Leicester Space Centre – Shock or Inspire?

16 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

Yesterday I visited the Leicester Space Centre for the first time. The outing was arranged as part of the Y-Heritage project, where a group of young people get to visit different arts and heritage places. Despite heavy rain for most of the day, it was good to be out and about. We started in the […]

Protest or Noise Pollution?

12 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

It’s my dream to live in a noise pollution-free neighbourhood. I’d like to be able to walk about without having my thoughts or conversations drowned out by traffic noise or extra-loud music spilling out from bars and cafés. It’s the reason I always wear noise-cancelling headphones when I’m wandering in a city. Unless there is […]

How Bad is Terrestrial Television?

8 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

After a couple of days visiting Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil, and staying is a room at the Railway Inn in Llandaf, wich was very nice, I can confirm that terrestrial television in the UK is awful! How does anyone watch this stuff? It was raining last night, so rather than going out, I decided to […]

Why I Never Learnt to Drive

7 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I’ve never learnt to drive. The reason I’ve never wanted to learn to drive a car is because I’m not happy with the experience of overseeing a metal box on wheels travelling at thirty mile an hour. I realise that lots of people do like driving, and by extension the culture that goes with cars, […]

Unpicking the British Cult of Narcissism

2 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

It is a truism in politics that the people get the leaders they deserve. This must mean that the British people – well, the English at most – are a bunch of delusional narcissists who have no idea that their inflated egos do not accord with the reality of their circumstances! Watching the political scene […]

Schopenhauer – The Wisdom of Life

1 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I picked up a copy of Schopenhauer’s The Wisdom of Life, in which he outlines a number of principles for recognising and understanding how we can live a well-adjusted life. Contrary to the postmodern claims that we can reinvent ourselves based on a fluid sense of identity, Schopenhauer details the well-established and long-standing idea, that […]

Political Come-Downs and a News Detox

27 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

After the intensity of British politics over the last couple of weeks, today has felt like a massive come-down. I’ve been glued to Twitter, my news channels and Sky News for the last couple of weeks, as the chaos of the premiership of Liz Truss fell apart. I’ve heard other people say that they have […]

Mundane Blogging – Back to the Matrix

26 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

Do you remember when blogging first took off, and the internet was full of the most mundane and basic stories about peoples everyday lives? I suppose this was well before Sex and the City, or You’ve Got Mail! People would write about what they did when they met friends for a coffee, or went grocery […]

Chilli-Rush in Nottingham

25 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

I went over to Nottingham today to have some documents checked. It’s always good to waste time in Nottingham, largely because it isn’t Leicester, and the city centre is more navigable, with a wider range of small shops. As a treat, I had a late lunch at Zapp, the Thai Cafe. I ordered Guay Tiew, […]

Autumn is Moving Quickly

24 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

I went for a stroll today after being stuck in the house because of the rain at the weekend. Walking up Westcoates Drive, the ground was covered in a blanket of fallen leaves. It looks like autumn, but it doesn’t feel autumnal yet. The weather has been unseasonably warm, with moist winds blowing across the […]

Upgrades and Downsizing

23 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

I’ve spent most of the weekend sorting out some of the websites I host. I’ve got lost in a fog of DNS settings, droplets and backups. It’s a good job that the weather has been rubbish this weekend, as I didn’t have the urge to wander about anywhere. It was either fixing websites or getting […]

Moonage Daydream – Bowie’s Collective Individuation

8 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

On Friday, I went to the cinema to see Moonage Daydream, the film by Brett Morgen about the creative life of David Bowie. Rather than being a traditional documentary, the film bills itself as a ‘cinematic experience’, and was itself a creative interpretation of Bowie’s art, music and collated media. The film is stunning in […]

Distraction Therapy 076 – Bikram Yoga and Symbolic Resonance

3 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreRyan and I met up on Saturday morning for our regular coffee and chat. Ryan came hot-footed from a bikram yoga session, and was super energised. We chatted about the after-effects of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, and […]

Distraction Therapy 075 – Emergent Arts and Media

20 August 2022 Rob Watson 0

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreRyan and I caught up for a coffee again this morning, to find out what films and books we’ve been reading. We chatted about how forms of media can be thought of as emergent, and considered […]

What is Emergence?

16 August 2022 Rob Watson 0

What does it mean to be emergent? What are the characteristics properties of something that is in the process of emerging? What is emergence and what is non-emergence? Working out what is meant in practice by the idea of emergence is important, for it helps our understanding of the notion of metamodern phenomenon, as they […]