Category Archives: The Journal
Modern Cities Need History And Style – So Let’s All Find Out How It’s Done
The strongly held views on Liverpool’s World Heritage Site and the Museum of Liverpool proposals have something to tell us about how we sometimes need to look beyond our own patch, to see what could or should be done. Perhaps ‘cultural exchange’ programmes within our own shores might be a start, so helping citizens to know each other’s towns and cities across the nation?
Lots of debate as usual about architecture and design, following the Heritage Lottery decision not to fund the Museum of Liverpool…. The views about the World Heritage Site and so forth have been interesting – as ever!
The last few days I’ve been in London with my family and, as it happens, doing the ‘visitor’ bit around the Tate Modern, the City, Covent Garden and Westminster. What strikes me so strongly is that most people in London don’t seem to have a huge problem about Big Buildings and Little Buildings, old ones and new.
The mix of old and new
Of course, ‘new’ buildings adjacent to ‘old’ ones (and they don’t get much more historic than some in the parts of London I was seeing) are often designed very well in a style which merges… but then you get the Gherkin. What an amazing construction! There’s St. Paul’s being done up, and behind it what you can only term a huge conical mirror. But I really don’t think it looks ‘wrong’.
In fact, one of the things that strikes me is how vibrant this miscellany of buildings, mile upon mile of them, is. Some young people I know who have moved to the Capital have actually chosen large drawings and (v dramatic) photographs of the Foster building and similar as the artwork for their own home…. and they’re exactly the sort of young professionals Liverpool would dearly have liked to keep here. But London offers so much more.
I definitely don’t think that all ‘modern’ architecture is appropriate wherever it’s put. It has to be excellent and well-positioned to earn its footprint. But I’d guess the folk in London are lucky in being (literally) more cosmopolitan in their approach; they’ve seen more of the world – in general, not all of them of course – than folk in Liverpool (again, in general). Expecting exciting and perhaps controversial architecture alongside a proper respect for the historic, and off-set by wide-open green spaces, probably goes with that wider mindset.
Where’s the wider experience and context?
When are we going to start to try to ensure that as many Liverpool people as possible have a wider context in which to judge their city? Isn’t it time actively to encourage people, young and older, to visit other places and experience (not just ‘look at’) other contexts, so that they can have a more broadly informed view of what goes on here, as well? It’s difficult to have a positive, balanced position when the basis of it is often so narrow, even perhaps parochial.
And is there something here for everyone? Would it be a good thing if we all tried to experience parts of the country outside our own patch? Never mind ‘foreign’ exchanges, worthy though these can be. What about learning more about where we actually live, as well?
Women, Ladies Or Girls? What’s In A Name?
The English language is rich in many respects; but it’s inadequate, perhaps for very important reasons, when it comes to naming and addressing mature female people. For the foreseeable future polite society will probably continue to constrain women by the words we may properly use here. Men can also be ‘Chaps’ and ‘Guys’, whilst for women until now there’s been no equivalent set of terms…. which may explain why younger people of both sexes, often themselves more consciously gender-equal, have begun to claim these names, Guys and Chaps, as inclusive terms for everyone.
Names meaning everything and nothing. The old adage about ‘sticks and stones’ but ‘names can hurt me never…’ has some truth, but it’s not the whole story.
So here’s a question: how does one properly address a group of mature female people whom one may not know well?
Women, Ladies of Girls?
Is there any other term than these which one can use for such a group as the one above?
* ‘Women’ is a strange form of spoken or formal address; the word refers to a type of person, but it’s not really a collective noun in the formal naming sense;
* ‘Ladies’ is a term which offends some because of its patriarchal and other class overtones (though the Concise Oxford notes it is a “courteous or formal synonym for ‘women'”); and
* ‘Girls’ is obviously not appropriate as a formal term for any group of female people over the age of about 16.
So what are we women to be addressed as? Frankly, I don’t know.
Forms of address for men
This is easier! Men can be ‘Gentlemen’ (formal); ‘Chaps’ (the friendly noun for a group of posibly more mature men), ‘Guys’ (friendly, for younger men, or for Chaps with a more modern outlook?) or even ‘Boys’ (though usually only as a form of gentle teasing between peers, or in families).
Rarely do we hear complaint about any of these collective nouns. There’s something for everyone – at least as long as you’re male. But then of course men don’t feel marginalised or at risk of being demeaned by terms of reference in the same way as some women may, not infrequently with reason.
The new Chaps ‘n’ Guys
Talking with younger women and men, there seems to be a move towards an understanding that Chaps and Guys can be male or female. ‘Okay you guys..’ is the start of a sentence which can be addressed to anyone (collectively) by anyone, male or female, in informal situations. And ‘Chaps’ has become a term which, again informally, refers to any group of people.
Perhaps this is the way forward. In formal situations there seems little option but to use the ‘polite’ forms ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…’; this doesn’t always sound good, but how else does one start? At least it’s equally constraining for both men and women.
Hermaphrodising the naming
Informally perhaps we women can move towards a more hermaphrodite nomenclature. We’re ‘Guys’ and ‘Chaps’ when it suts. This doesn’t, to me at least, feel like the awful legal precedent of announcing that ‘all references to ‘he’ shall also apply to ‘she’…’ and so on. That legal precedent was made by men. We, women, are choosing to be, and to call ourselves, ‘You Guys’ in a rather different way.
The ultimate test for person-to-person, face-to-face, naming has to be that person’s choice, and the type of context in which the choice is made. We can decide in the general sense to use what collective nouns we like, but respect for the individual and his / her ease should take prioity over our own preference when we address another.
If we want real communication, putting the other at ease is important; and if that includes using formal terms because these are the only ones we have, in my book, so be it. Convention, however inperfect, help us here.
Hallo people!
Nonetheless, the English language does leave us a bit high and dry, with ‘he’ and ‘she’ as the third person nouns, and no ungendered noun for individuals except for the words ‘person’ and ‘people’. Maybe we women willl have arrived when the formal way to address groups of either / mixed gender is to begin, ‘Good morning people…’.
But that may take a while, Guys.
How Will We Know That Liverpool 2007 & 2008 Were Successful?
The 800th Anniversary of Liverpool in 2007, and the Liverpool European Capital of Culture Year in 2008, are hugely important milestones for the city. So how are we, citizens of the city or of Europe and the world, going to measure the success of these years, once we reach 2009?
Your suggested responses and answers to this question are most welcome….
Much has already been written, on this weblog and elsewhere, about Liverpool’s 800th Anniversary in 2007, and the 2008 European Capital of Culture Year.
I don’t intend just now to extend that debate – it seems to be developing all on its own… and please do continue to add your contributions on this weblog. But I would like to ask one special question, to which I would also really appreciate answers (please use the Response space below):
By what criteria will, or should, we be able to evaluate the success of Liverpool 2007 / 8?
I’m sure many people will have many ideas on the criteria we should use – or perhaps are already using?
Indeed, it would be helpful to know whether there actually are already sol
Starting The Year (Calendar) And Making the Century (Weblog)
This is the beginning of the working year – and the one hundredth entry which Hilary has written on her weblog. It’s been an exciting adventure for this weblogger so far; and hopefully there are more topics to come….
It somehow feels right that this is the first working day of the new year – and also the one hundredth item I’ve written for my weblog. After a very hesitant start I actually got going in October, and here I am, still enjoying it all enormously.
And slowly the ‘rules’ I want to work to are becoming clearer: I try to keep things ‘even’ and I certainly don’t want to be personal about individuals; I tend to steer clear of specifically party politics unless I can find no other way to say something (Yes, I am a seasoned honorary officer of the Liverpool Labour Party, just to be sure to declare my interest here); and I seek to share information and views across a wide range of topics, because I feel very strongly that we should all try to connect up ideas and views where we can.
Learning from your comments
I’m very grateful to all those who have taken the time and trouble to respond to various things I’ve written. It’s interesting that the topic which has attracted both the most hits (about 5% of them all) and the most comments is in fact Liverpool’s Sefton Park and the proposals for restoring it to its former glory.
Sefton Park could seem a strange topic for hot debate, but actually that’s just what we’re having about the Park right now – there are people out there who feel very strongly about the whole thing, one way and the other. So perhaps one element of a weblog which attracts active debate is the possibility on a ‘,a type=”amzn”>human scale ‘ of influencing outcomes?
Well-visited topics
But there are also a lot more issues which attract interest, to judge from hits on this website – amongst them, elected mayors (or not), Liverpool’s Hope Street, regionalism and Tesco! And that’s before we get to women’s groups, orchestras, science and medicine, eco-issues and the surprisingly well-visited entries on allotments and art and health.
The weblog continues to take shape
I am of course very aware that my long-suffering website designer, the estimable Nick Prior, has set me quite a few tasks for the next few months to take this weblog forward. There will be re-designs to whatever extent, and I am going to have to make some hard-headed decisions about Categories and the like…. and that’s where the feedback I get from you, our readers, comes in so useful. Please keep it coming!
And for 2006…?
Who knows what will crop up next by way of hot debate? We all have our pressing interests and concerns, and we all have lots to do, so the scope is enormous. But for me I guess and hope there will be some very interesting experiences in 2006. All the things I currently do are fascinating and there’s more for me to add in the months to come – particularly my new role as a Member of the Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Science Advisory Council, about which I shall start to learn more very soon.
So I hope it will be a very good year for us all; and that I shall continue to be able to share some of my ideas with you, and you will do the same for me.
New Year Resolutions For You And Your Lifestyle
Everyone takes time as the New Year arrives to do some mental spring cleaning. This list offers ideas for reflection and perhaps as New Year Resolutions. It’s about how individuals approach their lives and leisure time. I hope it’s useful.
Here’s an alphabet of resolutions and reflections for the New Year. It’s a mix, match or amend menu, so take it where you will. Good Luck!
A Join an Athletics Club, learn Archery, visit an Art Gallery – Anything new. You choose; but just see if you can get a different Angle on life.
B Look on the Bright side wherever you can; remember to make time to Bond with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues…
C Concentrate your mind on something different. Find a Community Choir, go to a ‘proper, sit and listen’ Concert, be a member of a Chess Club (on-line if you like), play Croquet, whatever.
D Is there enough Drama in your life? Find ways to chill if there’s too much. Develop a tast for exciting sports events, politics or live theatre / opera if there’s not enough.
E Increase your Energy: Exercise! Every day.
F Grow your own Food and Flowers sometimes, even if only in window boxes – ‘green’ is good for you in many ways.
G How’s your Girth? If you’re not pleased with your measurements, Get it sorted. Gently.
H Try to stay Happy; think back, every evening, to what’s gone right that day.
I Take In a panto / ballet and let your Imagination run wild; or learn to play a musical Instrument – In a group or with the kids…
J Do a personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of your Job or other main activity. What does it tell you?
K Perform a random act of Kindness, every day; something you really didn’t have to do, but which makes someone else smile (you’ll smile too).
L Learn about your carbon footprint. And Learn to Listen.
M Make a wish, a promise to yourself which Means something to you as a person. How will you Manage to achieve it?
N Avoid Negatives; don’t be cynical. Life’s too short.
O Organise a visit to somewhere you’ve always dreamed of going; just do it.
P Buy a Pedometer and wear it. When last did you Pound the Pavements or simply stroll in your local Park?
Q We all need Quality time.
R Find time too for Reflection. Life is not a Rehearsal.
S Sort a Same Sex night out – Somewhere you can hear each other Speak.
T Have a TV-free day every week. Go on, give it a Try!
U Understand other people’s perspectives where you can.
V Could you go Vegetarian? It’s eco-friendly and it costs less.
W Sustain and enjoy Wildlife – even if it’s only the ‘diners’ fluttering around your Window Bird Feeder
X EXplore somewhere new, however locally or far-flung. Search and marvel on the internet if you can’t physically get there.
Y Stay Young at heart ( but appreciate the advantages of experience). So….
Z Take the kids (yours / some hard-pressed mum’s..) to, say, the Zoo; join in gladly as they have fun!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stay (Get?) Slim, Sleep More – The Ideal New Year Resolution
Perhaps I’m being hopelessly optimistic in my reading of the scientific facts, but here’s a New Year Resolution I’m sure we’d all actually enjoy sticking to.. …if only we had the time…
I’ve been saving this one up, as the ultimate bit of cheer for everyone who maybe forgot the diet over Christmas… I read in a Guardian article by Joanna Hall last month that, I quote,
“Lack of sleep reduces the amount of human growth hormone responsible for the body’s fat-to-muscle ratio.”
And she adds that lack of sleep can therefore in part explain older people’s weight gain. Well, here’s the news we’ve all be waiting for.
Of course, Joanna also says that sensible eating and adequate exercise are essential for weight maintenance (you have been taking your brisk-ish turns round the park during the holiday, haven’t you?), but the good news could seem to be, ‘Sleep more, weigh less’…. and lest we forget, isn’t it true that our mums used to tell us we had to have a decent bedtime if we wanted to grow big and strong? (More muscle, less fat?)
So there we go. The must-have New Year Resolution: I really will try to get more sleep.
Wonderful in theory; and maybe just as hard as dieting and keeping the accounts straight in practise? But, unlike diets and accounts, at least it has a feel-good about it.
And a Very Happy New Year to you alll!
The EDGE Of The Year…. And The Edge Foundation Inc.
The Annual EDGE Question is something which deserves sharing with as many as possible of those who’d enjoy challenging scientific-style ‘mind gym’.
This is the part of the annual calendar when people set themselves puzzles to solve and quizzes to answer, so perhaps it’s a good time to share a world-wide ‘quiz’ which was set twelve months ago.
The non-profit Edge Foundation Inc. sets an annual EDGE Question, published on the first day of the year. The 2005 Question was
What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?
Answers to this question, as given by some of the most well-known ‘science thinkers’ in the world, were published by EDGE on 1st January 2005; and with subsequent contributions – 120 in all – the responses constituted 60,000 very challenging and absorbing words. (They have subsequently been edited by the novelist Ian McEwan and published by the Free Press (UK) as a book entitled What We Believe But Cannot Prove.)
The next question
So, mull over the 2005 Question today, the last day of that year – it’ll be a fascinating exercise! – and then begin to ask yourself, what will the Edge Annual Question 2006 look like?
By this evening we should know, as the 2006 Question is imminently to be published online at Edge … the responses from (I quote) a ‘”who’s who” of third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers’ should be very well worth a good read – and then the debate can begin all over again.
Perhaps you’ve been blowing away the cobwebs already, or perhaps you haven’t. Whatever, here’s an opportunity to do a bit of mind gym, no matter if you’re striding purposefully up a hill against the icy blast, or sitting snugly in your favourite chair at home. Enjoy!
33 Things To Do Before You Turn 10 (or 110)
Kids’ play is in one way serious stuff, but that’s no reason why fun shouldn’t also be far less than serious for them and for the grown-ups too. Here are some ideas to try which came from a survey of children earlier in the year, plus a few suggestions for the adults as well… Go for it, and enjoy!
Do you remember the Persil ads of last Summer? They were all on the theme of children playing, with the subtext, ‘never mind the dirt, have fun‘…. a rather useful notion, if you happen to sell washing powder, since there were thirty three of these ideas:
33 things kids should do before they’re 10 – the official list
1. Roll on your side down a grassy bank
2. Make a mud pie
3. Make your own modelling dough mixture
4. Collect frogspawn
5. Make perfume from flower petals
6. Grow cress on a windowsill
7. Make a papier mache mask
8. Build a sandcastle
9. Climb a tree
10. Make a den in the garden
11. Make a painting using your hands and feet
12. Organise your own teddy bears picnic
13. Have your face painted
14. Play with a friend in the sand
15. Make some bread
16. Make snow angels
17. Create a clay sculpture
18. Take part in a scavenger hunt
19. Camp out in the garden
20. Bake a cake
21. Feed a farm animal
22. Pick some strawberries
23. Play pooh sticks
24. Recognise five different bird species
25. Find some worms
26. Ride a bike through a muddy puddle
27. Make and fly a kite
28. Plant a tree
29. Build a nest out of grass and twigs
30. Find ten different leaves in the park
31. Grow vegetables
32. Make breakfast in bed for your parents
33. Make a mini assault course in your garden
Not all fun things need be grubby
We might also want to say that you don’t have to get grubby to enjoy yourself, even as a child; but there may be a useful idea or two in the message, especially as we reach that part of the Festive Season when for some (holiday guests, if not perhaps rushed-off-their-feet festive host/s) the main question is, ‘What shall we do next?’
The Guardian reports that what kids enjoy and apparently want to do before they reach the age of ten does not always meet with adult approval in our sanitised society, and there are concerns that children themseves are now sometimes reluctant to enjoy things which their parents expected to do without chastisement. Certainly, I for one as a child much enjoyed almost all the activities on the list – though I fear that face painting and scavenger hunts must have arrived after my time – and, although there were in those days no ‘to do’ lists of fun activities, we were keen also to ensure that our own family tried the current Persil ideas too. So maybe these things are perennial, and none the worse for that.
You don’t have to be a child to have fun!
And, since it’s holiday time right now, let’s add to these suggestions with more ideas I’ve heard for the grown-ups: Try acting out a little play / panto with the kids, make some music, tell / read a story, or simply enjoy a good walk somewhere refreshing. (By all means try to spot lots of different birds and plants on the way.) But I don’t have to elaborate this list, everyone has their own – though it’s always interesting to know what the best and simplest ideas are.
Plus, if we do get the predicted post-Christmas snow, maybe we should all try the Persil suggestion which most of us probably hadn’t heard of as children – the Snow Angel. All you have to do is lie on your back in the snow (very briefly, but thereby already providing loss of dignity and thus huge amusement for the Juniors present) and ‘wave’ your arms above your head. When you get up, you’re promised an imprint in the white stuff of an angel.
So now we can all be angelic during the Festive Season, for very little effort; and we’ll have the sparkly image in the snow to prove it.
Have you read….?
Things To Do When You’re 11 – 15
Things To Do When You’re 19 – 21
Things To Do When You’re 22 – 25
Things To Do When You’re 26 – 30
Things To Do When You’re 31 – 40
What To Do At Any Age – Be Happy
* Life is not a rehearsal
* Smile when you can
* Do acts of random kindness
* Try no-TV days
* Be cautious sometimes, cynical never
* Use your pedometer
* Treat yourself daily to a ‘Went Right’ list
So You Want To Put On A Show?
Shows are far more complicated to produce than many in the audience will ever realise. Here’s a lighthearted ‘poetic’ guide for anyone who fancies chancing their hand as promoter or director of a musical or theatrical event. Hopefully, everything you need to think about is here…
So you want to put on a show?
Well, here are the things you must know:
What’s the date, when’s the time, where’s the money?
What’s the theme, is it straight, sad or funny?
Who can act, who can play, who can sing?
Who’ll direct, can they do the whole thing?
What’s the venue, location and cost?
If the tickets don’t sell, are you lost?
Who’ll do your box office, and how?
Do you need to start marketing now?
Who’ll design programmes, posters and flyers?
Will you cope if a team member tires?
Have you found all your quotes for the print-run
And settled dates for it to be done?
Who’ll design any costumes and sets?
Are you confident budgets are met?
Have you found all your scripts and / or scores?
Are there copies for all, and some more?
Have you sorted rehearsals and places
So performers can go through their paces?
Will you use a presenter, and who?
If you have to cut back, will that do?
Will your artists require expenses,
Are these likely to be quite extensive?
Have you registered with Performing Rights
(Or composers could give you sleepless nights)?
Do you know that your players need cuppas
And without these they’ll end on their uppers?
Are you certain your insurance’s updated
Just in case your poor venture is fated?
Have you checked your venue is licenced
To avoid legal questions or sentence?
Are your sponsors signed up and contented?
Have you made sure no egos are dented?
Can you say hand on heart
That you’ll still play the part
When frustrations or worries are vented?
Have you thought if your venue needs heating?
Have you sorted there’s adequate seating?
Have you sound-checked against any din?
Is your access well-lit coming in?
Are your backdrops and props fine and dandy?
Your producer not reaching for brandy?
Are the stage lights and spots in good order?
Can the musos all see their own folders?
Is the piano in tune?
Has the stage enough room?
Have you ordered the squash, wine and biccies?
Can you wash your hands clean if they’re sticky?
Do performers have costumes which fit them?
And a place where they change to get in them?
Come the day when the show’s set to go
Who will do all the tapes and photos?
Will there be a recording on the night?
(And what about the media rights?)
Have you vendors for tickets and nibbles?
And some stewards to sort out the quibbles?
Have you marked out seats on the front row
Where your V.I.P. guests will all go?
Will a few words be said when the show starts
By a ‘vip’ with sound wisdom to impart?
Are there flowers gift-wrapped with a bow
To present at the end of the show?
Are your thank-yous all done to be posted,
So your artists and hosts feel toasted?
Will the audience know
When it’s over, to go
With a smile and a song in their hearts?
Oh! You’ve had quite enough
And you think it’s too tough
And you wish that you never had started.
But the show must go on
And there’s no escape from
The idea which began so stout-hearted.
Then the audience arrives
And the tails and bow ties
Are put on by your doughty performers;
And they go on the stage
And the show is a rage
(So you hope in your dreams,
If the critic thus deems)
And the buzz when it ends is high order.
But there’s just one more task
As you sort out the costs –
Fingers crossed, not a loss? –
And the hall’s cleared at last
As the costumes and music are stowed.
Now the hassles are over,
And though you are sober
You feel as if you’re quite heady.
And somehow a notion
Sets itself into motion
For another performance or show……
Are you c e r t a i n you’re r e a d y ???
© HB/Nov.04
A Bach Christmas For Us All!
The BBC Radio 3 Bach experience has been an extraordinary experiment; but sharing something like this with people all over the world as Christmas approaches surely has a particular meaning for many.
Anyone who enjoys classical music will be aware that the BBC has just offered us ten days of uninterrupted Bach. This has to be the tour de force to beat ’em all.
I’d be less than candid if I didn’t admit there have been times when I decided enough was enough – and turned to Dinah Washington, the Walker Brothers or other entirely ‘off site’ artists for a bit of contrast… or when I chose instead to listen to my usual fare of the wonderful chamber music of the past two centuries.
Nonetheless, in this season of good cheer, perhaps it’s worth just thinking how amazing it is that the BBC can arrange for us to listen to all, everything, J.S. Bach has left us, from three hundred or so years ago.
A global legacy shared
My guess is that people all over the world have been ‘tuning in’ on their broadband computers and hearing Bach in the morning, Bach at lunchtime and Bach in the evening [postscript, 27 Dec: 2.5 million hits were recorded!].
Maybe Bach is not everyone’s cup of tea, but here we have something really quite extraordinary – a community of ‘People on Earth’ who, without knowing each other, are sharing a legacy of three hundred years which has been the basis for much of our contemporary music, popular, ‘classical’ and even cutting edge.
Just as we can share the hoped-for goodwill of Christmas without necessarily the religious aspects, so through music and very ‘new’ technologies we can share a heritage which means something, whatever our own contemporary musical preferences.
Dreaming Realist 