Hop to it

There's something just magical about driving through town at night, singing along to Radio Head at the top of my voice; sometimes trying real hard, sometimes breaking into Fozzie Bear. Maybe it's the cool city lights, maybe it's that the daytime obstacle that makes the self-conscious-me clam up at red lights is missing, maybe it's the fact that just when I sing Flying on your motorcycle, watching all the ground beneath you drop some dude actually flies past on a motorcycle...

Anyway, I was returning from my very first Rice University lecture. The speaker was Manuel De Landa - self professed Street Philosopher. The title of the series is The Role of Cities in New Social Science. Tonight's lecture was about Beyond Micro & Macro: The Place of Cities in a Materialistic Philosophy. Now, I have to admit at this point that I've never taken a philosophy class, or an economics class (we're very backward in England), so 50% of the class went straight over my head. The good thing about this is that I actually understood 50% of the class. My quibble with Mr De Landa is this: His lecture series lasts all week, each day is a different topic about THE ROLE OF CITIES IN NEW SOCIAL SCIENCE. With that in mind, I wonder why I sat for two hours listening to the theory behind the philosophy of social ontology. One would presume that in order to apply the theory toward the City one would actually have to refer to said City. I expected to discover something about urban application and came away instead understanding the difference between Idealism, Realism and Materialism, and that interpersonal networks form high density networks which influence social behavior and ultimately form solidarity. I also learnt that organizational hierarchy, while necessary in society, brings a question of legitimacy concerning authority. De Landa's goal is to peel away the micro and macro examinations of society to reveal the more complex meso levels. He certainly applied meso levels to his speech, going in one direction then another, referring to bizarre examples that led off to other tangents. All that without really getting to the heart of the matter: The City.

I did hate the way he openly thrust his "leftist" beliefs on me and all present. Keep politics out of it, let the young and impressionable form their own opinions. (Although it was fun, and surprising, to listen to him shred Che Guevara and his rrrrrrrrrevolution to pieces)

To sum this experience up, I learnt something, even if it wasn't what I was expecting, I wish I had two hours off at lunch time tomorrow so I could hear his opinions on Jane Jacobs' theories, and I will definitely be going back for more Rice please, Sir.

Oh, and I managed to swipe a copy of Cite on my way out and I got gas for $2.65 a gallon. Just grand, Gromit!