Mud and floods

of every kind can be seen here here
and here
and here.
This movie of The Wicker is particularly affecting.
I love The Wicker and go there ALL THE TIME.
Hurrah for hot baths.

The kid is back

Luckily thanks to the ever faithful BBC we can TRACK her progress.
She can be viewed here,
here
and best viewing here, where you have a really DETAILED view of the dancing girl amid the mud.
Stay with it and you see her SEVEN times.
Frankly we are bored with Glastonbury, as we have now moved on to the FLOODS in Sheffield and the experience of the travelling academic amid the torrents.
It is a poetic thought.

The Glasto kid

pitched her tent in the rain at 1 in the morning last night, is on a slope and emerged to find a torrent, has danced in the rain to punk gypsy bands, was pissed on, changed and is now gearing up to the Arctic Monkeys and The Coral.
She is in heaven.
More about this here.
Meanwhile, we are going to buy this house.
Hurrah.
Dr Joolz is advising us.

Today I thought about

complex writing and the relationship between meaning (what we want to communicate) and materiality (how we communicate it).
This was prompted partly by going to this exhibition and seeing the blocks of colour and how they shifted meanings in the gallery, as we walked around orange and yellow shapes hanging in the air.
Also in the environment box project (something I am researching) a group of children have been creating boxes that describe a particular environment.
Here it is the arctic or 'the polar'.
I have looked at the way that the affordances of the box, its ability to house igloos, ducks or baby dolphins, creates new kinds of talk.
I am about to do something on how visual and spatial stuff shapes linguistic meanings.
How does a focus on colour, shape and design create different kinds of talk?
Any advice gratefully received.

Today was the day

my bid was due in and thankfully it is now in here, and will wend its way across the desks of thousands of weary academics.

Watch this space

I am now free to work on this course and this course and enjoy the fantastic weather, also to live in the shadow of people attending this festival and going to this exhibition.
I am also going to write my bling article for this journal, which is why we have the gold swan.

It is so sad

The way you go on holiday and you come back to a squillion emails and by day 2 you are a wreck of your former self, crawling amongst the emails like a demented ant.
It does not help that I have to get this form in here for the 14th June.


Never mind, there is this conference to look forward to,
this book to recommend to Dr Joolz
and these photos of Scotland.
As you can see, the weather was excellent, we swam, there was nobody on the beach and it was like the Greek Islands.
More footage of Islay can be found here.
Happy viewing!
I recommend the gold eagles as they are very good.

Angel of the north

I am blogging while ON THE TRAIN!!!
I had hoped to go from an image of Anthony Gormley, taken from Waterloo station on Monday to an equally riveting image of the Angel of the North, taken from the train.
Sadly my attention was diverted at the key point (chatting)
and I missed the shot.
I am unable also to upload you the Anthony Gormley.
I did manage to capture, however,
Newcastle
Alnwick and, here,
Berwick on Tweed.
We are now in Scotland!
Time and space are brought together in new and interesting ways, through Blogger 2 software, an epistemic presence in the writing of the blog, as Nigel Thrift says so interestingly in this marvellous book.
I am listening to this CD so you have all the modalities.

Moving around

I have been here to this seminar where I heard that deixis was one of the most common links to other pages on blogs.



Greg gave a very interesting paper on irony in links.



I have some news



Dr Joolz is back.

Check it out.



Hurrah!

Weston Park Museum

Is my favourite place right now.
I love the bees, real, buzzing, and the city section and the txting girls doing their Queen Bess dress up.
I go there all the time as we are putting in our bid to work with them at the moment.
Cross fingers and think of me as I write the Case for Support.
Here are some brilliant projects they have already done:
Burngreave voices
Ourselves our place
My favourite object in the museum has to be the polar bear however.

Chesil beach

has been blogged by Litrate and written about here.

Here is the website.

We will be there this weekend.

Hurrah!

Words and images

Check out these great research projects.
Moving Manchester
Beyond the Book
Writing British Asian Cities
we are all on the move.

ferham families

is now live.
It can be found here:
I have been saying this for months, but this time it is for real

A great new blog

can be found here.
Who said blogging is dead?

I have never seen the point of

royalty.
But this receipe will keep you going for when you have nothing in the cupboard and need something utterly delicious and it is from Tom Parker-Bowles.
Here it is:
1. Fry garlic and a pinch of chili in some olive oil.
2. Add 2 tins tomatoes.
3. Add some balsalmic vinegar and a bay leaf.
4. Bubble for 1 hour on a low heat.
5. Season and serve with spaghetti, parmesan, some rocket salad and good olive oil to drizzle.
PERRFect!
Sadly it is back to work here, writing my report for the AHRC.
Sasha keeps me company.

lunch boxes

are the bane of my life.
I am therefore impressed by Mimi Ito's photostream on Flickr.
You can read about it here.
and see it here.
Roll on school dinners.

High Stoy Wood

Hot spring sun. Here are Molly and her friend.
Here is Sasha who liked Dorset but not the cows.
Meanwhile, the others were here.
Happy Easter!
P.S. The Easter recipe is Dr Joolz' favourite risotto.
Take 2 red peppers and fry in olive oil with some garlic.
Add a tin of tomatoes.
Puree with whizzer or blender.
Add vegetable stock
Fry onion in some oil.
Add risotto rice.
Stir.
Add the stock slowly until the rice is cooked.
Then add some parmesan, and butter. Season.
Serve with Feta cheese and rocket.
Comes courtesy of the Thyme Cafe in Sheffield.

Thank goodness

We have our tickets for Glastonbury which is now sold out.
It has been a nailbiting morning.
Even Sasha was nervous.
Luckily I can sit in the comfort of my own home and watch it on TV.
The relief.
And Isabel can see the Arctic Monkeys live.
Also a relief.

dialogic objects

Inspired by Gaby's visit, (Gaby came from Germany where she teaches socio linguistics to hear about Charmian's project in Tower Hamlets)
I am thinking about the way that objects speak with two voices.
For example, quilts in Pakistan can mean one thing, that is, warm coverings for wearing in the winter.
In Rotherham, quilts become duvets, they cover you at night in the cold Rotherham winters.
The object is the same, but has different uses and meanings in different spaces.
Here is our textile case in our exhibition (still on at Rotherham Central Art Gallery till 14th April).
The cotton was also grown in Manchester, but from our informants, was grown in Pakistan, on the farm.
It too has a dialogic quality and like Bakhtin's texts, speaks with two voices.

Living normally

is something I try to do, and I was pleased to find this book which celebrated ordinary homes.
What I love about normal homes (as opposed to 'styled' ones in magazines)
is the way objects and artefacts are acrrued.
People give you stuff, and even if it is faintly tasteless, it stays, as a trace of the giver and also as an acknowledgement of the messy realities of daily life.
Even better, cats, children, playstations, clutter up more of it.
There is even a website dedicated to people's homes which you can find here.

Travelling

This week I have been here, here and to talk to the people at this project here.
You ofcourse should go here to see the wonderful exhibition.
My knowledge of the UK rail network has now reached doctoral proportions.
I am hoping to offer an online doctorate in the manner of this marvellous course with modules in
GNER studies (including reading on theorising "trans" status objects and the death of the train company, with Derrida thrown in for free)
The Midland Mainline module will include sedimented literary theorists such as Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart as it has an old school Marxist feel.
Virgin meanwhile will include a whole section on risk theory (Beck ofcourse) and include theorists such as Bev Skeggs on class while my favourite module will be,
Northern Rail which will have wonderful sections on children's popular culture, girls talk and ethnographic positionality.
Suggested dissertation topics:
Visual cultures
Viewing cultural spaces
Criticality and the train
Travelling and tourism
Must start the e-forms now.