6.3.09

How to take a nap with ten good friends.


Materials:
10 - Good friends
1 - You

Step 1-
Arrange 5 good friends all in a child's pose position, side by side, in a tight row in the middle of a room.

Step 2-
Arrange remaining 5 good friends in a kneeling position, side by side in a tight row, directly behind the first set of 5 good friends.

Step 3-
Bend the elbows of the outer arms by 90 degrees of the 2 outer kneeling good friends, so that it forms an L.

Step 4-
Take your shoes off, lay on top of good friends, prop feet up and take a 20 minute nap.

5.3.09

No one loves Phillip Morris



I Love You Phillip Morris
, the film that gives us Jim Carey and Ewan McGregor lip-locking was shown in Sundance 4 months ago and it still doesn't have a distributor. Now before you scream, "homophobes!", the gay content is not fully to blame. Despite its star attracting quality, movies just aint so easy to sell anymore.

Then again, it was directed by the duo that wrote Bad Santa.

4.3.09

Hurlin's Bunraku Disfarmer

In doing research for my new piece, I stumbled upon an American artist that uses a Japanese puppetry technique called Bunraku. Dan Hurlin's Disfarmer is a mesmirising story about the American photographer Mike Disfarmer, a Boo Radley type figure in his hometown of Heber Spring, Arkansas.

No Reservations

I was already a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain, even though Les Halles was only mildly delightful. No Reservations recently did an episode on the Philippines and it was no disappointment. He explores pork, need I say more? And! the fan that convinced Bourdain to finally visit the Philippines awkwardly reminds me of me.

Filipino Awareness

Last week was Filipino Awareness Week at UofT. Yes, thats right, a week to be aware of us hobbit-like folk. There was a forum set up in 2 parts. The 1st part was a group of 20something Filipinos that was asked the question, "Were you ever ashamed of your Filipino-ness growing up?" The question was apt and poignant despite the use of ness. But I knew exactly the heart strings that this question was tugging on. Having moved to Canada with my family 20 years ago, I experienced several years of trying to bury my "Filipino-ness".

Anyways, before I go on a rant. Here is a video of the best part of the forum. Im gonna have to let gestate the stuff discussed in that forum for another week so that I don't sound like a curmudgeon.

Electroporation


Scientists in Toronto and Edinburgh have figured out a way to create a limitless amount of stem cell without destroying embryos. The battling Pro Choice and Pro Life in me just gave each other a hug. The implications of this is pretty amazing. Good or bad, its another example of this "easing" that science has led us into without discussion.

Love is around the corner.



Last Thursday, I was rushing out the door of a Chinese restaurant to meet friends. As I was about 3 steps away from the corner of Augusta and Dundas, I cracked open my fortune cookie, popped it in my mouth and pulled this fortune between my lips. I frantically fixed my hair and practiced a smile on a storefront window before turning the corner.
It was empty.
I tried the next 3 corners.
Kensington Market was eerily empty for a warm February night.

One


In this new work called One I have taken condoms, filled them with plaster and allowed them to harden on top of another form. I hoped to explore the idea of organisms that rely on the creation of a community to become one again. Micro or macro, I wanted these forms to represent beings that can be seen as micro organisms but also as structures. It is important for me to show this pattern: 1 always searches for others to become 1 again.

Its Here!


Designer babies are finally hitting the shelves. Just in time for Easter!

3.3.09

On Family.


When same sex marriage become legal in Canada, it was something that I did not fully understand. Having just barely come out to some of my friends and falling in love for the first time, its something that came and went with minimal celebration on my part. In fact, instead of trying to understand the gravity of this beautiful legislation, I became dubious of it. Perhaps it was my discomfort with my own sexually that led to me educate myself on the contrary opinions of same sex marriage. Or perhaps it was the right mix of time and heartbreak that forced me to evaluate my "liberal" views. It was shortly after this that I started to consider myself a conservative liberal. A follower of a secular sacred.

My main opposition for same sex marriage was not the right for same sex couples to marry, but the right for same sex couples to found a family. While I now support same sex couples to naturally found a family, I still stand behind some of these ideas. I oppose In Vitro fertilization, genetic modifications and although I am pro choice, stem cell technology because of how embyros are used. I support a family structure of 2 adults and I believe that however that family is structured, it is typically in the best interest of the child to have both biological parents present in their upbringing. I say this all in the best scenario, and I believe that whenever it can be possible, the structure of a family should stay in line along this configuration.

I have thought a lot about family. What kind of father I will someday become and what kind of upbringing I can offer for my children. As a gay man who desperately hopes to have biological kids one day, I am fraught with my contradictions. Having sex with a woman is no big deal. What I am more afraid of is this configuration of my family that I envision. What type of relationship will my child realistically have with his mother? And what type of life will this mother have when she doesn't really exist as a permanent member of the family configuration, but more as an extension, a mother-aunt. How will society change their perception of the father and mother? As a relatively progressive minded person, I believe that it is important to challenge these ideas before joining the same sex marriage fanfare. Canada's Bill C-38 received Royal Assent on July 20, 2005 without any real resistance from the public. I am proud to be living in a country that saw this legislation from day one as a rights issue. But what I do maintain a weariness to is the lack of discussion of the impact it will have. It has been 4 years and it is really only now that the real discussions are being made, and it is only really triggered by whats going on in the US. I believe that the discussions need to happen about the shapes of families; how they are constructed and configured. I believe that in dealing with the redefinition of the traditions of marriage, we have forgotten to address the redefinition of a traditional family. Now whether this "traditional" family ever really existed is another discussion, but whats important to address is the impact that marriage and family have in our society and why this structure exists.