David Bowie: 'Where Are We Now?"

David Bowie chose his birthday, Tuesday, 8th January (which he shares with Elvis and Shirley Bassey), to release (with no advance publicity) his first single in a decade, 'Where Are We Now?'

Neil McCormick, reviewing the single in The Daily Telegraph, wrote: "Lush, stately, beautifully strange, weaving resonant piano chords, decaying synths and echoing drums around a simple chord progression and a weary, tenderly understated, quietly defiant vocal, David Bowie’s elegiac new single may be the most surprising, perfect and welcome comeback in rock history . . . It’s not a big, dramatic comeback and all the better for it. Rather it is a small, perfectly formed, poetic song, that doesn’t quite yield its mysteries and leaves you longing for more."

NME enthuses about the video, directed by Tony Oursler: "It's pretty weird and extremely cool. The heads of David Bowie and a mysterious lady are cut onto two teddy-doll outfits. Perhaps they are siamese wolf cubs. They sit on a pommel horse in a studio filled with curiosities and props: a massive egg, empty glass bottles, mannequins, a Labyrinth-syle crystal, one huge ear, a snowflake. Black and white footage of Berlin plays on a large screen behind them, referencing Bowie's period making 'Low', 'Heroes' and 'Lodger' in the German city. One of the shots shows the auto repair shop beneath the apartment he lived in the 70s. The more you watch, the more you'll see."

A new album, The Next Day, will be released on March 11th.

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DSB

by David Doyle

DSB at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert
(source: walesonline.co.uk)

Any visitor to Cardiff bay area in 2013 would enjoy an area of beauty and modernity: restaurants; bars and cafés as well as arts’ centre and the Welsh Assembly. It is a far cry from the bay in 1937, but a far more significant event took place then than anything comparable nowadays.

Then known as Tiger Bay and home to thousands of working class families it was a slice of red-light district and gambling dens between Cardiff's city centre and its docks, and home to a rich mix of multi-racial communities: it had a powerful character of its own.

On 8 January 1937, Shirley Veronica Bassey was born to a Welsh mother and Nigerian father. She was raised in poverty, her father having been jailed and then deported when she was just a year old and attended the local primary school where her teachers first noticed her vocal power, although they did not welcome it or encourage her. She was often told to sing more quietly and was placed further and further away from the rest of the choir before being banned from it altogether.

She left school at 14 and worked in a local factory. Her outlet was the working men’s clubs where she sang at the weekends and at family parties where she was often put on the table and surrounded by passers-by, drawn in by the strength and maturity of her voice. She left Cardiff in the 50s and joined a theatre troupe which toured all over the UK, returning for a short period during the birth of her first daughter, Sharon. However, talent will shine out and she was spotted and given a starring role in London where she was eventually signed to Philips who released her first single: Burn My Candle. A little known fact is that she was banned by the BBC for the alleged suggestive lyrics of the song but soon had her first hit with: The Banana Boat Song. In 1959, she had her first No1 with As I Love You and she was on her way to stardom.

The 1960s and 1970s were filled with hits and in 1965 her place in music and cinema history was sealed when she was asked to sing the theme for the new James Bond film, Goldfinger. This iconic song has been sung on thousands of occasions since at her concerts and TV appearances and often opens the show. She is also the only artist to have recorded the theme to three James Bond films with the equally popular, Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker. It is interesting to note she was also asked to sing at both the Golden and Diamond Jubilee, with the obvious choices for songs. Moonraker was originally penned for Matt Munro but he was unable to perform it and DSB stepped in at the last minute. She never regarded the song as her own, however, as she had taken on the arrangement which had been for Munro, not that anyone listening to it today would either notice or care!

Having had 18 hit albums in the 1970s alone, the 1980s saw a move away from traditional recording and club appearances. DSB moved in to concert tours in major venues and arenas. Her sixtieth birthday in 1997 saw her own wonderful ‘diamond’ tour with audiences singing “Happy Birthday” to her en masse at the end of each concert. Since 2006, she has concentrated more on one-off appearances and charity work. However, a resurgence in interest in he studio work led to the album, The Living Tree being released to mark her 50 years in the Charts. In 2009 a new generation of fans were won with the critically acclaimed album, The Performance which saw modern artists such as Gary Barlow and the Kaiser Chiefs writing songs for her to perform. This led to a BBC special as part of the Electric Proms.

Throughout her career, DSB has beaten expectations in order to maintain her position as the most successful and prolific female singer in the UK. She has entertained millions with her incredible voice, range and sheer presence. On stage, there is no equal and a solid two-hour set, with the occasional pause for a boa change, passes in minutes.

Happy birthday, DSB, and thank you for the years!

 

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Letters, Journals and Biographies in Literature

by Fay Davies

An introduction to one edition of Keats' poems contains the following lines: ‘fully to understand him we must read his poetry with the commentary of his letters which reveal in his character elements of humour […] So doing we shall enter into [his] mind and heart’. I find it very hard to accept the writer’s implication that this is fundamentally necessary, but there is no doubt that it is a justifiable activity. The letters of any poet, along with any journal entries and other fragments of personal discourse, might seem invaluable if we want to truly gain insight into the meaning of a text. At the same time, we are still perfectly capable of understanding and appreciating a work if we ignore them. So exactly how important are these literary satellites, and in what ways can we use them?

To answer this we should probably first ask ourselves what it even means to do a ‘reading’ of a poem or a novel. Some possible definitions could be to look through a certain lens, to resolve or at least recognise ambiguities, and to find parallels, connections and themes within a work in order to give it some kind of coherence. Obviously this presents an inescapable subjectivity, and also a plurality of meaning: it is possible to look through numerous different ‘lenses’ and for none of them to be ‘wrong’. A text is what we make of it. Each reader brings something of themselves to it– their own thoughts, life, experience and knowledge. Importantly, then, this ‘knowledge’ can be knowledge about the author of the work they are reading. To put it concisely: I would argue that one can choose to take biographical elements into account in order to further a particular reading of a text. As they are written by the same author, letters and journal entries share the same environment, context, and therefore seem relevant to the text.

It would be useful to have some examples of where this has been put into practice. Tom Paulin’s reading of Keats’s ‘To Autumn’ draws heavily on factors external to the poem itself, for example a letter to his brother in which he details the ‘great changes’ that have been in progress. Speaking of the French Revolution, he mentions the ‘seed of opposition to this Tyranny – and it was swelling in the ground till it burst out…’ . Paulin sees clear similarities to these lines from the first stanza of ‘To Autumn’: ‘And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; /To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells’. The sense of imminence, of over-ripeness bordering on change, therefore has political significance. It is not just the inevitable change of the season: it is revolution. For Paulin, Keats’s letter operates to add more credibility to this reading. He emphasises the resemblance of the imagery in the poem and the letter, and even claims a connection between ‘swell the gourd’ and ‘swelling in the ground’. Biographical elements are relied upon as well as Keats’s writings. Paulin references Keats’s attendance of mass demonstrations to add another layer of meaning to the word ‘o’erbrimm’d’; he alludes to the illness of Keats’s brother in the word ‘clammy’. The purpose of an essay is, largely, to persuade the reader to one’s viewpoint. In English Literature, I do not know what gives a reading credibility apart from the concurrence or appreciation of others. Therefore, we might say that Paulin strengthens what is essentially a political reading of ‘To Autumn’ by referring to biographical facts and extracts, providing more evidence to the reader thus improving his chances of acceptance.

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is widely agreed to be a semi-autobiographical novel, and it wasn’t until I read Anne Stevenson’s biography of Plath that I realised the extent of its similarity to her life. However, Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London Jacqueline Rose would be quick to point out the ‘transformative potential of her art’. Indeed, although the events of The Bell Jar may have been inspired by Plath’s own life, one should not confused cause and meaning. Plath’s experiences have become words on a page, and they have the potential to relate, connect, allude and convey more than they did before. As Rose writes, ‘the lived life was the point of departure rather than, as it is for the biographer, the place at which there is a desperate need to arrive’. There is also a further question here. Stevenson builds a great part of the biography from Plath’s abundant letters and journal entries, which are taken as evidence of her character. We feel like we know Plath. Yet I would argue that these texts, too, are fictions. A self is projected onto the paper, a specific audience is in mind (even if it is merely the writer herself) and the imagination is at work. What is more, they are as open to interpretation as any story or poem. Maybe, for any author, fragments such as these are no more ‘real’ than their published work.

By taking the personal writings of authors into account are we doing the same thing as simply  looking at the ‘context’ of a work? Perhaps not. Context seems more universal; it can be historical, it can be political, it can be cultural, and it can be related to other works of literature and the way they interconnect. By focusing specifically on letters, journals, articles and any other writings of the author of the text we are analysing, we are restricting ourselves to one viewpoint – and, it could even be argued, putting too much emphasis on the agency or origin of the work. However, I prefer to see it differently. As mentioned above, these writings might as well be fictions in themselves – they are perhaps no less worthy of being called ‘literature’ than conventional novels or poems are. We often compare various works by the same author in order to draw conclusions and open up meanings – why shouldn’t we treat their letters, for instance, in the same way? As long as these elements are not relied upon as the final, exclusive ‘answers’ to the novel or poem being analysed, there is no reason to deem them irrelevant or misleading. They are simply other ways to open up meaning in a text; meaning that may not have been otherwise discerned.

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Getting Rich Quick for Dummies

by George Chapman

Each year, Christmas is a time for us to be reflective, loving and generous. Naturally then, this evening during the festive period, I found my narcissistic self come out to play with thoughts of how best to make a million before retiring in my mid-30s on a beach somewhere in the Med. At first, my daydreaming entertained ideas of writing and recording a Christmas number one or perhaps a smash-hit festive Hymn. However, I soon realised the need to refine my plans to consider those entrepreneurial pursuits which were more within my grasp. Then it hit me; Curry’s current January Sale advertisement on the TV, shamelessly promoting cut-price Apple goods, inspired the dormant Steve Jobs mark-two within me. The answer is simple – to make a mint in next to no time, invent and market a range of technological products with the success of the iPod or iPhone. How hard can it be?

Incredibly, since its introduction in 2007, sales of the iPhone have grown to account for a greater proportion of Apple Inc.’s annual revenue than any other good produced by the firm. What’s more, the data presented in the graph below demonstrate the seemingly unstoppable force of Apple branding; the exponential growth of the company’s revenues seems unaffected by either the global recession or Steve Jobs’ untimely death. However, without exception, Apple’s total revenues during the year rise sharply to a peak during December (or during the one of the months just before), as shoppers no doubt invest in the latest product range for Christmas. Herein is the first ingredient in my recipe for the perfect product – the ability for sales of the good to remain largely unaffected by negative externalities but to respond favourably to positive externalities (i.e. by boosted sales in time for Christmas).

(source: businessinsider.com)

The second ingredient in this tried-and-tested business success would be the creation of a product which may be improved ad nauseam. Sure, that sounds simple enough; however, it’s crucial to bear in mind that no-one will pay upwards of £500 for a phone which just isn’t worth that sum of money by anybody’s estimations. The trick is to develop an innovative and exciting product which is better than all of the competitors’, yet which is by no means a perfect one. As a result (exemplified by this year’s edition of the fifth iPhone), there is plenty of scope for product reinvention and remarketing – as frequently as annually for the iPhone and iPad ranges. Consequently, there is very little change in the size of the overall product range offered by Apple, whose market domination can be attributed to just a few different goods – the iMacs, iPods, iPhones and iPads.

This narrow product selection would usually come with a few significant disadvantages; reduced choice for consumers and little spread of risk in case of a change in consumer taste against one or more Apple gadget. However, this is where Apple comes in to its own. Thanks to Mr Jobs and his associate inventors, more often than not, Apple products are technologically market-leading and therefore the first choice for consumers anyway. Because of this popularity, product diversification is not so important for Apple by way of a security mechanism. Thus, Apple can reap the rewards of specialisation – they may optimise financial and entrepreneurial efficiency to simply tweak their four major technological products, thereby ever-increasing the opportunity for profit maximisation.     

Efficiency, increased popularity and resultant levels of growth may lead to the final ingredient in this prosperous Apple pie – a range of Veblen goods (due to strengthening of the Apple brand’s reputation). The law of demand for normal goods states that as price for a good increases, the willingness and ability of consumers to purchase that good will decrease. On the contrary, as the price for a Veblen good increases, so does the quantity of the good purchased. This is thought to be linked to the status of the good concerned; that is, those with the good either have greater social standing or supposedly more money than those who don’t. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 5 has been suggested to be Veblen good, in addition to other Apple products such as the iMacs. Think about it – without the Apple branding, or the popularity of these products amongst the wealthier members of our society, would these gadgets be quite so sought after? The iPhone has been socially endorsed if you will, and consequently its practically unlimited success guaranteed where (theoretically) continual price increases can only increase the demand for the phone.

So there it is – it really is that simple. All that’s left is to do now is to think of a product with each of these features, which doesn’t yet exist. Oh, wait…

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Should We Be Relatively Moral? Absolutely.

The beginning of a new year is often a time for moral reflection. Beth Albuery considers whether it is better to be a relativist or an absolutist.

The Ten Commandments (via Hollywood)

When assessing moral dilemmas, it is compassionate and responsible to consider both the situation and the outcome. Absolutism is therefore an emotionally absent theory which is too inflexible to create a positive outcome when applied to an emotive moral dilemma in which a relativist would act according to the situation and consequential outcome. By following Mackie’s argument that “there are no objective values”, relativists are able to make rational decisions towards moral and ethical dilemmas based on their common sense rather than their obligation to follow absolute rules.

Absolutists would argue that relativist ethics are ambiguous, allowing their flexibility to be exploited in cases such as Hitler claiming that he was “euthanizing” disabled people for the benefit of the country. Absolutists uphold that their absolute rules provide certainty and clear guidelines for moral behavior. They would argue that absolutist ethics can support universal laws such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, proving that absolute morals are desirable and necessary on a global scale. However, in the 1950s as a result of the Second World War, a set of relativist human rights called the Convention of Human rights were laid down. These rights were universal yet conditional if anyone could satisfy the conditions by his or her own efforts. When applied to ethical dilemmas, these rights provide a compassionate and proportionate response to create a just outcome which could be supported by relativists. An absolutist with the view that all killing is wrong would condemn the death penalty. However, a relativist could support Act 2 of the convention of the protection of Human Rights which states that “everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law unless in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law” and therefore take a subjective stance towards the death penalty. Relativism therefore provides the flexibility necessary in a post-modern world whilst the introduction of the Convention of Human Rights into English Law in 2002 proves the unrealistic and inappropriate nature of absolute rules when applied to ethical dilemmas.

Contrary to the view of absolutists such as Kant, who criticized our Phenomenal nature and argued we should follow our reason; when ethical issues concern life and death, emotions must be considered. Objectivism therefore neglects this important part of decision making, not allowing for a compassionate response. When applied to euthanasia, absolutism provides an objective response in which the situation, outcome and suffering of the patient are not considered. Though many absolutists claim to be opposed to the practice as it contradicts the sanctity of life, all absolutists who take the view that killing is wrong objectively and immediately condemn active euthanasia.

An absolutist with this objective view would criticize the actions of Daniel James, a rugby player paralyzed from the chest down when a scrum collapsed during training who chose to die by assisted suicide in the Swiss clinic Dignitas. When assessing whether Daniels actions were “right”, a relativist would take into account the needs of the patient, family, doctor and the magnitude of the suffering; “He couldn’t walk, had no hand function, but constant pain in all his fingers. He was incontinent, suffering uncontrollable spasms in his legs and upper body and needed 24 hour care”. A relativist would be able to access the situation subjectively and accept that Daniels case as a quadriplegic was causing great suffering and that his decision to travel to Dignitas was justified.

An absolutist could condemn Daniel’s actions by supporting the view of his physiotherapist who argued that “Daniel was improving and…most quadriplegics do improve over time…it was early days for Daniel.” Kant claims that every person should be treated as an end in themselves, leading Absolutists to condemn countries like the Netherlands which allow active euthanasia as they are treating individuals as means to an end.  However, British Law recognizes that prolonging life indefinitely is not a compassionate approach and the acceptance of euthanasia in cases such as Daniel's is rapidly expanding; proving the outdated nature of absolutism in the post-modern world.  Absolutists like Socrates would argue that “One should not regard all the opinions that people hold”, proving the merciless nature of following absolute rules. When applied to euthanasia, relativism allows for the emotions of those involved to be responded to compassionately, creating an outcome that would often satisfy the desired utilitarian “greatest good for the greatest number”.

UN Declaration of Human Rights in Word Cloud form

When applied to moral and ethical dilemmas, relativism is not only more compassionate but more practical in its application. For example, Relativist ethics would allow for a mother to abort her baby if her own life is at risk. The rights of the baby could be weighed against the rights of the mother, creating an ethical and considered outcome. Absolutists with the view that killing is wrong would condemn the abortion even though it would minimize suffering and save the life of the mother. Utilitarianism and Situation ethics, forms of normative relativism, could also allow for a compassionate approach to this ethical dilemma.

When applied to ethical and moral dilemmas, relativist ethics create a rational and compassionate response underlined by common sense. The flexibility of relativism allows us to tailor our views to the individual situation, creating an outcome which is not predetermined by an absolute rule such as “killing is wrong”. In the case of euthanasia for example, relativism is the more compassionate approach as it considers the needs of the patient, the family and the doctors in every situation. Every situation of ethical and moral dilemmas are extremely different, and therefore require a different and non-objective response.

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Why Making Resolutions Is A Silly Idea Anyway

by Melissa Smith

It’s the 1^st January. You wake up to a brand new year, a new start, new you. No doubt you have a list of resolutions fresh in your mind or scribbled down on a scrap of paper: watch less TV, get homework in on time, eat less cake. These are all valid things to aspire to, but what is it about the passing from 31^st December to the next day that inspires such thoughts of drastic personal ambition? Is the setting and rising of the sun any more profound than any other day?

The answer is no, it’s not. We shouldn’t have to wait for the beginning of January for the opportunity to better ourselves. There’s no reason why, say, the 7^th July shouldn’t be your new start. This is presuming that you manage to keep these resolutions in the first place. Every year it’s entertaining to watch as more and more pledges are dropped. The Nike-clad new runners lining the streets get sparser as January unfolds, more dieters cave in to the call of a Mars bar and those wishing to get up earlier find themselves crawling out of bed even later in the afternoon. It’s a sad truth, but one that is usually inevitable unless you have chosen a particularly easy task to achieve, such as ‘eat more cake’ or ‘exercise less’. However, if you are one of those enviously strong-willed individuals who have no problem sticking to a resolution, don’t limit yourself to one day of the year to do it. 

The same rule can apply to other annual public holidays. For example, why should 14^th February be the acceptable date to share a bowl of spaghetti with a romantic interest in a packed out Italian place? Go wild and take them on the 15^th instead. Take them every other day of the year if your credit card (and threshold for parmesan) can bear it! Besides, I hear it’s easier to get a table…

So why not break tradition and mix up the holidays a bit?

 

Hide Maltesers in the garden in October, dress up as an elf in June, play with fireworks in April (maybe not that). The only event I would steer clear from in this circumstance is Halloween. It may be acceptable to walk around with fake blood on your face and a cape on one day of the year, but any other time it’s just plain creepy.

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How To Keep Your New Year Resolutions

by George Neame

Strange as it may sound, New Year’s celebrations have not always been held at the beginning of January. Ancient Babylonian calendars began in March and at this time, promises were made to their gods that they would return borrowed items, pay debts and apologise to those they had done wrong to. These are the first known New Year’s Resolutions that were made and since then, how New Year’s Resolutions are made, what they symbolise and what they intend to change have altered dramatically. Starting, as many common traditions, rules and practices do, with the Romans.

The two-headed Roman god, Janus
(image source: billpetro.com)

On Rome’s oldest bridge, the Ponte Fabricio joining Tiber Island to the city, stands a worn, weathered statue of Janus, the Roman God, constructed in 62 BC. Janus is depicted with two heads, one used to look back at the year that has passed and the other to look forward into the year to come. It is from the name ‘Janus’ that the month ‘January’ evolved, the Romans altering the entire calendar and setting January as the beginning of a New Year, the time for a fresh start where one can look back at their successes and mistakes of the previous year and anticipate the next. It was during this time that some people began to make moral resolutions that they hoped would better their own lives and please gods such as Janus.

It was with the spread of Christianity that New Year’s resolutions started to take on a more purposeful, widespread meaning that was common throughout the people. By the fourth century, when the Roman Empire took Christianity as its official state religion, prayer and fasting began to mark the New Year with the observation of the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1^st to celebrate the naming of Jesus. This came accompanied with confessions from the past year and making resolutions to God for the year ahead.

An early New Year's resolution postcard
(source: Wikipedia)

The notion of resolutions at the beginning of a New Year continued to grow and spread across countries and, by the medieval period, the last feast of Christmas meant Knights were required to take their ‘peacock vow’. By placing their hands on a peacock and vowing to continue their chivalry and commitment, they made a resolution to carry on defending their country, a pledge to their rulers and those they defended.

It is commonly thought that the first written list of resolutions to be made by one person for his own morals was made by Jonathan Edwards. An American Puritan, Edwards gradually compiled a list of around 70 resolutions over a period of two years that he aimed to commit himself to, such as ‘Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining and establishing peace’.  From here, it became more and more common for people to make promises to themselves that would improve their lives and improve their morality and at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, New Year’s Resolution postcards began to emerge, which people could send to one another informing them of the promises they had made.

By now, New Year’s Resolutions have become much more specific. Giving more to charity, losing weight and dropping bad habits are all common resolutions. But is that specificity actually useful? Richard Wiseman’s 2007 study showed that 88% of those who set New Year’s Resolutions do not succeed. Many smokers continue to smoke, many overweight people do not get any thinner, and many people who intend to ‘learn a foreign language’ get little further than ‘bonjour’ or ‘guten tag’.

 

All pessimism aside, many New Year’s Resolutions are achievable if they are realistic. Most people find it easier to set pragmatic, quantitative goals that can be reached. Rather than just the wishy-washy ‘give more to charity’, ‘become a monthly Oxfam donor’ will give conclusive results. Don’t promise to ‘give up all chocolate’, promise to ‘cut down and eat a maximum of one chocolate bar per week’. Some people are not satisfied with just marginally reducing fat intake though, and that is OK. Edwards’ resolution to ‘maintaining and establishing peace’ may have been optimistic, but why not dream big? You can still aim to become a professional footballer, or marry Harry Styles, or get into University, but maybe have a smaller-scale project on the go at the same time.

Whether making your resolutions to Janus, your superiors, God or just yourself, as long as it is something achievable, something you really want and something you are willing to work hard for, you are almost certain to achieve it.

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