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By Ezra Winton, on April 5, 2013, at 1:24 pm This week’s Friday Film Pick is a new 24-minute documentary produced by Motherboard and distributed by Vice Magazine, on 3D gun printing (video after jump). The film peaks into the weird and extremely controversial world of Cody Wilson and associates, young gun-loving geeks who celebrate the intersection of firearms, freedom and the internet while name-dropping political philosophers and keeping Marx volumes within camera shot of kitchen-countertop DIY weaponry.
While Wilson, a self-described Crypto-anarchist, and his comrades do not articulate a complex nor intellectual counter-narrative to the justified moral panic around the accessibility of firearms in the US, their (Read more…)
By Bryan Crockett, on March 28, 2013, at 3:27 am This paternalistic, disgusting, and utterly regrettable article was published in the Nanaimo Daily News.
My response, one I hope they publish:
Re: Educate First Nations to be modern citizens
In his editorial, Don Olsen claims that First Nations were technologically inferior to “the rest of us”. He claims that First Nations should be educated to become modern citizens, though, his lack of education is clear by his erroneous claims.
Mr. Olsen’s claims are hugely inaccurate, so much so that debunking each of them would be far to lengthy to print in a paper.
Society is a construction of people, and
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: Re: Educate First Nations to be modern citizens
By Art Threat, on March 27, 2013, at 9:53 am Matthew Hays is a prolific cultural critic who, aside from publishing many academic journal articles and books, wrote for years in Montreal on everything in cinema, from porn to puppets to gun culture to corporate psychopaths. Always politically peppy and insightful, Hays oscillates between biting critique and irreverent humour, but always engages with accessible, provocative, and witty prose. Art Threat learned that the treasure trove of Hays’s writings had gone off line and in an effort to preserve his creative output and repurpose selections timed with certain moments and events, we will be presenting, from time to time, classics from (Read more…)
By Ezra Winton, on March 24, 2013, at 11:25 pm The Huffington Post has come to be known as a reliable news source for sleazy celebrity raunch, violent sensationalism and mindless drivel. From time to time the liberal news site does produce good stories, but the Huffpost still shows its profit over morals design even when those green stems rise above the grey muck.
Take today’s post about the offensive advert for Ford India showing a Berlusconi lookalike flashing the peace sign as he gets into his Ford Figo with an impressive boot (trunk) large enough to store three bound and gagged scantily clad women (one of whom is crying).
(Read more…)
By Dan Moutal, on March 24, 2013, at 6:48 pm The impending death of Google Reader has got me thinking about what an ideal replacement for would look like. The first and most important feature (of an idealized replacement) is something I alluded to in an earlier post. Namely that the feed reader backend (which keeps track of all subscriptions and which items have been read) needs to have an API that is an open and standardized.
It almost seems like every single developer is working in a replacement for the Google Reader API. Feedly, Superfeedr, and even digg (and probably plenty others that I have already forgotten) all have
. . . → Read More: Mind of Dan: An ideal replacement for Google Reader: Part 1 The IMAP of feed readers
By Bryan Crockett, on March 21, 2013, at 2:59 pm Today, Liberal leadership contestant, and Ottawa-Orleans candidate in 2011, David Bertschi dropped out of the race. David brought a lot to the leadership race.
I would first like to congratulate David Bertschi on running a fantastic campaign. He and his team ran a coordinated campaign. Many aspects of their organization should be replicated in other campaigns, going forward.
Secondly, I would like to congratulate David on the ideas he’s brought to the race. Many of his ideas, particularly those he laid out in his Liberal 2.0 speech, are some of the fundamental things that Liberals need to do
By Bryan Crockett, on March 18, 2013, at 3:50 pm I’ll have the privilege of attending the Liberal Party of Canada’s Leadership National Showcase in Toronto on April 6th. Are you going?
This will be my first national Liberal gathering of any kind, and I’m absolutely thrilled. When I joined the Liberal Party, I did it largely to meet people who have the same values as I do. I’m looking forward to meeting people, learning more about our party, and being part of our nation’s history.
By Michael Lithgow, on March 17, 2013, at 8:49 am The Canadian government has approved what appears to be the crass exploitation of human suffering for entertainment. In a new low, Safety Minister Vic Toews approved the filming of an immigration enforcement raid at an East Vancouver construction site for a reality TV show. In the raid, workers were arrested and some of them face deportation, all part of the narrative grist being assembled for Shaw Media’s program “Border Security”.
It also isn’t clear the degree to which public resources are being diverted to support the program. The Canada Border Security Agency is clearly working in concert with (Read more…)
By Dan Moutal, on March 13, 2013, at 12:17 am My internet world came to an end today when Google announced they were shutting down Google Reader (the best RSS reader in existence).
The problem is that Google Reader was more than a website, it was a backend that powered a bunch of useful services. All of those services are now in trouble.
So how, assuming you thought it was the right thing to do (which it isn’t!), do you shut down something as important as Google reader?
You start with the back-end. Make it a standard. A standardized feed aggregator service that keeps track of which feeds you (Read more…)
By Ezra Winton, on March 9, 2013, at 11:47 pm Who: Sergio Clavijo
What: Les dormeurs / The Sleepers
Where: Montreal, Quebec, as part of Art SouTerrain (a literally underground city festival of art)
When: Friday, March 1, 2013
Why: The implications of this installation are more than artistic. The Sleepers is a disruption in a process of exhange. To create this piece, Clavijo traded new clothes for used ones belonging to homeless people. The new serve as a reimbursement for the old, while the old are a testimony of the journeys of homeless people in the city. This process of exchange acts as an evolving portrait of our lives (Read more…)
By Ezra Winton, on March 9, 2013, at 11:32 pm
Vimeo staff pick. Shane Koyczan. Collaborative artists animating each 20 seconds of powerful, stirring, anti-oppression spoken words. Enough said.
By Ezra Winton, on March 8, 2013, at 1:32 pm The beaten (by the Canadian Conservative budget cuts) but not down National Film Board of Canada is offering a treasure trove of titles for free streaming today, in celebration and recognition of International Women’s Day. Included in the bunch is the 2012 experimental short by Jenn Strom, below (after the jump), called ASSEMBLY. We’re not talking about a couple of films here, we’re talking dozens of amazing documentaries. The section also features a forward by Ravida Din, Director General of English Program, who discusses the NFB’s herstory with the women’s movement (which as Yasmin Jiwani’s excellent oped in today’s (Read more…)
By Amanda McCuaig, on March 7, 2013, at 2:19 pm
When Tillett Wright began her photographic project, Self Evident Truths, back in 2010 she didn’t expect the groundswell of requests for photographs that she ended up receiving. She originally wanted to shoot 4-5,000 people, but the response has led her to increase her goal to 10,000 people.
“I basically decided to photograph anyone in this country that isn’t 100% straight, which, if you don’t know, is a limitless number of people,” jokes Wright in her TEDx talk posted above.
To date she has photographed around 2,000 people. “This is the civil rights fight of our generation,” says Wright.
By Amanda McCuaig, on March 5, 2013, at 8:55 am Sonny Assu meets you where you’re at. I first came across his artworks as the Idle No More movement began to swell, his dusty blue and red posters could be spotted in protests reading “rise” “lead” “confront” “learn”. Less than a month later, a set of posters on display at the Burnaby Art Gallery caught my attention, and it turned out they were also by Sonny.
Raised in Delta, Sonny first learned about his heritage when he ran home from school to tell his mother about these “cool people that used to exist” that he had learned about — only (Read more…)
By Amanda McCuaig, on March 3, 2013, at 3:57 pm
The above video was uploaded a few months ago but started making the rounds in a viral way this weekend. Sunday food for thought.
By Michael Lithgow, on March 1, 2013, at 8:31 am From the Gallery 101 press release:
CALL FOR ARTISTS SUBMISSIONS Deadline: March 6, 2013
Gallery 101, (G101), invites Emerging and Established Artists who are interested in participating in an exhibition of activist based artwork — video, painting, drawing, print, photography, sculpture, and performance.
Create this Revolution! Get up and share a vision of bringing together all people to ensure we create ways of protecting Mother Earth, her lands, waters and people.
Exhibition Dates: March 13 – April 13th 2013. Opening March 13th. Includes a potluck and conversation every Wednesday night for the run of the show. If (Read more…)
By Bryan Crockett, on February 28, 2013, at 3:49 pm Today, Québec MP Claude Patry left the New Democratic Caucus to join the Bloc Québécois. Patry stated that he had previously voted for Québec sovereignty in the two referendums, and still believes Québec should be a country.
Last time the NDP lost an MP, when Lise St. Denis defected to join the Liberal caucus, they responded first by demanding that St. Denis step down and contest a byelection, and then by jamming the phone lines at her constituency office. Thus far, the NDP have demanded that Patry resign his seat and see if his constituents will still support him. They also note that
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: NDP Wrong Again- On Floor Crossing
By Bryan Crockett, on February 26, 2013, at 8:20 pm Despite being one day too young to vote in the upcoming provincial election, I have decided to get involved. I’m looking forward to volunteering in the democratic process.
I am a liberal, and I am a federal Liberal. I’m not a provincial BC Liberal, and think that party really needs to move to the centre. In fact, I take issue with every BC political party: the BC Conservatives for being out of touch, and extremely far right. The BC NDP for being vague, having a terrible track record, and being too far left for my liking.
The party that I
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: I’m supporting Kerry Davis
By Amanda McCuaig, on February 26, 2013, at 12:01 am
To this day the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my career was stand in front of a group of 300 university students in my role as president of an student newspaper organization – my peers at the time – and explain to them that they needed to rise above sexist (or racist, or homophobic) jokes. My hands have never been so damp and my heart beat so fast I thought I might faint. The incident had been triggered by a joke newspaper distributed at a student journalism conference – innocent enough. Except that throughout the day (Read more…)
By Rob Maguire, on February 22, 2013, at 5:32 pm
Rumours are circulating that British activist and street artist Banksy has been arrested. Fortunately, they seem to be false.
From a suspiciously unattributed press release (update — the web link seems to be down again. Here is a PDF of the release.):
London Police Chief Wayne Leppard held a press conference to answer questions about how Banksy was finally apprehended. “We had a 24-hour Anti-Graffiti Task Force monitoring different groups known to have associated with Banksy. We received word that around 2am a group of individuals left a flat speculated to be one of Banky’s art studios. This group (Read more…)
By Bryan Crockett, on February 19, 2013, at 4:31 pm Okay–
I’m not sure how I feel about provincial (BC) politics. I know I don’t like the BCNDP, so any support I could possibly have for them is out of the question.
But I’m honestly not sure about how I feel about the other parties. The BC Liberals do a lot of stuff I like, and about the same amount of stuff I don’t like. I’m definitely free-enterprise, but I don’t feel that all regulations are inherently bad. I like things like the carbon tax, and don’t like things like firing my school board. I honestly still like Christy Clark,
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: I’m stumped
By Bryan Crockett, on February 17, 2013, at 4:49 pm
We all know that Senators, who are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister of the day, are supposed to, in theory, represent the views of the provinces or regions of Canada. In actuality, Senators represent the political parties of the Prime Minister who appointed them.
READ MORE AT ABOLISHTHESENATE.CA.
By Bryan Crockett, on February 17, 2013, at 3:49 am As you’re probably aware, the Liberal Party of Canada is currently in the middle of a leadership campaign, gearing up to choose our new leader in April. If you’re not already member or supporter of the party, but you’d like to vote for the next Liberal leader (and you’re not a member of any other federal party) click here because the deadline to register is March 3rd.
Aside from giving me opportunities to plug the party on my various social media outlets (as if I needed them anyway…), this leadership selection process has brought about many new opportunities for Liberals
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: What we’re gaining from the leadership campaign
By Bryan Crockett, on February 16, 2013, at 1:30 am In his State of the Union address for 2013, President Barack Obama had several big themes, my favourite of which being education reform, focused at the high school level. In his address, he said:
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so those German kids, they’re ready for a job when they graduate high school.
They’ve been trained for the jobs that are
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: Furthering education and reform
By Bryan Crockett, on February 15, 2013, at 6:41 pm John Duncan, the MP for Vancouver Island North, has resigned as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Mr. Duncan leaves behind a legacy that no one could conceivably want. He was a poor communicator, inactive at critical times, and ineffective at all times.
Mr. Duncan claimed that his resignation is due to the fact that he wrote a letter to the Tax Court of Canada back in 2011, vouching for a constituent. As a Minister of the Crown, this is unacceptable behaviour. Duncan should have resigned back then, instead of bringing it back up nearly two years later as
. . . → Read More: Bryan Crockett: John Duncan Resigns– good riddance
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