I have posted previously about bands/music and have given a bit of thought of late to music that has had an influence on me. This is partly due to the million-and-one quizzes abounding on stalkerbook of late, and the release of Supporting Caste by Propaghandi in the last month. I have appreciated their lyrics and tunes for a long time, having the opportunity to see them in Australia in 1996 and in their home town of Winnipeg in 2006 (unfortunately I missed their recent Australian tour as I was in Canada). My anticipation of their new disc was heightened knowing friends were talking to Chris fo…

We all go though life having many experiences that are, to varying degrees, beyond our control. Different political persuasions often have different takes on how we should understand, consider, reflect on and tackle such situations. A lot of rhetoric is thrown around, from many of these perspectives, at contrasting ideas, opinions or ideologies. Radical and leftist perspectives often try to expose and understand the structural basis of the, mostly negative, implications of circumstances that remove ones control over their own lives. Similar can be said of some libertarian perspectives, ev…

Of late, I have pondered some seemingly diverse issues and common threads have struck a chord. Awareness of this arose whilst seeking inspiration, which I found in a film I had not seen for some years: Pump up the Volume (1990) [wikipedia, imdb]. Many of the issues I have pondered were explored in the film, though share commonality with recent experiences and academic texts I have engaged with. These musings are somewhat of a mash-up… I sporadically find myself seeking an outlet—usually something creative and/or physical. When I get to the point of seeking/needing to seek I often find myself p…

Whilst my brain had some free time recently, I was pondering the concept of sovereignty. My thoughts rotated around why it exists as a notion—more-so that it is not a concept that I consider needed nor one that has a place in a fair and just society. This brings me to two clarifications: 1). These are ideas still a work in progress; 2). Given the lack of a fair and just society in (never quite) post-colonial countries (and many others), the concept has some usefulness. I will come back to the latter. Unrelated to my ponderings, it recently came to pass that an eminent scholar in Australia reco…