Archive for March, 2008

Von wegen billig einkaufen.

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Eigentlich habe ich mich ja schon auf das Einkaufen im Tiefpreisparadis Berlin gefreut. Aber bei Meldungen wie dieser: Datenschutzverletzungen: Lidl fällt als Wiederholungstäter auf fällt mir eigentlich nichts anderes mehr ein, als das Einkaufen bei Lidl dauerhaft zu boykottieren. Ich habe das auch schon in der Vergangenheit versucht, aber die Tatsache, dass die Lidl Filiale einfach direkt um die Ecke ist und dass die Waren dort billiger sind, haben mich doch immer wieder dort hinein gebracht. Schluss damit! Es kann nicht sein, dass man versuchen muss, solche unglaublichen Praktiken durch Verbraucherverhalten zu sanktionieren. Soweit darf es nicht kommen – insbesondere wenn die Vielen, die nur sehr wenig Geld zum Leben haben, kaum eine Alternative zum so-billig-wie-möglich einkaufen haben.

Forschungsplan.

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Für meine leider erfolglose Bewerbung als Free Floater an der Göttinger Universität (bei der mir das ganze Exzellenzgerede mal wieder übel aufgestoßen ist) habe ich mir die Freiheit genommen, einen Forschungsplan ohne Literaturangaben einzureichen. Wenn schon frei treiben, denn auch wirklich und mal fort mit akademischen Konventionen!
Diesen Forschungsplan habe ich jetzt von Bewerbungsjargon (Selbstanpreisungen, Verortungen im Göttinger Forschungsumfeld, andere Lobhudeleien) befreit und online gestellt, denn eigentlich hat es mich vorangebracht, mir mögliche Zukunftsperspektiven bzw. eine Fortsetzung des Forschungsprojekts auszudenken. Aus dem Bewerbungsschreiben ist jetzt ein programmatisches Statement geworden, das vielleicht auch für Andere interessant sein könnte – entweder, weil das Projekt inhaltlich relevant ist, oder weil man mal schauen möchte, wie andere solche Projektpläne schreiben. Der Titel ist Materialität und soziale Ordnung – Inselgesellschaften im Klimawandel. Wie immer gilt auch für diesen Text: über Rückmeldung freue ich mich.

Reviewing science.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Maybe I have just found an explanation for the rise of sales: our book Encountering Urban Places got a very favorable review by Philip Lawson (Trinity College, Dublin) for the UGRG Book Review Series. Here is his conclusion – I’ll start the citation after his critique is over, of course… ;)

Overall, however, I find this a thoroughly interesting and thought provoking book. It really was not until I had finished reading it that I started to think about the various examples and how they are connected together. The variety of authors and topics illustrate how differing contexts shape urban social space in different ways. As is often the case with edited volumes, readers will find different essays interest them more than others. This is why it makes such a valuable contribution to the field of urban studies. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the relationship between social and physical urban space and whether this be undergraduate, graduate, academic, for teaching, or even in terms of planning or architectural practice.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Selling science.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Yay! It seems that the book Lars and I edited last year sells well. This morning, Dr. Meier sent me the link to our book’s page at amazon.co.uk. I opened it and marveled: we really seem to be doing well, at least much better than I expected. Then again, the amazon sales rank is always a moving target, so tomorrow we could be out of the charts again… Nonetheless, we want to take this as an opportunity to thank all of the contributors to Encountering Urban Places – and the unknown reviewer who thought that our book proposal sounds promising.

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Dance the razor.

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

I am definitely enchanted by Tim Burton’s movies. They seem to be like children’s movies – colorful, funny, full of strange things that want to be discovered and explored. But this is only a fleeting suggestion, because his movies are more movies told from the perspective of a child than they are children’s movies. This in itself does not say much about his style, because it still misses out on the thing that Tim Burton does scaringly well: he embraces the cruelty that is part of children’s life and of their attitude towards the world. Long-term consequences, careful planning and intrigues – this is not what steers his characters. It is the delight of the moment, both in pleasure and in cruelty, that guides his characters, that makes his characters so fascinating and so horrible.
Sweeney Todd’s tale is a classic tale that has been told many times. One of the most successful versions was a Broadway musical. This movie is based on the musical, it is itself a musical. I did not know this about the movie before I went into the cinema and I liked this aspect very much. Those of you who know me better are aware that I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan – and one of my favorite episodes is episode 7, season 6: Once more with feelings. An excellent 45-minute musical that brings the season’s plot forward on many different levels while still being completely entertaining. Tim Burton offers a bow to the Buffy musical by guest starring one of the main actors of the Buffy series, Anthony Steward Head (a.k.a. Giles). This gesture alone would have me reconciled with any possible shortcomings of the movie, but even without it, it was a good movie. You should be warned though: it is the bloodiest Tim Burton movie that I have seen so far. That should be no surprise though: a barber uses a razor, and it is not difficult to guess what a demon barber will do with a razor. However, even if this is a good movie, for me, it is not one of the best Tim Burton movies – I was not as much involved emotionally as I usually am in his movies. (I think I almost cried during the first five minutes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, something which never happened to me before.)
IMDb entry | Trailer