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I see this in the classroom and I do my best to prevent it. Uphill battle yes, worth it, yes.

A word poem with pictures – listen, watch and learn.

Do scroll around and see what your mind is made of. :)

ilikechips

It has been too long since I featured a comic from Subnormality here on DWR.

generalpeteadventures

klimt.jungfrau   Coming to work today I was listening to the CBC morning news there was the usual doom and gloom, but what was remarkable was the amount of time devoted to telling Canadians about how awesome the commercials were going to be for the Superbowl and the lengths people were going to get the American cable feeds to be able to watch the commercials.

To watch the commercials.

I think of the amount of creative energy expended to make a mere advertising and despair.  The creative genius of our society is not only being flushed down the crapper, but smeared in an orgy of debauched garish technicolour into the cultivated passive  brain boxes of eager consumers.  Not citizens, not people in living in a vibrant culture, not enabled beings in a swirling maw of democratic give and take.  Nothing like that.

Nothing like that at all.

People wonder why stunning masterworks are not frequently made anymore.  Looking at the fetid mess that is commercial culture is not a bad place to start.  Does anyone, while growing up say, “Wow, I think I can realize my potential in the wonderful world of Advertising!”  The creative genius being cravenly abused in the pursuit of profit is emblematic of what is wrong with our culture.

Imagine, if just for second, if we made the choice to channel our creative forces back into meaningful pursuits.  What if we valued art, music and literature as much as we value the tawdry glorification of consumer culture.  How many Klimts would be painting?  How many Beethovens would be composing?  How many Jane Austins would be writing?  How much many more cultural epochs would we have reached by now if not for hollow banality of consumer culture?

Humanity’s grand claim for the  21st century should not be “perfecting the exploitation of everything for the short sighted benefit of the few”.  It is shit; and irredeemably so.

 

 

Music is our great hope, the universal language, and the ultimate unifier. I can appreciate music from 1720 Venice just as easily as I can music from 1970 Toronto. Further, I’ve been doing so since before I could speak. Such is the power of music that distances of 7000 km and 250 years are rendered moot without the slightest effort. Yet, when one does apply effort, the tunnels of discovery are complex and endless. The study of music can reveal an immense amount about the people, the society, the generation, and the human experience involved in its creation. In nothing else is so much information so readily available to so many.

While these powers can be experienced and appreciated just by listening, their magnitude and influence grow exponentially when one partakes in the creation of music. Again, no special skills are required. Sure, instruments can take years to master, but anyone can take part in song. Indeed, in testament to its unifying power, any lack of singing ability is progressively rubbed out as more and more people join in a song. No one ever needed a voice lesson for a camp fire sing along.

As a wondrous demonstration of this limitless potential for connectivity and understanding to bridge the many powers of division in the world, I present Virtual Choir. Headed by visionary composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, it is an online community dedicated to bringing the world together through singing.

I cannot do justice to this fantastic project, nor can I match the charisma of the main man himself. So here, along with links to the glorious end products, Virtual Choir, Virtual Choir 2.0, and Virtual Choir 3, I will turn the stage over to Mr. Whitacre and his TED Talk, the inspirational video that introduced me to Virtual Choir, and the Kickstarter video for Virtual Choir 4.

One of the accomplishments of which I am most proud is taking part in Virtual Choir 3. Please join me in participating in, supporting, and spreading the word of Virtual Choir 4.

Links:
Virtual Choir 4 Kickstarter Page
Eric Witacre’s Site

The signature series continues at CBC and here with D major. Follow the link and listen.

D major: Miss Congeniality

Also known as:
The Workaholic.
The Homecoming Queen.

D majors you might know:
The Goddess Athena from Greek mythology.
Oprah Winfrey.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The notes: D – E – F♯ – G – A – B – C♯ – D.

Number of sharps: two.

Relative minor: B minor.

What they said about D major in the 18th century:
“The key of triumph, of Hallelujahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing.” – Christian Schubart, 1784

“Enflames the heart. The spirit … is roused to impudent, joyful, even to somewhat boisterous songs of praise. Even the god of thunder has a claim to this key.” – Georg Joseph Vogler, 1779

More D major listening:
The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, Jr.

Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

I’m looking for the transcript (found it)because sometimes the applause drowns out the speaker.  In any case, this is a command performance and emphasizes a few important points about discourse in our society in general and feminism in particular.

I remember how the park, outside of parked cars, was frozen with quiet and darkness, when your anger shot through the night.

“Why do you call yourself a feminist? You guys are equal. And as a man, I am always expected to be a man, to make the first move. If anything, it is harder for me; you get all of the good stuff and none of the bad.”

With your brows furrowed with concern, with the capacity of my inferior mind, and your eyes grasp my shoulders, pushing me down as if to add to the gravity of your words.

“Do you understand where I am coming from now?”

I sat there small, draped in a label that was then too big for me. Struggling in the creases that were smothering the pieces of ideals taped together to form my skeleton. Feminist fell over my frame like an old baggy shirt. Suddenly embarrassing, the tag started to itch.

All of the good stuff and none of the bad. Women like Orwell’s pigs squealing to be more equal than others, while you’re pressured to be a man in relationships. The dilemma of having to choose who you spend your most intimate moments with. So while I sympathize with your burden of boyhood bravery, it’s hard to be the problem of a cloud’s troubled position of [working the ward] water while you’re the parched flower waiting for the rain to come only to be bother by the thunderous booms of ingratitude.

This is when you tell me not to get hysterical.

Hysterical, the word invented as a diagnosis to given to women showing inappropriate emotion, like anger. Supplemented with a daily dose of the question”Are you on your period?” As if an internal chemical explosion is the only thing that warrants my passionate opinion. But I am not suppose to talk about it. So I’m still trying to figure out why the hell I am to hide the fact that I bleed.

You illegitimatize the cries of my sisters. You try to deny me of my history. Give me hysterectomy that misdirects  me dissect the women from this.

You know what? I am done with the futility of civility. I feel like cussing you out.

I would call you a pussy but that would mine. Cunt is the same predicament because it’s your dick I meant to insult. Can’t call you a slut, bitch, or whore because those are reserved for the ladies. I’d call you a son of a bitch but that would just insult the women you came from. The male equivalent of a bitch — bastard — is calling your mother a whore. Douche-bag, one of the dirtiest descriptions, just depicts the drippings of a woman. How about motherfucker? Throw in a  feminine connotation to make it extra horrifying. Or a universal fuck you punctuated by erecting a phallic middle finger, in order to provide you with a visual representation of how I want you to be fucked… like a woman. Use sexual politics as the ultimate degradation.

But I don’t say any of this. I sit in silence because it has been hard to be a word in edgewise over your alpha male gorilla chest pounds. King Cock atop dangling buildings squeezing me  in your leathery grip dangling me over the edge asking me why the hell I don’t enjoy the view. Oblivious to the fact I can’t even talk to you without choking on the language designed to remind me of my place. And anything I throw at you as an insult simply boomerangs back and burns my own tongue and threatens to drowned me in these thick veiled fabric of sexist dialect. But I will continue to rip these assaults apart, tearing these baggy rags and tying them tight and proud across my body, filling to the limit the fabric will allow until they fit my feminine form.

Reflecting back on your furrowed brow, I ask, “Do you understand where I am coming from now?”

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