Kisses and cuddles go a long way to soothe our woes.
This little creature is more than just a man's best friend.
(University film project)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
News Re-view
It’s animals gone wild this week. In Ohio, residents are urged to stay home as nearly 5 dozen ‘exotic’ animals prowl loose on the streets. A wild-life expert warns individuals not to run in the face of one of the rogue creatures, adding that these animals such as the mountain lion have "great leaping ability." Down in Antarctica, filmmakers catch a male penguin cold in mid-act stealing stones from neighboring nests. Meanwhile, Chinese micro-bloggers voice outrage and angst over video footage of a young girl, profusely bleeding to death, left and ignored on the street after a hit-and-run. One micro-blogger concludes that the human race is “worse than animals.”
In other news, there is some optimism for the human race, or at least concerning those who expend energy in unusual ways. A 56-year-old Quebec-man returns home after walking around the world for 11 years in honour of world peace. And a 100-year-old man becomes the world’s oldest marathon runner. Fauja Singh finished the Toronto marathon in eight hours and 25 minutes. The marathon’s official winner, Kenneth Mungara of Kenya, won in a time of two hours, nine minutes and 51 seconds. Six minutes and 13 seconds off from the world record, but-- still impressive.
In other news, there is some optimism for the human race, or at least concerning those who expend energy in unusual ways. A 56-year-old Quebec-man returns home after walking around the world for 11 years in honour of world peace. And a 100-year-old man becomes the world’s oldest marathon runner. Fauja Singh finished the Toronto marathon in eight hours and 25 minutes. The marathon’s official winner, Kenneth Mungara of Kenya, won in a time of two hours, nine minutes and 51 seconds. Six minutes and 13 seconds off from the world record, but-- still impressive.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Westmount Examiner Articles
Summer internship with The Westmount Examiner turned into a wild goose chase of some of Montreal's greatest. Enjoy!
1) Laurus Educational Services 'back to school' profile: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/News/Local/2011-09-07/article-2742568/Laurus-offers-students-an-edge/1
2) HappyTree yoga studio profile of success: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/Living/2011-09-14/article-2748245/Success-blooms-on-a-HappyTree/1
3) An act of peace at Dawson College: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/News/Local/2011-09-21/article-2754805/An-act-of-peace-at-Dawson-College/1
1) Laurus Educational Services 'back to school' profile: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/News/Local/2011-09-07/article-2742568/Laurus-offers-students-an-edge/1
2) HappyTree yoga studio profile of success: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/Living/2011-09-14/article-2748245/Success-blooms-on-a-HappyTree/1
3) An act of peace at Dawson College: http://www.westmountexaminer.com/News/Local/2011-09-21/article-2754805/An-act-of-peace-at-Dawson-College/1
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
A Slut's Defence
I’ve never partaken in a Slut Walk, nor did I ever intend to. But it’s comments like columnist Naomi Lakritz’s in "Self-respecting women don't call themselves sluts" from this morning’s Calgary Herald that make me want to grab a sign, strip down to my whities and march the streets.
In the 1960s-- the heydays of the sexual revolution-- women calling themselves ‘sluts’ would have appeared odd, even downright misogynist. Four decades later, however, I think it’s safe to say that the social context for females has greatly changed and therefore so has feminism.
Perhaps to Lakritz women calling themselves sluts and parading the streets like sluts is mind boggling, but I liken it to a form of a Pride parade, like the Gay Pride. It’s not about conforming to an idea of proper etiquette. In fact, it’s about subverting exactly that. If you think women are more warranting in jeans and t-shirts, we say women are deserving regardless of what they are wearing. Most importantly we say, “Hey wait, we love our bodies and our desires.”
Today, we want to reclaim things our mothers couldn’t (and probably still wouldn’t) have dared to do. The word slut is one of them.
The Slut Walk is an attempt to regain our sexuality. If that makes us come across as sex objects, well at least the point is getting across!
(Aren’t we all human? Don’t we all have libidos? Aren’t we all therefore sex objects? That to me is being called a “person” first and woman, simply by birth.)
This generation is all about re-appropriation and subversion, whereas the one of my mother’s-- the leaders of female freedom-- was all about emancipation, legally and culturally.
Being called a slut shouldn’t hurt. It shouldn’t have to mean a woman who sleeps willy nilly, here and there, according the whims of man. No. A slut should mean a woman who is proud of her libido and the various ways she wants to celebrate it.
What young females are fighting for today are things that condone parts of our personality. We say, let’s give power to every part of being a woman (i.e. human) which as well as wits and shoes, includes our sexuality.
In 1997, Easton and Hardy first wrote something revolutionary in their book, The Ethical Slut. “To us, a slut is a person of any gender who celebrates sexuality according to the radical proposition that sex is nice and pleasure is good for you.”
That’s what a slut means to me, today. And I am proud to call myself SLUT.
If you aren’t comfortable walking around in your undies, we aren’t asking you to join. But we feel the need to show ourselves as women, which-- let’s not forget-- also includes our sexual goddesses. We of this generation feel the need to say, hey, that’s o.k.
In the 1960s-- the heydays of the sexual revolution-- women calling themselves ‘sluts’ would have appeared odd, even downright misogynist. Four decades later, however, I think it’s safe to say that the social context for females has greatly changed and therefore so has feminism.
Perhaps to Lakritz women calling themselves sluts and parading the streets like sluts is mind boggling, but I liken it to a form of a Pride parade, like the Gay Pride. It’s not about conforming to an idea of proper etiquette. In fact, it’s about subverting exactly that. If you think women are more warranting in jeans and t-shirts, we say women are deserving regardless of what they are wearing. Most importantly we say, “Hey wait, we love our bodies and our desires.”
Today, we want to reclaim things our mothers couldn’t (and probably still wouldn’t) have dared to do. The word slut is one of them.
The Slut Walk is an attempt to regain our sexuality. If that makes us come across as sex objects, well at least the point is getting across!
(Aren’t we all human? Don’t we all have libidos? Aren’t we all therefore sex objects? That to me is being called a “person” first and woman, simply by birth.)
This generation is all about re-appropriation and subversion, whereas the one of my mother’s-- the leaders of female freedom-- was all about emancipation, legally and culturally.
Being called a slut shouldn’t hurt. It shouldn’t have to mean a woman who sleeps willy nilly, here and there, according the whims of man. No. A slut should mean a woman who is proud of her libido and the various ways she wants to celebrate it.
What young females are fighting for today are things that condone parts of our personality. We say, let’s give power to every part of being a woman (i.e. human) which as well as wits and shoes, includes our sexuality.
In 1997, Easton and Hardy first wrote something revolutionary in their book, The Ethical Slut. “To us, a slut is a person of any gender who celebrates sexuality according to the radical proposition that sex is nice and pleasure is good for you.”
That’s what a slut means to me, today. And I am proud to call myself SLUT.
If you aren’t comfortable walking around in your undies, we aren’t asking you to join. But we feel the need to show ourselves as women, which-- let’s not forget-- also includes our sexual goddesses. We of this generation feel the need to say, hey, that’s o.k.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Is Privacy is on its deathbed?
Privacy is an ethical question that has been debated over centuries. Our acceptance and tolerance of what constitutes legal or rightful intrusions of privacy have changed over time and place. Though one thing has remained constant throughout: people will seek to expose what is kept hidden.
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, says boldly and quite simply that, “The best way to keep a secret is to never have it.”
Coming from a man who is known for uncovering and exposing the greatest secrets of our century, his words resonate deeply.
The advent of whistleblowers like Wikileaks, for instance, has forced to the table a renewed discussion of what constitutes an acceptable invasion of property. The News of the World phone-hacking scandal has recently brought such discussions to another level.
In defence of his ‘journalistic’ practices, Rupert Murdoch told British MPs that, “People do not have a right to absolute privacy.”
Most people wouldn’t have such a hard time agreeing with that statement. The question is and has always been to what extent do we have a right?
I don’t seek to open Pandora’s box by revisiting an age-old debate. What I do seek to understand, rather, is how the philosophy of privacy can be so hypocritical.
Consider Wikileaks versus News of the World (NotW).
According to public opinion polls, most people are on the side with Wikileaks (regardless of how many might think Assange is a twat). Most people, however, are not on the side with NotW (not even most of their 2.5 million readers).
Then again when I say “most” there are also “many” who disagree. So then, what determines who agrees and who doesn’t?
Is it who you target? Perhaps.
Wikileaks, for instance, generally targets governments, corporations, and oppressive regimes while NotW targets celebrities and sometimes very ordinary people that happen to be victims of brutal crimes.
Is it in the way they procure information? Perhaps.
Everyone knows NotW paid off a lot of people and did a lot of snooping to get their scoops, meanwhile Assange has information tipped off to him anonymously.
Finally, is it the actual content of information? Perhaps.
Perhaps knowing the details of the American war in Iraq versus Kate Middleton’s bowl movements is much more consequential and therefore justifiable... .
Regardless if it’s one, two, or a combination of all these points that makes a violation of a subjects' privacy justifiable, there will always be some who agree and some who disagree. And it goes without saying, usually those who disagree are the victims and those who agree stand to gain something.
For me, the only thing that comes out of all this is that the business of revealing secrets is highly hypocritical. No one wants to be the victim, yet everybody wants to know what everyone else is hiding.
For those who read tabloids -- or even dare I say it, the news-- and shame NotW, a little self-reflection would be highly encouraged. Equally, for those -- dear US of A-- who shame Assange (not because he’s a twat, but because he leaked some confidential stuff) please reconsider your habits of taping into phone-lines, hiring armies of double agents, and professing human rights and democracy as pillars of your government.
In the end, the social environment we foster of secret-keeping is much like that of the dynamic between siblings: shun one and you create extreme jealousy and animosity.
Perhaps it is our time to grow up and ‘evolve’, as Dan Savage would say. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if, as Assange would have it, we weren’t able to keep secrets.
“Let Truth and Falsehood grapple,” John Milton famously wrote in 1644.
I am of the opinion like Milton that truth and the good shall conquer, so let the facts all hang out. Let’s move beyond secrets, what is there to lose then?
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, says boldly and quite simply that, “The best way to keep a secret is to never have it.”
Coming from a man who is known for uncovering and exposing the greatest secrets of our century, his words resonate deeply.
The advent of whistleblowers like Wikileaks, for instance, has forced to the table a renewed discussion of what constitutes an acceptable invasion of property. The News of the World phone-hacking scandal has recently brought such discussions to another level.
In defence of his ‘journalistic’ practices, Rupert Murdoch told British MPs that, “People do not have a right to absolute privacy.”
Most people wouldn’t have such a hard time agreeing with that statement. The question is and has always been to what extent do we have a right?
I don’t seek to open Pandora’s box by revisiting an age-old debate. What I do seek to understand, rather, is how the philosophy of privacy can be so hypocritical.
Consider Wikileaks versus News of the World (NotW).
According to public opinion polls, most people are on the side with Wikileaks (regardless of how many might think Assange is a twat). Most people, however, are not on the side with NotW (not even most of their 2.5 million readers).
Then again when I say “most” there are also “many” who disagree. So then, what determines who agrees and who doesn’t?
Is it who you target? Perhaps.
Wikileaks, for instance, generally targets governments, corporations, and oppressive regimes while NotW targets celebrities and sometimes very ordinary people that happen to be victims of brutal crimes.
Is it in the way they procure information? Perhaps.
Everyone knows NotW paid off a lot of people and did a lot of snooping to get their scoops, meanwhile Assange has information tipped off to him anonymously.
Finally, is it the actual content of information? Perhaps.
Perhaps knowing the details of the American war in Iraq versus Kate Middleton’s bowl movements is much more consequential and therefore justifiable... .
Regardless if it’s one, two, or a combination of all these points that makes a violation of a subjects' privacy justifiable, there will always be some who agree and some who disagree. And it goes without saying, usually those who disagree are the victims and those who agree stand to gain something.
For me, the only thing that comes out of all this is that the business of revealing secrets is highly hypocritical. No one wants to be the victim, yet everybody wants to know what everyone else is hiding.
For those who read tabloids -- or even dare I say it, the news-- and shame NotW, a little self-reflection would be highly encouraged. Equally, for those -- dear US of A-- who shame Assange (not because he’s a twat, but because he leaked some confidential stuff) please reconsider your habits of taping into phone-lines, hiring armies of double agents, and professing human rights and democracy as pillars of your government.
In the end, the social environment we foster of secret-keeping is much like that of the dynamic between siblings: shun one and you create extreme jealousy and animosity.
Perhaps it is our time to grow up and ‘evolve’, as Dan Savage would say. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if, as Assange would have it, we weren’t able to keep secrets.
“Let Truth and Falsehood grapple,” John Milton famously wrote in 1644.
I am of the opinion like Milton that truth and the good shall conquer, so let the facts all hang out. Let’s move beyond secrets, what is there to lose then?
Sunday, June 19, 2011
A Story for Sluts: A look into Cameryn Moore’s “slut (r)evolution”
Her presence is unapologetic. Wearing a skin-tight black tank top with a fiery red girly skirt, her frame -- much like the baggage she brings onstage -- cannot be contained in the space she is allotted.
“Everybody thinks I’m putting [sex] out there, but it’s just ‘cause I have big tits.”
Cameryn Moore is no stranger to the wild and obscene. Her place on stage at the Montreal Fringe Festival is more than fitting. In her second debuting solo-performance, following hot after last year’s award-winning act in “phone whore”, Moore is yet again scoring big for her unconventional loving. In “slut (r)evolution: no one gets there overnight”, Moore details the stories of her very promiscuous and atypical sex life. In a gripping hour of laughs and candid honesty niched comfortably in a local Plateau café, Moore pushes the audience to look beyond her sexual life as an incendiary account. Alas our libido’s are celebrated; slut-dom reclaimed.
“I bring a lot to the party: It’s my civic duty.”
Having grown up in an American Mormon household, Moore has come a long way from her roots. Today she boasts an impressive resumé from burlesque dancing, group sex, kink retreats, lesbian sex, straight sex, all the way to internet dating. She tells the audience her motto for everything and anything that is consensual is “yes”. Quite notably, there is something very empowering in her sexual flirtings.
“I want to get my freak on!”
The word “slut” has deep roots in Moore’s life. It has been used against her as a label for her lifestyle choices-- from dress, mannerisms, and even sexual escapades.
Today, while Moore performs she keeps a copy of “The Ethical Slut” befittingly by her side. As Moore explains, the book is dedicated to reclaiming the word “slut” from the pejorative to mean simply those who lead a consensually promiscuous life. “Words like “slut” are used to police women’s behaviour,” Moore says reflecting on the experience of herself and women around the world; adding that, as this book brings to mind, "we should diffuse words that injure.” For Moore, the personal is very political: this is the mantra of her slut (r)evolution.
Alas, through her wild stories of sex Moore leaves the audience fulfilling her end of the deal as a performer: she has captivated, moved, and brought questions to our assumptions. There is no greater accomplishment in theatre.
“Everybody thinks I’m putting [sex] out there, but it’s just ‘cause I have big tits.”
Cameryn Moore is no stranger to the wild and obscene. Her place on stage at the Montreal Fringe Festival is more than fitting. In her second debuting solo-performance, following hot after last year’s award-winning act in “phone whore”, Moore is yet again scoring big for her unconventional loving. In “slut (r)evolution: no one gets there overnight”, Moore details the stories of her very promiscuous and atypical sex life. In a gripping hour of laughs and candid honesty niched comfortably in a local Plateau café, Moore pushes the audience to look beyond her sexual life as an incendiary account. Alas our libido’s are celebrated; slut-dom reclaimed.
“I bring a lot to the party: It’s my civic duty.”
Having grown up in an American Mormon household, Moore has come a long way from her roots. Today she boasts an impressive resumé from burlesque dancing, group sex, kink retreats, lesbian sex, straight sex, all the way to internet dating. She tells the audience her motto for everything and anything that is consensual is “yes”. Quite notably, there is something very empowering in her sexual flirtings.
“I want to get my freak on!”
The word “slut” has deep roots in Moore’s life. It has been used against her as a label for her lifestyle choices-- from dress, mannerisms, and even sexual escapades.
Today, while Moore performs she keeps a copy of “The Ethical Slut” befittingly by her side. As Moore explains, the book is dedicated to reclaiming the word “slut” from the pejorative to mean simply those who lead a consensually promiscuous life. “Words like “slut” are used to police women’s behaviour,” Moore says reflecting on the experience of herself and women around the world; adding that, as this book brings to mind, "we should diffuse words that injure.” For Moore, the personal is very political: this is the mantra of her slut (r)evolution.
Alas, through her wild stories of sex Moore leaves the audience fulfilling her end of the deal as a performer: she has captivated, moved, and brought questions to our assumptions. There is no greater accomplishment in theatre.
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