Sunday

Seeing Son's film again at the BFI on Friday I was even more aware of how cleverly he had constructed the story out of hours of interviews, a process very much like qualitative research. The story works on so many levels - a historical record, a study of a particular experience (being in a band), a description of the growth and disbanding (npi) of a powerful nexus and the animosities inherent in that process, an intriguing story with a shadowy powerful figure whose actions and personality underpin the whole structure but who never appears (in a way, it would have spoiled things if he had), a study of the contrast between success and failure and the workings of Fate. Watching some of the protagonists in real life, I am left wondering if the apparent failures aren't much happier than the successful.

Odd moments over the weekend trying to deal with lingering paperwork. I wonder why so many of my colleagues find it impossible to follow simple instructions in providing information. I wonder why they think I bothered to provide instructions at all. Is this wilful subversion or mere carelessness? Whichever, instead of simply cutting and pasting into the document I've been asked to prepare, I have either to spend time reformatting what they have provided or email them asking for the information in the format requested and then wait for them to reply. An expanded department seems to have made the job far more difficult. I must check my timetable to see if my allowance for this has increased! (That's a joke: hours on timetables never bear any relationship to the time the job takes, of course.)

Read article in NYRB by Paul Volcker.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/nov/24/financial-reform-unfinished-business/?page=1

Was attracted to it by the illustrations:

Herscovici/Art Resource

René Magritte: La Fissure, 1949

Rafael Valls Gallery, London/Bridgeman Art Library

Gabriel-Germain Joncherie: Cashier Counter with Coins, 1829

Nothing new in the article, though, and I'm not sure that international accounting standards or auditor independence have much to do with helping us out of the present situation.

Should be able to finish review of paper for ABR and hope to be able to spend Monday on chapter 6. Very busy week ahead, out and about.