Anomie & The Panacea (In Search Of)

Thought on indecisiveness of the day: “…If you can’t associate a feeling with the...

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:02:55 -0400

Thought on indecisiveness of the day:

“…If you can’t associate a feeling with the outcome of a choice, you can’t make that choice. …”

(“This doesn’t mean that other factors aren’t involved in the decision making process but it’s clear that feelings must be involved”)

P.s. I’m at One Hour Cafe. It feels super serene to have a hot bubble tea, in an atmosphere designed/decorated in the Swedish minimalist tradition, reading, and with Stars playing. I hope this doesn’t pacify my angst before hockey…

Leafs made it to game 7 and put forth a fairly solid game. While...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:29:00 -0400

Leafs made it to game 7 and put forth a fairly solid game. While their loss is upsetting, I think this warrants praise. James Reimer aka Optimus Reim — nicest dude in hockey next to perhaps Iginla. And I was digging Grabovsky’s hustle/energy this game.

(So much easier to be positive/optimistic/encouraging when it comes to other people. Double standard cbt would say.)

favourite song of the moment: The Cure - To Wish Impossible...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:24:12 -0400

favourite song of the moment: The Cure - To Wish Impossible Things

Sometimes I just want to have a quiet/private day inside and...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:15:48 -0400

Sometimes I just want to have a quiet/private day inside and watch tv and perhaps reflect. But then the beautiful moments of a TV show make me want to go out and do something real; with people and where there’s possibilities.

Rae to Kester (her therapist): ”I like that you’re a...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:15:00 -0400

Rae to Kester (her therapist): ”I like that you’re a mess. That’s what makes you real, like us.”

p.s. get well Tix!!!

Photo

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:07:00 -0400

I don’t regularly read zines, but this awesome zine is...

Wed, 01 May 2013 02:12:00 -0400

I don’t regularly read zines, but this awesome zine is encouraging for me to check them out for more often!

elitc:

The Roots of May Day: An Illustrated History - available for download in two versions:

ZINE printing version

full-page version

The Witch's Child

Wed, 01 May 2013 02:11:38 -0400

The Witch's Child:

A wonderful story that makes the historic connect between May 1st as both a massive protest, but also community celebration of spring – of hope, and life and renewal.

check it out here: http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/14476

“…

This is why on May Day, we celebrate. A people who welcome Spring will never know of kings.

…

This is why on May Day, we mock. Most of all, we mock ourselves, for this mistake that still haunts us.

…

This is how they destroyed our roots. And this is why, on May Day, we tell stories. Stories of our lives, of our struggles, of the future we want, of a past we invent because we no longer remember it.

…

This is why we celebrate May Day with orgies. To learn from our own bodies. To show that pleasure can be shared with whomever we choose. To respect another’s desires and take joy in their satisfaction.

Our Mistake was this: we stopped celebrating the Spring. We let the silence of Winter extend over the whole of the year. The time of the year for turning inwards became our entire lives. We turned away from one another, and became bored with ourselves. We cared less about what happened in the world outside. So we turned the sensitives into priests, and asked them to bring the mysteries to us, rather than searching for them. We turned our war leaders into leaders of every day: of course all of our days should become a quiet war! We began to fear our own adventures, and asked the leaders to entertain us with their trite wars.

They needed our help in these new wars of conquest, and above all, they needed to prevent our defection. So they told us we were white, which was immutably different from being black, or being a savage. The lords and their priests, cops, and explorers could not build new cages fast enough, so they built categories, and taught us that we were born into them, and could never choose who we were. And who we were was an army, mobilized to assault all those who still had roots in the world.

This is why we celebrate May Day with visions. To see that magic is everywhere, and all life is mutable, all categories inadequate.

This is why we celebrate May Day with feasts. Because scarcity is a phantom that must be banished. Because the only things that matter cannot be counted. Because despite all that we have endured, we love ourselves and we will not be instruments for the ambitions of others.

…

This is why we celebrate May Day with sabotage. For we will not surrender the rhythm of life to the timing of gears.

…

This is why we celebrate May Day with riots. To make a noise that will not go away. To burn all that is not true. To rip up the paving stones and discover, beneath them, the earth. To begin to grow roots again.

This is your story, child. This is why it seems you have everything, but you feel you have nothing. Trust your feelings. Do not numb them with the pills they offer you. Because those feelings of anguish and rage are the same itch the seed feels in the last days of Winter, before it bursts open and sends out its buds into the world. It is this growth—uncontrolled, spontaneous—that would deprive them of their soldiers, which is why they fear it above all else.

Not everyone arrived in this desert along the same path. But there are many who share your story. There are others who still remember their roots, and know where to find them. But those like you do not even know what is missing. Remember this story, and there will be hope for Spring.

OMG, call your local MHRM group!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:43:39 -0400

OMG, call your local MHRM group!

Jason Collins: the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport" [the NBA]

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:31:00 -0400

Jason Collins: the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport" [the NBA]:

Slightly off topic, but some of my favourite reactions from around the league and beyond after John Amaechi, former NBA player, came out in 2007 several years after retiring:

Shaquille O’Neal, Miami Heat player
Palm Beach Post
“I was always taught as a youngster to never judge people, so I never judge people and to each their own. If he was my teammate and people ridiculed him and jumped on him, I would probably have to protect him.”

Eddie Curry, New York Knicks center
Newsday
“If one of my teammates came out and said that, I’d be supportive of him because those are my teammates. Those are the guys I went to war with night in and night out. Regardless of what he does off the court, we battle together.”

Isiah Thomas, New York Knicks coach
Newark Star-Ledger and Newsday
“If [there was an openly gay player] in my locker room, we won’t have a problem with it. I can’t speak for somebody else’s locker room, but if it’s in mine, we won’t have a problem. I’ll make damn sure there’s no problem.

David Stern, NBA Commissioner
Associated Press
“We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always ‘Have you got game?’ That’s it, end of inquiry.”

Jeff Miller, Orange County Register (some media outlet)
“For a society that loves to celebrate its remarkable progress, we remain pathetically stalled in yesterday in so many ways. The fact this story was received by many like a space alien would be at 7-Eleven says way too much.

Matthew Sayed, The Times (London)
“John Amaechi is a combative, articulate and intellectually inquisitive firebrand whose courageous decision to come out marks a watershed in the painfully slow process of enlightenment in professional sport.”

Chris Chelios, NHL player
Detroit Free Press
“I don’t consider it any issue at all. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a non-issue. I don’t care if a guy comes out and says he’s not gay or he comes and says he’s gay. Who cares? I don’t know who made that an issue.”
(this is awesome considering Chris Chelios normally comes across as an ass)

I’m moving! … 10 feet to the room across the hall. Gotto pack…

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:16:00 -0400

I’m moving! … 10 feet to the room across the hall. Gotto pack…

“Feel It All Around” by Washed Out just came up on...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:06:00 -0400

“Feel It All Around” by Washed Out just came up on random on my Spotify. This reminded me about Portlandia which I just started watching (“Feel It All Around” is the intro song to the show). I enjoy Portlandia’s playful, somewhat self deprecating humor towards alternative-minded people. But this makes me wonder, are people supposed to actually like the theme song? (I had came across Washed Out and other “chill wave” stuff before I started watching the show). Are the scenes in the opening credits supposed to look awesome? Because I think they look pretty good vibes (for instance, the urban gardening, the cozy neighbourhood, the downtown scenes and such. Portland is, after all, supposed to be one of the most “liveable” cities in the US, and one of the most ecological oriented. But, minus the cycling polo — that’s ridiculous.) And is it weird I find Carrie Brownstein particularly cute when she’s playing some of her “scene” characters? I wonder if I’m alone on these things….

Btw, contrary to what I would have guessed, Carrie actually present day lives in Portland and has been in a number of bands. Though, I’m not so keen on what I just briefly sampled of Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag.

I must admit that I find the food puns (more so the overdone...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:21:00 -0400

I must admit that I find the food puns (more so the overdone ones ex. “peas come to our event”) a bit irritating because I see it all the time, but I can “dig” the “fresh” ones (That is me being serious. I wasn’t originally planning to perpetuate bad food puns). This poster is pretty awesome though!

I am not “Anonymous” but I enjoy this:

“We are Anonymous
We are legion.
The honest support us.
The corrupt fear us.
The heroic join us.
Expect us.”

Hot Docs Film Festival: after reading the synopses of ALL the documentaries being screened and then...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:47:00 -0400

Hot Docs Film Festival: after reading the synopses of ALL the documentaries being screened and then watching the trailers for my narrowed down 21, I plan to check out:

American Commune
“In 1970, hundreds of hippies followed Stephen Gaskin on a journey from San Francisco to Tennessee, where they founded a legendary commune known as the Farm. Within this self-sustaining society based on non-violence, vegetarianism and respect for the earth, members willingly took a vow of poverty, lived in converted buses, grew their own food and home-delivered babies. Born and raised in this alternative community, filmmakers and sisters Rena and Nadine return for the first time since leaving in 1985. Finally ready to face the past after years of hiding their upbringing, they chart the rise and fall of America’s largest utopian socialist experiment and their own family tree. The nascent idealism of a community destroyed, in part, by its own success is reflected in the personal story of a family unit split apart by differences.American Commune finds inspiration in failure, humour in deprivation and, most surprisingly, that communal values are alive and well in the next generation.”

Second Class
“Edvardus and Arturas travel by ferry from Lithuania to northern Sweden for work. On board, they meet a Lithuanian-Swedish filmmaking team. The last thing they want is to appear on film, for fear of perpetuating media stereotypes of migrant labourers as pitiable or guilty of stealing jobs. These men don’t want to be seen or heard complaining, wanting, struggling. They hope to make enough money for a car, an apartment, to start a family, and don’t want to rock the boat. But the filmmakers erode the men’s protective machismo and tease out stories about their home lives and how they feel about being considered cheap labour. The men share their vulnerabilities and vanities in ways that only come from genuine trust.Second Class is a patient character study of rare intimacy that distils the tension between its male subjects and female filmmakers into equal parts sexy chase and frustrating power struggle.”

Blackfish
“Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite began investigating the death of a trainer who was dragged to her death during a “Dine with Shamu” show at SeaWorld. She soon found the initial story gave way to a far more shocking and further-reaching situation that plumbed the depths of a billion-dollar industry. A killer whale linked to three trainer deaths over two decades, Tilikum is the backbone of the story presented inBlackfish. However, Cowperthwaite discovered it wasn’t just this particular whale—there have been multiple cases of orca attacks on trainers in parks around the world, although never in the wild. Featuring testimonies from experts and trainers, and with never-before-seen footage, Blackfish artfully and powerfully explores the complex relationship we have with entertainment and nature, and the repercussions of keeping these sensitive and intelligent creatures in captivity.”

Anita
“From Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Mock comes her latest feature, Anita. In 1991, Anita Hill’s powerful testimony at the confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas brought sexual harassment into America’s national spotlight. Twenty years later, Ms. Hill revisits those hearings and for the first time on film speaks about the gruelling nine-hour experience of confronting an all-white male jury who demonstrated little sensitivity towards sexual harassment. A sometimes painful and shocking look back, she reflects on how that testimony shaped her life and consequently a nation. This is a must-see film, particularly for young women, for the understanding it offers on how these historic hearings treated sexual harassment and how dismissively it was viewed by the public.”

Sometimes trailers and/or synopses are misleading. I’ve definitely seen amazing films that only seemed mediocre based on their trailer, or vice versa. But going through reviews for all of them would have been one step waaay to far. This slightly obsessive/meticulous process of going through all these films is rather exhausting…

Also, screenings before 5pm are free for students and seniors!

Photo

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:13:00 -0400

I somehow stopped reading Now magazine (I guess time +...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:19:00 -0400

I somehow stopped reading Now magazine (I guess time + priorities), but I just stumbled upon some goodies. The husband and wife duo behind Sukhothai and Khao San Road (now owned by Jeff’s parents) — the best Thai restaurants that I know of in Toronto — have ANOTHER restaurant that I am only now aware of. It’s called Sabai Sabai and on Church and Dundas. Like Khao San Road they conveniently have a separate vegan menu, and they also seem to have some fun drinks that you can get by the pitcher; for instance a “Thai Mojito” (dark rum, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, mint, lime, coconut sugar syrup) or a “Midnight Monsoon” (spiced rum, fresh ginger, Thai basil, lime, coconut sugar syrup). AND, the environment looks like good vibes too. I think this could be a new favourite restaurant, but I don’t want to be tooo wishful thinking…

my love!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:33:59 -0400

my love!

Annie: Isn’t she perfect for Abed. She’s like one of those...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:33:00 -0400

Annie: Isn’t she perfect for Abed. She’s like one of those quirky girls from the movies. I saw her in the cafeteria trying to pay for lunch with a song.

OMG, my dream grrrl (mostly kidding). I love Kat’s hilarious over the top, ridiculous “quirkiness” with her scootering off, and how she wanders off distracted by the bubbles that the girl from coat check shoots out from a bubble gun (my bubble gun broke last summer — booo).

Now Abed and the girl from the coat check — that’s the real deal <3

sometimes I feel like if I go tooo hardcore focusing/working on school and staying up all night I...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 01:00:00 -0400

sometimes I feel like if I go tooo hardcore focusing/working on school and staying up all night I will explode (or die). Last hall though. I think it’s safe-ish. Let’s do this…

“To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang” by Rachel Rostad But like Cho...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:28:07 -0400

“To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang” by Rachel Rostad

But like Cho Chang, I would also perhaps be in Ravenclaw; not because of the smart/studious Asian stereotype, but perhaps because my love (Luna Lovegood) was in Ravenclaw. Though Hufflepuff is interesting in that they’ve historically had the fewest amount of dark wizards. Or maybe I would be in Gryffindor…