A nose by any other name would smell

Went to an overly optimistic seminar today - there were people there trying to teach us poor PhD students how to turn our theses into commodities, i.e. how to make them sound more interesting to the general public, how to sell articles to newspapers and get rich and famous overnight. We'll see what happens. If I won't get famous by Xmas, I'll sue the History Department.

An interesting little incident occurred towards the end of the lecture. A youngish man put on his coat and collected his stuff: a dead giveaway that he was going to get out before the session was through. He excused himself to the lecturer by saying that he was leaving because of "family logistics".

Sounds important, doesn't it? It's not just picking kids up from the kindergarten; that's what mothers do. He made it sound like he was planning some sort of intricate process of moving people from place A to place B with the greatest efficiency. Which is exactly what mothers do. They just never make it sound so important.

I don't mean to denigrate his choice of words (or indeed the fact that he was picking up his kid(s)). In fact, I kind of admire what he was doing. I seriously think we women too, need to come up with such ponderous-sounding appellations for our daily tasks. If nothing else, it might just promote the idea that none of the domestic duties (cooking, cleaning, shopping, childcare etc.) is our biological destiny.

I'll leave you with this brilliant clip:

(via feministing)

Mushka, mushka!

What with the colourful season still continuing lovely and non-rainy, it wouldn't be fitting to fill this entry with academic angst. Suffice it to say that writing a good PhD isn't enough to guarantee a career at the uni; during the next couple of years I should find ome time to study and teach, to go abroad for a few months to do some serious networking among my foreign colleagues, to publish in all kinds of journals and appear in all sorts of conferences - and to learn coding. And, of course, to write an excellent and groundbreaking doctoral thesis.

I promise to do all this if someone pays me.

Anyhoo, it's not all that bad. Yesterday evening Juska and I went out to see this band called Ralli-Olga - two young women and an accordion who have an unashamedly girly attitude (and by girly I don't mean the pink-and-blonde-and-squeaky kind) to making music. And a great matter-of-fact sense of comedy. And a kazoo. Amid all this cynicism and postmodern cleverness it's nice to hear songs about dead hamsters and Russian women farmers for a change.

Turned out nice again

After a week or so of glorious autumn weather, even I am finding it hard to constantly complain about things. So before the darkness and general grumpiness set in, I thought I'd better do a post about things I've been enjoying lately.

To start off, some music: Nellie McKay is an amazing artist who does Broadway-style songs with a twist (most of the times a political one), and liberally mixes all kinds of musical influecces ranging from jazz to rap. It's nice to hear some fresh protest songs in this cynical, passivist time.

Along with Joni Mitchell, I've been listening to a lot of English folk lately - June Tabor and Norma Waterson in particular. Great voices. Oh, and Martha Wainwright's 'Bloody Motherfucking Asshole' has been going around something silly in my mp3 player.

Thanks to my friend Fidia, I rediscovered Smack the Pony, which in my view is the most brilliant tv comedy series since Monty Python.





I never knew a bull could look so melancholy...

Finally, I must confess (and this shouldn't come as a surprise to those who know me) that I'm in awe of the British skill for making costume drama. I don't know which appeals to me most: the great actors (whose greatest quality is that they can get through a page-long sentence from Jane Austen without appearing at all constipated - and not the fact that they look great in corsets - although many of them do), the amazing locations, or the respect and sense of humour with which the 'classics' are treated. These people actually look like they've lived in that set, in those clothes, in that society.

The 1995 adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (the BBC series) and Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman) are my favourites, but there's a marvellous one of Persuasion also from the same year. Amanda Root plays the sad-eyed Anne Elliot to perfection, but I particularly like Sophie Thompson's portrayal of her constantly ailing sister Mary.



I can also fully symphatise with Anne's dislike of Bath.

It never rains but...

This week's been abnormally full of stuff. In addition to wrestling with my licenciate, I've already managed to move a hundred bales of hay from place A to place B, make an ex tempore trip to Ostrobothnia (for the second time in three months), get a job AND a dentist' s appointment. On top of that, all the books, cds and clothes I'd ordered during the past month decided to arrive on the same day.

I'm not complaining, since I also got my new wellies yesterday. They are light blue and have flowers on them. They make me very happy, as it's pissing down as I write, and I don't expect the weather to improve for the next five months or so.

Read an interesting piece of research on the BBC website this morning. Apparently, the music you like correlates closely with your personality. Well, take that tedious feather and knock me down. Anyway. According to this research, people who listen to classical music share personality traits with those who dig heavy metal; both of these groups are introverted and creative. If you like pop, then it's worse luck to you - you're not all that creative or at ease (whatever that means).

I'm a bit confused. I like classical, which proves I'm creative and don't like people all that much. Then again, I also love jazz, and jazz lovers are supposed to be outgoing. Fair enough. That means I don't have to be introverted all the time. But if I add rock into this equasion, does it then cancel out the good self-esteem and work ethic the two other genres give me (as rock fans are, according to these Scottish researchers, not-so-hardworking and prone to low self-esteem)?

The researcher person from Heriot-Watt University did have a valid point about the tribal qualities of music - that people digging the same kind of music tend to be similiar to some extent, no matter what their colour, creed or nationality. However, I don't quite believe that these similarities can be reduced to generalised personality traits.

Well, I don't know. What does this tell about my personality, then?

Two stories that made my day

I'm fond of dogs, and not all that fond of children. So both of these stories brightened up my day considerably.

First, a link via Kaleidoglide about child-free zones in India. Hope this catches on in this country as well.

Then, a really awwww-inspiring story courtesy of The Cellar , proving that animal welfare isn't just for hippies and batty old ladies: a group of New York bikers who call themselves Rescue Ink have started investigating cases of animal abuse.

Very cute, and very very scary at the same time...