SOURCE: Our World in Data • Data updated: 26 Jan 2021 / 1045 UTC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Were this a country worthy of being taken seriously, Johnson
 and the Tories would have been overthrown months ago; no, they
 would never have been in office in the first place, and we shouldn't

The police conducted the search in the recognized Ogpu or Gestapo style. In the small hours of the morning there was a pounding on the door, and six men marched in, switched on the light, and immediately took up various positions about the room, obviously agreed upon beforehand. They then searched both rooms (there was a bathroom attached) with inconceivable thoroughness. They sounded the walls, took up the mats, examined the floor, felt the curtains, probed under the bath and the radiator, emptied every drawer and suitcase and felt every garment and held it up to the light. They impounded all papers, including the contents of the waste-paper basket, and all our books into the bargain. They were thrown into ecstasies of suspicion by finding that we possessed a French translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. If that had been the only book they found our doom would have been sealed. It is obvious that a person who reads Mein Kampf must be a Fascist. The next moment, however, they came upon a copy of Stalin’s pamphlet. Ways of Liquidating Trotskyists and other Double Dealers, which reassured them somewhat. In one drawer there was a number of packets of cigarette papers. They picked each packet to pieces and examined each paper separately, in case there should be messages written on them. Altogether they were on the job for nearly two hours. Yet all this time they never searched the bed. My wife was lying in bed all the while; obviously there might have been half a dozen sub-machine-guns under the mattress, not to mention a library of Trotskyist documents under the pillow. Yet the detectives made no move to touch the bed, never even looked underneath it. I cannot believe that this is a regular feature of the Ogpu routine. One must remember that the police were almost entirely under Communist control, and these men were probably Communist Party members themselves. But they were also Spaniards, and to turn a woman out of bed was a little too much for them. This part of the job was silently dropped, making the whole search meaningless.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56361840


https://www.ft.com/content/7eef4ec9-0dc5-4880-bb89-1fc83a72ad84

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/04/england-lockdown-peril-young-people-mental-health

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiad

Sumption

Meg Hillier

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8944567/6-4bn-Navy-aircraft-carriers-wont-able-job-penny-pinching-MPs-say.html

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1359698/world-war-2-henry-tizard-battle-atlantic-britain-nazi-germany-adolf-hitler-happy-time-spt

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1359204/world-war-2-hero-adolf-hitler-sea-lion-battle-britain-blitz-raf-spitfire-luftwaffe-spt

Channel 5’s “How Britain Won World War 2’

After the fall of France in July 1940, the Kriegsmarine could get closer to British shipping lanes than they had ever done before.

From July 1940 to the end of October, 282 Allied ships were sunk off the north-west approaches to Ireland for a loss of more than a million tonnes of merchant shipping.


https://www.conservativehome.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/14/israeli-agents-in-iran-kill-al-qaidas-top-lieutenant-report

https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/all-universities-should-have-a-general-counsel/

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster.

 lordashcroft.com


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/10/biden-establishment-democrat-next-donald-trump

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9046667/PETER-HITCHENS-Did-leaders-pass-stupidity-exam-Westminster.html

https://www.ft.com/content/b5d087c4-4b72-424f-ad1a-4c0c4ccb3c9f


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Jeremy_Corbyn


https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/about/Pages/who-we-are.aspx

Who we are

Our members: vice-chancellors and principals

Our members are the vice-chancellors or principals (executive heads) of universities in the UK. Our services to ​members include:
  • advocacy and representation
  • research and analysis
  • information and advice
  • members’ meetings and conferences

Members are invited to meet four times a year through 3 Members’ Meetings (February, May and December) and the Members’ Annual Conference (September).

Universities UK is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status and is financed mainly through subscription from its member institutions.

Board

The board is our main decision-making body and meets five times a year. It focuses on UK-wide issues and those issues in the constituent nations of the UK that have UK-wide implications or interest.

  • The 22-person Board has 16 elected members: President; Vice-Presidents for England and Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; Treasurer;  five policy network chairs; and six elected members.  A further six members are appointed by the Board, on advice from the Governance and Nominations Committee (GNC), to help to bring a balance of diversity and skills. 
The GNC comprises:

  • Professor Julie Lydon OBE (Chair and Vice-President Wales)
  • Professor Julia Buckingham CBE (UUK President)
  • Professor Sally Mapstone (elected Board member)
  • Professor Quintin McKellar CBE (Chair Innovation and Growth Policy Network)
  • Alistair Jarvis (UUK Chief Executive)



https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/university-links-with-the-armed-forces.aspx

armed forces covenant

Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive at Universities UK, said:

Universities are absolutely committed to promoting and protecting free speech. Universities host thousands of events each year – among a student population of more than two million – and the vast majority of these pass without incident.

Although there is little evidence of a systematic problem of free speech in universities, there is a legal duty on the higher education sector to secure free speech within the law and it is important that universities continually review their approaches.

This new guidance provides a useful tool that will help universities balance the numerous requirements placed upon them, including student safeguarding responsibilities, and supports their significant efforts to uphold freedom of speech.


https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-speech-to-be-protected-at-university

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/

suppressio veri


New guidance, the first of its kind, published by Universities UK [UUK] will support institutional leaders to better protect themselves, their staff, and students. It will also assist them to protect the values of UK higher education while better understanding and managing risks associated with international partnerships.



https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/25/bail-out-our-musicians-or-risk-losing-them-for-ever-say-classical-music-stars

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request


https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/politics/derbyshire-county-council-leader-sparks-anger-after-describing-black-lives-matter-movement-pernicious-3018934

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/nov/02/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-avoids-being-returned-to-jail

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/02/this-is-revolutionary-new-online-bookshop-unites-indies-to-rival-amazon

https://www.facebook.com/pg/chesterfieldsutr/about/?ref=page_internal

https://charliehebdo.fr/2020/01/politique/les-nouveaux-visages-de-la-censure/

https://charliehebdo.fr/2020/01/english/editorial-by-riss-new-faces-of-censorship/


Sasha Simic

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/antisemitism-graffiti-demonstration-descends-into-farce-as-organiser-warns-of-zionist-journalists-1.494819


https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1354329/scotland-news-independence-nicola-sturgeon-SNP-boris-johnson-pfi-north-sea-oil-revenue-eu

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8901637/PETER-HITCHENS-dictators-taken-didnt-notice.html

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/if-black-lives-matter-then-dont-palestinian-lives-matter-opinion-631983

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/01/mr-corbyns-self-pity-betrays-the-victims-of-antisemitism-scandal

https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/powerblogsarchive/2005/04/nietzsche-on-conviction.html


Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/slavery_1.shtml


Joanne Bell, who describes herself as a feminist and foodie

British Future Sunder Katwala

https://news.sky.com/story/labour-antisemitism-report-could-spark-furious-clashes-within-party-12117449

Jon Craig

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8892141/Ruthless-people-smugglers-forced-tragic-migrant-family-death-boat.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13048307/labour-mp-housing-fraud-flat/



https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-justice-confirmation-gay-marriage-abortion-b1352066.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54692802

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/analysis-alex-salmonds-central-conspiracy-goes-unsubstantiated-3149018

https://www.evangelical-times.org/about-et/statement-of-faith/

Catherine Pepinster

https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/our-people/our-staff-0

https://catholicherald.co.uk

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/

https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/our-people/our-staff-0

https://spckpublishing.co.uk/


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8861799/Paris-attack-Two-Muslim-woman-stabbed-Eiffel-Tower.html

'Samuel is not a martyr (let's leave that word to the fanatics)... Samuel is a hero of the Republic' 

Samuel n' est pas un martyr (laissons ce vocable aux fanatiques!)

Samuel est un Hero de la
république



BarakaCity, which describes itself as a humanitarian organisation.

https://barakacity.com/


https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12930968/raf-jets-scrambled-russian-bombers/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54573356

16.10

JeSuisCharlie   Charlie Hebdo

French President Emmanuel Macron said the Sheikh Yassin Collective - an Islamist group named after the founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas - would be outlawed for being "directly involved" in the killing.

Alain Badiou   Mao

"Mark Berry" Cambridge University  6 / 62,000

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8842485/RAF-Typhoon-jets-scrambled-intercept-two-Russian-bombers.html

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/harris.html

Professor Matthew Goodwin   Kent University
https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/6178/councilminutes-22feb17.pdf

https://thecritic.co.uk/marxist-magic-realism/

Evgeny Dobrenko

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12902004/north-korea-world-largest-mobile-nuclear-missile/

Helen Pluckrose  James Lindsay Cynical theories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5HxtvH0Ks

https://biblicalcreationtrust.org/people.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Excellence_Framework


https://thetab.com

Email tips@thetab.com

complete university guide

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-research-international/article/editorial-stupidity/DEEFFF738501FE7CAA2B464A9C69E31E/core-reader

Andrew Doyle

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8726235/ANDREW-DOYLE-children-brainwashed-divisive-new-dogma.html

Last year, the charity Youth Music called for pupils to be taught about the work of the rapper Stormzy instead of Mozart.

https://haydnsocietyofgb.co.uk/the-society/

info@haydnsocietyofgb.co.uk

Recommended: a reading of a compelling article by Wanjiru Njoya published in 'The Critic,'

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/july-august-2020/black-lives-matter-pushing-division-not-unity/

Black Lives Matter are pushing division, not unity

BLM’s radical ideas, such as defunding the police, would only make the lives of black communities worse


'Black Lives Matter are pushing division, not unity

BLM’s radical ideas, such as defunding the police, would only make the lives of black communities worse'

 

However, the facts of police shootings in the US do not support the “institutional racism” narrative. In the UK the hapless police are more likely to ignore or take flight from protesters than they are to throttle anyone to death, black or white. And how odd to see British protesters carrying American-inspired “Don’t shoot” placards as they march towards unarmed and outnumbered police whose response, if not to scarper, is to kneel in penitence.


 

Wanjiru Njoya




advocate trios of Haydn symphonies alone

'Moreover, the strings showed, especially from the second movement onwards, that, in spite of their small number, they lacked nothing in drive, nor in cultured musicianship.'

'The minuet witnessed a properly generative balance between the straightforward and sophisticated, echoed yet far from banally repeated in its trio. '

'Haydn’s joy brought tears to my ears '

The review also has the eye as an organ of hearing, as well as another of Mark Berry's arbitrary comparisons between an older and a much more recent composer:


'The controlled  ... helter-skelter of the finale offered kinship to Ligeti and a glint in the aural eye far from dissimilar'


Mark Berry seems to have liked just about everything in this performance and I presume that for him,  the 'musical vintner' had shaped this consummate passage, from the second movement, in a way that could have been effected by 'no other musical vintner.'

 

 

 




Not for nothing do the Cross and Crucifixion lie at the heart of Hegel's philosophy.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54449482

IS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.

The liberation of that territory exposed the magnitude of the abuses inflicted by the jihadist group, including summary killings, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls. Hundreds of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of people have been discovered.

UN investigators have concluded that IS militants committed acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.


https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1345172/Labour-party-civil-war-keir-starmer-len-mccluskey

https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/

surreylive@reachplc.com


https://www.wagneropera.net/wagner-recommendations.htm#davidvernon

Intermezzo

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/nicola-sturgeons-lies-salmond-inquiry-show-greater-contempt-voters-margaret-ferriers-covid-breach-murdo-fraser-2994236



The Wagner Journal,
3, 3, 29–59

Is it Here that time becomes space?Hegel, schopenhauer, History and Grace in Parsifal


http://web.mit.edu/bskow/www/research/temporality.pdf


--> It's unfair to expect a review of a performance, or an analysis, to give bar by bar commentary. Mark Berry seems to have liked just about everything in this performance and I presume that for him,  the 'musical vintner' had told us how  the 'musical vintner' shaped this consummate passage, from the second movement.

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https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=20452


http://www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk/contact.html

The Wagnerian is published by S.M. Moran. Educated at Eton and then Oxford

https://filezilla-project.org

file could not be transferred

Could not start transfer

https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=12595

https://symposium.music.org/index.php/45/item/27-review-essay-of-books-on-wagner

https://symposium.music.org/index.php/45/itemlist/user/155-stephenmeyer


file:///C:/Users/paulh/AppData/Local/Temp/02_Live_Eurovisual_Song_Contest.pdf


9 December 2013

Fred Oswald  Deputy Editor of 'The Wagnerian,' writes in an article on  Slavoj Žižek


http://www.the-wagnerian.com/2013/12/slavoj-zizekbrunhildes-act-or-wagner.html



'Zizek, oddly like many Marxists (apart from Marx), is a Wagnerian.' [This is open to misinterpretation. Fred's punctuation is faulty here.]

Fred also writes,


'Now, we must accept, whether you want to or not, the arguable fact, that most Marxist intellectuals, of the academic variety at least, are, sadly, rather boring.'

Mark Berry, contributor to 'The Wagnerian' is a Marxist 'of the academic variety.' To call him an intellectual is fair enough, provided the definition of 'intellectual' is wide enough to include people like him - no need to elaborate, the sections on Mark Berry make it clear just what this 'intellectual' gets up to.

 Inflating their prose with the sort of obtuse sentences (often without commas or even enough fullstops) that would make even Hegel blush. And goodness forbid (being a Marxist discussion I shall keep "god" out of it for a moment), they might accept any validity in "popular culture", never mind refer to it in an agreeable light. Not so, Žižek.What Marxist cultural theorist for example would begin a two and half hour documentary on ideology (The Perverts Guide To Ideology) using John Carpenters 1988 cult classic "They Live"? And then later turn to "The Sound Of Music (you will never hear “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” in quite the same light again.).

All of this tends to make him "popular with the kids" A sort of 21st century, Marxist version of  Robert Anton Wilson,  but with tenure.

First of all, the claim on Mark Stephenson's  'Soundingboard' Website that he's a Co-Director of 'Tiny Spark Projects' is false. As he will know, the Company was dissolved on 10/03/15.

 

Before I phoned him, Mark Stephenson's twitter page was freely available. Later in the day, I found this: 'Only approved followers can see @MarkSteph001’s Tweets.' I draw my own conclusions.

 

 

 

Mark Stephenson is free to challenge any of the critical material on him which I've placed on my Website. He's free to challenge and comment on the material below. I'll take into account any comments he makes before I contact the RSA, not, of course, so that the RSA can take any action against him or take away his fellowship, but simply for information: Mark Stephenson is, or claims to be, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, RSA. From the RSA Website:

 

'The RSA Fellowship is a global community of 30,000 proactive problem solvers who share our vision and values,' people in  'a world where everyone is able to participate in creating a better future.' Becoming a Fellow gives the opportunity to 'Contribute to thought-provoking debate.' I've found a complete unwillingness on the part of Mark Stephenson to take part in anything resembling debate. Mark Stephenson's practice is sometimes at variance with these claims - shockingly so.

 

I spoke to Mark Stephenson on 03/10/2020 and found that this is a 'qualified social worker' completely unable on this occasion to handle minimal pressure. I wasn't abusive at any time. To begin with, I spoke quite forcefully, to make it clear to him that his tweet on me, retweeted by Dr Mark Berry of Royal Holloway, amounted to a shocking mistake. He had described me in these terms: 'These people really are pointless and nasty.' He put the phone down. I phoned him again, and gave him the opportunity to comment whilst I listened. He became embarrassed and flustered (my interpretation) and again put the phone down.




What might I have done? My Facebook profile is not public, although a friend discovered the following posting from me: ‘
July 6 · London · Mark Berry   has just bought himself some chocolate to celebrate Chilcot Day. The assistant said he had guessed I was “a champagne truffles sort of guy”. Indeed I am, cognac too.’ Perhaps I was informed upon by the friendly assistant in Charbonnel & Walker? No, of course I was not. I can only assume that my alleged offence is to have said, on the day of the Chilcot Report, on Twitter, that I hoped Tony Blair would now be expelled from the Labour Party. I bow to no one in my judgement that Blair is a despicable war criminal, who has no place in any ‘progressive’, let alone socialist political party. Many in the Labour Party would agree with me; many would not. I am hardly alone in having expressed such a view.


prose stylist -  a master of the plodding, prim and proper style

part-time playboy

The phrase is used to describe self-identified socialists whose luxurious upper middle-class or "preppy" lifestyles (perhaps including consumption of Champagne) apparently contradict their political convictions.[3] It is a popular epithet that implies a degree of hypocrisy,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_socialist

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/09/ten-things-chilcot-reveals-about-tony-blair-and-iraq



"the rich, the famous, and the simply curious".

fires his crude blunderbuss

playboy

what he gets up to in his private life I've no idea

https://boulezian.blogspot.com/2016/09/why-have-i-been-suspended-from-labour.html

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/music/research/research-clusters/music-history-archiving-and-heritage/

Staff

Mark Berry examines the intellectual, aesthetic and political contexts of German music, notably Wagner, and also opera from Mozart to the present day. 

 

 

 

 

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/response-to-charlotte-c-gill-article-on-music-and-notation-full-list-of-signatories/

 

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company

The Company was dissolved  on 10/03/15

 

https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/mark-stephenson/

 

https://boulezian.blogspot.com/2016/09/why-have-i-been-suspended-from-labour.html

 

 

http://www.soundingboard.org.uk/about_us.php

 

Clare Wigmore

 

fellow RSA

 

Associate consultant  Alcohol Concern

 

A few scattered remarks on Mark Stephenson. First of all, the claim on the Soundingboard Website that Mark Stephenson is a Co-Director of 'Tiny Spark Projects' is false. As he will know, the Company was dissolved on 10/03/15. Mark Stephenson is free to challenge any of the critical material on him which I've placed on my Website. He's free to challenge and comment on the material below. I'll take into account any comments he makes before I contact the RSA, not, of course, so that the RSA can take any action against him or take away his fellowship, but simply for information: Mark Stephenson is, or claims to be, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, RSA. From the RSA Website:

 

'The RSA Fellowship is a global community of 30,000 proactive problem solvers who share our vision and values,' people in  'a world where everyone is able to participate in creating a better future.' Becoming a Fellow gives the opportunity to 'Contribute to thought-provoking debate.' I've found a complete unwillingness on the part of Mark Stephenson to take part in anything resembling debate. Mark Stephenson's practice is sometimes at variance with these claims - shockingly so.

 

I spoke to Mark Stephenson on 03/10/2020 and found that this is a 'qualified social worker' completely unable on this occasion to handle minimal pressure. I wasn't abusive at any time. To begin with, I spoke quite forcefully, to make it clear to him that his tweet on me, retweeted by Dr Mark Berry of Royal Holloway, amounted to a shocking mistake. He had described me in these terms: 'These people really are pointless and nasty.' He put the phone down. I phoned him again, and gave him the opportunity to comment whilst I listened. He became embarrassed and flustered (my interpretation) and again put the phone down. Before I phoned him, Mark Stephenson's twitter page was freely available. Later in the day, I found this: 'Only approved followers can see @MarkSteph001’s Tweets.' I draw my own conclusions.

 

Some background information about this particular 'pointless and nasty person.'

 

I grew up in a terraced house in Sheffield with no bathroom or indoor toilet. My father was a painter and decorator, often unemployed. My mother was a cleaner. My first job was as a builder's labourer. For a year, I worked in a psychiatric hospital. The work involved wiping the bums of geriatric patients. On one occasion, as I was going to work, I found that they were washing the wheels of a bus with a hosepipe. A very depressed patient I knew had had his head crushed by a wheel of the bus. For a year, I worked as a night porter, with 11 hour shifts.


I've already drawn the attention of Mark Stephenson to my Website www.linkagenet.com and the page where the material on Mark Stephenson can be found, in one of the various sections on Mark Berry: www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm


The page gives a list of recent Google rankings for my site, including these:


ethical depth 1 / 201,000,000

gardening composting water collecting  1 / 37,400,000

structures plant protection support  5 / 344,000,000

gardening bed and board  1 / 385,000,000

 

Mark Berry gave a link to my page on Cambridge University a page which is very wide ranging, discussing topics which have relevance and importance well beyond the confines of Cambridge University. If Mark Stephenson had taken the trouble to follow the link before writing his comment on me - I find it difficult to believe that he did - he will have found, very easily, that amongst the topics I discuss are human rights in Iran, including the stoning to death of people in Iran.

 

My 'nasty and pointless' existence has included work on human rights for Amnesty International over a 20 year period. For most of that time, I was the death penalty co-ordinator of the Sheffield group but I worked on a wide range of other abuses. I successfully persuaded Amnesty Interational to campaign against anti-personnel mines, which cause death and horrific injuries long after a conflict has ended. I've been an active campaigner too in the field of animal rights, with an emphasis on factory farming, (such as the cruel confinement of laying hens in small cages.)

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The RSA Fellowship is a global community of 30,000 proactive problem solvers who share our vision and values.

 

https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join

 

Do you believe in a world where everyone is able to participate in creating a better future? 

Do you want to expand your community, access pioneering research and be supported in your work? 

Join our thriving community of 30,000 changemakers, innovators and entrepreneurs today. As a Fellow, you will be inspired by new ideas, have access to innovative projects, be part of a diverse network of like-minded people, and expand your platform for social change. 

 

Contribute to thought-provoking debate

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54367717

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8800491/Laurence-Fox-says-threatened-group-actors-change-tune-BLM.html

 

I contacted you not long ago to bring to your attention material on Mark Stephenson, an Associate of 'Nurture Development,' on my Website www.linkagenet.com on the page www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm I thought it would be useful to quote the existing material which criticizes Mark Stephenson and which mentions 'Nurture Development.' I stress that my criticism is confined to Mark Stephenson. I have no criticisms to make of 'Nurture Development.' This is the material, which will be revised and extended:

'Mark Berry was unwise to quote this on his Twitter page, Mark Stephenson's opinion of me, based not so much on on slight and slender evidence as non-existent evidence:

Mark Stephenson@MarkSteph001

'God, how awful. These people really are nasty and pointless.'

Mark Stephenson is 'a qualified social worker.' He's an associate at 'Nurture Development' and a Director at 'Tiny Spark Projects and 'Soundingboard Research.' From the Website of 'Nurture Development:'

'At Nurture Development we recognise the value of a good conversation.

'We see ourselves first and foremost as conversation partners – helping to facilitate and precipitate meaningful conversations firstly between citizens within communities, and secondly between communities and the agencies that serve them ... '

Did Mark Stephenson think that calling someone 'nasty and pointless' is an example of 'a good conversation?' I'm one citizen of a community and Mark Stephenson is another citizen. Did Mark Stephenson, Associate of 'Nurture Development,' really think that calling me 'nasty and pointless' is 'to facilitate and precipitate meaningful conversations ... between citizens within communities'? Can he provide any evidence for the claim that I'm 'nasty and pointless?'

I phoned him to bring these matters to his attention. After a short time, he put the phone down. I phoned him again, giving him the chance to defend his actions, whilst I listened. He became obviously embarrassed and flustered - only my own opinion, of course - and again he put the phone down, unless there's another explanation for the loss of the phone signal. He seemed not in the least interested in having a good conversation, a meaningful conversation.'

 

http://www.gardendigest.com/concrete/concr1.pdf

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/amazing-footage-shows-bumpy-ride-4561633

 

Aubrey Allegretti
breeallegretti
Starmer really putting the boot into Corbyn and other ex-Labour leaders: "When you lose an election in a democracy, you deserve to. "You don’t look at the electorate and ask them: 'What were you thinking?' You look at yourself and ask: 'What were we doing?'
Twitter

 

If Royal Holloway's Department of Music insists on the importance of argument and evidence to support a view in musicology and musical history but disregards completely the importance of argument and evidence in spheres other than music, then so much the worse for the Royal Holloway Department of music and the graduates who will have to find their way in a world where different standards are recognized.


In fact, the most prominent page of the Royal Holloway Department of Music does have a prominent section on 'spheres other than music,' as well as the employability of Royal Holloway music graduates in spheres other than music.

 

It contains this, from Dr Henry Stobart, Reader in Ethnomusicology at Royal Holloway Music Department.

 

'It’s quite fun to get students to go through the experiences of rethinking who they are, where they are in the world.'

 

I'd draw attention to the clumsy - incompetent - phrasing, 'to get students to go through the experiences of rethinking ... ' the dismal phrase 'quite fun,' the focus on the fun for the academic, not the benefits to the students, the complete lack of awareness that thinking about the issues he mentions will demand a certain seriousness, that the difficulty shouldn't be underestimated. Musical instrumentalists and singers, the ones who hope to achieve something substantial, don't regard their activity as 'quite fun' but as very, very fulfilling but very, very demanding. Instrumentalists and singers who will remain amateurs very often have so much of the commitment of the musicians who hope to become professionals.

 

The quotation from Henry Stobart comes from a video which should be watched for a fuller understanding of Henry Stobart's view of the wider world which opens up for the lucky Royal Holloway Music Department undergraduate and graduate, according to him. There's a transcript of his homily, including this, on some advantages of a music education at Royal Holloway. Punctuation (lack of) as in the original:

 

' ... people often think that a music degree is only about doing music and that if you study music you will end up as a musician and that's the only reoson you would ever think about doing a music degree and I'd argue no a music degree is a fantastic degree because what it does it opens you up to all these types of issues to do with history to do with anthropology to do with really big complicated ethical issues which we then analyze and really think about critically you learn how to write but you also learn how to play in all songs so you end up with all these sorts of skills which I think are really important for the workplace but in the department we have really excellent colleagues who work on medieval music Renaissance and Baroque music ... ' and other kinds of music, including, in the case of Mark Berry, Wagner.

 

So much in Henry Stobart's piece is wishful thinking, to a large extent. Henry Stobart has Cambridge connections - he's well connected, then. According to his profile, the PhD he was awarded after research at St John's College, Cambridge focused on 'the music of a Quechua speaking herding and agricultural community of Northern Potosí, Bolivia.' Then he had a research fellowship at Darwin College Cambridge, before taking up his post at Royal Holloway. His Cambridge education didn't leave him with much understanding of the issues he mentions. He underestimates the difficulties of dealing with 'really big complicated ethical issues.' One of his 'really excellent colleagues,' Mark Berry, has had no success in dealing with 'really big complicated ethical issues.'

 

 

 

 

https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/author/mark-stephenson/

 

I'm not a fan of Eurphymics. But I think Conny Plank was a genius. This is from a fabulous Plank box set. Le Sinistre :

 

London musici account suspended

 

The Iran Heritage Foundation in London supported Mark Stephenson’s trip to Iran.

 

https://slippedisc.com/2018/04/uk-conductor-is-the-force-behind-san-diegos-new-performance-space/

 

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

 

soundforms


https://www.tes.com/news/conduct-becoming


conductor London musici

 

The 'diverse and contradictory' material in this site covers a very wide range, some of it of journalistic, some of it academic, some of it personal, some of it practical - working with wood, working with metal, working with other materials, designing and constructing buildings, other structures and sometimes machines, the growing of a wide range of plants. Some of it is concerned with aesthetics, some of it is concerned with ethics - with humane values and harshness, unavoidable harshness as well as harshness which can be reduced by reform or technical advances, harshness in peace and  harshness in war,  industry and nature. There are polemical pages but far more non-polemical ones.

 

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ACCC

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/01/yorkshire-lockdown-gold-all-creatures-great-and-small-channel-5-tv-our-farm

 


Laurence Fox

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75f0Ihrr_b4

 

Stobart

 

https://cultureunstained.org/sadiq-khan-letter-2/

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/decisive-rishi-sunak-wins-over-mps-with-coherence-and-leadership-zjslctmll

 

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/banaz-mahmod-honour-sister-police-19011908

 

Francesca Melandri

 

worldometer

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMg3GHAFTW4

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/28/italy-covid-19-response-sweden-coronavirus#comment-144106243

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/27/social-dilemma-media-facebook-twitter-society

 

Jeff Orlowski

The page About this site gives background information, including this, 'The site doesn't have comment sections but comments are always welcome. Emails sent to me won't be released into the public domain, including publication on this site, unless I have the permission of the sender ...  Anyone who emails me can make criticisms or make other comments and the matter will remain private ...' (There are a few exceptions, for compelling reasons:  people with profiles on the pages Abuses of power: education, policing and Israel: defending.)

 

Could there be a more important time to be a historian?

The past is alive, dynamic, controversial and hugely relevant in today’s world. It is about justice and injustice, innovation and continuity, freedom and repression. It is about race and religion, ideas and beliefs, about travel, exploration and discovery, about medicine, sex and death, about architecture and art, literature and music. To be a historian is to be insatiably curious and ready to question, to challenge and to learn.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54303061

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1332041/foreign-aid-uk-taxpayers-money-boris-johnson-government-taxpayers-alliance-foreign-aid

 

julian.horton@durham.ac.uk

 

Geoffrey Kabaservice

 

https://theartsdesk.com/tv/bernard-haitink-enigmatic-maestro-bbc-two-review-saying-goodbye-bruckner

 

https://boulezian.blogspot.com/2019/03/happy-90th-birthday-bernard-haitink.html

 

https://harun-yahya.net/en/Articles/106478/prof-robert-davis-from-glasgow

 

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/music/

 

PhD (1996) at St John's College, Cambridge focused on the music of a Quechua speaking herding and agricultural community of Northern Potosí, Bolivia. Following a research fellowship at Darwin College Cambridge

 

Reader in Ethnomusicology

Dr Henry Stobart

It’s quite fun to get students to go through the experiences of rethinking who they are, where they are in the world

 

My Website www.linkagenet.com  has pages on a very wide range of topics. My page on Cambridge University  www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm   has very critical sections on Dr Mark Berry, educated at Cambridge University. Royal Holloway is mentioned frequently in these sections - all the statements of Dr Berry I criticize were written whilst whilst at Royal Holloway, not at Cambridge - but my aim is to criticize Dr Berry, not to criticize the Royal Holloway Music Department or any other academics at Royal Holloway. My Website does have very high Google rankings for a very wide range of search terms, including some to do with this page.

 

I  begin the first section by commenting on a recent remark of Dr Berry in his blog Boulezian:

 

' ... reception of the chalice, more bitterly poisoned than ever, bearing the name ‘Head of the Department of Music’ for the next three years. (There are baptisms of fire, and there are baptisms of March 2020.)'


and what it reveals about his view of this new role, assumed at a difficult time when strong leadership is needed: only a weak, clueless leader would put these thoughts into the public domain, surely. After that, I comment on many of his tweets, beginning with this

  

'Surely it is time for the entirety of the civil service to go on strike. Bring this rotten, fascist government down for good.'

 

and what it reveals about his attitude to democratic government and his grasp of  realities, of what is possible and what is impossible. I point out that a Civil Service strike would be calamitous for everyone. For example, since the Civil Service is responsible for payment of benefits and pensions among a very large number of other responsibilities, the effects of a strike on people who receive benefits and pensions, a very large number, would be disastrous.

 

So many of the tweets amount to a torrent of abuse, a sustained display of ignorance,  raising disturbing questions about this academic, I believe. I provide the evidence for my belief.


I think that important issues are involved. I'm contacting staff members of the Music Department at Royal Holloway but also a wide range of other people.


The page, like many others, is wide as well as long: Large Page Design. The material on Dr Berry is in the second column of the page. It can be read on the small screen of a portable device but the use of a monitor is preferable.

 

Obviously, no reply is expected to this email.


Best Wishes,


Paul Hurt

 

 

 

https://thecritic.co.uk    Graham Stewart

 

http://www.operatoday.com/content/2019/11/an_hypnotic_dea.php

 

John Bridcut

 

idagio

 

Fanciful and far-fetched

André Breton  the glass of water in the storm surrealists

the harmfulness of Mark Berry the Negligible - the drop of water in the catastrophic deluge - negligible, but adding bulk


the strengths and faults of Mark Berry: a small quantity of pure water adulterated with large quantities of sewage

 

Mark Berry, the water of interest only to dipsomaniacs

 his abusive tweets - the faecal solids floating in the watery waste


Dear Bob Davis,

I'm not an academic. Amongst other things, I'm a manual worker - my first job was as a builder's labourer - a worker with steel, sheet metal, wood and other materials, based in Sheffield - and, also, a writer on poetry, politics, including the politics of Mark Berry - ignorant and disastrously misguided - activism (in politics, 'human rights' and animal welfare - and religion. Not forgetting a design for a swift box, making available a nesting box for swifts which avoids all the problems of installing conventional swift boxes, to give help to these magnificent birds. (Talking of magnificent birds, I'm so pleased that a bearded vulture has been seen and photographed not so far from where I live, just across the border with Derbyshire.)

My Website is at www.linkagenet.com This Home Page shows something of the variety of the site. The page which contains my criticism of Mark Berry and his politics - very detailed criticism - is at www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm.
The page is about much more than the failings of Mark Berry and the failings of Cambridge University. Amongst other things, it contains criticism of Christians. There's another page on the site with much more criticism, www.linkagenet.com/themes/christian-religion.htm
The page on Cambridge University (which also makes clear my misgivings about some aspects of university education, my contempt for some aspects of university education) also gives a long list of some recent Google rankings for the site for search terms which include these:

ethical depth 1 / 201,000,000

Cambridge University excellence stupidity  1 / 4,010,000

religion remembrance redemption  6 / 2,290,000

If you've got the time, you could take a look at the site. No reply needed to this email, of course - again, I recognize the demands on your time.

This is a copy of an email I've sent to members of the Music Department at Royal Holloway, financer of Mark Berry's trips to Bayreuth and Berlin. I've sent emails to many more people - I think that important issues are involved here, including important ethical and political and educational issues:

 

My Website www.linkagenet.com  has pages on a very wide range of topics. My page on Cambridge University  www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm   has very critical sections on Dr Mark Berry, educated at Cambridge University and presently at Royal Holloway.
I think that important issues are involved. I've contacted already a wide range of people, including  staff members of the Music Department at Royal Holloway.


The page, like many others, is wide as well as long: Large Page Design. The material on Dr Berry is in the second column of the page. It can be read on the small screen of a portable device but the use of a monitor is preferable.

 

Obviously, no reply is expected to this email.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Paul Hurt






Dear Dr Thérèse Coffey,

My Website www.linkagenet.com has a very extensive page on Cambridge University www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm

which includes material on other universities. In the second column of the page, there's a long section on Dr Mark Berry of the Music Department at Royal Holloway. Amongst the tweets I discuss and criticize is this shocking example (there are many other shocking instances):

'Surely it is time for the entirety of the civil service to go on strike. Bring this rotten, fascist government down for good.'

I give multiple objections to this tweet (and many other shocking tweets of Dr Berry.) I quote from your statement to Parliament about the DWP's response to Coronavirus, your heartening and fully justified praise for the civil service. (5 May, 2020.) I'd like now to thank you most warmly for your very impressive work during the Coronavirus epidemic, as at other times.

In the page cited, I concentrate on criticism but I make it clear that I see the need to restrict criticism, not for the sake of censorship but for fair mindedness, to do justice to the massive achievement of universities. Universities are places where there are many ideologists but also many, many people whose work is untainted by distorting ideologies. I include scientists. My own higher education included Chemistry, but, I have to say, not at anything like your high level of achievement.
In the third column of the page, I give a list of recent Google rankings for the site, including this, for the search term 'ethical depth:' 1 / 201,000,000.
Since you have an interest in gardening, these rankings may perhaps be of interest:

gardening composting water collecting  1 / 37,400,000

structures plant protection support  5 / 344,000,000

gardening bed and board  1 / 385,000,000


The Home Page of the site gives links to my gardening pages. Many pages of the site are wide as well as long: Large Page Design. They should preferably be viewed on a monitor rather than the small screen of a portable device.


I'm not a constituent of yours and no reply to this email is expected.


Best Wishes,


Paul Hurt

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/news.nsf/articles/DWPs+response+to+coronavirus+COVID19+05052020142000?open

 

The Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) yesterday made an oral statement to Parliament about the DWP's response to coronavirus (COVID-19).

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement updating the House on the work of my department.

I want to pay tribute to the civil servants in my department as well as contractors and partners who have been working tirelessly to provide help and support to those in need. They are the hidden heroes for many people in this country. They should take great pride in their hard work and dedication to supporting people through these difficult times.

Since 16 March to the end of April, we have received over 1.8 million claims for Universal Credit, over 250,000 claims for Jobseeker’s Allowance, and over 20,000 claims for Employment and Support Allowance.

Overall, this is 6 times the volume that we would typically experience and in one week, we had a 10-fold increase. The rate for Universal Credit claims appears to have stabilised at about 20, 000 to 25,000 per day which is double that of a standard week pre-COVID-19. I am pleased that my department is standing up to the challenge.

We have redeployed significant number of DWP staff (about 8,000) and from other government departments (about 500 so far) in order to process these claims. Our payment timeliness for Universal Credit is running at a record high.

We have also issued almost 700,000 advances to claimants who felt they could not wait for their first routine payment and the vast majority of these claimants received money within 72 hours.

 

https://royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/research/research-environment/research-institutes-and-centres/gender-institute/gender-institute-people/

 

school of humanities 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8765955/James-Herriots-children-reveal-truth-Creatures-Great-Small-series-lifts-spirits.html

 

Alexei Navalny

 

http://www.greatworks.org.uk/links.html

 

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/Admin/Sitelinks.php

 

https://tweettunnel.com/boulezian

 

https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/

 

James Heappey MP

 

https://twitter.com/rachshabi/status/1308292591255875584

 

 

https://brooklynrail.org/2019/09/music/Mark-Berrys-Arnold-Schoenberg

 

GEORGE GRELLA is the publisher of the Big City Blog

 

https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/music/diary-of-a-mad-composer-met-opera

 

https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/music/diary-of-a-mad-composer-met-opera

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/money-corbyn-paid-iran-2016-7?r=US&IR=T

 

'Business Insider writer Adam Payne reported yesterday that Corbyn made a series of paid appearances on Iran's Press TV despite the fact that Press TV reporters had filmed the forced confession of a torture victim, broadcast in Iran. Corbyn even appeared on Press TV after it had been investigated and banned from the UK by Ofcom, the government TV regulator, for its links to the torture-confession broadcast. 

 

'We have repeatedly requested an explanation of Corbyn's relationship with the Iranian state broadcaster and his team declined to comment. We welcome their input if Corbyn changes his mind.'

 

Jeremy Corbyn's registered interests as an MP show he received £20,000 for appearances he made on Press TV.

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/21/from-scandal-to-pr-cock-up-how-the-boris-johnson-perugia-mystery-unravelled

 

 

 

 

My Website www.linkagenet.com  has pages on a very wide range of topics. My page on Cambridge University  www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm   has very critical sections on Dr Mark Berry, educated at Cambridge University. My Website has very high Google rankings for a very wide range of search terms, including some to do with this page.

 

The opening paragraph of the first section:

'Mark Berry's contrasts and contradictions are shocking and extreme, like those of  Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.' The emphasis in the novella is on moral good and evil. The good and evil in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde have no counterpart in the character of Mark Berry. Instead, we find (I think I can show very easily that the evidence is overwhelming) a  contradiction between many of his tweets, disturbing, disastrously misguided, and his academic writing, on the music of Wagner and other composers, his co-editing (with Nicholas Vazsonyi) of 'The Cambridge Companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, his concert reviews on his Boulezian blog, his writing on music on other sites. I've been reading the blog for years, finding faults there, such as stilted language on occasion, but much more often, I've appreciated his comments, conveyed in language not in the least stilted. Cambridge University educated and Royal Holloway employs, then, Dr Mark Jekyllberry and Mr Mark Hydeberry.'

 

The sections can be found in the second column of the page. The page is quite wide as well as long: Large Page Design. The content of the sections on Dr Berry can be viewed on the small screen of a portable device but viewing on a monitor is preferable.

 

Obviously, no reply to this email is expected.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk/links.html

 

 

 

https://www.timeout.com/london/opera-classical-music/barry-millington-interview

 

 

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1062&context=musicalofferings

 

 

My Website www.linkagenet.com  has pages on a very wide range of topics. My page on Cambridge University  www.linkaget.com/themes/cambridge-university.htm   has very critical sections on Dr Mark Berry, who was educated at Cambridge University. Royal Holloway is mentioned frequently in these sections - all the statements of Dr Berry I criticize were written whilst at Royal Holloway, not at Cambridge - but my aim is not to criticize the Music Department but simply Dr Berry, and no other academics at Royal Holloway. My Website has very high Google rankings for a very wide range of search terms, including some to do with this page.

 

I  begin by commenting on a recent remark of Dr Berry's in his blog Boulezian:

 

' ... reception of the chalice, more bitterly poisoned than ever, bearing the name ‘Head of the Department of Music’ for the next three years. (There are baptisms of fire, and there are baptisms of March 2020.)'


and what it reveals about his view of this new role, assumed at a difficult time when strong leadership is needed: only a weak, clueless leader would put these thoughts into the public domain, surely. After that, I comment on many of his tweets, beginning with this

  

'Surely it is time for the entirety of the civil service to go on strike. Bring this rotten, fascist government down for good.'

 

and what it reveals about his attitude to democratic government and his grasp of  realities, of what is possible and what is impossible. I point out that a Civil Service strike would be calamitous for everyone. For example, since the Civil Service is responsible for payment of benefits and pensions among a very large number of other responsibilities, the effects of a strike on people who receive benefits and pensions, a very large number, would be very severe.

 

The tweets amount to a torrent of abuse, a sustained display of ignorance,  raising disturbing questions about this academic, I believe, on the basis of  comprehensive evidence, evidence which seems overwhelming to me.


I think that important issues are involved. I'm contacting staff members of the Music Department at Royal Holloway but also a wide range of other people.


The page, like many others, is wide as well as long: Large Page Design. The material on Dr Berry is in the second column of the page. It can be read on the small screen of a portable device but the use of a monitor is preferable.

 

Obviously, no reply is expected to this email.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Berry has lectured on subjects ranging from political culture at Louis XIV’s Versailles to European Marxism and music after 1945. His research has tended to draw upon his interests in both History and Music, as well as upon other disciplines, such as Philosophy, Theology, Art and Architectural History, and Literature.

Treacherous Bonds and Laughing Fire: Politics and Religion in Wagner’s ‘Ring’ was published by Ashgate in 2006. For his work on Wagner he has received the Prince Consort Prize and the Seeley Medal. He has recently written a number of articles for the Cambridge Wagner Encyclopaedia, published in 2013; they range from short biographical pieces to essays on topics such as 'German History', 'Morality', and 'Politics'. Dr Berry is also co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Wagner's 'Ring'.

Whilst maintaining and furthering his interests in Wagner, subsequent research has also looked back towards the eighteenth century, including treatment of Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, and forward to the twentieth century.

Dr Berry has recently been writing a history of political music-drama from Parsifal onwards, whose concerns include Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Luigi Dallapiccola, Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Nono, and operatic production. His interest as an intellectual historian of idealist and Marxist traditions thus combines with his musicological interest in post-Wagnerian musical drama. Ultimately, the question revolves around the very possibility of writing, performing, and emancipating ‘opera’ in late-capitalist society. After Wagner: Histories of Modernist Music Drama from 'Parsifal' to Nono is scheduled to be published by Boydell and Brewer in 2014.

Mark Berry regularly reviews concert and opera performances, both in London and abroad, especially in France, Germany, and Austria. These often attempt to combine his research interests with imperatives of live performance and theatrical production, and may be found, alongside other material, on his blog. He writes regularly for The Wagner Journal, which he has guest edited (November 2013), as well as Times Higher Education, Music and Letters, and various other journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter gives people a variety of tools to control their experience, including blocking. Blocking helps people in restricting specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their Tweets, and following them. If you have been blocked by another account on Twitter, you can still block other accounts (including any that have blocked you).

 

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yiwWoCrHX7EC&pg=PA61&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

https://www.civilservant.org.uk/skills-crises.html

 

 

 

https://www.civilservant.org.uk/skills-crises.html

 

Mark Berry will have a prominent place in my Guide to the Morons of the British Isles (if I ever write it.) The guide will make use of a culinary term to describe morons of his kind:

Mérite un détour. The Michelin Guide uses the term to describe restaurants it's worth going out of your way to visit. The Guide to the Morons of the British Isles will us it in the opposite sense: you should make a wide détour to avoid encountering his offerings, stale, predictable, routine, rehashed rubbish. Although Mark Berry isn't a complete moron but a frustrating and irritating blend - part sophisticate, part moron.

 

Mark Berry, like many other academics, can be relied upon to sign high minded documents critical of Israel. From my page on Israel:

 

Anti-Israel action, including BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) action, would almost certainly have these results, if successful: the replacement of Israel by a state with vastly less enlightened policies in such areas as the ones mentioned above, a state which would be militarily very weak - unable to prevent invasion by  forces which are completely ruthless - and the  slaughter of Jews on a massive scale.

Israeli power prevents the incursion of forces into the Palestinian territories which are vastly less enlightened than the Israeli state, just as British power prevented the invasion of the Irish Republic by the Nazis during the Second World War. Irish nationalist ideology ('nobody has suffered like the Irish and there are no oppressors as bad as the British') and Palestinian ideology ('nobody has suffered like the Palestinians and there are no oppressors as bad as the Israelis') have significant linkages.

The evidence is that the conditions needed for the establishment of a successful democratic Palestinian state, such as a concern for freedom of speech, are largely lacking. If the external enemy, Israel, were ever to  disappear and a Palestinian state became a reality, then it's likely that there would be internal conflict and power struggles within the Palestinian state, perhaps pursued by violent means, such as suicide bombing, rather than peaceful decision-making after free debate.

A Palestinian state  would still be vulnerable, at risk of invasion by a much stronger state or organization. The call to 'stop arming Israel,' if successful, would be disastrous for Palestinians as well as Israelis. An Israel without the means to defend itself would be attacked very quickly, to be followed by slaughter of Jews on a massive scale. It's overwhelmingly unikely that the territory of a Palestinian state with only its own forces available for defence, in the absence of powerful Israeli forces, would be respected. It's overwhelmingly likely that in this volatile region, a Palestinian state denied the power of the Israeli forces would be invaded, by another state or by a non-state power. People who have lived under the domination of ISIS will have no illusions about the barbarities which are possible when a non-state power takes control of a territory. Anti-Israel activists and their uncritical supporters are in the grip of illusion: they ignore political and military realities in the region.

 

-->

Updates, including Mark Berry's deletions of tweets etc, if any

 

 

 

From the Royal Hollaway Department of Music Staff Handbook,

 

https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/music/documents/pdf/handbooks/music-staff-handbook-2017-18-rev.pdf

 

Frm the section, 'Standard procedures with respect to assessment. Undergraduate marking criteria:'

 

'Third-Class Honours (III)

 

Essays

 

There is some attempt to deal with the issues but the result is one-sided and unsubstantiated, relying on over-generalisation.'

 

The Mark Berry tweets quoted in this section is surely far below the standard of Third-Class Honours. The standard is 'Fail. Abysmal Fail.'

 

He makes no attempt to deal with the issues. Again and again he resorts to flagrant generalization.

 

The Handbook has a section on 'Email Protocols' which includes this:

 

'Don't include anything in an email which will cause embarrassment if revealed - emails can be disclosed in any legal process.'

 

And this:

 

'Don't include personal or other abuse in messages.'

 

There are no recommendations concerning use of Twitter, no warnings on tweets which will cause embarrassment, no warnings on tweets which contain personal or other abuse. The reckless, embarrassing, abusive tweets of Mark Berry (a sub-set of his tweets, but a very signiciant sub-set) are ones that belong to his personal life rather than his professional life as an academic but they have obviously the potential to damage his standing and reputation in academic life.

 

It seems that Royal Holloway is stuck with him, unless Mark Berry decides to leave. Only the poorest first year undergraduates who have been accepted by Royal Holloway have views as grotesquely unreal as the ones promoted by Mark Berry in the tweets quoted in this section - I would hope. I would hope that music students at Royal Holloway graduate not just with a vastly more developed knowledge of music and vastly improved musical skills but with a vastly more developed appreciation of wider intellectual (and emotional) issues. How they can possibly learn anything about these wider skills from Mark Berry is more than doubtful.

 

 

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/coronavirus-pandemic-significant-moment-civil-service-reform

 

 

 

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/about-us/

 

 

The Civil Service delivers public services and supports the government of the day to develop and implement its policies.

The work civil servants do touches all aspects of life in the UK, from education and the environment, to transport and defence.

 

Civil servants are politically impartial.

 

 

 

 

 

The site doesn't provide much information about me. This information may or may not be useful:

 

I'm a Cambridge University alumnus, admitted to read an Arts subject. I was successful in the Part 1 Tripos exams and could have continued to Part 2 in the same subject, or I could have changed subject. Instead, I decided to leave Cambridge.  I won't explain my reasons - I didn't at the time regard Cambridge University as I regard it now - but the decision was a good one. To have continued would have been a bad mistake.

 

 

After that, I came back to Sheffield and had a variety of jobs, all of them unskilled work. My first job was as a builder's labourer. My background is working-class. I grew up in a terraced house with no luxuries whatever, lacking, in fact, basic amenities that would generally be regarded as essential.

 

Eventually, I returned to University, the New University of Ulster, and managed to graduate.

 

 

 

Some personal information - minimal:

 

I'm a Cambridge University alumnus. My first job was as a builder's labourer. My background is working class, and not in the least prosperous working class. After this and a variety of other jobs, all unskilled, I studied at the New University of Ulster. The course unit system allowed me, like other people, to put together an eclectic course. The most important subjects of my course were Biology and Philosophy, along with subsidiary Chemistry. After that I taught Biology, Physics and General Science, sometimes Chemistry, and sometimes other subjects. For most of the time, my teaching was part-time.

 

 





https://antisemitism.uk/?s=%22jeremy+corbyn%22

' ... the hacktivist group known as Anonymous posted a picture of an antisemitic mural on Facebook ... The mural, called Freedom for Humanity, was widely perceived as antisemitic, and was eventually removed ... Jeremy Corbyn was heavily criticised when it transpired that he had defended the mural.

The JC is reporting that the woman behind a crowdfunder that has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal expenses is involved with a company that aims to “end the politicisation of Jewish suffering”.

According to Companies House, Carole Morgan, who set up the crowdfunder on Go Fund Me, is one of two persons with significant control over Truth Defence Ltd, a new company incorporated to administer the funds. It is understood that the other person with significant control, Andrew Feinstein, is reportedly a member of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour.

On its Facebook page, Truth Defence describes itself as “We are a collective of Jewish lawyers, creatives, journalists, academics and citizens seeking to correct the historical record on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party and end the politicisation of Jewish suffering.”

The crowdfunder was not set up with Mr Corbyn’s endorsement, but it is understood that his office is in contact with Ms Morgan.

Mr Corbyn is being sued by the journalist John Ware for defamation. Another defamation case, brought by the Jewish activist Richard Millet, is also underway. The claimants are being represented by Mark Lewis, an esteemed media lawyer who is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism previously reported that the crowdfunder received money from donors calling themselves “Adolf Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer” and that donors posted horrendous comments on the page when making donations.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

 

J

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSkPj1eIykM

 

 

https://ausveg.com.au/biosecurity-agrichemical/crop-protection/overview-pests-diseases-disorders/weeds/

 

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/readers-letters-why-doesnt-scotland-ban-alcohol-altogether-3256654

 

https://studentnewspaper.org/article/the-controversies-of-the-scottish-parliament-10-years-on

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRi6bQIstZQ

 

https://theconversation.com/au

 

https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-media-reporting-on-israel-palestine-there-is-nowhere-to-hide-160992

 

https://www.afr.com/politics/what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about-the-business-of-mangling-language-20050212-j6zly

 

https://theconversation.com/organic-farming-gets-a-bad-rap-why-it-shouldnt-65736

 

https://theconversation.com/are-common-garden-chemicals-a-health-risk-65643

 

https://twitter.com/SheffYield?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Agardenorganicuk%7Ctwgr%5EeyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gardenorganic.org.uk%2Ffaqs%2Fbindweed-vegetable-plot

 

sheff-yield   Jana Kalalova    Grantham Centre

 

Colin Osborne

 

http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/practical-organic-growing/

 

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/organic-september-2020

 

 

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/organic-september-2020

 

https://inroadsjournal.ca/british-labours-safe-pair-of-hands/

 

She is a longstanding advocate for Palestinian rights, and has condemned arms sales to Israel, the Gaza blockade and the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. However, she also firmly defends Israel’s right to exist and was a tough critic of Corbyn’s failure to come to grips with anti-Semitism.

 

https://theconversation.com/official-world-war-i-memorial-rituals-could-create-a-generation-uncritical-of-the-conflict-60384

 

https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=2276

 

 

The Conversation

Communicating doctoral research
Chris Waiting - Chief Executive

 

 

Communicating doctoral research

Lifecycle of a story
Pitch
Commission
Write
Publish
Re-publish
Analyse

 

Communicating doctoral research
Why doctoral researchers?

Any qualified academic can publish
Non-hierarchical
Not tied to publication
Public benefit & Professional value

 

Communicating doctoral research
How we work

 

Public Engagement

- Improves debate
- Pathway to impact

 

 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/life-cycle

 

'The series of changes that a living thing goes through from the beginning of its life until death

 

'Many of these technological products have only a very short life cycle

 

 

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lifecycle.asp

 

Business Essentials

What Is a Life Cycle?

A life cycle is a course of events that brings a new product into existence and follows its growth into a mature product and eventual critical mass and decline. The most common steps in the life cycle of a product include product development, market introduction, growth, maturity, and decline/stability.

 

 

https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-media-reporting-on-israel-palestine-there-is-nowhere-to-hide-160992

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Freedland

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/21/israel-opinion-western-attitudes-middle-east

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/22/anti-semitic-chants-nazi-symbols-overshadow-pro-palestine-marches/

 

Henry II echo down the centuries: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights took their king literally, and assassinated Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

 

https://theconversation.com/eurovision-uk-quitting-the-song-contest-would-only-be-bad-for-brand-britain-117758

 

https://theconversation.com/profiles/priyamvada-gopal-198822

 

https://theconversation.com/allo-allo-brits-left-tongue-tied-by-their-language-problems-17170

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/24/the-guardian-view-on-belarus-a-line-has-been-crossed

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/israel-buried-80-hamas-fighters-24176380

 

Stephen Toope

 

Dr Jill Edmondson

 

Institute for sustainable food

 

https://theconversation.com/bullfighting-what-i-found-during-a-year-on-breeding-estates-52589

 

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-57232375

 

https://m.facebook.com/rickygervais/posts/1199432276847790?comment_id=1199435313514153&reply_comment_id=136495164126356

 

https://uk.newschant.com/uk-news/binmen-union-submits-emergency-motion-in-support-of-suspended-batley-teacher/

 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8567281/Bloodied-bull-dies-agony-Spain-holds-bullfights-coronavirus-lockdown.html

 

Daniel Garcia Navarette

 

https://m.facebook.com/rickygervais/posts/575277472596610?comment_id=252561838539390&reply_comment_id=688966101228044

 

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/letters-to-the-editor-baddiels-idea-of-humour-is-completely-baffling/

 

https://www.haaretz.com/1.5141787

 

https://www.soas.ac.uk/history/conferences/war-horses-conference-2014/file94551.pdf

 

 

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/462/05-beckles.pdf

 

Rachel Beckles Willson

 

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/rachel-beckles-willson(f1f3873e-1e0a-4070-ae43-9c0f3d433d1d).html

 

https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff142756.php

 

https://west-eastern-divan.org/event/plaza-de-toros-de-la-maestranza/2006_08_08_1900

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzzHxuvaUNo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR2-PrVrDWw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFP0MXrw9o8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxL4bpMrBHo

 

https://www.barenboim-said.es/en/

 

https://west-eastern-divan.org/contact

 

The orchestra has performed around the world. It has an annual summer school in Seville. Since 2002, the Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government of Andalusia) and a private foundation have provided a base for the ensemble in Seville, Spain. Young musicians from Spain now also take part in the orchestra.

The West–Eastern Divan Workshop takes place during several weeks each summer in Andalucia. Once the working period is over, the concert tour of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra starts. The orchestra has been awarded several prizes since its creation, among them the Príncipe de Asturias concord award in 2002 for Said and Barenboim, and the Premium Imperiale awarded by the Japan Arts Association.

In 2004, the Barenboim–Said Foundation, based in Seville and financed by the Junta de Andalucía was established with the purpose of developing several education through music projects based on the principles of coexistence and dialogue promoted by Said and Barenboim. In addition to managing the orchestra, the Barenboim–Said Foundation assists with other projects such as the Academy of Orchestral Studies, the Musical Education in Palestine project and the Early Childhood Musical Education Project in Seville.





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/19/hard-power-europes-military-drift-causes-alarm

Labour Friends of Palestine

10 / 5,210,000

Alejandro Vergara, the exhibition’s curator


https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/velazquez-rembrandt-vermeer-parallel-visions/7ca4f41d-c9d1-2615-8a81-e2d017ab9757

Velázquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer. Parallel visions

Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid 6/25/2019 - 9/29/2019

 

https://www.codart.nl/spotlights/alejandro-vergara/

 

Hispanic Studies Editor of Modern Language Review

 

https://whiterose.ac.uk/

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9602511/DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-Oxford-college-refused-woke-mob.html

 

June 2020

 

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/june-2020/death-of-a-maestro/

 

When Joselito was nine, he leapt into the makeshift plaza at a local festival to deliver a perfect pair of short banderillas (the wooden sticks covered in coloured paper that are placed high in a charging bull’s shoulders). Word of the Mozartian child prodigy spread. By the time he was twelve, Joselito was performing professionally.

 

ould applaud any more: their hands were too sore. No one could cheer any more, only croak like frogs. It would take a Cervantes to do justice to what we witnessed.”

“I have no adjectives left to describe this young man’s glory. I shall leave blank spaces for the rest of this column: it’s up to the reader to fill them.”

“As Beethoven is to music, so is Joselito to toreo. Such geniuses come along only every 300 years.”

Except that, by the oddest quirk of fate, a second such genius appeared at precisely that moment. Juan Belmonte’s was also from Seville, and had learned his bull craft by sneaking into nearby pastures to cape the fighting stock by moonlight.

 

ableau is constantly presented to the crowd.

The years that followed are known to a aficionados as the Golden Age. While the rest of Europe slogged through the Great War, Spaniards divided into two artistic camps. Everyone was either a joselista or a belmontista. Aficionados put images of their preferred idol in their windows, or wore them on their lapels. Tallies were kept of the ears each man cut.

 

 

 

 

Belmonte Joselito 

BELMONTE Y JOSELITO Documental.

 

4:00 6:34  6:52 7:06 7:24 7:26 8:00

 

killing  12:30 - 12:38

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk0y5xMlyKA

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95saZfNXJrU

 

Daniel Luque con el estoque puerta grande en las ventas Madrid 5 de junio 2014

 

https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/stafflist?query=&new_categoryID=6

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/april-2021/the-ring-master/

April 2021

In the pro-bullfighting literature, appealing to the authority of cultured aficionados from past and present (Federico García Lorca, Ernest Hemingway, Mario Vargas Llosa) is a fast track to respectability. Francis Bacon is mentioned occasionally, but his British passport and understated presence in bullrings go some way to explaining why his name doesn’t come up more.

As his most quoted aphorism on the subject — “Bullfighting is like boxing, a marvellous aperitif to sex” — intimates, neither his work nor his life invites respectability by association. He gave short shrift to anti-bullfighting sentiment:

“When you go into a butcher’s shop and see how beautiful meat can be and then you think about it, you can think of the whole horror of life — of one thing living off another. It’s like all those stupid things that are said about bullfighting. Because people will eat meat and then complain about bullfighting; they will go in and complain about bullfighting covered with furs and with birds in their hair.”

The Royal Academy’s postponed “Francis Bacon: Man and Beast” exhibition will hopefully draw greater attention to the role of animals in his oeuvre. With the publication of a fine new biography by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan (reviewed by Christopher Bray in The Critic last month), and Max Porter’s fictional diary of Bacon’s final days in Madrid, the time is ripe to flesh out the importance of the corrida for the artist’s life and work.

Bacon was exposed to the violence of animals and humans from a young age

Born in rural Ireland in 1909 to a father who was a Boer War veteran turned racehorse trainer, Bacon was exposed to the violence of animals and humans from a young age. The hunt was as ubiquitous a part of his childhood as bullfighting was for many of the masters of Hispanic art. Francisco de Goya claimed to have fought bulls in his youth, and his Self Portrait in the Studio (1790-1795) presents the artist working in what appears to be a stylish matador’s garb. The Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945) created bullfighting scenes from observance and experience. He was making good progress in the Carmona bullfighting school until a serious goring led him to abandon the ring. Shortly after he attended his first corrida aged eight, Picasso’s painting Le petit picador honed in on the horse-riding members of the matador’s team. Apropos watching a badly-gored horse being carried out of the ring, the adult Picasso commented to Sir John Richardson: “These horses are the women in my life.” The Colombian figurative artist Fernando Botero attended bullfighting school in his native Medellín, where he learnt the basics of tauromachy and began to sketch for the first time.

Bacon’s chronic asthma made such physical exertions off-limits but he repurposed the theatricality of the corrida in his own inimitable fashion. Stevens and Swan quote the director of the Tate John Rothenstein’s impression of Bacon at the after-party for his first retrospective at the gallery in the early 1960s: “Instead of wearing his black leather coat he swung it about as a toreador his cloak.” Years later, a photograph of a matador preening himself in the mirror before heading out to the ring provided the point of departure for Bacon’s Study for Portrait of Gilbert de Botton (1986).

As David Sylvester notes: “No serious painter has owed so much to the photograph as Bacon.” He kept more than 56 taurine images and books in his studio, including Robert Daley’s illustrated book about matadors, Swords of Spain. Bacon possibly attended his first corrida in Madrid on route to Tangiers in 1958 before developing a more serious interest through his trips to the South of France and Spain during the 1960s. In a letter dated 25 January 1966, Bacon wrote to his friend the French surrealist painter and ethnographer Michel Leiris to acknowledge receipt of a taurine tract Leiris published in 1938: “For weeks I have been meaning to write to thank you for sending me your superb Miroir de la Tauromachie. I am very happy to have it.”

Writing in Paris in autumn 1937, when bullfighting in Spain had been suspended because of the Civil War, Leiris contended that the ritual for matador and audience alike constituted a quest for transcendence, an eroticised release from “the feeling of a diminished, castrated life” so typical, he thought, of the present day. Leiris provided a connection to both Europe and the past during the 1960s, a period in which Bacon felt increasingly out of sync with the artistic trends and social mores of swinging London. The earliest extant painting by Bacon to feature a bull is Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne in a Street in Soho (1967). The beast is positioned in the background, looming behind the subject of the portrait as a portent of danger. The corrida then comes into the foreground in Study for Bullfight No. 1 and Study for Bullfight No. 2, both from 1969.

Two years later, Bacon followed in Picasso’s footsteps to become only the second living artist to be honoured with a retrospective at Paris’s Grand Palais. The Spanish art historian Manuela B. Mena Marqués wrote: “It is difficult to understand why Bacon, or the organisers, chose for the poster of this decisive exhibition a singularly Spanish painting: Study for Bullfight No. 1. Perhaps to highlight the differences with Picasso?”

There may be a kernel of truth in this explanation for the prominence afforded to what is not considered to be among Bacon’s finest works. Nonetheless, the implicit suggestion that the subject matter might be considered parochial underplays the extent to which Spain’s so-called national fiesta was a source of fascination for Bacon and others. Photographs from the Paris opening night show Bacon in conversation with André Masson, the French surrealist painter whose Bull Fight (1936) and Bullfighting (1937) predated Guernica and Picasso’s use of taurine mythology and iconography to engage with the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. Also present was Salvador Dalí, who had recently completed work on The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1969-1970). The Catalan-born surrealist delighted in the spectacle of the corrida. Inhabitants of his hometown of Figueres were exasperated by his making the opening of a museum in his honour conditional on theatrical homages such as a proposal for a surrealist corrida in which the recently-slaughtered bull would be airlifted out by helicopter.

Bacon took both painting and bullfighting more seriously. He identified with the figure of the matador who, in a split-second, can switch from commanding his opponent and the crowd to being gored or booed. He who recoils from danger will not create art, talent and the possibility of the sublime only occur when the stakes are high. To quote Lorca: “The bull has his orbit, the bullfighter his and between these two orbits there is a danger point, the vertex of the terrible game.”

At his peak, Bacon was an extremely unusual case of willpower, instinct and risk providing an adequate substitute for technical training. He thought nothing of throwing paint at a canvas even if it risked all the work achieved thus far. Bacon’s lack of formal training meant he had little to fall back on when calculated recklessness failed to cast a spell. His failures were, however, carefully kept private. In 1978, a workman stole a painting of a bullfighting scene from Bacon’s London studio at 7 Reece Mews, Kensington. It was later retrieved by the police. The artist paid a reward and then cut the painting up and threw it into a dustbin.

No such luxury of self-curation is afforded to matadors, public performers subject to the mercurial violence of bulls and the assembled masses. Bullfighters are an embodiment of how readily the powerful can be rendered powerless, the perfect embodiment of an abiding preoccupation in Bacon’s artistic vision.

There are few indications about the number of corridas Bacon might have witnessed. An undated postcard he sent to Leiris from the late 1980s makes reference to staying on for a corrida as if this were an unsurprising but not necessarily routine activity.

Bacon would surely have delighted in the taurine museum of Bilbao’s bullring where woodworm is rife and the heads of champion bulls have gone mouldy

Andrés Amorós, the taurine critic for the ABC newspaper, recalls that Bacon was seen at Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring, but that the painter was not integrated into taurine circles, an impression shared by matadors active in the late 1980s to whom I have spoken. Stevens and Swan suggest the stairs and uncomfortable seating discouraged him from attending more.

Bacon was much more comfortable in his Madrid drinking-hole of choice, Bar Cock, modelled on a private English club, which prided itself on its cultural clientele. For a time, it had “Susan Sontag was here” graffiti outside. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Madrid replaced Paris and Berlin as Bacon’s European city of choice. Good weather and the presence of José Capelo, his last great love, contextualise the attraction to a culture that had long inspired him.

The influence of Velázquez — theatrically rendered by Bacon as “Belathqueth” as he became more acclimatised to speaking in Spanish — and Picasso throughout his career cannot be understated. As can be seen in Crucifixion, 1933 (1964), for example, Guernica was a touchstone for Bacon’s seething empathy with the centurion’s horse at the scene of Christ’s execution. The anguished horses of Guernica simultaneously reflect the horrors of modern-day warfare and Picasso’s childhood recollections of watching corridas at a time when the equine participants had no protective coverings and were regularly disembowelled. At the “Francis Bacon: From Picasso to Velázquez” exhibition held at Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum, the curators hung his Chicken (1982) next to Goya’s Still Life with Dead Chicken (1808-12) to highlight a shared fascination with decomposing flesh. Had he been alive to see the 2016-2017 exhibition, Bacon would surely have delighted in the taurine museum of Bilbao’s bullring where woodworm is rife and the heads of champion bulls have gone mouldy.

As he approached his eighties, he may well have believed that Triptych (1987) was going to be his last major work. The point of departure for the centrepiece of the largest exhibition dedicated to Bacon in Paris for many years was Lorca’s dramatic poetic lament for his friend Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. The matador was gored in the backwater Manzanares bullring in 1934 before being moved in a torturous and complicated journey to Madrid where doctors were unable to save his life. The poem’s fixation with blood, penetrated flesh and gangrene found its visual correlative in the bruised perforated human legs of Bacon’s canvas.

The politically conservative Anglo-Irish Bacon shared with Lorca, a socially progressive left-wing martyr shot by fascist thugs at the beginning of the Civil War, a preoccupation from a young age with ageing and mortality. They were both fascinated with ritual and ancient tragedy, the discipline of Apollo and unpredictability of Dionysian forces inherent to the drama played out in the bullring.

Bacon’s work refuses to sublimate the cruelty of the sublime, or to redeem culture as a civilised or civilising force. In classical terms, his depictions of the arcane taurine world provoke pity and fear, but not indignation. Violent sensations stirred by his paintings and bullfights alike are not edifying, but all too human. This analogy can, however, only go so far: a painter’s work, however tortured, does not rely on the almost inevitable sacrifice of an animal and occasional death of a man.

At the end of his life Bacon turned his attention away from the matador and towards the animal. The star exhibit in Bilbao was his recently discovered last painting, Study of a Bull (1991), which had not been publicly discussed, reproduced or seen until it was uncovered by Martin Harrison as he prepared a catalogue of the artist’s complete works.

Bacon positioning his subject between darkness and light lends itself to a symbolic interpretation as the bull finds itself in a liminal zone between life and death

Study of a Bull  reproduces the panoramic view from the cheapest tickets in a bullring on the highest tiers of the sunny side that loom above the gate through which the bull is released. Less iconic than the so-called moment of truth — the point of maximum risk for the matador, raising the sword for the final kill — there are only a handful of images of the bull at this initial stage in the photographic books from Bacon’s studio. Study of a Bull was seemingly inspired by Leiris’s death in 1990 as well as Lorca’s elegiac poem.

Bacon positioning his subject between darkness and light lends itself to a symbolic interpretation as the bull finds itself in a liminal zone between life and death.

Bacon adorned the canvas of his final painting with dust from his own studio to imitate the sandy arena floor, and he clearly identified at some level with the bull as he faced mortality in solitude. Ignoring medical advice, in April 1992 he travelled to Madrid. After suffering a cardiac arrest, he was cared for by nuns. Sister Mercedes, who looked after Bacon, has become a minor celebrity in Spain, recalling on television the dying artist seeking solace by sketching pictures of bulls.

Study for Bullfight No. 1 was employed as a posthumous homage in promotional materials for the 1992 Nîmes bullfighting season. The response to his death was, however, largely muted. Bacon was quite specific that he wanted no funeral service. His ashes were returned to the UK and there is no gravestone to visit. The contrast with the death of an active matador could not be greater. Among the numerous gravestones for bullfighters in the Almudena cemetery, located within walking distance of Las Ventas, is one dedicated to José Cubero Sánchez, Yiyo, who died aged 21 in 1985, the last matador to be killed in a Madrid ring.

His corpse, dressed in his suit of lights, was laid in wake at his family home. The coffin was then given a lap of honour in Las Ventas before he was laid to rest. A young corpse can turn stars into myths. Like rock stars, bullfighters rarely age well; they become parodies of their former selves or struggle to adjust to everyday life. Bacon was not exempt from the ravages of age, but he remained prodigious to the end. His latter-day vitality owed much to Spain. Whether people like it or not, Las Ventas is as much part of Madrid’s rich cultural patrimony as the Prado.




http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/102913/3/Popular%20Music%20and%20Society%20-%20Main%20Article.pdf

The dawning of Spanish democracy thereby coincided with a cultural and musical movement that took as axiomatic the frantic and heterodox recycling of the past alongside the philosophy of bricolage both in the popular translation of the word as “do it yourself” and in relation to Roland Barthes’ notion of creating new discourse from the intelligent appropriation of materials from different spheres (see Wheeler, “Noche”).


https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n14/duncan-wheeler/diary

You'll find below a copy  of an email I recently sent to Professor Wheeler. I've already sent a copy of the email to staff of the Languages, Cultures and Societies school who have responsibilities of one kind or another in Spanish and French, since the email concerns the issue of bullfighting, practised, of course, in the South of France as well as in Spain and in some of the countries of Latin America. I have a strong interest in many of the subjects which are taught in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, including translation studies.  For example, my Website has an extensive page www.linkagenet.com/reviews/heaneytranslations.htm  which gives some translations of mine from German, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Classical Greek and Modern Greek. I've also translated from French and some of the page on bullfighting is written in French. Most, but not all, of my work in translation can be found on the page where I comment on translations published by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. The page contains detailed comment and translations of my own. The page also contains discussion of translation from Polish but without giving my own translation. In the copy of the email sent to Professor Wheeler and others I give a list of some Google rankings for my site. For what it's worth, this is a short list of some very recent Google rankings which are relevant to these matters:

Heaney translations  Latin Greek  3 / 808,000
Heaney translations  German  2 / 785,000
Heaney translations  Dutch  2 / 623,000
Heaney translations  Italian  9 / 857,000
Heaney translations  Polish  3 / 545,00

The copy of the email:

Dear Professor Wheeler,

My Website www.linkagenet.com has a very extensive page on bullfighting www.linkagenet.com/themes/bullfighting.htm

Vol. 39 No. 16 · 17 August 2017

John Charlesworth has every right to express his ‘distaste and even anger’, both at bullfighting and at my diary of attending taurine events (Letters, 27 July). He is on less sure footing, though, when he notes that the LRB would not provide a forum for a comparable meditation on foxhunting by a ‘hunt supporter’. Leaving aside Ferdinand Mount’s description of bloodsport in the English countryside (in a piece on Siegfried Sassoon in the LRB of 7 August 2003), there’s no reason to assume that writing about bullfighting means advocating for it. For the record, my position is that bulls and horses undoubtedly suffer in the ring, but that their fate is far from the worst thing to befall animals in Europe. If banning bullfighting is to be more than tokenistic scapegoating, it must be part of an overdue reappraisal of our relationship with the animal kingdom.

At the risk of providing further evidence of the ‘affectless integrity’ of my ‘imaginative freedom’, I should disclose that one of the reasons for my continued attendance at corridas is that the debates around its past, present and future raise wider ethical and aesthetic questions. Protesters frequently brandish banners saying, ‘It isn’t culture, it’s torture,’ while parts of the bullfighting lobby tragicomically underplay the suffering endured by humans and animals alike. Some, though by no means all, of what I have witnessed in Spanish plazas constitutes culture by any definition, occasionally of a high order. and Charlesworth’s implication that it does says more about the reification of culture than about my ‘dissociative intellect’. Still, I am grateful for his assumption that I am of ‘fine mind and spotless character’, the phrase in his letter that provoked most incredulity among my friends and colleagues.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSbDcks_uA



I recently contacted Christopher North, whose articles on bullfighting have been published regularly in 'The Critic,' as well as the Co-Editors to explain that I would be adding material on Christopher North to my page on bullfighting. I've already added material on you, for the time being very concise. It can be found near the top of the second main column of the page, underneath an image of a picador's horse. See also the page where I discuss animal welfare and activism, www.linkagenet.com/themes/arrest.htm  Amongst other things, I discuss the sentimentality and unrealistic objectives of many 'animal rights' activists - but I remain an activist myself. I intend to bring the material on bullfighting to the attention of various academic hispanists, including ones at Leeds University.

My Website does have very high Google rankings for a very wide range of search terms.Some recent examples (in every case, the ranking has been very high for a very long time):

bullfighting arguments action against  2 / 780,000

 

ethical depth 1 / 201,000,000

Cambridge University excellence stupidity  1 / 4,010,000 (With examples also from Oxford University)

 

religion remembrance redemption  5 / 4,480,000

Israel Palestinian ideology  3 / 6,670,000

Irish nationalism illusions  2 / 956,000

metaphor theme  1 / 59,300,000

 

theme theory introduction  1 / 187,900,000

aphorisms religion ideology  4 / 1,690,000

aphorism form  5 / 2,390,000

Rilke Kafka  1 / 1,120,000

poetry line length  1 / 88,700,000

poetry modulation  1 / 3,360,000

poetry composite  1 / 59,800,000

poem "sectional analysis"  9 / 2,040,000

 

metre generative metrics  9 / 416,000

 

"Seamus Heaney" success flaws  1 and 2 / 1,380,000

 

framework science review  1 / 565,000


gardening composting water collecting  1 / 37,400,000

gardening bed and board  1 / 385,000,000

 

"large page design" web  2 / 5,440


Best Wishes,


Paul Hurt

Sheffield



https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/what-were-actual-odds-dying-ww1

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/very-graphic-please-be-careful-viewing-this.532608/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN2q5YiNfAE

0:50  1:04

Suzy Klein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Ey_9_PLDs

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/foie-gras-ban-new-york-animal-cruelty-uk-eu-food-rights-a8771086.html

Mali

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQoykjKyoAE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria_victim_theory


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/09/boris-johnson-brexit-belfast-violence-eu-good-friday-agreement

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/bookstores-pandemic-open-lockdown-b1794818.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/israel-committing-crime-apartheid-human-rights-watch

https://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms/back-pain.shtml

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-blasts-alex-salmond-23878863

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56796391

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_H41syRoSY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2nxShEV91M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJGSb-jQUL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSrhQ48gWY8

https://www.newsweek.com/iran-deal-was-bad-deal-2015-its-even-worse-one-now-opinion-1582527

politicsjoe

https://www.newsweek.com/charging-kim-potter-manslaughter-not-justice-under-law-opinion-1584314

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56818953

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/apr/26/coronavirus-live-news-india-daily-cases-top-300000-for-fifth-straight-day-greece-adds-countries-to-no-quarantine-list


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/makhia-bryant-shooting-nicholas-reardon-b1835408.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/20/george-floyd-derek-chauvin-killer-mike-police

https://www.football365.com/news/mailbox-liverpool-fsg-john-w-henry-super-league



Joanna Walters

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/20/george-floyd-life-biography

http://operaobsession.blogspot.com/2012/03/va-la-che-sei-il-granduom-don-giovanni.html

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1424225/russia-news-vladimir-putin-ukraine-invasion-crimea-nuclear-weapons-world-war-3-boris

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/covid-india-cases-variant-vaccines-latest-b1832569.html

Ivanova Kristina

ID: 685136848

HMS Ambush

Templeton Religious Trust

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rafs-secret-blitz-isis-iraq-23872632

https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1421789/George-Galloway-SNP-Nicola-Sturgeon-Labour-Prince-Philip-Royals-latest-news-vn


Probably like many others of my generation, I never really knew a lot about Philip. To me, he seemed out of touch and I found the off-hand/rude comments embarrassing. Now I’m older, the comments are still off-colour but rather the product of a good man who simply spoke his mind rather than one who did not have respect. I now think that the choice to be more open with our emotions and ditch the stiff upper lip that we made back in 1997 was a wrong turn. The values that Philip (and the Queen of course) represent (duty, discipline, loyalty, stoicism) now seem far more admirable and like something we should be striving towards – not emotional incontinence and faux victimhood. He might have had his moments, but Prince Philip really was the best of men.


Henry Kamen 

Early Modern European Society


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_legend


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9439993/Labour-MP-Claudia-Webb-ridiculed-online-claim-map-showing-African-colonies-1884.html


https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/louis-de-bernieres-vision-of-independence-is-a-work-of-fiction-readers-letters-3184867

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56623901

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/04/countries-must-unite-halt-mozambique-insurgency-experts-say

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1419676/eu-news-latest-greece-germany-ww2-damage-war-crimes-payment


https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1417877/brexit-news-caroline-flint-jeremy-corbyn-shambles-labour-party-spt


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/mar/28/secular-pilgrims-why-ancient-trails-still-pack-a-spiritual-punch

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jun/30/britishidentity.socialexclusion

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/hops/hops-plant-support.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQbbCk9HQaU

https://growhops.wordpress.com/

https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/ingredients-supplies/world-beer-craft-breaking-british-hop-harvest/

https://www.ft.com/content/5fe5ec81-b25a-4fd3-993a-74ee66735bb7

https://unherd.com/2021/03/prince-harry-is-a-freudian-dream/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=592a50c61e&mc_eid=0f22e6d685
actionnetwork.org

I just really don't trust people who buy big bags of crisps, eat some and then seal it off with one of those little clip things.

Bored of the pandemic? Me too! So come hang out with me and in our 'virtual space' throughout February for arts, events, talks, workshops and P|A|R|T|I|E|S! All deets here -->
Foodhall Virtual Space — FOODHALL
While we can’t meet in person, we can meet virtually. Join the Foodhall Virtual Space for a huge range of talks, events, crafts and activities from people throughout our community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSu6THgEGUA

https://themillions.com/about-the-millions

https://news.sky.com/story/pm-warned-not-to-drop-our-guard-on-military-power-as-he-boasts-of-boost-to-cyber-defence-12245382

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9382393/Heroes-recount-true-life-thriller-gloriously-British-vaccine-triumph.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383719/Police-clash-demonstrators-huge-anti-lockdown-protests-break-Germany.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/20/pipe-down-harry-and-meghan-if-you-want-to-hang-with-a-listers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-56476998



Rothenburg

Alex Belfield  The voice of reason

Clyde

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xM8sxoFcyo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h99XA5vLkq0

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/24/failure-to-enact-public-duty-law-has-worsened-england-inequality-in-pandemic

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/02/quarter-of-london-nhs-staff-have-refused-to-take-coronavirus-vaccines/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvZWl-PVx4Q

The new culture forum

Naxos Catalogue No: C10716

Männerchor des Leipziger Rundfunks


https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/readers-letters-salmond-inquiry-now-a-pantomime-3145809

lettersts@scotsman.com

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9358765/DAN-HODGES-Keir-Starmer-showed-hes-floundering-polls.html


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/28/i-hate-to-say-it-but-britains-doing-ok-even-germany-envies-us

https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/16005#.YD9OX9ynyUk

Białowieża Forest World Heritage site

Puszcza Białowieska  Polish pronunciation: [ˈpuʂt͡ʂa ˌbʲawɔˈvʲɛska] (About this soundlisten)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82owie%C5%BCa_Forest

Ozzie Zehner  green illusions

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/covid-vaccine-johnson-johnson-catholics-b1811223.html


https://inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-sunaks-budget-taxes-furlough-plans-keir-starmer-labour-less-trusted-888418

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9340353/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-doors-manual-welcome-aboard-Heir-Force-One.html

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/12/walkers-warned-highly-toxic-parsnips-found-on-beach-can-kill-people-and-pets-14236224/


Simon Webb

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/26/shamima-begum-cannot-return-to-uk-to-fight-for-citizenship-court-rules

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/he-always-coming-bloodied-modern-19895418


https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1391742/brexit-news-eu-vaccine-Ursula-von-der-leyen-astrazeneca-supply-Brexit-news

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-02-15/covid-what-can-the-uk-learn-from-israels-vaccination-success

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhw1ATYxWcQ

History Debunked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bop8x24G_o0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhw1ATYxWcQ

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1396186/eu-news-covid-vaccines-uk-doses-astrazeneca-pfizer-brexit-von-der-leyen-spt

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-results-ins/vaccine-vs-variant-promising-data-in-israels-race-to-defeat-pandemic-idUSKBN2AA0MS

James Partridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9KQYeQ3oO8

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/13/opinions/trump-impeachment-alternate-reality-big-lie-zelizer/index.html

https://news.sky.com/story/facebook-blocks-australians-from-viewing-and-sharing-news-12221342

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9282053/DAN-HODGES-Boris-Johnson-speaks-tomorrow-biggest-loser-Keir-Starmer.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/extinction-rebellion-campaignerjailed-for-filming-her-own-court-appearance-b920597.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55661782


Listening in  Barnaby Martin

https://rec.music.classical.recordings.narkive.com/Al9nD3ZZ/which-marriage-of-figaro


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/29/we-had-to-go-it-alone-how-the-uk-got-ahead-in-the-covid-vaccine-race

https://www.rolf-musicblog.net/beethoven-string-quartet-op-95/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/31/the-observer-view-on-the-vaccine-dispute-with-brussels

last year the European Commission acquired the power to borrow hundreds of billions of Euros from the money markets — for the purpose of protecting the Eurozone from the impact of the Covid crisis. If the UK had voted to Remain, we’d have been on the hook for that colossal debt — despite staying out of the single currency.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-mumbai-dharavi-covid-lockdown/?srnd=businessweek-v2&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=tofu&utm_content=article&dicbo=v1-731a10b59bc329b528f9126431798e2d-00c0fb855138dff06052a6d0ad94265928-mnrwgzbzg4ydcljsgrrgmljug5qtgljymiyteljqmjsdcmtcgrsgkytbge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUCb225t4s

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4weAUgSlC1U

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9153143/How-barbaric-photograph-Jewish-mother-two-children-executed-inspired-historian.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55802514

Spitfire Gun camera actual combat footage - Battle of Britain - RAF


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55844268

https://news.sky.com/story/hong-kong-new-uk-visa-route-to-open-for-up-to-three-million-people-12201782

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9199483/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Oh-no-Swampy-kicking-stink-again.html

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1390591/coronavirus-latest-vaccine-big-pharma-drugs


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9155057/PETER-HITCHENS-liberal-elite-cheered-violent-mob.html

https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2012/12/Recordings/MOZART__Don_Giovanni.html

Teodor Currentzis

Jakob Walter  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH9Nz0OJkoc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BlbdNq1UCE

SOURCE: Our World in Data • Data updated: 26 Jan 2021 / 1045 UTC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55900680



Christopher Silvester

Elisabetta Zamparutti

'Migration Is Not a Fundamental Human Right' -- Breitbart Interviews Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó

 

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/the-harsh-reality-about-the-music-business-and-an-awkward-pantomime-led-by-clueless-self-regarders/

 

 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I_Cannot_Be_Silent

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/19/scientists-criticise-uks-hands-face-space-campaign-to-control-covid-19-coronavirus

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOyM97Y_RdM

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9138737/Burnley-vs-Manchester-United-Premier-League-live-result.html

 

 

https://unherd.com/2021/01/the-day-qanon-captured-america/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9140929/Girls-young-12-56-000-mothers-sent-hellish-Church-homes.html

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127537603&t=1610058880775

 


https://slippedisc.com/2020/12/bayreuth-bans-wagner-expert-for-covid-tweet/

https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/don-giovanni-royal-opera-hou-18158

https://bachtrack.com/review-philippe-jordan-vienna-symphony-orchestra-new-years-day-beethoven-ninth-symphony

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/vienna-philharmonics-new-year-concert-relic-nazi-era-time/

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/06/world/world-shock-us-capitol-mob-intl/index.html

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/06/trump-riot-mob-facebook-twitter-youtube-violence-condemned/6574841002/

Ivan Hewett


Vera Liber

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9089575/Britain-free-lockdowns-February-Oxfords-Covid-vaccine.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXCz6W9050


https://twitter.com/AlexInAir

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/brexit-deal-eu-boris-johnson-trade-coronavirus-b1778893.html

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sas-goes-vegan-third-new-23223856

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55409693

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9081217/CHRISTOPHER-STEVENS-reviews-nights-TV.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9087983/Boriss-Brexit-deal-set-help-boost-economy-6-1-year.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/escape/article-9026565/No-wonder-call-Gods-Country-Stunning-pictures-Yorkshire-amateur-Alec-Scott.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzpy7LcmNQ


critical past

Kasper Holten

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/don-giovanni-royal-opera-house_46995.html

Mark Valencia

https://boulezian.blogspot.com/2014/02/don-giovanni-royal-opera-14-february.html

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/nezet-seguins-smart-sharp-witty-entfuhrung/

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Karl-Boehm-Mozart-Symphonies-Nos-35-41-/173607315914


Calixto Bieito

https://seenandheard-international.com/2020/02/good-singing-cannot-redeem-the-deutsche-opers-incoherent-production-of-die-entfuhrung-aus-dem-serail/


Francesca Zambello

Constantinos Carydis

B17 flying fortress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNBdvYoptY

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/jan08/Mozart_Giovanni_hmc90196466.htm

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mostly-great-new-don/

author-image
ROBERT COLVILE

The Tories will be the party of big spending so long as new MPs kowtow to their inboxes

Robert Colvile
The Sunday Times

When is a rebellion not a rebellion? Last week there were widespread reports that tax-hating Tories would unite with Labour to vote down corporation tax rises in Wednesday’s budget. The chief whip had pushed the nuclear button, threatening expulsion from the parliamentary party. All seemed set for the latest instalment of parliament’s stormiest saga: Boris Johnson v his backbenchers.

Except that the more I looked for a rebellion, the harder it was to find. David Davis was mentioned — but he rebels over everything. Other veterans of parliamentary insurgency, who would normally be manning the barricades, were sitting on their hands.



https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/mozart-s-don-giovanni-a-guide-to-essential-recordings

http://www.paminasopera.com/dvd-review-don-giovanni-2001-zurich-2/

https://brightlightsfilm.com/don-goes-digital-don-giovanni-mozarts-dramma-giocosa-ages/#.X89HlbPgqUk

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1370162/armed-forces-news-military-cuts-navy-reservists-suspension-defence-ben-wallace-ont

Last week a study by defence website Declassified revealed that Britain has the second largest military footprint in the world after the United States.

The UK has 143 permanent military bases in 42 nations, from the Falklands, central and North America to Africa, Europe and the Far East.


https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-13749/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41177315?seq=1


http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Jan13/Mozart_DonGiovanni_4779878.htm

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/1369655/brexit-latest-european-union-weak-no-deal-brussels

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9028489/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-wont-renewing-Spurs-season-ticket.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/442204069/Recommended-Opera-recordings-by-Ralph-Moore-pdf

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1368922/deportation-flight-jamaica-labour-keir-startmer-priti-patel

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9024341/TOM-LEONARD-Israels-secret-service-perfected-art-assassination.html

Ronen Bergman, whose book Rise And Kill First is the definitive history of Mossad,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/07/stronger-together-taiwan-foreign-minister-urges-new-alliance-against-china


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXMZhJxceio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXMZhJxceio

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-jamaica-deportation-cruel-exile-people-their-homes-and-families

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-eu-border-security-human-trafficking-b1766259.html

https://iranpress.com/content/26329

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8997575/Assassination-Irans-nuclear-scientist-involved-62-people-including-12-gunmen.html


https://www.gearpatrol.com/tech/audio/a731474/reasons-to-buy-cds/

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/10-affordable-ways-to-upgrade-your-hi-fi-system

https://www.hifinews.com/content/cambridge-audio-axc35-axa35-cd-playeramplifier-page-2

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/17/arts/recordings-view-harnoncourt-gives-beethoven-a-mild-jolt.html

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/t/tld46452a.php

Steve Schwartz

Peter Gutmann

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Jul/Mozart_Cosi_survey.pdf

http://www.audioreview.com/product/amplification/integrated-amplifiers/cambridge-soundworks/a1.html


http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/mahler4.html


https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/the-50-greatest-mahler-recordings

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/fred-fleitz-israel-may-have-killed-top-iranian-nuclear-weapons-scientist-to-avert-dangerous-threat

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/metaphor-and-thought/more-about-metaphor/19E2641E56401D300C95F3BE8B269842

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk0vhqSarYU

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=d6AdfeN8kDAC&pg=PA37&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.routledge.com/The-Rule-of-Metaphor-The-Creation-of-Meaning-in-Language/Ricoeur/p/book/9780415312806

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55502781


Mark Felton

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/41241865.pdf

Stephen James Mould

https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/inside-the-musician-stephen-mould-playing-in-time/

The quality of Mozart’s music was not in question: the dilemma was to explain how he could have created such sublime music from such a sordid plot. This dichotomy was what the public and many critics failed to understand – with hindsight it can be seen that da Ponte and Mozart had created a complex, unsettling work that was antagonistic to the spirit of the early nineteenth century.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/we-will-still-teach-difficult-subjects-french-teachers-defiant-after-of-colleague

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8850231/Video-shows-Royal-Navy-using-flying-Iron-Man-style-jet-suits-practise-storming-enemy-ships.html

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8848651/Wetherspoons-boss-blasts-PM-Boris-Johnson-lockdowns.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/24/landscape-of-fear-why-we-need-the-wolf-rewilding-scotland

https://calflyn.com/

https://www.varsity.co.uk/contact-us

https://www.biblicalcreationtrust.org/people.html


https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/whatever-happened-to-je-suis-charlie-

None of this cant has been lost on Charlie Hebdo, which this week published a special edition to mark the fifth anniversary of the attack. In a stinging editorial headlined 'The New Face of Censorship', Riss, who survived the shooting, excoriates the intolerance of our age, which has included cancellations of a play about one of the dead cartoonists because it was considered 'Islamophobic'.

'We thought only religions desired to impose on us their dogmas. We were wrong,' he writes. 'Today, the politically correct impose on us their gender spelling, discourage the use of words deemed to be upsetting, order us not to eat this or not to smoke that. All in our interests, obviously.'

 

Emmanuel Macron recently announced that he wanted to end ‘Islamic separatism’ in France. A minority of the country’s estimated six million Muslims risk forming a ‘counter-society’, he said. It is tough talk from the President, but Macron is keen to position himself as the defender of French values, and he has form: when statues were being pulled down across the western world, Macron proclaimed that ‘the Republic won’t erase any name from its history. It will forget none of its artworks. It won’t take down statues.’

That Macron even gave an anti-Islamismspeech was itself a sign of how fast the debate is moving in France. Five years ago, when Fox News referred to ‘no-go zones’ in Paris, the city’s mayor threatened to sue. Now we have an avowed centrist like Macron warning that the ‘final goal’ of the ‘ideology’ of Islamism is to ‘take complete control’ of society. Anyone making such arguments just a few years ago would have been condemned by the left as an extremist. Macron is promising a law on ‘Islamist separatism’, restricting home-schooling of Muslims and demanding that Islamic groups in receipt of French state funding will have to sign a ‘secular charter’.

 


https://www.wagneropera.net/about.htm

editor@wagneropera.net

per-erik@skramstad.no

Dear Per-Erik Skramstad,

My Website www.linkagenet.com has a very extensive page www.linkagenet.com/themes/cambridge -university.htm which has extensive material on Dr Mark Berry - very, very critical sections (I also criticize Dr David Vernon, who has contributed to  wagneropera.net of course). If the demands on your time allow it, perhaps you could look at the page. The material on Dr Berry is in the second main column.

You've a strong interest in Search Engine Optimization, of course. This is the list of  recent Google rankings for my site in the third main column of the page:

ethical depth 1 / 201,000,000

Cambridge University excellence stupidity  1 / 4,010,000

Israel Palestinian ideology  3 / 6,670,000

Irish nationalism illusions  5 / 351,000

religion remembrance redemption  6 / 2,290,000

bullfighting action arguments against  2 / 817,000

 

"feminist ideology" slavery serfdom  2 / 257,000

 

"Lisa Nandy" Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East 10 / 110,000

 

"abuses of power" education policing  7 / 1,810,000

abuses of power capability proceedings  5 / 28,500,000

metaphor theme  1 / 59,300,000

 

theme theory introduction  1 / 187,900,000

aphorisms religion ideology  4 / 1,690,000

aphorism form  5 / 2,390,000

Rilke Kafka  1 / 1,120,000

poetry line length  1 / 88,700,000

poetry modulation  1 / 3,360,000

poetry composite  1 / 59,800,000

poem "sectional analysis"  9 / 2,040,000

 

metre generative metrics  9 / 416,000

 

"Seamus Heaney" success flaws  1 and 2 / 1,380,000

 

framework science review  1 / 565,000


gardening composting water collecting  1 / 37,400,000

structures plant protection support  5 / 344,000,000

gardening bed and board  1 / 385,000,000

 

"large page design" web  2 / 5,440

 

And:

 

"Mark Berry" Cambridge University  6 / 62,000

 

 

Some Google rankings for terms in languages other than English:

 

French: tauromachie contre  1 / 39,900,000

 

Italian: la pene di morte ripugnanza  1 / 252,000

 



 
Wagneropera.net is developed and managed by Per-Erik Skramstad. He is a freelance web editor specializing in search engine optimized content

https://www.biblicalcreationtrust.org/


our belief that the Bible provides reliable historical information, including that relevant to building scientific models of origins, is what we call ‘Biblical Creation’.

 

The Bible is not a modern textbook of science providing detailed technical or complete models, but its God-spoken testimony to events such as Noah’s flood means that a worldwide global flood in human history (for example) must be included in any scientific model that is true to the earth’s past. Biblical Creation is also concerned with how teaching on creation integrates with the rest of the Bible.






Steve Lloyd MA, PhD works part-time as a Researcher and Lecturer for BCT and is also pastor of Hope Church, Gravesend. He studied Materials Science at the University of Cambridge and became a Royal Society University Research Fellow. Steve also has a Diploma in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge. He contributed to the book Debating Darwin published by Paternoster in 2009.


https://www.biblicalcreationtrust.org/people.html


https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/2957/3/Rejection%20of%20evolution%20Accepted%20Review%20of%20Religious%20Research%2029_03_18.pdf


https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-9102723/ALEX-BRUMMER-Wheres-honour-dodging-taxes.html












https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54478753


Robert Andrews Millikan, an experimental physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of a fundamental constant in Physics, the electric charge, e, and his work on the photoelectric effect.

He relates,

'My Greek professor ...  asked me to teach the course in elementary physics in the preparatory department during the next year. To my reply that I did not know any physics at all, his answer was, 'Anyone who can do well in my Greek can teach physics.' 'All right," said I, 'you will have to take the consequences, but I will try and see what I can do with it." I at once purchased an Avery's Elements of Physics, and spent the greater part of my summer vacation ... trying to master the subject ... I doubt if I have ever taught better in my life than in my first course in physics ... I was so intensely interested in keeping my knowledge ahead of that of the class that they may have caught some of my own interest and enthusiasm.'

Millikan's oil-drop experiment is a classic procedure for measuring e. A small drop of oil in an electric field moves at a rate which involves the forces due to gravity and  viscosity, and, also, electric force. The forces due to gravity and viscosity could be calculated based on the size and velocity of the oil drop, so electric force could be deduced. Since electric force, in turn, is the product of the electric charge and the known electric field, the electric charge of the oil drop could be calculated. By measuring the charges of many different oil drops, it can be seen that the charges are all integer multiples of a single small charge, namely e. Now, e is exactly 1.602176634×10−19 C, by definition of the coulomb.

His experimental 'verification' of the equation introduced by Albert Einstein in 1905 to describe the photoelectric effect is better described as an experimental non-falsification of the photoelectric effect (using the insights of the philosopher of science Karl Popper, which I think are compelling.) He used this same research to obtain an accurate value of Planck's constant, which is defined to have the exact value 6.62607015×10−34 Js in SI units.


https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/organisations/holocaust-research-institute(1fbd5b1b-effc-43e3-aa41-afab77a3408a).html

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/dan-stone(92b20c65-3f9e-4c7e-a084-622b74836e62).html

Professor Dan Stone


https://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2011/sep/15/educationdegreecourses-classics

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/richard-alston(3bec3f07-28de-4c14-9c2d-cd265c6d38d1).html

Professor Richard Alston

These themes have led me to engage in a constructive dialogue with much modern political theory, in the areas of geography, sociology, politics, and the individual. In this engagement with theory I have come to see how our understanding of the Classical world depends on the ways in which we see our contemporary world and the differences between antiquity and modernity are often exaggerated. I argue that as a consequence of this, we can understand our contemporary world far better through a deeper understanding of the Classical past and its influences.


Actually, the RHUL principal has called the proposed move "a finely judged reconfiguration of our academic portfolio"

Charlotte Higgins   Guardian

Prof Edith Hall – one of the finest minds in the country

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/classics/news/athens-conference-disrupting-polarization-publicity/

The panel, 'Disrupting Polarization: A Lesson from History — Ancient Parallels to Modern Phenomena' was moderated by Stelios Vassilakis, Director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and it opened the first annual workshop of the SNF Agora Institute, an ambitious joint venture between the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Johns Hopkins University, which has benefitted from a donation of $150 milllion from the SNF. The panellists discussed the ways we may be able to learn from the Greek past, with its violent conflicts and civil wars, and above all from the Greeks' ability, observed on several occasions, to heal the wounds and restore consensus within their communities.



Status: Invalid character sequence received, disabling UTF-8. Select UTF-8 option in site manager to force UTF-8

https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-47-venables-kuusisto-oramo-bbcso-august-2018

Prom 47  2018 world premiere




Find out more about our department

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/classics/about-us/

We pride ourselves on our research-led teaching which combines a strong to disciplinary research areas (archaeology, history, and literature) and to an engaged Classics that tackles, from undergraduates to research, current themes, such as Contemporary Classics, Spaces and Materials of Belonging, and The Fantastic.


Because they find these civilizations so fascinating, our academic staff are devoted to understanding and writing about them; they are also committed to helping you to do the same, and so to develop skills of synthesis and critical analysis which will be sought after by future employers and stand you in good stead throughout your life. 

Because they find these civilizations so fascinating, our academic staff are devoted to understanding and writing about them; they are also committed to helping you to do the same, and so to develop skills of synthesis and critical analysis which will be sought after by future employers and stand you in good stead throughout your life. 

Dr Christos Kremmydas | Reader in Greek History

 

 

"My Why is.... looking into the Classical past in order to understand the present."

I have always found it exciting that we can look to the Classical past in order to understand the present: theatre, politics, democracy, logic, the art and practice of public speaking, all trace their origins to Classical Greece and give us profound insights into the 21st century societies we live in. For my current research project I have been examining strategies of rhetorical deception in speeches from the law courts of Classical Athens. Speakers often caution against the deception that their opponents are going to engage in, but occasionally it becomes clear that it is the speakers themselves who are trying to pull a fast one. So, what I am trying to identify is how speakers manipulated stories, facts, and logical arguments in order to win their cases.

As my research feeds into my teaching, I believe that it helps students become more critical listeners, more aware of the art of rhetoric, more able to formulate persuasive arguments. My hope is that they will also become more critical, responsible, engaged democratic citizens. My why is to better understand the classical past in order to inform the present and inspire the future.

 

 

For my current research project I have been examining strategies of rhetorical deception in speeches from the law courts of Classical Athens ... what I am trying to identify is how speakers manipulated stories, facts, and logical arguments in order to win their cases.

As my research feeds into my teaching, I believe that it helps students become more critical listeners, more aware of the art of rhetoric, more able to formulate persuasive arguments. My hope is that they will also become more critical, responsible, engaged democratic citizens.


have an electoral system, press, and so-called 'constitution' that had enabled that.

 

"paul layzell" principal

his

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

http://likelyimpossibilities.com/about-this-blogger

 

Micaela Baranello

 

http://likelyimpossibilities.com/2015/07/picnic-in-harem-or-die-entfuhrung-aus.html

 

https://operalively.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-321-p-3.html

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9107479/Royal-Horticultural-Society-dragged-culture-wars.html

 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1378804/brexit-fallout-eu-power-grab-angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-brussels-china-trade-deal

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/09/cambridge-university-rejects-proposal-it-be-respectful-of-all-views

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/nils-frahm-interview-new-album-nfts-b1822876.html

 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9036657/HENRY-DEEDES-sees-uneasy-Labour-leader-beam-home-PMQs.html

 

 

I had had every reason, or so I believed, to look forward to a good deal more Beethoven in Berlin before reluctant return to London.

https://twitter.com/RHULPrincipal/status/1295423653610487820

It's been a remarkable day in education & I'm sure everyone is very cross about lots of thing. But please, let's not weaponise education. We all need to work together to help young people sort out their futures: university, apprenticeships & jobs.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7096525/jeremy-corbyn-more-careful-anti-semitism-row/


https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1363616/Brexit-news-UK-EU-trade-talks-latest-deal-british-business-City-financial-European

Archbishop Cranmer


We all need to work together to help young people  

sort out their futures:

university, apprentic

 

Professor J P E Harper-Scott

https://jfjfp.com/may-sets-up-attack-on-free-speech/

 

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/tag/j-p-e-harper-scott/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT-free_zone

Sarah Tennent

 

fixity fluidity

Mark Berry Retweeted

Mahlerite@jesusrglez

I knew I'd find
@boulezian
Mark Berry's great Wagner book in
@alexrossmusic
new book! I knew it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZErCVlIDJg

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/29/antony-beevor-the-greatest-war-movie-ever-and-the-ones-i-cant-bear

https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/musikfest-berlin/start.html

https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/09/boris-johnson-s-repellent-style-government-has-angered-even-those-close-him

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/sheffield-pub-landladys-devastating-humourous-18916062

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/13/left-out-the-inside-story-of-labour-under-corbyn-this-land-the-story-of-a-movement-review

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-54151712

 

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/music/news/music-department-commits-to-tackling-issues-of-inequality-in-the-context-of-black-lives-matter/

relish salivates reflex tweets no involvement of brain

  • Date22 June 2020

The Department of Music is committing to tackling inequality at the systemic level with the following actions, in specific context to Black Lives Matter:

1. Reflection on all main strands of departmental activity including Curriculum Planning, Teaching, Research, Admissions, Ensembles, Public Concerts.

2. Holding space for students and staff in the classroom, departmental meetings and other platforms run by the Department, including providing opportunities for participation in Safe Space Discussions.

3. Commitment to a more open, whole-departmental forum on issues of inequality.

4. Initiating events that provide an opportunity to platform under-represented, and especially in the context of Black Lives Matter, Black voices and discourses.

 

Sunday, 13 September 2020

Musikfest Berlin (8) - Tetzlaff/Konzerthaus Berlin/Eschenbach - Haydn, Jost, and Beethoven, 6 September 2020

Philharmonie


Musikfest Berlin (8)  13 September 2020
Haydn: Symphony no.21 in A major, Hob. I:21

Above all, this was music that made me smile.

 
The finale proved a veritable compendium of syncopated surprises, of invention and a posteriori inevitability—thus emulating the first movement, albeit in very different style,



Christian Jost:
Violin Concerto no.2, ‘Concerto Noir Redux’ (world premiere)
Beethoven: Symphony no.8 in F major, op.93

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)
Konzerthausorchester Berlin
Christoph Eschenbach (conductor)


How wonderful to hear Haydn’s Symphony no.21 in the concert hall. I had never done so before, and whilst I should happily be corrected, I doubt many others in the audience had. Christoph Eschenbach led the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in a performance alert to the work’s formal strangeness, albeit with none of the exaggeration and downright grotesquerie that often, regrettably, accompany such exploration. The first movement ‘Adagio’ in particular benefited from simply being permitted to speak, however great the art concealed in that ‘simply’. Gorgeous, warm tone invited us in to contemplate and to experience Haydn’s formal mysteries, mysteries through which certain harmonic progressions and their rhythmic instantiation already seemed to prefigure the Beethoven of the Eighth Symphony, if only one listened (to both). Following the model, though only in the most skeletal sense, of the sonata da chiesa, Haydn follows that movement, which, like much in the Beethoven, makes sense so long as one does not wish to put a name to it, with a fast movement, here marked ‘Presto’. It sounded as an eruption of joy, of harmonic release, sharpened by rhythmic, alert playing. Concision and expression in thematic development again had one think of Haydn’s most celebrated pupil, but it was the teacher’s voice that was unmistakeable. Above all, this was music that made me smile. Eschenbach’s unfussy way with the ‘Menuetto’ again had it tell its own story. Its trio’s curious melancholy, rhythmic signature and all, was relished throughout the orchestra. If there were occasional untidiness here, it did little harm. The finale proved a veritable compendium of syncopated surprises, of invention and a posteriori inevitability—thus emulating the first movement, albeit in very different style, ‘Allegro molto’. The spirit of Haydn as revealed through the recordings of Antal Doráti seemed reborn, albeit warmer and more conciliatory. Delightful!

Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alternative personality, Mr. Edward Hyde

Dr Mark Jekyllberry and Mr Mark Hydeberry: Profile of Mark Janus-Face Berry, Cambridge Historian and Royal Holloway Revolutionary Musicologist

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/17/why-did-lefties-love-wagner-alex-ross-wagnerism-revolution-hitler


universities flaws contradictions

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD),[7] is a mental disorder characterized by the maintenance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.

frequent flyer

Annika Forkert   Alain Badiou

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28905428.pdf

 

https://www.thearticle.com/jeremy-corbyns-shameful-links-to-irans-theocratic-tyranny

You might have thought it would be strange to see a left-wing British MP speaking at an event commemorating the “auspicious anniversary” of the 1979 Khomeinist revolution, an event that produced Iran’s current theocratic tyranny. After all, the Iranian regime, which continues to impose the death penalty for both blasphemy and homosexuality, is about as far from a leftist utopia as it’s possible to be. Iran’s domestic left, including its once vibrant communist movement, was brutally crushed by the Ayatollahs.

Corbyn’s foreign policy views, which see just about any anti-western force as worthy of support on anti-imperialist grounds regardless of how reactionary or repressive they may be, made him a natural partner for Iran’s theocracy. In 2009 Corbyn began making paid appearances on Press TV, an English language propaganda arm of the Iranian state. This coincided with the crushing of the Iranian opposition Green Movement, which launched a wave of protests following the rigged 2009 presidential election. Iranian security forces arrested thousands and killed dozens.

Corbyn went on appearing on Press TV, and ended up hosting his own show, until part way through 2012. He earned about £20,000 in the process. His appearances continued for a while even after Press TV lost its UK broadcast licence in 2012 for airing the “confession” of Maziar Bahari, an independent Iranian journalist who was tortured and threatened with death until he agreed to read out a pre-prepared script.

It was on Press TV that Corbyn made some of his most controversial statements. In August 2012, based on precisely no evidence whatsoever, Corbyn suggested the “hand of Israel” was behind a series of Islamist attacks on the Sinai Peninsula that killed Egyptian soldiers. That same month he appeared in a broadcast along with Dr Abdul Aziz Umar, a Hamas terrorist convicted of involvement in the 2003 Café Hillel suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 50 people. During the conversation Corbyn described Umar, along with other Palestinian prisoners including terrorists freed in exchange for an Israeli hostage, as a “brother” adding “I’m glad that those who were released were released”.

While Corbyn was prepared to shill for the Iranian state he was far less vocal about its victims. In November last year, protests broke out across Iran after the regime imposed a dramatic increase in fuel prices in response to US sanctions. Protestors soon found themselves being attacked by the Iranian police and Revolutionary Guard, including the latter’s notorious Basij militia. To suppress what became the most significant street protest movement in Iran since the revolution, regime forces killed hundreds, possibly as many as 1,500. For a time Iran’s internet was shut down to prevent videos of the massacres reaching an outside audience.

Corbyn has yet to comment on the crackdown. He has been similarly quiet about Iran’s role, alongside Russia, in helping the Assad regime devastate opposition controlled parts of Syria. The “Stop the War Coalition”, the latest in a long line of amusingly mistitled leftist bodies in the tradition of the German Democratic Republic, has yet to organise a single protest on the subject. This remained the case even when Assad’s forces were barrel bombing a camp at Yarmouck for Palestinian refugees, supposedly a core concern for the anti-western left. All Palestinian lives are equal it seems, but some are most certainly more equal than others.

The reaction of the Labour leadership to Soleimani’s killing is a continuation of this theme. Regardless of whether his assassination was strategically wise, Soleimani was a monster even by the high standards of his region. Forces under his direction played a key role in crushing the Syrian opposition and butchering opposition protestors in Iraq and Iran. Yet Corbyn’s statements, which criticised the American hit, were notably short on criticism of Soleimani’s actions. On Saturday, two Labour shadow ministers, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon, attended a Stop the War Coalition rally called to protest against the killing. No mention was made of his crimes.

On Iran, Corbyn has proved himself, once again, to be one of the most conditional human rights defenders in human history. If your people are being targeted by a western Government, or one of its identifiable allies, he will prove a useful ally. But if the oppression comes from an “anti-imperialist” regime, such as Iran, you may as well ask the cat. At best Corbyn will retain an undignified silence, at worst he will actively shill for the oppressor.

https://www.thearticle.com/from-top-to-bottom-labour-is-now-an-extremist-political-party

executive director world players association Brendan Schwab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt9kIzu31D0

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2019/jun/07/university-guide-2020-league-table-for-music

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2020/sep/05/best-uk-universities-for-music-league-table

4 August

Later today, I shall head off to Gatwick, for a hideously early morning flight tomorrow morning to Salzburg. Herewith a taste of what I shall be reporting on from the Salzburg Festival:

 

 

"Deck Berk"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8720329/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Heir-Churchill-No-Boris-Johnson-Second-Coming-Warden-Hodges.html

Britain, so racist that people are risking their lives to get here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VTBnu1kCqk

https://wrestlingtv.in/wrestling-fraternity-demands-justice-for-iran-wrestler-navid-akfari/

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1728101/middle-east

LONDON: An Iranian wrestling champion has been sentenced to death for his role in anti-regime protests in 2018.

The Supreme Court confirmed that Navid Akfari would receive two death sentences, six and a half years in jail and 74 lashes, according to Persian-language broadcaster Iran International.

Saqeb Saba, editor of Iran International, told Arab News that Akfari’s brothers Vahid and Habib were spared the death penalty but received prison sentences of 54 and 27 years respectively, as well as 74 lashes each.

The siblings allegedly participated in protests in 2018 that were triggered by the deteriorating economic situation in the country but morphed into an anti-regime movement.

The judiciary charged the brothers with 20 different crimes, including “attending illegal gatherings, assembly and conspiracy to commit crimes against national security, and insulting the supreme leader.” 

Akfari’s case “is really, really upsetting for everybody,” Saba said. “He was a national hero, and we don’t even know the circumstances of his participation in the demonstrations.”

Saba said Akfari was tortured into making false confessions against his brothers, and their lawyer has since said their confessions have no value in any court because of this.

Saba said the regime violently suppresses anyone who expresses dissatisfaction with it, even those who do so peacefully.

“The worst thing Akfari could’ve done was sympathizing with his friends’, family’s and compatriots’ economic situations, but the way the regime has responded to these demonstrations is horrible — pure brutality,” Saba added.

“This is the action of a regime that’s frightened. The only way it can deal with a situation like this is brute force.”

Iran is notorious for its extensive use of the death penalty, particularly against protestors and political detainees.

According to rights group Amnesty International, Iran is behind only China in executions carried out per year, and killed at least 251 people in 2019 alone.

Many of those executions are carried out publicly, and much like in the case of the Akfari brothers, defendants are regularly subject to “systematic violations of fair trial rights,” Amnesty said.

 

 

4 September

First, we heard works by Rebecca Saunders: not only one of the most important composers of her generation, but also one of my favourites. It certainly seems another world since I flew to Munich last June to see and hear her receive the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8716159/British-fighter-jets-warship-destroyer-deployed-Arctic-Circle.html

http://www.searchnewmusic.org/cox_review.pdf

 

https://seenandheard-international.com/tag/berry-mark/

https://seenandheard-international.com/2020/08/despite-social-distancing-barenboim-and-staatskapelle-berlin-deliver-memorable-mozart-performances-for-musikfest-berlin/

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/

http://thinkclassical.blogspot.com/2019/11/beijings-triumph-of-will.html


Hoss  sensus fidelium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykDPcCCXPQ4

https://www.wagneropera.net/articles/mark-berry-reviews.htm

https://www.wagneropera.net/articles/articles-bayreuth-2017-berry-01-rheingold.htm

The Boulez-Chéreau films remain a miracle: as watchable – and as listenable – as when they first appeared.

WagnerWorldWide:America conference, organized by Professors Nicholas Vazsonyi and Julie Hubbert, held at the School of Music on the campus of the University of South Carolina (USA) 30 January - 2 February 2013. Full title of the talk: "Hans Werner Henze, Wagner, and the Weight of German Musical Culture"

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/mark-berry(7bb2b829-21d5-4e5f-b0dd-e0f41354a3b4)/persons.html?filter=currentstudent

5  2008

https://www.wagneropera.net/articles/articles-bayreuth-2019-berry-tristan-isolde.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/jan-jun09/parsifal0603.htm




Almost six months ago, I penned my last concert review, Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman having completed, all of three days in time, their latest survey of the Beethoven violin sonatas. I had had every reason, or so I believed, to look forward to a good deal more Beethoven in Berlin before reluctant return to London. The nine symphonies from Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, together with Fidelio from the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko were all booked, as were several other concerts and theatre visits, two new Mozart opera productions (Idomeneo and Così fan tutte) included. None took place. Instead, I scrambled to make another booking: a flight ‘home’ before it was too late. Literally homeless and unable to find anywhere to live during lockdown, I spent three months in Yorkshire with my brother and his family, to reach London once again only in mid-June, to start to rebuild my life. Since then, one short dress rehearsal apart, that life has truly been a Land ohne Musik, an especially strange coincidence with reception of the chalice, more bitterly poisoned than ever, bearing the name ‘Head of the Department of Music’ for the next three years. (There are baptisms of fire, and there are baptisms of March 2020.)
 

I could scarcely believe, then, that not only had I been able to reach Berlin, to say goodbyes previously denied; not only was I about to hear music once more in the flesh; but also that it would be with Mozart and the man who was to have conducted that never-to-be-seen Così, as well as the never-to-be-heard Beethoven series: Daniel Barenboim. But so it was.

 

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190224202.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190224202-e-29?rskey=516sZH&result=4

https://iep.utm.edu/popp-pol/

https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/music/documents/pdf/handbooks/music-staff-handbook-2017-18-rev.pdf

"j p e harper-scott"

http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/42938/frontmatter/9780521842938_frontmatter.pdf

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/murderer-who-killed-two-women-18875670

Zahid Younis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZKmt_RWlgI

Matthew L Reznicek

Don't include personal or other abuse in messages

1-19Low failA submission seriously flawed by excessive brevity or incoherence, or with no serious attempt to deal with the matters at hand.

40-49Third-Class Honours (III)A submission with some sense of design and containing evidence of thought, but somewhat limited in its demonstration of intellectual, technical and/or creative ability. The treatment of the material appears flawed or ill-balanced, and there are elements of irrelevance or misunderstanding, with a significant but not overwhelming number of technical or similar errors.Essays: There is some attempt to deal with the issues but the result is one-sided and unsubstantiated, relying on over-generalisation.

50-59Second-Class Honours, Lower Division (II/ii)A submission based on a workable design permitting the demonstration of some intellectual, technical and/or creative ability and holding some interest. The material is dealt with tidily and efficiently, and in a manner largely devoid of crude or glaring
17| P a g emechanical or similar errors. However, awareness of the issues is incomplete and their treatment is restricted and/or unbalanced,

80-89 First class honours (I)A submission characterised by its originality and creativity, showing high levels of stylistic maturity and professional potential.Essays: The answer presents a convincing maturity of argument

 

Gangrel, No. 4, Summer 1946

Sunday, 30 August 2020

Musikfest Berlin (1) - Staatskapelle Berlin/Barenboim: Mozart, 29 August 2020


Mark Berry retweeted 30 August

Thrilled and delighted that Mark's reviews are back. Like sipping Bruichladdich single malt after months in the desert.

l

Symphony 39

Champagne with especially present pinot noir was the hallmark of the finale, its extraordinary concision uncannily prophetic of Webern.



Why have you deleted the tweet Mark Berry? @boulezian.

As predicted, Remainers now frantically deleting their vile Nazi slurs.

Mar Berry@boulezian

' ... the Nazi Hoey presumably on the verge of mentioning George Soros ...

4 September

Why would a Nazi such as Johnson be shocked by Tony Abbott's bigotry? He shares it, only worse.

25 August

Look at the courage and commitment of the people of Belarus. Then look at this country. No one will take to the streets to rid us of Johnson and his fellow fascist criminals. The most a few of us might do is to write the odd tweet. We truly are contemptible.

4 September

The Barclay Weirdo Brecqhou Brothers write:

No need to bother, Co-op. As of today you are henceforth banned from advertising in The Spectator, in perpetuity. We will not have companies like yours use their financial might to try to influence our editorial content, which is entirely a matter for the editor.

Victorian energy  founder RH

4 September

Mark Berry retweeted

Audrey at AudreyAurus1  6 August

If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it's the United States of America. They do not care about human beings.

3 September

All borders are racist. Extraordinary this still needs saying. All borders are racist.

22 August
The racist obscenity that is New New Labour must go.
[Keir Starmer]

Retweeted

Auschwitz Memorial
19 August 1927 Polish girl Danuta Koch was born in Warsaw.

In Auschwitz from 13 December 1942 (deported during expulsion of Poles from the Zamosc region.
No. 26928
In 1944 she was transferred to KL Flossenburg and liberated there.

Sarah Ludford

28 Aug
Isn’t it improper for Trump to launch his campaign from the White House, the seat of the Presidency? Reminds me of when Labour used to insist on flying the Red Flag over Islington Town Hall. Similar failure to distinguish partisan politics from the civic space.

28 August

The Murdoch Times is a white supremacist ‘newspaper’.

27 August
Reminder: this is what the far-Right 'leader' of the Lib Dems had to say about the catastrophic showing of his 'party' at the General Election. It was all Jeremy Corbyn's fault.

'Corbyn was big factor in Lib Dem election failure, says Davey. Acting leader claims vaters backed Tories rather than risk 'hard left' government.' (The Guardian.)

UK should disband. United Ireland. Scotland, London, great cities far better off on own. Form federation and join the EU, as many of us have said since 2016. Leave racists of Tory-UKIP-land to stew in own rancid juices, waving flags and watching WW2 films. Asylum for all trapped.

An austerity monger (mass murderer) writes:
Quote Tweet
Sarah Ludford
pro-European
@SarahLudford
I’m not taking any more cr*p about the coalition. Ten years of it is enough. We had no choice if there was to be a govt with a degree of stability. The numbers did not add up with Labour even had it been on offer. I will not bother to read any comments disagreeing with me.


17 August
If you consider the explicitly fascist Daily Mail to represent the ‘centre ground’, you have problems.
David Rosenberg

You have until tomorrow night to vote for a real humanitarian, socialist, internationalist, anti racist who also supports every progressive community campaign within his own constituency , as MP of the year. Use your vote!


Patchwork Foundation
@UKPatchwork
Congratulations to @jeremycorbyn of @UKLabour for being nominated by the public for our 2020 #MPoftheYearAwards! Vote for our People's Choice MP now: buff.ly/2X1eUKL Voting closes at midnight on August 31st! Kindly sponsored by @kpmguk.

17 January 2020

Ross Ibbetson

A university lecturer has provoked outrage after comparing the planned Brexit celebrations in London to a 're-enactment of Kristallnacht.'

Dr Mark Berry, of Royal Holloway University, suggested that the Leave Means Leave event on January 31 was similar to the Nazi's vicious assaults on Jewish property in 1938.

He tweeted Sadiq Khan: 'Could you explain, please, why you have given provisional agreement to this re-enactment of Kristallnacht, @SadiqKhan? Anyone can see that this is a pogrom waiting to happen. Please reconsider.'

August 18
The unacceptable presence in public life of fascists such as must stop now.

If The Spectator weren't a cesspit of unabashed Nazism, it might even be funny. Thank goodness I can't read this stuff.

23 August
Level of forgiveness to be accorded to those who prevented this man from becoming Prime Minister: absolute zero, in eternitgy

Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn

People have the power to change things together. Protest against job cuts outside Tate Modern.

24 August
Imagine the Bayerische Rundfunk hosting and broadasting a 'Munich 1930s evening: same patriotic songs' every year, audience participation, culminating in flag-waving Horst-Wessel-Lied ...

the anthem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1930 to 1945.

Clear the streets for the brown battalions,
Clear the streets for the storm division!
Millions are looking upon the swastika full of hope,

Oliver Dowden  Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory Last Night of the Proms.

Mark Berry Retweeted

Paul Sweeney  @PaulJSweeney 16 August

Just one of many critical but calamitous misjudgements made by entitled upper class dilettante and all round dunderhead, David Cameron during his hapless premiership Old Etonians should be banned from standing as candidates for the House of Commons in the national interest.


27 August

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born 250 years ago today. It is no exaggeration to say that his was the greatest mind in modern European history. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that study of his philosophy changed my life forever ...

Without Hegel, no Marx. Without Hegel, no Wagner, at least not as we know him (however much he tried to downplay this.) I could go on, but for better or worse: without Hegel, no me.

To summarize: without Hegel, no Marx, Wagner or Mark Berry.

The Phenomenology of Spirit may well therefore be the most revolutionary book yet written.

August 16
Just one of many critical but calamitous misjudgements made by entitled upper class dilettante and all round dunderhead, David Cameron during his hapless premiership. Old Etonians should be banned from standing as candidates for the House of Commons in the national interest.

What the hell is wrong with people? I hate this country so much.

Feeble

15 August
The existence of Michael Gove proves that the world is a mistake.

Mark Berry retweeted Tom Gauterin@Rural maestro 10 August

There aren't enough crates of fuckoffyoulyingbigotedghouls in the world to cater adequately for the Guardian. I will never buy it again if I live to be 150.


16 August

Signs of Fascism: a partial Checklist

1.Extreme Nationalism with ethnic/cultural component
2. Fondness for 'strongmen'/'powerful' leaders
3. Xenophobia & demonisation of vulnerable minorities
4. Reliance on propaganda & disinformation
5. Attacks on universities & intellectuals

I will no more turn my back on Jeremy Corbyn than I would on my friends and family.

Laura Pidcock

Attacks on @jeremycorbyn continue because they know his politics are powerful and that there are hundreds of thousands of people who still have deep and unwavering respect for what he was and still is trying to achieve. We will not stop in our pursuit for a better world.

Shut down every ‘independent’ school, every grammar school, every infernal ‘academy’, and give every child a first-class comprehensive education.

This side of Blair, it is difficult to conceive of a worse apology for a human being than Tom Watson.

27 August

Surely it is now time for the entirety of the civil service to go on strike. Bring this rotten, fascist government down for good.

 

@BjornHeile Absolutely. They will be on poppy enforcement duty come November, or rather October.


Dr David Vernon

Thrilled and delighted that Mark's reviews are back. Like sipping Bruichladdich single malt after months in the desert...

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-south-yorkshire-52595306

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1329536/laura-kuenssberg-news-jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-book-john-mcdonnell-spt

The Markberry Rules

predictable  plodding perfunctory  smug sneering stale superficial

Dan Elphick

Seen and heard

Kant wood   virtue ethics

David Vernon 2 April  Steven James Lally Ruth Vaughn David Sanderson Bernhard Luecke

God, how awful. These people really are nasty and pointless

arena critics

extinction rebellion flights

disturbing and disastrously misguided

'Treacherous bonds and laughing fire'

Hurlgen Forest

book RH bought

counter intuitive, counter-dogmatic

RH only mentioned once

students postgrauduate  PHD thesis  PG students 2

Wikipedia invasions

Richard Alleyne

Rwanda tutu

golden age of historical studies

clueless Cambridge

ethical depth 1 / 201,000,000

Cambridge University excellencestupidity  1 / 4,010,000

Israel Palestinian ideology  3 / 6,670,000

"Lisa Nandy" Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East 10 / 110,000

Irish nationalism illusions  5 / 351,000

religion remembrance redemption  6 / 2,290,000

bullfighting action arguments against  2 / 817,000

abuses of power capability proceedings  3 / 64,500,000

metaphor theme  1 / 59,300,000


aphorisms religion ideology  4 / 1,690,000

aphorism form  5 / 2,390,000

Rilke Kafka  1 / 1,120,000

poetry line length  1 / 88,700,000

poetry modulation  1 / 3,360,000

poem "sectional analysis"  9 / 2,040,000

poetry composite  1 / 59,800,000

gardening composting water collecting  1 / 37,400,000

structures plant protection support  5 / 344,000,000

gardening bed and board  1 / 385,000,000


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8707401/Duped-ex-PR-Extinction-Rebellion-quit-fight-nuclear-industry-writes-GUY-ADAMS.html


Der Charkow-Prozess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysL-t9IfngE

https://mostlyopera.blogspot.com/2008/11/chreau-and-boulez-nibelungen-ring-on.html

Industrial Revolution

http://www.wagnerdiscography.com/reviews/wal/wal80boulez.htm

4 September
The new season at the Pierre Boulez Saal could hardly have opened in more promising fashion, whether strictly musical or in the hope imparted for the year to come.

16 August
Pfordten, Ludwig Karl Heinrich, Freiherr von der (b. Ried im Innkreis, 11 Sep. 1811; d. Munich, 18 Aug. 1880), politician and jurist. Held professorships in Würzburg and Leipzig. Appointed Minister of Education by Frederick Augustus II of Saxony in 1848. Wagner failed to interest him in his “Plan for the Organization of a German National Theatre for the Kingdom of Saxony.” Bavarian Minister-President and Foreign Minister from 1849-59 and 1864-6. During the 1850s, Pfordten failed to unite the smaller German kingdoms under Bavarian leadership against Prussia and Austria.

12 July  Hegel
Mark Berry, “Is it here that Time becomes Space? Hegel, Schopenhauer, History, and Grace in Parsifal,” The Wagner Journal 3.3 (2009): 29-59.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t3JBhLQAAAAJ&hl=en

Hurtgen forest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT0ob3cHPmE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India