Saskatoon has recently caught up to a trend that takes place in bigger cities. Crashing straight bars. The objective is to pack the chosen straight bar with the most color coordinated gays possible. Then dance. We have had two successful DASBG runs, and going for another one tonight.
I think it is important, that we hold these fun events. We are restrained with only one queer bar in this city. We don't have options for where we go on the weekend. A lot of us don't feel safe going to straight bars alone. So gathering a group like this, many of us experience bars that we never have before. It is also very important to make ourselves seen. Normally we are quietly corralled into an alley, where the queer bar is located. It's important for us to go out and be exactly who we are, to people who normally never see large groups of Queer people. We are, and always will be, surrounded by their culture and lifestyle. So for one night, we unexpectedly turn the tables on them. We out number them in one of their spaces. We show them who we are, how we dress, how we dance, and just how many of us there are. It's just to bad we can't change the bar's music for a night, eek. I have also seen positive effects within our community due to this event. Cliques within our community who don't normally socialize with each other, make effort to talk with another. People who normally don't go out on the town come to these events. All because they realize the importance of showing a large united front.
Our past two events have gone fairly well. There were no big confrontations. Just a few of the usual ignorant comments, and gaping . But for the most part the other patrons of the bar have a good time, and even join in with us on the dance floor. The staff at one bar heard about the event and even dressed in pink (our chosen color for these events) to show their support.
Cheers to another successful night of drinking a straight bar gay!!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
(Un)Arrested Development
Oh thank goodness. The Arrested Development movie is finally going to be made. Now, if only I could get the Buffster back onto the screen.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Neutrality: not just for Switzerland
We all need to be concerned with how the Canadian government is working with mega corps to throttle and exploit the internet.
I first learned about queer issues online... my first lez, gay and bisexual friends were outspoken internet activists on the intraweb community chickclick.com. If I didn't have access to their conversations, discussions and debates, I wouldn't have the confidence to explore my own sexual identity. How many other people do the same thing? How many young people are only learning about sexualities online? The internet is a major lifeline for queer folks. Hellz, if I didn't have this blog, how else would I procrastinate from my research?
By handing over the the internet to corporate control, it gives them the reigns to dictate which content is appropriate. Given the obvious vaccuum of thoughtful and sincere queer characters and plot lines on tv, I am less than convinced that the hyper-controlled internet wouldn't similarly marginalize us. The internet MUST remain neutral. Full stop.
But let's be real here, neutrality does NOT equal freedom.
The internet is not free.
We have a long way to go to ensure that all peoples can use the internet. Computers, free-time, internet packages, all cost mouuuulahhhh. I just bought an iphone, but you can be sure as shit that 95% of the people I work with cannot afford the luxury. Privilege comes with responsibility, part of which is widening that privilege. So, while we work together to ensure that the internet remains neutral, we need to be simultaneously working to broaden access to the internet, so that net neutrality doesn't just re-privilege us middle-class, educated white folk.
Watch this video for a nice, quick and eloquant synopsis on net neutrality.
I first learned about queer issues online... my first lez, gay and bisexual friends were outspoken internet activists on the intraweb community chickclick.com. If I didn't have access to their conversations, discussions and debates, I wouldn't have the confidence to explore my own sexual identity. How many other people do the same thing? How many young people are only learning about sexualities online? The internet is a major lifeline for queer folks. Hellz, if I didn't have this blog, how else would I procrastinate from my research?
By handing over the the internet to corporate control, it gives them the reigns to dictate which content is appropriate. Given the obvious vaccuum of thoughtful and sincere queer characters and plot lines on tv, I am less than convinced that the hyper-controlled internet wouldn't similarly marginalize us. The internet MUST remain neutral. Full stop.
But let's be real here, neutrality does NOT equal freedom.
The internet is not free.
We have a long way to go to ensure that all peoples can use the internet. Computers, free-time, internet packages, all cost mouuuulahhhh. I just bought an iphone, but you can be sure as shit that 95% of the people I work with cannot afford the luxury. Privilege comes with responsibility, part of which is widening that privilege. So, while we work together to ensure that the internet remains neutral, we need to be simultaneously working to broaden access to the internet, so that net neutrality doesn't just re-privilege us middle-class, educated white folk.
Watch this video for a nice, quick and eloquant synopsis on net neutrality.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
If I Know You-th
I have been looking for an excuse to post on one of my faaaaaaavourite albums of 2008: Apocalypso, by the Presets. They recently released a gorgeous video for "I know you"...
It begins with the fairly-typical, adolescent angst-trope: an alone and lugubrious youth wakes up, gets dressed, and prepares for the day, all with a palpable loneliness that is only intensified by his isolatingly empty suburban home. However, once he kicks out of his cookie-cutter house and into the "big city", he loses his constraining knap-sac (eventually, his shirt too) and starts dancing-- Billy Elliot style. As the music builds and layers, more dancers are added to the screen, ending with an army of young, steadfastly passionate youth dancing their way through the streets of LA.
The messages from the video are decidely melodramatic. Dissaffected youth rejecting the isolating boxcutter lifestyle of suburbia, for the organic rawness of urban life? A Cartesian fantasy celebrating the passion of dance, over a paralyzingly individualistic drone society? Perhaps!
As far as I am concerned, this video treats young people with respect. Finally. How often do we assume that kids just "don't understand", or "have yet to learn the ways of the world". The choreography is mature, complex and layered-- and the dancers are feeeeeelin' the emotions. I learned long ago that young people get it. That is, "kids" are used to enduring the raw deals of life and they certainly don't like being treated like breakable china dolls. I know people less than half my age, who have been through more shite than I can possibly imagine, and thus, constantly school me on the ways of the world.
In the tradition of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", or Our Lady Peace's "Superman's Dead", this video is a thoughtful take on north american suburban youth without falling prey to the overwrought, emo, teen angst-y, self-congratulatory messes that litter "indie-rock" radio- and air-waves. It's magical. Me like, a lot.
It begins with the fairly-typical, adolescent angst-trope: an alone and lugubrious youth wakes up, gets dressed, and prepares for the day, all with a palpable loneliness that is only intensified by his isolatingly empty suburban home. However, once he kicks out of his cookie-cutter house and into the "big city", he loses his constraining knap-sac (eventually, his shirt too) and starts dancing-- Billy Elliot style. As the music builds and layers, more dancers are added to the screen, ending with an army of young, steadfastly passionate youth dancing their way through the streets of LA.
The messages from the video are decidely melodramatic. Dissaffected youth rejecting the isolating boxcutter lifestyle of suburbia, for the organic rawness of urban life? A Cartesian fantasy celebrating the passion of dance, over a paralyzingly individualistic drone society? Perhaps!
As far as I am concerned, this video treats young people with respect. Finally. How often do we assume that kids just "don't understand", or "have yet to learn the ways of the world". The choreography is mature, complex and layered-- and the dancers are feeeeeelin' the emotions. I learned long ago that young people get it. That is, "kids" are used to enduring the raw deals of life and they certainly don't like being treated like breakable china dolls. I know people less than half my age, who have been through more shite than I can possibly imagine, and thus, constantly school me on the ways of the world.
In the tradition of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", or Our Lady Peace's "Superman's Dead", this video is a thoughtful take on north american suburban youth without falling prey to the overwrought, emo, teen angst-y, self-congratulatory messes that litter "indie-rock" radio- and air-waves. It's magical. Me like, a lot.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Bro-mance before Ho...mance?
Caught this little gem on the Feministing Community this morning.
I don't entirely understand my fascination with Bromance. Perhaps it stems from watching (male-born, hetero and predominantly white) men who, as utterly infatuated with one-another, refuse to express their love in any way that is remotely sexual.*
WTF is up with putting a woman into the trunk of a car? This musical interlude exemplifies everything that is peculiar about male homo-social bonding. Violence, sexual curiousity, homophobia, misogyny, heterosexism, the list of academic jargonistic expressions can go on.
It's as if they want to publicly express their friendship, but in order to preempt any social mocking, they make a spectacle of themselves. If they turn the joke inwards, that is if they become self-deprecating, they are safely able to show their feelings without anyone taking it too seriously. Much in the same way that the court jester was able to criticize the king, these dudes are using a ridiculous musical platform to tell the "truth" without fearing backlash. Indeed, they may even earn extra points in the eyes of other hetero men who secretly wish that they were able to show their love for their friends.
Whenever someone says that the "male" mind is simple, I seriously want to tell them to put down their copy of "He's Just Not That Into You" and give it a little more thought. Interrogations of masculinity reveal some constraining and disciplining social norms, which are entirely unfair to those born male. For realz, how healthy is it that men reminisce about the FIGHTS they got into, and the crimes they committed together? Men--in my humble opinion-- are complicated. And thus, I will continue to be fascinated by the bromance.
*By 'love', I don't necessarily mean 'romance' or 'sex', I am referring to any point on that spectrum of relating to another
I don't entirely understand my fascination with Bromance. Perhaps it stems from watching (male-born, hetero and predominantly white) men who, as utterly infatuated with one-another, refuse to express their love in any way that is remotely sexual.*
WTF is up with putting a woman into the trunk of a car? This musical interlude exemplifies everything that is peculiar about male homo-social bonding. Violence, sexual curiousity, homophobia, misogyny, heterosexism, the list of academic jargonistic expressions can go on.
It's as if they want to publicly express their friendship, but in order to preempt any social mocking, they make a spectacle of themselves. If they turn the joke inwards, that is if they become self-deprecating, they are safely able to show their feelings without anyone taking it too seriously. Much in the same way that the court jester was able to criticize the king, these dudes are using a ridiculous musical platform to tell the "truth" without fearing backlash. Indeed, they may even earn extra points in the eyes of other hetero men who secretly wish that they were able to show their love for their friends.
Whenever someone says that the "male" mind is simple, I seriously want to tell them to put down their copy of "He's Just Not That Into You" and give it a little more thought. Interrogations of masculinity reveal some constraining and disciplining social norms, which are entirely unfair to those born male. For realz, how healthy is it that men reminisce about the FIGHTS they got into, and the crimes they committed together? Men--in my humble opinion-- are complicated. And thus, I will continue to be fascinated by the bromance.
*By 'love', I don't necessarily mean 'romance' or 'sex', I am referring to any point on that spectrum of relating to another
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Stay Classy, Virgin radio
Virgin Radio has shoved its way onto the streets of Ottawa, and simultaneously onto the radar of some brilliant, social justice minded and pissed off people. The above adverts are part of Virgin Radio's visual marketing campaign here in my adopted city and are---quite tragically---EVERYWHERE.
I was once told that the world's best minds are in marketing. WTF, Virgin? Did your marketing budget get swallowed up by the divinely inspired mouth-shaped urinals? Clearly, someone is under the advertising tutelage of PETA.
I am fairly confidant that the goal of this campaign is to be as offensive as possible. Let's go through some of the misdemeanors:
- Trivializing violence against women
- Implicitly excusing sexual assault
- ...of minors
- Perpetuating the tired cliche that women are helpless and need to be protected
- Assuming rock music is only something men can get into
- Calling themselves the gods of rock in a pathetic attempt to revive the "glory" era of shitty 80s rock music
I am pulling the NIMBY card on this one, help me get this out of my backyard. Go here to see what can be done.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Chad to Charity
This is a cool video of a local Drag Queen transforming into herself. Its amazing how make up can change a face.
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