ISSUE 1 Volume 1
Friday June 3, 2011
First Post
That's right. A new blog. Smell that new blog smell?
The above photo was taken from inside of Mousy Brown's Salon at 10240-124 Street, YEG. That's my Mustang down there. I thought for the first post I'd introduce the aim of this blog. In this blog, I will post interesting sights I see, I will post sociopolitical and socioeconomic commentary (which can be funny, angering, nail biting, irrelevent, etc) and I will post about music, films, and current issues. I will also post thoughts that come into my head, because I have a lot of them, and I can't seem to keep them in. I welcome as much commentary as possible in return. I even welcome guest columnists (hey, it's a great way to get more readers for both of us - if blog fame is what you're out for). Without further ado, I bring you Issue 1 of what I hope will be a regular occuring read in your RSS feed.
Edmonton to host YEG Slutwalk
Saturday June 4, 2011 will see Edmonton host its very own 'slutwalk' and hope not to be first annual. If you're like me, you're curious what slutwalk is all about. I thought at first, that slutwalk was something like zombie walk. Instead of dressing like zombies, everone dresses like sluts. Well it is. But the undertone of the walk has a powerful message. That is that victims of sexual violence do not deserve it because of the way they were dressed. I get that. I've always gotten that. See, I'm opposed to Slutwalk. I applaud anything that brings awareness to sexual violence, but Slutwalk to me is akin to dressing up like mentally or physically challenged people, to advocate that we shouldn't make fun of people by calling them retards or gimps. Did I just say something inflammatory? Of course I did! It is important to note that anyone who dresses a certain way doesn't deserve sexual violence thrust upon them, and that dressing a certain way is not an invitation to be raped. But I feel that this is something we've always known, or at least that this walk maybe could have been more meaninfgul in the late 70's. Like my handicapped comparison, when do we ever say it is okay to call a mentally or physically challenged person a retard? We all know it isn't, and we've known for a long time. Slutwalk should just say that, by dressing up like this we are opposing sexual violence. It's that easy. I think the ironic thing is that there are probably some actual perverts who will go to the event, rah-rah support everything, and take a ton of photos of every day girls, including their friends, dressed up like sluts to add to their spank-banks later. Count on it. Slutwalk is like saying, "you know that off coloured comment you make in your home sometimes when watching the news...don't say that comment anymore."
I'm scared, however. Call me prudish, but I'm frightened that the Slutwalk will have unwanted side effects. I'm scared that the awareness called to sexual harassment and violence based on dress will give younger and more naiive women the idea that it is okay to dress however you please in any setting and you shouldn't be commented on it. Some outfits are inappropriate for a business setting. And as long as we live in a society that says your breasts shouldn't be exposed as they are an object of sexual obsession, you should probably put them away. How's this for backwards? Facebook probably will publish tons of photos of slutwalk, featuring semi-exposed breasts, but photos of breastfeeding mothers are still deleted from their pages prompting probably one of the biggest usergroups on facebook ('hey facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene').
Maybe I'm missing the point of Slutwalk. No, wait, I read it again. "No one is responsible for violence perpetrated against them, no matter what they where, who they associate with, or who they are." Um, gonna have to disagree. I get that the entire thing is about not blaming victims, but really, if you're hanging around dangerous offenders, shouldn't you take a step back and think maybe that, "this is dangerous." I have news for everyone. Humans are animals. A very sophisticated animal, but an animal nonetheless. If you broke into a tiger pen, and the tiger mauled you, are they going to blame you or the tiger? Yeah, so if you hang around dangerous and unpredictable individuals that act more like wild animals than 'civilized humans' (<- what exactly is that anyway) don't you get a little bit of the blame?
Slutwalk, I applaud thee for your work. It is, however, in my opinion, misplaced.
New Music
Leave it to Rural Alberta Advantage out of Toronto, ON, to take a song about something so close to Albertan's hearts and rip it to shreds. This is effectually the second single off of their sophmore release Departing, after 'Stamp'. Although, depending on where you live, it might even be the first song you've heard from them. Unless you have CBC Radio 3. If you don't where you live, I recommend Sirius/XM (Channel 152 on Sirius).
RAA have been praised as having the signature sound Arcade Fire is known for, and were given critical acclaim for their debut album Hometowns.
What is Departing to me? It is great background music that you can fall asleep or chill to, but is it relevant in the long run? Probably not. However, it's nice to see another Albertan band kicking ass in the Indie seen, and being heard on major market radio (such as Sonic 102.9FM here in Edmonton, or perhaps Sirius' Alt Nation). This after Tokyo Police Club and U.S.S. have had fantastic success nationally and even internationally. Nils Edenloff, guitarist, frontman and songwriter grew up in Fort MacMurray, Alberta, which is where he is said to draw his influence from. In that respect, I'd expect to hear something along the lines of Rocky Votolato; dark and dirty lovesongs relating to endless turmoil of hard labor. However, there is something about RAA that is even more stripped down than even Votolato's solo efforts, and something seems to be missing. I question what 'grew up' refers to. I grew up in Clareview, and that doesn't influence my songwriting at all. I'm sure I could make some great stories about it though. This is my biggest problem with the song 'Tornado 87' - a title and song imagry which makes reference to the F4 tornado (although analysts discuss that it should have been an F5 classification) that hit Edmonton in what we call 'black friday' - Friday 31 July, 1987 where 27 people were killed, and over 1000 left homeless. The imagry in the song does paint a wonderfully bleak picture relating to a romance gone bad, but it makes light of a deeply personal Canadian tragedy for some. I imagine this was not the band's intention, but someone relatively new in their career should not make such mistakes, in my opinion.
Rural Alberta Advantage, although they sound a bit thin, and Edenloff's voice can become trying at times, is not difficult to listen to, and in my opinion mostly well written. I wish I could say more, but quite honestly, their music does not jump out at you as much as their colleagues in Tokyo Police Club or USS, or their comparitive comrades like Arcade Fire.
Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing (Paper Bag Records 2011) - 6/10
Check them out here: http://www.theraa.com/
On The Streets
On the streets is a section where I take pictures of interesting things and share them. So a lot of the time they're going to be cars. But sometimes they'll be things like bylaw officers speeding, or a cop talking on his cellular phone while driving. This is the whole point, after all, of Out My Passenger Window.
This was spotted on 81st Avenue behind Sanctuary. It is indeed a 1978 AMC Concord D/L Coupe. It has the original vinyl landau roof, and colour keyed interior. These cars were available with a 3.8L V6, 4.2L V6, or the 304 AMC V8. Judging on how low keyed this car was, we're willing to bet it's the standard 3.8L V6 with a 3 speed automatic. These cars were built in Brampton, Ontario by American Motors before their bankruptcy and takeover by Chrysler in 1986, who dropped all vehicles except the Jeep line, and revamped the Eagle line to suit their own needs. These cars were based on the predecessor Hornet, and went on to become the AMC Eagle; essentially the world's first 'crossover' car/SUV. In a survey by Popular Mechanics in 1978, when asked if new owners had any complaints with their cars, 30% of Concord owners responded 'none' thus creating a new record for PM's survey at that time. I just love the idea that this car is still driving around with no problems after all these years. It's not your usual collector car by any standard, and it is in amazing survivor shape.
Letters To The Editor
Thanks for reading!
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