September 11th

What do I think about when it comes to September 11th?

I don't think about how the western world is doing in Afghanistan or Iraq. I don't think about how how much safer North America is for declaring war on Afghanistan and Iraq, though I do think of the innocent people who've lost their lives in the "battle for freedom." I don't think about alleged inside jobs that have no real evidence. I don't think of "Jewish conspiracies."

I sure as hell don't think of the bravery of the suicide bombers. I've heard some people say this was deserved upon America for everything America has done to certain parts of the world and talk about this as a noble act. This is disgusting.

I think and pray for the well being of those children who on September 11th had to go to bed without their parents who perished, regardless of what they did for a living.

As much as we might want to criticize George W. Bush and everything that happened afterward, let's remember those children who went to bed without their mom and/or dad on September 11, 2001.

Interesting thing on Facebook

So I got one of those Facebook page suggestions that was actually intriguing. A kid in Franklin, Tennessee whose Facebook name is Jackson S., ended up with a demo from a band called Oceanship. His dad works in the record industry and was away and he and his mom listened to the demo. He decided to make it his science project. He would see how successful he could be to make a Facebook page increase the popularity of one unknown band. I wrote I found the band unoriginal and repetitive (think of Coldplay, who I'm not a fan of, playing virtually the same song over and over. I know, most Coldplay music sounds the same. But think of Coldplay if they were even more repetitive). Nonetheless, it's a very good idea for a science project. Check it out here.

I saw Sachiko Murakami read at the Art Bar tonight. I thought her book, Invisibility Exhibit was the best poetry book of 2008. I told her afterward what a fan I was of her. I'd love to have her at Rochdale Rhymes and Readings now that she lives in Toronto.

Poetry and Stuff

Over the pervious three nights I was fortunate to see three great poetry shows. All of them featured Randy Jacobs, AKA RC Weslowski. I'd never seen him perform until Tuesday at the Art Bar, along with Tara-Michelle Ziniuk and Rob Gee. His poetry has with and much depth to it, but he also is funny and entertaining. I also saw him at a really fun event called the Toronto Story Slam on Wednesday at the Boat. The slam portion was won by Kevin Fortnum. I was honoured and pleased the best show (only in my opinion) of his tour of Toronto happened at my Rochdale Rhymes and Readings show at the Regal Beagle. The show also featured Joe Dewar and Robin Richardson in a couple of great other readings. I'd booked Joe once before when I guest hosted for the now defunct Cryptic Chatter series. I'd never seen Robin feature before and had wanted to and decided booking her to read at my series was a way to solve the problem.

So I didn't make it to the CNE this year. I haven't made it in a couple of years. It's popularity seems to be coming back, if not to where it once was. I went to it about three years ago on a day when a borderline tropical storm hit Toronto. It was a mess. The rides shut down early, though most people had given up and gone home before then. In 2007 I went and realized it wasn't as big or fun as I remembered. Maybe I should check it out again. I think I'm running out of time for this year and may have to wait for next year. Maybe I should put it on my to do list now.