Dodge The Leafleteers

I had my first ethnomusicology class today. It was in a lovely cosy little room nestled underneath the Clock Tower on Princes Street. The class is a fusion of Anthro 219 Contemporary Perspectives on Music and Culture, and Music 250 Approaches to Music Studies. This makes for a very unique, mixed class full of some perceptibly elite students. It was an excellent first lecture -- intense, but excellent nonetheless. I knew practically as soon as the lecturer began talking and the numerous budding musicologists around the classroom started having their say that I had made a good choice. The intensity today was offset significantly by the inspiring lecturer, the small size of the class (just over sixty students) and the humble-but-adequate nature of the lecture theatre.

My FTVMS 204 Media Analysis lecture in the afternoon was, similarly, enjoyable. I can tell that this paper focusses more on the technical elements of reading media texts, as opposed to the factors that were covered in the other papers that I found depressing at times, so I am pleased about that and definitely anticipating a bit more from this one. It was interesting to hear how the exam system works for this particular paper -- the lecturer has authority to show us the exam script in advance, because unlike most other exams, this one requires the students to do research beforehand and then apply the skills that they have acquired throughout the semester to fulfill the exam requirements with the help of the research material. At first contact, I think I like this idea better than the normal method of having to cram facts into one's head for an exam, but it remains to be seen how I find it in practice.

Whenever I go back to uni, I am very pleased to start taking the trains again. Despite the fact that my service had to sit in the crossing loop at Henderson for fifteen minutes this morning, the environment on board Auckland's trains always feels welcoming, and I do not mind spending that extra bit of time on there. Admittedly, my attitude is probably helped by the fact that Western Line trains are usually scheduled to arrive in town at quarter past the hour -- so if one is ever running late, I have three quarters of an hour's leeway before my lecture. It is a much more relaxing way to travel into town than in any road vehicle regardless, that's for sure. I do keep plugging the trains because I believe that people ought to persevere with them, that they may become an effective future backbone for Auckland's transport network. Public transport as a whole -- particularly rail -- is not being given enough credit recently. I'm very excited, because the ferry service that sails from Westpark Marina, five minutes' walk from my house, to the Downtown Ferry Terminal, has just introduced new low prices for tertiary students -- I think I'll be giving that service a go before the week is done.

How much more do you think we're going to hear about the David Benson-Pope excuse-for-a-debacle? As if the initial claims of tennis balls being put in children's mouths decades ago weren't enough to drive the stake into the heart of the proverbial bat, people have kept hammering at Benson-Pope with the allegations of him locking disorderly female students outside in their nighties. Then there's the accusations that he checked out girls' legs underneath their desks, and most recently the proclaimation that he "burst into female dormitories and showers without warning while 14-year-old girls were undressed in 1997 at a school camp." With police investigations having occurred, and Benson-Pope's reputation being harmed enough already, it would be fair to say that the issue is bordering on done and dusted by now. Ironic that historic allegations of this nature could come back to bite Benson-Pope in the oversight of several MPs who have pledged not to support the anti-smacking legislation that is before Parliament at present.