Month: April 2004

Categories
In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Notes from the Dalai Lama’s Talk: “The Power of Compassion”

Here are my notes from the Dalai Lama’s appearance at Accordion City’s SkyDome on Sunday, April 25th. I took them with pen and paper and transcribed them here.

Anything in quotation marks is a direct quote of the speaker. I’m basically following the rules of “citizen journalism”, which Lisa Williams explains very eloquently in this post on her blog. Fortunately for me, the Dalai Lama’s English is very close to note form.

Media reports on the event:

Opener: Bill Cameron

  • Greetings to all 25,000 in attendance
  • So many different ages and races in the audience
  • SkyDome is normally a place of struggle and competition (“Nothing wrong with that…especially when the Blue Jays are winning”)
  • But today, it’s about peace, harmony and compassion
  • In my industry [television], one of the greatest fears is silence, or what is called “dead air”
  • managers try and fill dead air with voices, musics, blaring sirens and horns
  • Let’s take a moment to enjoy that silence — the silence of 25,000 people together in harmony, and let’s call it “live air”
  • Introduction of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts troupe performing a “Luck Dance”
  • Dance appeared to 5th Dalai Lama in a dream
  • Short film: Tibet’s Stolen Child
  • About the 11th Panchen Lama: kidnapped by Chinese government in 1989, still under house arrest today
  • His birthday is today
  • Chinese gov’t have produced their own Panchen Lama, who is their puppet
  • Narrated by the unmistakeable voice of Patrick Stewart
  • Speakers in the film:
  • For more information, visit www.tashilhunpo.org

Introduction: Justin Trudeau

(Justin Trudeau is the eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He gained some fame and admiration in 2000 for his very moving “Je t’aime, Papa” eulogy at his father’s funeral. Depending on whom you ask, Pierre Trudeau is the symbol of what’s right or what’s wrong with Canada.)

  • The Dalai Lama is “someone who knows how to get along just fine…with just about everyone.”
  • Sometimes hard to define words like “compassion” or “love” — esp. when we say things like “I love my shampoo” or when “freedom” means a new convertible — “or an SUV if you live in the Himalayas.”
  • Canada is a country of optimists, hope, compassion and acceptance
  • “We’re just not as good at it as he is.”

Presentation: The Dalai Lama

  • “We are same”
  • We have equal potential for good and for bad
  • “No one one hundred percent bad.”
  • Education is important: “Not just for mere knowledge, but something good for happier life.”
  • Pointed out that education does not guarantee happiness
  • Believes in promotion of human values and religious harmony
  • “If you come here with great expectation, I have nothing to offer you. Just empty words.”
  • Spent majority of his life in exile
  • “Very lazy student”: When it comes to math, geography and world history, “my knowledge is almost zero”
  • Compassion: “Some kind of closeness felling, sense of concern, with respect”
  • From compassion comes “truthful”, which leads to self-confidence, which in turn leads to hope
  • Peace: “Not just the mere absence of violence” — “Peace is the expression of compassion”
  • We learn compassion from the start with a mother’s love (and the love of those who care for us when we are young and helpless)
  • World is heavily interconnected today because of our population growth, technology and economy
  • “We and they no longer there: we are part of they, and they a part of we.”
  • Much of today’s violence has causes that go back to the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries
  • Violence creates more hatred in the other’s mind
  • War: “I usually feel like legalized violence”
  • War is different today: “Destruction of your enemy is destruction of yourself.”
  • “The best way is to dialogue.”
  • 20th century became “century of violence” — “21st century should be century of dialogue”
  • Compassion:
    • “bring us self-confidence”
    • “bring us respect of others”
    • “bring us peaceful calm mind
  • “I think you feel that sometimes our leaders should have more compassion” (applause)
  • Storyabout politician friend in India who said: “I am a politician, and as apolitician, I don’t know much about spirituality and ethics.”
  • “Leaders…politicians…in the mind, something happen. [Points to head] It’s dangerous!” (laughter)
  • Suggestions that world leaders get together for a large gathering with their families and not discuss politics. Just get to know each other and each other’s families. Develop compassion for each other.
  • Story about how he used to fight with his older brothewr as a child: compassion overcomes differences.
  • Compassion not just a religious matter: “So long as we are human being…these deeper values are very necessary”
  • Material developments are necessary, but must be “combined with human value”
  • The term “secular”: “Not rejection of religion, but respect all religion and respect non-believer”
  • Encouraged audience to think about compassion and human values: “Use this [points to head] as your laboratory…not expensive! Nobody pay!”
  • “If you think my points are nonsense, then forget it, no problem.”

Q&A session

What is the biggest problem facing humanity today?

  • Population explosion, especially in the 3rd world
  • Gap between rich and poor
  • Recalling visit to Washington DC: even in the capital of the world’s richest nation, there are poor
  • India’s real transformation must take place not in its cities, but in the rural areas

Why does it seem that there is more negativity than positivity in the world today?

  • “I do not agree world becoming more problem”
  • “You just seeing locally”
  • “Rule of kindness and compassion stronger”
  • “If we really ruthless and not care, we would not have population problem”
  • Story about German physicist friend
    • Teaches him quantum mechanics: “I have keen interest in quantum physics”, but “great teacher, hopeless student”
    • Physicist related how earlier, France was consider the enemy, now “just a neighbour”
    • We look at war differently now — then, more people did not question; now, we ask if it’s necessary and if we don’t belive so, we protest, worldwide
    • We are more concerned about the environment than ever
    • All are signs that there is hope for us as a species

Along with compassion, what other qualities do we need?

  • Knowledge: to see more clearly, to see past appearances
  • “Hatred must have some kind of independent object to hate”, and the target is often chosen based on appearances
  • “Compassion need no specific target”, and based on reality, which can only be perceived through knowledge

Where do you get all your energy?

  • “Good sleep — sometimes 7 hours…sometimes 9 hours, 10 hours…”
  • Heavy breakfast after fasting
  • His peace of mind also a source of energy
  • “Sometimes I feel like ocean. Waves come on surface [makes wave-like motion with hand] but underneath is calm.”

How can we help you to go home?

  • “Buy one ticket from here to Peking, from Peking to Lhasa.” [laughter]
  • “But then, the reality more complicated.” [laughter]
  • “For last 45 years, my physical outside Tibet, but people in Tibet recognize my presence outside useful to them.”
  • Does not believe in disintegration of China, nor separation of Tibet from China
  • “Tibetan, Chinese,” people of all countries, “there is no difference”
  • Instead, favours Tibet staying in China and having “meaningful implementation of autonomy” — “it is already provided for in Chinese constitution” — what’s good for Tibet will also benefit autonomous regions like Taiwan
  • Today, China changing compared 20 years ago: “Judging from brader picture, there is hope”
  • China is going through a transition period, and “smooth transition good for everyone.”
Categories
In the News Music

Hey! Isn’t that Birnam Wood doing the pogo straight for Dunsinane?

Both BBC 6Music and Ananova report that John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon wants Justin “The Former Mister Britney Spears” Timberlake to play him in a film based on his autobiography No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.

All reports say that Timberlake agreed to take the role under the proviso that Lydon stay off the set, to which I say “wuss”.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

This Afternoon

I’ll be at SkyDome (just down the street from my super-swanky stylin’ abode, “Big Trouble in Little China”) taking in the Dalai Lama’s presenation, “The Power of Compassion” (here’s the related book). I’ve heard him speak before; he’s a pretty stand-up guy, and dude, he sounds and laughs just like Yoda!

I’ll take some notes and post them here later.

Categories
Uncategorized

Is This Autoeroticism? (or: German Fetish Videos Are Weird, Man)

Pump that pedal, baby! Oooooooh yeah.

Carstuckgirls.com is a German site where you can ogle still photos and purchase videos of young women whose cars are stuck in the mud, snow or sand. The photos and videos are quite safe for work; the models in the videos are fully clothed, although wearing tight jeans or short skirts. That’s all there is to these photos and videos — just comely lasses whose vehicles are stuck, and their attempts to get out.

In these videos, the “money shots” are close-ups of the woman’s foot pumping the accelerator in an attempt to free the car. Some videos also come with “stuck-stories” — first-person narratives supposedly written by the “carstuckgirl” describing how her car got stuck and how she extricated herself. For those of you who have a reputation to protect, you can request for the video to be shipped to you in a plain brown envelope.

This is about as saucy as these videos get.

Looking at the pictures on the site, I feel like those people who stare at stereograms for hours and fail to find the hidden image. Perhaps I’m just an old “stick in the mud”.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Boston People Eat Weird Food, Man

Taken last Sunday near Boston Common:

Not just fried dough, but unattended fried dough!

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me Music Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Tuesday Night Fun

For those of you who do not live in Accordion City or its environs,

you might not be aware that The Maple Leafs won the playoffs against

the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. This city is famous for loving its

hockey team as a mother loves her ne’er-do-well son, so even though there’s a long way to go

before the end of the playoffs, the streets went wild with the sounds of revelry.

Paul and I decided to enjoy some of the post-victory partying, so we

decided to go out, find a bar and hoist pints of ale with whatever

celebrants we could find. We walked south on Spadina to recharge our

wallets at the nearby ATM when we ran into the first partier of the

evening:

“Duuuuuuuuuuuuude!”

The streets were filling with cars full of fans waving Maple Leafs

flags, honking their horns and yelling “Go Leafs go!” I managed to whip

up more than a few into a frenzy of screaming, honking and high-beam

headlight flashing by playing the “Spanish Bullfight Chords”

followed by the “Charge!” theme on the accordion. I got an even better

response by playing the theme to Hockey Night in Canada, [261K MP3] which might as well be our second national anthem.

The bars on Queen Street were a little quiet for our liking. This

shouldn’t have come as a surprise, as Queen Street West is home to

hipster/live music bars, not sports bars.

“We need a bar where a man can drink plebian ales, wear his baseball cap backwards and enjoy the company of comely puckbunnies,” I said in my best beer commercial voice.

“Hooters!” said Paul.

“You, my good friend, are a genius.”

You’d think that Hooters (where I usually meet our family’s

insurance agent Art — it’s his favourite place to meet with his male

clients, including Dad) would be packed on a game 7 playoff night.

However, that wasn’t the case; only a handful of tables were occupied,

and they were all being watched over by a couple of waitresses with

little to do.

We looked across Adelaide Street and saw that the Fox and Fiddle was

hopping. We went inside and took a couple fo stools at the upstairs

bar. Paul noticed that the stage was set up for a band and pointed it

out.

“I wonder…” I said, looking around until I saw the poster: “JAM NIGHT: Bring an instrument or come sing”.

Bingo.

The band was called Sonic Playground,

and their first set consisted of pop and rock cover tunes, all played

note-perfectly. You could tell by their way they played and

communicated with each other using nods and sidelong glances that they’d been playing together quite regularly for some time.

We decided to get a seat closer to the band. The area around the

stage was full of underweight women wearing slightly-too-small Maple

Leafs t-shirts and their overweight boyfriends wearing waaay-too-large

Maple Leafs jerseys. We found a table occupied by a girl sitting alone and asked if we could join her.

“Sure,” she said, looking at the display of her cell phone intensely, “I’m just waiting for a friend.”

“It looks like we have an accordion in the house!” said Sheri, the band’s lead vocalist. “Are you gonna play some polka?”

“AC/DC!” I yelled back.

“This oughta be good,” said Jay the guitarist.

The band finished its first set and took a quick break, after which

they started going through the list of people who wanted to sing or jam

with the band. Although I was not the first to get to the list, the

people before me signed up for the fourth, fifth or sixth slots; no one

wated to be first. Sicne the first slot was open, I took it.

“Let’s hear it for the guy with accordion!” Sheri said as I took the stage.

“You Shook Me All Night Long, right? In the original key?” asked Peter the bassist.

“Original key, G, yeah,” I replied, to which I got a nod and the opening guitar chords.

Here’s a still photo of what it looked like…

“I’d like to dedicate this number to a specific owner of American thighs…”

…and here’s a video [3 MB, MPEG; the sound is quite distorted, so turn your volume down].

You Shook Me All Night Long

is a guaranteed crowd pleaser just about anywhere in the world, and

when done with an accordion, the crowd reaction is always better. The

band want kind enough to let me have the solo, and I think Angus Young

would’ve approved of my work that night.

At the end of the number and after the applaused died down, I was about to step off the stage when Sheri and Jay stopped me.

“Hey! Why don’t you stay on and do another number with us?”

“I’d love to,” I replied. “Which one?”

“You pick,” said Jay.

“Hmmm…what do you guys know?” Noting that they were pretty

up-to-date with their cover tunes, I took a wild guess. “I do a pretty

decent version of Outkast’s Hey Ya…”

“Hey! We do that!” said Sheri.

“Okay, then…Hey Ya! One, Two, Three, UH! My baby don’t mess around because she loves me so and this I know fo’ sho’…”

Most of the bar got up and danced for this number. Years of being a

street musician served me well for this number: I managed to dodge out

of the way as a big guy in a Tie Domi jersey tripped ands fell onto the

stage while trying to impress the puckbunnies with fancy footwork.

All right, now fellas! What’s cooler than bein’ cool? SQUEEZE BOX!

All in all, a fun Tuesday evening. Perhaps I’ll have to drop by during their next jam night appearance (Tuesday, May 4th).

Categories
In the News

Follow-up on "Gay or Asian?"

As I mentioned in my earlier entry on Details’ Gay or Asian? article, a

protest was scheduled to take place on Friday, April 16th outside the

Details offices in Manhattan. A Google news search found these articles

covering it:

According to the reports, about 200 people attended the protest,

which led Details’ editor-in-chief, Daniel Peres to make the following

statement:

“It has been made abundantly clear to me that this story, which is part

of an ongoing series challenging male cultural stereotypes, was

insensitive, hurtful, and in poor taste,” Details

Editor-in-Chief Daniel Peres said in a written statement. “There’s a

line that should never be crossed in any satirical humor, and Details crossed it. I, on behalf of the magazine, deeply regret this misstep, and apologize to those who were offended.”

The Advocate article reports that Details

will “run a full-page apology in an upcoming issue and move forward in a

more sensitive manner in featuring stories on lesbian, gay, bisexual,

and transgendered people as well as Asians and Pacific Islanders”.

I’ve never been terribly keen on the word “sensitive” in this sort

of context. It has a “poor widdle baby, can’t take a couple of barbed bons mots” pat-on-the-head connotation. How about “non-bigoted”?

In the meantime, thanks to how publications work and the magic of

lead times, Whitney McNally’s dead horse receives continued flogging.

May’s issue of Details has her latest ouevre, Gay or Socialite’s Husband?

Here are scans of her entire “Gay or…?” series, courtesy of the blog What Tian Has Learned:

Geez, and I thought the writers at Saturday Night Live were the kings of milking a joke long after it ceased to be funny. Whitney, you can take that crown now.

And what can be done about Ms. McNally (picture purported to be her, taken from the slam site whitneymcnally.com shown below)?


Hey, wait a minute…wasn’t she all over me at the For the Love of Breasts fundrasing gala?

A number of Asian and Gay advocacy groups have demanded that Details

fire her. I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, as she’s only the

writer. Every magazine article is the product of a team of people, of

whom the writer is only one part. The “Gay or…?” series had to be

approved by a story editor, and each article submitted is probably

approved by a section editor and (at least in theory) the

editor-in-chief. The act of firing Ms. McNally in the absence of any

other sort of remedy merely opens the door for another like her to

replace the void left in her absence (although I suspect that her

presence is a void itself).

I can suggest three possible solutions:

  • Have one of those “roundtable” articles in which

    editor-in-chief Daniel Peres, Whitney McNally, a high-profile gay man

    and a high-profile Asian discuss the issue.

  • Have someone with good powers of persuasion convince them to

    run a “Gay or Al-Qaeda?” article. (Probably unwise, as the resulting

    “protest” will probably harm a lot of innocent people).

  • Team Ms. McNally up with her Canadian dim-bulb counterpart Leah McLaren and put them on some kind of “gosh-they’re-cute-but-dumb” reality show a la The Simple Life or Newlyweds.

    I will gladly volunteer my services for the episode in which they must

    wrestle an Asian accordion player in a vat of creamed corn.