neil postman | baby talk, a vaudeville act, and culture-death

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility. 

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

photo | rick colhoun | east van vw

 

premier league promotion for luton town fc

 

Luton Town Football Club has just been promoted to the English Premier League.  

 

Luton is a bit north of London, a near neighbour of Leighton Buzzard to the west and Stevenage to the east.  Stevenage, of course, being the home of our beloved back garden radio DJ, Deke Duncan.  BBC Archive, 1974

 

Their 10,000 seat stadium, Kenilworth Road, has been the club's home since 1905.  (Liverpool's  Anfield holds 54,000; Man United's Old Trafford, 74,000). On three sides, brick row housing butts up against Kenilworth's outer walls. Fans enter through a narrow underground passage; away teams reach the park via a corrugated metal walkway, above neighbours' back gardens.  

 

"Like it or not, Kenilworth Road is real life, proper old school football, and it should be embraced or scorned upon at your peril," according to club boss Gary Sweet.   

 

BBC, May 28, 2023