Online Dating Adventures

Most of my faithful readers probably do not yet know that I recently signed up at the online dating site Plenty of Fish. About two or three years ago I discovered that my social life, that consists almost entirely of hanging out with 22 year old gay boys, is not conducive to healthy/hetero relationships...as fun as the relationships have been. So, being the proactive individual that I am, I decided to enter into the online dating fray. FYI - I haven't actually been on any dates yet. How have things been going? I will excerpt an email that I sent my friend Daniel about the situation:

oh my god dan....there is so much comedy in online dating, i am practically crying here. today i got two messages in a row from a guy whose picture of himself is of ~a racecar~....~a racecar~!!! like, are girls supposed to think "wow, what a hot guy! looks flashy!" or make the association like "his picture is of a racecar, therefore he must be rich!"??? also, yesterday i got an email from a middle aged man and in his picture he is HOLDING A GUN!!! like yeah, i would feel really safe going to meet you. maybe we should meet in the wooded area next to the abandoned mental asylum.

the other thing is that i have already run into my ex-boyfriend on plenty of fish, and another guy i know who used to have a crush on me years ago! so much for anonymity!!

Anyways, I will keep you posted about any more progress I make, or comedic scenarios I encounter. P.S. Erin - don't try to figure out which ex-boyfriend (though pretty obvious) and which ex-crush!!

Racialicious - The latest blog I discovered....

Not much time to post today but I wanted to highlight a blog that I just discovered called Racialicious

According to the blog: Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves newsflashes. Latoya Peterson is Editor of Racialicious and Carmen Van Kerckhove is founder and Publisher.

I just started reading it today at lunch and it is great. They provide a really interesting analysis of pop culture, fashion, and the media. Oddly enough, I was turned on to this blog by a twitter post by Anderson Cooper, in some roundabout way or other.

Television!

For the past couple of weeks I have been watching even more television than normal....that's a whole lotta television, for those of you who don't know me. First of all, I have been going totally LOST crazy. To put this in perspective, I started watching Season One last Sunday (the 8th), and I am almost finished Season Three (today is the 18th). I'm pretty sure that I will be caught up by the end of the week. Sad, I know.
On Sunday afternoon I discovered some new and enjoyable reality dreck: Rupaul's Drag Race which is basically America's Next Top Model for drag queens, but with crappier prizes. I thought that I would get tired of it, but it was pretty funny, and I actually liked the contestants.
I watched most of Heroes on Monday, and I'm still lost. It doesn't help that they interrupt the show every 2 1/2 minutes for commercials but also, my commitment just isn't there anymore. I can't stand Claire, first of all, and have little interest in any of her story lines. I used to love her father's character, but he has been kind of blah this season. Finally, it's just too freaken complicated....I guess I'm just too stupid for it.
Ok, this is actually a busy day for me at work so I better get back to it.....

Waltz With Bashir

There is an interesting looking Israeli animated film called Waltz With Bashir that I've been reading about recently. According to the wiki page, the film documents the attempts of Ari Folman, a 1982 Lebanon War-veteran, to recover lost memories of the events revolving around the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The film has won many awards, including a Best Foreign Language Golden Globe. It has been nominated for an Academy Award. I love these kind of darker animated films, and also have an interest in the various Israeli-Arab conflicts, and look forward to seeing this film. I also read on The Nation today that a Waltz With Bashir graphic novel will soon be available.

CBC Radio 3 - Canada's Best Music Venue in Canada Search

I just heard Grant Lawrence on cbc radio, talking about radio 3's search for Canada's best live music venue. My two cents for best venue in Toronto is the Mod Club. It's in a great neighbourhood, is the perfect size for medium-sized acts (Amy Winehouse, Metric, CSS, etc. etc.), has great staff, a great bar, it's slick, and hell, it's owned by Mark Holmes, former singer of legendary 80s band Platinum Blonde! I have never had a bad time there. The next show I'm contemplating seeing there is the Alan McGee-championed Scottish band Glasvegas.

My two cents for most over-rated venue is Lee's Palace. I have never had a completely good time there. The staff is surly, the bar is always crowded, and don't even get me started about how horrible it used to be when they allowed smoking in there. Yarg. I even wrote a little article about their neanderthal bouncers once, years ago. It was published in eye magazine, but I have since lost my only copy, and it's not in their archives unfortunately.

If you haven't seen this site, check out daily dose of imagery. This guy's photos are awesome, and his more recent additions give you some idea of just how freaken cold it's been in Toronto this winter.

Prop 8 Google Map Mashup

So, yesterday on cbc radio Elvira Kurt was talking about a google map that someone has put together, mapping the donors to the Prop 8 campaign. These are the people who cared enough about opposing gay marriage that they donated money to the cause. You can find this map here: http://www.eightmaps.com/

I love maps, and find this totally fascinating, in spite of the privacy concerns that such a map presents. I am also fascinated by the sheer amount of money these people have. I have NEVER been in the position to donate $1000.00 to any cause, never mind $5000.00 or $25,000.00 for that matter. Also, I am amazed that people care about gay marriage so much that they would donate any money to oppose it. Finally, suprised that companies would want to attach their names to an anti-gay marriage bill - like "here is an affirmation that our company does not like gay people". Crazy.

Through Black Spruce by Jospeh Boyden

I just finished reading Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden. This novel was the winner of this year's Giller Prize, and I was fortunate enough to attend an informal question and answer with the author at the Paddock the night after the Gillers. The book was great, telling stories of the lives of an older Cree man and his two twenty-something nieces. The events take place in Moosonee, a small town in Northern Ontario near James Bay, as well as Toronto, Montreal, and Manhattan. There are great descriptions of life in the north that are going to stick with me.

In other First Nations thoughts, I think I am going to start lobbying the cbc to bring back a radio show (or at least bring back the host for a different show) they had on this summer called Revision Quest which was a darkly funny show debunking myths and misconceptions about Canadian Natives. You can listen to past episodes on the cbc site and I would totally recommend them!

The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

An excellent new article on Alternet today: The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency by Brad Reed. They are:

10: Bush Gets Re-elected
9: Alberto Gonzales' Congressional Testimony
8: North Korea Conducts a Nuclear Test
7: Colin Powell's Bogus WMD Presentation at the U.N.
6: The Terri Schiavo Affair (why, oh why did I have to be reminded of this sordid affair?)
5: Bush and Condi's Excellent Gaza Adventure
4: "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" (of course, that should be on Bush's gravestone)
3: Abu Ghraib
2: 9/11
1: "Mission Accomplished"

And his honourable mentions include: warrantless wiretapping; Valerie Plame; Scooter Libby's sentence commuted; Bush believes Rafael Palmeiro is innocent; soldiers face neglect at Walter Reed; signing statements; the Kyoto treaty ripped up; loyalty oaths; the fake turkey; a staged teleconference with troops, staged FEMA press conference, extraordinary rendition, support for junk science; endorsement of neo-creationist "intelligent design"; inaction against global warming; record oil prices; record budget deficits; record trade deficits; record number of Americans without health insurance; two recessions; no-bid contracts; bin Laden still at large; the Federal Marriage Amendment; stem cell research vetoed; waterboarding ban vetoed; "Last throes"; "Old Europe"; "It's hard work"; "Bring it on"; "Yo, Blair!"; "I'm the decider"; "I'm the commander guy"; "I'm a war president"; "This is the guy who tried to kill my dad"; "So?"; "Let the Eagle Soar"; John Bolton; Kenny Boy; Harriet Miers; John Roberts; Sam Alito; Blair talks Bush out of bombing al-Jazeera; Cheney shoots some guy in the face; the Military Commissions Act; Jose Padilla arrested and held without charge or access to counsel; endless tax cuts for the rich; let's waste a shitload of money by sending people to Mars and let's hire some Heritage Foundation staffers to rebuild Iraq.

I would love to hear a Bush supporter's response to this list, but so far there haven't been any takers in the comments section of the article.

Merry Christmas All! Also, I actually agree with someone at the National Post???

In what (hopefully) promises to be his final aggravating act of the year, Stephen Harper appointed 18 Senators yesterday, including none other than CTV journalist Mike Duffy (who aired the blundering Stephane Dion outtakes during this October's election, a move that most agreed was highly unorthodox by journalistic standards, if not downright dirty).

The National Post actually has a good article by Don Martin, Harper to Senate: IOU reform, that attacks Stephen Harper's appointments, who Martin calls "a trough-full of patronage payoffs for Conservative fundraisers, defeated candidates and party toadies". While I tend not to agree with this characterization of government employees, I do think that Harper should be called out for once again violating his own policies and stated goals (elected Senate?) and pursuing purely political ends. How are we supposed to take him seriously?

On that note, I will sign off. Merry Christmas to all!

Courtney Love's Blog on Myspace

If you haven't already, you really must check out Courtney Love's blog on myspace which is just a huge accumulation of awesomeness, including postings of streams of consciousness (see the November 28, 2008 entry, for example), videos, funny stories, fashion stuff, and most recently, a "visual hot list" that is a list of interesting new bands, web sites, movies, etc. etc. that she recommends.

A Couple of Pictures I Found on the Web

What can Michael Jackson possibly be thinking??? Really.
This picture taken from the Superficial under the heading: Michael Jackson: 'Know who never gets accused of touching kids? Zorro.'

And here's a blast from my past that I found on blogTO in their little tribute to the Roxy Theatre on the Danforth. This theatre was a landmark of my early days in Toronto's "alternative" scene. In grades nine and ten (1986-8-ish, I think) I used to go to the Roxy to see their weekly screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The crowd at the Roxy (a true dump of a place, in a good way) was made up of a lot of the goths, punks, freaks, and (sometimes) mods and skinheads who were part of the club scene that I got involved in a few years later. And I still know all the words to the movie!

Hurray For Xmas!

So, 'tis the season, and all that, and last night Tyler and I put up a Christmas tree, decorated, and then had our picture taken. Wouldn't you know, my skirt was so short that my butt is showing in all the pictures, but what can you do? Thanks to Wendy Van Weert for doing a wicked job with my hair, and to Nathan Buress for taking the pictures (also thanks to Tyler for my much needed make up job!)

Canadian Political Turmoil!

So, last week the Canadian Parliament was "prorogued" by the Governor General at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper was facing a non-confidence vote by an ad hoc opposition coalition. He certainly would have lost the confidence of Parliament, which would have left the unpopular Stephane Dion as Prime Minister. (and in case you want to be reminded of why we should fear a Stephen Harper minority, here's a good article on Stephen Harper's connection to the religious right: http://tinyurl.com/4jc4nb)


Because of the suspension of Parliament, the inevitable ousting of Stephen Harper has been delayed until late-January. This has given time for the coalition to dissolve, but has also given the Liberal party the opportunity to choose a (much-needed) new leader. The two leadership contenders until today were Bob Rae, former NDP Premier of Ontario, and Michael Ignatieff, former Harvard academic and long-time friend of Rae. I like Rae (who was my professor at U of T in 1996) but since the rest of the country usually votes opposite to me, it's probably good to get Ignatieff in, in order to get rid of Harper. This morning Rae dropped out of the race, basically handing the leadership to Ignatieff, who the Liberal party elite seem to have been dying to elevate to their leadership for the past few years anyways.


As someone who has always voted NDP, I considered switching sides to the Liberal party if Rae had won the leadership. Ignatieff may be able to win me over, but I still object to his support of the war in Iraq. For now, I will wait until the next generation of Liberals that will hopefully include Gerard Kennedy, Justin Trudeau, and some more interesting women. Until then I will probably stick with the NDP.


Since finishing God is Not Great, a few weeks ago, I have been going Christopher Hitchens crazy, reading everything he has ever published on the web. Fortunately this is pretty easy because he has his own site with a long list of articles as well as an unofficial site called The Hitchens Zone. I don't entirely agree with him (he's very pro Iraq war, and very anti-Bill & Hilary Clinton), but I still enjoy his point of view.


If you haven't watched True Blood, you really must! It's the best white trash/vampire sex show on tv! Which reminds me, I still haven't gone to see Twilight, though I fear the movie will sully my love (luv?) of the books.


And now for some eye-candy, my favourite actress of this year, Anne Hathaway, who I really like right now:

Puppy Power!

This weekend Tyler and I got an afghan puppy named Ophelia! Already my life has become a non-stop obsession with where the dog is and whether or not she is peeing! I love her though. Here's a picture of her sleeping:

Find Raggedy Andrea on Twitter

I finally submitted and I'm now tweeting away on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/raggedyandrea

I'm still in the experimentation phase! Add me or let me know your twitter address and I will "follow" you! :)

Playlist dot Com!

I have been fooling around with playlist.com tonight, and think I could become an addict. Perfect for a music nerd like myself! Here's the link to my profile: http://www.playlist.com/raggedyandrea and here's my first playlist called Songs for Colder Weather....

Happy Endings New York City

In late July when I was visiting New York City, my former roommate Mars took me to visit a fun club called Happy Endings (or, as I can see from their website, Happy Ending Lounge) down in the Lower East Side. I was just thinking about how fun it was there, and how badly Toronto could use fun/dirty places like this, and realized that I had never really written about my NYC trip until now. Happy Endings was an erotic massage parlour in it's former life, and the basement is still made up of ceramic shower stalls. The place was smokey, and grungey and packed full of hipster types and gays and they played electro and retro music. It was there that we met someone from the band Semi Precious Weapons (who my travelling partner Diane is now in love with, since meeting their singer Justin in Toronto at their last two shows).

Here's a great picture that pretty much sums up the atmosphere at Happy Endings - I found at some stranger's blog:

and another one from the club's myspace page:

Some Random Bits of Life

Last night I went to see the film Religulous - the Bill Maher screed against religion. It was pretty good, though didn't really introduce anything new to the discussion. It's always interesting to see the American Christian fundamentalists do their thing - Jesus Disneyland and Creationism museums....crazy! The Catholics in the film looked sane compared to the Evangelicals, which is saying a lot.

Concurrently, I am reading God is Not Great (How Religion Poisons Everything) by Christopher Hitchens. I have always liked Christopher Hitchens, though kind of parted ways with him over his support of the war in Iraq....or so I thought. I am only two chapters in, but so far this book is very interesting. How can you not like a book with a chapter titled "A Short Digression On The Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham"?

I have also been reading the young adult Twilight book series and have to admit that I am hopelessly addicted. They are like Harlequin romances, with vampires and teenagers. I just ordered the box set from Indigo. And yes, I know I used to roll my eyes at people who were similarly addicted to Harry Potter, but I can't help it!!

I have been listening to MGMT almost exclusively for the past week. I absolutely LOVE their album. Last night I downloaded a bunch of WWII era music for our Halloween workshop party next week. I found an awesome song called "I Didn't Know the Gun Was Loaded" by the Andrews Sisters which is a sickly sweet song about accidentally shooting someone.

Oh yeah, I voted in the recent Federal election for Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate in my riding, who won handily. Another Conservative minority government, which is the least bad we could have hoped for, I suppose. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if the Liberals choose Bob Rae or Gerard Kennedy as their new leader. Could I possibly vote Liberal??

Heather Mallick-Sarah Palin Controversy Rages On!

On September 20, 2008 I wrote a bit about Heather Mallick's September 5 cbcnews.ca column condemning Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, as well as the controversy that seemed to be brewing over Mallick's criticism of Palin.

Mallick wrote in that column that Palin "added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right" and that Palin "has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression". Mallick also referred to Republicans as "sexual inadequates". etc. etc.

From my point of view, it was nice to hear someone who agreed with me about Palin. I had seen the McCain campaign turn around since he announced Palin as his running mate, and was honestly saddened that people seemed to be taken in by her. Thankfully McCain's boost in the polls was short-lived. Recently, we have seen Palin's embarrassing interview with Katie Couric, the funny-yet-scary portrayals of Palin on SNL, her mediocre performance in the Vice Presidential debates, as well as a debunking of the mythology of Sarah Palin by the media. Popular support for Palin seems to be dwindling, and the McCain campaign is suffering as a result of this.

On September 9 an indignant Jonathan Kay posted to his blog at the National Post a rant against Mallick, as well as condemnation of the cbc for being too left wing and anti-American. He posted a follow up to this on September 19th after Fox News picked up the story on September 18.

Now Magazine's Susan Cole weighed in on the controversy in her September 25 column, correctly pointing out that most of the criticism of the Mallick column was based on a lack of understanding of what Mallick actually said:

If you've followed this story without reading the original blog, you'd think that Mallick called Palin white trash. She did not do that, actually. What she said was that by naming Palin to the ticket, McCain sewed up the white trash vote. And, let's admit, there exists some white trash in America.

Also high on the anti-Mallick commentators' list is the claim that Mallick compared Palin to a porn star. Not so. She said that Palin had the porn star look down, a reasonable comment on where her appeal lies and how it might work and not at all tantamount to comparing Palin to Jenna Jameson

On September 29, cbcnews.ca publisher John Cruickshank removed the Mallick article from the site's archives and published a letter explaining this decision (based on the assessment of the column by Vince Carlin, the CBC ombudsman). He stated that:

Mallick's column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan....As a public broadcaster we have an added responsibility to provide an array of opinions and voices to complement our journalism. But we must do so carefully. And you should be able to trust us to provide you with work that's based on solid reporting and free from the passionate excesses of partisanship. We failed you in this case. And as a result we have put new editing procedures in place to insure that in the future, work that is not appropriate for our platforms, will not appear. We are open to contentious reasoned argument but not to partisan attack. It's a fine line.

Finally, on October 6, Mallick posted a column about the situation, writing that:

Extremist right-wingers in the U.S. apparently read CBCNews.ca, and within days of my column's appearance, hundreds of e-mails from Americans began landing on my personal website. Then Fox News took up the cause and it got bigger and worse, not like a rolling stone, more like a dung beetle having a field day...

Two things about the whole debacle are of interest. One is the matter of protecting writers' safety when villagers approach with torches and pitchforks. One of my employers immediately provided me with a security guard. I had offered to cancel a speech I was giving at a Catholic university in Canada - I didn't want to embarrass them - but they refused, on the grounds of free speech, and they had also liked the column.

The other matter is the vexed state of cyberspace. Online has brought instant media democratization as well as the erasure of national borders. And websites have not devised a way to keep online forums civilized. "There's no point debating anything online," writes the columnist Charlie Brooker. "You might as well hurl shoes in the air to knock clouds from the sky".

I find this whole story sad for a number of reasons. I am saddened by the fact that cbcnews.ca censored the article. I am saddened by the personal attacks on Mallick, someone who I admire and respect as a writer. Finally, I am saddened by the fact that, even in Canada, there still seems to be a certain level of support for Sarah Palin. Saddened, but really, not surprised.

Some Political Stuff....

Well, as most Canadians should be aware, we will be having a federal election on October 14. As usual I will be voting for the NDP and dread a Conservative majority - those guys frighten me. I know that they have managed to keep a low profile for the past few years, but with a majority I fear the worst.
Far more interesting to me is the US election, especially with the introduction of Sarah Palin as the Republican VP candidate. Words can not describe my distaste for this woman, but I did find an article written by Heather Mallick who helps clarify my feelings here: A Mighty Wind blows through Republican convention Mallick is currently under fire for this column by those offended by her "personal attacks" on Palin, with all the usual/predictable anti-CBC ranting from the right.
Palin's yahoo email account was hacked earlier this week. Reading through some of the coverage, I was amazed at how the reaction was so clearly split down party lines. Republican supporters are clamouring to connect the hack (which wasn't really a hack) to Barack Obama, while Democrats are quick to point out that Palin shouldn't be conducting government business through a private webmail account. At any rate, I think she will probably pay for this, if only because it makes her look rather stupid. There is a good blog about this posted here: Reactions To Palin E-Mail Hack Follow Partisan Lines
Should make for some interesting pre-debate discussions!