The Memes of Production: A cultural studies weblog tag:thememesofproduction.org,2005:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db Textpattern 2015-08-01T18:08:13Z Nick Caldwell ncaldwell@gmail.com http://thememesofproduction.org/ John Gunders 2012-08-13T22:11:54Z 2012-08-13T22:11:54Z Goodbye tag:thememesofproduction.org,2012-08-14:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db/79ae8409b92ba6a74f86ed3735ddf705 Well that seems to be about it then.

I’ll turn comments off and we’ll discuss what to do with the content: either leave it here to gather dust, or to take it down and archive off-line, or just trash the lot…

Thank you to everyone who has been involved with this project over the years, as writers, readers, and commenters. Big thanks especially to Nick who floated the original idea and has maintained the backend for seven years. Not a bad innings for a blog, given that I think the moment was on the point of passing back in 2005 when we started this.

So that’s goodbye from all of us. Over and out.

]]> John Gunders 2012-05-27T13:08:05Z 2012-05-27T13:08:05Z Freedom in Azerbaijan tag:thememesofproduction.org,2012-05-27:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db/d2c96a9355c742efcb284f9b2cf7a3b7 Guest post from Sam Gunders, media and journalism student at the University of Southern Queensland. This report went to air on Phoenix Radio Online on Friday morning, 25 May, and is reproduced here with Sam’s permission.

On Sunday night we might be enjoying a drink or 10 and watching the Eurovision song contest for 2012 from Baku, Azerbaijan. It will of course be a fun night of gratuitous changes of both the musical and costume varieties; there will be a bit of singing and a lot of watching votes being counted and you can bet that it will be an entirely politics free zone.

Politics and Eurovision have mixed in the past, but it is usually frowned upon. In 2009, Georgia withdrew after they were told to change the lyrics to their song “We Don’t Want To Put In” no political grounds.They refused and took no part in the contest.

Beyond the stadium in Baku though there is a nation in need of attention from the wider world. Azerbaijan was rated in the 2011 Freedom in the World Report as being “not free”, scoring 6 out of 7 for political rights and 5 out of 7 for civil liberties. Just to be confusing, a 7 is actually the worst score in that report, 1 is the best. So Azerbaijan is not performing well.

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]]> John Gunders 2012-05-19T16:39:47Z 2012-05-19T16:47:31Z Nebula Award Winners 2011 tag:thememesofproduction.org,2012-05-20:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db/13e48a879dff6654f9aef84f3c264929 The Nebula Award winners for 2011 were announced overnight:

Novel: Among Others, by Jo Walton (Tor)

Novella: “The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011)

Novellette: “What We Found,” Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2011)

Short Story: “The Paper Menagerie,” Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book: The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)

]]> John Gunders 2012-05-06T17:43:38Z 2012-05-06T17:43:38Z Eurovision 2012 - Semifinal two contestants tag:thememesofproduction.org,2012-05-06:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db/a10fe93c8517e83789f3c1669b22eb55 Part two of my brief assessments of this year’s Eurovision contestants (part one is here).

In this second half of the draw, the piano ballad is king, although there is a fair range of styles from Eurodisco to bat-shit crazy. It also contains the favourite, Sweden, although it remains to be seen if the bookmakers have to pay out on that one.

Tomorrow I’ll post my opinions about the “big six”: that is, the five western European countries that bank-roll the event and the previous year’s winner, in this case, Azerbaijan.

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]]> John Gunders 2012-05-05T18:37:46Z 2012-05-05T18:37:46Z Eurovision 2012 - Semifinal one contestants tag:thememesofproduction.org,2012-05-06:eaa4275aa18266f2b0aea57dc4e771db/81595f680a08dda585e0d485e57e0450 Well it’s that time again. Yes, we are off to Baku in Azerbaijan for Eurovision 2012. This will be the most easterly Eurovision ever, and the first time it has been hosted in Eastern Europe—Latvia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2005 are the closest the competition has come to the countries that seem to take it the most seriously.

Below the fold are my frankly ill-informed assessments of the first semifinal contestants, based on a single hearing of the Youtube video. There are presented in alphabetical order rather than performance because… well, because. I was going to add links, but I couldn’t be bothered. The Eurovision site is here.

I’ll be back in the next couple of days with the second semifinal contestants. In the meantime, enjoy :-)

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