Rockin’ All Over The Wolds God gave rock and roll to you, Gave rock and roll to you, Put it in the soul of everyone. Argent By Les Smith In the autumn of 2019 a unique social and cultural experiment was launched under the aegis of the Pocklington & District branch of u3a. It sought an answer to a question which had nagged away at the brain behind the experiment for months. Could a collection of ageing beatniks, hippies, prog obsessives, metal heads, punks and rock chicks recreate the heady atmosphere of clubs and halls filled many years previously with sounds, beats and smoke of dubious provenance in the living room of a semi-detached house in a quiet street in a quiet town at the foot of the Wolds? How would they respond collectively to music they had first heard up to seventy years previously? Would tension between rival musical factions spill out onto the pavement, making the respectable cul-de-sac look like Brighton and Margate beaches during the Great Mods and Rockers Wa...
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Not a university and not for old people On a beautiful, hot afternoon in July of this year I was in the churchyard of a small village in south-east France called Seythenex. It’s on the side of a steep valley, with a mountain and a pine forest behind it. I had been in the village a few times before because my grandson goes to the tiny school (77 pupils) there, but although I’d seen the church countless times from the other side of the valley, where Max lives, and had promised myself that one day I would go inside it, I’d never done it. Today we were putting that right. The church did not disappoint. It’s like very many rural French churches: beautifully decorated “up at” what Philip Larkin called “the holy end”, but otherwise plain off-white apart from the Stations of the Cross in frames on the walls. The churchyard is large because, although the village is small, people have been dying there for donkey’s years. As I stood with my back to the church, looking across the mar...
Statue of Plato (detail) by Leonidas Drosis at the Academy of Athens. Philosophy The word philosophy comes from the Greek meaning ‘love of knowledge’. What can we know and most importantly how can we know it? How can we know what is the Good? How can we know what is Truth? P&D u3a Philosophy Group is led by Ian Gregory with highly convivial sessions of intellectual stimulation held at his home in Barmby Moor. Ian says that a crucial task is to lay bare the presuppositions at the heart of some of our most fundamental ideas and practices. Concepts such as Justice, Equality, Freedom, the Rule of Law, Citizenship and Democracy are some of the most important subjects for critical dialogue. Socrates was one of the most famous early philosophers who pursued intellectual enquiry in Athens as early as the mid 400’s BC. He taught Plato (a teacher of Mathematics and Philosophy) and he in turn taught Aristotle. Can you believe that these people were seek...