Even Dieter thinks you're an asshole.

I wasn't going to even comment on the stupid stunt disguised as "art" that OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design) student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson pulled the other day.

Not until I saw him actually speak.

His comment:

"Needless to say I think it was a crazed overreaction and I think it's a shame that all these resources went into it." Does he blame himself? 'No,' he answers without much hesitation. 'I put it on the situation.'"

WHAT!?!

Crazed overreaction?
Are you kidding me?


Watch his unapologetic arrogance on video in this interview with CityNews.

He actually thinks that the public and police "overreacted" to a bag stuffed with what looked like actual bombs...just because he put a note on it saying that it wasn't a bomb.

Listen, it's not like he stuffed the bag with teddy bears...he stuffed it with shit that actually looked like bombs.

....and is calling it an "art installation"

Check out his student profile...he lists the destruction of the World Trade Center as his "favourite art".

You know what?

I now want to do an "art installation" too.
I want Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson to be sentenced to 5 years in jail, and I'll film his reaction in court, and post it on YouTube and call it my art installation titled, "Public Retribution".

WSIB isn't screwing around.
They mean it.

Consider it a warning...



...and if that one wasn't enough of a sledgehammer, how about this one:

Cross Border Cougaring


You know that women have finally punched a hole in the glass ceiling when they start going to foreign countries to procure sex.


I read this article: "Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists"

"Sex Tourist".
Is this a new form of tourism?

"The health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms -- finding them too "businesslike" for their exotic fantasies.

The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.

He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.

"We both get something we want -- where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail."

I'm sorry, but the whole article had the "eeeeewwwwwww" factor going really strong for me.

It's not because it's older women and young men, or older white women and younger black men...it's because it's about foreign prostitution, and it's so...blatantly desperate.

I know that for a lot of my girlfriends (single and married), Cougars are "The Ghost of Christmas Future", and scares the crap out of them....Hell, it scares me too.

Do cougars know they're cougars?

Jumping Off the Fence?

Truth be told, I'm not an advocate of foreign adoption.
Not for any other reason other than the fact that there are children right here in this country that need adopting.
The problem appears to be that many are not babies....and adoption is so complicated here...with pesky birth parents showing up down the line, and all.

The new celebrity trend seems to be foreign adoption, and forgive me for saying...seems "petlike" in acquirement...as though getting a Lhasa Apso from Tibet is just no longer good enough...how about a kid from Namibia, or Cambodia instead?
Now, I know a lot of you may jump all over me with "at least these celebrities are giving children from another place a good life!", and you'd be right...since most pets of celebrities do and will live a better life than you, or I will.

Yesterday, I read a blowup of outrage over something that a has-been, pseudo-80's new wave satire writer named Tama Janowitz said in this article in the N.Y. Times:

"A girlfriend who is now on the waiting list for a child from Ethiopia says that the talk of her adoption group is a recently published book in which many Midwestern Asian adoptees now entering their 30s and 40s complain bitterly about being treated as if they did not come from a different cultural background. They feel that this treatment was an attempt to blot out their differences, and because of this, they resent their adoptive parents.

So in a way it is kind of nice to know as a parent of a child, biological or otherwise – whatever you do is going to be wrong. Like I say to Willow: 'Well, you know, if you were still in China you would be working in a factory for 14 hours a day with only limited bathroom breaks!' "

There was a shitload of anger that boomeranged back at her for this comment.
Now, I know that she's supposed to be some sort of humourist writer, and I understand what she was saying...kids are ungrateful, regardless.
It was just so inappropriate, I don't know what kind of response she was expecting to get after saying it...laughter?
"Oh, Tama...you're sooooo edgy".

The fact that she said it in a public forum shows how out of touch she is.

Sun Yun Shin (a Co-Author of the "recently published book in which many Midwestern Asian adoptees now entering their 30s and 40s complain bitterly about being treated as if they did not come from a different cultural background"), responds to Tama Janowitz in this blog post.

I am certainly no one to talk about what it's like to be adopted in to a family of a different race...and my Kumbaya side wants to believe that it's all good.
But most certainly there will be important elements that will not/cannot be provided to a child who is adopted, much less of a different race.

Perhaps the key is coming to terms in your own way.
....and we all have reasons to complain about our childhoods, perhaps this just seems overdone because an element of what Janowitz says has merit.
C'mon,...let's face it, women don't put their children up for adoption because they're in a position to raise them, whether that's in Kenya or Newmarket, Ontario...it's just that she (Janowitz), as a white person, and adoptive parent of a non-white child had no right to say it.

Sun Yung Shin says:

"I am not here to state that one culture is better than the other, that it's better to be adopted than to "languish in an orphanage" etc., or to promote nostalgia for one's "biological mother," or to imply that (some American) children don't complain bitterly about what they don't have or their parents' "parenting,"--I know all the arguments against adopted people speaking for themselves, unless they say, "I don't care about my home country. Don't send me to camp. ______ is dirty and smelly, I don't want to go back. You are my real mother. I love being American," etc. I really do, I've heard them all. I've said them--when I actually _was_ a child. I get it. As an _adult_--things are more complicated. Absolutes such as "real" and "where I belong" are oversimplifications for many of us who are in fact immigrants. People are free to pathologize me (or any immigrant, or any minority) as wanting to be part of the "Victim Olympics" and so forth. People have the freedom to chastise me as taking advantage of my "model minority status" and "biting the hand that feeds me." Everyone has a right to her or his opinion. Certainly I'm at risk of blindness as much as anyone else. But, what's at stake if the critiques of people like me are actually valid?"

Ahhh, the North American right to publicly complain...how we caress it, love it, and nurture it.
...and so we should....it's a luxury that 75% of the world doesn't have.

Sunday Click Around

The video to your left is about John Bramblitt, who is blind due to an epileptic seizure...and paints from the memory he has of colour. He's pretty amazing, and it's easy to want to believe that it isn't possible.

Here are some classic optical illusions. I still can't see the "I love Paris in the springtime". If you can, please tell me what it's supposed to say.
Check out this other kind of illusion.

Alfred Hitchcock's cure from insomnia. Anyone who has ever had a bout of insomnia that has lasted more than a couple of nights has considered this. (Thanks Chris)

Here is an amazing way to close any bag without a clip.

I dare you to watch The African Children's Choir, and not smile.

Ok...please explain to me how this isn't an elaborate, self-deceiving justification to participate in sexual abnormalities...and still consider yourself a Christian....

Coolest business cards. Some of them are pretty cool.

Husband disappeared, taking lottery jackpot with him. The Mister and me joke about this all the time, but it's pretty ugly when it actually happens.

This phone call/discussion from The Ellen Show made me laugh.

I've been to Bloorview MacMillan as an observer. It truly is an amazing place. It's good to see it being covered with the respect it deserves in mainstream media.

Miss Landmine is a strange and powerful statement.

How many versions of "Stairway to Heaven" can you listen to?

100 Self-Help Books you can live without. (I loved this)

A Jamaican/Jewish wedding.

The other night, I caught The Tyra Banks Show, quite by accident. I can't believe that people actually watch this show. She's ridiculous...and an airhead of the first order...never mind...that's why they/I watched her.

This is quite the speed bump.

Ok...that's it.

Today's Quote

"There's a 'struggle' you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the 'struggle' go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple."

Kenny Howard the name and art behind Von Dutch.

Ahhhh, the irony.

Crispy Cold

So, while I hate winter cold and slush...these crisp, sunny Canadian days are still beautiful from the window.



Our backyard is so pretty with all that snow.

Last night, The Mister and me dressed to the nines went to the CFL Awards hosted by Dan Ackroyd.
See that picture in the link?
I was standing inside the foyer, shivering every time the door opened, waiting for The Mister to bring the car around.

There was a wonderful tribute to John Candy (he was a part owner of the Toronto Argos when he died) during the awards, and his daughter Jennifer Candy participated in a number of comedy skits throughout the ceremonies.

What an interesting array of people...lots of tall men in suits, cowboy boots, and  Stetsons...and they weren't being ironic.

Anyhow, it just reminded me how much I miss John Candy's comedy.

Here are some of my favourite characters:

Yuri

Orson Welles

The Schmenge Brothers

Uncle Buck (My fav. Candy film)

Julia Child

Divine

(Click on image to view the site.)

The interesting thing is that I preferred every last one of the "before" pictures.

There is Hope...

So, my lazy self was picking up a Shwarama for dinner tonight.

I went into this new little place, and ordered from the very young man behind the counter. While he was making it, we were chatting.

Then, he asked, "Where are you from?"
"Toronto", says I.
"No," says the boy "What's your heritage?"
"Yugoslavian" came out...sorry...that's where I was born.
"Oh," says the boy. "You're Serbian. Great soccer team".
"How did you know I was Serbian?"
"Only Serbians say they're 'Yugoslavian'".

OMG!
I was vaklempt.
A young (he's 22) person who pays attention to world politics and cultural geography.

"What do you think I am?" he asks.
I look at him for a few seconds before I reply.
"Greek"

He pushed a little piece of baklava across the counter and smiled.

Things I'm Tired of:

In no particular order:

Bullying.
Cyber-bullying. Schoolyard bullying, Office bullying...ferfucksake, kick his ass or ignore him/her...but stop your bitching n' whingin'.


Construction.
Is there one road in this city that isn't dug up?


Oprah.
STFU already.

The Smoking Debate.
I don't smoke in my car, or during the day, and people shouldn't smoke in an enclosed space with children...but the government needs to stay out of my house and car. Unless they're going to pay my mortgage and car insurance/payments they have no right to tell me what I can do or not do in either.

Turbo-Environmentalists.
Maybe this is the way it's supposed to be.
Maybe we're supposed to annihilate ourselves...like so many civilizations before us. But I'm tired of listening to bike ridin', Birkenstock wearin' turbo environmentalists trying to scare the shit out of everyone every five minutes.
What I would prefer is that they engage in a little use of organic soap and water more often.

Organic Food
I cannot be convinced that organic food is better than regular 6 times cheaper food is.
Just because it has dirt on it, is more expensive and is smaller than regular food, doesn't convince me that it's better.

Frightening E-mails.
If I get one more e-mail about "Raspberry Flavoured Meth" threatening our kids, or "New Car Jacking Methods", or "Perfume Bandits" who will knock you unconscious in the mall parking lot during Christmas shopping...I'm going to lose it. I can't even be bothered to link back to Snopes.com anymore.

The word "Holiday" instead of Christmas.
If I can say Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzza, E'id...then I can say Christmas.
White Politicians who pander to the "ethnic" vote, and paid Multicultural alarmists ...Shut. UP. about this already.

That's all for now...

So, while I've hedged back and forth on Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty", because while I like the whole idea, I just felt that it was just another advertising angle with a feel good twist.

I flipped and flopped on it.
Insincere advertising/just pleased to see real people with a positive message.
Condescending slogans/happy to see women over 30 in ads.

Then I read this:



While one can argue that Unilever is a huge company with many different brands, and departments that run independent of one another, it's just a little hard to swallow that a company that is now pushing this with one hand:



Is pushing this with the other:



...and while it can be argued that consumers are big people (for the most part) and understand the rules of commerce...It's still just a little sick making.

Pot meet Kettle, indeed.

Sunday Click Around.

I found these pictures of African Punk/Skinhead Fashion by Clayton James fascinating.

Again with the People Magazine Sexiest Men Alive thing...here are 100 Sexy Men in 1 Minute.

I commented on Amy Winehouse's very public decline, and Funkaoshi posted Amy Winehouse and the Ethics of Clowning People. He makes a good point.

I've always had a fascination with true crime stories, and particularly women who commit crimes. Here is a site called Bad Girls Do It. It gives info and biographies on infamous females. That's some scary shit. Our Karla is representin'.

12 Products from Hell. Looking at the products is a "what the hell?" moment.

Beer commercials are funny.

The daughter of the real life "American Gangster" has come out of the woodwork, and done an interview.
Here's part one of six of a documentary on The American Gangster. The rest of the parts are easily found on YouTube.

This brilliant little animation from Amnesty International uses a lovely Serbian? Bosnian? Croatian? (what's the difference?)tune. Thanks Piika.

I watched the movie "Snowcake" last night. It was brilliant. I loved it. Here's the trailer.

Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians...need I say more?

Paul Mooney weighs in on Oprah. While we're on Oprah....here are 11 Oprah Blunders from 2007.
Her comment, "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life" in response to the allegations in connection with her African girl's school rang so false, that I actually laughed when I heard her say it. It confirms to me how out of touch with the real world she actually is.

Remember ZeFrank's Pre-Date Confidence Booster? It's still great.

The World's Creepiest Places.

...and now the Comedy:
Yesterday's post on "Misery's West Indian Restaurant" sent me on a search for West Indian Comedy. Here is the list:

David Samaroo Trinidadian Stand Up Comedian.

A Sister's Guide to Crappy Excuses.

Auntie and Hyacinth.

The Whining Dog.

Mr. Frasier, and Mr. Frasier and video dating.

Trinidadian Carnival Stand Up.

Deportee.

That's all.

I'm pretty sure they've got another shop at 427 and Derry.

This is the quickest and saddest demise that we're having an opportunity to watch.
Back in the day, media and managers protected us from having to watch a talented but fucked up artist kill themselves.

Now, it's entertainment.



She makes me sad.

What are they smoking over at Orangina?



Whatever it is, it's laced with Viagra, and drawn fresh from an orgy in the forest.

I Hate Performance Art


This is called the Break Up, because it's supposed to show the different emotional stages she went through after a break up.

I challenge you to sit through the entire thing without the urge to click your mouse.
I'll be honest with you. I just find most of performance art flaky.
I touched on this yesterday in my Click Around


Sure, you can argue that performance art is supposed to stimulate you visually, and either entertain or shock you. But, I have to say that there have been few installments of performance art that have impressed me.

I think that a lot of what is out there is not very profound or interesting.
Much of it appears to be attention whoring, and an attempt to convince people that if they don't understand it, they are shallow and/or unintelligent.

I think that if we're creative enough, we can make social commentary out of everything.
We can all read all sorts of things into the acts and words of other people.
I think it's called being "neurotic".


Here...I'll give you an example.
I'll take a simple YouTube clip, and read into it as performance art:



It articulates the frustration of female youth. The innocence. The boredom....looking back at you, the viewer. This is a young women silenced by media influences in our society and lives in intimate association with her opressors....but all this girl, (future woman/mother/sister/daughter/grandmother) wants...the real thing she wants is "World Peace".

See?
I can bullshit you too...and I'll do it for free.

Sunday Click Around

Cynical-C sent me an e-mail with "Yoko is Loco" in the subject line. The link to Yoko's "Cut One Piece" performance art was in it. I'll be honest with you. I'm not a big fan of performance art. I dunno. I just find most of it flaky. I love the comments on "Cut One Piece".
There are two camps it seems: Either you're a pretentious flake, or you're an idiot who isn't pretentiously flaky enough to get it.
One commenter explains it to us idiots:

"its about feminism, like the position of women in the society, always like within submission, and just beeng an object, an people (men) doing whatever they want with her (and you actually can see that)..." [sic]

Yeah.
Or it's a bunch of strangers cutting your clothes off.

This person mentions Marina Abramovic, so I went on a little looksee for her. Here is "Rhythm - 10". I dunno. You tell me. Looking at other installments from Abramovic, I did like her storytelling, but the rest...meh.

All the Right Movies is an 80's movie quiz. Where the hell was I? I don't remember any of these movies.

Andrea Dezco does embroidery of her mother's sayings. I think Andrea might be my aunt. Found on one of Miss Cellania's sites.

Magazines and newspapers have been tampering with photos since the first photo was taken. Here is a list of some of the most famous tampered with photos.

Here are some pretty amazing photos of Hawaiian Volcanos.

I don't really "get" bumper stickers or vanity plates. I was pissed last year when I was told that if I wanted to keep my current license plate number (the front plate is old and beaten, but it took me years to remember it) it would be considered a vanity plate and cost me $200 to replace. So, I found out that it cost $200 to put some stupidness on your plate. What a waste of money. License to Rant rants about vanity plates.

I lovelovelove the Persian accent. I could listen to the accent all day long. Here's Maz Jobrani an Iranian/American comedian. I've linked to Maz Jobrani before when I did a Click Around of "ethnic comedians" and in this clip, I notice that he's picked up some of Russell Peters mannerisms. Ron Josol is pretty funny too, in case you're interested.

Here is some more celebrity plastic surgery. I was particularly shocked at how much prettier Posh Beckham was before surgery. L'il Kim is particularly frightening. It just goes to show you that we're generally not satisfied with ourselves...and plastic surgery doesn't help.

Robert Bruno: Architectural Sculptor.

Sri Lankan Flavaa! I love these cultural mashups....like this beloved Serbian banbo remix.

Chicago suburb installs new stop signs. Cute, but fiscally responsible? Not so much.

Someone from Singular Films noticed that I've got a love on for retro, and sent me some links. Here are vintage cigarette ads using movie stars, and some vintage underwear ads.

When I read about this woman, I felt sorry for her.
How do you even explain that to people?
When people tell me that they like to sneeze...I think about my sneezing fits.
One sneeze, ok. 40 sneezes in 10 minutes, not so much.

Ok kids, that's it.

I can do my own "moping", thank you very much.

My Loony Bun is Fine Benny Lava



I couldn't wait until Sunday Click Around to post this.
Found at Bocks Car.

...and another thing:

I was watching Breakfast Television this morning, and I have one question:

Why is a white woman cooking curry and telling me about Diwali?
Is there some sort of a shortage of South Asians in this city?

That really bugged me.
A lot.

"Former Giller Prize winner Margaret Atwood and her husband, Graeme Gibson – author of The Bedside Book of Birds – quietly declined the food being passed.

The reason: They were protesting the Four Seasons' role in a massive resort development in Grenada that threatens an endangered species: the Grenada dove.

"Until there is a fair resolution of the dispute over the kind of resort being built in Grenada, we cannot accept food or drink from the Four Seasons," explained Gibson, who arrived at the event carrying what appeared to be a gym bag but in fact contained their meal."

...am I the only one who finds this kinda funny?

It's hardly a hunger strike...and I notice that they didn't feel strongly enough about it to...saaaaay....oh, I don't know...not go...I mean, let's not get crazy now....Let's face it...it is The Giller, after all...

Good-bye Adulthood

Krysss sent me this link to an article about women who prefer the fashion and attitude of teens.

Is it that some women think that this is what is attractive to men?
Or are people just taking longer to grow up these days?

Is it that advertising and western culture seem to value youth to the point that it's undesirable to be over 25?

Frankly, both men and women dressed and acting like teenagers is quite sad, and pathetic to be in the presence of.

There is something very wrong with a society that doesn't embrace and respect the reality of aging.

This is so wrong, it makes my blood boil.

There are already schools in this city that are predominantly mono racial. We don't need this. Let's teach Ebonics there too, then maybe eventually the White Supremest dream of a return to segregation will come true.

Isolating young black students like this only serves to sequester further a community that already feels disconnected.


 
What the hell was the whole Civil Rights Movement about again?

Monday Click Around.

Sorry people...I spent the weekend with a bunch of girlfriends, and was recovering yesterday.
What do you get when you cross 9 women in a suite at The Royal York with booze, music, and 3 hours sleep?
A gigantic hangover, that's what...So, here's the Monday Click Around.

The picture to your left is "Disaster in Littletown".
I love those littletown pictures.

Have an "Art Break" with that guy on PBS...remember him? THH22M has done a number of parodies...but these two are pretty good. Number 1, and Number 2.

Having trouble finding a babysitter? The Home Purchasing Club, has the answer!

Here are The Beatles in Yiddish, and Yiddish Hillbillies from Bob From Brockley.

Don't you totally wish you could charge someone for being an "asshole"?

How much money can one person have...No. Seriously. There should be a cap on wealth.
Once you go over a certain amount, you should have to share the rest with the starving of the world. That kind of wealth is obscene.

I can't figure out if this is for real, or staged.
But, I'll tell you what...there are plenty of people going to work every day who are teetering on the edge of insanity. Just one push, and they're gone for monitored stay at the "Mental Health Centre".

Rotten Neighbors is a website where you can read about particular areas or streets in limited cities and see what it's like before you decide to live there. Like any other site that depends on anonymous postings, "rating" things...it's all perspective, and some people are grinding axes..so, taking things with a grain of salt..it's still interesting to read what people are pissed off about.

This is one of my favourite Rick Mercer rants. Enjoy.

That's all kids

Must see.
Must see.

Lee's Palace,
November 13th

"Watch out for those people with 3 names..."




I had forgotten about Mrs. Seinfeld and her cookbook trumpery...until I saw this little bit on The Defamer, where Jerry ridicules the writer whose book was published before his wifes.

Now, I'm Team Lapine.

The interview and his comments about Lapine make him look pompous, condescending and superior.

Now, I hope she sues.