Billy Goat unsilenced

Made famous by Saturday Night Live, I always try to stop at the Billy Goat Tavern when I'm in the windy city. I happened to be there today with - no, not a cheezborger - a bacon and egg sandwich when I realized it was November 11 at 11am: Rememberance Day to the rest of us, and Veteran's Day here in the US. I stood silently thinking about dead soldiers when I realized that I was the only one. Business did not stop. Customers kept coming in, chatting, eating, drinking. The guy behind the bar kept yelling "Cheezborger cheezborger". The cook kept everything sizzling on the grill.

I spent my moment in Flander's Fields and then sat down and ate my sandwich. I think Veteran's Day is only really a big deal for newscasts and Washington DC.

Luxurious Japanese food in Chicago

If you're ever in Chicago and the boss/supplier/pimp or anyone else is paying for dinner, and you like Japanese food, may I recommend Japonais. It is fantastic.

View from the hotel room

Here's the view of the Chicago River from the 36th floor of the Swissotel in Chicago.

Porter Air

I took this from seat 9D during takeoff.

I took this one during the final approach. Any guesses on my destination?

Halloween

Autumn leaves

The tree in front of my house.

Catty drama

Thanks to S for pointing me to this. I found it HILARIOUS. Reading the subtitles with audio on loud is my suggestion. :)

Punk in Urdu

I saw the film Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam tonight. I thought I heard one too many people in my life tell me that they were the anti-christ. As far as I was concerned, punk had been done, it was over. In fact, I thought it had been done right, and was justified, but that it was dead. I mean the music is still way cool, but the movement, the rebellion, was sort of finished. I'm sure teen aged kids today still have angst, but they also have some new music, new movement, and new ideology.

Perhaps sometimes "new" can take a few drops from the "old" to make something different.

The film starts off kind of slow, but it really kicks in and does something really cool. It follows the unlead who take punk to Pakistan. There are some very real people, who dig their music, and are unsure how to deal with their Islam-ness, and are working it all out.

At first I thought the whole thing was cheese. Some guy with a Mohawk screaming "I want to fuck you during Ramadan." But some of the songs by some of the bands are actually good. And watching them all get really high and fall apart is well portrayed. Finally, when they pull together their rooftop show and the kids, the local kids, enjoy it, it's very moving.

There are two scenes that top this final show: at a big Islam convention in Chicago, some of the punk bands get a chance to play in front of the youth forum. The cops are called when the Canadian lesbian punk Islamic band is getting in their groove, because apparently women are not allowed to sing. The crowd of kids starts chanting "pigs are haram" (referring to the cops being pigs, which are unclean). Very cheeky. During the same show the doc films some preteens getting their first taste of rage-punk, and liking it. Well done.

A lot of the film is focused on Michael Mohammad Knight who wrote the book Taqwacores. He's definitely going through some spiritual exploration. I am interested in reading his book. Has anyone read it? Any reviews?

Good film. Brings a refreshing perspective to the definition of Islam, distinct from the narrow Western media, and right for the next generations.

Internet access is a basic human right

And now, internet access of a minimum speed standard is a basic right, at least for the Finnish.

I think this is par for the course. Some may argue that it is an odd thing to promote as a right, after all, it is not linked with basic survival. But as societies evolve our ability to compete and participate as expected must be met with some infrastructure requirements, and fast internet is one of them.

Imagine a dark wintery place, where the roads may be blocked with snow (ilfrastructure), and working from home is encouraged. I would want decent data transfer rates.

Google Earth is addictive and disturbing

I've been playing with the new release of Toronto on Google Earth all day. I find myself for 20 minutes at a time just zooming along the streets I know, looking for anomalies, car crashes, people I might know, my friends' houses, etc. Why is looking at the city like this so addictive?

Probably because I haven't seen it like this before. From my desk, online.

I also find it disturbing. I don't like the unwritten privacy laws being broken like this. And I don't like the loss of mystery. Now everyone knows what they'll find at a specific address.

The guys and I drove up to a cabin in the woods last weekend. We were travelling in two cars. Two guys with smart/special/i/phones spent 20 minutes standing in a McDonald's parking lot trying to get their phones to identify the other one on their GPS maps, so that they could see the other one on their phone while we drove up to the cabin. I responded: "The other alternative is to just look out the car window." Thankfully, neither of their phones got any reception at the cabin.

I'm all for new and exciting technological innovations. That's why I like spending time exploring and talking about them. However, I find some of their uses intrusive. I suppose this is what happens when a technology is invented before anyone finds anything good to use it for. Who is to say that only necessity can parent invention?

Discovery is the step-father of invention.

Best new word

Shout out to F for creating this new word:

ilfrastructure

A Hindu's Indictment in Heaven

Went to the Filmi Festival to see the world premier of 678910. In interesting personification of chess pieces...in India.

The short film, A Hindu's Indictment in Heaven, was shown before the main film began. It was very engaging, interesting, funny, well timed, well thought through, and musically perfect. This was a great short film by Dev Khanna.

I grew my own garlic

My garden this summer included zucchini, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, oregano, lettuce, chives and parsley. I also grew some garlic. Not from seeds; rather I just planted some cloves. As the plants grew, I would cut off some leaves once in a while and eat them or cook with them. The leaves had that subtle garlic flavour, without the bite.

Now that the cold weather is almost here, I have pulled the bulbs from the ground and cooked with them. They also have that subtle flavour without the bite. I love garlic.

CRTC is screwing Canadian taxpayers, again

Canadian taxpayers have helped subsidize the cost of building the Bell and Rogers internet infrastructure in Canada. Now the CRTC is about to pass a rule that will enable Rogers and Bell to prevent local internet service providers from making use of their infrastructures. Which is stupid. You can read about it here.

Furthermore, Canadian citizens can make a difference. You can read about your options for voicing your opinion here.

Thanks to V for pointing this out.

Nivea's answer to KY

I keep seeing this ad on TV, and I wonder if Nivea is aiming at having its lotion used as a sex aid. We see a young, skinny model in short shorts, dancing around. The narrator says something about feeling comfortable in your own skin. The woman looks back into a mirror and grabs her own ass. The scene shifts to a shot of the product: Nivea Happy Time Lotion.

So what, and to whom, are they selling?