Nanging It

In response to:So Soiled, But A Sunday Times Reader??

2006-05-23T17:41:59+02:00

you bored of the blog now or what?

In response to:So Soiled Crew

2006-05-16T15:11:14+02:00

Don't be depressed!

You could donate to a charity that helps people with mental illnesses such as Sane

Or see what you could do to help the situation or similar ones in a more hands on way, by contacting a charity like Age Concern or Help the Aged to see how you could help by maybe volunteering?

In response to:So Soiled Crew

2006-05-01T11:39:57+02:00

These are the only things that matter. I feel that I am speaking out for the greater good.

In response to:So Soiled Crew

2006-04-30T16:57:53+02:00

Topics covered in this blog to date:

insanity; bodily waste; insanity & bodily waste

Next week?

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-29T12:53:01+02:00

The grass is always greener

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-29T12:35:35+02:00

Yeah, these things are not so clear when seen through the filter of a different culture, so perhaps I would feel less anamoured with them if I was Spanish.

However, I think there is a something in the feeling that you get from people- the way they interact with you- which to a certain extent goes beyond social and cultural norms and you can judge objectively (perhaps?!). I'm not saying all the trendy waiters were nice as pie, but they didn't seem so up-themselves. However, perhaps pretentiousness in Barcelona is veiled by a smiley exterior and somewhere in a non-trendy cafe there are my equivalents bemoaning the fact that behind those smiley exteriors is hidden self-important pretentiousness. I just don't know anymore.

What can be said with any certainty???

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-28T11:28:27+02:00

I really liked Barcelona but didnt notice it smelling of wee, perhaps that is because we went in the winter.

Also maybe if you grew up in Spain, spoke, understood and read perfect Spanish then you'd hate the trendies in Barcelona as much as you hate the trendies in London.

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-24T12:26:45+02:00

...or perhaps he's inserting it.. either way, it's not about photographing it curly..

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-24T12:22:55+02:00

That guy is clearly pissing into a bottle. Maybe the people of Barcelona think he is mad.

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-17T17:35:20+02:00

Thanks for your comment- which was your favourite area?

In response to:Barcelona - City of Bliss or City of Piss?

2006-04-16T16:13:00+02:00

The aroma is ever-present in other localities of Barcelona. They have a very open sewage system under those designer drain covers. It is the same in the coldest of weathers I can assure you. I was given to understand that it was worse in December than it had been in the previous Autumn!

Apart from that, watch your purses, wallets and saleable goods like cameras, video cams etc. The pickpockets are skilled artists at their trade. The harder side, which there is, true muggers, also operate effectively and leave a great deal of distress in their wake. Law and order is not well-enforced in Barcelona, it is at the level of tinkering; highly superficial stuff.

Sadly, the decent Catalonians are highly embarrassed by this particularly darker aspect of their city life. It is a beautiful city with so many interesting things to experience and discover.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-15T10:55:04+02:00

I agree with Crofty.

I see no reason to debate this further. I don't run in circles, so there is no way I am mad.

Good, I feel better.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-15T09:13:45+02:00

I agree only with the simple explanation provided by Tears For Fears:

"When people run in circles it's a very very
Mad world, mad world, mad world, mad world"

Black and white in my opinion. Where the fuck is the grey in that?

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-14T23:33:01+02:00

"...think or behave beyond the boundaries that the community have established as acceptable"

...but again, I think this implies too meditated a set of boundaries, be they community or personal. your definition could be used to explain why, if 100 people from a given culture are shown 10 'actors', 1 of whom is 'mad', most folk would identify the same character as the 'mad' one. however, what we have failed to address are the questions of what decides community and, moreover, personal boundaries.

it is clear from this debate that a) most people have a working (personal) definition of insanity, based on observable characteristics (see curly's first point), and b) that this is otherwise sufficiently vague for members of one's culture to identify the same individuals as 'mad'. this is our 'black & white'.

curly's question - whether he is mad - lies well outside popular understanding of sanity/insanity, and cannot be answered here. even attempts to define mental pathology (ie mental illness as occurring when the "individual cannot master, at the level of his reactions, the contradictions of his environment, when the psychological dialectic of the individual cannot recognise itself in the dialectics of the conditions of his existence" - Foucault again) do not incorporate the more fundamental issues of 'reflection': what does one see, truly, when one looks on the madman? and what, more significantly, does the madman see when he looks upon himself?

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-14T22:29:56+02:00

Isn't someone mad when they think or behave beyond the boundaries that the community have established as acceptable?

The other day I saw a woman walking down the road balancing an enormous bag of shopping on her head without using her hands. If we had been in the Cotswolds, the woman was white and she was wearing jodpurs and a bright red hunting jacket, I would probably have thought she was quite mad. But the woman was black, she was wearing traditional African dress and she was walking down Walworth Road, South London.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-14T15:38:04+02:00

umm,

sanity is necessarily defined diametrically (for interesting examination of structural binary opposition see Levi-Strauss/Mary Douglas). I think the issue here is not one of semantics but of colloquialisation. It is the way in which we, as individuals, construct meaning (and the way in which this is inseperable from language - again, see Levi-Strauss)that promotes this kind of confusion. For example, here in Scotland the smoking ban's just started and everyone's talking about 'rights': my rights; human rights; animal rights... This means something different to all people, few of whom have studied ethics or could define 'rights'.

The point is, regardless of the existence of a concrete definition for a phenomenon, people will invariably create meaning for themselves based on their own experiences of the world. Your concerns seem to stem from your appreciation of this infamous 'grey area'. Of course, really there is only grey...

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-14T10:47:04+02:00

You're just rationalising.

Crime does need trousers, a constant supply of W- 32", L-34". It comes as no surprise at all to discover, whilst reading the international retailer's bi-annual theft report, that these were the trousers most commonly stolen.

Just as video piracy aids organised crime (beware Desmond), so to does carelessness with this size of trouser. So just keep them on. Alright??

The guy running backwards had forgotten something. The convention of running forwards. But I like that.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-14T10:43:55+02:00

Yeah, I've read some about this Foucalt guy. He is in the group formely known as the anti-psychiatric crowd innit?

I'm reading this book called going sane, which I think is probably more apt, as Foucalt, correct me If I am wrong, tends to deal with the nature of madness rather than the nature of sanity?

But it is very weird that we should be expected to know what white is by defining what black isn't, wouldn't you say?

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T21:54:15+02:00

yo i work with mad people. some are very mad; others less so.

if you're losing sleep over this curls you might try this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415253853/qid=1144961183/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/202-7388117-2115057

nice

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T19:26:04+02:00

no trousers? someone must have nicked them. crime needs trousers too.
guy running backwards must have forgotten something.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T19:19:48+02:00

Yeah, fair's fair, I definately show some of the signs of madness.

Firstly, I talk nonsensical crap for much of the time (although I would argue that this is primarily a defense strategy for my sanity), secondly I do have delusions of grandeur and thirdly I find it hard to keep still when sitting in hard backed chairs.

But, you know, you talk really loud and are prone to outbursts, so you've got at least two of the signs of madness going there yourself buddy bouy.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T18:51:28+02:00

"repeats the same things again and again"

mawahahahahahaha, Matt you are apparently as nuts as they come.

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T15:35:30+02:00

Talking of bus stops, it was twenty to eight on midweek morning in the fair suburb of manor house, back in February, when I was astonished to see a man in tiny blue nylon shorts and a tightly fitting white vest running, at full pelt, BACKWARDS.

Now, I have to ask whether this particular behaviour, or indeed that of the man you saw trouserless, is any more insane than getting packed into a tube compartment with 200 other people all look like they want to God himself to end for them then and there?

Perhaps running backwards and forgoing trousers is the first step towards sanity, rather than the last away from it?

In response to:Sanity

2006-04-13T15:21:17+02:00

Sanity is remembering to put your trousers on in the morning. I saw a fella at the bus stop the other day who had neglected to do even that. Top half, beautifully tailored Savile Row blazer, crisply ironed shirt, tie (complete with Windsor knot). Bottom half, boxer shorts. It was a wonderful sight. I have photographic evidence.

I think you're pretty sane by his standards my friend.