Category: Culture
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“Got your number”: 118118 as the cultural ghosts of a future we never had
In the early 2000s, before the global financial crash ripped the world apart and the latent fascistic tumult was cloaked in a burial shroud of capitalist realism, the soon-to-be outgoing Labour government was not immune to the heady allure of the privatisation drug. In their sights was the clumsy, but…
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90s Lads’ Mags and the toxic masculinity we can’t escape
Like any teenage boy with his hormones raging, I admit to there being the odd poster of Jennifer Aniston on my bedroom wall alongside Pearl Jam, Faith No More and Duncan Ferguson. I was a child of the 90s, so of course I was exposed to the ‘lads mag’ culture…
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Fredric Jameson (1934 – 2024)
Over the weekend, while many of us were undoubtedly enjoying the fruits of the cultural conditions of late capitalism (be that at a theme park, out with friends not seen for years, or simply sat in front of the TV or social media), the main architect of our nuanced understanding…
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Bubblegum Dystopia: The Sweet Decay of Late-Stage Capitalism
I recently came across the term ‘bubblegum dystopia’ (this video explains that it comes from a quip about Terry Gilliam’s 2014 film The Zero Theorem) and oh yes, it’s a *chefs kiss* description of the current conjuncture of late-stage palliative capitalism we find ourselves in… Because while the world boils,…
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The Big Breakfast: the first meal of Cool Britainnia
Yes I know, I’ve perhaps been reading too much of Mark Fisher of late, but I really do think he was on to something. Perhaps it’s because I’m a child of the 90s, maybe because my first ever proper job gave me a front row seat in the ever-accelerating juggernaut…
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Benjaminian Aura in the Age of Swift
Swift performs at Gillette Stadium on May 19, 2023, in Foxborough, Mass., during her Eras Tour. Scott Eisen/TAS23 via Getty Images My children are Swifties. I take this as an abject failure on my part to indoctrinate them with various hues of ‘dad rock’, but given that Taylor Swift has…
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Juxtaposition in the Capitalocene
One of the fundamental epistemological tenants of the Capitalocene can be analysed via a rather old-fashioned motif: a geographical, specifically, a scalar narrative. That is because our current conjuncture compels us to confront a stark and often discordant juxtaposition: one that chaotically zooms from the cosmological, the planetary, the national,…
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Planetary Safe Mode? Turning Lockdowns into a tool to fight Climate Change
The pandemic that currently grips our world has been many countries go into unprecedented lockdowns multiple times. Characterised by stay at home instructions, education going online, the closure of non-essential businesses; they have caused misery for millions. However, in some parts of the world they have had unintended benefits such…
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Whose bailout is it anyway? Saving the Arts may not save Culture
The recent announcement by the government that they are giving a £1.57bn ‘bailout’ to the UK’s arts and cultural sector has been hugely welcoming. As far as traditionally culture-shy and fiscally prudent Conservative governments go, it is a huge amount; it is almost three times the annual budget of Arts…
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The loss of an icon? The Crescent Pub in Salford
On Sunday after a weekend visiting the old haunts in Manchester for the weekend (and spending a day watching Jimmy Anderson skittle out South Africa’s batting line up), I took a slow drive along Chapel Street as I made my way back to the motorway. I wanted to see my…
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