Rethinking music geography through the mainstream: a geographical analysis of Frank Sinatra,music and travel

This paper brings a new perspective to music geography by focusing on how a particular mainstream musician helped to construct, subvert, and circulate meanings associated with travel. It asserts that Frank Sinatra, via his music and actions, engaged with travel in ways that frequently ran counter to how it has commonly been enacted in American music and popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the singer’s travel-themed album, Come Fly With Me. By the time of its release in 1958, Sinatra, via a public persona that encompassed performer, ‘playboy’ and businessman, was a central figure in promoting an alignment of leisured mobility with postwar economic success. The paper interrogates how Sinatra’s celebrity allowed him to embody travel in certain real and imagined ways. It also examines what the resulting representations revealed about performances of gender, ethnicity, and status, and the expected modes of behavior that were associated with them, in America’s postwar consumer-driven society.     

Viewing obesogenic advertising in children's neighbourhoods using Google Street View

The advertising of unhealthy food and beverages forms an important component of obesogenic environments. Such marketing to children is a key health determinant because of its impact on dietary preference and food purchasing behaviour. The location of outdoor advertising is important in exploring obesogenic environments and children's neighbourhoods. The aim of this study is to explore issues involved in the use of Google Street View to examine outdoor food and beverage advertising. The implications for using Google Street View in the context of neighbourhood built environment research and grass‐roots advocacy are discussed. The study was conducted within walkable distances from 19 primary and intermediate schools in Auckland, New Zealand, where “walkable” was defined as limited by 800 m road network boundaries, which are equivalent to school buffer boundaries. Google Street View allows for centrality of data collection, coding, and storage. However, challenges exist with the method because 727 (29.4%) of a total of 2,474 outdoor advertisements that were identified were not able to be categorised because images were unclear, not in English, blocked, or at angles where detail cannot be deciphered. Specific to outdoor advertising for food and beverages, the results presented here show that children are exposed to a significantly greater number of unhealthy advertising than other advertising, P=0.001, eta‐squared statistic (0.45) indicates a large effect size. Overall, the results show promise for the use of Google Street View in the study of obesogenic environments.     

A compositional perspective on the origins of the “Nasca cult” at Cahuachi

We provide a compositional perspective on the origins of the Cahuachi cult in Nasca, south coast of Peru. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of ceramics from the Formative site of La Puntilla demonstrate that a small group of pottery known as Nasca 1 blackwares are compositionally consistent with Early Nasca polychromes originating at Cahuachi. These data suggest that the patterns of pilgrimage and group ceremonies exhibited at Cahuachi during Early Nasca began at least in the proto-Nasca phase of Nasca 1 during the Formative. We use these data to further document the Paracas to Nasca transition, a complex and dynamic period in south coastal prehistory.     

The in situ preservation of archaeological remains: using lysimeters to assess the impacts of saturation and seasonality

Recent research has studied the effects of seasonal variability on waterlogged burial environments. In a new approach to the study of archaeological contexts, the use of controlled laboratory conditions via lysimeters has enabled new insights into the nature of short term fluctuations in saturation, and the impact that these can have on burial contexts. In addition, the protocols used have facilitated interesting insights into burial environments and the way in which fluctuations in saturation and seasonality can impact on the contained organic components within them.     

Bone diagenesis in the European Holocene II: taphonomic and environmental considerations

We have applied cluster analysis to mercury intrusion porosimetry data from 219 archaeological bones (121 human and 98 animal) and soil chemistry data from 219 accompanying soil samples (1 per bone sample), to investigate the influence of soil chemistry on bone preservation. The samples chosen for the study were obtained from sites ranging in time from the pre-modern to the Mesolithic and were representative of burial environments across Europe (from the Baltic to the Mediterranean). These results represent the single largest database for archaeological bone preservation in the European Holocene to date and demonstrate the potential for large-scale diagenetic studies to help develop long term preservation strategies for our European heritage. Despite the variety of sites and environments, bones could be categorised into only four main diagenetic types. Furthermore, soil chemistry appears to significantly affect only one type of preservation, the pathway characterised by loss of mineral. In neutral to basic soils, taphonomy and in particular the differences between the treatment of human and animal remains, becomes the dominating factor in determining preservation. Using these results, strategies for heritage management of archaeological sites can be suggested; grouping sites into those requiring immediate excavation and those where in situ preservation is viable.     

'Walking a Real Tight-rope of Difficulties': Sir Edward Heath and the Search for Stability in Northern Ireland, June 1970-March 1971

Since we know Sir Edward Heath was forced to impose direct ruleover Northern Ireland in March 1972, before launching his governmentinto a series of highly constructive (if unsuccessful) initiativesthat led to the Sunningdale Agreement, his policy and approachtowards the province during the first 18 months of his premiershiphas rarely been seen as anything other than a tale of miscalculation,poor judgement and political ignorance. However, with the openingup of various official papers over the past few years, it isnow possible to offer a more sympathetic assessment of Heath'searly attempts to deal with the situation in Northern Ireland.This assessment suggests that his policy, far from being barrenand directionless, was beginning to evolve in quite innovativeand radical directions as it sought to stabilize and reformNorthern Ireland, directions that, significantly, pre-figurethe various policy initiatives Heath took after 1972. Theseincluded the pursuit of active cooperation between London andDublin, and between Dublin and Belfast, major political changein Northern Ireland, with the full involvement of the minorityin the governance of the region, and a consideration of futureconstitutional relationships between London, Belfast and Dublin.