The Examined Life

I've spent the last few months watching a truly obscene amount of political and philosophical documentaries in what is probably a subconscious attempt at avoiding 'real' preparation for my PhD. One of the things I've noticed is that the documentary scene in the UK, and particularly in the form of programmes featuring 'public' intellectuals and philosophers, would appear to be in rude health. This is particularly true with the BBC, which seems to be broadcasting a brilliant number of insightful documentaries that sit anywhere between conceptions of justice and the approaches of impressionist painters.

One of the more obvious manifestations of this is the increasing number of documentaries and programmes that consider various subjects under the more general label of 'popular science', an occurrence that to me seems stimulated by the public debate encouraged by the 'New Atheists' such as Dawkins and Hitchens. For me, these merely scratch the surface, much less manage to engage with the philosophical issues surrounding the basis of our moral systems in religious and scripturally based worldviews.

 Examined Life (full video link) is a 2008 film that takes on the form of a Walk-and-Talk in New York with various contemporary philosophical figures, including Martha Nussbaum, Slavoj Zizek and Peter Singer. I found the film fascinating in that it operates without a final end point or narrative conclusion, instead treating each 10 minute dialogue as inclusive of itself. There is, in fact, little debate present in the film, instead with each individual presenting, effectively, a 10 minute manifesto on their worldview and way of operating both inside and outside of the Ivory Tower.

While the film has it's downfalls (particularly in the lack of direct challenge to each conversant), the documentary format interests me greatly as, perhaps, the perfect way to promote critical thinking and audience reflection on specific issues. Furthermore, a more political and less abstract set of discussions could be made, in various similar settings around the UK, with regards to various critiques of capitalism and the global political order - a set of interviews with various academics, graduate students and activists to various appropriate soundtracks.

The inclusion of graduate students or other figures above isn't just to appeal to my own ego, but rather to demonstrate and put across the ideas, as opposed to the charismatic force of the person being interviewed. While, for instance, Zizek delivers often mesmerising performances in his interviews and documentaries (check out 'Living in the End Times' available on the same website as linked above), it is his ideas and worldview we should be engaging with, rather than his personality. The background aesthetic (e.g. New York above) can be seen as a way of focussing and contextualising the imagination of the viewer, as would the use of archive footage.

This film idea strikes me as pretty exciting, even if it just fulfils the function of allowing myself, or a group, to interrogate various intellectuals in a way we are unable to purely through journal articles or books. Time to start planning, I think.

Barman, Sophist.

Despite the necessity that forced me into this line of work, it is fairly safe to assume that I'm not particularly well cut out to be a barman. While I am, for the present, content enough with my job, and even sometimes enjoy the limits of minimum-wage slavery, I have a few tendencies that, while often suppressed, can come to the fore at the most inconvenient moments. To put it simply, the prospect of a quiet lunchtime pint is not supposed to be faced by a bemused barman commenting that he is not particularly happy with the state of modern capitalism, and is unlikely to be any time soon. While I have no doubts that a dose of both luck and hard work have led to these outcomes and their impact on my education, this way of seeing things has led to some thoughts on how our thinking and philosophy affects our lives as individuals and as communities.

In educational terms, I stand on the imposing doorstep of what (I hope) will become a distinguished career as an academic and whatever else. While this might lead toward this kind of attitude regarding my day job, I don't think it is a necessary step, particularly given the fact that, occasionally, one of the regulars sees fit to engage me in debate, a prospect I relish. The idea that people on such a large scale are able to accept particular commitments, whether religious, economic or otherwise, without consideration or at least healthy curiosity, is one that scares me witless.

This disengagement of debate (whether philosophical, political or otherwise), much to my disappointment, appears to have strayed into academia as well. In defending the importance of a particular field as a profession, I've repeatedly run into academics who have disregarded insights from other fields because of a perceived threat to their legitimacy. My most recent personal experiences include feeling a definite outsider while attending a seminar in the history dept. as a politics graduate, as well as confusion as to my PhD proposal, which deliberately sets out to use both qualitative and empirical methods in it's methodology.

However, I'm hardly alone in this. Here's a few tasty morsels for those who have the habit of applying the five W's of who, what, when, where, and why, to their daily lives as well as to their GCSE English essay. I take solace in these people, places and events, and hope you will too.

1. How the Light Gets in Festival 2011 – This festival at Hay on Wye looks absolutely fascinating, and over 10 days is attempting to mix many of my loves – philosophy, politics, literature and music – in a huge melting pot of amazing people and more amazing words. Not least among these is Dr. Angie Hobbs, a professor at Warwick who I find absolutely fascinating, and who has an incredible collection of floppy hats. Also, Polly Toynbee. You can find out more about the festival here: http://www.howthelightgetsin.org/
   
   

2. TED – Standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design, this annual event and it's subsidiaries (TEDx is organised annually at Warwick University), has spilled over into debates on philosophy and art as well as the obvious scientific element. Twenty minute talks by people who have the courage of their convictions, and above all, the will to share them and engage in the debate that ensues. Days worth of physically lazy but mentally athletic viewing available at www.ted.com, and the Warwick version's videos available at http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDxTalks, along with others.

3. Michael Sandel Being a Pro – I have no illusions that my interest in philosophy is informed by my education, and so was extremely happy when Michael Sandel, a professor of philosophy at Harvard, started doing these programmes and live debates on the BBC that follow the themes of his latest book, 'Justice'. Accessible, insightful, and inviting towards criticism, you can watch them here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xz0pv/Justice_The_Moral_Side_of_Murder/

4. The BBC Radio 4/World Service Archives: Days worth of documentaries here. I normally get four a day of the World service documentaries, all of which manage to fit a fantastic amount of information into 25 minutes or so, meaning that I can fit two each into my walk to and from work each day. For more engaging and longer winded debates, check out In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, or Start the Week with Andrew Marr, both on BBC Radio 4. While some people think this is a pretty heavy way to start the day, I find them the perfect way to wake up and get the brain going before clocking into another uneventful day. Check them out at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer, or the archives on the World Service and Radio 4 sites.
   
   
   
   
   

5. Turning up to random seminars and debates: At least once a week, I do a loop around the social sciences and humanities department of Warwick University to see what's going on. This takes some bravery, but I get a certain amount of pleasure in aiming unexpected questions at unsuspecting academics, as well as enjoying the debate my self appointed role of agent-provocateur sometimes causes. They're public forums for a reason, and if that reason is for me to question the role of history as a profession, then so be it.

There's a few there, all of which I engage with regularly, and would love to hear what you think of them. In vino veritas.

H.

New Guitar Day - The Jangly One

It just wasn't quite right. Baby Blue, the Tanglewood 335 copy that was my first electric guitar, just didn't fit. Don't get me wrong, she was lovely, just not quite right. We never really bonded, and the combination of a slim neck profile and humbuckers never quite did it for me. It took me a while to figure it out past the fact that I bought it while in the middle of a BB King phase – Baby Blue, well, she took herself too seriously.

Goodbye Baby Blue...

So the search began. I'm not a brand hunter as such, but the feel of what I wanted was present in my mind. Something a little brighter. Something I could hit without feeling bad. Something fun to play outside of the niche that historical stereotypes force a lot of particular instruments into.

I've always been a fan of custom gear, but this isn't unusual. Most amateur guitarists search for that guitar that is based on their own, exacting specification, and that is engineered in every way to fit like a glove. I prefer a more DIY aspect though, one that has led to a shopping list of equipment that I was able to build, modify and love with my own hands. Instant turn offs when it comes to guitar, for me, include gloss finishes, perfect cleans and tight gain sounds, and over-engineering in general. After deciding Baby Blue wasn't fitting the bill anymore, and funds being limited to the extent that I was only able to trade her, I surfed the forums and adverts of internet-land before coming across the website of Mark, who frequents the MusicRadar forums under the name of 'mrerikryman'.

Mark's website, the Jooky Guitar Emporium, found at http://jookyguitaremporium.blogspot.com/ , is a treasure trove for his loving creations, which happen to fit my own needs perfectly. Rough finished, off the wall, and heavily modified, the guitars he turned out are as much found art as they are player's machines. No museum required – sure they're pretty in a way, but they are also played in and feel very much alive. They also go brilliantly well with my collection of paisley ties.

To cut a long story (and a longer train journey) short, I met Mark in Bristol, Baby Blue on my back, in order to trade her for 'The Jangly One', a rebuilt, refinished, re-everything interpretation of the Danelectro DC '59 reissue. I fell in love, and drank in the acid paisley finish far quicker than the cups of steaming black coffee that were holding me awake. I was so caffeined up that the nitro and cloth finish seemed to move. Giving it only the most casual of acoustic strums, I took it and got on the bus home.

That's the story of how The Jangly One became mine. However, this was intended to be a review, so on with it.

In a slightly unusual turn of events, I was due to play a gig the night I got back from Bristol, meaning that the first time I plugged in and tuned up was on stage in front of 100 or so people with a band that had had 20 minutes practice just beforehand. On the upside, she plays as good as she looks.

By comparison with Baby Blue, The Jangly One is far more brash. Most of the hardware is similar to the DC '59 that you can read about online, with a few changes. The tuners are Grovers, and the pickups are the slightly hotter Ken Armstrong lipstick single coils that are a step up from the standard. They're far brighter than the humbuckers on the 335, and the quirks that make a Danelectro, including the hollow construction, aluminium nut, and pickup location mean that all the twang that you could hope for is there, as well as the airiness that made me fall in love with hollow guitars in the first place. The guitar also has a hand enamelled copper scratchplate which is, like everything, rough finished, but looks gorgeous.

The pickups are definitely a strange experience if you're used to more conventional options, having a huge dose of single coil snap and zing, while still sounding chunky enough for driving rhythmn work. They're very trebly, something I dialled down a little, while leaving enough there to keep things interesting. If you're after compressed high gain or jazzy neck pickup work, this is the wrong place, with loose old-school blues, rock 'n roll, and the lighter side of garage rock probably being the best place to direct your playing. The scale is shorter than I was used to at 25 inches, which caused a few problems at the gig, but nothing too difficult to get used to. The brash edge of the sound also sounds fantastic when attacked with some vigorous slide work, and has a Tele-ish character when playing in this style.

 

It's easy to get heavy with elaborate adjectives, but it comes down to this. Compared to Baby Blue, this is like taking the leash off a schizophrenic springer spaniel. It's fun to play. The rough finish, while not to everyone's tastes, looks fantastic to my eyes, and definitely sticks out if exhibitionism is your thing. If the 'found' aesthetic is something you enjoy, Mark is definitely a maker whose work you should take a look at, as well as being a nice guy and a pleasure to do business with. If groove is your thing, something along the lines of the Jangly One may be right up your street.