I Need a Beverage

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1968

Since Jason brought it up, I have decided to share one of my poems. Now I am normally a spoken word artist and a slam poet, so my poems aren’t written to be read. They are written to be heard.

I think this one works written, though, mostly due to the density of references in it. I imagine that very few people who HEAR it catch them all, but when written, why not?

1968

I was born during the Tet Offensive
When the mighty Americanos
Learned what Sun Tzu knew
About playing in another team’s Backyard.
A year before Neal Armstrong
Proved that there was nowhere
Mankind could nto despoil
Leaving a trail of trash
In its wake.
We watched both on a little box
In GLORIOUS technicolour
Bringing the future kicking and
Screaming into the present
Past a collective wide-eyed awe
Fast becoming jaded as
Horror and wonder both
Became entertainment.
Happy myths such as
Lunar green cheese
And a just war
Joined bobby-socks and
Rumble seats in a naive world.

Writers could spin but
Pictures couldn’t lie,
Right?

We saw what we were shown
And believed it all.
It was a dark time
If you can’t believe your eyes
If your eyes see lies -
Well, I believe in Beatles
Or maybe scarabs
As our view of Arabs switched from
Happy Indiana Jonesian Egyptians
To sky-writing high-flyers
In the blink of an eye
Or snap of a shutter
As this latest fear mongering
Is brought to you by
Slippy Peanut Butter -
The choice of a New Generation
Or germination as the seeds of
Mistrust are planted just below
The surface.

I was conceived during
The Summer of Love
And sprang forth, fully-armoured
During a new year of war
Because Summer always gives way
To the Fall and
Love to Pride
As the flowers fall from our hair
And the girl from the North Country Fair
Sports a page-boy
And looks at me like
She can guess my name.

If it’s all the same
I want a do-over.
Red Rover, Red Rover
I call a sense of optimism over
Or freedom, or even just
Sunshine on a cloudy day
Because sometimes, every day is
Cloudy.
When the desire to stand
And be counted means
Being like Tommie Smith and John Carlos
Put up your fist if all you want is…

I was born during a 5-day sit-in at
Howard University
A week after the Mai Lai Massacre

I was born two weeks before
Martin Luther King Jr. paid the
Ultimate price for asking for a
Little justice.

I dreamed a little dream of peace
Of pieces of a broken world
Built on a crumbling foundation
As all pretence is dropped
And instead of fights for rights
We have squabbles over pay-outs.

I was born during a time of war
I was born during a time of potential
I was born during a time of death
And birth
And principles
And desire
And a movement
And revolution and evolution in collusion

I was born by the river
In a little tent
I was born just in time
Because a change IS gonna come
And I want to be here to see it.

Rusty Priske, Champion Wordsmith

I’m very happy to say that Team Ottawa (including our own R.L. Priske as team alternate and organizing force) has won the 2009 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Update that Wikipedia page…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Festival_of_Spoken_Word

I’m sure we’ll see some content posted here at some point. Ahem.

When Does Preperation Become Fear-Mongering?

I wonder, because I think we are moving past that point.

I listen to what is being said about H1N1 around Ottawa and the resulting craze maddens me.

It is the flu.

Have there been deaths resulting from it? Yes there have, but compare that to deaths from the flu every year and I think you will not see a huge difference.

Of course, when you have children etc. (which I do not), I can see why you would be cautious, but we aren’t talking about caution now, we are talking about driving the public into a state of panic.

Today I was forwarded an article about symptoms to watch for to know if your child has H1N1… three times in less than an hour.

The list is filled with things like shortness of breath and greying skin, excessive vomiting and the like.

Let’s play a game of pretend, shall we? Let’s say you had never heard of H1N1. Then let’s pretend you saw your child having ANY of those symptoms. Would you seek medical help?

OF COURSE YOU WOULD

So, why do we need to create this state of panic surrounding the city these days?

To sell flu shots?

To keep us productive in order to protect the economy?

Maybe.

If  so, it isn’t working because we have one person who works here who has decided that it is her job to give us round the clock updates and every possible sniffle in the office.

Bah.

Adrenaline pulls us near

When I was a kid, I was told that I was too sensitive and that I needed to develop a thicker skin. That worked for a while – I underachieved, but did so in relative peace.

About three years ago, someone suggested I try acting. I thought it was a fabulous idea. I loved film and TV growing up, I had dabbled in theater, and I was already doing “background” acting (the preferred term for extras) here in Vancouver on a lark. I took a part-time course, and I had an immediate and highly positive response. I enrolled in a full-time program. And that’s when the universe changed.

Look people in the eye. See them for who they are. See yourself for who you are. Understand how other people see you. Be open to experience. Be open to the truth. Mind your posture. Mind your tongue. Relax. Breathe. Respond.

Now that I’ve been trained in these dark arts, I’m an exposed raw nerve swimming in adrenaline. Every moment seems to induce the fight-or-flight response. I had to go to the clinic two weeks ago with palpitations and a rapid heartbeat. I’m on beta blockers now to keep my heart from racing. No more coffee. No more tea. Not even green tea. I’ve spoken with some of my fellow sensitive actor types, and I am not alone in this.

None of us are. We are all under stress. Some people just have thicker skins. You can tell by how much they disengage, look away, close off, tense up, deflect, defend, and lie.

Important Dates

So September 11th came and went, along with the usual mix of discussions about it. The combination of remembering those who died and a call to arms agaisnt ‘those responsible’ led me to ponder the impact of tragedies.

I suppose it isn’t the direct impact I am thinking of, but rather the way those tragedies are used in the time following the tragedy.

Start with December 6th,  1989 when Marc Lepine killed fourteen women in Montreal. He left behind a note explaining his hatred of women. At first this was held up as showing the attitudes of men towards women in society.

I was appalled. How can one person, clearly not in sound mind, represent the attitudes of all men… including me! This was a horrible tragedy, but really was not ‘about’ women, any more than you can say it was ‘about’ university students. BUT…

The anniversary of the massacre is being used to remind people ABOUT the problem of violence against women, which DOES exist and NEEDS to be addressed. So whether I agreed with the initial reaction, it is being used for a positive purpose. Now I am a supporter of the Dec.6th memorializing. It is a good way to use a tragedy to try and improve our world.

September 11th is a whole different situation. Horrible, HORRIBLE tragedy. There is no denying that. I remember the day vividly and I remember my reaction that caused me to question whether I could honestly call myself a pacifist anymore.

Now the anniversary is used to remember those who died… and rally people to continue the fight against people who may or may not (likely not) have had anything to do with the attacks.

To me, that is just sad. The date COULD be used to try and mend fences in a world that continually uses violence and oppression as diplomatic tools. Instead it is used to deepen the problems that led to the attacks in the first place.

As I said, I find it sad.

The Wonderful World of Marvel

So, if you frequent any of the same sort of websites that I do (or, you know, read the paper),  you probably already know that yesterday there was a BIG announcement.

Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 BILLION in cash and shares.

This is huge.

I have been trying to process my feelings on it and I am still at a bit of a loss. I remember when Marvel was bought out by Perleman and he immediately tried to destroy it in order to finance some junk bonds or something (http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Wars-Marvels-Battle-Survival/dp/0785116060). The later purchase by ToyBiz was about toys, not comics. When the action figure market tanked, the comic biz became the primary purpose for the company again.

So now what? Does Marvel transform into Disney?

No way. Disney understands that buying and castrating does not turn into more money. Look at Pixar. Look at Miramax.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t interfere. Look at Miramax.

Some voices are saying that having all that money behind the corporate overlords will be more flexibility for Marvel. Yet when Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast the opposite happened. They sold Legend of the Five Rings despite the fact that it was making money because it’s LEVEL of profit was below what Hasbro was interested in investing in. (Hey, it turned out good for L5R, and therefore me, but that is beside the point.)

So, I don’t know. We’ll see. For better or for worse, the Big Two are now Disney/ABC/Marvel and AOL/Time-Warner/DC.

 

“““““““““““““““““““

 

It seems that Warner Bros. has ‘reacted’ to that news as well. The newly formed DC Entertainment has the comic compnay rolling up to Warner Pictures. Levitz is out as publisher and a WB executive replaces him.

Hmmm….

Try outs

I like that my kids play hockey. I like that they’re part of a team. I like that they are continually put into situations where they have to make snap decisions and live with the consequences. I like the leadership that they’re developing.

I can honestly say that I want them to play at the level that is most appropriate for them. I don’t especially need my sons to play at the highest level of hockey available to them: I would much rather that they play at the level that will challenge them, but not overwhelm them. I can honestly say that.

So why am I so anxious over my youngest son’s tryouts for tier one/two (AA/A) competitive hockey? I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night thinking about this. It has occupied my thoughts for much of the last two weeks. Frankly, my life will be a lot easier if he plays on a third-tier competitive or house level team.

But it’s not about me. It’s about him. And he wants to play on the ‘A’ team. He really wants to play on this team. He’s known the coach of this team his entire life. He privately told me that he’d ask to play ‘A’ if he made the cut for the ‘AA’ team. He really wants this. So, I guess that I want him to play there. While I think it’s good for kids to be disappointed once in a while, I don’t want him to be disappointed now.

Besides, while I’m not expert on such things, I think he deserves to be there. He’s made it through the first two rounds of cuts. The third and final round ends tomorrow after eight hours of scrimmages over nine days. Tomorrow, we’ll know.

Lame Videos

My esteemed colleague and I have started a nasty habit of recording totally lame videos to support some of our events. Here’s our latest effort.

Remember that I have only just started to hone my craft, so it is a little rough around the edges.

Enjoy!

There’s Something About Integrity

Hi. I’m Jason. Pleased to meet you.

I’m a simple farmboy from Nova Scotia who moved across Canada in 1984 (not 1986) and met these other three guys in high school. We formed a highly exclusive clique, in that the four of us were so difficult to peg socially that we had nowhere else to go. All four of us are jocknerds, or art scientists, or maybe just bipolar. It’s kinda like this…

Wikipedia entry for Byronic hero

I’ll save you the clickthrough and paste the meaty part: the list of characteristics. Each of the four of us (and perhaps many of you out there on the interwebs) has a whole lot of at least some of these.

high level of intelligence and perception

cunning and able to adapt

sophisticated and educated

self-critical and introspective

mysterious, magnetic and charismatic

struggling with integrity

power of seduction and sexual attraction

social and sexual dominance

emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness

a distaste for social institutions and norms

being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw

“dark” attributes not normally associated with a hero

disrespect of rank and privilege

a troubled past

cynicism

arrogance

self-destructive behavior

So, given most of these qualities, naturally I became an actor.