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Showing posts from December, 2015

Afraid to Talk

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This may seem like the most obvious statement in the history of anything, but conversation is the only way in which we can put across our world view. [And by ‘world view’ I don’t just mean our philosophies/beliefs about Life, The Universe and Everything; I also mean what you thought of that episode of a TV series you watched, what you made of the food you’ve just eaten, etc.] You could argue that there are other ways in which you can communicate - art is often cited as one such medium - but how can you communicate something without the context of words, about a piece of music/painting/sculpture etc. Whilst I’m sure this has been attempted - a piece of music written expressly to convey a person’s feelings about another piece of music they have heard - I don’t believe that can be successful as it relies on the narrative in the composer’s head being successfully interpreted by the listener. Now I am fully aware that even putting words around the piece of music (say in t

Awareness

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In November it has been (not all on the same date): British Sausage Week World Diabetes Day Alcohol Awareness Week Movember Transgender Awareness Week and (I kid you not) Counter-Terrorism Awareness Week Now there will be a myriad of reasons why these events exist - reasons of health, reasons of commerce, reasons of security, reasons of education, and so on - but one the reasons is to raise awareness. And some are done in a lighthearted vein; British Sausage Week is a harmless(?) commercial drive to push British Produce ™ and give something for breakfast DJs to have a lighthearted segment about: Movember is a lighthearted way of raising funding for some more serious issues. Others are born out of necessity - Alcohol Awareness Week is one way the strain on the NHS can be tackled (IE stop drinking so much - it hospitalises you) and presumably Counter-Terrorism Awareness Week is designed to remind us to help fight in the war on terror, by questioning all forms of u