Pieta

michelangelo-pieta
(The words are from the song “Living Life” by Daniel Johnston — “Hold me like a mother would / Life I’ve always known somebody should.”  I like this cover by The Eels.)

The Cabin in the Woods: All War is Class War

[Warning: this post contains spoilers.  I hate to ruin a good movie for others, so I suggest you watch this movie first before reading what follows after the cut.  Seriously.  The movie was tons of fun.  I pretty much never laugh out loud when I watch movies but I did on multiple occasions with this one.  Also, while a lot of clever things happened in this movie in relation to other horror films, and common tropes from the genre, I won’t be touching on that  in this commentary.  Plenty of other folks have done that already.  However, I haven’t found this particular political reading of the film elsewhere — which is not to say that it isn’t already out there! — so that’s going to be my focus.]

You see where this is going, right?

You see where this is going, right?


1. Overview
I’m going to start by giving everything away.  This is your last chance to walk away and watch the movie.  Take it.  Okay, now that you’ve done that, here we go:
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Thanksgiving

A series I did during the Canadian Thanksgiving but thought I would post them here given the different American dates.
(Trigger Warning: the images below contain images of violence and sexual violence.)
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Black Friday

This is a man and he has a name and it’s Jdimytai Damour, OK? He is a man and he is dead now because of us, do you understand?


If we are to draw any conclusion from Black Friday it is this: the lives of people who work low income jobs on this continent are granted precisely the same value as the lives of people in the two-thirds world who labour and die in poverty and slavery in order to make the products we purchase. That is to say, their lives have no value to us whatsoever.  Before we cast any stones, we should remember that our consumer choices make us no less violent than those who trampled Jdimytai Damour in order to score a bargain.

A Call to Abundant Life: A Manifesto Against Death

[What follows is the transcript of a paper I presented at the theology pub night hosted by Nexus, a church of sorts, in Kitchener.  The conversation that followed was gracious, thoughtful, and enjoyable, so many thanks to those who were willing to engage in this subject matter with me.  Truth be told, although much is abbreviated here, I feel that what I express here summarizes a lot of what I have come to believe based upon my education and experiences over the last twelve or so years.  I also believe that it points the way forward in terms of the avenues that I believe are most worth pursuing if (a) one is committed to the pursuit of life-giving change or (b) one somehow identifies with the Jesus movement.]
A Call to Abundant Life: A Manifesto Against Death
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it (MK 8.34-35).
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being give up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you (2 Cor 4.8-12).
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When I Grow Up

So, I’ve been exploring working with a different medium as a means of communication.  I’ll be posting a few things up here over the next little while.  Below the cut is a series I made called “When I Grow Up”.
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London Shelter Residents Advocacy Group

Well, much of my time during the last three or four months has been dedicated to engaging in community organization and mobilization amongst marginalized people where I now live — London, Ontario.  The outcome of that, so far, is the “London Shelter Residents Advocacy Group” (LSRAG).  We have started a blog and, if you want to follow along or engage in the conversation (and everybody is invited and welcome to participate) you can join the conversation there.  To learn more about the LSRAG you can click here.
Currently, we are asking for public feedback on a Shelter Residents Bill of Rights that we are intending to bring forward to the City.  At this stage, however, we are asking for feedback, suggestions, or criticisms regarding the proposed Bill.  Any interested parties are welcome to contribute although we are particularly interested in hearing from those who have lived experiences with homelessness and as shelter residents, and from those who are rooted within anti-colonial and anti-oppression models.
Finally, we also have a Facebook page.  If you have a Facebook account and take the time to click that link and then “like” our page, you can follow along that way as well (and we would appreciate the support).
All power to the people.

The Big Fix

And when the night is clear, and the advisory is lowered, we’ll force the door at the top of the stairwell and for a moment — with the alarms ringing in our ears — we’ll see the satellites.  We’ll put our children on our shoulders, we’ll point off into the night sky and say, “Look: the stars were like that.”
(The stars we watched from hillsides, where we held hands and kissed and laughed and spun.)
Our children will smile politely and take pictures with their augmented reality HMDs.  They’ll update their Instagram feeds.
(Their avatars will hold hands with other avatars and kiss and laugh and spin.)
Before the Environmental Health Police arrive to close the door and give us a citation, we’ll hide our disappointment.  You’ll put your head on my shoulder and I’ll make a remark about “kids these days.”  We’ll try to remember what it was like to play in the rain.  How it felt to kiss, sheltered in a doorway, our shirts pressed against our bodies, our bodies pressed against one another, water dripping off the ends of our noses.
We’ll try to imagine what it is like to be a child and never jump in a puddle.
Our children will try to imagine how anybody got by before augmented reality and will desperately hope that we don’t want to play another video of sparrows, or polar bears, or dolphins, or trees, or any other dead thing, when we go back home.

In Praise of iDollatry: An Interview with Davecat and Sidore

Photo by Claire Dossin


Over the last half dozen years, I’ve found myself increasingly fascinated by the countless ways in which people find meaning in life and in themselves.  I suppose a number of things contributed to this: I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about the various subcultures that people inhabit and which end up providing people with the identity they are seeking to possess, I’ve also been struck by how bizarre my own beliefs are in comparison to pretty much any other belief system  — indeed, by how bizarre any belief system is to those who do not inhabit it — and I guess I’m increasingly fascinated by the whole meaning of meaning (i.e. why we feel the need to have some sort of “identity” that we identify with, why we feel the urge to bemeaningful at all, and so on).  I’m also struck by the ways in which all of us are actively participating in constructing the worlds in which we live and the people who live in those worlds.  It’s all ideology, right?
I think one of the things that prompted me to think about these things in new ways was a documentary I watched years ago called Guys and Dolls (you can watch it online here).  This documentary follows some men who end having intimate relationships with “Real Girl” dolls.  All the people in that film are pretty fascinating, but one fellow, Davecat, stood out to me — in part, because he seemed like a pretty intelligent, grounded, and content fellow.  Consequently, when I saw Davecat again making an appearance on another show, I decided to contact him to ask if he would be willing to be interviewed on my blog.  Happily, Davecat agreed and we have been able to exchange some emails.
Posted below are the questions I asked and the answers he provided.  I want to thank him for being open to this exchange and for permitting me to ask some personal questions.  He has been a fantastic dialogue partner.  Thanks, Davecat!
For those who are itnerested, Davecat blogs at Shouting to Hear the Echoes.  He maintains a Twitter feed (see here) and his wife, Sidore, also has a Twitter feed (see here).
(PS — If anybody has any questions or remarks, feel free to comment.  Davecat and I will both be following along .)
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