David Porter » Archive
My Brother’s Keeper: The Reality of Filial Affection
Brotherly love is often used as justification for all sorts of loyalties, sacrifices, pressures and decisions, but is blood thicker than water in the end? Ed Miliband grabbed the leadership of the British Labour Party in September 2010 from under the nose of his older brother, David. He was not predicted to win, but did by a wafer-thin margin. It excited the media, made people wonder about ambition and brothers and exposed family divisions to public gaze. Trades Union members traditionally call each other ‘brothers’, as an equalizing, left-wing address, so no one is of higher importance than another. A joke runs that they hug and pat each others’ backs only to find the best spot to put the dagger in. In Christianity, ‘brothers and sisters in Christ’ speaks to the belief that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
If UK Politics are Pure Theatre, Politicians are the Performers
There are political performances, theatre as politics and the politics of theatre. But there is also politics as pure theatre, good value entertainment. Roll up, roll up for the greatest piece of taxpayer-funded performance theatre outside the West End or the three-ring circus. It’s the arena, the bear-pit that is the British House of Commons and other small stages in and without the village of Westminster, so beloved of politicos through the ages. Usually without the singing and dancing, such performance leads some people to wonder about the wisdom of both allowing and paying for public ‘torture’. In 1978 British parliamentary sketch writer Norman Shrapnel published The Performers: Politics as Theatre, in which he said: ‘Parliament as theatre is a conception some find distasteful …. even the most histrionic of our politicians … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Universities of Tomorrow May be Entirely in Cyberspace
As higher education costs rocket, technology advances apace, everybody could soon get a degree online from home. But it would mean a major cultural shift. All economies under stress, as most of the world’s are in 2010, look to reduce expenditure and raise revenue. Universities have long ceased to be ivory towers, above such grubby concerns. As debate polarises around student fees/debt, quality and range of degree curricula, and young adults decide for financial/debt reasons, not to go away for 3 or so years, it’s time to wonder if future universities are almost entirely on-line, but harnessing an old idea. Correspondence Courses: An Idea That Worked Correspondence courses are old fashioned. They have been around, in Britain certainly, for over 200 years and were a means for people to improve their minds, gain … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Shakespeare’s Ideas: What Have They Done to the Bard?
Long regarded as an icon of English cultural history, Shakespeare’s works have been subjected to more adaptation on stage and film than almost anybody else. In January 2010 Chicago news reporter, Karen Meyer, wrote about disability issues in some of Shakespeare’s plays: not a topic much thought about by Shakespearean purists. Books, articles, theses, even cartoons and manga-style comics about Shakespeare and his folklore, magic, feminism, history-apology and patriotism abound, sitting alongside studies of his language, poetry, vocabulary, foreign words, invented terms and phrases that have become international quotations. However, it’s how his work has been interpreted and adapted that causes people to restate that ‘in their view Shakespeare can only be done in Elizabethan costume,’ with the same lyrical poetry as the original, not, for example modernised (like putting Titus Andronicus … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Movies and Pop Songs Draw Deep from the Wells of Classical Music
Far from being an exclusive, elitist world, classical music is a rich source of inspiration for movie soundtracks, TV commercials and popular songs. A broad definition of classical music is: ‘Western and European art music created 1600-1900, and music created after 1900 that follows the style and tradition and is created for the sake of music itself – not as song melody nor movie score’. Reusing old tunes is widespread; nothing is sacred in pop music or Hollywood. 1965’s Seekers’ hit The Carnival Is Over by Tom Springfield, used the melody of a Russian folk song Stenka Razin, though some hear Berlioz too. O solo mio, an 1898 Napolitan tune, found its way into opera, TV commercials and films and is in It’s Now or Never, Elvis Presley’s 1960’s hit. Classical Music Feeds … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Past History is Key to the Present; Present is Key to the Future
The historical/heritage nostalgia industry is growing, yet history teaching is becoming a thing of the past. Should history be given new-found importance? Politically, the need for people to know and learn from the past (their own and others’) is crucial. Whether it’s conflicts in the Middle East, India/Pakistan or Northern Ireland, without an understanding of local history, nobody progresses improvements. Culturally, in religions/faiths, why/how/what people behave, wear, think is vital knowledge. Where grievances go back centuries, understanding causes of events is essential. It’s not easy to predict the future accurately, nor understand the present without a grasp of the past, nor see how movements flow in evolution, such as modernism to postmodernism. Economically, cultural/historical tourism is part of a growth global industry. Even movie tourism has some element of historical enjoyment and re-enactment … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
When All Else Fails, Start Again
When something goes wrong people can do one or more of a number of things about it: they can walk away; live with it; buy a new one; read the manual or start all over again, reboot it. In both the political and the real worlds, it should be possible to do the equivalent, without losing sight of history, tradition and the baggage we all carry. Some things are worth persevering with; some not. It just becomes necessary, when things seem so unsolvable, to start again. When the nightmare is so bad it overwhelms your sanity, wake up. European Ship Is All But Lost At Sea As quite clearly nobody in charge has any real idea what to do to get us all out of the mess we’re in globally, it may just be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogs: My Own
The Internet Is Making Us Either Stupid or Smarter; Can’t Be Both
In scientific, sociological, economic and education circles debate continues about whether the world wide web damages people’s brains, or aids new thinking. Controversy about the harmful effects on brains of excessive mobile/cell phone use, particularly by young people, has become polarised, without convincing evidence either way. A consensus may have formed about the harmful effects on impressionable minds of too much TV/video/game violence, again, as affecting youngsters especially, or the dangers of too much social isolation while on-line. The jury is still out on the long-term harm of living near pylons, transmitters, masts or any of the paraphernalia of modern living in an information-driven, technological-biased world. Some people are beginning to think that the Internet may not be the solution to the world’s problems; in fact, it may be starting a whole … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Bouncers
MIG at Fisher Theatre, Bungay Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 2nd November 2011 Hailing from the Midlands, MIG (Men in Glasses) Productions, a not-taking-themselves-too-seriously company, brought Bouncers to Bungay. It’s one of John Godber’s classics, and they did a remixed, updated version, with local towns referenced to bring it home. From the opening comic dance routine to the bitter-sweet end, pace never flagged, deftness of touch didn’t falter, laughs didn’t dry up. Most of the verbal gags came from the original version; such humour is timeless. The physicality was an added comic treat. The play’s social comment is still as barbed, perceptive and close to the mark as ever. The multiroling, including female roles, was sustained by Chris Pindar, Jon Williams, Martin Voyle and Andy Jones perfectly. Each cameo moment, from club, to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Ghost Town
Limbik Theatre at The Cut, Halesworth Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 31st October 2011 Suffolk-based company Limbik create new theatre that explores human stories set in epic environments. They are funded by the Arts Council to develop Ghost Town. As old gold mines are reopened today, including Bodie in California, this play is a timely reminder how after years of prosperity, comes the fight for survival: ‘every boom has its bust’. Bodie today is a historic park in ‘arrested decay’, but in the 1880s was a town of 10,000 bustling with families, miners, storeowners, gunfighters, prostitutes and thieves. Money, gold and alcohol led to murders on a daily basis. The challenge for Ben Samuels, Will Pinchin and Sarah Johnson, in devising and performing the work, was to conjure that atmosphere, together with the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews