Monday, October 26, 2009

New Video - Skinner murder


More on the situation here.

Click the link, the reporting is excellent.

It looks like he was trying to get a taxi, these guys drove by and yelled "FAG!" like idiots do. They stopped at a red light, the guys got out, beat him up and ran him over.

Chilling.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Story

Editorial from Xtra.ca editor Matt Mills:

David Dewees had been a popular high-school teacher at Jarvis Collegiate Institute near Toronto’s Church and Wellesley neighbourhood since 2003. In the summers he worked as a counsellor at Ontario Pioneer Camp near Port Sydney.
Clearly he liked working with young people and until recently had a clean record as an educator and camp counsellor.
Police allege that he met two young guys at camp, 15 and 16. He supposedly kept in touch with the youngsters over the net until police say he had “inappropriate” online contact with them.
He was charged on Oct 1 with two counts of invitation to sexual touching and two counts of luring. That same day the Toronto Star erroneously reported that he had been charged with sexual assault against two 13-year-olds. In fact there’s no evidence or accusation that Dewees assaulted anyone. The Star somehow jumped to that conclusion.
Dewees was arraigned and released on $25,000 bail on Oct 2. On Oct 3 he calmly lay on the subway tracks at High Park station where he was killed by a train. He killed himself.
This story is highly engaging. There is conflict, shocking surprise, sexual scandal and a bloody end. It’s stranger than fiction, starts innocently and ends tragically. There are mysteries that may never be solved. It’s an easy hit. Don’t let anyone in media, no matter how seriously they purport to take journalistic integrity, tell you different.
Media clearly have a responsibility to tell stories like Dewees’ but the other edge of the sword is that media and its consumers — people — latch onto potentially sensational elements regardless of what is right or true. It is precisely the phenomenon that makes us gawk at car accidents.
Imagination plays a much larger role in stories like Dewees’ than do the scant available facts.
With only the knowledge that a teacher and camp counsellor was facing sex charges, people imagined what Dewees must of have done. They imagined what was going through his mind as he befriended these young guys. They filled in blanks with their own fictions, fictions written in the ink of personal experience, desire and fear.
Virtually everyone jumped to the conclusions that Dewees killed himself out of guilt: guilt for getting too close to his charges, guilt for getting caught, guilt for embarrassing his family and guilt for being exposed as having same-sex attractions (Dewees was not, by accounts reported to Xtra, openly gay).
At 15 I could tell when older men and women were hitting on me or otherwise interested in my sexuality. I never had any trouble ending conversations I didn’t want to have or pushing away suitors I didn’t want to know. I suspect the two young guys at the centre of the accusations against Dewees are similarly astute and will survive undamaged by whatever messages Dewees sent them online. Obviously these young guys bear no blame for Dewees’ death but this must be an extremely difficult situation for them.
One reality is that we simply don’t, and likely never will, know the whole truth. And we likely won’t know how the two young guys in this story feel about Dewees’ suicide.
Another reality is that we live in a society — we have created a society — in which Dewees, who was accused only of “inappropriate” web chatter with a couple of teenagers, was subjected to a media storm that painted him as a sexual pervert and child predator. As the story unfolded publicly, with all its fiction, innuendo and assumption, he chose to kill himself.
That is at least as telling a comment on how we as a nation approach human sexuality as it is on whatever choices Dewees made in his short life.

To give some context, this photo below is of Taylor Lautner from the new Twilight movie. In fact he's on the cover of the new People magazine where they talk about what a "hottie" he is and how "buff". He's 17, one year older than the 16 year old boy mentioned in this story.

More on the story.
I can't comment on the Toronto Star article without throwing my computer through the window.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Nuit Blanche 2009

Went to Nuit Blanche for the first time this year. I will probably go again but the long lines and inconsistent presentations were a turn off.
I went with my dad, his partner Linda, my co-worker Sarah and her friend Ashley.
Here's Ashley with some severed heads:

And Sarah with some oragami:

The best part of the night was probably "Le Grand Peep Show" in the stables of Casa Loma. All night long I kept repeating the MC's call "Usually, $30 per peep!"

The idea is you peep in the holes and the people stare back at you. Sarah was creeped out by the people staring at her but I spent the time trying to flirt with the guy using only my eyeball. For some reason I thought it was working....
Here's the virgin Mary hatching an egg:

Sarah and I infront of some art:

The artist hung the plastic sheets in the forest and then drew trees on them.
Next was an art installation called "Things Fall Apart". This was mostly crap but I did like the melting Ronald McDonalds quite a lot.



Then we went over to Liberty Village and had Fire and Sausages. The sausage was REALLY good but the hot chocolate, I just got the bottom of my dad's cup and it was really bitter and mine had a huge chunk of cocao in it which was not appealing.
There was a chalk wall:

Which I later leaned against and got my jacket and bag dirty.

Then off to see 2 cranes dancing for 15 minutes to music.

It got old fast.
Finally a stop at the apology project:
Where people with paper bags on their heads said "I'm so sorry" as you walked past them like someone died.
Back to my place for a quick rest and then off to see downtown. By this time it was like 12:30 and I was feeling pretty tired and the lines did little to stop that feeling.
This rabbit was kind of cool inside the Eaton Centre:

And saw the 4 letter word machine at city hall:

At one point people were trying to put the words together and they came up with the sentence "Obey them, Chip."
I came up with this story in my head where the world was being taken over my aliens and this son was being led away from his father by the awful alien. The son screamed "Dad, help!" and the father says "Obey them, Chip..." and then under his breath "...for now."
Everything else downtown was too long a line for how tired I was and I got home about 2:30.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Missed Connections

Sophie Blackall, a Brooklyn-based artist, illustrates Craigslist 'Missed Connections' ads.

Sunday, April 26, 2009– m4w – 24
You wore an awesome color changing dress to the BBQ on Skillman Ave in Williamsburg, but someone spilled wine on it.You left too quickly...I'd like to see you again.


Saturday, September 5, 2009- m4m - 29 (astoria)
we were both swimming around 5-6 in astoria pool. we ended up walking the same direction in the park for a while but didn't talk. i wish i had said hi...so i figured i would on here.worth a shot.