New Address...

From here on out I will be writing on my new blog.

Check it: Daily Humiliation

I'll see you there.

done and done.

so as of around midnight this evening I am finished with my first semester at the university of nottingham. i basically spent the past 30 hours or so working to finish my two essays. i must say, the UK academic system is great in a lot of ways, but it is quite stressful to know that your entire mark for a course depends on one essay. makes me a bit nervous.

i learned the hard way through these past 30 hours than i'm getting a bit older. back in the undergraduate days i had no problem getting a 4 pack of red bull and staying up a couple nights in a row cranking out papers (that were quite good mind you); but at a certain points today i literally felt like i was going to die. i ended up sleeping for about 4 hours on the floor of the postgraduate office today out of pure exhaustion.

at this point i just hope that some interesting argument shines through my otherwise 'messy' essays. and if nothing else i've learned that i can't live the rock n' roll lifestyle anymore when it comes to all night essay writing parties.

and on the topic of being done with things...

this blog is officialy done as well. besides the fact that every time i type the url a piece of me dies (in case you haven't noticed it includes the word 'emerging'); it's just s little stale and i think i need to take it in a different direction.

so i started wordpress blog that i'll begin posting on as soon as i recover from the past 30 hours. the new url (which does not include any reference to heretical 'postmodern' christian movements) will be posted here shortly. so i guess that will be my last post.

really?

tonight i attended a lecture given by a political theorist from oxford entitled 'truth in conservatism'. during this lecture he gave an analogy of the 'proletariat' using 'wooden sculptures' for firewood because 'they wouldn't know any better'.

he was basically giving a defense of aristocracy and showing how the proletariat wouldn't see the intrinsic value in the luxury items held by the aristocracy; and hence they would just 'burn shit' beacuse they couldn't determine 'value' on their own.

during the question time that followed this at least a few different people brought up marxism; and yet not one of these 'marxist' felt the need to comment on his completely ridiculous aristocratic critique of the 'ignorance' of the proletariat.

i'm only really a marxist after quite a few drinks, but even sober I couldn't believe that his comment went without any objection.

moments like this make me remember why i'm in the theology department.

weekly videos of note

first, Jens Lekman playing a Paul Simon cover:



we then move onto wilco playing a live version of 'you are my face' that adds some of the abstract noise that the recent record was lacking:



next, thom yorke acting like ian curtis:



and the first proper video from my favorite up-and-coming hiphop group, the cool kids:



that's all for now.

interesting zizek article

Zizek has an article in today's 'london review of books' that's quite interesting.

When reading arguments like this, which call for a political space outside the sphere of liberal-democratic governments, I can't help but think that there is no better space for this type of subversive action than the church (if it would actually be the church).

You can find the article here: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n22/zize01_.html

links, etc.

so i realized recently that almost all of my links were for blogs/sites i don't even read (and some embarassing emergent-esque shit); so i updated them to include blogs i actually read frequently, including the blogs of some fellow nottingham postgraduates, as well as links to musically oriented internet sites.

in other unrelated news....
last week i had a really hard time getting used to the fact it starts to get dark around 4pm here; but with a little sleep schedule adjustment and the proper vitamins/herbal supplements; i think i'm going to be fine.

i'm (re)reading derrida's 'the gift of death' this week for a presentation i have to give in class wednesday. after reading heidegger and kierkegaard since last reading it i'm getting a lot more out of it. i had a 'derrida' stage last spring that i thought was dead; but after reading the first chapter of 'given time' i find myself once again realizing the importance of his work.

this weekend i started reading a book entitled 'Our Lady and the Church' by Hugo Rahner (the 'other' Rahners little brother) and it's been really insightful in the area of mariology. as a recovering evangelical currently taking part in the anglo-catholic church; it's embarssing how little i really know about the history of mariology and the importance of mary in the functioning of the church and eucharist. i'm hoping to eventually include some 'mariological' insights in some of my (future) work.

lastly; i've started working on my french (again) and this time it's going fairly well. i'm having a bit of trouble with consistency though. i'm trying to get through the 'french for reading' book and hopefully start reading 'Manifeste pour la philosophie' by Badiou in the next month or so. jumping into a french text (especially badiou) is a bit intimidating but it should (hopefully) be the most effective way to become comfortable in reading french.

okay. that's all i've got. i'm going to watch an episode of everest (my new shit) and try to sleep.

in case you haven't seen this.

bruce springsteen and the arcade fire playing 'keep the car running' live.

Bruce Stringsteen and Arcade Fire - Keep the car running
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