He yearns to lead his Foolish Followers and Drunken Disciples. He is not great nor wise. He is but a Humble Hero, longing to speak words that move, though his tongue is tied. Spirituality, politics, entertainment, from the mundane, to the magnificent, he listens and learns.
Rush, Canada's greatest band, and arguably one of the world's legendary bands. Praised as having forged a genre of their own over 40 years and 20 albums, they are truly revolutionary. It's about time this band had a Rockumentary. Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, stealing its name from their world-renowned song Limelight, was unveiled at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival last Thursday. The film is said to boast a complete history of the band from its early days playing high school gigs (It's noteworthy that Rush apparently played my high school back in the day) to its latest album Snakes and Arrows.
For a band that has not experienced a lot of drama or tragedy, but a steady stream of success since its early days, some, including Geddy Lee himself, worried that there was no story to tell; however the directors are being praised for successfully and intelligently portraying the history of a great band. As their style has changed and developed over the years Rush has remained the same group of nerdy outcasts they were from Day 1, without too much upset. Despite the seeming lack of drama in the band the director's supposedly went to great lengths to dig up the whole story. The film leaves no subject untouched as it explains the grim history of Lee's parents (Holocaust survivors) and Peart's personal tragedy with the loss of his wife and daughter.
The documentary will be released as Rush prepares to do a summer tour of North America. They will be performing a long anticipated set of their pivotal album Moving Pictures in full, with such songs as Red Barchetta, Limelight, YYZ and Tom Sawyer at four Canadian venues and many more American venues. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing them in all their glory at the Molson Amphitheater on July 13th.
I'm starting to think that sex and relationships don't go together. It seems to me that in the grand majority of cases sex blinds people to true emotion and therefore true love. How often do sexual expectations lead to break-ups and divorces? Its crazy. I suppose at some point sex is important in procreation and to satisfy innate human desire, but it seems in this society many place sex and physical connection on this pedestal and forget about the importance of human emotional connection.
That said, there is a time and place in everyone's life and relationships to enjoy the carnal pleasures of sex, but in many cases (especially in youth) it is not out of desire to connect but out of need to fulfill the social imperative instilled by the media. Sex is a status symbol. TV and movies are brimming with sexual reference and innuendo and explicit scenes of sexuality are becoming the norm. Following the mark of shows such as "Two and a Half Men", not a single episode in any show geared towards a teen-adult audience will pass without dedicating at least one sexual reference, and sex is rarely shown in a negative light.
Even childrens' shows are becoming increasingly sexual in nature. There have always been underlying innuendos, which may or may not be intentional, that adult viewers would pick up on, but now childrens' television is becoming increasingly dependent on crushes and vanity. There are the pretty girls that all the kids drool over and there are the nerds who have crushes on them (Ex. Tim Turner and Trixie Tang in Fairly Oddparents). It is not long before the kids watching these shows choose to watch other more mature Television program behind their parents back. It was The Simpsons and That 70s Show a couple years ago, now kids will be watching Family Guy and Two and a Half Men.
So what's the point behind all this? Is it a problem? Maybe for those who cannot recognize the difference between physical and emotional connection and understand wherein the importance of both lie. Maybe we're just headed towards a more openly sexual society. Maybe the second wave of the sexual revolution is upon us. In time we may break down our monogamist society into something that mirrors Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. Where marriage and family are non-existent and children take part in simulated erotic play from a young age. Whatever the case is, it seems our society is yet again changing in its views of sexuality. The verdict is sex sells, and the networks are supplying it.
Movement Musician of the Week: The Flobots "Same Thing"
Rebel of the Day (Numero Dos-ish): Rwanda, for moving past its history of human rights abuses and being international recognized for this as it joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
Its nothing new. Everyone knows it. The media is the opiate of the masses. But no one has realized just how bad it is. Every single aspect of the media only serves to aid in building apathy in the youth of today. From the most frivolous materialistic tripe on MTV to a deep and thoughtful documentary about war-torn Sudan. The problem with the media we see every day is, we see it every day. It has become an everyday occurrence to hear about the troubles shaking a far off country. Blood and gore do not have the same effect as they used to. When footage of a genocide is seen alongside footage of Saw IV, the trivial becomes reality and reality becomes trivial. It all meets on this basic median level, entertainment. The opiate of the masses.
Its a problem that I've been hearing lately. Media tells us all these things that are happening in the world and all these evils that must be fixed. Media tells us to stand up and do something about it so this media can't be the opiate can it? No the opiate tells us everything is alright, not to worry, nothing can go wrong, just be happy. But that's where things have changed since the 60s. Unfiltered, raw media coverage of world events is now the norm, so we should all be very aware of the evils in the world. We should all be standing against them, right? But we aren't. The youth are mesmerized by the evils they see in Michael Moore's documentaries and movies like Hotel Rwanda and even Youtube footage of violence against peaceful protesters in Iran, but do we stand up. No. It stays in the back of our heads. We feel like because we saw Blood Diamond, and because we listened to a protest song by Rise Against or The Flobots, that we have done our part. Education is as far as we go.
Some of us will pass the information on, teach other people, tell them about what goes on in the world. But truly we are just introducing our friends to the opiate. Its come to a point where knowing whats going on in the world and learning to live with the fact you can't do anything about it is better than not knowing what is going on in the world around us. This is why even the most morbid and depressing of media is an opiate. If we know whats going on in the world we are less likely to go out and see it, and if we are less likely to go out and see it we are less likely to try and change it. Very few of us will ever, learn the truth, teach others, and go on to take action against the evil.
The other problem is when we confuse meaningful media with media that makes us feel good. An example that can be made is of Bob Marley. While Bob Marley does have quite a few protest songs, his songs are famously happy-go-lucky. There is value in music that promotes peace and love, but at a certain level it starts to give a false impression of peace and love and allows us to believe that everything is okay. Meanwhile wars are being fought all over the world and soldiers on route to fight in Iraq are listening to Bob Marley in their Jeeps to keep up their morale. Happy music does create or invoke feelings of happiness and satisfaction, so it can also, not kept in moderation, make us blind to the truth of the world around us.
I'm not posting a photo with this one because, putting his photo up would only serve to boost Kanye West's ego more. I'm doing enough by writing this in the first place (not that he's ever going to see or read this).
Does Kanye West have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder? If so, is it bad enough to be considered Malignant Narcissism? Every day he seems to get more self-absorbed, more anti-social and more narcissistic. Everyone by now has heard about his antics at the VMAs but let's recap anyway. For the award of Best Female Video Beyonce's "Single Ladies" was up against Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" and the 19 year old country singer took the prize. Teary-eyed and halfway through her speech Kanye West marches onto the stage grabs the microphone from her and says, "Taylor Swift, I'm gonna let you finish this, but Beyonce's video was one of the best of all time." Taylor Swift is obviously visibly shaken, Beyonce shocked and Kanye completely apathetic.
What drove the fabulously rich and famous Kanye West to break every code of sportsmanship and in a single moment obliterate any respect the populous had for him? The only logical conclusion is his narcissism is getting worse. This would not be the first indication of a narcissistic personality disorder from the 35 year old rapper. He has a history of violent outbursts of language and fists, including assaulting paparazzi. He is as self-promoting as a famous rapper can be praising himself as the "voice" of this generation.
Now, he did release a short-lived apology, on his website, to Taylor Swift, MTV and fans, but not only was the apology hollow towards Taylor and lauded towards himself, it was quickly removed. He described himself as Soooooo sorry, but then quickly added that Beyonce's video was still the best and he was just being "real." What most of us would call being egotistical, insensitive and ignorant, Kanye West calls "keeping it real." Spouting a distasteful rant to millions of fans live on tv in the presence of the rantee is not keeping it real.
What kind of god complex and love of self-indulgence does one need to think that they can go ahead and do something like that? Sure it doesn't take much physically to steal the microphone and say a few words but emotionally and morally it would be difficult if not impossible for a thoughtful, empathetic human being to do such a thing to someone who has done absolutely nothing wrong. Does Kanye empathize? Some would cite his philanthropic work in charity and benefit concerts as proof of his empathy, however, it doesn't take much out of you to sign a paper and spend a tiny fraction of your money off to the less fortunate in order to gain the much needed public reputation.
Kanye West is self-appreciating, anti-social, egotistical, self-centered and a narcissist. His faults grow day by day as he strives to "keep it real" for the generation he speaks for. If he's the voice of this generation I guess that means we have no respect for the people around us and only live to see our own profits. His personality is characteristic of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and it seems to grow worse day by day. Kanye West the Malignant Narcissist will not stop until the day he's suffocated by his own over-inflated ego.
Also, by his old song Jesus Walks, it can be concluded that he thinks he is Jesus incarnate.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, Our presence automatically liberates others."
-Nelson Mandela quoting Marianne Williamson in his 1994 inaugeral speech
I heard this powerful quote on the Family Channel movie "Akeelah and the Bee". Akeelah was a young African American girl growing up in a poor Los Angeles community. She was an exceptional young speller and overcame peer-pressure, poverty and her own fear of success to win the National Spelling Bee. It doesn't sound like much, but it was an exceptional movie and one of those feel-good inspirational films. This quote, and how Akeelah embodied it in her struggle to overcome her fear of greatness, moved me to say the least.
There is so much truth in this quote. It is a truth I never realized until last night. Modesty is always looked upon as a positive trait, making others feel equal and comfortable around you, but we are all capable of greatness. Every last one of us, and we just enable each other to be meek and unsuccessful by not bragging our talents and skills and prizes. We need to flaunt our successes, to drive and inspire others to be like us, to show them that anyone can do it. We need to fight the status quo in today's society, where the youth follow trends blindly like a lamb to the slaughter and we fear standing out or being successful for fear of looking immodest. We need to change this.
Nelson Mandela is an example of this, by straying from the status quo and flaunting his power and his talents, he fought the evil apartheid government of South Africa. Even in prison for 34 years his words and actions were not forgotten and when he was finally set free he became president of the country he fought long and hard for. It was not modesty and meekness that brought Nelson Mandela to that place it was defiance and confidence. He was not afraid of success; he revered it from the very beginning. Like Nelson Mandela you are born powerful beyond measure. You are born capable of greatness. It is just a question of embracing it, and overcoming your fear of immodesty.
Modesty is overrated. Granted immodesty starts wars, on the other hand it is not modesty that invented the wheel. Modesty is a flawed philosophy. Modesty is stagnation. Modesty is static. Besides there are checks and balances to immodesty. Immodesty to the point of hubris will be your downfall, as demonstrated by empires throughout history. Then again there is a difference between modesty and generosity. Immodesty does not rule out generosity. Knowledge and wealth can be shared without sacrificing ones "greatness" in fact, arguably, generosity increases ones brilliance. Striving to be the best you can be and sharing your greatness, is the best gift there is. It excels the human race and drives civilization forward.
Remember the line, "the meek will inherit the earth."? I don't believe it for a second. Each and every one of us has it in us to be great, to "inherit" the earth and you won't get there by sitting around being modest and fearing what others will think of your dreams. You could go on to be a politician and become the leader of a country, or to become a scientist and save the planet from eco-disaster, or a doctor and save people from disease. And you don't even have to save people or the planet or be a world leader, you just have to do what you want to do, what you strive for and dream of, then you are a true leader. If you think its too late, you can't turn back, then take it in another direction. You can be a teacher and preacher of the cause and create big change, on a small scale, by invoking in others this message, Do not fear success.
Here's a little song that embodies the idea of this quote: Get Up - Shad
Last night, I went to see the movie District 9. It is difficult to formulate my thoughts on the movie as of yet. You can tell this from the reviews given by movie-goers and critics alike. Some love it and some hate it. Personally, I really liked it. District 9 is a first in many ways. It is the first alien thriller to have prolonged exposure of the alien species to humans, it is the first to have the aliens portrayed as the underdogs and it is the first to show the socio-political tensions between the clashing extraterrestrial civilizations. From the very beginning, with its documentary style that slowly fades to a traditional fiction movie, the story had me intrigued and I spent most of the movie with a curious, thoughtful look on my face.
District 9 is essentially a slum set up outside Johannesburg in South Africa to house an alien population the "Prawns" which has landed on Earth without the ability to go home. In this slum we see the typical shady activities of life in Johannesburg, in Prawn weapons dealing, inter-species prostitution and drug trafficking (in catfood). We also see various factions trying to discover the secret to operating the Prawn weaponry; government agencies such as the MNU through scientific means and Nigerian gangs through witchcraft. The government controlled slum creates a mood reminiscent of the apartheid era in South Africa with signs dictating where humans and non-humans are allowed to travel, do business, and live.
While humans try to exploit the Prawns for everything they can offer including flesh, the aliens attempt to carve out a niche and a living in the Johannesburg community while being suppressed by military agents and fought by angry human citizens. In ways South Africa was the perfect setting for this movie, as it is the most culturally, ethnically and racially diverse nation in the world and has long experienced racial tensions and bouts of xenophobic violence; foreigners are nothing new to South Africa. With that and South Africa's clash of tribal and modern civilization it is the perfect place for first contact.
If you go into the movie expecting Independence Day or Signs where the aliens are purely malicious and it is a struggle for human survival, you are not going to enjoy this movie. The best way to enjoy this movie is to go into it with absolutely no expectations and just take it in as you go. If you can't help but have expectations, expect slum politics and economics. Don't expect the humans to play the good guys because the movie brands humans as selfish and don't expect a heroic defeat of alien supremacy because the aliens are definitely the underdogs. District 9 is an atypical alien invasion movie. Because of this, I give it a 9 out of 10 for trying something completely different.
I don't really know what to write about, because things seem uninteresting to me lately so I'll write about the impending doom that is the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the movie adaptation). Who knows what will happen in this iteration of the Harry Potter adventure, unless of course you read the book. This is why I will not be attending this matinee or likely any of the following showings in theaters. Despite the fact that I'm a sucker for hype and tend to do whatever the TV and slash or the interwebz tells me to do. I'm not much of a Ad-savvy person. Speaking of ads look there are ads in the sidebar, that I hope don't still say anything about "Sexy Iranian Singles."
Anyway, personally I'd much rather see an original movie concept instead of a story stolen half-assedly from a book. To be totally honest I did not even like the books, they were good entertainment but they definitely don't constitute good literature (not to be a lit-snob). I just think it would be better *Spoiler* if Harry died at the end of the series, but no he sacrifices himself but survives anyway. It would have been a full circle; his parents sacrifice themselves for him and he sacrifices himself for the world. Frankly, I was looking forward to rioting in the streets worldwide at the advent of Harry's death, but JK Rowling was still writing for the children she had started with years earlier as we've apparently not grown up whatsoever. Anyway this week I'd rather see something funny, and clever, and original (there is originality in Hollywood).
As of now I'm looking forward to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (circa 2010) and before you call me a hypocrit, the story follows a completely different tale of Alice's return to Wonderland when she is 17 (no this isn't through the looking glass). Never been done before, therefore more original than HP6. And besides, just think, Lewis Carroll's twisted, satirical mind captured by Tim Burton's creepy, fantastical directing with the Mad Hatter portrayed by the one and only Johnny Depp with Helena Bonham at his side (but not really) as the Queen of Hearts, doesn't it sound amazing? Well at least I think so. But I and everyone else must wait until 2010!!!
R
ush, Canada's greatest band, and arguably one of the world's legendary bands. Praised as having forged a genre of their own over 40 years and 20 albums, they are truly revolutionary. It's about time this band had a Rockumentary. Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, stealing its name from their world-renowned song Limelight, was unveiled at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival last Thursday. The film is said to boast a complete history of the band from its early days playing high school gigs (It's noteworthy that Rush apparently played my high school back in the day) to its latest album Snakes and Arrows.
