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In Paperback
Now! Thursday July 28th/Friday 29th: Tracy on BBC-5's Up All Night 9:30 pm Eastern USA/2:30 am GMT with Dr. Petra and Dotun Read an excerpt |
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| Tuesday, June 29, 2004 12:59 Liberals Win Minority Gov't :-) And I'm glad Broadbent won the election in O-C. The Liberals are the best possible party to have running Canada for a number of reasons. But they did not deserve to win in the riding they abandoned. It's also better for the US to have a Liberal government next door. The Liberals are competent, practical and not too ideological. The Tories would have been a disaster. Almost everyone I spoke to wanted a minority Liberal government. Well, that's what they got. Elections work! (Sometimes.) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialDecision2004.html Monday, June 28, 2004 11:18 Nancy's Riding Things are looking up for Ed Broadbent (an NDP icon) in Ottawa-Centre. He was dangerously close to the Liberal candidate last time I looked. Maybe just 2% percent ahead. The gap has widened -- slightly. He now has 7651 votes while the Liberal candidate has 6408. (38.9/32.6) This riding has a colorful history. It is, for example, the riding in which Nancy Chan is said to have sampled her first porno paperback, in a secondhand bookstore on Bank Street. It is also an orphaned riding -- the Liberal MP for Ottawa-Centre was promoted to the Senate and the riding was left without an MP. "Shouldn't the Liberal Party pay for this neglect" went the logic -- but it looks like the results are pretty close. 9:04 Prince Edward Island (Anne of Green Gables terrain?) In the riding of Malpeque -- "consider the oyster" -- the incumbent, Mr. Easter (Liberal), has won. Yes, to most New Yorkers, Malpeque = Oyster of the Day. But in fact it is one of the earliest ridings to get counted and therefore a (possible)indicator of how things are going for the Liberals. In the riding of Cardigan, where my friend Andrew is located, the former solicitor general has won his fifth term. Two Liberals nicely in place. 8:48 pm The polls have closed in Newfoundland and results are starting to come in. The Globe and Mail is providing live but tasteful coverage on the web: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialDecision2004.html Though I'm not sure what to make of this racy headline: Liberals: Beasts of the East Party makes gains in Atlantic Canada You can read that here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040628.el3liberals/BNStory/specialDecision2004/ Friday, June 25, 2004 Sex & the Canadian Voter or "Fly Mopsy" On Monday my friends Up North will be going to the polls. Some Canadians have already been able to cast their ballots in advance polling. Prisoners, for example, were giving a chance to vote early, which I find interesting. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040617.elpolls0617/BNStory/specialDecision2004/ Canadian elections are a bit more lively, wholesome, weird and cheerful than our own. Here we tend to think in terms of Winners and Losers. And those who lose just feel miserable the next day. In a parliamentary culture, things are more nuanced. There are more than two ways to interpret federal election results. (That's also because there are more than two parties.) Even if you voted for a candidate who lost in his riding (or "district"), you may have reason to feel that your party won. You do and do not vote for the Prime Minister, depending on your mood. The party leaders campaign as if they personally were being elected but most voters can't vote directly for the PM. This political reality shapes the Canadian personality. A conversation with a Canadian (whether it's about politics, sex, literature or the weather) is likely to be infused with strange undercurrents. And a flexible interpretation of reality. Canadian voters are also more engaged, informed and less cynical than Americans. Or perhaps they're more cynical but in any case, they're more cheerful about it. There's always some new party on the scene making a name for itself, seeking to enter the fray. So, whatever happens to your own party (assuming that you go with the mainstream options) you have a little diversion from the political outsiders. At one time, the new party was the secessionist Bloc Quebecois. Today, some non-secessionists are beginning to support the BQ because they see it as a strategy for keeping the government in line. It's fair to say that Canadians like politics for the sake of politics. Right now, the funniest story to come out of the Canadian election is that the Tory leader is trying to smear the current (Liberal) PM with far-fetched accusations pertaining to pornography and children. This makes the Tories look a bit desperate in my view, not to mention culturally marginal and perhaps a little sexually obsessed. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040623.gtkapicajun23/BNStory/Technology/ They (Conservatives & Co.) were supposed to be making a mainstream comeback after years of confusion, alienation and fragmentation on the political right. We'll see. Their leader's weapon of first resort seems to be to accuse any party not his own of being soft on porn. It also doesn't help that they're ranting on about gay marriage (something they currently oppose.) So the Tory leader appears to be obsessed with sexual deviance. And perhaps a little insecure about his masculinity. I mean, that's my first assumption whenever a straight guy wants to protect the institution of marriage. (Don't "real" hetero guys resist marriage, or at least make an effort to?) The Liberals, as usual, appear to be all about the money. When you think about the Liberal Party these days, you think about the money. Where it's going, where it went, where it came from. You don't think much about sex. The Tories are trying to change that. And then there's the NDP which is a sort of debating society for open-minded nerds. They have governed a few provinces with mixed results. But never formed a federal government. I'm not sure people trust them to run a nation effectively. Still, they're an important ingredient and have weathered the decades. The N stands for New, and they have a knack for appearing so. They are lefties but they have enough money and clout to finance a proper campaign jet with business class seats. Unlike the Canadian Action Party or the Greens. Or the Marijuana Party. Robertson Davies once referred to the three main parties as Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-Tail. If you Fly Cotton-Tail you get more leg room this year but no air miles. Read about it here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.wxblogtemp0513/BNStory/specialDecision2004/ http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040624/COWENT24/Columnists/Columnist?author=Margaret+Wente A growing and more serious issue than porn is proportional representation. As it happens, the two most powerful provinces have a tendency to dominate at the federal level. Almost everyone I know in Canada is from one of the two provinces, so I hardly ever hear about this problem. Consider my friend Danny Cockerline who was the quintessential Canadian: born for politics and always willing to discuss the question of secession. He would have something to say about proportional rep, I am sure. And I think Danny would be voting on Monday if he were still alive. http://www.walnet.org/97_walnut/danny_cockerline/t_quan.html Wednesday, June 09, 2004 Don't Tell Manhattan: I totally love this wonderful witty cabaret act at Don't Tell Mama on W. 46th Street. I saw these Three Tenors last night and had a great time: Steven Tharp, Bill Brooks and Edd Clark. Wicked, smart, and worth it. Great singers, lively tunes, lots of Relationship Humor, and a surprising pleasure. They are held over for another show on Tuesday June 15 @ 8 pm. My feeling is, you should see this now because it's going to take off. For now, you can call 212-757-0788 for a reservation. $10 cover (cash) w/ a two-drink minimum. 3 Tenors... in search of an Act musical director: Paul Stephan Address: Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, btw 8/9th Avenues Date: Tues June 15, 8 pm!! Venus & the Male Gaze: The Morning After I was puzzled (but maybe I'd be flattered if I were Venus) by the round-up on page A-1 of the paper New York Times. It's totally different from what you see on the web. And a definite keeper, so I suggest you buy yourself a copy of today's paper if you can. You can sort of see it here. But it's just not the same. A nice collection of GUYS around the globe eye-balling Venus. That sample of white American manhood (upper right) seems like a global stereotype -- my what BIG technology you have!! The other fellows are making do with very portable, accessible viewing aids -- a refugee could fit one of these in his pocket if he really had to. It's quite a clever and interesting group of pictures. Actually. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/science/09venus.html Tuesday, June 08, 2004 Noted w/ Pleasure: "This beauty mark on the sun." Just overheard that description on NY-1, 10:40 am. "A good reason to get up today." (Well, I overheard that one much earlier.) My Dad sent me to this Astronomy Site which features a different picture each day. Today's comment: http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~idh/apod/ap040608.html On May 28, I discovered that Manhattan is "a type of modern Stonehenge." The Puritan's Planet? Who knew that Venus is actually the province of the Puritans?? "It is difficult not to feel a fusion of awe and utter humility," says the Guardian. And we have Jeremiah Horrocks, a 20-year-old Lancashire Puritan to thank for this fusion. I am very much under the influence of Venus due to having it in my first house AND the rising sign of Libra. This is supposed to be ideal for ... girls like me. So, now I'm itching to find out what the personal implications of the transit might be. If any at all. I went here in search of narcissistic trivia and found instead that some people see a connection between ... the Reformation and the Venus transit of 1518. Which makes me wonder about that Puritan astronomer, Jeremiah Horrock in 1639. Coincidence?? Turns out that Venus is currently retrograde. Until June 29! "Venus retro in Gemini indicates that physical pleasure in relationships is unlikely to be as great as the intellectual stimulation derived from them." Another planetary coup for the Puritans? (Richard Ehrlich asked me to post all the URL's instead of just linking, so here goes.) Retro: http://www.astrologycom.com/venusret.html Transit: http://www.astrologycom.com/venustransit.html Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1233800,00.html Sunday, June 06, 2004 Sex-Worker Literati I was just reading about Mohamed Choukri (d. 2003) in a back issue of Al-Ahram. Here's his obit which is inspiring, indeed! http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/665/cu4.htm "...In 1955, at the age of 20, Choukri -- thief, small-time smuggler, male prostitute -- managed to procure a place at a school in the desert town of Al-Ara'esh where he finally learned to read and write. Back in the cafés and whorehouses of Tangiers he began to record his personal history in standard Arabic, a language that differs appreciably from Moroccan darja... The resulting stylistic tension made for a unique idiom -- mixing the cautious, correct simplicity of a secondary-school student's essay with the kind of elaborate, vernacular lyricism..." |