Brain Purge

(inspired by pamused who was inspired by audra)



thankful for:my family and friends

proud of: finally getting my ass to the gym consecutively
missing: what can never be again
looking forward to: a warm bed to crawl into

preoccupied by: politics, capitalism, the state of the world. What style will i get my hair cut next?thrilled by:everything

disappointed by: politicians, fellow humans, that my Christmas tree won't grow

thinking of:being more creative

wondering:if anyone can ever know for sure

hoping:that i'm over exaggerating everything negative

wanting: une maison to call home

reading: The Story of French

recommending: lying on the floor at 3 am in the dark and listening to konstantine by something corporate

making:cupcakes

listening to: patrice

would kill for: 311 day concert in New Orleans

forgetting to:breathe

most recently snuggled by:toby cat

most recently slept on: not so comfy bed

Recommendation: Empire Builders - Third Wall/GCTC

We have season tickets to the Great Canadian Theatre Company, here in Ottawa. They put on fabulous and energetic plays and performances by Canadian and local playwrights, with Canadian and local actors. The new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, newly opened this season, provides a lovely space and location for bigger productions.

Interestingly, the new theatre also has a smaller studio theatre so two productions can be rehearsing and performing at the same time. Enter Third Wall Theatre Company. At the last GCTC production we saw an advertisment for the upcoming Third Wall production to be held there.

Third Wall has made the studio theatre it's new home, and we were delighted to catch their adaptation of Boris Vian's 1958 play Empire Builders. It's funny, because neither of us fully understood everything about the play, but we both loved it. It's one of those plays that encourages discussion afterwards. This family who is continually fleeing an unknown enemy/fear and who refuse to talk of it raises questions that are eerily relevant today. How do we deal with fear? The Enemy? The Unknown? What/how much are we willing to risk for freedom/safety? Do we collectively repress the past so as to pretend it's not how we arrived to the present?

The actors were all phenomenal. Katie Bunting, Julian Doucet, Matt Miwa, Alix Sidaris, Maureen Smith and Riley Stewart all played their parts (some of them non-speaking!) extremely well and it really added to the performance. We've been lucky enough to see some of these same actors in other productions at the GCTC and love when we get to see them return!

One of the things I love about theatre is the use of the stage and props. The studio theatre is quite small, but the whole team did a lovely job with the space. The actors were in between the audience and the story moved from side to side. Voice projection wasn't a problem in the small area, even if the actor had their back to you. The costumes were eerie and great - though I haven't figured out if the all-white clothing and pale faces/white hair was supposed to sybolize something? Death? Limbo...? Regarless...it was striking.

I don't want to give away too much, except to say it's a stellar performance and a great play to follow up with a coffee or drinks or a nice drive home to discuss the issues raised.

The show runs until February 16 at the GCTC and I strongly recommend you check it out.

Up next: For the GCTC it's The Optimists, by Morwyn Brebner, running until February 17. For Third Wall, it's Moliere's Tartuffe, running May 27th to June 7th.

Ten Myths about the Canadian Healthcare System

Great article here debunking common myths about our healthcare system.

Election Fun

While I am born and bred Canadian, I can't help but be interested in US politics. They're such a global player, and so close to home, that practically everything they do, say, and make policy has some bearing on us folks to the North.

Some interesting quizzes you can do to see which candidates your views align with most:

Glassbooth

Electoral Compass

Happy quizzing!

Green Giant

Some very interesting green initiatives by my fave love to hate big box behemoth - Wal-Mart. As any of you who know me probably know, I grew up in a Canadian retail family and therefore have a big hate-on for Wally World as we fondly call it. I have many issues with their employee policies around triple-split shifts, inadequate pay and their shady PR practices. I also think they are largely responsible for pushing this "lower price" mentality on people to the point where everyone would gladly drive farther to save nine cents on whatever cheap product it is they want...only to be hugely disapointed when they discover how poorly the product is made to get it to them at that 'great' price or what it's driving those suppliers to do to stay afloat. I also have issues with Wal-Mart coming into small towns and putting all the other small mom and pop shops out of business only to close up and leave town. I have issues with them also bullying employees/stores where unions are trying to be formed to protect worker's rights. I do not shop at Wal-Mart, and haven't for years, because of this and much more.


However, I have to admit that they carry a lot of weight. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world and have a lot of buying power and influence. Take a moment to read this article on Wal-Mart's greening efforts. They've realized that there are financial benefits to going green. I'm not sure I'm ready to drop my boycott and start shopping there yet, but at least they're heading in the right direction, and hopefully setting a green path for other retailers to follow.

Good News and Bad News from Starbucks

To be honest, I don't know how applicable this is in Canada, as I was under the impression that Canadian cows do not get these hormones, but I made need to brush up on my homework. The story here discusses Starbucks move to hormone-free milk (yay!) but how this means they will also not sell organic milk anymore (boo!).

How about we just stick to Bridgehead instead?

Roll Up Your Sleeves, America!

http://www.relocalize.net/u_s_oil_dependencies


By the wonderful Art Spiegelman

Environ-mental

Great article here about a book on greening your life, without the depressing serious 'tude.

Excerpt from the article:

And if if you think you're pretty eco-conscious already, there is still some fun facts to learn. Here's some of my favorites:

• "Some 20 billion diapers are buried in US landfills per year, representing about 7 billion pounds of garbage."
• You can flush dog poop down the toilet but not cat poop (and ironically, it seems you can potty train cats, but not dogs -- drat!).
• "There is a Green Wi-Fi project, which has developed a solar-powered wireless router that can run for up to four weeks even in prolonged periods of gray skies."
• Burning a single gallon of gas produces 20 pounds of C02.
• Lunch boxes are hipper than tupperware.
• "Americans are said to throw away enough aluminum in three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet."
• "The average dishwasher uses about 15 gallons of water per load, while the average dish-washer (that would be you) uses about 5 gallons of water per minute at the sink.
• The US airline industry uses 53 million gallons of jet fuel each day.

I don't see it on the Octopus Book website yet, but Chapters and Amazon have it if your local indie book store doesn't.

Guess who's back?

So....I'm back.

I stopped posting here seriously almost a year ago. I blame facebook. I'd just post up links, funny stories and the occasional comment so easily to facebook, that I figured there was no point in repeating it here, as I think most people who read this are people I know. However, I still have been getting statistic reports every week and it boggles my mind that there are still (a few) people who just stumble onto the site. Also, I come across so many interesting articles etc. that I want to share, that I inundate my "friends" on facebook and lose most of the posts as the page only fits so many entries.

So, Stealing Happy Hours is back. I'm sure I should reorganize it somehow...but for now it's going to remain the melange of articles and interesting links and occasional comments on everything from eco-friendliness, to travel, to shopping, to music, to activism, to politics, to humour, to books, to food and photos.

Please send me any comments or suggestions!

Connect

From City Blog today:

We must never lose that feeling of connectedness, a necessity once
described like this by the great American novelist James Baldwin: “The Earth is
always shifting. The light is always changing. Generations do not cease to be
born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they
have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children
cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith
with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."

American author and clergyman Henry van Dyke: "Time is too slow for those
who wait, too swift for those who grieve, too long for those who would rejoice.
But for those who love, time is eternal."

Elie Wiesel wrote this about the blackest night a human being can know: "I
have learned two lessons in my life. First, there are no significant literary,
psychological or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second,
just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope too
can be given to one only by other human beings."

Eliot Spitzer, who took office in January and spoke at the 9/11
commemoration for the first time as governor, said:
"We stand on this
terrible threshold remembering all that happened. We feel today as we felt then,
that we belong to one another, not because we are inhabitants of the same city
or same country but because we are all part of the same human story, part of one
community of our fellow human beings. John Donne wrote these immortal words
centuries ago: "No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of
the continent, a part of the main, any man's death diminishes me because I am
involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It
tolls for thee."

As the poet William Blake wrote centuries ago, "Can I see another's
woe, and not be in sorrow too?"