The Long Wait to Reread

Titanic: The Long Night

Author:
Diane Hoh

Published:
Scholastic (1998)

Number of Pages:
373

Review:
I remember stumbling upon this novel right after the big blockbuster movie Titanic hit the screens. I was not allowed to watch the movie at the time because it was rated 14A and my parents were very strict when it came to ratings (however they were very lenient when it came to novels, quite the hypocrisy I know).  Not being able to watch the film when every one of my peers had seen it twice was condemning me to social outcast, thus when I saw this novel at my local bookstore I begged my mother to buy it for me, and buy it for me she did. At the time I fell in love with the plotline, the characters and the beautiful love stories that this novel entailed and I got many of my friends hooked on the novel as well. Reading it a second time reignited those feelings and for the next 3 years after I bought it (at age 12) I reread it at least once every 6 months. After moving to our new home I’d lost my copy and didn’t seek out to buy a new copy, in fact this novel completely slipped my mind until I ended up in a used bookstore and happened to find a copy of it in the Young Adult section. Needless to say I had to buy it, and buy it I did.

The novel chronicles the lives of five young adults – Katie, the beautiful Irish women who’s accompanied by Patrick and Brian in steerage, and Maxwell the dashing young artist who captures the attention of first class Elizabeth Farr – whose destinies led them to board the tragically fated Titanic. Katie boards the ship in steerage (third class) heading to America with her two childhood friends, Brian the handsome Irish bloke, and his brother Patrick who thinks that by falling in love with Katie he’s betraying his brother’s love and stealing the girl his brother fancies for himself. For Katie the ship and the move to America is the biggest adventure of her life, and embarking on this adventure with the boys she knows better than her own mother, she starts to develop feelings for Patrick, unbeknownst to Katie Patrick secretly loves her too, but his love for his brother and his pride soon sends Patrick down a path away from Katie and into anger and isolation. Elizabeth on the other hand has been cared for and waited on her entire life and never dreams or even dares to think of living any other way, until she meets Maxwell Whittaker. The man whom she once deemed as a third class citizen turns out to be a first class passenger and the son of an acquaintance of her father’s at that. Through his quirky habits, and his irritating conversations and his total lack of proper demeanour Elizabeth finds herself falling in love with this man who’s exiled himself from the community of debutantes and in doing so she awakens her own inner rebel.

Of course one of the main characters is the Titanic herself, her fate, as many people know as tragic, is pushed in the background of the novel until the last couple of chapters. The reader while reading this novel forgets that the Titanic is the ship that sinks because they’re so enthralled in the actual story of the novel to pay attention to anything else.

Reading the novel as an adult for the first time the story resonates within me a different interpretation of the text than I had reading it has a tween yet I still feel the same excitement and wonder I did as a child. Of course being older has put my perspectives on love and happiness in a more cynical and critical level than when I was a little girl hyped up on Disney romances and this idea that love can conquer all (or that the love one experiences will be exactly that found in the fairytales). So when reading Titanic I recognized it for what it really was, much like the trashy romance novels found in bookstores and drugstores alike, this novel was written to send cheap thrills and good chills down one’s spine and at the same time leave the reader desperately craving for more.

Like many romance novels the language is very simple. There are very little allusions or alliterations, very little metaphors and a solid yet focused plotline; however I’ve always said that writing simply doesn’t always insure the writing is simple. “Her knees felt as if they might buckle at any moment. But she kept her head held high and repeated to herself under her breath as she walked, ‘Not Paddy, anyone but Paddy. He’s a heartbreaker that one’” There are so many thrills and so many scenes that gave me butterflies in my stomach that even as an adult I still wanted to believe that fairytales really do come true. The love stories itself are enough to keep this novel afloat, add to it the sinking ship, and this novel very well sails into its horizon.

What I love best about this novel is the sense of suspense one feels while reading. Although predictable I still couldn’t help myself from wanting to find out when they were going to kiss for the first time, when will they tell each other they love one another, or my favourite when are they going to stop denying to themselves that they love one another. “It was all Max’s fault. He shouldn’t have been looking at her like that, shouldn’t have put his face so close to hers.” *sighs* I feel as if I’m melting into the love story that is Elizabeth and Max as I retype this quotation. I love stubborn women in romance novels, the ones who deny deny deny they have any feelings until everything becomes too overwhelming and they explode with emotions, such is the character Elizabeth and she made this novel so much more endearing and suspenseful.

I have to say that I am glad I reread this novel. Not only did it bring back so many memories of my childhood reading, it also didn’t fail to send shivers down my back even though I knew what was going to happen. I’m almost positive that if you read it for the first time you too might experience the feelings I felt and might bring back a sense of nostalgia, back to those days of innocence when you thought love was exactly like a fairytale and that there is indeed a Maxwell and a Patrick out there for everyone.

Happy Reading!!!

A Garden To Remember

The Lost Garden

Author:
Helen Humphreys

Published:
Phyllis Bruce Books (2004)

Number of Pages:
212

Review:
Across Canada today millions of civilians will share a moment of silence to honour those that have fought for our country in the countless of wars in which Canada was involved and is currently involved.  And as we remember our veterans on this day we must also honour the lives of those our country has lost as well as the common workers, the nurses, the farmers, everyone who was involved in providing our country with the freedom we all relish in. It is in their honour I chose to read and review The Lost Garden.

Written in first person narrative, the novel focuses on 35 year old Gwen Davis, the lonely horticulturist whom has never been in love, in fact she’s never had any real relationships her entire life except for her relationship with plants, books and one author’s books in particular Virginia Woolf. After hearing of Mrs. Woolf’s disappearance and in a desperate attempt to escape her loneliness and the burning city of London (during the raids of 1941) she joins the war effort, planting food for the allies and babysitting the young women appointed to help.  Her life takes a turn for the better when she discovers a lost garden and the secret behind it’s existence. She’s also able to form relationships with two of the people she meets during her journey:  the fiery life loving Jane who teaches Gwen that life doesn’t always have to be centered and balanced and the dashing young Canadian solider Raley who, while being posted at her station, opens her heart to new experiences and love.

I think what I love most about this novel is the language it portrays. It is beautifully written with poetic sensibility and lucid prose. “This is what I knew about love. That it is tested everyday and what is not renewed is lost.” The loneliness this character feels is evident in this sentence as well it speaks of her view of life: “what is not renewed is lost” as if this escape to the army is actually a way to renew herself so that she doesn’t become lost in the war that surrounds her. 

Her loneliness is evident throughout the novel, her relationship with her co-workers, her relationship with the soldiers and even her relationship with her late mother – “I wasn’t there when my mother died,” – shows how isolated she keeps herself from everyone. Even her childhood memories are thickly covered in loneliness and isolation except for the plants and the darkness with which she surrounded herself.

The garden itself is a beautiful metaphor. When she first stumbles upon it she realizes that “the garden has been purposely planted” and as she prunes, snips and replants the garden she also prunes, snips and replants her life.  As the garden grows so does she, the gardens eventual beauty is manifest in her relationships with her friends and her relationship with herself.

The author’s metaphors are some of the best I’ve read in a while: “My discovered garden are really three gardens. They are joined together, each naturally flowing out of the other. But the other two are not yet in bloom so it feels wrong to explore them until they have fully revealed themselves.” The three main characters are all evident in this quotation and Gwen’s hesitation to plough and prod through the actual garden shows how she approaches people on a daily basis as well. She would never enter into their space until they reveal themselves to her.  As this quotation shows, the author’s language is so rich and beautiful you can’t help but fall in love with the prose.

I loved reading this novel. It’s meticulous approach to life during war is exquisite. Humphrey’s symbolism is perfect, her tone uncanny and she tackles many different issues, from war and isolation to lost love and homosexuality. It truly honours those that fought and still continue to fight for our freedoms. It shows that those on the front line are still human with flaws and fears and while we honour them to the highest regard we must also remember them as they were: beautifully isolated individuals.

Happy Reading!!!

The Children of PD James

Children of Men

Author:
PD James

Published:
Vision (1994)

Number of Pages:
241

Review:
We live in a society that measures success in three ways: a. The material belongings of a person, b. the fame of a person, and c. the number of a person’s offspring. Now what if one day we wake up to find that no human (none) would ever get the chance to procreate, that the human race will become extinct because no one can reproduce, how will our world react? What will become of our species? What would then be considered valuable? These questions are asked in PD James’ novel Children of Men.

Theodore Faron lives in a world where no human can procreate. It happened suddenly and with no explanation. Through the depressing blow to all humans that they can never be parents again and the chaos that occurs Theo feels the need to document his life in a diary on the death of the youngest human alive, 25 year old Joseph Ricardo, the last human who’s birth was the last ever to be recorded. As he starts to document his feelings for the first time in fifty years he is suddenly thrown into this chaotic world of secrecy  when he meets a young woman named Julian and vows to protect her and her secret. Throughout the novel’s progression one sees the fight for survival intensify, the destruction humans are able to create, the political chaos that can occur within our species, and the beauty, love, compassion and care our species is able to portray at even the most desperate and evil of times.

This novel is FANTASTIC! It has suspense that would make Alfred Hitchcock shiver and the concept is very unique and daring, after all who would ever dream that a scenario would occur where humans could never reproduce again. That concept is ridiculous and even laughable when you think about it, and yet it is not impossible either. Improbable maybe but not impossible.

The language is beautiful. James does a wonderful job to describe the collective feelings the human species share while living in a scenario where no human being feels safe or protected. “We are outraged and demoralized less by the impending end of our species, less even by our inability to prevent it, than by our failure to discover the cause… Western medicine haven’t prepared us for the magnitude and humiliation of this ultimate failure.” This sentence sequence alone shows the contempt, the fear and the disappointment the species as a whole feels for the situation they find themselves in. Once thought to be the masters of the universe, the inventors of machines, a God among nature, humans have failed to stop or even recognize their own demise.

What James does best in this novel is build suspense. There were moments  when as I was reading my thoughts of serenity turned into total fear and chaos just from her words and unexpected fearful events that happen. “And in that second the Omegas were upon them. Horribly, they came at first unheard, in total silence. At each car window the painted faces stared in, lit by flames of torches. Miriam gave a short involuntary scream.” The narrator is just as unaware of the events to come as the character and the readers. In some parts of the novel the plot line was completely unpredictable which helped keep my attention and kept me in suspense throughout the novel. 

What James does exceptionally well throughout this novel is describing this essentially doomed and post-apocalyptic world. “The old were too weak for the work, the middle-aged, on whom the burden of maintaining the life of the State largely depended on, were too busy, the young cared little for the preservation of the countryside.” We see a world where everyone gives up all hope of keeping the world politically and morally/ethically in check. They give up living life for they know that their species will not carry on, and really there’s no reason to look after the world (and especially the world of their species) for there’s no one to leave it too when they’re gone. It’s basically a world lost. A world no longer worth fighting for.

This novel, at it’s worst, was probably one of the best science fiction novels I’ve read in a long time. The concept was unique, the prose nothing short of perfect and the plot line: breathless. It’s a great book to keep you occupied during the long fall nights, and to keep your mind occupied as you try to make sense of the world she’s created and as you try to imagine what it would feel like for you to live in such a situation. As for myself, if I were to live in such a situation, I’d probably still try to live my life the best I can. Of course I say that now but who knows what I’d think if I found out no human being could ever reproduce again. I might very well live the life Theo Faron did.

Happy Reading!!!

New Moon in 3 Days

I am OH SO VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!! I’ve already got my ticket –and yes I know I am late – but I cannot wait any longer to watch it in theatres. Of course I’ll have to watch it again, what with all the screaming teenage girls who are bound to be present at the cinemas opening night, and I just can’t wait another three to four weeks in order to see New Moon!!! And I must say I cannot wait to see this:

Paranormal Activity

So my brother and I decided to be a bit brave and venture off to Vaughn to watch a movie by the name of Paranormal Activity. I’ve included the trailer for it above which was the one I watched before I actually watched the film. This trailer made me jump out of my bed, literally. Mind you I was sitting on the edge of it. So you can imagine what I was like watching it in the movie theatres.

The characters Micha and Katie are being haunted by an entity that they have no control over. When the activity first started to happen Micha didn’t believe in ghosts or demons or that the noises they were hearing in the night belonged to any being but just squeaky floorboards and the like so he sets up a video camera to document what was happening and what they documented was absolutely terrifying.

Now before I go into the goods and the bads I have to admit I am terrified, completely terrified of anything to do with the paranormal. Give me a mean old mad that likes to slice peoples’ heads off with a jack hammer and I’ll laugh my ass off. I find human mortality very funny when it has to do with humans killing humans.  Demons, Ghosts, Aliens… anything weird and unexplainable scare the shit out of me and I think it has to do with the fact that I am a believer of spirits and ghosts and the likes. I’ve felt them before and I honesty believe in Aliens. As a Physics major I refuse to believe that as vast as the universe is, Earth is the only planet with life. I REFUSE to believe that! See humans that kill other humans have a choice and can stop when they want too and they are after all just humans. Demons on the other hand you have no control over. They can harm you and your loved ones over and over and over again, they can possess your body and force you to do anything they want and there’s nothing you can do about it. They won’t even let you die! They are the scariest concepts of beings ever and many of them look like this:

SCARIEST SHIT EVER!!!

Anyway, Paranormal Activity feeds on this fear of the unknown, fear of not being in control, fear of demons/ghosts and fear of fear itself. Sitting in the theatre I was afraid of being afraid. I’d hide my eyes or direct my gaze to something else so that I wouldn’t witness what was going on and thus wouldn’t be afraid. But terrified I was and there’s a few key reason why.

1.  The lack of score. That’s right. No stupid creepy, “something’s going to happen right after this chord” music to distract you from what was going on. Part of the thrill was the silence. Sitting in a quiet theatre listening to all the little sounds that go on in the silence, it’s deafening and then BAM! The loudest noise comes out from the speakers, Demon footsteps!!! It’s crazy, and it can give the healthiest person a heart attack, but it works. It was amazing, fucking brutal, but amazing

2.  The POV filming. Think Blair Witch but with a twist, where Blair Witch didn’t have much going on on screen most of the time, Paranormal Activity always had something strange going on. Blair Witch was filmed and edited however the way Paranormal activity was filmed it looked like very little editing went on at all. When they were sleeping or left the room they left the camera running, and the camera just capturing an empty room is in and of itself a scary scary notion, add to that the scary fast forwarding numbers in the bottom right hand screen, the fucked up lighting when they were sleeping and the lack of sound and you’ve got Alfred Hitchcock’s dream.

3.  The Possessed Staring. I will not go into detail of this because I don’t want to relive it.

4. The acting. That Katie can play one fucked up bitch and she really got into her character. She made it SO REAL, the hysterical crying, the possession scenes, the walking when she’s possessed, the paranoia and the fucking ending. SHIT And Micha, he did an excellent job as well with his jeering and challenging of the demon, and when he was scared he acted genuinely scared. It freaked me out SO MUCH.

5. You never EVER see the Demon. The mere fact that he remains invisible is genius and scares me even more because I’ll never see it I’ll just feel and hear it there always.

Now for the bad.

1. Micha’s stupidity was a constant reminder that something bad is going to happen so it wasn’t completely unpredictable. Also his tough guy attitude and the fact that he stomped around saying “Don’t worry baby, imma take care of everything,” reminded me of the Village people and frankly the last thing I wanted to see on screen that night was a macho macho man!

2. The ending… only because I heard of the original ending and I think that would have been less Hollywood and more unique, scary – this could actually be a real documentary – type ending.

3. Demon footprints. Really com’on really?

4. Big white teddy bear in the closet. You have NO IDEA how many times I saw that stupid teddy bear and jumped like a bitch.

Okay I’m actually too scared to finish this review because I’m replaying key scenes in my head and it’s scaring the fuck out of me. So just take my word for it, this is one movie that’s going to have you shit on your toes. I hope you make it to your local theatre citizens and watch it and for those that don’t think it’s scary… TELL ME HOW NOT TO BE SCARED ANYMORE!!! Please?

And Gayby Makes Controversy

And Tango Makes Three

Author:
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Published:
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing 2005

Number of Pages:
34

Review:
“There they snuggled together and like all other penguins in the penguin house, and all the other animals in the zoo and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep.”

After listening to a CBC Radio One’s interview with the authors of this beautiful story and hearing that it was the most controversial book of this century I would say (in fact it’s the most banned book of 2009) I went and bought myself a copy to read to my little cousin who was coming over that weekend. Needless to say, with the simplistic words, engaging story line and vivid pictures she was enthralled and rightly so. It is enchanting and charming and most importantly true. Yes my friends, this story is indeed based on real life events about two loving homosexual male penguins and their quest for a family.

The penguins, Roy and Silo, fell in love at a very young age, and while there were many female companions available at the zoo they only had eyes for each other. They were partners for 2 years before they tried to build a nest, and following their natural instincts they tried to hatch an egg, but of course the egg was just a rock (for two male penguins cannot produce an egg). Seeing their heartbreaking efforts to start a family the zookeepers brought them an egg that was no longer being cared for and both males nurtured and cared for the egg until it hatched. The female, Tango, certainly made this family of three complete.

I am a huge advocate for this picture book. It teaches compassion, it teaches love, diversity and most importantly it teaches that not everyone lives in the “nuclear” family (perhaps we can call gay families secular families?). Of course after reading this book to my cousin she had many questions. How can she have two daddies? Where is her mommy? Does she have two mommies too? I proceeded to answer, to the best of my abilities. It is so important for people to teach their children that not everyone is exactly like them, that they will come into contact with someone who is homosexual eventually in their life and that they should not judge them but instead embrace them.

This book, as mentioned above, is in fact the most banned book of this year and it has been generating hatred since its release in 2005 from religious and hate groups alike, groups that feel this book is a threat to the “American” way of living and an insult to the great God himself. Yes I’m back to talking about Big Jebus in the sky. These silly, uneducated, boorish broods who refuse to look at the overwhelming evidence, nay FACTS, that homosexuals are biologically engineered to be the way they are, chuck Bible quotations left right and centre and can’t seem to realize that they’re pitching to the outfield while everyone’s moving towards the short stop. I’m sorry but one cannot logically use Bible quotations (or any holy book quotation for that matter) to make an argument in the 21^st century. It’s just not possible because for every one quotation that one can find valid there are a hundred scientific facts to prove that they are not. If one chooses to have these quotations taken seriously they’d have to take other quotations seriously too like um … say killing your neighbour if he steels your goat! These evangelists need to be coerced into watching Religulous for one month, 24 hours every day. There is no excuse to let people use religion to ban a book for children especially if that said book was harmless and educational.

And what about the stupid people, schools, cities, bookstores, and countries that banned this book? What the fuck? It’s a children’s book about gay couples. Reading this book will not make you or your children gay. I repeat READING THIS BOOK WILL NOT MAKE YOU OR YOUR CHILDREN GAY!!!! I read it; I still like my humans with dicks. What is your fear here people? Please enlighten me. Are you afraid that if you read this book to your 4 year old son he’s going to grow up and become a sparkly fairy? Or that your daughter, after reading this book, might start to fancy breasts? Or are you just afraid of the fact that your idea of a perfect society is being challenged? Having to deal with the fact that your child is going to go to school with a gaybe who has two mommies or two daddies scares the shit out of you and rather than put the situation into simple terms and explain to the child that every family is different, you’d ban books and teach them hatred. Well here’s a big FUCK YOU too all of you out there who teach hate!!!

Okay I went off topic.

The point is: this book is definitely worth the read and your children as well as yourself will enjoy the story and the time you share with each other.

And for those of you who hate on homosexuals:

WWPD

Yoga, the word itself once instilled a sense of tranquility and inner peace with those who dared to utter it, but in the 21^st century yoga seems to have another meaning attached to it: consumerism. Lately it seems that more and more marketing schemes are being thought up to target aspiring and lifelong yogis. Magazines are written and produced entirely about yoga to attract the yoga community and while I am guilty of buying them (and I quite enjoy the articles) what I don’t enjoy is the continuous pushing of advertisements after every other page. Ads telling me that I’m wearing the wrong yoga pants; that Lululemon is the best there is to offer in the business, ads telling me that my $14 yoga/palates mat is inferior to the $100 Manduka mat that “serious yogis” would get.

When did yoga stop being a spiritual escape? When did it turn into a luxury? I blame the media darlings for this, the Madonna’s and the Demi Moore’s. Their constant praise did bring yoga to the forefront but it also brought corporations knocking on every yogis’ door asking them if they’d like the purchase the newest product from the newest company so that they can be stylish at that new fancy yoga studio that just popped up in their neighbourhood last week. Granted yoga is an amazing exercise and spiritual experience but can you really benefit, truly benefit, from yoga if your instructor was taught yoga in a 4 day retreat and works at LA Fitness. And what about the studios that pop up everywhere, as mentioned before. There is a new studio in my neighbourhood every 3-4 weeks offering what the other studios have to offer with the same 4 day trained “professionals” who claim to be the best of the business.

That word business, being associated with yoga, it just makes me cringe. You see I think of yoga as a deeply personal release of all things unwanted within the body and mind. It’s a chance to escape reality and get in touch with yourself and who you are. Calling something that’s supposed to insure personal growth and wellbeing a business, well that’s just wrong. And it’s not just yoga; personal health IS a booming business in the western world. Gyms, studios, fields are all being erected at an alarming rate so that businesses can tap into family homes and tell them: “I’m sorry lady/gentleman but the sidewalk just isn’t the best place to run seeing as our gym has the state of the art equipment to keep you motivated and on track,” or, “your carpeted floor is not a place to practice yoga, no sir, this prim and posh studio is where real yogis release their spiritual energies.”

I don’t see the point in letting corporations dictate what we need, and blur the line between need and want. I, as a consumer, like to spend my money on things I NEED and try not to spend on the things that corporations tell me I need. I want a Manduka mat, because it’s what the professionals use, and it’s expensive (more money = better) and it’s Manduka, the brand itself entails self value and boosts my worth so when I walk into a yoga studio and someone sees that mat I’ll imagine they’ll think I’m a very serious yogi, or that my value is a lot higher than theirs. But, and this is the huge but, Do I need this mat??? Absolutely not, but I am made to believe that I need it. This is how consumerism works to take the simple idea of want and manipulate it into need.

I guess I thought of this topic when I was discussing yoga with a colleague of mine and she happened to mention the new mat she was going to buy when I noticed her current mat sitting there, slightly used but still had a good 6 months left to it. I asked her “well what about that mat?” and she looked at it and turned to me and said, “Well, it’s old, and it’s not Manduka.” When I asked her what does she intend to do with her perfectly good mat, she simply shrugged and said: “throw it away of course.” This is definitely not what yoga teaches its students and the superficial answers she kept feeding me, I knew there was no changing of her corporate corrupted mind, so I offered to take her old mat off her hands when she eventually buys the new NAME BRAND mat. Call me frugal people, but we have to start paying attention to where our money goes and who really has their hands in our pockets because those corps are just praying we’ll get sucked into their system of buying and trashing and buying and trashing. So the next time you pick up a magazine and see an ad stating you need a new camera, when your old camera is perfectly fine and takes great pictures, and all of a sudden your wallet seems a little heavy and your palms begin to scratch, just remember me and think WWPD (what would Phoenix do).

White Houses Cover

So about six months ago I decided that I was going to sharpen my piano skills. I haven’t touched a piano since 1999 and I literally forgot how to play the scales. In fact I was so bad I couldn’t find C and for all those that play the piano you’ll know C is the easiest note to find. Well I couldn’t believe that I lost my ability to play this beloved instrument.

Why did I stop you say? The answer is simple, I wanted to rebel. I wanted to rebel against my parents who said piano will benefit me in many areas of my life and will keep me occupied as I get bored very often. I wanted to rebel against my piano teacher who said that I was very talented and gifted and he wanted to enrol me in a prestigious and highly respected school of music, and I wanted to rebel against this idea of a perfect child, the one with the straight A’s that goes to piano lessons and can play Bach from memory, who reads well above her reading level and goes to football, skiing and softball practices on the weekends. I just didn’t want to be the perfect all Canadian child and it started with me quitting piano.

But now that I’m older I realize that my 13 year old self was a dumbass and I should have kept up with my piano lessons as well as several other things I managed to quit in my life.

As I mentioned above I started to relearn the piano, slowly at first, I started with scales and then moved to simple songs like Ode To Joy. I realized that once I started it was slowly coming back to me but it’s not at all like riding a bike. Playing the piano takes certain skills and time to develop those skills and if you stop practicing it takes a very long time to clean the rust out of your performance. It took me 5 months to start playing relatively well and at the time I wanted to learn to play one of my favourite songs: White Houses. And I did just that. It took me a month to perfect the song but I tried to do it justice with my rendition and I documented my efforts via an mp3/video.  I don’t have a video capturing device so the mp3 recorder was the best I could do to record my accomplishments.

So dear reader, I have posted the results to said project on youtube and now I’ve posted it here for your enjoyment, at least I hope you’ll enjoy it. Oh by the way, I sing on the recording too.

I know it’s rough and sketchy and not at all perfect but I’m proud of it and dare I say it’s quite better than some of the other covers out there. But don’t let me judge myself, tell me what you think, I’ll greatly appreciate that!!

Take care <3.

Local Sustainable Food… IS SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE!!!

Today I want to write about this – not as an attempt to debunk a myth, but as a way to shift the perspective on the issue.

The question: Is local and/or sustainably produced food (i.e. organic/low-spray, ethical…) more expensive?

The answer? Of course it is! And so it should be.

You get what you pay for. Feel good food, in the ethical sense of the phrase, costs more to produce. Paying people a living wage, treating the ecosystem with care, and treating animals humanely all costs more – it’s that extra bit of time and labour that the globalized, industrialized, impersonalized food system refuses to afford. Social justice advocates and environmentalists alike should take note: the current food system erodes the very things we stand for, and complaining that “conscious” food is too expensive is like wanting our cake and expecting to eat it too.

North Americans spend about 10% of their income on food purchases – this is the lowest in the world! How can we expect our ideals to be realized when we are insisting on maintaining the status quo through our refusal back up our vision financially?

Europeans seem to have it at least somewhat more figured out: their governments have re-jigged the system by putting a lot more money into subsidized housing, and on the whole, Europeans tend to rent their homes more than they own. All of this helps in freeing up more dinero for dinner.

Some would say, “Well the globalized system is highly subsidized, can’t conscious food be subsidized instead?” Point well taken and I think this is something we should consider lobbying for. So while we wait for the world’s governments to overhaul the economic system in favour of small & sustainable (it might take a while), let’s consider the ways we can put our money where our mouth is right now – even when purse strings are tight.

1. Redirect more of your disposable income towards food

Cell phones, laptops, ipods, new clothes, travel, eating out, a few too many out at the bar last night… we live in a culture of excess. Downsizing our spending in some areas of our life will allow us to upgrade in others, and it’ll probably make us more human too.

2. Consider conscious food a donation to ‘the cause’

You may not get a receipt for a charitable donation but spending an extra $50 a month on improving people’s lives and the environment sounds like a worthwhile good deed to me.

3. Look at where your current food spending lands

Eating out, buying processed/value-added food, and the not-so-odd “treat” adds up! Not to mention the cost of meat and dairy. Buying whole, unprocessed food, in bulk when possible, is SO MUCH CHEAPER. And did I mention that dried chickpeas cost $1.50/lb? Try tracking what you’re spending for a month and see how it all breaks down. (Just keeping track may make you more conscious of how you’re spending your money.) All the money you save buying dried chickpeas in bulk can begin to go towards dried organic chickpeas in bulk! And that’s just the beginning.

At this point you’re probably thinking, “What about the people who can’t even afford to give charitable donations, or those who don’t purchase the latest gadgets because they can’t afford them?” Another point well taken: it’s true, not everyone has the ability to afford that extra spending. Probably it’s because most of their money is going to paying rent, and possibly feeding multiple people on a low (if even living) wage. The fact that our government has created a system where that kind of disparity exists is heartbreaking. It’s an institutional problem, however, that must be fixed institutionally; farmers’ incomes and the health of our ecosystems around the world should not have to bear the cost of this kind of political shortfall.

Most of us don’t want to support a food system that pays farmers pennies for their food. There is no way that local farmers, or anyone trying to farm sustainably, can compete with that. Nor should they have to. We may not want to pay more for our food, but real food does cost more. Let’s just make sure it’s not the farmers or the environment that bear that cost.

Could These be Lyrics I Smell??

You’re 13 and full of youth
My whole life became your truth
And he watched on as your whole world
Crashed and burned.

An aphrodisiac it seems
You drove temptations
You gave them dreams
While you slumbered in a never ending hell

When I found you My heart stood still
I made you find your own free will
Put you on a path to take you home.

You’re gonna find your way home
Live your life as you intend
On your own

So just
Hold on to your apathy
Fnd out where you wanna be
You’re gonna find you’re way home.