Gotta go with Perezzers on this one

Gossip star Perez Hilton posted this photo:



on his website. About a week ago, this church sign read "I kissed a girl ... and then I went to hell", an ode (or something) to Katy Perry's gay experimentation-friendly, chart-topping song.

I agree with P's take: this 'artwork' sends the right message ... but perhaps uses an inappropriate method? Two wrongs not making a right and all that? I mean, it IS kinda funny and perfect, but at the same time, obviously as a teacher who tries to send the right message to our youth and teach them to deal with disagreements respectfully and to be better than those casting hateful stones, I don't advocate vandalism. On the other hand, I don't advocate gay-bashing hatred either ...

So I'll leave it to you?

The tastelessness of the Conservatives

I cannot believe that the Conservatives would post an add involving a puffin ... erm ... relieving itself ... on Stephane Dion's shoulder. Don't get me wrong - I know Canadian politics of late has taken a major shift into the American direction of attack ads and - in my opinion - unnecessary harshness instead of civil debate. However, one thing I've been proud of us of is that despite that, it still tends to revolve around the 'Issues'. For example, I'm not a fan of the Conservative radio ads attacking Stephane Dion's carbon tax - have you heard those 'call-in commercials'? - however, as short-sighted, misguided and simplistic as they are, they are about an issue. This, however, is ridiculous.

Have we not learned from Kim Campbell's unflattering ad focusing on Jean Chretien's Bell's Palsy-afflicted face some fifteen years ago which ended up backfiring on herself and the Conservatives? All I can hope, as a Liberal but moreso as a Canadian, is that we recognize we should not be voting on October 14 for the best campaigner for the position of Prime Minister, but the best Prime Minister. And I believe that is Stephane Dion. While he is not especially charismatic - when he makes Stephen frickin' Harper look like a rock star, that's an admitted understatement - or a great orator or an inspiring leader, he is a very intelligent, competent man who will do a good job at the helm of our country. And I wish we as a nation would realize that, instead of falling for negative campaigning simply because we centre-lefties don't roll in the mud with Harper's pigs.

Oh well ... at least these ads, as Dion pointed out, reflect more on the Conservatives than the Liberals, and the PM himself was issuing apologies today, finding himself off-message early in the campaign. Interesting times ahead, as much as I'm afraid this particular election will lead to more of the same - if not worse, a Conservative majority government. Oh well ... go Dion. For more information on the Liberal Party and their leader, please check out these sites:

http://www.liberal.ca
http://www.thisisdion.com

And for more on the REAL Conservatives, check out http://www.scandalpedia.ca.

I Can't Believe this is Goodbye ...

So long to "Rent", a Broadway staple and the 7th-longest running show on the Great White Way, which ended its 12 year run this weekend. Having been inspired by Pucini's opera, "La Boheme", and itself having inspired a movie version two years ago, Rent is one of the most important pieces of modern musical theatre today, bringing a very mainstream version of the dramatic arts - the musical - back to its more artistic, experimental, edgy roots. With nary a bad song in the score, memorable and unique characters, each with their own voice, and the normalcy with which gay and straight characters, whites and minorities, the HIV-infected and the healthy, the addicts and the non-addicts, are treated as they come on and off the canvas, is tremendous.

Sentimental without being schmaltzy, Jonathan Larson - who died just before opening night - created a piece of musical theatre, a modern theatrical masterpiece, which will endure beyond just the cult hit many fancy it to be. It will always live on in touring versions and hopefully a revival on Broadway. My congratulations to everyone involved with the production the last twelve years on a memorable and fantastic run. "No day but today!"

Thoughts

Sorry for the delay, I don't usually like posting further apart than every other day but hey - busy-ness! I'm working again.

Which has been going well, might I say - a very good start to the school year I think, and as young as it is that is encouraging to me. :) Good to see my kids again - they've grown up some over the summer, and I know them a bit better, it's really nice to have a chance to build this kind of rapport at a school - and my fellow staff members. A really happy week, and a decent weekend so far to boot - so productive like I haven't been all summer!

Of course I wish this gig I've got was for the full year, or that something that was full year had come up, as much as I'd miss the little circle of friends and students I've come into at my school, but even that you know, I'm looking at now as 'what's meant for you won't pass you by', and I'm actually looking forward to the adventures and challenges, as well as the opportunities and security of having another year teaching under my belt, that the upcoming year is going to provide. With that and so many other things in my life coming together, you know, I'm feeling really good about the future.

Let me say if you're having a rough time, there's nothing like some time with good friends and a nice vacation, like I got in spades at the end of this summer, and a successful return to something you love and haven't done in awhile (my job), to put things in perspective. It was a long boring summer in which everyone I value was busier than me for a time, that anyone reading my blog could see had gotten me down until towards the end, but I'm even glad for that as it allowed me to get some things out of my proverbial inbox that needed to be cleared out, and to value what was coming up (my trip to Sauble, back to school, etc.) all the more.

Even this weekend, which would have otherwise been spent lying around being bored and lethargic, was spent getting my car washed and vacuumed, calling my grandma who I hadn't talked to in too long, seeing off a friend who's about to leave the country, going to a movie I've been wanting to see in awhile, and doing some shopping and errands that needed to be done. PLUS we get to entertain my dad and stepmom tomorrow night (although, is it us entertaining when they're bringing the food?), who we haven't seen since in awhile since they went on vacation then we were! Wow ... just goes to prove the old saying - want something done? Give it to a busy person ... nothing like keeping moving to get some perspective!

And BTW - lest after a summer full of 'downer' posts leaves this one sounding fake and trying to hard to sound cheery - ask Ari how much happier I've been in the week we were in Sauble and now that school's started. :) More tired? Definitely. Happier as well? Absolutely. Which means I feel a bit foolish for wasting six weeks of beautiful weather and time off being bummed and whiney and hermit-like, but also grateful for them as at this point I feel better than I did even before the summer started, so obviously they did *something*. And since that's where I'm at, I figured after a summer of posts which were kind of depressing, I should share the better side of things too. :D

Oh, and? See The Dark Knight. That is all. XO

90210 thoughts ...

Great show -
Funny, entertaining.
Not exactly high brow
Or kind
To teens or adults
Or West Coasters.
But oddly entertaining
In the guilty pleasure
Kind of way.

Neat to see the ties to past characters -
Kelly and Brenda,
Kelly's sister Erin Silver,
Hanna Zuckerman-Vasquez
And Jackie Taylor Silver next week -
Without overwhelming
The new characters and story.
Good job all around -
Again, even if not quite
"Sophistiquee"
To say the least.

Don't know how long I'm hooked,
But I'm hooked -
Will tune in to ep 2.
Encourage any former fans to do the same.
It's different -
But if it were the same it would never survive
The comparisons.
Different in a good way,
While being true to the right spirit -
Not a bad start!

9021-OH I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Anyone else watching tonite??? :D

Please join me

In praying for the residents of the Gulf Coast and those who either are, or have loved ones, homes, and other pieces of their lives, in the path of Hurricane Gustav. We all remember the devastation caused by Katrina in this region three years ago - thankfully, it does not sound like this hurricane should be as devastating, as it is at least a Grade below the level Katrina was at, and many, many more residents have been evacuated at this time than they were for Katrina. But that does not mean there are not still people who are in danger, or who will have lives to put back together, people, pets, homes and valuables lost, and so on.

And so I pray for all those affected by this natural disaster. And for those of us who aren't directly affected, I hope we all can learn its lessons; not to let the petty, day-to-day grievances we all let fester affect us so deeply, to take care of the things we value and cherish in our lives, and MOST IMPORTANTLY after such soul-searching, to find our most charitable selves at these times to help those in need.

To that end I encourage everyone to donate to the many agencies currently looking to relieve the storm, either through their specific sites (such as the Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org), or through either of the current US presidential campaign sites (http://www.barackobama.com or http://www.johnmccain.com). Ari and I certainly will be doing so - please join us. And hold those people you love tight. God Bless.