For December 2019 I will be on a British media diet. That means all the books, magazines, news and tweets I read, all music or radio I listen to, and all the films, television and YouTube I watch must be from Britain or a British source – unless said media item is directly work-related or blog-related.
It is something I have wanted to do for a while. And since an important part of my regular media diet does come from Britain, it would be good to gain some perspective on that.
Britain is in the throes of the Brexit debacle and has a general election next week (December 12th), so this is as good a time as any.
Specifics:
- Books: at least four. I am open to suggestions. I am thinking of:
- Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
- C.S. Lewis: The Abolition of Man (1943)
- Zadie Smith: Swing Time (2016)
- Miranda Kaufmann: Black Tudors (2017)
- Magazines: The Economist.
- Music and radio: Virgin Radio UK, any British artist, like Sade, any song from Shazam’s list of top tracks for London (or anywhere else in Britain).
- Film: “Melody” (1971) and any other old British film I can find on YouTube. At least four altogether.
- Television: BBC America, any television show from Britain.
- News: BBC, The Economist, The Independent.
- YouTube: Only channels or content from Britain. So much of the YouTube I watch is in North American accented English that I can think of only two British channels off the top of my head (BBC and Novara).
- Twitter: Create a new account (@abagond_uk) and follow only people from Britain. That exercise has already shown me how much Twitter uses my gender and IP address: my empty Twitter was full of stuff about local sports, none of which I follow.
- Web location: I will try to set this to London wherever possible. But I know from past experience that whatever you set in your “personal” settings, it will still use your IP address anyway to “personalize” (filter) your experience. Translation: No matter what I do I will still get US ads. Flo is inescapable! Bwa-ha-ha!!!!!!
Note: This is more determinedly British than the media diet of actual people who live in Britain, who, after all, watch Hollywood films and use US websites. But the US media is such a blinding supernova in my sky that I doubt I will be able to shut it out completely, especially with all the auntyesque “personalization” the Internet does. All the more reason to shut it out as much as possible.
I have not forgotten Programming Note #38 on Black history. I still think it is a wonderful idea. So, I hope to do the centuries as follows:
- December: 1500s
- January: 1600s
- February: 1700s
- March: 1800s
- April: 1900s
Suggestions are welcomed. In particular, if there is some news story I seem not to know about that I should do a post on, please let me know. I am not going to limit research for particular posts to just British sources.
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
546
bbc.co.uk/news
LikeLike
@Abagond: Don’t know if you have been paying attention to the #ADOS movement but they are pretty infiltrating social media, especially Twitter. This is a movement of Black Americans who hate Black British and any other Black people from other countries. It’s pretty ugly and it makes me sad.
LikeLike
Typo: ^^pretty virulent on social media. Lots of disdain for Black British or any other Black people from other countries. Especially if they immigrate to the United States in regards to reparations. They feel threatened by them especially in the entertainment industry. Lots of Black British actors getting work to play Black American characters fictional or historical Black American icons. Lots of ugly exchanges on the internet.
LikeLike
I was disturbed reading about the London Bridge terrorist attack. I was sad for the two victims that died. I do read lots of articles from the Guardian.
LikeLike
British cuisine is disgusting.
LikeLike
Prince Andrew is in the news with sexual assault case being in the social circle of the pedophile Jeffery Epsteine.
LikeLike
@ Mary
LOL. Thankfully it is not THAT kind of diet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@ Mary
I have some ADOS activists on my US Twitter feed. They make some good and necessary points, but their nativism is poisonous and counterproductive.
That is strange and concerning. If it was just an occasional thing it would not be a big deal, but it keeps happening and is becoming insulting. It needs a post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mary, stop talking crap, the don’t hate non-ADOS blacks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s funny how, folks like Mary, never point to the ant-ADOS sentiments amongst Britsh (Cynthia Erivo), African and Carribean immigrants (Mia Love, Candence Owens, etc).
If it weren’t for the struggles that ADOS blacks when through (Yes I know there were Carribean immigrants like Garvey and Carmichael that were involved) to allow immigrants from other countries to prosper in America.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aba, will you be watching a sports, ‘Soccer’ is a starting place!
LikeLike
@ Cherryboy: 💤💤💤💤💤💤
LikeLiked by 1 person
BBC is one of the most if not the most unbiased news in the world… Cable providers force exorbitant fee packages that are compiled with crap you don’t want if you want BBC news…
LikeLike
How do you like the African-British Actor influx Abagond. There’s quite a bit of dominance that is undeniable across the board. With that does come a black political power in the western hemisphere that is enjoyed?
LikeLike
Yeah, December will be a very eventful time to follow UK news.
I pay attention to some of their politics and I do find myself being sympathetic to Brexit.
Firstly, Britain has always been less “European” than the continent due to the natural separation afforded by its insular geography. It has only RARELY been successfully invaded and likely doesn’t feel as strong a need to integrate to prevent future wars. It has also maintained much stronger ties with its former colonies than many other colonial powers. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are “settler” colonies and, as members of the commonwealth, retain the British Queen as Head of State. Even the USA, despite the 18th century spat over independence, has had a strong relationship with the UK since the 20th century world wars. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Euro-skepticism would achieve its most advanced form in the UK.
However the biggest reason I feel that the Brits may be justifiably unsettled by the EU is that large “free trade” blocs that are increasingly beyond the reach of effective democratic influence primarily benefits large corporations and big capital. I had that idea and it’s relationship to the EU in my mind for a while then I read an article which supported my thoughts in that direction. The paper was actually pondering ‘how capitalism would end’ and was written two years before the Brexit referendum of 2016. It was not specifically about the EU but it mentioned the bloc in the context of the inherent tension between capitalism and democracy.
LikeLike
Here’s the link.
How Will Capitalism End?
Click to access NLR_87_2014_Streeck.pdf
I’ll quote a section starting at page 41:
LikeLike
I made a post with a link to the article and quoted a part of it.
I’m not sure why posts disappear into the void sometimes (it’s not moderation) but I guess it’ll show up eventually.
LikeLike
In other words, Abagond is going home for the holidays.
LikeLike
@Origin. For some reason I trust the British more than other European personas. I dunno why. Maybe good experiences plus the unbiased and helpful implications in most of their media….
LikeLike
@ Origin
“I’m not sure why posts disappear into the void sometimes (it’s not moderation)”
In my experience, it often is moderation, but for words that contain part of an automodded word.
Like, I’m pretty sure that your post on the 2020 election thread got caught in mod because of the “c0ck” in “c0cky” here:
“some people might be c0cky but the electoral college is still a thing”
(All changes mine, to hopefully avoid automod limbo!)
If I remember correctly, one of my comments got thrown to mod for the word “b1shop” because it contains “b1sh” and I had to ask Abagond what I’d done; there was no way I would’ve figured it out on my own.
LikeLike
@ Origin
Solitaire is right: “cocky” is what threw that comment to moderation because “cock” is a moderated word.
LikeLike
As a liberal outlet, I prefer the Guardian to the Independent which has dropped in quality and become more and more clickbaity in recent years.
LikeLike
@Solitaire, abagond
Thanks, that explains it!
I guess I use quite a few accidental swear words, lol.
LikeLike
@abagond
I had no idea you didn’t like Black British Actors play historical Black American figures… Why is this troublesome to you?
LikeLike
So the British have their own version of 46-1 with Boris Johnson.
LikeLike
@ Abagond
Just curious about what delayed Origin’s comment on this thread. If there were any “embedded” cusswords, I didn’t see them. Was it the link to a pdf?
LikeLike
@ Solitaire
It was the word “cocky” because “cock” is moderated. YouTube links are moderated but not links to PDFs.
LikeLike
@Untoldstory
I am doing a post on this. God willing, it should be up tomorrow.
LikeLike
@ Abagond
Right, thanks, but wasn’t that on the 2020 election thread? Didn’t this comment here also get caught in mod: https://abagond.wordpress.com/2019/12/03/programming-note-40/#comment-430683
That’s the one where I can’t figure out what happened. (These things are like those Find The Hidden Word puzzles!)
LikeLike
I recommend Rumer Godden’s “In This House of Brede” and anything by Dick Francis who mostly wrote British novels about horses and horse racing. They’re all very good but my favorites are “Hot Money” and “Straight”.
Also Harry Potter is much better reading than the movies. Also Rowling’s book “The Casual Vacancy” is a good read as well.
LikeLike
@ Solitaire
Oh, sorry. That one has no moderated words and the IP address is clean, so it is a mystery to me too. Maybe it is the PDF somehow….
LikeLike
@ thatdeborahgirl
Thanks for the recommendations! Harry Potter is a hole in my cultural literacy.
LikeLike
@ From the Parapet
The Guardian is more to my tastes ideologically but they keep asking for money, so I avoid them like a beggar on the street. If they have a Kindle edition I might subscribe for the month.
LikeLike
@ Abagond
Internet gremlins, maybe?
LikeLike
I loved Rumer Godden’s book The Diddakoi when I was a kid, but I’m kind of scared to go back and reread it.
LikeLike
I don’t know when we started talking about novels but since we are I’ll recommend:
The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham
Part of Wikipedia’s plot summary:
LikeLike
I said:
There is a Kindle version of The Guardian but it kept rebooting my Kindle. Thankfully it was a free trial.
LikeLike
@Abagond
That’s a shame. I’ve learned to ignore their pleas for donations but yes, it is annoying and unneeded.
LikeLike
The main thing I miss so far from being cut off from US media is laughing at Pete Buttigieg. He’s a trip.
LikeLiked by 1 person
His name alone causes laughter. Inappropriate but I don’t care.
LikeLike
Isn’t Boris Johnson Great Britain’s nightmare version of 46-1?
LikeLike