based on what i'm hearing about les commandites, it looks like NB could use one: check this crap out. canada post, shame on you!

a few interesting things today. i've been so busy with my thesis, i could barely come up for air. But this weekend, I'll be in NYC for this conference on Heiner Müller - The Cultural Politics of Heiner Müller. We will be performing his texts Despoiled Shore Medeamaterial Landscape with Argonauts. Pretty cool. OK, although this documentary came out a long time ago and many people have already investigated it, CBC did a interesting tid bit with Ann Coulter, the rabidly right wing american commentator. By the way, Ann Coulter charges $30k to speak publicly. I wonder if this charge is waived for her pet causes. It's a lot of money for one night's work - indeed, many americans make that in a year. OK, check out Ann getting schooled on Canada. Apparently, she has a tendency to make things up - rather typical of right wing fearmongers like herself. And for good measure, visit google, type "miserable failure" and click "I'm feeling Lucky!" Here's a news story on it. have a great day!

of the world's industries, there are a few that emerge as the most offensive and harmful in my estimation. The Oil industry is a rather obvious one; while I don't think Oil execs are evil, I do see the pursuit of Oil and Energy security to be one of the most important policies to be enacted by governments, and it makes little sense to me how private corporate control will ensure that security. ANd for those that are wary of massive state-owned monopolies, then the state should start their own energy company which can compete against other private corporations, but may benefit from taxpayer subsidization etc. Another industry that drives me bannanas is the insurance industry. the use of discriminatory ratings that violate the constitution of canada (at least) and many other countries should not be allowed to continue. So long as it is law to have insurance (for your car), there should be fairer governance and regulation of the industry. Not to mention that private employee benefits plans leave most people with radically different coverage from job-to-job. Health care coverage beyong the mere provincial plan also needs to achieve some standardization, and if this means regulating the private operators, that is fine with me. As an aside, private operators of health care do not offend me at all, so long as the single-payer (ie gov't) is at the heart of it all. The insurance industry could clean up its image, but so long as people keep buying, and needing to buy, there will be pressure for them to change. The final of my big three hated industries is the pharmaceutical industry. Besides price gouging American consumers (and Canadian ones), there are serious questions as to the medical SAFETY issues that have been given media coverage since VIOXX was pulled. The efforts on the part of pharmaceuticals to extend their intellectual property rights to elements of life that are natural is deeply offensive. If there is an AIDS epidemic in Africa, then Pharmaceuticals shouldn't fight generic cheap drug makers, they should assist them and save lives. They should also not be in essential oligarchic control of research and development. This is bleeding into our Universities, and the lack of transparency here is frightening. That being said, I am dangerously close to adding a fourth industry to my hit list. THe music industry is just overjoyed with their US lawsuits, and the success of so-called "legal file-sharing" is buouying those approaches. The music industry has a history of abandoning its artisitic principles for marketability, and many very talented musicians have either not had the opportunity, or the opportunity for their growth and success has been cut off. Music industry marketing has seriously transformed the role of music as an art form. If new and upcoming artists are going to be the siblings of already established artists, there must be room created for new independent music to grow and thrive. WIth the electronic music revolution, there were mix tapes that circulated underground long before a label-produced album was found on store shelves. In Canada, the major radio corporations like CORUS and STANDARD RADIO have been compelled by CRTC rulings to engage in new music development as opposed to their own artistic interest in growing the industry and the art form. Rather, the overriding concern of established musicians like metallica and music industry executives under the guise of the RIAA has been to fight individuals who share music with one another. The music industry claims its sales are down significantly since the advent of Napster and its successors. No one speaks about the fact that transfer to CD technology was completing itself at that time, so folks who were buying more to update their collections were done this project. The music industry saw HUGE profits in the nineties. Finally, the ability for emerging artists to stake out space for themselves in the music world has been GREATLY assisted by file sharing. If it were left to mandated indie music spots on MUCHMUSIC or MTV Canada, then new music would filter to consumers extrememly slowly, leaving room for very few artists to emerge and succeed. REAL artists aren't opposed to file sharing because it gives them significant exposure. MILLIONAIRES are opposed because they worry that they might lose the moniker "star." This is therefore a frightening challenge to music freedom in Canada, and you should definitely contact your MP and Senate representative. File sharing is no different than blank and mix tapes, and anyone who pretends it is is really fooling themselves. Concert bootleggers have been sharing with strangers for years, and certainly it is the prerogative of the ARTIST (not the LABEL) to allow taping or not, but to restrict file sharing is to essentially give to already established artists a financial break that will most certainly NEVER make its way to the consumer. $20 cds have been a rip off forever (as are $30 DVDs), and the gov't shouldn't participate in punishing consumers. This reaffirms the concept of ruling elites. thanks for reading my tirade. back to the thesis.

i might have linked to them already, but damn i love the lovely feathers. go forth, and listen.

i've decided that this damn thesis i'm writing is driving me crazy. even more than driving me crazy, it's driving me to extreme procrastination. woot!

i noticed the other day that someone or something has changed my IP address. after using the same one for almost three years, in the past month, it's been changed. I am sure that my ISP (aliant) is doing whatever it thinks is best for it's business model, I have to say that I liked my old IP address. whatever. this terri schiavo stuff is very interesting. i mean, it's hard to say what is going on, but generally I get the sense that REAL disagreement here isn't between pro-lifers and pro-choicers who have forcibly transplanted their "beginning of life" debate to this end of life scenario. the real disagreement I sense is that a loving family is refusing to believe their daughter would actually want to stop living in her condition as her loving husband says she has said. There seems to me no reason that lawmakers should get involved in that kind of dispute. How can the very same political forces that are so stronlgy against this woman's right to die (if she had motor skills she could remove the feeding tube herself!) are also so strongly in favour of killing "criminals." is it REALLY the state's role to decide who lives and who dies? according to the constitution of the United States, each person is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. that first clause ("life") sounds a lot like the founders meant to keep life out of the hands of the state and in the hands of individuals and their families. that's freedom, folks!

it's been another little while since i last posted. i really am getting slack with this. however, my schedule has permitted very little fun. this past weekend sackville and I played host to Lederhosen Lucil and Carolyn Mark. This was quite a fun event... little sleep, and lots of partying. Besides this, I have been working on school work, and job applications. And perhaps most significantly, this play by post-modern avant-garde German playwright Heiner Müller Despoiled Shore Medeamaterial Landscape with Argonauts. That will open in Sackville, at the Windsor Theatre on friday. ooo.

i haven't posted in almost a month and for that I apologize. lots, obviously, has happened since then. in my very own life for instance, I took a vacation to LA and the Canadian Rockies (a town called Invermere). It was a dandy old time, if you count torrential rain in LA and icy ski conditions in BC as dandy. either way, it was a well needed vacation. I have also been busy working on this show, Despoiled Shore Medeamaterial Landscape with Argonauts by Heiner Muller, most famous for his Hamletmachine. Anyway, we'll be taking that bad boy to New York for a conference on Muller at the Castillo Theatre. Other than that, it's been all about job hunting and school work. upcoming in sackville are a few things of note that i think folks would be interested in. wednesday march 16th at 1pm, Philip Riteman will be speaking about his survival of the Holocaust. I urge people to check this out. Also March 11, Carolyn Mark and Lederhosen Lucil will be doing a double header here at George's Roadhouse. That's all I have for now.