Talks

 

Albanian Soft Power: When Teddies fight back

The fall of a communist dictatorship introduced Albanians to capitalism – disastrously. This talk shows how the people updated traditional folkways to deploy consumer-capitalist products for protection.
There is a talk at the Folklore Centre today - Teddies fight back.  One has to admit it is an original take on the subject of communist dictatorship, I hope John Billingsley pulls it off.  I have a teddy bear sitting on a top shelve, he is next to an ugly doll I made.  The bear is there to remind me of a young Tom on Bath Station when his mum refused to carry his bear.  He is in a miserable mood and drags the bear along the ground cross at his mother who is pushing a push chair with loads of stuff hanging from it.

So what is the 'soft power' you ask? It goes by the name of Apotropaic Power.  I presume the bear wards off or is a protective magic, a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences.

I missed this talk last Saturday because of visitors, Icy Sedgwick on Northern Spiritualism - Talking to the Dead in Manchester and Newcastle.  I expect it was 19th century ghosts ;)   I read somewhere that Ozzy Osbourne  ( he has just died) of Black Sabbath fame was also obsessed by a haunted farmhouse in Wales.  Did that influence his music I wonder?The Folklore Centre is hitting a barrier of no money sadly and is only opening on a Saturday at the moment, I wish I knew the cure for magically conjuring up money, but unfortunately I don't.
Not sure this true but it is a funny spoof on the state of our roads...