Mornings

I spent my morning reading Foucault and listening to the Wade Davis Massey Lecture Series (2009). What a way to travel. I left Toronto before the sun came up and I arrived in Ottawa an hour later. An older woman, pale as the inside of Japanese pears, her quiet eyes distracted by her dry, dyed-brown hair and okra coloured lips, spilled her morning latte on the airport floor before we boarded.

"I'm so sorry," she said as the milky brown liquid seeped towards my running shoes.

"It's alright," I said. "It's early."

"We're having one of those days," her friend replied. "We're trying to get to Ottawa for a wedding and it's been a disaster."

"Well, " I smiled, "Good thing we're boarding." The line of tired passengers crept forward.

I slept most of the way from Toronto to Ottawa and felt refreshed by the time I changed planes to Charlottetown. I love going somewhere new. Nothing beats watching the minuscule installations on the ground below pass by at warp speed, cruising above the clouds in a space between places, and landing in a city you've never seen before. There are no expectations. No one knows your past, your dreams, or your fears.

The navy blue polyester uniforms of the Air Canada flight attendants never seem to change; neither does the sinking feeling in my stomach as the airplane engines change the pace and tone of their propellers. The smooth hum that usually fills the background noise of the air craft turns into a hypnotic rumble. My body envelops the drops and turns of the plane as we start to land. I remember that I hate small planes. I think of my boyfriend's tender kiss goodbye and feel the warmth of my family being around me before I stop my dramatic imagination from straying too far.

The plane lands smoothly in the end and we deboard off a small rolling staircase right onto the runway. The single-level brick building has two doors - one that says "Departures" and the other "Arrivals". As I walk past the first towards the Arrivals baggage claim I turn my head towards the building:

Welcome to Prince Edward Island

Launch of 2nd Issue of AQSAzine Dec 4th!

Profile This! A night of art and activism by young Muslim women and trans people.

Dec 4th, 6 - 8 pm
Art Gallery of Ontario
Anne Tannenbaum Gallery School
317 Dundas Street West Toronto

For more information on AqsaZine,
Check us out on Facebook: Aqsa Zine
Follow us on Twitter.com/AQSAzine
Or e-mail. aqsazine@gmail.com

AQSAZINE is a grassroots zine for 16-35 year old women and trans people who identify as Muslim. It is a creative avenue to express ourselves, share our experiences, and connect with others.

Making Noise! is an exciting hands-on media arts training that addresses the invisibility and negative portrayals of young Muslim women and trans people in the media, supported by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations.

With thanks to our generous funders: ArtReach Toronto, Freedonia Foundation, Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, Ontario Women's Directorate and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations

Broad Way Sleep

All I have to say is that Toronto can bring it in more ways than one. Check out the talent in Broad Way Sleep and the amazing new tune, "Too Late" on our very own 1 Love T.O.

Water

Thanks to Gizmodo for always making nerdiness cool. Here's a video demonstrating what happens to falling drops of water when they hit a puddle or larger body of water, as shown through high speed video at 2,000 frames per second:

Change

Change seems to be the only constant in my life. Ongoing, relentless, inevitable change. Sometimes I wish it would all just stop, and for a moment I could enjoy a calm, repetitive pattern of simplicity. I think that's why I like the rhythm of yoga. When I go to the studio I know exactly what I'm going to get. And the library. I love the library for it's quiet and solitude; for the uneventfulness of the days passed lost in notes, books and the brain power of our future's geniuses. This is how I keep moving forward, by putting my head down and letting change wash over me.

Goddess Girl

Check out the movie, Goddess Girl parts 1, 2 and 3 (5 more to come). The rest is still to come! Big up rez & Famous and everyone who worked on the films for taking music and marketing to another level!

Throw backs (thanks youtube!)

Bitch Magazine article on iPhone app

Thanks Bitch Magazine for this awesome article on a new and particularly ridiculous app for the iPhone. The original post can be accessed here.

Finally, an AMP iPhone App for the Predatory Douchenozzle Set

DigiBitch blog post by Kelsey Wallace, October 13, 2009 - 5:48pm; tagged AMP, Before You Score, iPhone, Pepsi, sexism, technology, Tucker Max.

Let's say that you're out at a bar, and you meet an attractive girl. You want to talk to her, but you are completely devoid of all redeeming qualities and are literally incapable of striking up a conversation with anyone, let alone someone you hope to have sex with. Before now, you'd probably have to run to the bathroom and consult your Tucker Max paperback for potential date rape tactics, but not anymore. No, now there is an AMP iPhone app that will do all of the dirty work of "manipulating degrading figuring women out" for you.

In case you were unable to stomach/comprehend that video, I'll summarize: Pepsi (on behalf of their AMP energy drink) has organized women into 24 convenient categories. Now, when you meet one, instead of asking her for any information about herself whatsoever, you can guess which category she belongs in (based on looks, natch) and base your interaction with her on the things that your cell phone tells you she probably likes. The categories available are:

Artist
Aspiring Actress
Athlete
Bookworm
Businesswoman
Celebrity
Cougar
Dancer
Foreign Exchange Student
Goth Girl
Indie Rock Girl
Married
Military Girl
Nerd
Out-Of-Your-League Girl
Political Girl
Princess
Punk Rock Girl
Rebound Girl
Sorority Girl
Treehugger
Trouble
Twins
Women's Studies Major

How handy! Literally every woman under the sun is represented! You'll never have to get to know someone again! (And it looks like there is a good chance you'll be able to meet a real-life princess, which is a bonus because she is probably rich.) With this new technology, you'll never have to work to get those hot twins or that Women's Studies Major to go home with you again. Curious about how this works? Wondering how a phone could know everything possible about every type of woman? Well, here is the explanation from AppShopper:

AMP UP BEFORE YOU SCORE is a roadmap to success with your favorite kinds of women—24, in all.

Is she an Artist? Quote some Picasso. Indie Rocker? Here are her favorite songs. Sorority Girl? Good thing you know the Greek alphabet. Know what makes her tick before you open your mouth, so she’ll like what she hears when you do.

Here’s how it works:

1. Identify Her Type
Got your eye on a girl, and aren’t sure how to get started? Pick out her profile, flip the card, and study up quick with a cheatsheet on the stuff she’s into, with lists, links and some surefire opening lines. (Surefire to what, we won’t say.)

2. Keep a List
Get lucky? Add her to your Brag List. You can include a name, date and whatever details you remember.

3. Brag
You got it? Flaunt it. Keep your buddies in the loop on email, Facebook or Twitter.

AMP UP BEFORE YOU SCORE has everything you need to make her look forward to what’s next. (With you, we mean. We’re talking about you.)

You’re welcome.

See? You're welcome! Politeness! And they make it so easy to BRAG TO YOUR FRIENDS about your "score"! I mean, who would have guessed that you could "know what makes her tick before you open your mouth"? (Hint: Part of what "makes her tick" is probably the fact that you haven't opened your mouth yet.) You can take care of all of this on your phone, and your douchenozzle friends can play along. Score, indeed!

Now to be fair, pretty much everyone with a pulse has reported being repulsed by this app since it was released (for free) last week. In fact, Pepsi tweeted an apology earlier today on the subject (Twitter! The new sincerity!):

Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail

Yeah, somehow the Tweet doesn't fit the crime here, IMO. It's like Pepsi burned someone's house down and then sent them an e-card to apologize. ("Oops! Sorry if you're upset!") And it seems as though lots of the Twitter feedback is along the lines of "this would all be fine as long as there was one for chicks too" which is, obviously, COMPLETELY missing the point of why this app is a major fail. Shoving human beings into ridiculously offensive categories for the purpose of pretending to be someone you're not so that you can have sex with them under false pretenses and then brag about it to your friends on the Internet is not something that should be made available to all genders. It should be eliminated based on its supreme douchebagginess.

But enough blogging. I'm off to the bar to trick people into having sex with me. Does anyone know of an iPhone app I can get for that?

Midnight Rambles

She sighed. And as her breadth left her body the weight of her conversation with Salim tumbled off her shoulders. Her black spandex shorts and tank top accentuated the curves of her otherwise slender body. She leaned over to tie her shoelaces and the necklace dangling between her breasts sparkled from the sun. Long, dark hair and a big diamond on her wedding-ring finger. She began to run.

Hypnotic. Rhythmic. Step by step she washed away each word. Every breath polluted by the disdain she felt for Salim in that moment, a disdain she knew she had to overcome. It wasn't his fault that his mother had fallen ill. Bringing her to live with them was the right thing to do. She would have done the same. But living with Salim's mother changed the game entirely. The playful life they had so long been living together would become cumbersome - laden with formalities and proprieties Shirin hated. A glass of wine at night would be judged badly; an afternoon rendez-vous between Salim and Shirin at home, to bang out the tensions of the work day and indulge in the sexual pleasures they were too tired to enjoy at night - impossible.

And then she would die. Salim's mother, eventually, she would die. She would first get sicker. Weaker. More burdensome. Until her corpse tainted the air of the apartment. They might have to move. But that was life. And there was no time to think about it. To dwell. To wallow in her own self-pity. She had to go home and cook, clean and prepare for her new house-guest's arrival.

Nerdom

"An adequate vocabulary is important because the concepts we use to make sense of the world direct both our perception and our actions. We pay attention to what we expect to see, we hear what we can place in our understanding, and we act according to our world views."

- E. Wenger from Communities of Practice (1998)