Month: January 2012

Smell the roses? I’m too damn busy.

/ Lauren / 4 Comments

Illustration by Sonja Kresowaty

People say it’s important to stop once in a while to smell the roses. I’m not sure what exactly that entails. Are they suggesting that we should break or postpone commitments, flake out on assignments and prior engagements, so that we can make a date with our thorny smelly friends? Or are they suggesting that in addition to all the other things we do in our lives, we are supposed to take one more morsel of time away from the already diminished time we have to eat and sleep and sit on the toilet once in while, and add “smelling the roses” to our To Do list?

Eff the roses. I’m too damn busy.

I’m not saying that I don’t like roses (I love them) or that I didn’t bring this on myself (I did). What I’m saying is that I am too damn busy. Between work and class (poetry this time) and aerial silks and mentoring (with the Vancouver School Board Making Contact mentorship program–you should check it out!) and blogging and trying to have the occasional sit-down dinner with my TC or drinks with the girls, it seems I have time to sleep (not quite enough) and dress myself (albeit not all that well) and That’s About It. My extreme busyness then pairs up with my more natural tendency towards laziness and together they conspire to take me down. This is why my Christmas tree is still up (it’s now simply a Magic Evergreen), the pictures I meant to hang in November are still piled on a shelf, and the keyboard I am supposed to ship to my sister is sitting in my kitchen.

As those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while may know, this time last year I was experiencing some capital S Sadness, and in order to cope, I filled my life with things: Twitter and blogging, volunteering as a creative writing mentor, theatre projects, etc. This was a very good decision and being constructively busy really helped get me through a rough patch. But I’m feeling better now. I’m once again comfortable with being left alone with my own thoughts and rather than needing constant occupation, or a return to the extreme stasis that contributed to my being sad in the first place, what I need now is BALANCE.

Balance is a tricky thing. I’m not sure if it’s an actual state of equilibrium that it is possible for me to achieve or whether a busy person simply finds balance through being organized and scheduling their time well. Maybe “finding balance” really just means finding a way to make it all work. If you are the kind of person who enjoys being on the go all the time, doing lunches, getting it done, keepin’ in real in the big city, etc., I’m sure being really organized is all you would need to find a groove that works for you.

But here’s the thing: contrary to my cheery nature and my deep and abiding love for my friends, NiftyNotCool is also NiftyNotExtroverted. I’m not. I do not require a non-stop parade of outside forces for stimulation in my life. I require rainy afternoons with books (I just started Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and it’s killing me that I can’t finish it right now). I require being able to cook while listening to music on Sunday evenings. I require cheery but frustrating nights of learning to play “Rainbow Connection” on the ukulele while my TC plays guitar. Or, you know, a little time to go the post office or vacuum or WHATEVER I WANT.

Life’s short. Dealing with that fact sometimes means packing what little time you have with adventures, learning things, and working on projects or causes that mean something to you. Sometimes it means a really long phone call with your childhood bestie. Or heading down to Wreck Beach just to watch the sunset. I’m trying to balance my busyness with my laziness. I’m not there yet. I need time to figure it out and unfortunately I have very little of that at the moment.

And that is why the roses, beautiful as they are, will just have to wait.

2012 PuSh Festival Opening Gala

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

January 17, 2012 was just as exciting as January 17, 2011, in that I was invited back to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Opening Gala, which was held this year in the swanky-as-hell Waldorf Hotel on Hastings Street in East Vancouver. The PuSh Gala is one of the few events that I have been invited to as “media” and with my trusty Georgette von iPhone and a swipe of red lipstick I was ready to paint the town and tweet my heart out. Attending an event as “social media media”  is much much easier, it just so happens, when you are carrying a smartphone in your little purse instead of a laptop in a big ol’ satchel (as I learned last year before I had Georgette). It makes dancing easier too. For those committed bloggers who did bring their laptops, however, reserved tables in the “Hideaway” room were available for them to do their thing and, pretty much, be awesome.

Nita Bowerman dances in the Hideaway

For those of you who don’t know, 2012 marks the 8th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver. My very first PuSh experience was seeing the Electric Company Theatre‘s Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge in 2006 and I have tried, as much as possible, to see at least one PuSh show a year since then. There have always been new pieces and new experiences on offer from all around the world and this year is no exception. No matter what you choose to see it will be innovative, interesting, and deftly executed. I think my favourite PuSh show so far is Welshman Hugh Hughes‘ Floating, which I fell in love with and blogged about last year. This year, I am very excited to see Taylor Mac‘s Comparison is Violence at Club PuSh (February 3 and 4, 2012).

I like Nudity, and TC likes The Internet. What a pair.

But enough about all the fun I will be having watching the shockingly beautiful Taylor Mac. With the trusty Georgette in my hand and my TC on my arm (and a glass of wine in my other hand) I set out to the have the gala-est gala I possibly could. And we have a lovely night. We made buttons at the Vancouver is Awesome button making station in the Hideaway, took some silly pics as the Waldorf hula dancer, took more silly pics in the PixStar photobooth in the Tiki Lounge upstairs, ate some of the amazing food that was on offer–for FREE (I had duck on toasted baguette, and beef and chicken kebabs), shouted along as Vancouver’s only accordion rock band, Fang, played their hit Hipsters Playing Sports (“Hold on to my cardigan/ So I can play some badminton”), and slowed it down to dance to the incredibly-amazing-and-I-can’t-believe-I-hadn’t-heard-of-them-before Vancouver band, e.s.l.in the Cabaret (yeah, um, the Waldorf is really big).

e.s.l. at the PuSh 2012 Opening Gala

Besides the fun fun times to be had, PuSh Galas are also a great place to network, or, if you’re too shy, to observe Vancouver’s cultural VIPs off the stage and drinking or eating kebabs like the rest of us schlubs (though to be frank, I don’t know any theatre artist who would turn down free food). I even caught sight of my favourite Vancouver musician Dan Mangan, though since I’d already fabricated an excuse to meet him at a theatre event before Christmas I decided not to bother him this time (though he doubt he would have minded–he is the nicest man in the world). I was a little disappointed that Mayor Gregor was unable to attend this year because seeing him in the flesh is like seeing the Batman of Vancouver but my night was altogether too pleasant for me to mind overmuch.

If you haven’t gathered yet, I had a great time, and tweeted like crazy (PuSh volunteers even took a photo of TC and me tweeting!). The Waldorf is really a fantastic venue and PuSh makes a huge effort to make their Gala fun and interesting every year. Many thanks to the awesome Tara Travis, Outreach Coordinator for PuSh, for inviting me and for showing us all such a great time.

The 2012 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival runs from now to February 4, 2012. With so many different shows and events (from the Main Shows to Club PuSh to the Aboriginal Performance Series), it would be embarrassing for any arts-loving, lower mainland dweller to miss out on seeing a PuSh show. So many venues are participating, you’d almost have to making a point of NOT attending any PuSh shows to avoid seeing one. So do yourself a favour, give in, and see some amazing performing art already. Information about events, venues, artists, and buying tickets can all be found on the PuSh website.

Happy PuShing!

Why an NDP-Liberal merger might NOT be stupid

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

Image by Sonja Kresowaty

Not so long ago, I wrote a post entitled Why I think an NDP-Liberal merger is stupid. It was a post about why I did not feel the interests of Canadians and of both the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party would be best served by a merger between the two parties.

This is not a retraction of that post.

However, it has come to my attention through comments on that post, my continued (if somewhat too reliant on Maclean’s Magazine) interest in current affairs, and through conversations with people whose opinion I respect, that despite the fact that I feel I had good reasons to call the idea of an NDP-Liberal merger stupid, it may in fact be necessary (and therefore not stupid). By “necessary”, obviously, I mean necessary to those (including myself) who would like to see a more left-wing party in government (i.e. a government that is NOT the Conservative Party of Canada).

And so, for those readers who were kind enough to engage with me on this issue, I give you the following reasons that despite my stubbornness, an NDP-Liberal merger might NOT be stupid after all:

Reason One: As un-merged parties, the “non-Conservative” vote is being split between the Liberals and the NDP.

[I won’t say the “leftist” vote because technically, as noted in my previous post on this issue, the Liberal Party of Canada is a centrist party.]

In our political system (called first-past-the-post, FYI), the candidate with the most votes wins their riding, and the party who wins the most ridings forms the government. This means that the popular vote (i.e. percentage of votes for a particular party) does not necessarily a government make. This also means that even if the majority of the percentage of voting Canadians did NOT want a Conservative government, the Conservatives could, in fact, still win a majority (as it seems they did).

Let’s say in the fictional riding of Yuppie Town West, the results of a recent federal election are as follows:

Conservative Party wins with 37% of the vote
NDP – 31%
Liberal Party – 22%
Fictional Fringey Fringe Party – 7%
Ballots spoiled by those who used a checkmark instead of an X – 3%

As you can see, in the fictional riding of Yuppie Town West, the Conservative candidate wins the day, even though more people voted for a party that was NOT the Conservatives than actually voted for the Conservatives (even without the help of the Fringey Fringe Party votes). The argument has often been made to me that in a two-party system where there was only the option of Conservative and Not, the Nots would win that seat. Repeat this process enough times and WHAMMO, the Not Conservative Party of Canada forms our new government. Woot.

[Clearly, I have just simplified the hell out of our electoral system AND simplified the complicated minds of Canadian voters in my above example but hopefully you get the gist.]

The fact that the Not Conservative Parties are currently splitting votes between them is, I think, a valid argument on the pro-merge side.

Reason Two: Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Are times really that desperate? The people who have spoken to me or commented on my previous “anti-merge” post think so, and I think so too. With a Conservative majority, the death of Jack Layton, an omnibus crime bill that is predicted to Not Work, our pulling out of Kyoto (and our failure to have any viable carbon-emissions reduction plan on the horizon), the Sun News Network, a proposed oil pipeline to cross beautiful BC, heavy axes suspended just above organizations like the CBC and Planned Parenthood, a Prime Minister who seems to care nothing for due Parliamentary process, an attack on workers’ rights, and an anti-intellectual and anti-environmental culture sweeping North America, the peaceful, accepting Canada I grew up with, where good manners and common sense reigned supreme (at least as part of our psyche), is fast disappearing.

Maybe it’s time for everyone who cares about these things to work together. I do not know if a merger between the NDP and the Liberal Party would work, but the time may soon be ripe to give it a try. We have a common enemy, a common cause to rally around, and maybe that’s enough. This is the stuff revolutions are made of (in our case a parliamentary, non-violent one). Is it enough?

I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, and that is why both of these posts exist.

Your stupid is not as good as my smart (and vice versa).

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’
― Isaac Asimov

I think “stupid” has become a favourite word of mine lately, and not for any good reason except that every time I read a news story or am anywhere near anything to do with a Republican candidate the word “stupid” is usually the first thing that enters my mind. Followed by the word “sad”. Yes indeed my dears, many current events just seem stupid and sad.

Example: the fact that our Conservative government recently pushed through an omnibus crime bill that experts (including experts in Texas who had previously used the same tactics) agreed would not work. STUPID. The fact that this crime bill, if it passes through the Senate, will most likely result in more punishment, less rehabilitation, and a disproportionate criminalization of young people and people with mental disabilities–SAD. Incredibly, incredibly sad.

The fact of the matter is, all of us are guilty of being willfully stupid if it makes things easier for us. Look at the issue of global warming. Once, it was treated by Canada’s politicians (and most schoolchildren) as universally agreed upon fact that the earth was getting warmer due to human actions (pollution, burning fossil fuels, etc.). Now, even though scientists (you know, people who STUDY this stuff ALL THE TIME) still agree that global warming is happening, people have chosen to latch onto the tiniest shadow of a doubt so that they can feel good about driving their cars and drilling for oil and not having to change anything about the way they live their lives. Because who would choose to inconvenience themselves if there’s even a microscopic shred of half-evidence that they don’t have to? Our own Prime Minister who is, by all accounts, supposed to be a smart man (he’s certainly smart at dismantling everything I care about) won’t even state whether or not he even believes in human-created climate change. This is a man who went to university, should therefore understand the rigorous guidelines of academic and scientific research, and, rather scarily, runs our country as if the principles of his own scholarship and education mean nothing.

But gee, it sure is easier for Harper to appease his voting base if they don’t have to care about the environment so…..Kyoto out. Handshakes all around. I’m sure Harper prefers this state of affairs to having to tell Alberta oil sands voters that the government wants to strictly regulate the industry because it could be contributing to the killing of our planet. That wouldn’t be very nice or very fun, would it? So who wants to do that? No one in government, that’s for sure. Al Gore didn’t call his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” for nothing.

Our government thinks we’re stupid. They think they can imagine away uncomfortable issues and facts to make their voters happy and anyone that uses knowledge, expert opinion, education, statistics, or fact to counter them is branded an “intellectual elite”.

Being led by a government that counts on our ignorance, and panders to it, is horribly stupid. And turning anyone who pursues truth, education, and a more accurate understanding of the issues into an enemy is sad. Horribly sad. I am a good person. I love my country and I care about the people in my life. I would like to raise a family in Canada someday, I would like a country that is fair to working class families, I would like a country where anyone who works hard can get ahead. I am educated, and I pursue educated opinion. I am not elite. Being labelled un-Canadian or out of touch, when I pay my taxes and my bills like anyone else, hurts my feelings. But enough about my intellectual elite bleeding heart feelings.

If you don’t believe stupidity has carved out a prominent place for itself in today’s political culture, you may find some evidence swimming around in the pool of Republican candidates south of the border. From declaring that Three Areas need to be cut and listing only two, to rambling about witchcraft, to stating that Palestine never actually existed, it is obvious that none of these candidates are all that concerned with appearing smart. But the anti-intellectual culture of North America today provides plenty of room for these people not only to survive, but to thrive and have the opportunity to run for the most important office in the United Sates Government. Run a country? Represent millions of people? Have nuclear launch codes? That doesn’t take brains, facts, education, or a firm grip on reality, does it? ANSWER: it does, though sadly, stupidity might win out.

Stupidity isn’t a problem unique to North America. My inspiration for writing this post actually came from an opinion article in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Age of the Amateur with reason in retreat” by Erik Jensen. Whether the issue be same-sex marriage, climate change, or immigration, people seem incredibly willing to believe absolutely anything rather than believe a truth that makes them uncomfortable.

THIS IS STUPID. AND SAD. Stupid because the actual truth is happening whether you think it is or not. Sad because a refusal to accept this can only lead to suffering.

Being diagnosed with a flesh-eating disease would be incredibly uncomfortable to think about, but we know the disease wouldn’t stop eating our body just because we decided to believe it wasn’t happening. Well, climate change is hurting our planet. Ignorance is hurting its people. You are not absolved of guilt just because you choose not to believe the facts. Don’t like being made to feel guilty or uncomfortable? Change your lifestyle. Examine your prejudices. Then see if your original opinions still hold water.

I’m not perfect and I’m not elite but if I have taken the time to become educated about something and you have not, if I have referred to experts, academics, articles and case studies to learn about something and you have not, I will feel more right than you. Yes, you have a right to your opinion, and you have a right to let that opinion (rightly or wrongly) affect your life choices. But your stupid is not as good as my smart.

And you know what? It goes both ways. Yes, I try to keep up to speed on current events and social issues but I recognize the bias I have as a young Caucasian woman from a middle-class Canadian, leftist background. There are experiences you may know more about than me because you have lived them. There are areas you may know more about because you work in them or study them intensely. I may have opinions on certain issues based on the media I choose to consume (and I know that my choice of media itself reveals bias), but you might actually know the truth of a certain situation.  And if that is the case, my stupid, my lack of actual knowledge and facts, is not as good as your smart.

And if that is the case, I want to know. I want to know what’s true.

I’m not asking everyone to agree with me. I’m not asking Republican candidates to deny their religious backgrounds or their beliefs about fiscal management. I’m not asking a Conservative government to become a left-wing party. What I would love to see is a joint pursuit, by politicians of all stripes, and by Canadians and voting-eligible citizens in countries all over the world, of truth. Of facts. Of using reason, and common sense, and the wealth of information that educators, scientists, academics, researchers, and reputable experts can share with us to form a real picture of what is actually happening in our world. In the end many of our opinions may not change but maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to work together on things that are really important, like examining our own prejudices to avoid violating the rights of others, or saving our planet from the harm and destruction that experts agree we’ve doomed it to.

Consider it. I’ll cut my bullshit if you will. If we let stupidity win the day, by the time we all realize we were wrong it might be too late for smarts to help us. Because guess what? No Stupid, however comfortable and inviting, is going to deal with the challenges ahead like Smart can.