A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed

I recently read the book A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed (for school), and so now I'm writing about it (for school).

It was a decent book. I found it boring much of the time, the writing is very dry. It pulled me in at first, then worked diligently at alienating me. It felt like an engaging, 65-page coming-of-age story followed by three hundred pages of appendices.

The early chapters work well. Nahlah started her life in the neighbourhood I live in, followed by her parents deciding to move the family from Canada to a refugee camp in Jordan. They eventually return to Canada, but the backward-seeming move instantly hooked me. Unfortunately, once her early life has been established, I was left wanting throughout the rest. I liked reading the perspective of recent political and historical events from the people on the ground where they occurred, but I felt like Nahlah disappeared after the beginning.

Valentine’s Day. Enjoy it if you can. I’m going shopping.

I’d expected a smoother show for the second time around on Lollapaloser. I set it up to be a sad Valentine’s show, but my solo radio instincts have got a ways to go. I found my groove again around halfway through, maybe I need to do a 90 minute show, and not broadcast the first 30.

It would have helped if I’d remembered to put my phone into airplane mode.

I played some of my very favourite sad songs, including the saddest song I know, Sufjan Stevens’ Casimir Pulaski Day.

My greatest regret is that I didn’t fit in The Verve’s The Drugs Don’t Work.

Drive-By Truckers’ The Sands of Iwo Jima has made me cry numerous times. It’s nice to be reminded that you’re not a psychopath every once in a while.

*nervous laughter*

It also would have been pretty sweet if I had exposed a few new people to ‘Til Tuesday and Voices Carry. I still gave Aimee Mann’s Labrador a play, though, so that will have to be consolation.

This last link is to a low-quality Valentine's Day-inspired piece that I wrote and performed for the Comedy Loser live show four years ago. I look a lot different in it than I do now, but I think the piece still has some merit.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150196844665128&l=3705608179031137754

The High Horse Olympics

The 2014 Winter Olympics officially begin today in Russia. I didn't bother with the opening ceremonies. I'm sure it was beautiful, but nationalism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Call me back when there's an interesting athletic competition so I can see who wins, and get back out before they start playing the winning country's branding song.

However, I have a problem with the anti-Olympic stuff I've been seeing online.

People who would have demonized gays 25 years ago are having a real nice time mounting their high horse when it comes to the Winter Olympics.

I’ve heard the Sochi Winter Olympics described as ‘the most anti-gay Olympics’ but that’s incorrect. We are sitting in a brief period of history where maybe there have been a couple Olympics that didn’t actively shun all gay people, but does anyone actually believe that it was more gay-friendly in Berlin in 1936, Los Angeles in 1984, or Calgary in 1988? AIDS had a lot of people afraid of gay people in the ‘80s, and I don’t think Hitler is known for his humanitarian record.

It’s a comfortable position, sitting in the saddle of a high horse, but with gay marriage not being legal everywhere in the US, maybe tone down the angry rhetoric.

The US should also stop looking down its nose at Russian corruption. Canada likes to compare itself to the US, because our policies pretty much always look good compared to them. We may be second-last in something, but as long as last-place goes to the US we feel accomplished.

The US has to compare itself to Russia to if they want to look good at all. That’s a pretty sorry state of affairs.

Sure, it’s troubling that Russia has passed anti-gay legislation. That said, I don’t recall hearing as many calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics, and there’s evidence that the Chinese government uses prisoners as organ farms.

I guess as long as your country’s shady bullshit is for the purpose of making money, that’s okay. Almost anything is okay when done in the pursuit of money (prisons, hospitals, schools), but Russia’s anti-gay activities don’t generate corporate dollars so they have to go sit in the corner until they can figure out a way to monetize their hatred.