Tidbits – August 25th

Okay, I’m back. What have I been up to lately? I’ve done some background work on a new Steven Spielberg series that should be debuting on TNT sometime in 2011. It’s called ‘Falling Skies’ and is about the world after a successful alien invasion. Interesting stuff. It stars Noah Wyle, from ER fame. He seems pretty cool.

However I’m having a very difficult time finding a Principal Agent. Background work is alright, but it’s not what I aspire to. You can get paid alright depending on the amount of work you get and your union affiliation, if any. The flip side is it can be very long hours and very little pay. So, I’ve been doing the hustle trying to land a good agent. The problem is many reputable agents won’t even consider you if you don’t have a resume full of starring roles, Emmy and Academy Award nominations and have been featured in articles in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. It also helps if you’ve been interviewed by Larry King and/or Barbara Walters.

It’s the same challenge I’ve discovered with literary agents. Unless you’ve already been published and have sales that rival J.K. Rowling, they simply don’t want to know. I’m sure this won’t endear me to Literary and Talent agents but in my opinion, agents who state they only accept established writers or actors are basically saying they are useless and incompetent pretenders who don’t have any faith in their ability to actually do their jobs and market you and your work, and would rather sit down on their ever-expanding asses and let you do all the work and market yourself. But, please don’t forget to give them their ‘well deserved’ commission! I have a question, if I’m already well established why the hell would I need you?

Things are even more challenging for black writers. Let’s face it, the publishing world is dominated and run by individuals on the opposite end of the pigment scale from me. Sure there are those anomalies like Oprah Winfrey who can turn any book into a bestseller by merely mentioning it on her show. But in reality most agents, editors and senior management at Media and Publishing companies are white, and their unwillingness to explore books that portray characters they cannot relate to clearly explains why there are not very many successful black writers with appeal outside the black community. But that’s only half the problem. The other factor in this equation is the fact many books written by black authors are………niggerish! There, I said it. They conform to all of the negative stereotypes we have spent a long time trying to get away from. I never understand why black writers and black filmmakers continuously put out work that would severely piss us off if it were the work of a white filmmaker or a white writer.  We don’t like the way white society portrays us so when given the chance to tell a different story we continue to tell the thugged out, Ebonics laden stories of drug dealers, easy money and even easier women. Most black novels seem to fall into two categories – the first being the really cheesy attempt at romance. Usually it’s a thug or reformed thug who manages to get the hoity-toity stoosh girl, with the good job, long hair, and poor judgment when it comes to men. There is usually a sub-plot in these books that has ramifications for the potential relationship. There is always some secret from the past. Either it’s some guy who’s really gay and on the down-low, or it’s some character who was sexually molested as a child and now has a hard time trusting anyone. Damn, haven’t these plots been played out by now? These books are so bad I feel the urge to crack open a bottle of wine and break out a box of soda crackers to help me digest all of the cheese!

Then there is the Gangsta-Lit – basically the literary equivalent of gangsta rap. Drug deals gone bad, bitches and ho’s with tattoos on their asses, and big money pay-offs – blah, blah, blah. Ironically these books actually sell reasonably well. Gangsta-lit has reached out to a whole new generation of people who didn’t know what a book was, let alone read one. Isn’t it kind of sad that it takes the same old played out thug stories to get many black people reading?

One of my favourite literary characters is Detective and Psychologist, Alex Cross from the James Patterson novels. Here is a well rounded, interesting black character. Ironically he is the creation of a white author. And herein lies the problem. I believe there are probably many black writers like myself who have written good books with strong characters but due to the challenge in getting these books to market – they will remain unpublished and undiscovered. What a shame!

What else is new? Did you see the Miss Universe pageant two nights ago? Congratulations to Yendi Phillips from Jamaica for being the first runner up. She looks good too. I used to watch beauty pageants but don’t watch many anymore. They have become too politically correct for my liking. They are called ‘Beauty contests’ yet it seems one must apologize for focusing too much on the physical aspect of it. Now it’s all about the intelligence of the contestants and their answers to solving world hunger and securing world peace. I’m curious, what would happen if a really beautiful and confident contestant was asked what her goals were and she responded by saying she wanted to stay home and have plenty of children? Would she quickly be dumped out of contention? I’m sure she would. How dare she not aspire to being a CEO of a large corporation. What a complete lack of ambition. Even though raising children is perhaps the most important, challenging and rewarding job anyone can have!

But I did tune in, on and off to the contest the other night. I liked Bret Michaels as a co-host, and being the rock star that he is, he managed to inject the physical aspect back into the contest by constantly saying things such as ‘ they’re hot’  or ‘ you should see them in their bathing suits’. Good for him! I have to tell you who my top three picks were in no particular order. Yendi of course, Miss Guatemala and Miss South Africa.  All three of them looked GOOD! I remember when Yendi won the Ms. Jamaica Universe pageant and I thought back then she would have a good chance in the Miss Universe pageant. She is without a doubt very pretty. Perhaps a little lacking in the cleavage department…okay, a lot lacking in the cleavage department but pretty nonetheless!

I was chatting to buddy of mine on set yesterday and we were talking about this whole ridiculous Justin Bieber phenomenon. I stated on FB last week that I suspect Bieber Fever is a more virulent strain of Mad Cow Disease, and I stand by that assertion. However, as I told my friend, the only positive aspect to this story is the fact that here was a regular teenager from Stratford, Ontario, who posted a video of himself on YouTube and this led to his meteoric rise to fame. It shows that when you take your destiny in your own hands anything can happen, and this should be seen as a ray of hope by individuals who strive for some sort of artistic success. My friend then reminded me that literally thousands of people post videos of themselves singing or acting on YouTube everyday and so you’re chances of this leading to success are slim and next to none! Thanks buddy!

According to Forbes Magazine last week, Toronto rapper Drake came in 11^th on the hip hop salary scale last year with earnings of 10 million dollars. Congratulations to him even though I don’t understand it.  As I wrote about in an earlier blog; https://jasonslyric.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/where-did-all-of-the-good-music-go/, I really don’t get the music of today. At 41 years of age I have turned into my parents who I’m sure didn’t understand the music I listened to when I was younger.

By the way, I went to a barbeque on Saturday and had some mouthwatering curry goat, jerk chicken, stew chicken etc…No burgers and hot dogs there, just real food!

Anyhow until next time!

J

A Most Misunderstood Man

I have a confession. I’m an admirer of George W. Bush. I know, I know, people may question my sanity at uttering such a declaration. However, while many people choose to see the former President as perhaps oafish, or a tad bit not-so-bright, I see him as the most ‘scapegoated’ President in US history.

Let’s first start with the Iraq war, perhaps President Bush’s biggest blunder. I don’t agree with the war. As a matter of fact, I think it was an illegal act.  However, a number of factors contributed to the war in Iraq and it wasn’t just a vindictive act of a son out to finish what his father started – as it has been portrayed by many left-leaning individuals.

First of all, let’s get one thing straight. After 9/11 the country wanted revenge, and rightfully so! However the problem with being largely uneducated and ignorant of foreign affairs and world events, is it causes somewhat good and honest people to over-reach and over-react – without first getting the facts straight.

After 9/11 if President Bush had stated that Canada was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center, ‘Blame Canada’ would have become the new national anthem and Americans would have been signing up by the thousands to don a military uniform, bear arms, and cross the Niagara River en masse to march triumphantly into Ottawa and fly the ‘Stars and Stripes’ atop the Parliament building.

As a matter of fact, Canada did take some blame immediately after 9/11 when Colin Powell suggested the terrorists had made their way into the United States via Canada, due to our inability to protect our borders. Of course this turned out to be completely untrue. The terrorists did not enter the US via Canada. Colin Powell did have a point though. As a country, Canada is completely useless in protecting its borders and its immigration and refugee policy should be a point of concern for everyone!

The point I’m attempting to make in an unintentionally, rather long-winded way is that in a democracy you cannot hold one man responsible for the actions of a nation. You can in a totalitarian regime and a police state but not in a democracy. In a democracy it’s rather difficult for one man to inflict his will. The other political parties will ensure their voices are heard and their votes are used as bargaining chips. Therefore President Bush could not have declared war and invaded Iraq if the country wasn’t behind him. And the country was behind him. It must have been. I didn’t hear any dissent, did you? Not even our so-called well balanced news organizations could be counted on to do their journalistic duty by asking the tough questions of the President and questioning his actions. Nope. Nobody dared question the President. Not even Hollywood. The usual big-mouthed, over-paid celebrities who love nothing more than to weigh-in on some issue were surprisingly…quiet. The few that did speak up were quickly ostracized and found their careers facing a dim future. The few talk radio hosts who were critical of the President found their listenership’s decreasing and some even lost their jobs.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. This should be proof-positive that George W. Bush wasn’t a good man. But you’re wrong. He was the President of the United States and couldn’t have created this climate of fear unless the citizens of the country allowed it. After all, isn’t that how Hitler came to power? Didn’t he create a climate of fear within Germany and cleverly manipulate Germans into giving him unlimited powers that allowed him to become the de-facto Dictator of the Nazi republic?

I believe President Bush truly believed the intelligence (or lack thereof) coming out of Iraq regarding Sadam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. I also think he was getting very bad advice from people who were manipulating the situation for their own selfish goals – Dick Cheney being chief among them!

That’s what democracy is all about – the will of the people. The people wanted blood and revenge and they got it! It’s only when some of the blood being spilled was the blood of American soldiers that the mood began to change – and quickly. All of a sudden it was cool to dump on the President. Now the news organizations were once again brave enough to question the Bush administration over their Iraq policy. Left-leaning talk show hosts suddenly found their listenership’s increasing and big-mouthed Hollywood celebrities once again started using their big mouths without having to worry about career repercussions. How brave of you all!

Another reason I like George W. Bush was the fact he had a personality. He wasn’t stiff and boring like Canadian and British Prime Ministers, with the exception of maybe Tony Blair. An interview with George W. Bush wasn’t boring. He even had a sense of humour and wasn’t afraid to poke fun at himself. I remember one incident in which he was waiting for a reception in the Rose Garden at the White House. The reception was delayed briefly and so he broke out into an impromptu dance. When the hell was the last time you saw any other world leader do that? How about his dance in Africa with some locals? Most other leaders would turn up their noses at doing something like that. He was in my opinion, personable.

With any republican President there is often the accusation of being racist. Sadly the Republican Party has many members who are a throwback to the so-called ‘Good old days’ when black people knew their place.  Therefore I have heard President Bush called racist or as Kanye West angrily stated during the benefit for the Hurricane Katrina survivors – ‘President Bush doesn’t like black people’. Hurricane Katrina was handled poorly, but I think this had more to do with poverty as opposed to race. New Orleans was a majority black city with a large number of its citizens living below the poverty line. I think if this natural disaster had occurred in some hillbilly community in the Ozarks, the outcome and the response would have been the same – not much of a response. However if a disaster occurred in Beverly Hills, Westchester County or La Jolla, the result would have been dramatically different.  Money talks and in many situations it speaks louder than race. I’m not giving President Bush a pass on his handling of Hurricane Katrina, I just think it was based more on poverty than race. People often say that money can’t buy you happiness. That’s true but in many situations it can buy you your life!

If President Bush were a racist, I don’t think he would have had not one, but two black Secretaries of State – a very powerful position. I have heard both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice speak of their friendship with George W. Bush. I don’t think most racists have black friends over to their house to spend the night and partake in fellowship with their family. If President Bush were racist, I doubt he would have gotten a black preacher to perform the wedding ceremony of his eldest daughter.

And……………finally we have Africa. Without a doubt, George W. Bush was the greatest President for Africa that the United States has ever had. I’m sure many of you don’t know this due to the fact journalists chose mostly to focus on President Bush’ failures. In terms of financial aid to Africa and funding for AIDS research and combating AIDS on the continent, no other President has even come close. Sure, many Presidents make promises. Very few actually deliver, and President Bush delivered far more than any other President.

So there. I respect the man! He wasn’t perfect. He made some blunders but also had some successes. What more can you ask of your President?

Public Washrooms are Hell! Seriously!

One of my earliest blogs described a little situation I came across in the park while I was hiking and needed to use the washroom; https://jasonslyric.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/chi-chi-business-in-the-park/

I should have learned a lesson from this little episode – that lesson being not to attempt to pee in the park. Maybe another lesson I should have learned was not to pee outside the safe confines of my own house. That lesson was made even clearer last Friday in downtown Toronto.

For those of you who don’t know, downtown Toronto has a series of underground pedestrian corridors where you will find shops, food courts, restaurants, banks, etc… This network of corridors is called the PATH, and it serves to connect all of the skyscrapers in the Financial district. Therefore one can traverse most of the downtown core underground without having to come up to street level. This comes in handy during our usually cold Canadian winters.

On Friday I happened to find myself downtown as I had some errands to run and I was going to meet up with my wife after she finished work. The weather being hot I was trying to stay hydrated. Therefore I had consumed a great deal of water. To make a long story short I needed to take a pee.

I ventured into the washroom by the food court of a large building. The washroom was quite busy. I got to the urinals and they were all taken. So I waited. One of the urinals became free and so I went to use it.  Strangely, the old guy who had been using it turned, not towards the sinks and the exit but towards the other part of the washroom. Whatever, I didn’t pay it much mind. The urinals had dividers between them so you couldn’t see what the person next to you was doing. A good idea if you ask me – so I don’t have to worry about any prying eyes! Anyhow, I’m at the urinal taking a pee and I notice a gym bag on the floor of the urinal next to me. I thought that was gross considering this was a dirty washroom with a urine-stained floor.  I also noticed that the guy next to me seemed to be taking a long time. I finished my pee, zipped up my fly and backed away from the urinal………….and what the hell do you think I saw!!!!!

The old guy who had been using the urinal before me was leaning against the divider with his back towards me. Right beside him at the next urinal (the one right next to the one I was using) was another guy on his knees giving a blowjob to another guy who was standing at the urinal. I almost lost it!!!!

I quickly turned away toward the sink to wash my hands. The strange thing was there were other people in the washroom. I was looking at their faces to see if anyone else seemed to have a sense of disgust. Everyone else just looked to be going about their business. It was as if, to quote a friend of mine, I had walked into a very bad episode of ‘Candid Camera Gone Wrong’. A businessman entered the washroom at this time and walked towards the urinal. When he turned the corner, I guess he must have seen what was going on because he stopped dead in his tracks, backed up and got the hell out of there.

I finished washing my hands and quickly left. Given nobody else in the washroom seemed to demonstrate the same sense of outrage and disgust I had felt I didn’t know if maybe they were all in on it. Maybe I had walked into the middle of a timed ‘Get-Together’ by a bunch of informed men who were all intent on doing each other.

As soon as I left the washroom I went straight to the security desk and reported the incident. Guess what security told me? They stated they had received numerous complaints about that washroom and they can’t seem to get rid of the problem. One security guard immediately went down to investigate but by the time he got there, they were gone. I left my name with security so they could make a report.

As I left, I thought to myself that this wasn’t good enough! If security had received reports about this washroom and knew very well what was taking place – it was their duty to ensure the problem is dealt with. This was a public washroom in a high traffic area. It’s also summer vacation. What if I had one of my kids with me and they saw this. How the hell would I explain that to them? Obviously these bastards in the washroom didn’t give a shit about the ‘What If’s’! They were so emboldened that they didn’t even feel the need to move into a stall where there would be a little more privacy. Hell no, they were comfortable enough to do their thing right in the middle of the washroom at the urinals.

I have to tell you, the rest of Friday went by in a daze. I felt like I had been traumatized! I kept thinking this wasn’t right! Innocent people shouldn’t have to be subjected to this!

Today (Monday), I called the owners of the building and spoke to the Operations Manager. I let him know that security’s response wasn’t good enough and they need to ensure they do EVERYTHING to rid the washroom of this problem! He explained some of the measures he has undertaken and assured me that he was indeed taking this seriously. Unfortunately I did sense a bit of a defeatist attitude from him that even with everything they have done, they can’t seem to fully get rid of the problem.

What the hell does this say about society today?

What to Do Now

I think everyone who attempts to maintain a blog is at times confronted with the inevitable dilemma of ‘what to write about now’?

Let’s see, over the last few months I have written about many topics from swingers and exhibitionists to religion, corporate racism and politics. Some people write blogs on their lives. However, I must confess I don’t lead the most exciting life and therefore I may bore my loyal readers to death with updates on the daily goings-on in the life of Jason. Damn, I’m getting bored just thinking about it!

Therefore this week I have decided to write about a number of issues currently in the news that don’t sit too well with me.

BP Replacing Tony Hayward

Isn’t it interesting that BP has decided to appoint a new CEO. Tony Hayward has been replaced by American Bob Dudley – a Mississippi native. I wrote about the BP saga in a previous blog https://jasonslyric.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/is-bp-oil-giving-us-gas/ and in that post I surmised that BP was the victim of a historic shakedown. Let’s face it; BP wasn’t some phantom company operating in American territorial waters beyond the knowledge of American authorities. This was a huge multi-national corporation that had the full backing of several pro-big oil U.S. administrations. If anyone is to blame here it is the failure of several government agencies to implement strategies and regulations that would have prevented this mess in the first place.

The fact that BP has seen fit to replace their British CEO with an American to appease the US government is also a bit of a contradiction. If this were an American company that had created an environmental disaster on some foreign shore, I doubt they would be forced to pay billions of dollars in compensation and I also doubt they would dump their CEO for a local candidate. Remember the Union Carbide disaster in India in 1984? A chemical leak at their pesticide plant resulted in the deaths of 15,000 people in Bhopal, India. Union Carbide didn’t feel the need to go out and hire an Indian CEO even though they were responsible for the ‘murder’ of 15,000 innocent Indians. Five years later in 1989 they agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $470 million dollars. Yet BP has been forced to pay $20 billion dollars. Hmmm interesting.

The War in Afghanistan

How about the war in Afghanistan? I have a question for all of the die-hard, pro-war, chest-thumping, so called patriots who continue to say it’s our duty to be there and we must stay until the job is done – what is the end game? I’m serious. Have you given it any thought? I fully understand why we went to war in Afghanistan. I get it and unlike the war in Iraq, I think the war in Afghanistan is completely justified. However I also trust our leaders to ensure they have all of the facts, be on top of their battle strategy, have competent intelligence assessments, and be able to have some sort of end game in sight. So far I see none. The war has lasted twice as long as World War II and the Taliban seem to be getting stronger by the month.

Today CNN reported that July was the deadliest month of the entire war for US soldiers. Isn’t this thing kind of going backwards? Shouldn’t the number of battle deaths be decreasing?

 In Canada, we just buried another soldier killed in Afghanistan. We have so far lost over 150 soldiers. England has lost even more. The United States has lost the most. Yet what has been accomplished? The Afghan President Hamid Kharzai appears corrupt and a little mentally unbalanced. His brother is the Governor of Kandahar and is apparently the biggest heroin dealer around. And Afghanistan seems no closer to having the truly functioning, self-sufficient democracy that WE want it to have. Notice I said we? It does appear that we want it more than the Afghans do.

 And that’s another thing I have a problem with. Isn’t it a bit presumptuous of us to assume that everyone in the world should live in a country like ours? How can we force our way of life and system of government on others? When are we going to learn that the Afghans don’t particularly like foreign interference? They chased out and defeated the British at the end of the 19^th century. They kicked out the Russians in the 80’s. And so far have held their own against a coalition of Americans, British, Canadians, Dutch, etc…We may not understand the ‘caveman’ like mentality of the Taliban but maybe that’s not for us to understand. There are plenty of things in the world that don’t make sense.

The way I see it we have three choices in Afghanistan – nuke the entire country and end the war right away – saving more coalition soldiers from dying but resulting in the deaths of innocent men, women and children.  Continue on at our current pace and see if this war will last longer than the ‘100 Years War’. Or simply say ‘Screw this’ and get out! I opt for choice number three.

I know there are many parents of fallen soldiers who will argue that to cut and run will result in the deaths of their loved ones being in vain. I understand their perspective and they do have a point. However, what do we do? Continue forward and have more and more families face the pain of losing their son, brother, husband or father to battle – in an unwinnable war?

  Giant Hogweed

Here in Canada there was news last week on the appearance of a large and dangerous weed in the gardens, parks, and wooded areas of the province of Ontario. The Giant Hogweed which can grow to over six feet can cause burning and blindness. Wow! It sounds like something out of Jules Verne. Unfortunately I have now grown paranoid and I swear every weed in my garden looks like Giant Hogweed. I want to don a parka and thick pants just to walk outside in case I accidentally brush up on some weed, rub my eyes and go blind! Of course it’s probably not Giant Hogweed in my garden. I suspect there are a thousand other weeds that look exactly the same. However until I can be sure, I think the kids and I will do something safer – like play in the street!

Anyhow, until next time.

J