My love for the Winter Olympics is a conflicted one. Spending that much money on a month of activities that drains the arts/culture budget of Vancouver for years to come, not good. Radically altering land that belongs to the First Nations people, and trying to make it seem like Canada is far further along the road of reconciliation and recognition of our Indigenous citizens - really not good. And yet... I got misty eyed every time I heard Donald Sutherland telling me to 'believe' in those dopey commercials. I kept up with the medal counts. My heart broke for Joannie Rochette, the figure skater whose mother died suddenly of a heart attack, and then soared when she competed and won a bronze medal. And I really enjoyed watching the Canadian women mop up the ice with the American hockey team. But my favourite part of the games this year was the interview Johnny Weir gave to address homophobic comments made by two commentators. Here's part of Johnny has to say:
“There’s a whole generation of people that aren’t defined by their sex or their race or by who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Click here to read the story & see the video of Weir's press conference; here to read more about the First Nations issues. And then watch this:
The Calgary Public Library is hosting an event in honour of International Women's Day on Friday March 5th at the Central Library location. The event features a themed panel discussion, "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all," held between five acclaimed Albertan women of different work fields. The discussion will be held from 11:30-1:30 p.m. in the John Dutton Theatre. For more information on the talk, check out the library website. I believe registration is required.
Like many people in the blogosphere, my reaction to the Focus on the Family sponsored commercial has ranged from indignant, to irritated, to really?, to enough already. If you somehow managed to miss the brouhaha, here's the gist: Tim Tebow is a super successful American college football player who is also a conservative evangelical christian. These should be mutually exclusive, but they aren't in Tebow's case because he uses one as a platform for the other. The buzz around the ad for the Superbowl was in regard to concerns that the ad had an overt anti-choice message and also that CBS, which had previously not accepted 'controversial' advertisements for the Superbowl, was ok with political agendas in ads as long as they were conservative ones. I was all riled up, but when I saw the ad, I didn't think it was that awful. It was mawkishly sentimental. Pam Tibow is shown against a white background and basically says "I'm Tim's mom & he is awesome!" and then he tackled her...which was weird.
Anyway - I'm over it, and this struck me as hilarious. If you want to see the original ad - and an array of ads that are horrifying click here.
I have been a big fan of the Cosby Show for years. I laughed, I cried and I danced right along with Cliff, Claire, Vanessa, Theo, Rudy, Denise, and all the rest of the gang. Although I loved them all, Claire always impressed. She was classy, funny, smart, fashionable (man was she fashionable), and she always stood up for herself. I believed she was what all the women in the world should be.
I still believe that she has a lot of redeeming qualities. However, she was almost TOO good of a woman. She seemed to always have it covered. She was a wife, a mother, a lawyer. She always looked good, always cooked, and always had time to have drinks with the girls. I don't know any woman that could pull off that type of lifestyle with such ease and poise.
Claire really did tell it how it is. The video below is a clip of Claire responding to Elvin when he asks "Did you ask Dr. Huxtable if you could purchase that painting?" It is a quick response, but it sure gets her point across!
Apparently Australia has decided that showing small breasts in porn encourage pedophelia. Here is the Yeah What She Said article, and Here is the Feminisistings article.
Like many people in the blogosphere, my reaction to the Focus on the Family sponsored commercial has ranged from indignant, to irritated, to really?, to enough already. If you somehow managed to miss the brouhaha, here's the gist: Tim Tebow is a super successful American college football player who is also a conservative evangelical christian. These should be mutually exclusive, but they aren't in Tebow's case because he uses one as a platform for the other. The buzz around the ad for the Superbowl was in regard to concerns that the ad had an overt anti-choice message and also that CBS, which had previously not accepted 'controversial' advertisements for the Superbowl, was ok with political agendas in ads as long as they were conservative ones. I was all riled up, but when I saw the ad, I didn't think it was that awful. It was mawkishly sentimental. Pam Tibow is shown against a white background and basically says "I'm Tim's mom & he is awesome!" and then he tackled her...which was weird. 
