... manifest....

I had the opportunity to take part in a Wiccan Full Moon Ritual tonite. Totally outside my box. After having participated I can say that, like any organized system of belief, it may not be entirely for me. But I am also happy to say that many aspects and rituals from the ceremony spoke to me. I can see the natural way that life presents itself to me as it unfolds each day in the practices of the wonderful women I met tonite.

As a part of the ritual i had to pull a Goddess card. And I am not embarrassed to say, I owned a pack of these. I fully believe in one's ability to subconsciously direct ones world, and to connect with a larger energy. It the best decription i can give of fate, or better yet, propinquity.

I also fully believe that interpretation is key when it comes to these things. And it is built into the Wiccan belief system. Everything is tied to the way in which you interpret the symbols and to the world around you. It is your energy that affects the world around you. It may sound very "new age", but could anything be more true?

You receive back what you put into the world.

Thus I will not be able to fully explain why drawing Eireen from the deck meant so much to me. Not without admitting much more than I am comfortable sharing with the Internet (or more specifically the random person who is bored enough to have read this random blog this far down). But suffice it to say that it was perfect for me today.... and most days.

Meet Eireen, who represents Peace and Calm:

Goddess Eireen – Peace- There is no need to worry, as everything is working out beautifully. Even though appearances may seem chaotic, I assure you that a higher plan is in action. This all loving power carrying you and supporting you completely.Your gratitude attracts even more blessing into your life.

  

Even when we feel bogged down by life we have to remember a few things. 

One we are all human so we will all experience the human qualities of over thinking, worrying, and analyzing things over and over again. This process is really not helpful, over thinking just leads us to be depressed and then leads us to feel negative and then we bring more of that into our lives. 

The second thing to remember is “guess what we are all here to learn, grow, and perfect our souls!” So part of the reason that we go through hardships is to do just that mission that we have all come here to do. I mean how could you perfect your soul if everything always was perfect all the time?? How would you know great joy if you never felt any pain?  How would you appreciate and love laughter if you had never shed a tear in sorrow? 

Third - yes it is hard to be away from the Source/Goddess/God. When we are away from home that loving bond is very missed. What we have to remember is that, that love is truly all around us, in us and with us, everyday.

Spend some time to day in Gratitude. Look at the positive things you have in your life and let the rest go!

... G20 insanity....

5:01pm:

has the police presesence (and the cost of the security) been a self-fulfilling prophecy?

... or just a really good idea.

Obviously, we can never know, and generally its probably a little bit of both.

But it is safe to say that the violence and chaos erupting at the Eaton Centre and in the financial district is basic mob mentality and less and less about the issues or democratic free right to speech and political expression.

The problem is that whats happening in Toronto today is not being represented in the news, which is the way the world IS, in fact, watching this unfold.

What they do not see is that there are over 9000 people in the downtown core who have no violent intentions, have only something to say, and a ghost town in which to shout it out.

There is literally no reason to go into the business and financial district today unless you are in some way drawn to the arena which has been created for the G20. I am not sure that all 9000 know what they are saying when they are chanting the slogans such as "Down With the Wall" or "Economic Sovereignty Know" but each one of them is participating in the democratic process while doing so. And its what makes it work.

Unfortunately, just as old as the democratic system are the ways that people in power exploit it, and the lengths that those who feel powerless will go to express that and regain what feels like freedom.

They have ripped up an American Apparel - and given the free chance, who of you wouldnt love to take a shit on Dov Charney (except he'd probably like it)

But the ridiculously idiotic actions of a black bloc have ruined the exact point of the demonstration... and those fucking morons who donned a black mask as a disguise rather than a safety technique. Who enjoy the destruction more than the message. Its these asshats that have necessitated the ridiculous spending on security. Without the ridiculous police presence, fences, crowd control measures, it would be buildings burning, not cars... There is no limit to a mobs capability, except if it is stopped.

Those police are protecting peoples daughters, fathers, brothers, and friends... perhaps yuppies, or capatilists, pigheaded consuming morons with big carbon footprints... but people. You guys are the reason they need to leave Police Cars in the streets to serve as decoys and draw the destructive element, and leave the police some freedom to move on the busloads of bikes i saw being unloaded at the Delta Chelsea earlier this week.

and if you assholes put them in harms way you DO need to be stopped.

The news makes it sound like "Activist" is a dirty word. but you stupid morons with rocks and bricks and lighting fires and throwing feces into broken store windows are making it look like one.

But the rest of you. Those of you with things to say and are willing to stand behind them, no bellaclavas needed. you keep to the streets, you say what you mean, and stay safe.


5:32pm:
this is making me fucking mad... I love this town, and you guys are seriously scratching it up... you small group of morons are making it look dirty and angry and it sucks.

tomorrow the 100 of 25000 protestors in bellaclavas. using masks to commit violence will have left black stains, broken glass and angry cops for the rest of us to deal with.

You call yourself protestors, but you cheapen that term for all the true protestors out on the street, you are the fucking problem... you think you would make a better world? in Ghana or Rwanda or India you would be the warmongers and slumlords.... it makes me sick.

5:37pm:

It happened in Seattle, it happened here. I know it will be fine. We will still be Toronto.

I wonder if Twitter and Facebook will be used to find perpetrators later

5:46pm:

Mayor Miller in a press conference. Last violent protest in Toronto was 15 years ago... and you can find one at least once a week.

He ain't lieing. Toronto has a political assembly on the lawns of Queens Park, Nathan Phillips Square or University Ave at least that often. Political expression is a part of everyday life here. That is one of the only things I thought may make toronto a good site for a G20 summit. There is a knowledge here, a group memory of peaceful protest and freedom of expression.

But Mayor, you have just made yourself look like a moron by saying you learned about the 5-metre rule from the Toronto Star. Its true, Dalton McGinty was like the asshole older brother that didnt tell you he was holding a party when mom and dad were away... but c'mon, you should have been reading his diary or hacking into his email... thats your JOB!

Thats because those required political opinion and actual brain cells.... G20 is like the Michael Moore documentary of a protest... All you need is a general idea of issues (at least a soundbyte or slogan) and a really big anger to enjoy it.



6:14pm:

Police Cruiser out front of Steve's Music on Queen is on fire and fire department cant get anywhere near it... May burn one of the last independently owned business left in the area.... way to go Black Bloc, was that your point?

Your violence is literally making more room for the GAPs and Starbucks of the world to take over...

fucking morons.

Intelligent passerby on CityNews. They are by far the best coverage i've seen. The woman is saying the Black Bloc IS distracting from the peaceful protest. But its hard because they are a product of the very thing that so many are protesting against. The product of a world that is raping its natural resources and selling its soul for power.



6:25pm:

cops showing up at the fire at Steves... should be ok... probably tonnes of smoke damage to hundreds of guitars, pianos, etc... which fucking sucks....

police on the scene... in droves! but its pretty peaceful... looks more like order than oppression, thanks to both the police and the crowd. bravo on that, at least

Mayor Miller yelling at CTV newscasters for trying to misquote him during a live interview broadcast: Priceless!

... word vom....

take the below post for what it is... the utterly pointless ramblings of a Cultural Studies major asked to sum up how her degree applies to the industry which she works in and lives in....

I just saw a commercial for a rerun of the MMVAs with clips from the two-hour live broadcast, and seeing all the biggest stars in pop culture, gathered on the streets of  Toronto’s entertainment district.  There were a decent amount of Canadians stars on that stage.

… And not the minor Canadian celebrities that MuchMusic has always trotted out in order to reach some kind of CanCon quota. We had Justin Bieber, we had Drake, Hedley, Shenae Gimes…

Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending the talent of these people. I know as much as the next guy that they are all pretty much fluff or drivel, at best. But they are certifiably famous. Famous in the annoying TeenBeat, CW, Perez Hilton kinda way…

Canadians have really entered the world arena... And they have done it as Canadians. The fact that the telecast of this awards rivalled the cheesiest the CW or Nickelodeon could come up with attests to that fact. Except it was distinctly Canadian. 

The show is filmed live in the streets of a city that is currently being locked down for an International Political Summit, the G20. And its born of necessity. Toronto has no Kodak theatre. there is just no camera ready venue in Toronto. But that colours the semiotics of the product as much as if it were a conscious decision. But that openness, that inclusion, the agora created by including everyone and anyone that happened on Queen and John on Sunday evening (even though only a moron or a sadist would have approached it without a backstage pass) is the exact thing that you are seeing at the Grammys, the MTV Movie Awards, and the Oscars. Call it the influence of the internet. Call it the inevitable and long-awaited  democracy and equality that has been growing for years. But the world is ready to see itself, in all its weird and varied, disparate and beautiful glory. 

All the stars up on those stages are moving further and further away from the stick thin or big muscled empty vessel that characterized the 1990s. We want to see some PERSONALITY (even if it is in whitewashed and measured doses... so as not to scare the white bread). We want our Kate Perry's, our GaGa's , our Miley "cant be tamed" Cyrus... We want the people we put at the middle of our lives stories to be whoever the hell they are... just like we want to be, and still believe that we can be the star of our own story. 


And thats what the MMVAs delivered. For the people, Of the people.

In short, Muchmusic, the most Canadian broadcaster i can think of that is not run by the Government, nailed it.

But they had help from popular opinion. Its kind of just our time to shine, the “celebrity” is more and more closely resembling the Archetype of the Canadian Hero. a misfit that has been developed over centuries of film, tv, books and theatre in the “other” North American country.

This particular idea, of the Canadian as a deviant antihero, is a theory I have been compiling for the better part of a decade. The Canadian Hero has always jumped out at me as being defined only as being the “other”. He’s an antihero. She’s quirky, he’s dark, she’s a deviant.

Being located just to North of the 49^th parallel has given this country a complex, to be sure. Since the dawn of the TV age, and through the rise of Cinema, The USA has been the frontrunner on the world stage. And not just on the screen. They have led the way in arenas of business, politics, military, and definitely cultural production. And Canada has always lived on the edges of that bright shining spotlight. 

We are the nice next door neighbour, the reliable, slightly dumpy yet utterly lovable cousin. we are the black sheep of the family.

Canadians are almost American, but not quite. And our National Identity has been built in defining the ways we are Not with a capital N. Not Republican, Not Warmongers, Not Mainstream, Not Closeminded. We are defined by the paradigm that surrounds the American Patriot.

However, in a post-911, post-Bush, post-Guantanamo, post-Economic Crash world it is just that person, the NOTS, that are being celebrated and pushed into the worlds eyes as heros and role models.

It is the deviants, the creative’s, the open-minded, open-armed friends of the world that we need at the forefront, and the US Cultural Machine has a ready pool of talent to draw from.

Its been building slowly since the fall of Bush and the rise of the Yes We Can ObamaNation. Popular Culture wants a leader that is Not everything they have had. an antonym to the last decade.

and we, as a nation, have been studying them carefully for a century. We mimic their products, their customs, their costumes, but just NOT QUITE. We are the Other.

And the world needs a little Other right now.

Hurray for the Other.

... Future with a capital F....

Once again, William Gibson has found the words.

From his blog (bolding is my own, to stress my favourite bits):


"The Future, capital-F, be it crystalline city on the hill or radioactive post-nuclear wasteland, is gone. Ahead of us, there is merely…more stuff. Events. Some tending to the crystalline, some to the wasteland-y. Stuff: the mixed bag of the quotidian.


Please don’t mistake this for one of those “after us, the deluge” moments on my part. I’ve always found those appalling, and most particularly when uttered by aging futurists, who of all people should know better. This newfound state of No Future is, in my opinion, a very good thing. It indicates a kind of maturity, an understanding that every future is someone else’s past, every present someone else’s future. Upon arriving in the capital-F Future, we discover it, invariably, to be the lower-case now."

... two bands, two things...

When i write cards, be they birthday, goodbye, congratulations or random, I always write,

"may life bring you good luck and happy coincidence."

I was lucky tonight. i got both. I did one of my favourite things... I got a last minute invite from a friend to go hear a band i didnt know... and they were awesome. so was the band that opened for them.

First Aid Kit and Samantha Crain both rocked the Riv tonite.

And i learned two very valuable lessons. Valuable enough that i felt they needed to be recorded for posterity, to last for all time on the interweb (the closest modern day equivalent i have to stone tablets):

"a hard on doesn't mean you're in love"  - Samantha Crain

"time is tough on me"  - First Aid Kit

both valuable insights.....