companies responsible for this carnage have no regard for ecological sustainability, and put simply, must be stopped. Unfortunately, environmental health seems to be low on the agendas of many neoliberal governments, and as such, the battle to halt this destruction is left up to a small (yet fortunately growing) number of activists, for whom we can all join in the name of a better, more sustainable ecological future.

Greenpeace is currently involved in a campaign to pressure countries to sign a moratorium on high deep-sea trawling at the United Nations General assembly later this year. On the Greenpeace site, you can sign an online petition and send a letter—entitled 'Protection of deep-sea biodiversity and high seas bottom trawling'—to a range of governments around the world. Click here to do so. I am highly supportive of this endeavour.

In fact, I would suggest that anyone interested in this debate check out the Greenpeace and The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition sites and become involved with their various campaigns. On World Oceans Day, it is, I feel, the least we can do...

Links -

- Click Here for interesting and quite sad facts and videos that detail trawling’s destructive force.
- Read more at http://www.savethehighseas.org - home of The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

Pic Source - Greenpeace