Inner
Inner city
Inner city pressure
Inner city pressure
Counting coins on the counter of the 7-11,
From a quarter past six ’til a quarter to seven,
The manager Bevan starts to abuse me
Hey man, I just want some Muesli
– Inner City Pressure, Flight of the Conchords (I love these guys at the moment! This is my favourite so far.)
So I’m back home! And I find it quite telling that so far I have managed to go on a PC World spending spree – not spending my own money, you understand – and eat 4 days’ worth of advent calendar chocolates without yet unpacking my clothes or making my bed. Priorities in place: check. Next? Well, it would actually be really great if all of my London friends could think long and hard about whether they’ve got any long-harboured grudges against me which they’d like to get off their chests.That why I could be a loner and have more time for coursework, see? So think long and hard about it, please, and (don’t) get back to me if you think of anything.
The last couple of days of term were great fun, unless you were Michael trying to get to sleep above my room at 2am on Thursday night whilst the rest of us rather raucously judged each others’ music tastes with plenty of shouting and singing, not to mention beer and Peggle. Oops. Sorry. Friday night was more peaceful, to be fair, as we watched Doctor Zhivago into the early hours. Although it was rather long I was in exactly the right mood for a film to take its time and really enjoyed it. It is quite difficult to stop yourself adding “comrade!” onto the end of every sentence you say afterwards though 
The other highlight of the final few days was seeing Promise again; she was in a particularly inspiring mood and filled with stories that make you appreciate what is right with the world. So yay!
~
Tonight’s Wit and Wisdom is a topical one…
The Wit and Wisdom of My Mates And I: Part 4
Part 4: On London
“When I arrived in London, I am sorry to say the voice of conscience was again stifled. As the train drew up on the platform, I jumped out with the glad feeling, “I am here at last.” I was very stiff, dizzy and tired with my long journey; but there was no time to think about it. I was pushed from side to side. Men with boxes, omnibus conductors, cab-drivers, guards, passengers running madly after their luggage – all perfectly bewildered me. […]
“What is the matter, Jack?” said I. “What is going on? Is it a fair?” But Jack laughed so much at this question that it seemed as if he would roll off the omnibus. “Why, Charlie,” said he, “it’s always like that.” “Always like that?” repeated I. “Yes,” said he, “always in these parts of London.” I was too much astonished to answer, and only gazed around curiously on all we passed.”
Spookily, the BBC have done a big feature on ‘community’ a day or so after Sanna raised the issue on her blog and prompted much discussion. Off the back of this Lucy notes that she’s now from the North. But I want to expression confusion at the central premise behind all this, as summarised by the BBC’s Mark Easton:
In particular, the study focuses on the concept of “anomie”, a measure of people’s sense of – or lack of – belonging to where they live.
So?
Perhaps we’re forgetting that ‘belonging’ to a geographical location is just as imagined a community as any other. Perhaps it would be possible, theoretically, to actually know and interact with everyone on your street or in your small village. But there’s no way this can be plausibly extended to even fairly small regions: I may feel I ‘belong’ to Willesden, Brent or London, but it’s just that: a feeling within me. And whilst it’s probably obvious to most people that we need to feel we ‘belong’ to some sort of community – or communities – why does it need to be geographic?
In fact, I would argue that to place the focus on geography is profoundly limiting. Not only does it creates needless tension against immigration but – ultimately – isn’t it lonelier to be restricted to a far smaller pool of people in which to find others who share interests, outlooks and activities? Transport, urbanisation and communication – especially online – provide the tools to overcome the harsh limits of geography whilst providing for all-important real world interaction. Does this mean that people and families are less committed to their immediate neighbourhoods leading to a suffering in community life, as Easton suggests? Well only if you equate ‘immediate neighbourhoods’ with ‘community life’ it does. But if the evidence is that immediate neighbourhoods are less important to people than previously then why is this such a problem?
(Incidentally, if you’re looking for causes as to why this is supposedly* happening, may I draw you away from the wild conspiracies floating around and – for once – suggest that class is actually a pretty relevant factor. Research suggests that the middle class tends to maintain a more diverse range of close contacts from different areas of life – school, university, work, random-guy-I-met-online and so on – and it’s hardly news to suggest that recent decades have seen a big expansion of the middle class.)
*I say ‘supposedly’ because you could probably have written this story at any point over the past couple of centuries.
Racial tensions at Cambridge’s Grand Arcade
(Bad enough by themselves)
Well, it mildly disturbed me anyway.
Credit: Lucy for suggesting that it should be photographed.
(It’s not a title that actually relates to this post, but as I was hunting around for music to listen to I was drawn to fond memories of this and thus Liquid News. Ah, Liquid! If you hadn’t gone I wouldn’t have to get my daily ‘stuff people care about’ briefing from Digital Spy…)
As Lucy leaves from visiting (finally made it to the Waffle House!) and I turn to the final week of term there’s a familiar end-of-term weariness, so it’s probably a helpful boost to my work ethic that my final essay is on religion in America. One of the available questions is simply “Why is the United States so religious?” which I read as ending with an implied “!?!” for good measure. But it saddens me that after this essay I will be returning home for a life of coursework rather than recuperation! Ooh, and Book Club too. (I need to get a move on with that actually. Either that or I lie about when I’m back in London and hide for a week…)
Sophie and I have been watching Pride and Privilege: a documentary about life at exclusive (and rather expensive) Glenalmond College in Scotland. It’s the kind of show which I’d occasionally watch at home, if others were around to poke fun at whatever eccentric cast of characters the producers had persuaded to appear, but it’s given a highly entertaining edge by the fact that Sophie is actually one of Glenalmond’s distinguished alumni and thus can provide all the extra inside gossip (“oh my god, they went and found the stupidest girl in the school…”). It did make me think about what would have happened if I’d went to boarding school – I just don’t think I could have endured someone coming in and turning off the light to make me go to bed at night. All of my crazy 2am creations lost! Still, I wish I had a show about Queens Park to provide in return 
Last Wednesday night, when I should have been planning an essay on 60s ‘rebellion’, I instead finally managed to get to one of Andrew’s Peterhouse Politics events and saw Christopher Meyer – former British Ambassador to the US – speak on Barack Obama. Luckily, everything he said now has a warm afterglow now that the election is over, but it was still interesting to hear about his friendship with John McCain. It all confirmed what I thought really: nice guy, detested Bush but with a tendency to lose his cool under pressure big time and fly into rages. (And consequently do stupid things and, say, appoint stupid people to be his VP. Thought I might as well get this in before Sanna blogs ) And I’m suddenly struck by amusement at the idea that this is my equivalent of Abbi’s gig reports!
Before I leave you with another instalment of unique wit and wisdom – you know you love them 
– the idea of having ‘features’ over multiple blogs reminds me somewhat of The Self Twist. The what? The newsletter thingy I made from 2000 to 2002. OK, so it had a circulation roughly equivalent to that of the Daily Express – four – and that consisted purely of everyone else in the house. (Ah, the joys of word processing as entertainment before the days of broadband Internet connections…) But it was also fun, with youthful forays into ‘writing for an audience’, ‘meeting deadlines’ and ‘marketing’. And bits of it can even be unexpectedly reflective now:
from The Self Twist, Issue 41, September 2002
~
The Wit and Wisdom of My Mates And I: Part 3
Part 3: On Peer Pressure
Our hero has gone to London and fallen in with Mark Watson: a ‘crafty, cunning young man’. Under his influence they make life difficult for the good and pious Harry. “…one sultry day in July, when we had taken a long walk, and were tired and hot, Mark proposed, for the first time before Harry, that we should turn into a public-house to refresh ourselves. I gave a sort of wink towards Harry, as much as to say, “What will he think?” Watson understood me.
“Of course we needn’t ask you to come,” he said, as Harry hesitated; “you’re too great a saint for that; far above the vain pleasures of us poor mortals.”
“I’m not a saint,” said Harry bluntly.
“Well,” said Mark, changing his tack, “perhaps I was wrong, but you may have other reasons – your mother won’t let you, eh?”
“I can do as I like,” said Harry again.
“Dear me, then I’m very pleased,” said Watson, with a bow; “walk in then, I’m glad to be favoured with your company, I’m sure.”
[drumroll?]
And Harry did walk in.”
Reindeer Post
It technically launched two weeks ago, but there’s still more than enough time to tell you about… Reindeer Post! Yes, over the holiday I’ve been working on this joint business venture: my role, unsurprisingly, was to build the website. The idea is very simple – personalised letters from Father Christmas for children (or even ironic adults ). Simply head over to the site, fill out our order form and (for a low low price) the intended recipient will receive a customised letter from Santa addressed to them in the post. And let’s face it, getting letters is pretty cool these days even when it’s just a bank statement… how amazing to get one from the North Pole? (Or Lapland, he said hastily.)
A word about the website itself: yes, it’s very simple and highly imperfect. I know this, honestly. But I am reminded of that erstwhile Microsoft saying – “shipping is a feature” – and particularly so for such a seasonally-dependent service. The important thing is that the site is up and running and works, which is does, so that we can all learn lessons for next year. So go on – if you know anyone who would just love a letter from Father Christmas, tell them about Reindeer Post. Ta
~
The Wit and Wisdom of My Mates And I: Part 2
Part 2: On Bad Wives
Ladies! Please make sure you don’t live like Jane Wallis, for she is “a great talker, and spent the time in which she ought to have been providing for her husband’s comfort, in standing at the corner of the street gossiping with all the idle people who chanced to be passing. And then the money Dick earned went to pay for smart bonnets and gowns for her, for she was very fond of finery. Then when the bills came in, Dick complained and grumbled; but it was of no use. She answered him with such a storm of abusive words, and with such a burst of passion, as fairly drove him out of his home, and sent him to ‘Red Lion.'”.
Oh dear. I think we all know what happens next…“Well, one night it came to and end… We rushed to the front to see what was going on, and we saw there such a sight as I never saw before, and I trust I shall never see again. Poor Jane Wallis was lying on the ground apparently dead, her head bleeding dreadfully, and over her was standing Dick, with the poker in his hand, only half sobered by what he had done.”
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
