See this article on yahoo.ca:
Man fined for driving souped-up drink cooler
NEW WATERFORD, N.S. - A Cape Breton man is fighting a ticket he received after being caught chugging along a sidewalk on a souped-up drink cooler.
Neil Rideout of New Waterford was fined $222 under Nova Scotia's Motor Vehicle Act last July for driving his motorized red cooler on a sidewalk.
But the 42-year-old says he only took his cooler for a spin on the sidewalk at the suggestion of police, who told him he couldn't ride the four-wheel contraption on the street.
Rideout says he believes he's being discriminated against and plans to fight the ticket at a trial scheduled for Feb. 2 in provincial court.
Desiree Vassallo, a spokeswoman for the Cape Breton Regional Police Service, says the only motorized vehicles permitted on a sidewalk are wheelchairs and scooters.
Rideout says he purchased the cooler, which is equipped with a radio, cup holders and a 5.5-horsepower motor, to be environmentally friendly.
(end of article)
I love that this man's last name is Rideout. It's so appropriate to the story. Especially considering that this is a story focused on a ride which many of us would have trouble recognizing.
Now, it may seem kooky to have an appliance become a motor vehicle, but when you think about it, it's a good idea. Cars are loud, cumbersome, they take up way too much space and use too much gas. Riding a cooler, which is small, light, and has a tiny engine makes a lot of sense. It would be so perfect to be able to ride a little cooler to a beer store and then pick up a 12 pack and ride home on top of the pack. Your beer would be cold, you would know where it is and you never have to look too far for either beer or a parking spot. And if there's way too much traffic on the streets? You can pick up your car-cooler and just walk.
It seems like everyone wants to talk about green initiatives and doing our part for the environment. And here's this guy, trying a real idea and he's being ticketed by the police? Just because his cooler isn't registered or he doesn't having a cooler driving license? Or cooler insurance?
The way that vehicles are defined and regulated is something of a mystery, but it makes sense that they would have to be, otherwise, a few of us may try to ride fans around town. While the principle is good and many of us can get behind the idea of the creation of a lighter, environmentally-friendly mode of transport, it's understandable that government would want to keep them in check to make sure that they're safe, reliable and don't pose a danger to other vehicles or pedestrians.
Personally, I hope that Rideout is successful in his claim and that his cooler is given license to ride throughout town. Not only would it be a personal victory and a blow in favour of Mother Earth, it would also be a great beginning for improvised small motor vehicles taking the road. Who doesn't want to see a street filled with grown adults on their way to work, riding small motorized household appliances wearing football helmets?
Rev up your microwave ovens and put them in neutral.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
When Donkeys Fly and Kids Cry
See article from yahoo.ca:
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.
Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over heads of holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.
A regional police spokeswoman said the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach.
Instead, they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe.
"The donkey screamed and children cried," regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told AFP. "No-one had the brains to call police."
Instead, she said, people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local newspaper with phone calls.
"It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: "Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?" the newspaper, Taman, said late last week.
"The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore."
The incident is stunning even for a country where animal cruelty is widespread and came as a shock to the locals, said Taman newspaper's editor, Elena Iovleva.
"This has never happened before," she told AFP.
The footage of the parachuting donkey was aired on national television Tuesday.
End of Article
I think that there are some important lessons that we can pull from this. First, that entrepreuners in Russia should lay off the vodka before deciding on great new advertising campaigns. That Please Enjoy Responsibly tag isn't just there for pregnant ladies, guys.
Second, that someone has to think of the children. Really, the poor children cried when they saw the donkey flying so high. And that's a bad thing. Especially when you're on vacation. You work all year as a parent to get a couple of lousy weeks off and then you go to all the trouble to take them to this lovely beach where you've fed them, lathered them in sunscreen and took them to the bathroom a hundred times, and just when you're starting to relax, some drunken group of billionnaires with a private beach decide to launch a donkey in the air for free publicity and your stupid kids are crying and your vacation is ruined.
Third, that even a country known for animal cruelty can go too far. This is Russia, after all, the land of the bears dressed as ballerinas riding on unicycles. Perhaps this would have been less shocking if the donkey was dressed in a tutu.
It's incredible that we find it acceptable to abuse animals for our amusement or for self-promotion. In the past, we used to use various groups of people for that very same purpose. The bleeding heart PETA squad is probably appropriately outraged and ready to vigorously defend the rights of donkeys in Russia on behalf of this poor victim.
This senseless act did make for a great story, though. It really shows that despite all of the progress that we've made as a society, we're still the same brutes underneath, using and abusing as we please, often for no other reason than we can. It's a way of showing how dominant we are and how nature is there at our disposal. How animals not only have to die for our nourishment, warmth and protection, but also for our callous need to be entertained and pandered to.
Besides from being an idiot idea, this little prank was unnecessarily cruel, and not the kind of cruel that you get labeled when you dress up your chihuahua in a pink mini sombrero. This animal was half alive when they recovered it and for what? Did the billionnaires get a good laugh? Did it make everyone want to visit the private beach that a flying donkey so well represents and embodies?
It's amazing that it took this stunt to show what kind of asses humans can be.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.
Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over heads of holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.
A regional police spokeswoman said the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach.
Instead, they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe.
"The donkey screamed and children cried," regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told AFP. "No-one had the brains to call police."
Instead, she said, people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local newspaper with phone calls.
"It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: "Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?" the newspaper, Taman, said late last week.
"The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore."
The incident is stunning even for a country where animal cruelty is widespread and came as a shock to the locals, said Taman newspaper's editor, Elena Iovleva.
"This has never happened before," she told AFP.
The footage of the parachuting donkey was aired on national television Tuesday.
End of Article
I think that there are some important lessons that we can pull from this. First, that entrepreuners in Russia should lay off the vodka before deciding on great new advertising campaigns. That Please Enjoy Responsibly tag isn't just there for pregnant ladies, guys.
Second, that someone has to think of the children. Really, the poor children cried when they saw the donkey flying so high. And that's a bad thing. Especially when you're on vacation. You work all year as a parent to get a couple of lousy weeks off and then you go to all the trouble to take them to this lovely beach where you've fed them, lathered them in sunscreen and took them to the bathroom a hundred times, and just when you're starting to relax, some drunken group of billionnaires with a private beach decide to launch a donkey in the air for free publicity and your stupid kids are crying and your vacation is ruined.
Third, that even a country known for animal cruelty can go too far. This is Russia, after all, the land of the bears dressed as ballerinas riding on unicycles. Perhaps this would have been less shocking if the donkey was dressed in a tutu.
It's incredible that we find it acceptable to abuse animals for our amusement or for self-promotion. In the past, we used to use various groups of people for that very same purpose. The bleeding heart PETA squad is probably appropriately outraged and ready to vigorously defend the rights of donkeys in Russia on behalf of this poor victim.
This senseless act did make for a great story, though. It really shows that despite all of the progress that we've made as a society, we're still the same brutes underneath, using and abusing as we please, often for no other reason than we can. It's a way of showing how dominant we are and how nature is there at our disposal. How animals not only have to die for our nourishment, warmth and protection, but also for our callous need to be entertained and pandered to.
Besides from being an idiot idea, this little prank was unnecessarily cruel, and not the kind of cruel that you get labeled when you dress up your chihuahua in a pink mini sombrero. This animal was half alive when they recovered it and for what? Did the billionnaires get a good laugh? Did it make everyone want to visit the private beach that a flying donkey so well represents and embodies?
It's amazing that it took this stunt to show what kind of asses humans can be.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Gluttony is Not a Sport
Check out this tidbit:
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a July Fourth hot dog-eating event, was freed Monday after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry.
Kobayashi, wearing in a black T-shirt bearing the message "Free Kobi" in green letters, was freed by a Brooklyn judge after he pleaded not guilty. The slim and boyish 32-year-old said he consumed only a sandwich and some milk in jail.
A contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of Sunday's annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he showed up anyway.
"I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies," he said through an interpreter outside court Monday. Fans chanted for him, and "in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat."
His attorney, Mario D. Romano, said his client was waved up onstage after spectators began chanting "Let him eat!"
"Shortly after he got on the stage, he was grabbed from behind by officers," Romano said.
Kobayashi was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Kobayashi, who's currently living in New York, had refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast food equivalent of the National Football League. On his Japanese-language blog, he said he wanted to be free to enter contests sanctioned by other groups.
But a few days ago, he told Japan's Kyodo News: "I really want to compete in the (Coney Island) event."
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut of California won by downing 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
After witnessing the drama involving Kobayashi, Chestnut said, "I feel bad for him."
Chestnut claimed the mustard-yellow champion's belt and a $20,000 purse but was disappointed with his own performance. The 26-year-old was aiming for a record 70 dogs in 10 minutes. Last year, he ate 68 dogs, four more than Kobayashi.
(end of article, from Yahoo pages)
This is an incredible piece of news. In a world where millions of people, mostly children, starve to death, not only does North America take the (fatty) cake, we eat it too. It's already ridiculous that we have appetizers, the things that you eat before you eat, and portion sizes that are roughly equivalent to frisbees for large dogs, but now, we've gone and made gluttony a sport. A spectator sport, complete with fans, belts, and something called Major League Eating. This thing gets its own league? Well, I guess if poker gets to be a 'sport', that pretty much opens the floodgates to anything you can compete at.
Gluttony should not a source of pride. In a world where everyone wants to be a winner and to be good at something, it's become more and more common to have stupid things be celebrated as achievements. In short, it doesn't matter how stupid that thing you can do is, as long as you're the best at it. It's kind of like everyone gets a trophy day, minus all the self-esteem and goodwill it's supposed to give you.
Are there really that many people interested in competitive eating? Obviously, there's a core group, namely the one chanting "let him eat!" It seems that the television crazed world will readily watch anything, no matter how disgusting or mundane.
What kind of people are interested in competitive eating? They must be the same people who like to watch shows where people injure themselves or try out strange experiments that usually end up blowing up (literally) in their face. Or those who love the train wreck reality tv shows starring clueless, selfish people.
And what kind of contract dispute could have occurred between him and the NFL equivalent of a professional eating league? Really? This guy downs hot dogs in public for prizes and he's looking to protect his independence and his image? How good can your image really be? You're a hot-dog eating champion. You have too much pride to wear some company's t-shirt?
Regardless of the general gripes that I have with the idea of competitive eating, there's also the obvious social contradictions. We're a society that doesn't guarantee basic rights like those of food, water and shelter to anyone, and yet, we're open to creating an industry based on wastefulness in order to entertain ourselves. We're constantly being told to be on the alert for rising obesity, diabetes and liver problems associated with overeating, inactivity and bad dietary habits, and yet, we've decided to bundle those three things together into a sport.
If we need everyone to excel in something, no matter how stupid or useless it is, why not take it a step further and see how greedy people really are and have a greedy contest run by Major League of Greed? Oh, wait, we already have that, it's called Wall Street. Why not see how superficial and materialistic people really are and have a superficial contest run by the Major League of Superficiliaty? Oh wait, we already have the Hills.
Maybe we should bring back the competitive spirit and celebrate achievements that are real, which require hard work, discipline and years of dedication? Why not elevate the qualities that we would like to see in people, such as athleticism or intelligence?
Maybe because that may require us to acknowledge that there are handfuls of people on this earth who have those qualities and that the rest of us only excel at laziness, selfishness, overindulgence and proscrastination?
This is why the everyone gets a trophy day experiment failed. Because the truth is, not everyone deserves one.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a July Fourth hot dog-eating event, was freed Monday after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry.
Kobayashi, wearing in a black T-shirt bearing the message "Free Kobi" in green letters, was freed by a Brooklyn judge after he pleaded not guilty. The slim and boyish 32-year-old said he consumed only a sandwich and some milk in jail.
A contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of Sunday's annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he showed up anyway.
"I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies," he said through an interpreter outside court Monday. Fans chanted for him, and "in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat."
His attorney, Mario D. Romano, said his client was waved up onstage after spectators began chanting "Let him eat!"
"Shortly after he got on the stage, he was grabbed from behind by officers," Romano said.
Kobayashi was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Kobayashi, who's currently living in New York, had refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast food equivalent of the National Football League. On his Japanese-language blog, he said he wanted to be free to enter contests sanctioned by other groups.
But a few days ago, he told Japan's Kyodo News: "I really want to compete in the (Coney Island) event."
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut of California won by downing 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
After witnessing the drama involving Kobayashi, Chestnut said, "I feel bad for him."
Chestnut claimed the mustard-yellow champion's belt and a $20,000 purse but was disappointed with his own performance. The 26-year-old was aiming for a record 70 dogs in 10 minutes. Last year, he ate 68 dogs, four more than Kobayashi.
(end of article, from Yahoo pages)
This is an incredible piece of news. In a world where millions of people, mostly children, starve to death, not only does North America take the (fatty) cake, we eat it too. It's already ridiculous that we have appetizers, the things that you eat before you eat, and portion sizes that are roughly equivalent to frisbees for large dogs, but now, we've gone and made gluttony a sport. A spectator sport, complete with fans, belts, and something called Major League Eating. This thing gets its own league? Well, I guess if poker gets to be a 'sport', that pretty much opens the floodgates to anything you can compete at.
Gluttony should not a source of pride. In a world where everyone wants to be a winner and to be good at something, it's become more and more common to have stupid things be celebrated as achievements. In short, it doesn't matter how stupid that thing you can do is, as long as you're the best at it. It's kind of like everyone gets a trophy day, minus all the self-esteem and goodwill it's supposed to give you.
Are there really that many people interested in competitive eating? Obviously, there's a core group, namely the one chanting "let him eat!" It seems that the television crazed world will readily watch anything, no matter how disgusting or mundane.
What kind of people are interested in competitive eating? They must be the same people who like to watch shows where people injure themselves or try out strange experiments that usually end up blowing up (literally) in their face. Or those who love the train wreck reality tv shows starring clueless, selfish people.
And what kind of contract dispute could have occurred between him and the NFL equivalent of a professional eating league? Really? This guy downs hot dogs in public for prizes and he's looking to protect his independence and his image? How good can your image really be? You're a hot-dog eating champion. You have too much pride to wear some company's t-shirt?
Regardless of the general gripes that I have with the idea of competitive eating, there's also the obvious social contradictions. We're a society that doesn't guarantee basic rights like those of food, water and shelter to anyone, and yet, we're open to creating an industry based on wastefulness in order to entertain ourselves. We're constantly being told to be on the alert for rising obesity, diabetes and liver problems associated with overeating, inactivity and bad dietary habits, and yet, we've decided to bundle those three things together into a sport.
If we need everyone to excel in something, no matter how stupid or useless it is, why not take it a step further and see how greedy people really are and have a greedy contest run by Major League of Greed? Oh, wait, we already have that, it's called Wall Street. Why not see how superficial and materialistic people really are and have a superficial contest run by the Major League of Superficiliaty? Oh wait, we already have the Hills.
Maybe we should bring back the competitive spirit and celebrate achievements that are real, which require hard work, discipline and years of dedication? Why not elevate the qualities that we would like to see in people, such as athleticism or intelligence?
Maybe because that may require us to acknowledge that there are handfuls of people on this earth who have those qualities and that the rest of us only excel at laziness, selfishness, overindulgence and proscrastination?
This is why the everyone gets a trophy day experiment failed. Because the truth is, not everyone deserves one.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The World of the Undead
It seems that all you have to do to make something successful these days is add vampires, werewolves and zombies. The whole world seems to be in a Twilight and Everything Zombie craze and while this franchising juggernaut of the world of the undead has been popular in its time, the current trend suggests something more significant happening today.
While the cool factor of the undead remains vibrant with memories of Michael Jackson's Thriller, the success of Thriller was probably another good example of the indulgent, glamourous and fantasy-driven culture of a period where times were good and the sky was the limit for any creative mind. The time of the supermodels, crazy fashions, heavily competing soda pop companies and a consumer culture that was appealing to younger and younger audiences, flush with allowances, there was no sign of economic collapse or the political jadedness which characterizes our current times.
Most popular culture is driven by a desire for the opposite of what's happening in the world. So most depression eras are characterized by super happy carefree forms of entertainment that can be so wholesome and cheesy that it makes people cringe. This is one of the reasons why the Sound of Music was so popular in its time. Think also about the charleston and other frenetic dance crazes. Most people need popular culture to remind them of the things that they would rather think about, rather than the things happening around them.
Good economic times: gritty films with darkness and edge, soul destroying music. Bad economic times: super happy pop tunes and feel good escapist films.
While there is an escapist appeal to the current zombie and vampire craze, there's something else more subtle happening, a desire for something that we seem to be missing.
Take the Twilight example. While there are scores of teens and tweens who are pouring money into this franchise, the majority of the readers appear to be women in between the ages of 20-50. Why are so many women from this mature and generally independent age frame enthralled with a teenage romance?
Most women nowadays are raised to be independent, to go to school longer, be well educated and go out and get the best jobs. They face enormous pressure to be smart, well-dressed, thin, outgoing without being aggressive, ambitious without being calculating, nice without being submissive, serious without being overbearing, and cool without being an asexual frat boy. That's a lot to handle, particularly in a society which is constantly throwing out conflicting images of what ideal women should be like and what their romantic expectations should be. The films directed at women are generally so mean to women that they're borderline misogynistic and those are supposed to be the 'romantic' films that we enjoy. And we aren't kinder to our own kind, either, with women shows literally yelling at us to be better.
To add to all that, romance itself is, by and large, considered dead. Nobody respects it, nobody honours it and nobody seems to value it. The most romantic thing that most women can expect is to have their man bring them a sandwich from the kitchen when he takes his half time sports break to make one for himself. Furthermore, women who do want romance get labeled as 'sappy', 'soft' or just plain stupid, when there's really nothing stupid about wanting to have someone show them some consideration. This doesn't mean that romance has to be flowers and candlelight, because many people are over this.
And yet, there's a part of us deep down that craves romance or expressions of romantic love. But because we're so cynical, self-absorbed and scared to look stupid, we need to fill this void with nonsense like Twilight because it masks itself as literature. We call it escapist and fun, but really, it's filling in a void that society has made for us and has made unacceptable for us to have.
Twilight, for all its silliness, is very romantic. It's the basic, classic love story with a colourful cast of characters that happen to have supernatural powers as well. As if we need to have vampires and werewolves as romantic stand-ins for the men that we don't have. There seems to be something ok with Edward expressing a desire to love Bella until the end of time because he's not a real man, but a vampire man. Give me a break.
Let's face facts, people. We love to love. Love brings meaning to our lives. We can't resist a good love story or an epic tale of unrequited love. We are not too 'smart', 'educated' or 'cool' for it. It's time we started believing in real love again and not Twilight love.
Of course, while it's not really cool for us to love each other, it is socially acceptable for us nowadays to love our things. A lot of ads blatantly try to sell you love by promising that you will fall in love with their products. What kind of backwards society finds it laughable for you to love a person and finds it acceptable for you to love your cell phone?
In the classic Romero Dawn of the Dead film, the last stand of the zombie apocalypse takes place in a shopping mall. This is a deliberate statement to the fact that consumers are very much like the living dead, sleepwalking through life in the pursuit of useless things that ultimately don't matter once the end of the world actually takes place. Ironically, zombie culture has since taken off from its original fringe cool and social commentary to become a billion dollar franchise based on its cynical humour and gore appeal.
But I think that the rise of the zombie culture stems from a deeply embedded saturation with commercialism and superficiality. I think deep down, we're so sick of being told to solve all of our problems by buying things and being solicited everywhere we go, that the appeal of the zombie world is that it's one completely oblivious of things. Furthermore, it gives no value to things. In the zombie world, things are only valuable if they can be used for basic human survival. Food, water, shelter, protection.
I think a lot of us are attracted to these post-apocalyptic images of the world because it's such an uncomplicated world. Yes, it's crude and violent, but it's raw, real and so alive. Nobody sits back in their recliner and contemplates the meaning of their lives, because the meaning is life itself, to live and survive. And all the things that we value or that get in our way in life, money, objects, jobs, position titles, neighbourhoods and houses, do not matter. This crazed world of survival has no race, no gender, no class. And to think that's the world without brains.
We love love because we are loveless in our society. We love the undead because we are soulless in our society. I think our zombie and vampire obsessions are indications that our society is sick, but it's sicker than most people would assume. Especially since the zombies and vampires seem more alive than the rest of us.
Maybe it's time we wake up.
While the cool factor of the undead remains vibrant with memories of Michael Jackson's Thriller, the success of Thriller was probably another good example of the indulgent, glamourous and fantasy-driven culture of a period where times were good and the sky was the limit for any creative mind. The time of the supermodels, crazy fashions, heavily competing soda pop companies and a consumer culture that was appealing to younger and younger audiences, flush with allowances, there was no sign of economic collapse or the political jadedness which characterizes our current times.
Most popular culture is driven by a desire for the opposite of what's happening in the world. So most depression eras are characterized by super happy carefree forms of entertainment that can be so wholesome and cheesy that it makes people cringe. This is one of the reasons why the Sound of Music was so popular in its time. Think also about the charleston and other frenetic dance crazes. Most people need popular culture to remind them of the things that they would rather think about, rather than the things happening around them.
Good economic times: gritty films with darkness and edge, soul destroying music. Bad economic times: super happy pop tunes and feel good escapist films.
While there is an escapist appeal to the current zombie and vampire craze, there's something else more subtle happening, a desire for something that we seem to be missing.
Take the Twilight example. While there are scores of teens and tweens who are pouring money into this franchise, the majority of the readers appear to be women in between the ages of 20-50. Why are so many women from this mature and generally independent age frame enthralled with a teenage romance?
Most women nowadays are raised to be independent, to go to school longer, be well educated and go out and get the best jobs. They face enormous pressure to be smart, well-dressed, thin, outgoing without being aggressive, ambitious without being calculating, nice without being submissive, serious without being overbearing, and cool without being an asexual frat boy. That's a lot to handle, particularly in a society which is constantly throwing out conflicting images of what ideal women should be like and what their romantic expectations should be. The films directed at women are generally so mean to women that they're borderline misogynistic and those are supposed to be the 'romantic' films that we enjoy. And we aren't kinder to our own kind, either, with women shows literally yelling at us to be better.
To add to all that, romance itself is, by and large, considered dead. Nobody respects it, nobody honours it and nobody seems to value it. The most romantic thing that most women can expect is to have their man bring them a sandwich from the kitchen when he takes his half time sports break to make one for himself. Furthermore, women who do want romance get labeled as 'sappy', 'soft' or just plain stupid, when there's really nothing stupid about wanting to have someone show them some consideration. This doesn't mean that romance has to be flowers and candlelight, because many people are over this.
And yet, there's a part of us deep down that craves romance or expressions of romantic love. But because we're so cynical, self-absorbed and scared to look stupid, we need to fill this void with nonsense like Twilight because it masks itself as literature. We call it escapist and fun, but really, it's filling in a void that society has made for us and has made unacceptable for us to have.
Twilight, for all its silliness, is very romantic. It's the basic, classic love story with a colourful cast of characters that happen to have supernatural powers as well. As if we need to have vampires and werewolves as romantic stand-ins for the men that we don't have. There seems to be something ok with Edward expressing a desire to love Bella until the end of time because he's not a real man, but a vampire man. Give me a break.
Let's face facts, people. We love to love. Love brings meaning to our lives. We can't resist a good love story or an epic tale of unrequited love. We are not too 'smart', 'educated' or 'cool' for it. It's time we started believing in real love again and not Twilight love.
Of course, while it's not really cool for us to love each other, it is socially acceptable for us nowadays to love our things. A lot of ads blatantly try to sell you love by promising that you will fall in love with their products. What kind of backwards society finds it laughable for you to love a person and finds it acceptable for you to love your cell phone?
In the classic Romero Dawn of the Dead film, the last stand of the zombie apocalypse takes place in a shopping mall. This is a deliberate statement to the fact that consumers are very much like the living dead, sleepwalking through life in the pursuit of useless things that ultimately don't matter once the end of the world actually takes place. Ironically, zombie culture has since taken off from its original fringe cool and social commentary to become a billion dollar franchise based on its cynical humour and gore appeal.
But I think that the rise of the zombie culture stems from a deeply embedded saturation with commercialism and superficiality. I think deep down, we're so sick of being told to solve all of our problems by buying things and being solicited everywhere we go, that the appeal of the zombie world is that it's one completely oblivious of things. Furthermore, it gives no value to things. In the zombie world, things are only valuable if they can be used for basic human survival. Food, water, shelter, protection.
I think a lot of us are attracted to these post-apocalyptic images of the world because it's such an uncomplicated world. Yes, it's crude and violent, but it's raw, real and so alive. Nobody sits back in their recliner and contemplates the meaning of their lives, because the meaning is life itself, to live and survive. And all the things that we value or that get in our way in life, money, objects, jobs, position titles, neighbourhoods and houses, do not matter. This crazed world of survival has no race, no gender, no class. And to think that's the world without brains.
We love love because we are loveless in our society. We love the undead because we are soulless in our society. I think our zombie and vampire obsessions are indications that our society is sick, but it's sicker than most people would assume. Especially since the zombies and vampires seem more alive than the rest of us.
Maybe it's time we wake up.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Canadian Fox News
It appears that Fox-style news is finally making its way to Canada and there are several thoughts that come to mind:
-At last. I was getting tired of thinking and was hoping that someone would do that for me
-Anything that's good for the U.S.A must be good enough for Canada, eh?
-Finally, some competition for Global News as the most ego-centric, silly, trivialized panic-for-nothing broadcast
Fox News. Out of all the things that you could export. It appears that this is the thanks we get for timber and maple syrup. I have to say, though, it does have that distinctly American stamp to it. There are few exports that are so uniquely culturally specific as this.
I've seen Global News on occasion and it currently comes the closest to Fox News, which makes a lot of sense, because it's the most 'American' of Canadian cities. It's big, busy, self important and obsessed with making money. The people are generally blase, not easily impressed and they follow the trends and line up for lattes at one of the hundred Starbucks in the city. They're generally dressed well in expensive clothes that are strategically chosen and love to talk on cell phones.
Toronto, unlike some of the big bad cities out there, is pretty safe. In general, you can walk around and not really be bothered. You might see a photo shoot, a few broadcasts, maybe a film being shot somewhere. But if you watch Global News, you'd think that there's a gang war on every corner. Every night, the focus is around the yellow tape and cop cars and reports of yet another murder with yet another non-white suspect.
Of course, they often forget to add that this murder occurred at some unholy hour like 3 a.m. outside some seedy strip club by gang members who know each other.
But even for the nice typical hard working middle class family, there's a lot of other things to be worried about, right in your home. Hence, the painfully long segments devoted to the amount of lead that's contained in toys from China, and then reports of the general evil of China and the fact that the Axis of Evil, as they're famously known, are still 'out there.' There's always some enemy lurking in the shadows with a leery eye and a tinny laugh.
And now that Fox style news is making its way to Canada, we're going to have a lot more enemies lurking in the dark. There's nothing to fear, after all, but fear itself.
It appears that this alternate model of news is being introduced because the current Canadian news is condescending and boring. Condescending, of course, being another word for informed. And we all know how much we hate wordiness when it comes to getting information. We'd rather have our news come towards us with big words like when we see an ad for a blockbuster film or a sale at the Brick. Rock music and cheerleaders would also be cool. And maybe some special effects, so I know which news is REALLY important and which ones are just so-so important for me to know.
And they should cover celebrity news, too. There's not enough of that, either.
Hang on to your tuques, Canada. We're about to have news-tainment.
-At last. I was getting tired of thinking and was hoping that someone would do that for me
-Anything that's good for the U.S.A must be good enough for Canada, eh?
-Finally, some competition for Global News as the most ego-centric, silly, trivialized panic-for-nothing broadcast
Fox News. Out of all the things that you could export. It appears that this is the thanks we get for timber and maple syrup. I have to say, though, it does have that distinctly American stamp to it. There are few exports that are so uniquely culturally specific as this.
I've seen Global News on occasion and it currently comes the closest to Fox News, which makes a lot of sense, because it's the most 'American' of Canadian cities. It's big, busy, self important and obsessed with making money. The people are generally blase, not easily impressed and they follow the trends and line up for lattes at one of the hundred Starbucks in the city. They're generally dressed well in expensive clothes that are strategically chosen and love to talk on cell phones.
Toronto, unlike some of the big bad cities out there, is pretty safe. In general, you can walk around and not really be bothered. You might see a photo shoot, a few broadcasts, maybe a film being shot somewhere. But if you watch Global News, you'd think that there's a gang war on every corner. Every night, the focus is around the yellow tape and cop cars and reports of yet another murder with yet another non-white suspect.
Of course, they often forget to add that this murder occurred at some unholy hour like 3 a.m. outside some seedy strip club by gang members who know each other.
But even for the nice typical hard working middle class family, there's a lot of other things to be worried about, right in your home. Hence, the painfully long segments devoted to the amount of lead that's contained in toys from China, and then reports of the general evil of China and the fact that the Axis of Evil, as they're famously known, are still 'out there.' There's always some enemy lurking in the shadows with a leery eye and a tinny laugh.
And now that Fox style news is making its way to Canada, we're going to have a lot more enemies lurking in the dark. There's nothing to fear, after all, but fear itself.
It appears that this alternate model of news is being introduced because the current Canadian news is condescending and boring. Condescending, of course, being another word for informed. And we all know how much we hate wordiness when it comes to getting information. We'd rather have our news come towards us with big words like when we see an ad for a blockbuster film or a sale at the Brick. Rock music and cheerleaders would also be cool. And maybe some special effects, so I know which news is REALLY important and which ones are just so-so important for me to know.
And they should cover celebrity news, too. There's not enough of that, either.
Hang on to your tuques, Canada. We're about to have news-tainment.
Jesus has been Smote?
Check out this news clip:
MONROE, Ohio - A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The sculpture, 62 feet (nearly 19 metres) tall and 40 feet (12 metres) wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signalling a touchdown in a game of football.
It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheatre but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said.
Travellers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.
The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.
(end of article)
Wow. Jesus has been smote. And not just broken, but struck by lightning. Wasn't that God's way of punishing people or symbolic of some sort of bad omen of things to come? It's ironic that not only did this statue break, but that it was broken in this way. Perhaps a football-loving Jesus wasn't exactly the image that God wanted for his only son?
Leaving aside all of the possible plague implications and the fact that it's unclear what Jesus could have done to deserve to be smote in such a fashion, the note about the statue's origins are also interesting. What kind of nondenominational church workships Jesus? And is Bishop really this guy's name? It doesn't sound religion neutral to have a guy named Bishop from a church create and finance a large lifelike statue of Jesus.
It is admirable in some ways that this couple took it upon themselves to create a symbol to inspire and give hope to people. And it's a shame that their symbol's broken now. At the very least, the presence of their statue probably did get a lot of people talking and thinking about Jesus, maybe more as a figure of what we should try to be like rather than a religious sign. It's got to be better than all the cigarette billboards that you see on the interstate in the U.S. We should all think more and smoke less.
This statue will probably be repaired and reinstated in its place of honour, since it was touched a lot of people and the U.S. likes their Jesus. Hopefully, it will all be done in time for the next Superbowl Sunday.
MONROE, Ohio - A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The sculpture, 62 feet (nearly 19 metres) tall and 40 feet (12 metres) wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signalling a touchdown in a game of football.
It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheatre but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said.
Travellers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.
The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.
(end of article)
Wow. Jesus has been smote. And not just broken, but struck by lightning. Wasn't that God's way of punishing people or symbolic of some sort of bad omen of things to come? It's ironic that not only did this statue break, but that it was broken in this way. Perhaps a football-loving Jesus wasn't exactly the image that God wanted for his only son?
Leaving aside all of the possible plague implications and the fact that it's unclear what Jesus could have done to deserve to be smote in such a fashion, the note about the statue's origins are also interesting. What kind of nondenominational church workships Jesus? And is Bishop really this guy's name? It doesn't sound religion neutral to have a guy named Bishop from a church create and finance a large lifelike statue of Jesus.
It is admirable in some ways that this couple took it upon themselves to create a symbol to inspire and give hope to people. And it's a shame that their symbol's broken now. At the very least, the presence of their statue probably did get a lot of people talking and thinking about Jesus, maybe more as a figure of what we should try to be like rather than a religious sign. It's got to be better than all the cigarette billboards that you see on the interstate in the U.S. We should all think more and smoke less.
This statue will probably be repaired and reinstated in its place of honour, since it was touched a lot of people and the U.S. likes their Jesus. Hopefully, it will all be done in time for the next Superbowl Sunday.
Friday, June 11, 2010
O Scandinavia
Canada is a great country in many ways, but it could be greater. What a Canadian thing to say, so modest and so nice, shyly acknowledging that we kick butt, but admitting that we're not perfect and like a lot of people, we could use improvement.
Canada generally looks great because it's compared to its neighbours in the South, being the US and Mexico. But while it's easy for us to be great on our own continent, we should take a long good look at some other happier countries and see how good we are then.
One look at the happiest countries to live in will show you that Denmark, Sweden and Norway have us beat. Their high tax rate is balanced by a high satisfaction rate with social services and free education. Their sense of civic duty is solid at a higher than 90% voter turnout for their elections. And although Canada is a pretty accepting group of people, we're light years away from the openness of these countries to their gay and lesbian communities.
That's a lot of clear thinking from a country that gets very little sunshine.
On the other hand, Canada is plagued with a crippled health system, voter apathy, sky high university tuition rates and a re-opened debate on abortion and same-sex marriages that many of us considered closed. Taxpayer's money is regularly mismanaged by frivolity or corruption and infighting from Canada's political parties have made the government ineffectual.
The concept is pretty simple: if a government takes care of its people, its people will be interested in government and not mind paying high taxes because their standard of living is vastly improved by the things that the government provides. If the government benefits from a good amount of tax dollars that are responsibly managed to improve the quality of lives for their citizens, they will be entrusted to keep governing. Everyone stays happy for a long time.
This doesn't mean that a socialist economy works everywhere. Offering too many services can backfire if the tax base fails to keep up with the peoples' demands. Such is the case with France, where abuse of services is rampant and unemployment rates are high. As well, too much state intervention can lead to dependence and a weak economy. And businesses must be able to thrive, even within a socialist context.
But you only need to look at Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden to know that this is all possible with the right balance. Sure, these countries do have their own problems and may lack the glitz and glamour of a rich elite who drive ridiculous cars. But they're a remarkable success story of how social responsibility can ultimately lead to a happy state.
Canada generally looks great because it's compared to its neighbours in the South, being the US and Mexico. But while it's easy for us to be great on our own continent, we should take a long good look at some other happier countries and see how good we are then.
One look at the happiest countries to live in will show you that Denmark, Sweden and Norway have us beat. Their high tax rate is balanced by a high satisfaction rate with social services and free education. Their sense of civic duty is solid at a higher than 90% voter turnout for their elections. And although Canada is a pretty accepting group of people, we're light years away from the openness of these countries to their gay and lesbian communities.
That's a lot of clear thinking from a country that gets very little sunshine.
On the other hand, Canada is plagued with a crippled health system, voter apathy, sky high university tuition rates and a re-opened debate on abortion and same-sex marriages that many of us considered closed. Taxpayer's money is regularly mismanaged by frivolity or corruption and infighting from Canada's political parties have made the government ineffectual.
The concept is pretty simple: if a government takes care of its people, its people will be interested in government and not mind paying high taxes because their standard of living is vastly improved by the things that the government provides. If the government benefits from a good amount of tax dollars that are responsibly managed to improve the quality of lives for their citizens, they will be entrusted to keep governing. Everyone stays happy for a long time.
This doesn't mean that a socialist economy works everywhere. Offering too many services can backfire if the tax base fails to keep up with the peoples' demands. Such is the case with France, where abuse of services is rampant and unemployment rates are high. As well, too much state intervention can lead to dependence and a weak economy. And businesses must be able to thrive, even within a socialist context.
But you only need to look at Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden to know that this is all possible with the right balance. Sure, these countries do have their own problems and may lack the glitz and glamour of a rich elite who drive ridiculous cars. But they're a remarkable success story of how social responsibility can ultimately lead to a happy state.
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