In Harmonium

Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist

Reading, writing and thinking

Marc | March 19, 2010

I am continually amazed at how “muddy” at lot of thinking is these days, and how this is reflected in a lot of the writing that I now read.  I find myself yearning for the “Good Old Days”, which existed only in myth, where people would hold sensible conversations in their writing.  Maybe I’m just [...]

Pentatonic power

Marc | March 2, 2010

My friend Jim Cassidy just sent me a link to this presentation.  Totally cool, and a fantastic way to show the power of music.

More thoughts on media massaging

Marc | February 1, 2010

A week ago, I posted about the medium is the message vs. massage and used a couple of YouTube Videos from the Ottawa Back Choir as example.  On Saturday, I was over for dinner at an old friend’s house and he showed me one of his favourite YouTube recording artists: Pamplamoose Music.  As he showed [...]

Is the medium the message?

Marc | January 26, 2010

The Medium is the Massage (no, that isn’t a spelling error), is the name of a rather famous work produced by Marshall McLuhan and Quenten Fiore in 1967.  It is, in many ways, a popularizing, as well as exemplar, version of McLuhan’s  major research focus on how media influences messages or, in it’s better known [...]

Rethinking the role of Religious Conflict in Doctrine

Marc | January 15, 2010

A very interesting discussion is starting to heat up over at the Small Wars Council over a paper written by Matt Lauder called Religion and Resistance: Examining the Role of Religion in Irregular Warfare (March 2009, DRDC Toronto TN 2009-049; NB: originally posted by milNews.ca over at army.ca forums).  I expect the discussion to expand [...]

Sarah Palin and Fox News

Marc | January 12, 2010

CBC just carried a story that Sarah Palin will be joining Fox News as a commentator.  I think that her comment that
It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.
just about says it all.  Needless to say, I will continue my personal classification of Fox News as an amusing, [...]

Uncomfortable music

Marc | November 26, 2009

I really don’t like rap at all, but one of my ex-students just sent me a link to an incredibly powerful rap video (hat tip to Lindsay Aranoff).  The video speaks for itself.  Do not watch it if you have a weak stomach.

A pittance of time

Marc | November 13, 2009

One of the things that is often forgotten these days is why people fight – not nations, not governments; people.  All to often, especially during long conflicts with not actual “fighting” in a homeland, we forget and dismiss the conflicts and blame those who go to do the fighting as being “war mongers” and “myrmidons” [...]

Cartoon Wars

Marc | November 3, 2009

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has just released a briefing on anti-terrorist cartoons in the Saudi Arabian press.  As with all humour, it has a cutting edge to it.  My favorites, and I’ll admit I have a warped sense of humour, really capture how what Richard Dawkins calls Mind Viruses operate.

To view all [...]

Some great concerts coming up

Marc | October 18, 2009

I normally limit my posts here about music but, given the concert season, I thought I would post a few announcements about upcoming concerts.  The first two are in Ottawa, while the second two are national broadcasts which can be heard online.