April 2013

Death of the Album

 Steven Kellow    Music

The way everybody listens to music now is completely different to people listened to music in the 90s.  And perhaps the largest casualty, aside from the brick and mortar stores selling records, and of course the shiny compact disc, has been the album. It’s a sad thing that the album is on its last legs.  The new age of ‘shuffle’ and of purchasing (or downloading) individual tracks has meant that the sanctity of a set of tracks in a given order has been broken.  I’ll — Read more →

Scottish Gaelic in the Celtic Context

 Steven Kellow    Gàidhlig  

Download PDF Scottish Gaelic is but one of a wide range of Celtic languages that have emerged over the previous two millennia that still exists today.  All Celtic languages have undergone a decline in their usage in recent centuries, as more dominant languages such as English and French have superseded them.  This essay shall discuss the origins of the different Celtic languages, how successful, or not, they are in the modern world, and how they have been revived over the last few centuries towards the — Read more →

Is the state entering a period of decline?

 Steven Kellow    Politics  

Download PDF The state, as a political entity, has existed since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, where European powers first agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and that each state had the ultimate authority of their own given territory.  This entity is the building block of international relations, and the state is still the most important authority to consider when discussing the discipline.  In the last few centuries, and particularly in the last hundred years, globalisation has meant that the concept of supranationalism has — Read more →

The Wars of Reconstruction

 Steven Kellow    Football  

Today Scottish football’s reconstruction efforts have been curtailed by the SPL; as a vote to proceed with the proposed 12-12-18 league structure went against the proposal.  Ten teams voted for the proposal, and two against, namely Ross County and St. Mirren, and with the SPL’s farcical requirement of an 11-1 majority to push through any such measure, the new league setup is looking further away than it has in years. As much as reconstruction is required, which it desperately is, today has been a victory — Read more →