Radiohead and Philosophy - Brandon W. Forbes [134]
MATTHEW LAMPERT is a Ph.D. Candidate at the New School for Social Research, where he also spent four years as an editor for the Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. Amidst the fog of his senior year in high school, spent mostly in front of MTV, one of the few things he remembers watching—really watching—is the video for “Paranoid Android.” It both prepared him for the Critique of Pure Reason and sparked the insight that Radiohead (not Blur, and definitely not Oasis) is the only Britpop that matters.
JASON LEE was born as dust settled from the first lunar landing. He has worked in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, at six universities in the UK, and manages the film, media and creative writing programs at the University of Derby. Books include Pervasive Perversions, and the double volume The Metaphysics of Mass Art. On a plane to Melbourne, listening to Hail to the Thief for the first time, he got to the line “something for the rag and bone man, over my dead body.” The CD player was on track repeat and dosing in and out of sleep he must have listened to it for over two hours. Realising this wasn’t the actual length of the song he walked to the back of the plane. It plummeted. Hundreds of people asleep, Spanish lights like eyes burning brighter from below, but, what if, they went out, slowly, one by one . . . ?
MICAH LOTT is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Chicago. His interests in philosophy include ethics, philosophy of religion and ancient philosophy. He fondly remembers listening to “Creep” many years ago, while sitting in the passenger seat of a old brown station wagon, being driven to school by his brother Nathan.
DEVON LOUGHEED is a political theorist pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia. He’s a musician whose albums are available, following Radiohead, as pay-what-you-want downloads from www.DevonLougheed.com. He is a stand-up comedian who will make you laugh until your head comes off. He can still remember the first time he heard “Paranoid Android” and the way it changed how he listened to music forever.
JÉRÔME MELANÇON lives in Camrose, Alberta, with his wife (who is much cooler than him) and his cat (also cooler). He studied in philosophy, sociology, and political science at the universities of Ottawa and Paris-Diderot and because as of this year he traded his student status for a suffix, he makes his living teaching political theory at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. He has notably published articles on people named Maurice, Pierre, and Walter (whom others call Merleau-Ponty, Bourdieu or Benjamin) and tries to write often in online publications. Having mastered the art of not being around when Radiohead come to town, he has only seen them live once, but did drive a ways and stood in line for almost ten hours to be in the exclusive area and all the way up in the front so he could feel special.
DAN MILSKY received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is assistant professor and head of the philosophy program at Northeastern Illinois University. His research is focused on the intersection between theoretical ecology and environmental ethics with a special emphasis on the concept of ecosystem health. In his spare time Dan likes to dress up in a King Canute costume and hand out recyclable drinking bottles at Lollapalooza.
GEORGE REISCH is the author of How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and series editor for Open Court’s Popular Culture and Philosophy series. He runs Luxotone records, plays guitar in Bobby Vacant & The Weary, and became a Radiohead fan the first time he heard “Paranoid Android” and was smacked in the head by Jonny Greenwood’s and Ed O’Brien’s guitars at 2:42. Until that moment, he had not been paying attention.
EDWARD SLOWIK is a Professor in Philosophy at Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota, and a Resident Fellow at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota. His main research