stuff that happens...

 

booga... got psoriasis at the tip of the distal  bones on the third and fourth phalanges of my left  hand.

this is the fretting hand for playing the guitar

everytime I apply moisturiser as recommended by the GP it melts the callusses off the tip and then the skin cracks. I am not the greatest muso in the world but I get by and I like to sit on my porch in the winter sun and play old time appalachian fiddle tunes and other favourites from days gone by but now this pleasure is denied to me. life can be cruel.

I have read umpteen body count novels and rifled my dvd and vhs collection to fill in the gaps. Much as I love the Wild Bunch, The Fifth Element, Masters of the Universe and Tron they do pall after too many viewings. dang. 

Best bet is Marvin Harris' Rise of Anthropological Theory; step by step.(RAT)  Have to keep my dictionary of philospohy handy for the opening chapters

The reader at VUW never told me about this book and tried to palm Dilthey and Levi-strauss off on to me but Levi -strauss was as fake as Karl Popper and repelled me from the first chapter with his greedy self agrandisement, and rapacious appropriation of ethnic artefacts  and Dilthey was a hermeneuticist. I am not keen on interpretation. If there is an effect then I want to know the cause and not get bogged down on inconsequential maundering romanticism and metaphysical speculation.

I cannot stand direct and deliberate obfuscation and obscuranticism for its own sake and L-S was all that and more and it jumped right of the page at me. I seem to have a knack for spotting fakes.

I was lucky to discover Brian Fays 'Contemporary Philosophy of  Social Science' all by myself so I  have a lot of reading to do and a yardstick. It helps to pass the time.

 Harris was an avowed leftie and his conclusions were denied by a whole raft of commentators with only a fraction of his skill and knowledge but determined to put him down.

As an aside I have a commentary on LSD and the counter culture of the 60's viz "Acid Dreams". A side bar tells of the "poisoning' in Pont Saint Espirit in the 50's reputed to be ergot in the rye used for baking bread. 250 people were affected with seven deaths. Other voices spoke up and said it wasn't so and proposed other reasons. mercury poisoning, mycotoxins or nitrogen trichloride.There will always be some who think they know more than anyone else. hmmmm.

Winter will be an interesting exercise in analysis and comparison and I will keep you posted and here is hoping there is some remission in my hands. Life is not fair some times and nobody says it is but I need a break from passive listening and back to some active doing.

BTW; when I ordered this book they sent it to the local Library!!!!!! I could have kicked the stupid tart who thought she knew better! 

They kept putting it n the stack room but I kept requesting it. I waited and then suddenly one day they withdrew it from circulation and sold it to me!!!!!!