The Weeks' News

It's been a long week ... a fair few new happenings

On Tuesday I had a meeting with the prarie organizer/ex-chair of the Edmonton chapter of the Council of Canadians. I will be starting up a UofA chapter this fall, provided there is enough interest. So, I've been looking into the club fair this fall and thinking of ideas for action. I think students could be a great asset to an activist organization. The CoC does not yet have a student chapter and not a lot of students otherwise. I think we could be an invaluable source of research/critical thinking that is not always present. I was reading a book of essays on NAFTA written by another Canadian activist group called the CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). It was awful. The citations were laughable - newspapers, other activist's books: rarely a primary source and even then, not used to support the main arguments. Extremely shotty work. I am excited to get started this fall!

Also, Ali-kat is now managing for a store on Whyte called Polly Magoo's. I am hired now to do a website for them. I will probably start with something extremely basic, but it will be a great way for me to practice! It's a great gig for her because it involves travelling to Asia to work on inventory ... it's a really cool shop.

We also had a couple of Germans staying with us for about a week. They walked into the cafe and asked whether we knew anyone who was involved in 'couchsurfing'. www.couchsurfing.com And we said they could stay on our couch if they needed to. It was a lot of fun. They are very nice people, and we had some good conversations and food and coffee. I hope to see them again.

New thoughts on the marriage next summer too! We think we might have it near the Rocky Mountains somewhere so that it is beautiful and easier for my family to get to (and so that Ali will bring only who is important for her to bring ... her parents want the guest list to include some 150 people on her side of the family) and then we will have a reception in edmonton.

Compassion

Thich Nhat Hanh/Daniel Berrigan again:

TNH: "The real Buddhist cannot be rich"

DB: "Why Not?"

TNH: "If you have compassion, you cannot be rich."

DB: "You could say that about the real Christian. But they all get rich. Not all, many."

TNH: "Maybe it's not that all poor Christians are more Christian or poor Buddhists are real Buddhists. But it seems that compassion, both in Buddhism and in Christianity, is so important, so basic, that you can be rich only when ou can bear the sight of suffering. If you cannot bear that, you have to give your possessions away."

News!

Ok, I can't hold out any longer! Since my parents read my blog, I have been trying to hold out until I have a chance to talk to them both, but I cannot hold on any longer.

Ali and I are now engaged! We plan to get married next summer in July (July 19). It will be an unconventional wedding ... more a party, a celebration of life, rather than a stone engraving of tradition and dreams, hopes too large to fulfill. It is very good. I have never loved a woman so much or felt so close in heart. Her compassion alone makes me happy enough to marry her. Still trying to figure out whether I should call her my fiance, wife, partner, spouse. So many of those words are worn, darkened. We will figure it out. Instead of getting me an engagement ring of some sort, she bought me a cat ... a new kitten. We actually still have only three cats, since one of them ran away during a thunderstorm while I was going to work ... it's sad, perhaps we will find her some day. We are thinking of having a BBQ with live plants on the tables instead of flowers. Some small ceremony for the actual wedding, speeches only if volunteered (and therefore heartfelt) and a big party that night.

This is a woman that I can share everything with. Someone with whom there is understanding: she looks beyond my words into my meanings, with whom I can walk with pride. My beautiful Ali-kat. Soon to be my ____.

Bookcrossing!

Ali-kat and I spent most of today helping a couple dispose of boxes and boxes of old books from their basement. We also just set up a bookcrossing shelf at Ali-kat's cafe.

Bookcrossing. It is a beautiful concept! You can look it up at www.bookcrossing.com . The basic idea is that you take books that you don't want anymore, register them online, and release them somewhere fun or somewhere convenient, for other people to find. When they find it, there is a registration number on the book and they log in on line, and, when they are finished with it, write a journal entry about the book. They then release the book again. You can watch as the book travels the world. It's great! It gets those old books that you keep for who knows what reason out into the world, out into new minds, and it saves the tree and pollution costs that are normally associated with buying a new book.

Beautiful ...

One box will go to the cafe and about 7 more will be donated to the University, either in support of HACUA (History and Classics Undergraduate Association) or be sent down to New Orleans to help rebuild libraries in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

It was a good, positive day.

Corporatism vs. Homelessness

Walking past the bank of montreal I ran into the following situation outside its doors:

Teller: This is bank property! If you don't leave right now, I will call the police!

Homeless, on knees: no verbal response, but a resigned, beaten-down look in his eyes.

Who is correct here? What is property? Is homelessness or corparitism more damaging, more of a problem to society? Is compassion or capital more valuable?

These are problems I have wrestled with. Perhaps my readers have experiences or thoughts they can share. All I know is that I feel bad giving money to the homeless, as it feels like "stupid compassion" knowing that many of them will use the money to hurt themselves.

Rant

So I went into HMV today ... and what did I find? Kenny G and Norah Jones in the Jazz section.

For those musicians that read this blog, please stop reading now, I am preaching to the choir.

For the rest of you:

Kenny G is not a jazz saxophonist. He is a pop saxophonist, playing adult contemporary music, and not very well. There is a long and important tradition to jazz and jazz saxophone. If you want to listen to jazz saxophone you might want to try these legends out: Lester Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Simms, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, "Cannonball" Adderley, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Dave Binney, Chris Speed, Chris Cheek ... Of course, I am missing many names, but these are a few. Listen to these! This is Jazz ... Kenny G is not, alas, he is in a class with Celine Dion, at the bottom of the trash can of music.

Norah Jones is not a jazz singer! She is a country/pop singer! If you want to listen to jazz vocals try: Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Hartman, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Tierney Sutton, Kurt Elling ... and so on.

Jazz is possibly the only musical art form that North America can be truly proud of ... it should be taken more seriously.

Notice

So I gave notice to my employer today. It was a one day notice. I was thinking of giving them one or two weeks, but that was before I went through my paycheck from last month. They rounded down every single day of work. This is to say that if I worked 9 hours and 59 minutes, they would pay me for 9 hours of work!! There was also no overtime pay, and originally, before I fought for it, they were paying me a lower wage then was agreed on.

My real concern, however, was safety. I have seen a vehicle with a cracked axle being driven. Many do not even have emergency brakes that work properly (or at all). One of the bobcats has bad hydraulics etc.

And they wouldn't take my spraying concerns seriously.

So, goodbye and goodluck finding good workers!!