Joy – Nicolas Demers

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Wise Kids

I just don’t have the words to express how amazing The Wise Kids is. Smart, moving, thoughtful, relentlessly positive? It’s all those things and more. I left the theatre all warm and happy and uplifted. Not bad for a movie about gayness and Evangelical Christianity, eh? Mark my words: this movie will win the VQFF People’s Choice Award, hands down.

This is the story of three friends, over the summer before they leave their South Carolina town for college: we have Laura, hardcore and devout, planning to go to a religious college not far away; Tim, equally devout, gay and quite okay with it, dreaming of going to film school in New York City; Brea, the preacher’s daughter who’s starting to doubt her faith, also headed for New York.

One of the stunning things about this movie is how it avoids the more annoying cliches of coming-out stories: there’s no gay-bashing scene, no gay angst, no fire-and-brimstone sermons, no harsh us-vs-them divisions. Tim starts out comfortably gay and confident that God loves him no matter what. The worse that happens to him is Laura and a couple of others saying it’s wrong and a sin, but they never reject him. His family also tentatively accepts him, though he doesn’t seem out to the rest of his community and it’s not clear how they would feel.

This movie made me think about faith. Now, you all know I’m an atheist. I have no use for religion, superstition, holy books, and all that jazz. I believe that on the whole, faith-based and magical thinking are not positive things. But The Wise Kids drew me into these kids’ world and made me sympathetic to their beliefs, or at least how they live their beliefs.

Laura’s faith is a rock, an anchor, in her words as solid and real as a chair or her close friendship with Brea (I won’t take apart that simile). She believes that the Bible is the literal Word of God, every line of it. You can’t pick and choose what you believe; either the entire Bible is holy, or none of it is. And some might say that very solidity is a comfort, but it’s also mixed with fear: specifically, that Brea and Tim are going to hell and she won’t get to be with them in Heaven. And like an anchor her faith is holding her in place: of her circle she’s the only one who’s not moving far away for college, and the only one who will attend a religious school. But maybe, just maybe, that’s okay. Maybe she’ll be happy not blazing trails or exploring the world, but taking care of sick animals in her community.

Tim’s faith is a light, brightening the world around him. His God is not in a book, but everywhere: God’s love is evident in the sun and the sky, the birds and flowers, and the hearts of all the people around. During the movie he was almost always goofy and smiling and cheerful (and when he wasn’t it was for a damn good reason). There’s no fear in him, and though he promised to keep Brea in his prayers every night, I didn’t get the impression he was afraid of God smacking her down for being an unbeliever—because his God is as loving as he is.

Brea’s faith is a puzzle, to be questioned and examined. She starts out small, openly wondering if “because our elders say so” is a good enough reason to believe something, soon moving on to googling “bible contradictions” and “religions before christ”. All attempts to discuss her doubts are dismissed with reassurances that doubting is a phase that everyone goes through, and God is bigger than her questions. To which she replies, “What does that mean?” And is then told to stop thinking so much.

I thought Brea’s first tentative steps towards unbelief were treated well, with very realistic questions that a doubting believer would have. Most of all, the audience isn’t hit over the head with a “religion is false” anvil, which would have been totally inappropriate for this kind of movie.

Though the movie does take pains to portray this Evangelical community fairly, it’s hardly all sweetness and light. Underneath an aggressive Jesus-fueled cheerfulness, there’s a dark underbelly of hypocrisy, pain and confusion: special mention goes to the pastor coming to grips with his gayness. The first time we saw him I thought he’d be played for laughs, a stereotypically queeny control freak directing the church’s Easter pageant, clearly attracted to Tim. Things get serious when he actually makes a pass at Tim (and immediately regrets it). Things get very serious when he comes out to Tim at Christmas, and plaintively adds, “but I don’t know what to do!”

Even then, the movie doesn’t dwell on angst. We don’t know where their paths will take them, but I don’t doubt for a second that these three kids are going to be okay, each in their own way, and so is the pastor. If that’s faith, it’s a faith I can live with.

Spring Blossoms

It’s been a cold and rainy spring for the most part, putting a serious damper on Vancouver’s Cherry Blossom festival. Still, there were a few sunny breaks here and there, and I managed to take a few shots of spring flowers.

You know what’s really interesting? The blossoms in the above photos (taken on April 2^nd) are noticeably pinker than the later ones (taken on April 11^th)

Northern Voice 2010

So, Northern Voice: the annual blogging and social media conference, held this year at UBC’s beautiful Life Sciences Centre. It was my first time; in fact I only heard about this event a few weeks ago. It sounded like a great time, and it truly was: two days of learning, nerdery and camaradery! I met some amazing people, attended talks and workshops for all tastes, from the technical to the social to the political to the academic, and overall basked in the presence of my fellow bloggers.

And that was the biggest thrill of all. No blogger is an island, but the fact is I have been pretty isolated, since day one. Sure, I’ve followed a lot of blogs, read a few books and so on, and they’ve taught me all I know. But the flow has always been one-way. I wasn’t interacting with the authors online, let alone in person. But here I was, not just learning but dialoguing and connecting.

And it took me out of my comfort zone, in other ways: I knew very few people there, which was uncomfortable since I’m not the most outgoing guy around (more on that later). However, I did meet up with a couple of people I knew on Twitter, so that was all right. And even by myself, I could dip into the Twitter stream, drink in everybody else’s posts, and once in a while see one of mine retweeted.

Here are some of my thoughts on the talks I attended.

Day One Keynote Speaker: Bryan Alexander

And we’re off! I found this speech kind of rambly, as it meandered back and forth between storytelling, mystery, and how social media are misrepresented in mainstream media. That’s okay, though, because Bryan Alexander is a fantastic speaker, engaging and funny, working the crowd without any PowerPoint slides. A great way to start the conference!

Gov 2.0: Social Media in Canadian Government

How involved is government in social media? The answer, at least at the federal and provincial level, seems to be: not much. Politicians are generally terrified of any risk of “gotcha” journalism, and civil servants are usually set in their ways and don’t want to use newfangled tools. And citizens are left out in the cold, unable to more efficiently engage with the people representing them. Vancouver, however, is a lot more open with its data. The speakers also made the excellent point that it’s not about the tools, but the process. Really using social media means more than just slapping a wiki here or a twitter account there, it means a fundamental rethinking of the entire process of governing and decision-making.

Good Science: It Takes An (Online) Village

Kids today know more about Pokémon than biodiversity. What’s the solution? If you said, “how about a science-based trading card game, to both educate and entertain?” then David Ng is way ahead of you. Behold, Phylo! What an awesome idea!

Finding Your Voice

What do you write about? And how do you write it? That’s something I’m still struggling with, even after years of blogging. Could Monica Hamburg show me the way? Well, sort of. Her main point was, simply “be yourself.” The hard part about that is I to know the self that I’m being. Also that it’s okay to suck at first, and to be unknown. It gives you freedom to experiment. Good stuff, and encouraging to someone who still feels like a beginner at this whole writing thing.

The nuts and bolts of SEO

Kind of interesting, but mostly focused on commercial blogs. Alexandre Brabant gave some numbers on ideal post length and keyword seeding which I’ve forgotten now, and don’t really apply to this here personal blog. On the other hand, they may be useful for other projects I’ve got going on…

Overcoming Social Anxiety

Kimli rocks! Oh, I could totally tell how nervous she was during her talk, but then I would be too. She was powerfully frank about her social anxiety, how it used to cripple her life, and gave some tips on how to deal with it. Basically: events like Northern Voice are pretty good for introverts, since the attention will be on the speakers and not yourself; don’t be intimidated by Big Name Bloggers, since none of us are cooler than others, no matter how many hits we get on our blogs or how many times we’ve been interviewed by the CBC.

She had a few more pieces of advice (you can see her slides here), but that’s mostly what I took out of her talk. I’m still working on the whole no-intimidation thing. And on most of the other stuff, to be honest.

Incidentally: those Justin Bieber masks in her slides are CREEPY with a capital CREEP.

Social Media Buffet

As the name implies, this is a half-dozen little parallel workshops on various technical issues. None of the day’s remaining talks really appealed to me, so I hung out in the atrium and got a bit of free web design and WordPress advice.

Day 2 Keynote Speaker: Chris Messina

Chris is a long-time open web and open source advocate; also, the inventor of the Twitter hash tag. That makes him okay in my book. His speech (also done without PowerPoint!) was focused on the future of the Web, or at least a possible, dark future: with more and more consumer products like the iPad or WebTV discouraging use of the address bar, and with corporations always trying to clamp down on content, people will simply surf in the channels chosen for them. This will lead to a fractured, bland Web. It’s a sobering but not depressing speech; that future doesn’t have to happen, if people like Chris (and you and me) can work to avoid it.

How To Do Good on the Web

Mahatma Gandhi said: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” But what does that mean? What is good? And how do you do “good” online? Darren Barefoot, in this funny and inspiring talk, gives a few answers. Doing good on the Web, he says, can be as simple as clicking “Like” on something your really like on Facebook, or as complex as setting up something like Kiva.

He gave us a few practical ideas for doing good, such as Nabuur.com, which I’ve signed up for, and Procrasdonate, which I’ve installed on my browser. Should be interesting.

(Also, I think it’s during this talk that I installed Evernote, which totally rocks.)

Coping With Social Media

It’s addictive, isn’t it? There’s so much good stuff out there, a constant stream of tweets and posts and lovely information, that twenty-four hours aren’t enough to sample it all! How does one cope? Well, Alexandra Samuel argues, social media doesn’t have to be the problem. There are ways to make it work as a coping mechanism. For example, cleaning out your inbox can seem overwhelming, but it actually forces you to sort through your contacts, establish filters and rules, and make some hard decisions about what you let in. Tough, but it’s transformative!

Location sharing sites

What’s interesting is that the producers of location-sharing services like Gowalla, Foursquare, etc… don’t have any idea what they’re really for. And apparently, neither do users. Are they games? Are they a way to mark your travels? Connect with other people? They can be all that and more.

Sometimes a lot more. Last month a 54-year old North Vancouver man was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year old boy who he apparently tracked down through Grindr. This just goes to show the risks inherent in letting other people know your past or present whereabouts. Issues of privacy and personal risk will probably multiply now that Facebook is about to roll out geolocation.

Art and Social Media

I’m not an artist, but I loved the four speakers’ stories of using social media to find, and connect with, their audience. Mainly, it involves taking people behind the scenes, see part of the creative process, etc… That sort of thing is apparently very popular, and I see why. You get to connect with artists as people, not just producers of art. And who doesn’t love a good behind-the-scenes documentary?

I wonder if I could do something similar, for my occasional graphics design work. Who know, it might put me in a different mental space, and help the creative process. Gawd knows I could use some help with that, when it comes to graphics.

If Machiavelli and Montaigne Grew Mushrooms

And what better way to end the conference than with some high-falutin’ abstract talks on the principles of social media?

Dave Cormier started us out by connecting Socrates, Machiavelli and Montaigne, how they related to books, and how this can teach us about books and social media today. Now, Socrates hated books (which I guess were still kinda new in the 5th century BCE), because to him, the only real way to develop and communicate philosophical ideas was through personal discourse. Books not only froze ideas, but broke the entire discussion process. Machiavelli, however, loved his books. He wrote something to the effect that in his library, he could commune with the Ancients. Maybe Socrates was amongst those Ancients; if so, I don’t think he would have appreciated the irony. Montaigne also loved his books and went one step further by scribbling notes in them, actively dialoguing with the authors. Was it vandalism, or 16th century blogging? Montaigne saw that books were instruments of communication that were meant to be used, not venerated on a pedestal.

Tyranny of the moment… and the past. Future technology imagined in terms of the present. A lovely steampunk moment.

Thing is, Socrates was right. As necessary as books are, they do have their own tyranny. What can social media do about that? What sets them apart from traditional media is not the content, but the connection between bits of content, and between reader and author. This is the metaphor of the rhizome, connected shoots that have no centre, like knowledge spreading out in all directions.

Though, not to be pedantic, I don’t think mushrooms fit the metaphor. Unless they all grow rhizomes. But whatever, the alliteration’s nice.

Jon Beasley-Murray’s talk, “Knowledge 3.0”, was depressing and frustrating. He saw a drop in the level of critical thinking and quality of education offered by universities and newspapers, and essentially blamed social media for it. Okay, I’m putting words in his mouth, I know. He never actually said anything more than social media being “complicit” in this process, but he never discussed any other factors. The democratisation and physical scattering of knowledge and education is a complex thing, and may cause problems of its own, but I’m convinced that social media is not to blame for sloppy education and news. Correllation is not causation.

So that was a bit of a sour note. But everything else was gold. I can’t wait for next year!

Chicken wings and the smell of lilac

Indoor volleyball season ended this weekend. I’ll miss getting up early Sunday morning to try to drop into C1; waiting at the door for Tony to come with the key; I’ll miss playing for over 7 hours all day, with only a 2-hour lunch break. I’ll miss dinner at the Fountainhead afterwards. This Sunday was especially nice, with those yummy honey-garlic chicken wings I haven’t had in a while, the lilac tree blooming next to the patio, and all the West End walking past on such a fine spring evening.

Not sure I’ll be missing Friday night Rec dropin all that much. It’s fun, yes, and I get to hang out with friends who don’t play in the Sunday divisions, but I’m learning bad habits, especially in reffing, and the play level isn’t doing me any favours. And sometimes, there were other things I could have been doing on a Friday night.

So you know what? Next year I won’t be making Rec dropin a priority.

This year I’ve been dropping into C1 a lot more; I decided I needed to be a little more active in developing my skills so that (hopefully, someday) I can register for that division. It’s a hell of a workout and pretty stressful because the regulars are very demanding, way more than I2. Which is okay, right? After all, the “C” stands for “competitive”, not “comfort zone”. It’s been worth it; my play is still inconsistent but I think I’ve improved. Enough to ace the tryouts in the fall? Well, we’ll see.

I got my picture taken with James Randi!

The Amazing Randi was invited to UBC to give the keynote address for Science Week 2009. I decided to attend even though it was a weeknight, and really out of my way. And the map I printed out from Google Maps still didn’t keep me from getting lost. Health Sciences Mall is a street, my ass.

Check it, kids!

But it was totally worth it. Randi is well in his seventies now, I think, but still going strong, and as a great showman as always. He demonstrated a few tricks (both sleight-of-hand and mentalist) to educate and entertain, and of course went over the old standbys: Peter Popoff and Uri Geller and Sylvia Browne. I’d read about all that, of course, both on his site and others, but it was a different experience to hear about it from The Man himself, in an auditorium full of other skeptics.

Nice job as always, Mr. Randi. Here’s to many more years or debunking frauds.

“After the flood all the colours came out…”

President-Elect Barack Obama. It’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

And I gotta say, McCain’s concession speech was pretty nice. Too bad it was marred by dickwads booing Obama’s name and shouting… stuff I couldn’t quite catch (probably just as well). McCain tried to shush them, but let’s face it, it’s too little too late. You ran your campaign on hate and paranoia and lies, you withered old gnome, and tried to foist a useless piece of fundie eye candy as VP just to energise your base, you don’t get to take the moral high ground now.

In contrast with the lily-white faces in McCain’s audience, the crowd listening to Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago ran the full spectrum of skin tones, young and old (a lot of young people, actually); I saw at least one rainbow flag. That’s what the future looks like: people for whom race, gender and sexuality are just not that big a deal. It boggles the mind that this is the same America that voted for Bush twice (and before that, for the elder Bush, and Reagan), but I guess Leonard Cohen was right when he called America “The cradle of the best and of the worst”. Let’s hope this really marks a turning point in the nation’s history. But I couldn’t think of a better President to usher in this new age.

Giving Thanks For Whistler

Boo on me. Working so hard on my blog & gallery redesign that I totally forgot to write about Thanksgiving. And it was pretty special, since I spent it in Whistler with a few close friends. Just one day (Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon), but it was a hell of a day.

The good omens started on the drive up. It had been raining for a few days, but the weather was just then clearing up. Which meant dozens of gorgeous rainbows lining Highway 99. The first almost took my breath away, and it took all my concentration to keep my eyes on the road. Over the next couple of hours, I did get a little more used to them—and the gorgeous scenery I hadn’t seen in a while.

Then dinner, walking around a bit, and hanging out, then off to bed.

Monday promised to be clear, so I set my alarm for 6:00 to get some sunrise pics… forgetting the crucial detail that Whistler is surrounded by mountains. At 6AM it was still mostly dark, nowhere near actual sunrise. Oh well. So I wandered around, took some nice photos of Whistler in the early morning fog, went back to my room, tried to get back to sleep, couldn’t, went out again and finally saw a good sunrise over Blackcomb Mountain around 9AM. Then a few minutes later the fog came back in and hid it. Boo.

We had breakfast, walked around Whistler for a bit, then spontaneously decided to go up Whistler Mountain. What a difference 2 months makes! The last (and first) time I was there in 2003, it was August. Now snow covered the whole mountain (enough for at least one small avalanche), the hiking trails were closed, and I was kind of freezing. Sure, I was dressed warm, but obviously not enough for the mountain. Still: we kept moving, admired the scenery—and it was breathtakingly gorgeous with the fog-slash-clouds playing around the many mountains whose names I never bother to learn. Oh, and on the way down, we caught a glimpse of a mother bear out with two cubs.

We had an early turkey dinner, because most of us had to go back to Vancouver. That evening I went to see Between Heaven and Earth, part of the VIFF lineup. Excellent movie, much better than what I expected. I thought it would be about the trials and tribulations of two families of wandering circus folks in Uzbekistan. And it is about their trials, but so much more than that. The circus people are not passive recipients, they’re involved in their community, and even in national politics. There’s issues of tradition vs. modernity, faith and religion, and the greater social/economic picture of Uzbekistan. Great stuff, stark and troubling at times, but not sensationalistic.