Tristan Laing is a scholar of political engagement. Over the years he has occupied various roles – Political activist focussed on injustices in Syria and Palestine, Co-op director, Ultimately unsuccessful PhD student, and core member of the long term faculty at the now defunct Theory and Philosophy summer school. He has currently dropped all pre-professorial pretensions and firmly occupies the ‘student’ role again by being currently enrolled in an Adult Education and Community Development Masters program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. His current research examines the effects of governance models on membership participation in student housing co-operatives.
He has various social media outlets, including perspecting on twitter, an out of date page at Acadamia.edu, and on Facebook his last name is the french spelling of the profession from which he feels thoroughly alienated [Philosophy].
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Only a Northern Song 
t-pain
your blog is mad chedda
love,
m-dawg
ijust started my blog
follow me
lovelovelove
My blog has no cheddar! It’s vegan!
Nice! I’m vegan too =)
hmm sassy rebuttle t-slice
fine
your blog is mad soy chedda
(gross)
Greetings,
We are interested in the use of one your photographs taken during a Remembrance Day parade (specifically, the photo of marching troops of the U.S. Army Special Forces).
The use of your photo would serve as part of the artwork for a CD containing military marching cadences that honor the service of American Troops.
We understand your sensitivties reagarding the ambivolant nature of the military’s role in the world. In this regard, we want to assure you that our product in no way encourages the forces of military. Instead, it honors those who have fought in the spirit of freedom.
Please advise us of any fee you might require to use
this photograph as part of our artwork.
Sincerely yours,
Erin
“our product in no way encourages the forces of military. Instead, it honors those who have fought in the spirit of freedom.”
So, your product is the well dressed drum line which, in the name of “honour”, conceals the largely malevolent “spirit” behind war, and worse – conceals the entrapment of decent individuals in systems which glorify the inhuman?
I find this request relatively insulting.
Sincerely,
Tristan
Hahahahaha!! Fantastic response, Tristan!
No matter how anti-war you are, it’s silly to find it insulting that somebody wants to use one of your photographs.
For feeling insulted to be a sensible response, it would be necessary for them to have somehow divined how you feel about how they might use your photo, and then go on to ask anyhow.
In some cases, that is plausible. For instance, if someone wanted to use a famous photo with a very clear political agenda behind it in a manner entirely out of keeping with that agenda.
In the case of most ordinary photos, however, it is unreasonable to expect people to appreciate your intentions so fully. As such, a more appropriate response than feeling insulted would be feeling flattered that they think your photo is of good enough quality to be worth using with their work.
The request bespeaks a cursory reading of the post, which, for me, is much more important than the photographs.
“I write this blog because no one reads blogs.”
Well, I found your blog and I am reading it!
Yeh, I found it too, you never know what audience you might reach.
Where did the horrible meat photo go?
You should put a link to your Twitter feed on here somewhere. Searching Twitter for users with ‘northernsong’ in their usernames doesn’t automatically bring you up.
I stumbled upon your blog searching Google for a Nelson Mandela quote, and I’m loving what I’ve seen so far. *Following* now. Would be honored if you’d check out mine, I think you’ll find that we have a lot in common =)
–Love and Liberation–
Jan @ TheRewildWest