Simon Trafford
@simonjptrafford.bsky.social
Early medievalist at IHR, Univ. of London, with a current research focus on water and human immersions. Also ethnicity, identity, migration and modern medievalisms. Regrettably likely to propose a lovely long walk given half a chance.
The substantive research here, it's important to acknowledge, is Christine Fell's from fifty years ago and Fernando Guerrero Rodriguez's 2007 DPhil thesis. But those haven't really impinged more widely on public consciousness, hence this little bit of popularisation.
November 15, 2025 at 8:14 AM
The substantive research here, it's important to acknowledge, is Christine Fell's from fifty years ago and Fernando Guerrero Rodriguez's 2007 DPhil thesis. But those haven't really impinged more widely on public consciousness, hence this little bit of popularisation.
Difficult, I discover after a few minutes of experimentation, to fit that phrase to the refrain of 'Papa was a rollin' stone'. Shame. It's almost there, but not quite.
November 9, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Difficult, I discover after a few minutes of experimentation, to fit that phrase to the refrain of 'Papa was a rollin' stone'. Shame. It's almost there, but not quite.
Layla is looking forward to seeing you, as am I!
November 1, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Layla is looking forward to seeing you, as am I!
Yeah, although ripping off is a slightly different category from sampling. But in that vein I've heard Nirvana play Come as You Are and also Killing Joke do Eighties, which CAYA blatantly plagiarises.
October 27, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Yeah, although ripping off is a slightly different category from sampling. But in that vein I've heard Nirvana play Come as You Are and also Killing Joke do Eighties, which CAYA blatantly plagiarises.
I wonder what percentage of The Prodge's audience have heard Max Romeo do Chase the Devil live? I certainly haven't, but that sample is the making of Out of Space!
October 27, 2025 at 8:29 AM
I wonder what percentage of The Prodge's audience have heard Max Romeo do Chase the Devil live? I certainly haven't, but that sample is the making of Out of Space!
A similar thing, though: I've heard Alice Cooper interpolate the chorus of Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 into the live version of School's Out and also heard Roger Waters live do exactly the reverse.
October 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM
A similar thing, though: I've heard Alice Cooper interpolate the chorus of Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 into the live version of School's Out and also heard Roger Waters live do exactly the reverse.
This has now set me thinking if there are any other bands where I've seen both the originator and the sampler of a famous phrase. There's Stones/Verve of course as a likely one for many people, although I've never seen the Stones so not for me!
October 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM
This has now set me thinking if there are any other bands where I've seen both the originator and the sampler of a famous phrase. There's Stones/Verve of course as a likely one for many people, although I've never seen the Stones so not for me!
Arguably a generation and a half: those who know it from Rock of Ages off Pyromania by Def Leppard in 1983 and those who know it from the sample at the start of Pretty Fly for a White Guy by the Offspring in 1998.
October 27, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Arguably a generation and a half: those who know it from Rock of Ages off Pyromania by Def Leppard in 1983 and those who know it from the sample at the start of Pretty Fly for a White Guy by the Offspring in 1998.
I've spoken to the events team and I gather that the need for provision of instructions is recognised and in hand: there have been a few issues arising that have delayed it, but instructions should be there soon.
October 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
I've spoken to the events team and I gather that the need for provision of instructions is recognised and in hand: there have been a few issues arising that have delayed it, but instructions should be there soon.
The email only goes to the named principal convenor for each seminar, but any convenor can attend, I think, and it's online as well as in the building. I'll forward you the email w the link.
October 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
The email only goes to the named principal convenor for each seminar, but any convenor can attend, I think, and it's online as well as in the building. I'll forward you the email w the link.
I think it would probably be worth mentioning it at the Convenors' Meeting, and I'm happy to do that. I suspect that the tech people will say that an auto-update is a difficult contingency to proof against, but given the havoc it wreaks mid-paper, it'd be good at least to think about it.
October 9, 2025 at 8:37 AM
I think it would probably be worth mentioning it at the Convenors' Meeting, and I'm happy to do that. I suspect that the tech people will say that an auto-update is a difficult contingency to proof against, but given the havoc it wreaks mid-paper, it'd be good at least to think about it.
Yeah, good point. It's the seminar convenors' meeting on the 22nd, and that would be a good thing to propose there. I'm happy to do it, or back you up or whatever.
October 9, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Yeah, good point. It's the seminar convenors' meeting on the 22nd, and that would be a good thing to propose there. I'm happy to do it, or back you up or whatever.
Sorry on behalf of my institution! Do report it, please: it isn't niggling and it's important to have this logged so the Institute can do something about it.
October 9, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Sorry on behalf of my institution! Do report it, please: it isn't niggling and it's important to have this logged so the Institute can do something about it.
Really sorry to hear it. Which room were you in? 304? The Medievalism seminar were in 301 and our laptop was taking minutes to perform the simplest possible tasks. We started 20 mins late because it was so hard to get the speaker's ppt working properly.
October 9, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Really sorry to hear it. Which room were you in? 304? The Medievalism seminar were in 301 and our laptop was taking minutes to perform the simplest possible tasks. We started 20 mins late because it was so hard to get the speaker's ppt working properly.
I have a copy from when it was a kickstarter! Also, embarrassingly, I think I have three different versions of Britannia. But then it's arguably the board game of my PhD thesis. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britann...
Britannia (board game) - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
September 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I have a copy from when it was a kickstarter! Also, embarrassingly, I think I have three different versions of Britannia. But then it's arguably the board game of my PhD thesis. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britann...
Knowledge Commons - formerly Humanities Commons - seems to be all right.
September 19, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Knowledge Commons - formerly Humanities Commons - seems to be all right.
Well, it was a bit of an odd premise, really. But perhaps it seemed more relevant to DC Thomson up in Dundee. Or perhaps it was used because other, more real, conflicts might have been a bit *too* real.
September 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Well, it was a bit of an odd premise, really. But perhaps it seemed more relevant to DC Thomson up in Dundee. Or perhaps it was used because other, more real, conflicts might have been a bit *too* real.
Dandy rather than Beano, but in 1970s suburban Surrey I remember accepting straight up that there were fundamentally antagonistic people called 'Jocks' and 'Geordies' and laughing along at their battles. Only some time later did I go and ask my parents what on earth they both were.
September 19, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Dandy rather than Beano, but in 1970s suburban Surrey I remember accepting straight up that there were fundamentally antagonistic people called 'Jocks' and 'Geordies' and laughing along at their battles. Only some time later did I go and ask my parents what on earth they both were.
It's such an interesting little nugget, isn't it?!
September 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM
It's such an interesting little nugget, isn't it?!
And these lying beneath... londonist.com/2015/04/the-...
The Field Of Forty Footsteps
Bloomsbury's ghostly footprints.
londonist.com
September 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
And these lying beneath... londonist.com/2015/04/the-...