My good friend Chet Woodside and I had been trying to go to Frenchie’s for a long time. After all, what can be wrong with poutine? Oh, right, yeah. I hate cheese and I’m lactose-intolerant. That would do it. But he does like poutine, and I wanted to try the Montreal smoked meat sandwich, so we went there for lunch. I ordered a sandwich ($8.00 for 8 oz sandwich) and a pop.
Chet seems to have enjoyed his poutine (which was massive).
I’m still not 100% sold on Frenchie’s, although the decor is very cute and kind of 1950s. I had higher hopes, perhaps. The food is good, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not in love with the place. So strange!
It is somewhat ironic that I, an academic, had never been to The Academic Public House. Well, until last night. I had been to other Donnelly Group pubs, in particular The Lamplighter. But not to The Academic. I pondered what the place would look like and whether I would like the food. Last night my good friend Erin McConnell took me there for drinks and dinner, and she said it had been good.
Admittedly, I also was the one who suggested going to The Academic simply because I had never been there. I’m glad Erin and I went there for dinner and drinks, as both were good. I ordered a turkey sandwich with salad that was big, filling and with good flavors. I wasn’t that impressed with the side salad, but I think that’s because I mostly couldn’t really taste the dressing (I added some lime and it went down really well).
For drinks, I ordered a “The Bees Knees” (Tanqueray, honey syrup, lemon juice, orange juice), which was on special but is normally $9.40. If I were to make a quick assessment of what I think about The Academic, I’m quite pleasantly surprised. The service was really good, the server was absolutely friendly, the food was pretty solid and more importantly, the music was excellent and it wasn’t super loud. We did sit on the patio, which was an added bonus. I’ll be back to The Academic Public House, for sure. Thanks Erin for taking me here!
If there is something I love is freebies, and I also love when a company like Best Buy Canada follows up their awesome promotion (like the external hard drive giveaway they recently sponsored on my blog) with other great propositions, including a few hours of GeekSquad free laptop tune-ups and help setting up your mobile devices (on a first-come, first-serve).
On Tuesday, August 31 from 11am – 7pm, at the TD Plaza on West Georgia and Granville Geek Squad and Best Buy Mobile will be on location downtown providing FREE computer system tune-ups and mobile phone upgrade checks. You can bring your phone, or your computer – and they’ll do the work while you get your technology questions answered by the experts of GeekSquad and Best Buy and enter to win very cool prizes.
Below I quote what they are offering.
Free PC Diagnostic Test
A full suite of unique tests using diagnostic software tools will be used to determine the performance of your laptop.
Service takes approx. 30 minutes to complete.
Free System Tune-Up ($39 value)
Startup is optimized. Temp files are cleaned and downsized. Antivirus is updated (if available). Computer is set up to automatically schedule defragmenting the hard drive and scan disked to optimize and verify health. Drivers are updated and critical updates run. OS security settings are configured. Service takes approx. 30 – 45 minutes to complete.
Free Computer Cleaning ($29 value)
The outside of your computer or laptop is physically cleaned. Service takes approx. 15 minutes to complete
The one thing that I am particularly liking about this Best Buy Canada project is the heavy involvement of social media – they are encouraging you to tweet @BBYCanada with the hashtag #BBY4BTS – they will be giving away gift cards and drawing on the 100th tweet, the 1,000th, etc.
While fully admitting that I was coming into Blue Surge expecting it to be a fantastic work (I have seen the work of Sabrina Evertt and her team at Twenty Something Productions before, with Prodigals – read my review here), I always try to enter a new play devoid of any preconceptions. I was definitely not disappointed. Blue Surge explores really tough terrain with mastery, dexterity and depth.
The actors who portray the main characters manage to intensely immerse themselves in their work, so much so that they made me want to slap them (particularly Leroux as Curt and McGeough as the sweet Sandy). I’m not surprised that Evertt and her cast and crew achieve such an intense and in-depth exploration of terrain that is often uncharted. This is no Pretty Woman, don’t get your hopes high. This is intense drama and entangled lives that never seem to fully emerge from their inner misery.
From the official press release:
Blue Surge tells the story of Curt (Jeremy Leroux), a small-town cop, and Sandy (Megan McGeough), the 18-year old prostitute he meets in a raid on a massage parlour. Curt finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Sandy and begins a relationship with her that puts everything he’s worked for – his career, his friendships, and his engagement to his fiancée – at risk. But Curt sees a future with Sandy, an escape from his difficult past. As the two of them chase their dreams, they must learn a skill that is foreign to them both: they must learn to hope. Rounding out the cast is Curt’s best friend Doug (Chris Rosamond) and fiancée Beth (Claire Lindsay) as well as Sandy’s friend and roommate Heather (Tara Pratt).
I adore Tara Pratt, that’s public knowledge. Her role in Prodigals really captured my heart and here she rounds up a supporting role that really adds to Sandy’s storyline (McGeough). Leroux and I had a brief chat after the opening night performance and I mentioned how good his acting was, because he really wanted to make me slap him (every mistake Curt made seemed to add to the already long list of failures his life was). Lindsay was excellent as Curt’s fiancée (with an extreme tolerance for Curt’s shortcomings, in my opinion).
Thanks to Theatre TwentySomething for a great experience, to my good friend Erin McConnell for joining me on opening night as my Plus One, and to Sabrina for offering a pair of tickets to giveaway to one lucky reader of mine. It was a really good performance and the cast deserves a big round of kudos.
Blue Surge runs until September 5 at Studio 16 (a relatively small theatre but very nice, in the francophone building). Check their website for information on tickets.
I am well known for giving pretty damn good bear hugs, and while I’m not someone who eats much peanut butter, I do know it’s a staple of Canadian families’ breakfast. Lots of my friends who were born and raised in Canada (and even my family members in the US) do eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches frequently. So when Kraft contacted me about their campaign, I really liked it.
Kraft Peanut Butter bears Crunchie and Smoothy will be giving bear hugs and donate peanut butter jars, and I think the campaign is sweet and positive (as for each hug, Kraft will donate 1 jar of peanut butter to a food bank, more precisely to the Vancouver Food Bank, which has been in dire need this summer). I was also told that if you can’t share a hug in person, send a hug online and Kraft will make the same donation.
For more information, you can check the Spread the Feeling website. The Vancouver event is at the Vancouver Aquarium from 11:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday August 28th. You can also share hugs online!
The online hug counter started up yesterday and from the information I received, Vancouverites have already given out over 850 hugs (or 850 jars of peanut butter to be donated). Kraft will honour any hugs over the target by providing a larger donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. E.g. if Vancouver gives out 10,500 hugs, Kraft will donate 10,500 jars of peanut butter!)
I will definitely try to make it to the Vancouver Aquarium for this event. Sounds like fun!
Last night (thanks, in no small part to my not-so-good ability to pinpoint a meeting location for the Vancouver Blogger Meetup) our meetup was rather small (but it felt so right, at the same time!). Erika Rathje, Jan Karlsbjerg and I showed up (and as he usually does, my friend Jan has a summary of what we talked about at the August 2010 Vancouver Blogger Meetup).
As we were splitting and I was leaving, I received a call from Minna telling me that Ganesh, Jay and her were meeting me at Second Beach, so I waited a few minutes. We played in the swings for a little bit and then watched the sunset and walked back towards the office. It’s probably been one of the most relaxing evenings I had since I went to Parksville and Qualicum Beach with my Mom.
Sometimes, in the whirlwind of life I have, I realize how easy it is to forget that I live a pretty privileged life. I’m glad spending yesterday evening with good friends gave me an opportunity to remind myself of how lucky I am.
As I have mentioned before, I am back to teaching undergraduates at UBC this fall (1 course in September-December 2010, 2 courses in January-April 2011), which means that the social media personality will have to take a backseat to the academic and educator. That said, I try to make sure that PR people know where I stand and what my time availability is for the (limited number of) engagements I could possibly attend.
So, just so that everyone knows, I will be pretty much unavailable any time before 5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (pitches thus would be most welcome on Thursdays and Fridays). By the same token, for those journalists/media outlets who would like to have me provide an opinion as a specialist in the field of environment, sustainability and public policy, I would be available for meetings/commentary on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
I think doing this (e.g. making my schedule available) should make it easy for people who want to book time with me.
It’s been a relatively long while since I have liveblogged the way I used to in 2008 and 2009, but I have always (well, at least since I began dipping my toes into the social media world) thought that there is value to having an event liveblogged. I no longer have the luxury of enough time to liveblog events and thus have been really happy whenever someone else takes on that role.
For example, at a recent event that the Social Media Club Vancouver (Social Media 101 with Tris Hussey, Guacira Naves and Kemp Edmonds) had liveblogged, I took over from Sascha Neth (who was the designated liveblogger) as soon as I arrived to the event (but I would have not been able to do that if Sascha hadn’t volunteered to start it!). Unashamedly, I’m well-seasoned in transcribing (as I type close to 100 wpm), and I’m proud of the liveblogs I’ve done.
I was intrigued today by a tweet sent by Jeremiah Owyang (now with Altimeter), someone who is very well respected in the social media sphere. See his tweet below. He indicates that folks should think long-term and not rely solely on Twitter, particularly if they are live-tweeting conferences.
Those that tweet lots during conference should consider live blogging, esp since Twitter’s history of tweets “disappears”, think LONG termless than a minute ago via webJeremiah Owyang jowyang
What *I* do is create iFrames (I have experimented with CoverItLive and ScribbleLive and have chosen to stay loyal to CiL) and grab the tweets that are hashtagged with a particular keyword. I then download the content locally as HTML and that way I preserve both my liveblog and all associated tweets. I am a bit puzzled to see Jeremiah’s tweet because, well, I thought *everyone* did what I do. But it seems they don’t.
For a recent example of a combined liveblog-incorporating-livetweetage you can see my coverage of Convergence’s Corporation 2.0 panel.
Three factors I suggest people consider when pondering whether you need to have your event/conference liveblogged:
Liveblogging requires valuable skills (not only typing, but ability to summarize content, find links and add your own commentary). Don’t expect your events to be liveblogged for free. This is a service that is important, and thus should be rewarded monetarily
Tweets are fleeting. If you are going to use CoverItLive or ScribbleLive, consider downloading your liveblog locally
Make sure you link and credit your sources.
I think that as more people realize just how fleeting tweets are, people will return to liveblogs. At least, I hope so!
I love the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, and lucky for me, they love me back. VLAFF has kindly generously given me 3 (three) pairs of tickets to the opening night film, Los Viajes del Viento (The Wind Journeys), Spanish with English subtitles / 117 min (Colombia/Netherlands/Argentina/Germany, 2009). Opening night for VLAFF is September 2nd, at Empire 7 Cinemas on Granville Street. The trailer for Los Viajes del Viento is shown below.
To enter this giveaway, you can do one of two things. The first, simply drop a comment on this post indicating which one of the numerous films of VLAFF are you looking forward or interested in seeing. There is a fabulous lineup you can check here. I will be drawing three (3) random winners on Tuesday August 31st at 4pm, from all entries (Twitter and blog). The second mode of entry is to tweet the following sample (you can do either or, or both):
I entered @hummingbird604 and @VLAFF’s giveaway for tickets to opening night. Colombia feautred country #VLAFF2010 http://is.gd/eDPGb
I am really looking forward to seeing many of the VLAFF 2010 films – particularly as I know that there will be several Mexican productions. VLAFF takes place from September 2nd to the 12th, 2010. For more information on VLAFF and how to purchase tickets you can check their Facebook and Twitter presences.
The September long weekend is coming up and LIVE at Squamish is taking place on Saturday September 4th and Sunday September 5th. This promises (as I wrote earlier) to be one of the most exciting summer festivals (well, although technically, it’s close to fall).
I have an amazing weekend music, adventure and fun prize package to give away to a pair of lucky readers, courtesy of Live At Squamish, Howe Sound Inn & Brewing and Squamish Riverjet. This prize package includes:
A pair of weekend passes for LIVE at Squamish
One night stay at Howe Sound Inn & Brewing, PLUS a $50 gift certificate for the Howe Sound pub
Two seats for a Squamish Riverjet jetboat experience
To enter my giveaway, drop a comment on this post telling me about which band you are looking forward to see the most. You can earn a second entry to my contest by tweeting the following:
I want to win a prize package for @LIVEAtSquamish from @hummingbird604 and @howesoundbeer http://bit.ly/9r2g7E
You could also tweet directly from this blog entry (clicking on the Twitter button), and I’ll track your entry with the hashtag #HB604LAS. You have until September 1st at 4pm to enter this giveaway. Just to recap:
– To gain a first entry, comment on the band/musician you are looking forward to seeing the most.
– To gain a second entry, tweet the sample tweet.
I will fully admit that I am looking forward to having a last weekend getaway before the semester starts again. Enjoying LIVE at Squamish and staying at Howe Sound Inn & Brewing sounds like MY kind of weekend getaway!
You can check the schedule for LIVE at Squamish here. Thanks to Howe Sound Brewery, LIVE at Squamish and Squamish Riverjet for sponsoring all the prizes in this package! You can also follow Howe Sound Brew and LIVE at Squamish on Twitter
Admittedly, I’m always super busy, and in particular, during the week. So as I was waking up this morning (Saturday) I realized that today is perhaps the only day that I give myself permission to do nothing but domestic chores. I feel so guilty if I do anything related to house chores during the week that I sort of reserve them to the Saturday, usually in the morning. When do you do your own chores?
My heart broke along with Danny Wheeler’s (Tye Olson). In a well-crafted story of coming of age, Watercolours (David Oliveras, USA, 2008) shows an often-told story of nerdy/geeky boy (Danny, Tye Olson in a super sweet depiction of an artistic geek) who falls in love with bad boy, jock type (Carter, Kyle Clare in a portrayal that annoys the heck out of me – a testament to his good acting). Why did I like a movie about a story that has been told many times over? I liked it because it doesn’t have the usual Hollywood boy-falls-in-love-with-boy, boy-loses-boy, boy-gets-boy-back way.
The story is told flashback style, as the movie starts with older Danny’s art exhibition. Back to the younger days (16 years ago), Carter is a jock who swims competitively an lives with a dominant father. Danny is an artistic kid who lives with his doting mother. Their lives entangle thanks to Carter’s bad grades and Danny’s brainiac capabilities. As expected, romance blossoms (Carter is uncertain of his sexuality but throughout the movie he shows definite love for Danny). Danny has never been in love and is at the same time surprised and joyous of the awakening of his own sexuality.
The love scenes are very well done, subtle (though fair warning, there’s full nudity) and really contribute to the story telling. Though at times I felt that the plot was disjointed (it looked as though the relationship evolved very slowly at times and super fast at times), Sullivan makes a good job of making us witness to a complicated relationship that (from Carter’s perspective) perhaps never should have started in the first place.
The casting for Danny and older Danny (Tye Olson and Ian Rhodes) was amazing. The resemblance is uncanny. Of all actors, I was particularly taken with Olson’s acting, and when his heart broke, mine broke along with his. There is a rather painful scene of gay bashing that I didn’t take well. While it complements the story and leads the way to part of the plot resolution, it was hard to take in given the recent gay bashings in Vancouver. I squirmed throughout the whole scene and covered my eyes more than once, I’ll admit.
I enjoyed the movie and left the theatre satisfied with how the story was told and how it resolved. It was a bit painful to watch (as it often happens to me when I see these “coming of age” movies) but very, very enjoyable. The VQFF selection committee did a fantastic job of choosing the films this year, most definitely.
The official VQFF summary and trailer follows:
On the opening night of his first New York art exhibit, Danny reflects on the inspiration of his paintings. Memories of his first love, Carter, are triggered and through a series of flashbacks a bumpy coming-of-age story is told. Danny’s mother takes in Carter, a high school athlete with golden-boy looks and a troubled home life. Danny-a nerdy type- helps Carter with his homework and before long these tutorials turn into mutual attraction. Their blossoming relationship brings Danny out of his shell, awakening both his sexuality and creativity. But it is heartache that drives Danny to paint as he discovers the hard way that only art can turn pain into beauty. Fifteen years later, Danny is faced with the reality that he has never truly moved on and let go.
One of the things that I have learned with my involvement in social media in the past four and a half years is to navigate the fine balance between having a personal blog with a wide audience (e.g. being media) and being a specialist in environmental policy (e.g. being an expert). Public relations specialists work with both and I have interacted with hundreds of PR folks in both capacities (as media and as expert).
I have been honored with the friendship of many staff members of one of the strongest PR firms in Vancouver, and possibly in Canada – The Wilcox PR Group, headed by Mat Wilcox (Founder) and Erin McConnell (President).
In the past few years, I built a very strong and collaborative relationship with the folks of The Wilcox PR Group. Many of their clients would want to gain exposure and share their message on my blog, so Wilcox pitched me on many occasions, with a very high success rate. And they succeeded because they sought only stories that would fit my blog, they sought to make sure that it was a great project and they shared their enthusiasm for it. They also followed my guidelines on how to pitch me quite closely.
I learned a lot about PR from my interactions with the folks of Wilcox, and I built what I hope will be long-lasting friendships after Wilcox closes. I have the utmost respect for the technical capabilities of these folks, and I am sure they will go places in the PR sphere in Canada and Vancouver.
I was invited last night to be part of a group of folks (former staff members, clients and friends) who celebrated the 15 years of Wilcox PR at The Corner Suite. I felt incredibly privileged not only because it was a wonderful evening but because I got to see how much respect and love there is in this town for these great folks. I look forward to seeing what great stuff you guys create in the not-so-distant future.
And to Mat Wilcox – even though we just have met in real life once (last night), I do look forward to more opportunities to hang out. Same goes for everyone – Trevor, Erin, Michael, Lynsey, Nick, Jeff, Yvonne. It has been an honor, and a pleasure.
My good friend Caroline McGillivray is the founder of Beauty Night, an amazing charitable organization that builds self-esteem in women in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver by providing them with free makeovers. Caroline and I have been good friends for a few years but I never had interviewed her to learn more about Beauty Night, so I fired her a few questions recently.
Raul – Caroline, I first knew of Beauty Night even before you and I became friends. I saw an article in the Vancouver Sun about your project and I thought it was amazing. Then we became friends and got to know a bit more about it. For my readers, could you please give us a bit of background as to why did you initiate Beauty Night?
Caroline – Thank you, Raul! Beauty Night was the outcome of my volunteer experience at WISH Drop In Centre. WISH provides meals, onsite nursing and many programs for women who are survival sex workers. Most women who become survival sex workers have experienced physical or sexual violence before the age of 18. The average age of entry into street life is 14yrs of age in Canada; 12 in BC. One night, one of the women who participate in WISH’s programs had had a bad day. She attempting to curl her hair. When I saw that she was getting frustrated by not being able to do so, I offered to help. She agreed. When she left she had an extra bounce in her step. I wondered what it would be like to do that on a larger scale to reach more women.
I spoke to the volunteer coordinator of WISH and proposed a Beauty Night for the women. With WISH’s support, we held the first Beauty Night Dec 15th, 2000. 73 participated. 14 volunteers. We provided hair cuts, manicures, skin cleansing, warm clothing and healthy snacks. When I asked for feedback, I realized how many of the participants did not have too much experience with positive touch. Most of the time they were used to people touching the because someone wanted something from them or would avoid touching them.
Why did I initiate Beauty Night? Originally because I knew how great I felt after getting a hair cut or a mini facial. I wanted to bring that to the women. Once we did our first event, I realized what we were doing was a lot bigger than I had conceptualized. Healthy touch and wellness is imperative to our well being. Babies who are not touched will die. Seniors are encouraged to have contact with living beings such as a pet to lower their blood pressure. 90% of women who end up in prison or correctional facilities have experienced.sexual violence/abuse before that age of 18. According to Anmesty International: At least one out of every three women has been beaten, forced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Many women who have experienced negative touch blame themselves. Through Beauty Night and connecting our participants to our partner organizations (that provide food, shelter, addiction services and much more), we are able to create a safe space for women to be themeselves, make friends and leave feeling good about who they are. When people feel good, they believe anything is possible.
Beauty Night is a community where we have like-minded talented volunteers, staff, contributors and participants who work together to foster healthy self esteem and self determination. 11 000 makeovers in the last 9.5 years thanks to over 400 volunteers! On a personal note, I love Beauty Night. I like having a venue for people to participate and see a direct result from their skill and effort. I believe it is empowering to all that are involved.
1/3 of our participants are mothers with children, 1/3 are seniors, 1/3 survival sex workers. We have evolved our life makeover program to include:
Creation station: fusion of literacy, arts & crafts, personal developement
Yoga/stretch classes.
Child Minding & children programming
Makeovers – healthcare & beauty practitioners volunteer their services.
Raul – I have a lot of clothing that could go to males and it’s in
perfectly good condition. Have you thought of creating, say, “Beauty
Night” for Men (of course, we don’t usually use makeup that much!)
Caroline – I think healthy touch and programs that build self- esteem are beneficial to men and women. Our board is working on developing a template for Beauty Night so we can reach more women, youth and men around the world. We are hoping to have that template developed by 2012. Our bylaws are set up so we can offer programming to men. We have done beauty night for men and street youth (up to age 29). Events have included hair cuts, air brush tatoos, relaxation massage, stretch classes and yoga (beneficial for men living with Hep C), hand scrubs, foot care (pedicures), and much more.
We have a Beauty Night coming up in August at Gathering Place Street Fair. If you are able to drop the clothing off at our booth, we are more than happy to hand it out. For many not for profits, it is difficult to store clothing. It is hard due to lack of storage space and bed bug infestation. We encourage people who would like to donate clothing to:
a) Contact our organization to arrange to drop it off on a day we are doing programs. Usually no more than a garbage bag at a time. Clothing must be clean and gently used – current – within the last two years. Things like underwear and socks are needed.
b) Do a clothing swap with like minded individuals, possibly sell some of the clothing and donate the proceeds to us.
c) Consign or sell the clothing at a consignment store, EBay, or Craigslist and donate the proceeds to the organization.
Raul – What would be the necessary steps for people to help Beauty Night grow – what does Beauty Night need now, in terms of funding, or in terms of volunteers, etc.?
Caroline – For Beauty Night to continue achieving it’s mission (to build self esteem, change lives) we need help creating a sustainable model. Thanks to our contributors and volunteers we are able to run a $280 000 program on a shoe string budget. With our 10 year anniversary celebration coming up in December 15th, we are looking for more volunteers to participate and contributors to support. Part of the celebration will be our annual Xmas Stocking Drive. Local Designer Nancy Perrault will be designing an Xmas STocking. Dressew donated the fabric. We will be asking sewers and textile classes to sew the stockings, brownie/sparks/girl guide groups to decorate them and for sponsors to fill them. We are looking for money to continue our programs and to fill those xmas stockings, people to connect us to people who might be able to help, and people who might be interesting in investing in changing the lives of many.
Thanks Caroline for sharing some of your insights into Beauty Night!
Every time I pass by Richmond’s industrial parks (or any industrial park, for that matter), I get a very strong feeling of nostalgia. My first degree is in chemical engineering, and I have always worked with industries, either studying them (as I did with my doctoral dissertation and as I have done ever since I received my PhD) or consulting for them (as I did after my MBA and continue to do to this day, on occasion).
The geographical concentration of industrial plants in one specific location is something that captivates my mind. My doctoral thesis is filled with references to location theory, and whenever I drive (or bike or transit) through industrial areas I always feel compelled to knock on each plant’s door to see if they’d allow me to chat with them. I am, after all, very much an industrial ethnographer.
I am also curious to know how do cafes like the one shown above sustain themselves, when there is no foot traffic and where potential customers are only pretty much the workers in the industrial facilities in the vicinity of where the cafe is located.
Also, I wonder if it is easy to access these industrial parks by transit. Lots of question to ask, too little time.
2010 didn’t turn out the way I expected it in many ways. Not because it’s been a bad year. Nothing further from the truth. So far, it has been an amazing year. I have grown so much, and in ways I didn’t expect, so much so that I can recognize the changes in the way I have approached my own life even in the small little details.
I do, however, foresee a number of changes that I need to make in my multifaceted life. I have been working 12-16 hour days trying to juggle my academic work, my social media and policy consulting, my teaching and research, and my social life, including time with friends, both from the online and the offline world.
This extremely-busy life has had a detrimental effect in some (not all) of my relationships, and the truth is, the holidays and getaways I did this year (particularly with my Mom to Calgary and Parksville/Qualicum Beach) were instrumental in showing me how much I have needed a vacation.
I am thrilled that my blog and my Twitter account have reached such high readership. As I mentioned before, I did not even expect to have been able to do what I currently do, and to have the exposure, audience and reach that I do. I’m incredibly grateful for that.
Last year, I made myself a promise that I would be attending less events and that I would work on saying “no” more often, so that when I attended I would be fully there. Truth is, I succeeded for a while, but this summer has been all kinds of insanely busy. I might have been overbooking myself again.
So my promise to myself this fall is to fix that, and focus on a number of things that I want to do:
Play again competitive volleybal in a local league
Return to salsa dancing (even if not competitive, but just taking lessons maybe for the first little while)
Improve my French (which is one of the weakest of the languages I speak)
Spend more time with my old friends (particularly those I met before I had a life online
Focus more on my academic writing and get out all the research output I have been struggling to get out (admittedly, I have perhaps a few too many research papers in progress!)
Which means, as you may imagine – much less blogging, and much less attending events, and saying more NOs than I am used to.
Keeping my 2010 manifesto on my blog’s sidebar has helped keep me accountable. My friends online have helped keep me accountable (thanks to all of you who have frequently reminded me I was working on learning to say NO more often). And writing these milestone blog entries helps me be more accountable.
I began reducing my current commitments by resigning from some of my volunteer duties. I am pretty sure I will not be accepting many event invitations starting next month. And since I am back to teaching undergraduate courses, my availability is reduced anyways.
All of this in summary to say – I love what I do, ALL of it. I love it when people tell me “if there’s someone who can combine the social media persona with the academic, it’s you“. And I love the accolades. Who doesn’t? I’m human, after all, and I’m not immune to praise.
But I need to keep my eyes on the prize. I need to keep my focus on my research, my teaching, my consulting projects and my collaborative academic projects, including my research publications.
So, starting September 1st, please accept my apologies in advance if I say “sorry, I can’t make it” to your event/PR pitch/tweetup/gathering.
There’s about 457 different versions of this song, but I luckily could find out which one is the one that brings tears to my eyes. For anybody who likes deep house and funk, you might like this particular song. It’s called “Club Lonely (Lonely People)” by Craig Jensen featuring Gina Foster. And as you may imagine, I am currently obsessed with it. Hope you enjoy!
It’s amazing what an outstanding movie can do to your emotional health. I knew coming into Violet Tendencies (Casper Andreas, 2010, IMDB) that it would be a fun and campy movie. What I did not expect at all was to absolutely adore it. Andreas does what many people fail to do in GLBT movies: he resoundingly succeeds at interweaving three story lines around a central axis, in this case adorable and amazing actress Mindy Cohn.
We have Marcus (Casper Andreas) and Riley (Samuel Whitten, in a role that wins the heart of everyone in the movie theatre), the writer/blogger and the fashion boutique PR manager, pondering the never-easy-to-answer question: “are we ready to have children?”. We have Darian (Adrian Armas) and Luke (Jesse Archer), exploring the question of how to be monogamous. We have an exotic dancer (Marcus Patrick) and his hidden past. And as the centerpiece to this puzzle we have our beloved-throughout-the-movie Violet (Cohn), who is best-friend-forever (BFF) to all of the above gay men (Violet is, in the GLBT lingo, a “fag hag”).
Violet is sick and tired of being single so she sets out on a quest to find her “fag stag” (aka a straight man who can hang out with gay men). Yes, by all accounts you *could* think that Violet Tendencies hits the mark on every single cliché and stereotype. Yet it does it with such an honest, candid, be-true-to-your-heart fashion that it is IMPOSSIBLE to hate any of the characters.
Yet, if there is a storyline that hits home and made me fall in love with them simultaneously is Riley and Marcus’s. Being a parent is never easy, and what happens when your partner has this crazy idea of being a father (Marcus) when you think you need to get ahead in the corporate world (Riley). How do you reconcile these apparently opposing goals, and learn to deal with loving someone unless you learn to love their goals and work together towards them? Explored in an honest, funny and fast-paced way, the stories of these gay boys who don’t want to give up their fag hag, are incredibly refreshing.
While Violet is the central axis, and her story is very well told, I think each and every one of the intertwined story lines are told equally in-depth and with enthusiasm, energy and veracity. I can’t praise Casper Andreas and his team enough. For a $200,000 budget for this movie, Andreas does amazing things. Casper was on site for a Q/A session hosted by Patrick Levesque from Homorazzi right after the showing and I absolutely loved his candor in answering our questions.
There is a second showing of Violet Tendencies and I would STRONGLY recommend that you make an effort to go and see it. By and large, this movie captivated my heart and that of many people who attended the screening. Thanks, Vancouver Queer Film Festival. This was an AMAZING choice.
Ever wonder what happened to teen star Mindy Cohn aka Natalie in the 1980s hit TV show the Facts of Life? Leave it to homo rom com director Casper Andreas to cast Cohn as the lead in his new hit, Violet Tendencies. Violet is Manhattan’s most fabulous fruit fly, but at age forty she’s ready to put down the martini glass and start a serious relationship. Without any straight people in her life to fix her up, Violet scours online dating sites only to be stood up and sadly disappointed. Her roommate Riley suggests she seek out the straight male version of herself: the mythical “Fag Stag.” Her modelesque co-worker Salome gives her conflicting advice, warning Violet that her gay friends are preventing her from nabbing a man. As Violet’s romantic quest becomes increasingly disastrous, hilarious and consuming, she overlooks the potential for love right under her own nose.
When I was in high school, I used to drive everywhere. And to be quite fair, I used to drive (or was used also to be driven around by my parents) too in each and every one of the cities in the world where I lived, before I entered my graduate degree in Environmental Studies, and realized that driving everywhere was polluting and not a very sustainable form of transportation.
While sometimes I find it really hard to commute by transit, I love walking and have recently taken up biking, simply because if I am going to teach the talk I got to walk the walk (also, it IS a great exercise, and with the recent improvements, separated bike lanes, etc., it feels so much safer). I was recently approached to write about The Crazy Sustainable Commute, I was delighted.
The Crazy Sustainable Commute challenges people in the Lower Mainland to find a creative sustainable means of transportation to get to work on August 27th. It is headed by Steve Unger who is an Ambassador for the David Suzuki Foundation at Work program.
The DSF at Work program is, from what I hear, a free service for any business to host an Ambassador to come to their workplace and talk about how staff and management can create a sustainable workplace. That’s also a neat idea. More about this in this video by DFS.
The thing that attracted me to The Coast is Queer at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival was the fact that all filmmakers were from Vancouver. The thing that I got out of it was a big sense of pride, and a lot of laughs with some of the films. The Coast is Queer is a compilation of short films produced, acted in or directed by GLBT folks.
I found Andrew Jack’s “The Heist” (Canada, 2010) an amazing piece of hip-hop dance that does a great job of storytelling. And yes, the theme is indeed a heist. Aaron Chan’s Stay (Canada, 2010) with Russell Wong as the protagonist who has not come out of the closet is endearing. Waiting 4 Goliath, where two ex-lovers (Florian and Hassan) bump into each other at a café where Florian is waiting for a blind date, was incredibly frustrating and endearing at the same time (Carl Garingan, Canada, 2010).The campy Super Queer (produced by Sakino Sepúlveda) is a satire that combines Wonder Woman, gay bashing and superpowers. Incredibly funny.
I left Tinseltown feeling really good about what I had just seen: a great showcase of local GLBT talent. Good times.
People in Canada don’t know much of my background in volunteering, so they are always surprised when I get asked “it’s your first time volunteering at this kind of event” and I cheerfully answer “oh God no, I do this all the time“. And no, I’m not boasting. It’s just that I’m used to volunteering, and in particular, front-line volunteering.
Front-line volunteering (e.g. dealing directly with clients) has been something that I have done since I was able to understand my parents’ rationale for us their five children to do volunteer work: because an integrated human being, someone who is complete, is someone (in my parents’ and in my own view) who can do art, science, sports and volunteerism.
At the UGM-Glowbal Group Texas BBQ, I did what I think I can do best at this type of events: I walked around, served tables, offered food, made conversation and visited with the people who came to the UGM-Glowbal Group Texas BBQ hungry and in need of a warm meal. As I mentioned on Facebook, I was the guy of the moment: I was the one serving iced tea! There were so many instances when I got a lump in my throat, particularly when I heard some of these people’s stories.
Their gratitude showed in so many ways: some folks wouldn’t let me clean their table and would insist that they could dispose of their own garbage. Others automatically started helping clean up as the event was coming to a close. As I told Bill, Charles and Genesa, as a scholar of neo-institutionalism, I always observe self-organized behavior, and I noticed how other folks would make sure that nobody raised a ruckus, or to abuse the system.
It was a great experience, and I was actually pretty proud of myself, because despite my weirdly extreme sensitivity to the pain of other folks (it’s something I’ve never understood, but it’s really hard for me to hang out in the Downtown East Side without feeling actual physical pain down my spine, and shivers), but I was able to tough it out all my afternoon shift.
I am proud of having been part of this worthy effort by Glowbal Group and I want to comment Emad Yacoub and Shannon Bosa-Yacoub as well as the whole team of Glowbal Group (including the always amazing Charles Zuckermann), all the volunteers (I had a lot of fun with you all!) and obviously the wonderful UGM. I’ll definitely help out in your next event.
Work-place safety is key for me. I am lucky that my professional activities appear to have low risk of injury (I teach, do research, consulting, and I don’t do much physical activity work in my office).
At all points, I try to be very careful with what I do, and I am a very big supporter of workplace safety campaigns, like Raise Your Hand. The WorkSafeBC’s Raise Your Hand campaign asked me to share an invite for all of you my dear readers to help us break a Guinness World Record. Raise Your Hand is an annual initiative in BC to increase young workers’ awareness and understanding of their safety rights and how to stay safe at work.
My good friends Gus Fosarolli and Beth Snow attended an event last year where we all got to meet Josh Dueck, 2010 silver medalist at the Paralympic Games, who is going to be attempting the world record and will aim to high-five as many people as possible in a 24-hour period. From the information I received:
We’re starting this record attempt at Empire Field at the BC Lions Game on August 27th and will wrap things up at the PNE on the 28th. As Josh attempts to break this world record in the name of workplace safety awareness, we’d like to invite you to join us and help him break that world record. Our goal through all of this is to increase awareness of young worker’s safety rights
Where: Celebration Plaza at the PNE When: 3pm – 6pm Date: August 28th
I had passed this little restaurant all the time and I never had made an effort to come in, so when Minna invited me for a late lunch the other night, we decided to stay within Gastown and eat at what we thought was Deighton’s Well (and now does business as 131 West Cordova). They just rebranded, from what I can see. I ordered a club sandwich that, while it was good, wasn’t really amazing.
It’s a decent enough club sandwich, I must say. And the service was good, although a bit kind of slow.
I will come back again as I won’t know if the food is excellent or not from just one visit and when I can see that this place is pretty much pub fare food. I’ll check it out some other time.
The notion of garage sales and how common they are is a topic that I have had in my mind for a long while but for some reason, I never get around blogging about it. But as I was walking out of my house and heading to my office this past Sunday, I realized that there was a garage sale right in front of my household.
Growing up in Mexico, garage sales were never the places where my parents would go to furnish our house, or buy toys, or kitchen utensils, etc. When I became a graduate student in Canada, for the first time ever, I visited a garage sale to buy some second-hand items. I am addicted to good garage sales, I might add. Well, not exactly addicted but I love a good garage sale where I score items that are super useful to me.
My current apartment has LOTS of stuff that I bought second hand, and I love them. But I pondered for a while yesterday (Sunday) – are garage sales just exclusive or traditional in Anglosaxon North America? What do YOU think?
Last week, I bought tickets for a fundraiser/workshop organized by Jocelyn Ling and the team of Imagine1Day. As an educator, it’s part of what I love doing (helping people learn and succeed). For the most part, I did it to support Imagine1Day and my friends who are involved with this worthy charity building schools in Ethiopia.
But what I got out of the workshop definitely surpassed my expectations, my imagination and thwarted any potential skepticism I had on Susanne’s ability to inspire me. After all, I am a researcher and an academic. I do rigorous research, and I am sometimes a bit skeptical when it comes to inspirational speakers. A bit ironic altogether, since (a) Susanne Conrad was amazing, and I didn’t expect her to be, but she was, and (b) I myself came to the workshop wanting to be inspired, with an open mind, and in particular wanting to find newer ways to relate to my students.
Susanne spoke to a room full of young people – it was endearing to me to see so many couples where one of the partners was pregnant. The age range was probably 20-32, but I think more than one people over that age range found inspiration in the workshop. The really interesting thing for me was that I allowed myself to be vulnerably me, in front of 100 strangers.
This didn’t feel wrong at all, however. I shared my vision of where I saw myself in 10 years (part of the numerous exercises that Susanne was going to go through, but we ran out of time). Quite honestly, I found Susanne’s approach incredibly refreshing and inspirational. She gave herself permission to jump to the visioning exercises after teaching about listening styles (stingy versus collaborative), and I really appreciated that.
I found myself reflecting on my future in a variety of ways. The vision statement I wrote wasn’t at all what I thought it would be, and it sounded SO right at the time I read it. And I decided to start setting goals so that I can reach that particular vision in 10 years. As I told Rob Winson and Andre Malan, I came into the workshop with the intention to learn new ways to relate to my students and found a new and amazing way of relating to myself.
Andre made a really good point that I also appreciated, mentioning that much of how he knows me is through the Hummingbird604 persona, and that he found it refreshing that Raul is actually much less bulletproof than HB604. I would entirely agree with Andre. But as I mentioned before, it is when I show myself vulnerable and human that I gain renewed strength, both online and offline.
I borrowed Jered Love’s Vimeo from the IGolU website so that you can see the response of some of the attendees. Honestly, it was a great experience. And I think those $30 were some of the best $30 dollars I have ever spent. Thanks, Susanne. You inspired me even when I did not expect to be inspired, and for that, I want to thank you. Also, for keeping me accountable to my vision. I’ll keep you posted on where I am in 10 years 🙂
Thanks Andre, Jered, Jocelyn – I am so glad I attended the workshop. It was truly life-changing for me.
