Monday, July 23, 2012

Infinity and Immortality - Adrian Moore


INFINITY AND IMMORTALITY – ADRIAN MOORE

Sunday Lecture - Infinity and Immortality
Conway Hall, Red Lion SquareLondonWC1R 4RL
29 July 2012
11.00, £3 on the door / free to members of the South Place Ethical Society

Adrian Moore shall consider questions that arise in connection with the desirability or otherwise of immortality. In particular, he will address Bernard William's argument that a never-ending life would eventually become tedious to the point of unendurabilityMoore will suggest that there are two questions that need to be distinguished, even though they can easily appear to be equivalent. First, would immortality be preferable to mortality? And second, is death a bad thing? Distinguishing these questions helps us to understand better the force of Williams’ argument.

“I’ll be exploring fundamental questions about human mortality, beginning with the question of whether it would be preferable never to die” --- Adrian Moore, New Statesman, p.38.


**END**

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowskihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Promotional Film for '1839: The Chartist Insurrection' - by David Black and Chris Ford


PROMOTIONAL FILM FOR ‘1839: THE CHARTIST INSURRECTION’ – BY DAVID BLACK AND CHRIS FORD



This film was first shown at the book launch for 1839: The Chartist Insurrection, by David Black and Chris Ford, on 18th May 2012 at the Workers’ Educational Association, Clifton Street, London.


There is also a Foreword to the book, by John McDonnell MP.

I bought a copy of the book at the launch and finished reading it about an hour ago. It’s an accessible, well-researched and exciting book. It has a narrative style which the general reader, or those with little knowledge of Chartism, should find appealing. The many illustrations and the well-crafted covers (back and front) add to its aesthetic appeal. It is especially useful for history teachers (for GCSE and above) and A-level and undergraduate history, politics and sociology students. I will be using parts of it for my History of Childhood module and a new module I aim to develop on the History of Education. This is an important book, and deserves to be widely read --- Glenn Rikowski, London, 26th May 2012.


The promotional video, ‘1839: The Chartist Insurrection’ (which is also excellent for history teachers and students) can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JydjP23QAVc  


Music to the film was by David Black. It was produced by Go Canny Films.


1839: The Chartist Insurrection, David Black and Chris Ford, Unkant Publishing, ISBN: 978-0-9568176-6-2, Published: April 2012, 268pp

'This book assists us greatly in understanding the potential for future challenges to the system' --- John McDonnell MP

'In retrieving the suppressed history of the Chartist Insurrection, David Black and Chris Ford have produced a revolutionary handbook' --- Ben Watson

See Unkant Publishing: http://www.unkant.com/2012/04/dave-black-chris-ford-1839-chartist.html 

At Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/1839-Chartist-Insurrection-John-McDonnell/dp/095681767X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335198243&sr=8-1


At Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/1839-Chartist-Insurrection-David-Black/dp/095681767X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338028348&sr=1-1  


Waterstones: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/david+black/chris+ford/john+mcdonnell/1839/9178370/


An earlier blog on this topic can be found at: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/1839-the-chartist-insurrection/


**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs  


Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8


‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc  






Posted here by Glenn Rikowski


All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com  


The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk


Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic  


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Doing and Undoing Academic Labour


DOING AND UNDOING ACADEMIC LABOUR



CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2012
Conference 2012
Doing and Undoing Academic Labour
June 7, 2012
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Learning Landscapes (MB1019)
University of Lincoln

In recent decades, a wealth of information has been produced about academic labour: the financialisation of knowledge, diminution of professional autonomy and collegiality through managerialism and audit cultures; the subsumption of higher education into circulations of capital, proletarianisation of intellectual work, shift from dreams of enlightenment and emancipation to imperatives of ‘employability’, and experiences of alienation and anger amongst educators across the world.

This has also been a period of intensifying awareness about the significance of these processes, not only for teachers and students in universities, but for all labour and intellectual, social and political life as well. And now we watch the growth of a transnational movements that is inventing new ways of knowing and producing knowledge, new forms of education, and new possibilities for pedagogy to play a progressive role in struggles for alterantives within the academy and beyond.


Yet within the academy, the proliferation of critical work on these issues is not always accompanied by qualitative changes in everyday practice. The conditions of academic labour for many in the UK are indeed becoming more precarious and repressive – and in unequal measure across institutions and disciplines, and in patterns that retrench existing inequalities of gender, physical ability, class, race and sexuality. The critical analysis of academic labour promises much, but often remains disconnected from the ways we work in practice with others.


This conference brings together scholars and activists from a range of disciplines to discuss these problems, and to consider how critical knowledge about new forms of academic labour can be linked to struggles to humanise labour and knowledge production within and beyond the university.


Contributions from:
Mette Louise Berg
Rob Coley
Anna Curcio
Richard Hall
Maria Do Mar Pereira
Dean Lockwood
Andrew McGettigan
Justine Mercer
Sara Motta
Adam O’Meara
Gigi Roggero
Howard Stevenson


Public / Free / Open
This conference is public, free and open to everyone. Please register so we know how many people will be attending. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Dr. Sarah Amsler at samsler@lincoln.ac.uk.


Getting here
Doing and Undoing Academic Labour will be held in Learning Landscapes, MB1019, the University of Lincoln. 

Link to Conference: http://cerd.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/conference/
**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs  
‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Saturday, March 10, 2012

'Stagnant' - by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon - A New Remix & Video






STAGNANT’ – BY COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON – A NEW REMIX & VIDEO

“Psychology is a modern politician”

“Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun”

The new remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo

Live at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ

MySpace recording of ‘Stagnant’:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com
Volumizer:
http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Life in the Higher Sausage Factory








LIFE IN THE HIGHER SAUSAGE FACTORY

Dr. Glenn Rikowski
School of Education
University of Northampton

Guest Lecture to the Teacher Education Research Group

Glenn Rikowski will talk about Capital in a Crisis of Higher Education, and Higher Education in a Crisis of Capital

22nd March 2012
5.00pm
The Cass School of Education and Communities
Room 2.02
University of East London
Water Lane
London E15 4LZ

“Capitalist production is not merely the production of commodities, it is essentially the production of surplus-value. The labourer produces, not for himself, but for capital. It no longer suffices, therefore, that he should simply produce. He must produce surplus-value. That labourer alone is productive, who produces surplus-value for the capitalist, and thus works for the self-expansion of capital. If we may take an example from outside the sphere of production of material objects, a schoolmaster is a productive labourer, when, in addition to belabouring the heads of his scholars, he works like a horse to enrich the school proprietor. That the latter has laid out his capital in a teaching factory, instead of a sausage factory, does not alter the relation. Hence the notion of a productive labourer implies not merely a relation between work and useful effect, between labourer and product of labour, but also a specific, social relation of production, a relation that has sprung up historically and stamps the labourer as the direct means of creating surplus-value. To be a productive labourer is, therefore, not a piece of luck, but a misfortune” (Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I).

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Volumizer:
http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Failure of Capitalist Production - Andrew Kliman






THE FAILURE OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION – ANDREW KLIMAN

Salford Business School presents:



The Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession



Professor Andrew Kliman of Pace University offers exemplary theoretical insight as well as analysis of economic data, and therefore explains the causes and the development of recent crises in unparalleled ways.

Andrew Kliman is the author of numerous academic articles and books that centre on the creationand the capture of economic value in Marx's tradition.
Book details:
http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745332390


For more information please contact:

Dr. Thoralf Dasslert, dassler@salford.ac.uk, 6pm, Tuesday, 6 March 2012, Room G21, Mary Seacole Building, Frederick Road Campus, University of Salford, M5 4WT

**END**

‘Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

'Human Herbs' - by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: A New Remix and Video






‘HUMAN HERBS’ – BY COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON – A NEW REMIX & VIDEO

I believe in the afterlife
It starts tomorrow
When I go to work

The new remix was produced on 29th January 2011, in east London.

The new remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Live, original version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk

MySpace recording of ‘Human Herbs’:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Saturday, January 28, 2012

'Exile' - by Van Pace










‘EXILE’ – By VAN PACE

Exile is the second exiting short novel in the Theomachy series, which began with Heretic and the series continues with Enforcer.

Fourteen years ago, Brother Stefan made a terrible mistake. A single vengeful act, fuelled by grief and hatred and fear, in a lifetime of hard work and good intentions ... He has spent every waking moment since then serving the Beneficent Numina, and trying to make up for his error of judgement in the worst possible way – by eradicating himself and leaving an empty husk in place of his heart.
Stefan took shelter with the gods because they could forgive worse sinners than him. Seven centuries earlier, the Numina had forgiven the worst of the lot: Rory Kempe, first-and-only prophet to grace Xerxes – a planet forgotten by all others, and ruled over by a theocracy which had gladly turned its back on the Universe.
Then, through the machinations of Hathor – the Numina’s Primary Servant, and Xerxes’ ruling artificial intelligence – Stefan was sent off-world to retrieve Kempe’s own account of his conversion, known simply as the Book. Life beyond Xerxes proved to be more confusing and dangerous than he could have imagined.

Now Brother Stefan returns to Rock Point Abbey with two responsibilities: Kempe’s journal, stolen from his homeworld centuries before, and a four-year-old orphan called Yuki. He delivers the Book to his superiors at Rock Point Abbey with relief, hoping to be allowed to take up his old life of walking and preaching.
But life has other plans for him.
Stefan used to be a clever and compassionate man. A strong man who would fight for his friends; would shelter the unfortunate and protect the innocent. He was a deep and passionate lover – he was loyal and caring and brave. And if it were not for that one terrible mistake, made so long ago, he could be all those things again ...
Stefan has spent fourteen years denying his past. When he gets the chance to change his future, it will take courage to make the right choice.
How does a man regain his honour, once he loses it?

How does he reclaim the woman for whom his love has never wavered?

How does he make amends for the death of a true friend?

This time, Stefan is going to have to fight.


Thursday, January 26, 2012

'Heretic' - by Van Pace






‘HERETIC’ – By VAN PACE


Seven centuries after conquest of the human colony on Xerxes by the alien Numina, Brother Stefan’s religious order act as watchdogs against revolt. As he attends the deathbed of a heretic, the Numina give Stefan a warning to deliver to his superiors at Rock Point Abbey. The message is greeted with anger and distrust, and Stefan is forced to rely on an unlikely ally for protection: Hathor, the sole surviving artificial intelligence on Xerxes.

The price of Stefan’s safety is the retrieval of a stolen book, and the task will take him on a lengthy and dangerous journey to La Infanta – an off-world way-station on the verge of a bloody coup. Even away from Xerxes, other forces are in motion. The Numina may be stirring, but their ancient enemy the Berefhi are already advancing towards Xerxes. Between the two opposing alien sides, their agents and servants are poised, like pieces on a chessboard.

At the centre of all their actions, the stolen book exerts its hold over monks and rebels alike. This most holy of texts is flawed, and to read it is to invite the taint of heresy. By the end of their journey, neither Stefan nor any of his fellow passengers will remain unchanged. Some will survive and some will not, but all will be altered irrevocably.

Heretic is the first gripping short novel in the Theomachy Series. The second is Exile.
Amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heretic-Theomachy-Series-ebook/dp/B006ZENW3C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327235126&sr=1-1
Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Heretic-Theomachy-Series-ebook/dp/B006ZENW3C/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327623678&sr=1-3

**END**

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Friday, January 20, 2012

'The Lamb' by William Blake - set to music by Victor Rikowski





THE LAMB’ BY WILLIAM BLAKE – SET TO MUSIC BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI

Back when I was in Havering Sixth-Form College, at the age of 17/18, I remember setting this poem by Blake to my own song. Although I haven't played it since then, the tune always remains within my mind. This is a revisit to that song that I wrote 7/8 years ago now. This might not be exactly as it was then, but the opening tune is the one that stuck with me for all these years.

Victor Rikowski



Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice? Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb.

He is meek, and he is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb.

We are called by his name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb,

God bless thee!



Arrangement and performance by Victor Rikowski

It can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com