I’m hoping to attract myself to this website more so that I don’t neglect in anymore. So I change the layout again. Hopefully it works.
Anyway, to my life: something I’ve been noticing lately is that the general arts community in Sudbury has been pretty much dead for the past couple of years. Sure, there are artists, and yes, they show off their stuff, but it feels like a lot of the time these “artists” are either rich kids with nice cameras and no artistic talent whatsoever or old ladies making artisan crafts (so quilts and stuff). Which is nice, but very, very boring. However, it seems that in the past year the artists in Sudbury have really been coming together in order to save the artistic community here–the other day in fact, I went to visit my friend Chelsea at her summer job (an arts-related one) and discovered “Le Crac.” For those who don’t live here and/or don’t know, Le Crac is this beautiful little oasis next to the YMCA in downtown Sudbury that a beautiful woman named Dineen made. It used to be just a fenced off alleyway where the inhabitants of 122 Durham could smoke, but after three years of tenacity and green-thumbs, Dineen has turned it into a leafy paradise for those who want to create (or at least that’s where she’s hoping to take it). And this concept of an artist’s oasis (where she’s hoping to eventually hold shows and such) is a wonderful idea, I think. Mainly because it’s something made by an artist for artists, and most of what Sudbury’s had recently has all been things that are put on for the rich who want to pretend they appreciate art, but don’t really care either way.
In any case, I’d just like to say that my discovery of Le Crac and the awesome people who live in that building (all also artists themselves) has really restored my faith in the fact that Sudbury may actually have a vibrant, talented arts community once again.
Thanks, Dineen.
As virtually the only member of the self-proclaimed literati who despises (with a blinding passion, I promise) Orwell’s 1984, I’ve come to realize that my skewed view of reality is, indeed, very close to what he entailed in his novel. Of course, part of that isn’t my fault–it’s the crazy government, I tell you. It’s like they’re just pulling their cues from ol’ Georgie, my friends.
Submission #1: Has anyone been to London lately (after the bombings of July 7th or so)? Have you taken note of the insane amount of observation cameras they have set up on roads and intersections? Last I checked, there can be about seven separate cameras on one electrical pole. Telescreens much? I think so.
Submission #2: Thinking rebellious thoughts (at least in the United States) is now illegal. How do I mean, you ask–protesting, in the form of demonstrating, is now prohibited in certain areas of the U.S. (ultimately, all public areas–”Oh, you want to protest the war in Iraq by chanting your thoughts while in front of the White House? I’m sorry, but that’s against the law. We’ll have to arrest you for that. That’s thoughtcrime, after all.”).
Submission #3: The infamous Big Brother. Was I the only one who was more than a little freaked out when major countries in the Western hemisphere started to introduce that fingerprint-ID program? Where your entire life and comings-and-goings pop up conveniently on a little screen whenever they need it? Or a blacklist of people they don’t like (which usually doesn’t contain actual names, but rather descriptions of people–which is why Maher Arar was sent off to Syria)? I’m the first to tell you that I freaked right out when I found out I could be put on a rather arbitrary blacklist containing the names of people who openly oppose the government (a former MI-5 agent who then decided to write a book detailing his operations for the government has his name on this list)… which essentially disallows them from crossing into certain countries. I’m sorry, but I don’t see how letting the government take away my freedom to travel freely where I would like when I haven’t committed a crime is going to help conserve my freedom in the long run.
Submission #4: War is peace. Of course, I make reference to the Iraq war. We invaded the country, first of all, on false pretenses. Second of all, we declared that we would help to rebuild the country. But honestly, have you seen any rebuilding being done there? Because the only buildings I’ve seen being built so far are enormous military fortresses to protect our forces from bombs and attacks. Maybe they wouldn’t attack us if we built things for them, too? Just a thought. Then again… Bush DOES probably make more money off of soldiers who die before they can collect their paychecks, not to mention the amount of people who no doubt decide to trust him implicitly because “there’s no way the president would lie to us about a war–nobody’s that cruel,” … so maybe not. Which leads me to…
Submission #5: The government has repeatedly lied to its subjects (no matter where you come from). I’ll submit an instance of lying from my own government–one I have no doubt most people don’t know, because even though we cover the incident in our history classes, such a dirty spot on our “clean” record usually rests unmentioned. In Canada and the United States in the 1950’s, research was conducted to test the effectiveness of a chemical that was supposed to have roughly the same effect as mustard gas. Ultimately, a cloud of the chemical was dropped over Winnipeg and other small towns of Manitoba, as well as being dropped by the Golden Gate Bridge in California. Why? They wanted to see just how good the chemical was at demobilizing people before they produced any more and sent it to the fronts in China and North Korea. And they lied about it, saying there was an explosion of a reactor of some kind that led to a leakage of a non-threatening gas. The documents have only been de-classified in Canada for about ten years now. Nice of them, eh? To lie to us like that? Sure proves to me I can trust the government to keep my health and welfare at the forefront of their minds.
I’ll reiterate–I could not stand reading 1984. It was pure torture for me. I understood the ideas and everything, but I just couldn’t like anything about it. I hated it, hated it, hated it. And yet, seeing the state of society through my own very Natalija-coloured lenses, I’m forced to draw up the memory of the Party’s slogans in that horrid novel:
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
If this is where the western world is headed, it’s definitely a sad day for mankind.
Has anyone noticed (I don’t know if this is only in Canada or not) the seeming exodus of Asian people now on television? I mean, first it was Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy, and honestly, I was excited she was on that show, because she’s a really good actress and I so enjoyed watching her getting into trouble at the hospital every Sunday night.
But then, on countless celebrity gossip shows (read: eTalk) and even news programs (ABC was the one I had noticed, I think), I’m seeing an almost insane number of Korean people, who are clearly Korean thanks to names like Sook-yoo, and Eun-lee, and Chae-rin. What I’m wondering is: why are there so many? There are definitely not so many Korean people in Canada and the United States that they would be considered the majoral representatives of the minority populations in North America. For example, in the United States at least, shouldn’t they be choosing an African-American or a Hispano-American for that representation? Why all the Koreans?
I understand that everyone loves Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy and all, and I get the fact that before now minorities were grossly misrepresented on television, but I don’t see why they are now only portrayed by people with the last names of Kim or Pak or Jang. Why not throw a Brown in there? Or an Ortiz? I mean, why is Hollywood now being so seemingly… prejudiced when it presents America with its minorities? I don’t get it at all…
Television, you stink.