Macrolog: Culture & Society
Perturbed by Prodigies Sat 27 Aug 2005
The reason you get child prodigies in chess, arithmetic, and classical composition is that they are all worlds of discontinuous, parceled-up possibilities. Reading an excerpt from an old Wired...
More Thoughts on the Tube Shooting Fri 19 Aug 2005 | 2 Comments
The Observer’s Rafael Behr puts it bluntly: A man slips on his denim jacket (unimpeded by explosives of any sort) and steps outside. He gets a bus to his local...
The Atom and the Damage Done, Part II Sun 14 Aug 2005
Last week saw Japan, and the world, commemorate the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in which an estimated 220,000 people lost their lives. The bombings...
A Farewell to Arms? Thu 28 Jul 2005
Today was another day to mark on the messy, scrawled-over timeline that is the history of Ireland. In a statement released to the media this morning, the Irish Republican Army...
Thoughts on the Tube Shooting Tue 26 Jul 2005 | 2 Comments
On Saturday afternoon, just a day after the Tube shooting incident in south London which has stunned the city even more than the detonator blasts merely 24 hours before, it...
The Tragic Vision Fri 22 Jul 2005
In my previous post I mention that Londoners have “had to put up with a lot these past couple of weeks.” That they have, but few would challenge that fact...
Not Again Fri 22 Jul 2005
Two weeks after the terrorist bombings that claimed 56 lives and affected countless others, London suffered another attack yesterday afternoon when a series of minor explosions disrupted the city’s transport...
Know Thine Enemy Sun 10 Jul 2005
The news that Steven Spielberg has begun production on a movie based on the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics (which was the subject of a documentary, One Day...
London Speaks Sun 10 Jul 2005
I’ve got nothing more to say, not that I had much worth contributing in the first place, being a safe 300 miles away. And anyway, as others have put it,...
Learning a Lesson from Live8 Tue 05 Jul 2005 | 2 Comments
Since you’re reading this, I’m pretty certain you’d found it impossible to avoid the week-long wall-to-wall coverage of Live8 — Bob Geldof’s pet project to raise awareness for the Make...
Israel's Invisible People Sat 26 Feb 2005 | 0 Comments
Last Monday’s Guardian carried a shocking feature on the plight of migrant workers in Israel, where tens of thousands of foreigners — from China, South-East Asia and Eastern Europe —...
Remembering Carthage Sun 09 May 2004
Joi Ito comments on the late Edward Said’s introduction to the revised version of Orientalism, extracts of which were originally published by The Guardian last summer: Basically, he argues that...
A Personal Request Thu 01 Apr 2004
From the desk of M.: To whom this may concern: Can we please draw a line under the phrase ‘draw a line under’? Thanks in advance. Might I add: we...
On Disinterest and the Modern Media Tue 17 Feb 2004 | 2 Comments
(If you’re reading this and you’ve just come from kottke.org, let me take this opportunity to say hello and welcome, and please read on, because the following might be pertinent...
The Elephant in our Living Room Tue 13 Jan 2004 | 1 Comments
Anil Dash has linked to a story from Saturday’s Guardian on the growing menace of racism in the North, mostly perpetrated by Loyalist street gangs (though for the sake of...
Invisible in Osaka Fri 19 Dec 2003
According to a report in today’s Guardian, the corpse of a homeless man lay rotting on a Japanese city street for two months: For two months, the body of an...
American Splendor Fri 19 Sep 2003
I quote from an interview with underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar in the current issue of The Onion AV Club: I’ve got this weird combination of… I like a...
The Atom and the Damage Done Wed 13 Aug 2003
The Guardian reports that scientists have finally started to piece together exactly what happened when the United States detonated an atomic bomb in the skies over Hiroshima on the 6th...
On Flash Mobs Mon 11 Aug 2003
My fair city witnessed its first flash mob on Saturday evening. A large crowd of people filed into Clarks shoe store on O’Connell Street and chanted ‘We like cheese!’ in...
Tongue Tied Tue 24 Jun 2003
Might our linguistic freedom also reflect the political freedoms we enjoy? Such a question had never dawned on me until I read this enlightening article by Prof. Niloofar Haeri on...
Smarty Pants Mon 05 May 2003
The (British) National IQ Test took place last night. It was actually quite difficult, for a multiple choice exam. The time alloted for each question was quite short and very...
Take The Hawks Bowling Mon 24 Mar 2003 | 3 Comments
So the Oscars went ahead last night, with a number of unexpected occurances. Roman Polanski winning best director for The Pianist for one, showing that some people can overlook past...
Pitchfork Interviews H2O Fri 21 Mar 2003
Pitchfork: The Minutemen.Jaded Robot: Whatever. I remember thinking that Captain Beefheart were hip, too. Castro is so 1974. Whatever.Just one quote from a brilliant and wickedly funny interview with Henry...
Elephants and Turtles Mon 20 Jan 2003
Tonight I read a short story by Donald Barthelme, entitled See The Moon?, and came upon a passage that seemed strangely familiar (from Sixty Stories, p.105): ""Upon what does...
Everything You Know is Wrong Thu 26 Sep 2002
Everything you know is wrong: take the quiz to see how true this statement is for you....
Not All Sunshine Und Lollipops Mon 26 Aug 2002
The bittersweet tale of a town built on chocolate....
On Capitalism Sun 11 Aug 2002
I think this guy is missing the point entirely. Capitalism doesn't produce inherent ugliness, but such ugliness is undeniably a symptom of the greater capitalist disease. Wal-Mart and stores...
Bloomsday Sun 16 Jun 2002
It just dawned on me that today is Bloomsday. What with all the kerfuffle about the big match today (that I'm not even watching), I suppose it was bound...
Sometimes I Just Don't Get It Sat 11 May 2002
First Endurance, then Takeshi's Castle, and now this. Japan is great and all, but sometimes I just don't get it....
Littlejohn Vs. Self Sun 28 Apr 2002
This is a brilliant read. (c/o the yes no interlude.) I wasn't particularly au fait with Will Self until relatively recently, but I'm glad I'm in the know now....
RIP Spike Milligan Wed 27 Feb 2002
Spike Milligan has passed away. Here's hoping he's gone to a much better place....
Screech Wed 30 Jan 2002
The Onion has an interview with Screech. Yes, that Screech....
On Japan Wed 30 Jan 2002
For some reason, Japanese culture has interested me for a long time. Maybe it was Jushin Liger that did it for me.... But anyway, as a result it's no...
World AIDS Day Sat 01 Dec 2001
It's World AIDS Day today. There's an antidote out there somewhere - not just to the illness but to negative attitutes that continue to stigmatise it - it just...
Buy Nothing Day Sat 24 Nov 2001
Tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day. Funny that despite the magic of the internet and all, I found out about this from graffiti I saw on the bus into town...
Putting the Kibosh Tue 06 Nov 2001
From Sunday's Ireland On Sunday, about a 'newly-published' dictionary of Irish slang (which has actually been available since 1997): The majority of the words in Slanguage have Irish or...
About
This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a twenty-something journalist, editor and all-round creative type living in Dublin, Ireland.
Read more.
Details
This page is a reverse chronology of Macrolog entries by MacDara Conroy filed under Culture & Society. You will find many more in the Archives.