Fluid Hair Fuck Up

Holy GEEZ! Have you seen this ad for Fluid Hair Salon in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada? Okay, let me just say straight out, this ad idea is messed up beyond all belief. How on earth did someone think that this could possibly be a good ad idea!

The owner of Fluid Salon, Sarah Cameron says, "Is it cutting edge advertising? Yes. Is it intended to be a satirical look at real-life situations that ignites conversation and debate? Of course. Is it to everyone’s taste? Probably not."

Um, what?? Is it cutting edge advertising? No. Other than showing up a beat up women and a mean looking dude, this looks like your typical crappy Vogue magazine ad. Blah. Satirical look at real life situations?? Huh? If by satire you mean "Ha! This woman with a black eye is hilarious! You should not look at her black eye though, you should be looking at her hair, which we did! Isn't that hair great?! We are such a great salon! She looks great even when beaten black and blue! We are awesome!" Is it to everyone's taste? I would seriously question anyone who likes this ad, or who decides to go to this frickin' salon based on this ad.

Sarah Cameron seems to believe this is art. Well, whatever. If she believes that, that is her view. Art, advertising, any way you cut it is a bad, bad idea for a campaign to promote a salon. Essentially it is a glorification of violence that make hip-hop videos look tame, selling a crap salon run by an arrogant women who seems to think her salon is adding to the artistic edginess of the world through a crappy paid advertising campaign. It is nothing more or nothing less. She got a New York ad agency to do this up for her. She has to justify spending those big bucks I suppose. "Abuse? No, no, no...ART! It's art! Controversy? Oh, THAT. Well, if it sells my salon, then I'm all for it! Look at me! Look at me! Look at my salon! You will love us and become life long customers because we spent all of this cash on an ad campaign from...NEW YORK CITY! Aren't we cutting edge?"

Ad agencies in New York don't make art. They make campaigns. They sell junk and ideas. They aren't interested in the viewer in anyway other than seeing them as a target audience who will buy stuff from their clients. That's what puts money in their pockets and what puts money in the pockets of the clients. Can they be artistic? Yes. Are they art? That's up for debate. Is this art? In the eyes of Sarah Cameron it is. So, ladies, be sure that after your man has beat you to a pulp that you go to Fluid Hair Salon! You will be so glad that you did because even though your man treats you like scum, Fluid Hair will make you feel alright, and you will look good even after a thorough beating!

Royal Boredom

Back in Canada now for a spell, and the main news here? Will and Kate! Yes, they came to Canada for a Royal tour. And there was no escaping the news coverage. Wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling, coast to coast, all Will and Kate, all the time. Oh it was a royal bombardment. It started out with Will and Kate are coming. Then, Will and Kate are here. Then Will and Kate did this. Will and Kate did that. Will and Kate, Will and Kate, Will and Kate.

Now, I do find the English Monarchy interesting. I have enjoyed watching them over the years. I once met Sarah Ferguson, you know, back when she was still part of the Royal Family. I saw Prince Charles and Camilla on their wedding day. I like to do a bit of Royal watching.

But, I have to be honest with you. I am not a fan of Will and Kate. Why, you say? They are so frickin' BORING! Their squeaky clean, perfectly pressed, always smiling, always waving, always gentile ways are just plain DULL! There is nothing exciting about these two. They are being billed as the great saviours of the English Monarchy. They are loved, people are showing up in droves to see them, they are the apple of so many people's eye. But, they are so painfully generic and blah that even watching them on TV makes me want to wretch at their ultra-sugary sweetness.

I want Prince Harry to get married. Now that guy is exciting. He's constantly making gaffs like his dad and his grandfather. He's more rough around the edges. He's interesting! Charles? Oh, he's such a unique old fuddy, duddy, with his organic gardening and his wacky ideas. Phillip? Oh man, he is gold! If his mouth is open, he is generally putting his foot into it. Will and Kate? Dull as the dullest dull thing there could possibly be.

These do-gooder, friendly, warm, smiling, thoughtful, considerate, clean, well spoken, poker straight, perfectly groomed Will and Kate people? BLAND as stale oatmeal with no added sweeteners or preservatives. Thanks a lot Will and Kate for sucking out all of the fun of watching the Royal family. Now please, start having some affairs or developing some addictions, and don't come back until you do!

Persians, Oh How I Missed You So!

Oh goodness me. I made it home to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada for a few days this month and I got to sink my teeth into some of Thunder Bay's famed PERSIANS! It was heavenly. Let me tell you, I have dreams about these things. And for whatever reason, they are exclusive to Thunder Bay. Why? I don't know, but I'm sure glad they exist somewhere. Here is a short video of the memorable experience of being reunited with my favourite dessert item after too long apart.

The Not So Suprising Vancouver Riots

It's not like there are hasn't already been plenty written about it, but I may as well put my two cents in on the topic of the Vancouver riots.

So, last night, I thought I would turn on the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs to see who would wind being champions and subsequently heroes to legions of hockey loving people. I haven't watched hockey in at least two years, and I can't say I am a huge fan of the sport. But, because Vancouver was involved and seemingly every other Canadian was watching the game, I thought I should as well just in case the subject came up in the future while talking to fellow Canadians and I wanted to participate in the conversation.

I watched hockey for one hour. It wasn't a great game as far as I am concerned, though I admit I don't really know how to judge a good game. Anyway, it didn't really matter. The long and the short of it is that Vancouver lost and the other guys won and then all hell broke loose and I ended up watching one hour of bad hockey and three hours of top notch rioting.

You may have seen the images and the videos and the reams of analysis that have already blanketed television sets, newspapers and computers across the country. If not, then you probably don't have television, newspapers or a computer. Here is a nice little summary of events from the CBC.

Okay, with all of that out of the way, let's get to the opinion part of this. Did people really expect this not to happen? I wasn't even in the city and I expected there to be a riot, or at least some disturbances, win or lose. Why? It's hockey. Now, that may sound unfair to say. It's not like there haven't been other Stanley Cup wins and loses that haven't ended in complete anarchy. What gives? Well, sure, all out riots like this one don't happen everyday which is good. But, I don't think it is far off to say that what happened is partly related to the culture of violence associated with hockey.

We got an arrogant, big mouth, redneck on the national TV (one, Mr. Don Cherry) glorifying violence on the rink and calling those who don't fight "pansies" while hundreds of thousands lap his moronic alpha-male BS up like milk in a....I don't know...thing that milk is in. When a fight happens on the ice, the crowd goes WILD and of course it's shown on the highlight reel during the sportscast with slack jawed, gelled up, fake tanned sports announcers commenting on the "nice left shots" or whatever being used by the buffoons beating the snot out of one another. After a fight, the players head to their penalty boxes, which are more like King's throwns, where people worship at the foot of the tough, brave heroes that end up in there after trying to knock what's left of the opposing teams teeth out for whatever the frick reason.

Then, THEN, you add alcohol into the mix. Who sponsors all of this? Beer companies. Who makes millions off of this? Beer companies. What do these fans do while watching hockey? Drink beer. Drink beer and go WOOOOOO! There is a lot of of WOOOOOOing and high fiving among drunk hockey fans I have come to notice. Oh the alcohol that flows. What was the first thing that happened to trigger the riots? Beer bottles were thrown at the giant screens put in downtown Vancouver so people could watch the game. That's rather telling, isn't it?

So, then comes the finals in Vancouver, with big screen TV's and thousands upon thousands of people flooding into the city to watch the game on them. It's a beautiful night, the beer is flowing, the WOOOOOOOing is at a fever pitch and the hockey is on. And it's not JUST hockey. It's THE event of the year...the final game of the playoffs and the local team can win it all, or lose it all. And they lost it all. And that completed the creation of the perfect storm.

BOOM. The rest is history. Fans riot, burn cars, burn jerseys, burn themselves, burn others, break stuff, steal stuff, jump on stuff, drink more stuff, do a whole lot more WOOOOOOOOOOOOing, fight each other, fight police, fight dogs, fight whatever gets in their way,  drink some more, throw around some porta-potties, some newspaper boxes, some construction material, some other rioters. Oh it was a joyous night, wasn't it?

It has happened before, it happened last night, and it will happen again. Next time, try not to look so surprised.

Our Children's Future VS. Sanity and Reality: Challenging the Edmonton Public School Board

Well, you know, I've been a wee bit busy and stuff, and it's distracted me somewhat from becoming enraged enough by something to write a blog about it. But, I just read something that changed that, and here is my blog about it.

What has me so enraged that I actually stopped being so lazy and took to the keyboard? Well, that damn Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) in Alberta, Canada wishes to create a safe and inclusive environment for all of their students. What BEASTS! What ANIMALS! How could the Edmonton Public School Board wish to create a school system where a diverse range of children can study together and create a bright and better future for all?? Someone REALLY should protest this.

And, alas, thankfully, someone has! Apparently all of this talk of inclusion was far too much for whoever the frick is behind a weird little, seemingly anonymous website titled "Our Children's Future-Standing Up for Moral Standards in Edmonton".The first red flag is always the "moral standards". When this phrase is used, especially in conjunction with anything to do with children, you know bigotry and hatred is what is to follow.

Apparently, the problem this person/these people have is that under a proposal by the Edmonton Public School Board in a policy on sexual orientation and gender identity, sexual "minority" students and same sex parented families will be (among other things, such as being accepted and protected from discrimination) AFFIRMED by the EPSB. Now, this lovely group or person or entity or whatever that is behind this site states:

We agree that all people regardless of sexual orientation have to be treated lovingly and not subjected to bullying however we will not affirm their unique identities, families, cultures or communities.  Affirming this type of sexual orientation violates the basic tenet of our belief systems, which is not a series of man-made rules and evolving human ethical standards, but the Holy Bible which clearly prohibits this type of sexual behaviour in both the Old and New Testaments.

Gotcha. And your narrow minded beliefs should come first and foremost, is that correct? That appears to be the belief, and they are calling on other like (narrow) minded people to do their duty and write to school board members to tell them that they shouldn't be treating these gays and lesbians and such with the dignity and respect they deserve because it goes against their beliefs. Look, telling people that your beliefs (religious) trump THEIR reality (sexual orientation) is NOT treating them lovingly. It is discriminatory. Telling someone that you will not accept them based on their sexual orientation is pretty mean and low. I always question the moral standards of someone who says something like that. We clearly do NOT share the same morals, and for that I am very glad.

So, here is what the proposal by the Edmonton Public School Board looks like and I think it looks not too bad at all:
http://www.epsb.ca/policy/aaadraft_ifa.bp.shtml

If you go to http://www.ourchildrensfuture.ca/ you will see that the site's creator(s) have done a fine job of listing all of the school board members which they are asking other bigots to write to and explain why the school board members should listen to bigots and not give GLBT (etc) students and their families the support and recognition they deserve.You may wish to contact them regarding the issue as well, what the heck. There is also a survey you can take, apparently, to give your views on the EPSB's proposal at this survey link. May as well plug in your answers there, too!

I hope that if you are reading my blog, you feel the same way as I do. I think this is a positive inititative by the Edmonton Public School Board and I want to see it put in place, not only in Edmonton, but across the country. I want to see kids feel at home at school, not as outcasts, and definitely not as being immoral just because of their sexual orientation. And I don't want to see people that believe discrimination and bigotry constitute "moral standards" from hijacking public school systems.

Walking Sluts and BBC Facebook Commenters

Why oh why do I read things on the internet. If I was smart, I would stay clear of the thing. But, NO, what do I do? I go ahead and read stuff. What am I thinking??

What am I outraged about this time? Well, have you heard of this "SlutWalk" thing? Here's the deal. A Toronto cop, Michael Sanguinetti, goes to York University to give safety tips to students in a Personal Security class. One of his pieces of advice? "Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not be victimized". How did this go down? Not very well, as you can imagine, and the comment has help start a new protest movement based around the idea of a "SlutWalk". Protesters can dress up, get out, hit the pavement, and basically say a big F.U. to the idea of asking to be a victim by wearing certain clothes. Here is the website for the first "Slutwalk" event held in Toronto for some information on what it's all about. It's more complex and interesting than I have presented it. Anyway, inspired by this, similar events have either been held or are to be held in places all over the world!



So, the BBC picks up this story. They decide to discuss it on their World Have Your Say program. To get input for the show, they post the story premise on Facebook and people can make comments. And this is what I started to read when I, once again, lost faith in humanity. What were some saying, you might ask? Well, here we go:

Nii Adumuah Nortey the policemam is right. Ladies must b decent or be seen as different. It is time someone voiced out his opinion

Suldan Tippu Tip Hw cn u use the term slutwalk to send ur voice and b offended by it....its sily 2 show ur assests as a tool of ur beauty plus dea z a gud reason y its called private part of ur bdy.

 Touseef Dar i do agree wd ploice. IT iz also an lSLAMIC advice.

Ibrahim Meddie i agree with the police lady because she is doing her moral duty of advising citizens before falling into the hands of the victims. And God is very happy when He sees people dressed appropriately and are modesty.

Azd Warfare The police guy said the same thing what islam says hes 100% right.If u dnt wanna get raped dnt mk sm1 horny by dressing like sluts

Kipkemoi Korir I agree with policeman,women sometimes dressed half naked.we are humanbeings.our feelings high.women dress properly to avoid men temptations .

Kellc Kalombo

The Police Man is totally right... Women tend to advertise themselves like products... They should not dress like Prostitutes If they don't want to be taken like such...Their outrageousness only shows how right the Policeman is and also just how stupid those women protesting are. Real women take care of themselves like Gold (Jealously) not like cheap cloth. These women protesting should be taken and arrested because they are the ones proving to be a bad influence to the youths of today who are mostly raped because of the same dressing and behavior. We need Mothers not Holes.

 

Ismail Adefemi Allimson I do agree wit d Police.
D ladis dont kno dat dey do assault we MEN Psykologicaly by arousin sme uncontrolable emotions.

Nasiru Suwaid If a lady advertises as an invitation to treat, why should she mind the resulting harassment, after all nobody prevents examination on a super market shelf, thus how could ladies put it out & prevents examination from goers, that is cruel.

Rodney Lungani I have always argued this women empowerment issue had a motive behind lol - at times free speech has its curse, we need to draw the line somewhere

Is it just me, or are these people INSANE? Yes, these are REAL comments by what I presume to be real people, and I still can't believe what I have read. And there are more! There are LOT'S more where these came from, sadly and scarily enough.So, there are actually people out there who do believe that a woman dressing in a certain way does allow people to think they are open to be raped? Apparently. 


One of the BIG problems with this whole discussion is the definition of "slut". At what point, based on how a woman is dressed, is she considered a "slut"? The idea of dressing "slutty" is completely subjective. So, women are being told to dress accordingly to prevent rape, but no two people will be able to agree on where exactly the line is that shouldn't be crossed. This puts women in a pretty tough position. Some think that nothing short of completely covering a woman in black cloth is acceptable. Others see a woman wearing makeup and heels and it means she is trolling for sex. No, no, no. The message from the police MUST be that "no is no" and rape will not be tolerated. As long as the message continues to be that part of the issue is in how a woman dresses, then it continues to create an atmosphere where blame is still put on the woman.

At the moment, the message appears to be that if you are like one of "THOSE" women, well you're headed for trouble. One of "those" women? Can someone please define this whole "slut" term a little clearer so that women can know exactly how people want them to dress so they that when she is raped they will feel adequately satisfied that she did not provoke the situation by being dresses like a "slut"? And then, when you do define that, can you kindly take that definition and stuff it up your....


If each of those posting with attitudes like those above changed THEIR views as opposed to telling women to change the way they dress, the world would probably be a whole lot safer. Women could live in freedom and wear whatever the hell they wanted to and not feel as though they were the problem! Wouldn't that be great?

Michael Sona vs Democracy

Oh Michael Sona, you are indeed an idiot.

Have you heard this story? It's a good one, showing just how much democracy appears to be eroding in Canada at the hands of the Conservatives. Sad and scary. It seems that there was a special ballot station set up at the University of Guelph to entice more students to take part in the voting process. Yes, it's a bit early, but this has been done before (for a wide variety of groups) and appears to be perfectly legit and fine with Elections Canada. However, the Conservative Party doesn't seem to agree and wants these votes discounted as expressed in a letter sent to Elections Canada. 

To make matters worse, one Mr. Micheal Sona, the communications director for Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, decides to show up, declare that what was going on was illegal, and apparently even reach for the ballot box (what he was planning to do with it, I am not sure)! Oh may, oh my, oh MY! What can I say about that? What can anyone say about that? To get your slimy, no good, democracy hating lawyer (I shouldn't say that, I don't know the guy, I am only speculating) to send a letter to Elections Canada is one thing, but then to take matters into your own slimy, no good, democracy hating hands? What kind of an idiot must you be?? If these allegations are as true as they appear to be, this is just the latest sign that the Conservative Party would appear to be enemy of democracy. Disrupting voting is a disgrace. Canada sends observers to other countries to monitor elections to PREVENT these kinds of things from happening. Michael Sona was not only out of line, but seemingly out of his mind. This is just another black mark on the Conservatives who have already been kicking people out of their party rallies, stifling the media, and just generally being Conservative morons. These guys must go!

I not only urge Elections Canada to make sure that each of these votes count (and I hope each one of them is against the Conservatives) but whoever has the authority to deal with this situation must take action against the Conservatives for this complete and utter display of jerkititude. Does Canada need any more proof that the Conservatives aren't fit to be running the country? I sure know I don't!