Citizen Justice in Blog Format.

Political Monday

2008-10-22T12:01:00.010-04:00

Previously in the Adventures of Citizen Justice:
In 2006, Citizen Justice applied to be a part of the Mountain Standard Times Performative Arts Festival. In 2007, the Festival was postponed till 2008. All the planning in the world, wouldn't prepare Citizen Justice for the unexpected CULTURE WARS!!!!!!!!!!

Today I am writing about Monday October 8th! What a day that was.
The financial crisis had hit a few weeks earlier. A Canadian Election was in full swing. And Prime-Minister Stephen Harper makes some wild comments about Canadian Culture.

Through my online grass-roots connections (aka Facebook (aka the CIA)) I was invited to three events that day.
1) A Canada-wide wear black for the arts Day.
2) Artist Dead-In - a protest in front of City hall.
3) Calgary's "Wrecking Ball" a "political theater Cabaret" thingy.

ONE - Wear Black for the Arts Day! You'll notice I converted an old black Leotard into a sweet alternative Black Citizen Justice Costume. Unlike Spiderman's black costume, that makes him a sexy aggressive bad-ass. This one just ups the sexiness and ambiguous gentrification thing I have going on.

You could have done this event too, its an easy way to raise awareness. Assuming someone notices that you are wearing alot of black, they might say, "What's with all the black clothes?" and you would reply "I'm attending a funeral. Yes a Funeral for Arts and Culture in Canada, and the worst part of it all is that it was MURDERED!!!!!" and at this point you should be yelling "MURDERED!!!!! MURDERED!!!! MURDERED!!!!! by the Conservative Government and Stephen Harper.... HARPER!!!!" and you should be thrashing around on the ground, like there is crazy mournful bee in your brain, and if you can vomit on command you should do that, all day!

Two: Artist Dead-In - a protest in front of City hall.

Below is a short video I edited about the event. Enjoy.

If this "Art is a Niche Issue" Issue doesn't sound familiar to you, below is a nice video I found on Youtube, kinda highlighting the pre-election culture clash.

SCARIER STILL, Here is a clip from "the Hour" highlighting Harper's Republican Style handling of the media.

Near the end of the Rally at City Hall, I ran into a good friend, Noel Bégin. He not only talked me into coming to see a talk by John Ralston Saul that evening. He also had me proof read a document he had been working on. He read this statement on October 9th's edition of Soap Box Derby" on CJSW. With Noel
s permission I share this article with you....

In response to arts cuts, and to Stephen Harper's divisive statements; Let's Cut Our Loses: Harper's minority government has cost Canadians in money, country, and culture. It's in our power to stop him.

To our fellow citizens of Canada,

Don't let Stephen Harper sell you short. While we appreciate that Harper sees artists as extraordinary, we are ordinary Canadians too, but we find that the term "ordinary Canadians" was slyly used by Harper to divide Canada's citizens. Many of Harper's recent statements attempt to pit you against us, but WE ARE YOU. Harper says ordinary Canadians don't want the kinds of creations that artists make with your tax dollars, but we think you're proud of what we make, proud of how carefully this small fraction of your tax dollars are spent, and that you're impressed by how difficult it is to receive those dollars.

The arts are a dynamic yet ordinary sector of the Canadian economy like all of the other sectors. The difference is that art is something we invest in as a nation because it is less about your bank account and more about your heart and mind, less about making a living and more about understanding the nuances of existence.

The Canadian system of arts funding is envied the world over for how it ensures that monies are distributed only to artists and arts groups who maintain a high standard of professional excellence. If the cultural industries are to maintain their integrity and continued innovation our system needs to remain free of the censorial influence that Harper is attempting to assert

Some art is created for children, and some art is created only for adults, some art functions as art regardless of age. Harper's attempt to seduce voters with a plan that will ultimately under-fund children's classes also serves to reduce the Canadian public's perception of art as an activity for children, and distract voters from the fact that this should be an essential part of a properly funded education system.

Suggestion is a powerful form of influence. Stephen Harper suggests that artists are elitist and exist in ivory towers, but each aspect of the arts is a specialized field, with specialized and technical language no different from the specialization of any professional industry. When Harper suggests that ordinary Canadians don't want to support the arts, he acts to divide us from you, but again, we are you. One must ask why a Prime Minister would seek to drive a wedge into the Canadian economy, or between groups of citizens. As artists and as ordinary citizens of Canada we are sure that Stephen Harper is not an acceptable choice for Prime Minister of the great country of Canada.

We are stronger together as a nation, and we want as a nation to be proud of our accomplishments in business, in science, in the arts, etc. We as artists are ordinary Canadians - we are you. We invite you to become engaged in the arts, to discover where and why a small fraction of your tax dollars are put to use, and to participate in the dialogue of art on a daily basis, consuming a byproduct of our combined strength.

Sunday @ Broken City.

2008-10-07T23:57:00.000-04:00

Sunday was pretty quiet at the Epcor Center. It was the second morning I woke up in my new apartment in the Plus 15, and I had a good sleep. I got moving slowly but made my way down to an Apartment Block Yard Sale. Where I found some good deals, including a sweet matching green vest, to help me tackle the chilly streets. I also lucked out and used Anthea Black's shower. What a sweet heart.

I stopped by the mall on the way back and found the looney store. I forgot that Dollar Store's in Calgary are mostly filled with Items above the price of a dollar. They will hear from my lawyers.... (empty threat). I also stopped in at a costume store and tried out a few disguises.

Who's that guy? Yep. It's me. These frames are doing nothing for me, but the card board tagge hides a good amount of my face. "Final Grade: F+"

I spent the afternoon, crafting and getting aggrivated as I attempt to update my last few days on the blog. My original plan was to update my blog every day so that people could read up fast on what i was doing. But my MacBook is nearing the expirary date so it really wasn't working out managing my files. Urrg... Any way, I'm updating my blog now (incase you were wondering what you are reading, its the memoirs of Citizen Justice. More specifically Justice in Calgary, attempting to do good.)

I crafted together a "bat-signal" for my living space.

Its getting late, I head out.
Destination: Broken City.
Reason: Karaoke.
Jusification:
Community Research.

"With the direction I'm going, I can walk about three blocks indoors using the Plus 15"

Walking the streets of downtown Calgary on a Sunday night, I notice the absolute lack of people. With the exception of Friday and Saturday nights, Downtown Calgary pretty much shuts down after six. The lack of night life Downtown seems to be a problem with location.

I read on the City of Calgary website that 30 people live downtown. Strangely most of the pedestrians I see, unfortunately live on the streets. But they are huddled in small sections of downtown. The C-Train runs on 7th Avenue and dumps people off ever 3 blocks, but they don't have many places to go.

Stephen Avenue (8th Ave) has some restaurants, bars and some theaters and two artsy cinemas. But there I feel an elitism as these places seem to market to the business people who densely populate the area in the afternoon. But by now they are watching tv in Suburbia, and they sure don't want to get in their cars after spending an hour or more in traffic to get home.

17th Ave seems like an ok place, if your looking for a pub or restaurant any night of the week, but the ten block stretch between there and the c-train is a graveyard with 30 story tombstones.

Luckily, small pocket communities exist. One for example is the tight crowd of Karaoke Enthusiasts for come out weekly to the Broken City. I'm sure there must be communities like this huddled in corners all over Calgary, but you might never know about them, this Karaoke scene however has some good word of mouth.

The Tedious task of flipping through the song book, trying to find a song that both fits my frame of mind and my vocal range. Luckily a beer will help me delude myself into believing I have a vocal range. I think society needs more chance takers.

I look through the book three times before I finally decide to take on the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Thanks to Sarah Adams-Bacon for posting this Photograph.

Here is a montage of some of the hits of the night, notice my performance is strategically cut short. But don't worry, it was awesome.

This is a picture of me hanging out with Karaoke wizards Ben Jacques and Ryan McLure.

After the fun was had, I went outside and caught some air while simultaneously conducting a verbal interview with Bo, who works at Broken City. Eventually it turned into an interview with Clay, the head-door-man and karaoke host at Broken City... here's what they said....

So... Bo, what's the deal with Calgary? What do you think needs to be fixed?

Calgary? Definitely start with the fucking infrastructure. Driving in this goddamn place is a hell hole.

You drive a car?

Yes.

Do you ever ride a bicycle?

Yeah.

Any problems with that?

No, not at all?

Infrastructure? Can you elaborate.

Just the way the city was designed. It unfortunately wasn't geographically intended to grow up, which it should have, instead it grew out... like a Cancer on the ass end of Alberta.

Red Deer? (says Clay who aproached our conversation midsentence)

No Calgary? how it grew out instead of up...

We are still alot prettier than Edmonton.

I don't know if you've ever seen the Edmonton River Valley in Bloom... it's Fucking Beautiful.

I have to say, this time of Year in Calgary is pretty nice with all the leaves changing colors.

It is, it is, it is nice.

Thank you, we have alot more greenery downtown than most major cities in this Country.

That's true. I'll support you on that.

Hey man I'm in love with the Praries, I don't want to be in a metropolis that looses edge of where it came from.

I grew up in Red Deer, Parkland... It gorgeous. I wouldn't go to the bars, but...

Well Red Deer is still small town Roots.

Is there anything you would like to see changed for the Better in this city?

Our downtown needs to be more Vibrant.
I appreciate what they are trying to do by building condos and office buildings, but it doesn't bring people down town. If you wanna bring people downtown you let restaurants and nightclubs be successful, and maintained. And you encourage people to come shop, and eat and drink and hang out downtown and try and vacate your homeless. Instead of scaring people out of downtown, encourage them to come down town.
Which is what happened here on 11th and on 1st, its why all the bars are closing and they are building condos. Sure people want to live downtown, but give them a reason to stay down town, they shouldn't have to go to the boonies to find something to eat and hang out and feel comfortable.

What do you think about the current anti-homeless ad campaign downtown?

I think it works perfectly, I lived in Las Vegas for a long time, and their down town core is beautiful, their surrounding core is beautiful and I don't know what they did to get rid of the homeless? But you would think in all places, Las Vegas would have a vibrant homeless population. But they don't, you really have to look for homeless people in Las Vegas. Here they will find you. It's sad because this is a beautiful city and we don't need to be overrun by that. I don't know what they did to fix it in Vegas, I don't know what there plan is to fix it here. It would be nice to walk down the streets downtown and know that I'm ok, with out getting asked for change or smokes every fifteen feet.

But beyond getting harassed by the homeless... what could else could be improved in the downtown core?

I wouldn't say its harassed. It just make you uncomfortable...
But in the downtown core, if you got rid of the sketchy people, by any means necessary, the other problems will follow. You could set up programs for homeless people, and down on their luck people and their are several programs in the city that deal with that very nicely, its just a matter of reaching out to them and getting them to do it.
Aside from that we have a beautiful down town, two major rivers very close by, there's a lot of park space, its a beautiful town.

Also.. what are you recording this for?

Uh... I'm gonna use it, to write on my blog...

Cool. Well I love this town I think people give it a bad rap. I grew up here and its still a small town, Everybody knows what the score is in the flames game. Everybody knows its stampede and they are happy to help you out. Their are a lot of good things about this town.

Well thank you, Clay. Have a good night.

Well... that interview took a surprising twist. Being in somewhat of a non-confrontational mood I thought I would save my opinions for my blog.
For the record, I would like to see Homeless people given the help they need. I'm gonna suggest that when Clay said to Vacate the homeless... he really meant House the homeless... but I don't wanna put words in his mouth.

Examples of Ads produced by the Calgary Downtown Association.

I'll admit to baiting him into admitting he liked the Calgary Downtown Association's terrible ad campaign that I personally find offensive. It basically dehumanizes homeless people into a stereotype to raise public apathy towards the problem. "I got mine, Jack." It asks you to give to agencies not panhandlers so that the can help. That's a good premise, and early on many groups were involved with the CDA, helping the homeless, but since this ad campaign began using grossly offensive imagery and stupid slogan "you're sympathy is killing me", most organizations that programs that help have been alienated and asked to be removed from their website.

Further more, Calgary is a big city... so its going to have to get used to weird stuff going on. That's the nature of high population living. I assume also getting asked for smokes is more annoying if you smoke, but really is that going to stop you from going to where you want? Show some courage, Dammit.

On my way home to the Epcor Center, I stopped on Stephen Ave to take a picture by these public art things... I was slowly approached by a young man who asked me for some spare change to buy some food. I wan't carrying any money on me, but I offered to buy him something. I was a little tipsy and feeling self righteous after mentally disagreeing with Clay, so we walked about four blocks in the opposite direction to "the Sketchy Mac's." A convenience store located right off the C-train, often populated by "sketchy folks" and one might assume you could buy all sorts of drugs there too... but I wouldn't know for sure. Anyway, on the walk over he explained that he was from Saskatoon and had been traveling with some friends who ditched him in the city, now he was waiting for his Auntie to get paid to buy him a bus ticket home. Being from Saskatoon myself I connected with this story, so I asked him what the City of Saskatoon was like these days? He said "it was getting crazier. There's a native gas station (Creeway gas) that started selling cheap cigarettes on 20th, and now the gang activity is getting out of hand." I asked him if he knew about the Drop-In center where he could probably sleep for the night and he said he already tried going there and got beat up, and the same at the Mustard Seed. He said he didn't realize at first people were using the codeword food for drugs, so when people asked him if he had any food and he had a sandwich he was in trouble. Regardless, I bought him some legit food at the Mac's, some chips and pop and bananas, and gave him ten bucks to hopefully be spent wisely... On my way home, I patted myself on the back and thought, "man... I can't afford to keep doing that every day..."

Citizen Justice exorcising the drunk demons.

Cities in Review - Lethridge: Tap Water and Fire Spinners

2008-10-07T22:51:00.000-04:00

On Saturday the 4th, I was invited to join the "the magical mystery tour" to Lethbridge Alberta. My hope was to get some perspective on alternative style of Albertan living, low cost living, and decent cultural outlets.

One way I judge a city is on how walk-able it is, When we got their it was sun was down, so it was hard to tell the size of the community and what the suburban sprawl is like. The three art galleries that had openings and performances where pretty much all in a three blocks, so with limited information I'd say "yeah thats an easy walk."

City is pretty, lots of nice building that remind me the short stout shops lining Saskatchewan summers. (ha alliteration.) It was too bad the thrift shops I saw were closed. I like cheap shwag.

Their is a park beside the Southern Alberta Art Gallery that had a vigil set up for abused Aboriginal Women and afterwords djs set up and started a kind of dance party. I was told that the park was kind of a hangout for the homeless, but rather than running a fear-monger campaign against "sketchy people" like some cities might do... Lethbridge has made an effort to host cultural events to liven up the space and get people comfortable with the idea that, yes we can co-inhabit. And the best way to co-inhabit is with fire spinning! I think I should learn how to do this, their were alot of teen-twenty somethings taking turns to practice this really wicked art form. Here's a little video and some pictures and such. Also, if these pictures are of you and you want a link some where... message me.

On to another element of the city I liked. Water!

zing. I found this water bottle at the SAAG opening, just an empty plastic bottle the city or someone distributed. The back side has instructions on how to fill the bottle and a few sentences clarifying the fact that tap water should be good for you. Personally I think if your town has bad water... you should take to the streets and demand money is put into fixing it! Instead of handing your money over to Coca-cola for basically the same damn thing.

In conclusion, I would give the 5 blocks of Lethbridge I saw an B+, which is pretty good. With acknowledgment that I should really see more of the city and live their for a bit before I could give it a final or even just a mid-term grade.

Hello Calgary

2008-10-07T17:37:00.001-04:00

DAY 2: LETHBRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS... or wait... no trouble at all.

2008-10-05T16:18:00.000-04:00

Saturday afternoon I ran around during the day, trying to do some random errands and print some singalong songs in a little book for tonight's MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR!!!
Mountain Standard Time arranged a special chartered school bus to take us to Lethbridge to see some art stuff! (See my review of Lethbridge for details on the city.) Who are we? People who signed up I guess, and I looked around the bus at about 14 people and I feel confident saying they were artsy art folks. Neat!

So I made this book, and despite the fun promised on the cover... I think it was a huge failure.For one thing the sing-along songs had typos (dang internet). And the sudoku I printed was totally to hard. I used a code cracker on the internet to solve it, so here's it solved.
Well any way, we had fun anyway.

I interviewed Caitlin (in the back) and Nicole (in the front) about concerns with Calgary.

Hi Caitlin, I am going to interview you on a bus. What do you think about Public Transportation in Calgary?

Well I live pretty close to downtown. I usually ride my bike to work. But I know if if I have to get to place in the South or up in the North East I generally have to take two trains and a buss or two buses and a train to get there. I've had jobs where public transit would take me more than an hour to get to work and if a bus was late, I would sometimes be up to three hours late for work.

What do you think of Bicycles in the city, is it Safe?

I personally am one of those people who rides on the side walk as I don't feel safe riding on the streets. I find the motorists are very aggressive and they don't share the road like they are supposed to.

What kind of things could be improved in Calgary?

How about Rent Control? Public Transportation and Free Recreational activities such as festivals. Other cities seem to be kicking our asses on the Festival Scene.

Thank you Caitlin, have a good day

You're welcome Citizen Justice.

So, Nicole... what do you think about public trasnsportation in Calgary?

I barely use transit but I think its pretty good, its better than Edmonton.

Burn!
Well what about bicycles?

Bicycles are amazing. BUT I think the City of Calgary's claim that they have more kilometres of bike paths than any other city in Canada is Total Bull S***. The bike paths are all along the river so for those of use who commute to work it doesn't really help.

Burrrn.

Also the city's version of bike lanes is too paint a picture of a bike on a road and post a sign that says to share the road. Which is not the same as a seperate lane with a curb and a division like they have in montreal. I think this city needs to re-think its bike friendly actions.

What are your pet peves about Calgary?

That it's taken till November of 2008 for Calgary to implement a curbside recylcling program, despite the fact that every north American city of this size had one. AND it will only be in houses, no apartment buildings.

Well... thanks Champ.

We got back on the bus at eleven pm. Every one was tired but it was awkward to sleep on a school bus. The stars were pretty. We drove for two hours and then A MYSTERIOUS FOG SWALLOWED THE BUS. We went in and out of long stretches of fog for the next thirty minutes till we hit down town Calgary. It was a little scary, a little beautiful and maybe a little dangerous, but our bus driver Roy knew how to handle it. He laughed at the challenge, "ha ha ha, stupid fog! you are know match for me!" is what I pretended to hear him say. Any way... we made it home safe and I spent my second night sleeping at the Epcor Center.

M:ST4 - FRIDAY the 3rd is PREVIEW NIGHT!

2008-10-04T04:46:00.000-04:00

I have moved into the Stride window gallery. It's a small 15' by 8' space in downtown Calgary's Plus 15 system. From here I will set up a home base while I tour downtown doing good deeds and trying my best to make Calgary a better place.

How did I get this opportunity? Well I was accepted into the Mountain Standard Time Performative Arts Festival Part 4. Wow, what a mouthful of awesome. Calgary is probably most famous for three things, 1988 Winter Olympics, The Calgary Tower and the Calgary Stampede. I would like the 4th reason to be the diverse arts and culture punctuated by the radical M:T festival. I think that would be something to strive for.

So you can't argue with success for the Calgary Stampede, that's why I am going to rip off their formula a bit and make it suit my needs. While the Stampede can be a lot of fun, giving people the opportunity for people to make believe they are cowboys. I have never been all that interested with cowboys (except for Back to the Future 3). So my ten day celebration is going to embrace superhero culture and the social implications of a science fantasy based reality!!!! Cue the music, (click here for a new window, it will probably say forbidden, but click on the url and press enter and then come back to this window.)

CITIZEN JUSTICE IN THE COW-TOWN OF TOMORROWS

So here I am in my temporary apartment ready to head out for the night and do some good! I walk head down to 17th ave. Picking up some litter on the way (including a hub cap and 2 green leprechaun hats belonging to a local pub. I took the hub cap home, hoping to make good use of it. The hats I threw inside the bar and ran off.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

On 17th Ave I found a group or scientists providing a free service to the public.
The introduced them selves as Doctors Thorpe and Rothenberg and their assistant Dr. Staples (Un-Photographed)

They wanted to use their radio equipment to recalibrate me to 7.83 Megahurtz, which aparently is the same frequency admitted by the earth, commonly refered to as the heartbeat of the earth. (Citation needed.) For more information on this "Zero-Hour" Project click on the 13th and 14th last word in this sentence.

The good doctors needed some help protecting the securing wires running to the radio tower on the roof so I was able to give them a hand and have little fun up their as well.

Feeling a little peckish my new friends and I stopped by a local restaurant and bar for a bite. I had been carrying a box for Dr. Rothenberg and the bouncer gave us a hard time about it. "Who brings a a box to a happening joint?" "Who said this place was happening?" Burn...

Their Yam fries were tasty.

I walked back to the C-Train and caught a ride up the street to the Epcor Centre to go to sleep.

When I got to the Epcor Centre there was a giant line up of people waiting to get in the entrance. I asked them what was going on their and well most of them wouldn't answer. But I got that their was a party in their somewhere. I went to the front of the line to stalk to the security guy but he was busy and some guys in the crowd were laughing saying "YOU'RE not going to get IN", "but I live here." Then they were confused and I asked if I could take a picture of the big line up and they declined but one guy said "I'll take a photo with you..." so here we are.

After that I went and talked to security and he let me in right away. Take that!

I get back into my space and I am exhausted.

I still manage to stay up into the weee hours uploading pictures and trying to write legible sentences in this blog.

Progressive Fest!! Preview Day starts tonight!

2008-10-03T13:50:00.000-04:00

You will believe a Man can fly...

2008-10-02T02:29:00.000-04:00

...from Montreal to Toronto to Saskatoon to Calgary.

Before my first flight took off, I skimmed through the in flight reading material. They must of seen me coming cause they had a whole article on superhero supplies, and gave me a good reason to go to Brooklyn some time soon.

No one was sitting beside me between Montreal and Toronto, but I still didn't have enough room to follow along with the work-out channel. I think it would be neet if we exercised on planes, I'd call them Air-o-bics. Ha ha ha ha... uh. Yep.

From Toronto to Saskatoon I watched the first fifteen minutes of the pay per view Iron Man before is cut out and I took a nap. Waking up to see the most extraordinary thing!!!

Ha ha, no I'm kidding. I just kept imagining someone flying over the amazing Canadian landscape. What a beautiful country. If that someone was me, I'd use the spare leg room to fly around and do Air-oh-bics.

Oh... yeah no I was building up to something there... The most extraordinary thing!!! A full circle rainbow!!!

Well it might not be that amazing, but I thought it was neat. I kept trying to figure out how the optical effect was created but eventually gave up. I think they might call this a "sundog" but I don't know maybe it was a dimly lit Foofighter Or a treadmill for Leprechauns.

SPeaking of awesome things. I stopped in Saskatoon for a couple of days to visit family and meet my nephew for the first time.

Adorable.

Even more so compared to this poor Jose Mestre, ho I watched a special on during my final flight to Calgary. It was called "the Man with no Face."

Finally I made it back to Calgary, landing at light speed like Dave in 2001.
I wonder what Space baby like powers await me in this confusing and perhaps abstract end to a story...

CAT-BURGLARS!

2008-09-24T22:48:00.000-04:00

Last week I was walking down St. Viateur in Montreal.
A hand written letter stapled to a telephone pole caught my eye.
The news was shocking, it was a warning to be on the look out for for a white van traveling the alleys of the mile end by night cat-napping cats. That is too say, stealling cats, not pulling over for a quick nap. (Although that is a safe driving technique I suggest for drowsy drivers.)

I went back the next day to take a picture and to my surprise it was gone! I quickly looked around the curb and gutter of the street for any remnants of torn piece of paper. The street was uncharacteristically litter free. Just then a white van ripped by! I photographed the van and it's license plate. Was the missing poster condemning white vans related to the sudden appearance of the white van? Urg... I may never know.

I found a second posting of the warning near "the mountain" and this time I got a picture. Here, have a read:

Now I see white vans every where but none have a conclusive evidence of wrong doing.

That night I left the apartment at about 1:30pm. I made sure my cat was secured inside before jumping the wire fence in to the alley. I slink in and out of the darkness between street lights. The glowing eyes of cats can be seen in almost every yard. If I were these Cat-stealing jerks, I'd be hitting the Jack pot.

A motion light comes on and I jump a little, then I move on. I feel self-conscious. What if someone thinks I'm the Cat-Burglar? I feel more relaxed knowing there is know one else around. Except cats! and their creepy eyes! Relax you feline bastards I'm on your side.

I return home about half and hour later. Nothing to report. Mystery Unsolved.

Who are these Kitty Thieves?
What do the do with those Cats?
Who is posting these warning signs?

Daniel Goleman: Why aren't we all Good Samaritans?

2008-07-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

I love TED talks.

wait for it... wait for it... help is on the way?

2008-07-13T15:25:00.000-04:00

Damn. I would like to believe that this guy has a good reason he's strutting down the back streets of Montreal in the rain with a bike in each hand.

I'd like to say I immediately ran after him yelling "hey punk, those aren't your bikes!" But it appeared that my powers of confrontation were momentarily disabled due to a lifetime of pacifism... or something.

So I follow the dude for a couple blocks trying to snap some pictures, maybe see where he was headed... maybe he was going to one of the twelve hundred bike shops in Montreal's Plateau. Eventually he stopped walking and started checking out his bikes... well I'm trailing twenty feet behind him and I don't have much time to think of anything more clever than to keep walking past him and into a dépanneur (or corner store as you may call them) just up the street. I loitered in the store to see if he would keep walking past me and I could keep following. But as the tension rose between me and the confused store clerk I decided to leave with out buying anything. I walked back towards the now bike enthusiast. Catching a glimpse of his regular white guy, light blue/green eyed face with a couple days of dark brown stubble growing on it. But like a coward I kept on trucking.

FRANTIC MODE!!
Now what am I supposed to do! I can tell he's gonna be walking up this street for a while! What should I do? Well I pop into a pizza by the slice shop, and use their payphone... Hmm 911? No, as far as I understand that would summon a cop car, and ambulance and a firetruck... right? So I check their phonebook and it has a big blank line saying insert local police number here. What? or Dial "0" and have an operator connect you. Well I do that and because I'm at a BELL payphone I get the bell automated service giving me the option of paying for this call with my calling card or making it collect, but no operator assistance option. I hang up and Dial 911, but then get worried and hang up. Damn.

I walk home, with my digital photographs, hoping to see a cop car on the way. Surprisingly I don't. Most the time Montreal is a pretty heavily patrolled city, bt maybe cause it was rainy and a Sunday they had better things to do. I got home and decided to test that theory. I dial "0" and get my lovely operator to connect me to the police phone line, an automated service that puts directly on hold as my call is not an emergency. It doesn't even have any hold music or messages to re-affirm me that I wasn't just hung up on. Well, I wait ten minutes and give up. Calling 911, explaining that its not really an emergency, but I suspect a guy was walking around with some stolen bikes, can you direct me to the right people to speak to. Sure, no problem.. I get transfered and soon realize... "hey, they transfered me to the same phone number from before." This time I wait it out, but eventually i set down the phone and start making some eggs as this all happened before breakfast. I check in every five minutes, still nothing happens but eventually I hear a phone disconected sound and I get outraged.

So the moral of the story is, walk calm bike thieves with two maybe three or four stolen ikes in your hands, as the people in Canada are far two polite to say anything, and apparently some one who actually goes pretty far out of their way to catch you, will be defeated by lack of telephone channels. Wow... what a cynical day.

Citizen Justice.
(oh. and I have been looking on craigslist to see either of these bikes have been posted for sale, not yet.)

oh... Justice... Like that Band? Um No.

2008-04-26T12:15:00.000-04:00

I feel a little like Michael Bolton. Not the singer, but the character in Mike Judge's Office Space. I've been Mister Justice for as long as I can remember. Now there is a Christian club electronica group with the same name. JUSTICE (as seen below.)

So what's a vigilante to do, when someone kicks their ass and takes their name?
I don' know. I might have to change my name.

Originality with super heroes is key... I mean there's not a dozen people called Spider-Man, (forget the clone saga) but in real life I think if a couple of people really had spider-esque powers, they might all start calling them selves spider-man, and set up franchises around the world... but then some of the spider men might not agree on ethics or use of violence or any other reason people generally don't get along and they might want to change there name to.

So really, I didn't know much about the music Justice made and I'll admit, I actually like it. So maybe its okay, we can share names, after all Justice isn't a person or a band, its a principle. (and I will save that for another day.)

What worries me most about this is that Justice (the band) heavily uses the Cross as their iconography. I have really yet to see what their music has to do with christianity, but regaurdless anyone who has seen their posters our t-shirts or videos, can now associates "Justice" with a big white cross (which as a libertarian brings up all sorts of cynical commentary, but i don't want to get into that.)

As someone who could be labeled with some kind of savior complex, I worry about the association between me and Jesus. I mean I already have a big unrelated J on my chest.
But I don't want to bring it up especially on the streets of Montreal cause people get crazy about JC.

Anyway, Now I have this song in my head. It's got a classy video so. Enjoy.
Mx. Justice.

AL GORE!!! and Earth Day!

2008-04-22T19:19:00.000-04:00

In an alternate history a lot of good things have happened in the past 8 years since Al Gore won the presidential election. America set the global standard when it came to taking climate change seriously. Trillions of dollars were used on education and health care. Strangely there were know 911 terrorist attacks. George W. Bush choked to death on a pretzel. Dick Cheney was arrested after firing a shotgun at a longtime friend while hunting.
But I mean these are just ramblings about parallel realities I got from my psychic homeless friend. He's a quantum mechanic... in a parallel world he's a king, in another world he's a dictator and in three other worlds he was elected democratically. But he's homeless in this one to equal out his karma and get a taste of the everyman experience. yeah its a bit complicated.

Anyway, all this earth day action has got me thinking about Al Gore. Conservative critics like to say he's using this global warming hype as a way to get rich and famous... which is bunk as far as I'm concerned... but I've learned to be continuously agnostic about the trustworthiness of politicians. He's using his credibility to bring light to subject that is annoyingly pigeonholed as hippie bullshit. But come on! If you don't believe that global warming is a reality, you should consider running your engine in garage for a couple hours. (oh... disclaimer: don't do that.)

Wow... the environment gets me all worked up. I have get some water. Check out this video.

So lets go through this list and see how well I did...

1)ECO FRIENDLY HOUSE! I rent my apartment and it is pretty rundown... it's weather stripping skipped town which means its cold in the winter and my kitchen is full of ants in the summer... yipes.

2)TRANSPORTATION! I don't have a car, I walk and use the underground Metro mostly. I'm looking into trains for my next big trip.

TIP - 2.5 Push for laws, policies and treaties that take climate change seriously.

3)Energy Star! I guess when it comes to buying stuff I'll tr to get an energy star product, but I find most of my appliances on the street...

4)I found a Carbon Footprint Calculator, the one on the Inconvienient Truth website is only for the United States, but this one covers the globe.

My current Carbon Footprint is 5.464!
* The average footprint for people in Canada is 20 tonnes.
* The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes.
* The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes.
* To combat climate change the worldwide average needs to reduce to 2 tonnes.

My main problem is in my Secondary Footprint which is 2.940, half is due to my eating habits and budget... and if you like to go see movies and thats a goddamn ton of emissions, apparently.

5)Live carbon neutral. I think the amount of re-using and reducing I do is helping balance the scales of Justice, but I guess I could plant a garden.

6)Work related. I have food containers and spill proof mugs but I still have a bad habit of eating out, I try to ask for less wrappers and stuff but sometimes its unavoidable... admitting this makes me feel terrible.

7)Big Business! I don't invest money in anything except food, so I guess that means I should pay for better more friendly foods. Oh and when it comes to writing big business, I'm gonna get my pen out.

8)TEACH OTHERS about this whole process.

9)Vote Green, or for someone who fears melting glaciers more than big business and terrorists.

As for that whole inventing something that could reduce existing carbon emissions? I'm working on that too, but I think I more or less stole the idea from Spaceballs.
(I was going to post a picture from the movie and while i was searching Google for a good picture, it took me to a blog that was also talking about reducing emissions and was basically making the same comment.) So... I guess I'll have to think of something completely original and not in anyway referencing Mel Brooks.

Well that about wrap. Except!
I'd like to give some props to Captain Ozone, a real life super hero environmentalist from the future! Who inspires me oh so much.

Take Care everyone!
Mx Justice!

EARTH DAY!

2008-04-22T08:18:00.000-04:00

Here's a video I thought was nice and clever.
Of course it was on the front page of youtube,
so if your a regular visitor there you've probably seen it.
But if for some reason you only use the internet to read my blog,
I'm happy to share it with you.

Hip Hip Hurray, Happy Earth Day
Mx Justice.

Montage to Fitness.

2008-04-13T19:12:00.000-04:00

Wow, do I ever need to get in shape. I mean if I as a would be super hero have one weakness, its weakness. I gotta get fit and I think I know how. My friend and I have been working together in a new work out regiment where I duplicate some classic montages of our favorite movies and b doing so, I'll actually be doing excercise. I can trick my body into doing hard work if I pertend I'm being creative. Yep.... so to start off with, here's a video posted on my friend's youtube channel.

Ok, hope you liked it.

I'm gonna go drink some eggs...

Mx Justice.

Winter in Montreal

2008-04-13T18:42:00.000-04:00

Woah! Where the heck have you been Justice? I have no good excuses. I have been building brain muscle in Montreal reading comic books, wikipedia and existentialist novels. I've been indulging in Poutine and keeping track of my bad habits.

Long winter short it was cold and a neer record snowfall. Which makes people suggest that global warming is just a lot of hot air... and they mean metaphorically, not literally. But i think these are just things people think as they dig there cars out of four foot snow falls.

Woot, what a winter.
Now... bring on the Heat.

Justice.

The case of the endless street party that wouldn't end!

2007-06-17T03:11:00.000-04:00

It was June 1st, or second... I should have "blogged" this immediately as I've already forgot some important details...
oh yeah it was close to midnight... so it was both... hmmmm... I had made my way over to St. Viateur in the "Mile End" Motreal.
There was an street party going on called Viateur fest or somehing. I was running a little lae 10:30ish and it appeared to be ending as I arrived. Which was just in time. Sure there were a few cops around to make sure no drunken fights had broken out, but the were mostly just standing around anyway.

So I arrived to see if any body needed help and to make profiles of local gang activity....

And I just happened to find a particularly menacing group of Street Hoods!
Who turned out to be swell people after all.

Infact one of these cool kids had a pantyhose t-shirt just like me. Which proves, I'm hip with the street stylez!

Yes the entire croud seemed like they were having a good time at this community gathering.
So upward and onward. Then north to the train tracks.

Above is the panoramic picture that delayed this post from posting... its hard to find a free website that will let post a ling image... and thenwhen i made the flash file they suddenly don't like flash files...

Anyway, the story continues as the free fun fest is fuzzed up.

They asked the djs to get down.

I wanted to photograph the scene incase any uncalled for police brutality errupted.
As it turns out the dj's and police were able to cut a deal where they wouldn't be fined for noise disturbances if they packed up and went home.

Well, that about wraps it up. On the walk home it started to rain.

Mx Justice, over and out.

Justice arrives in Montreal

2007-05-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

This is the Blog of Mixter Justice, or just Justice cause I'm still a little confused by the prefix.So I'm a vigilante, an activist, an artist, and a "Real-Life-Super-Hero" from Bridge City. With this blog I hope to archive my activities and inspire the public to be radical.

I was finally able to patrol the streets in Montreal Quebec, with my superpal Honesty. I'm new to this area so we mostly walked around in circles looking for people to help out. But I found something to do quickly, a sign post was tipped over on a pile of uncleared garbage in an ally of Mont Royal. Tipping it up i realized it was a sign saying this is where to put garbage, or something of that variety. A passing man told me I should email the picture to the city so they would take action... but after further deduction i've decided the man was confused.

Later on I found a Hummer parked on St. Lauraunt, and I left him a little note, which i 'spose is a little ironic considering he probably threw it away and there for i created some unnecessary waste, but i think it was worth it.

I continued my walkabout making a brief stop to check out a potential new (old) Justice mobile, while humorous in appearance I don't think the broken toddler tractor is an efficient mode of transportation.

Next I found some travelers camped out on the side of the road, they were on a road trip from New York to Seatle, taking the Northern Route through Canada. They were looking for a good park and sleazy dive bar for later. I showed them a couple parks on my map, (Park du mont Royal and Parc La Fontaine) and my associate Honesty reminisced about a bar named "Miami".

Continuing my walk up St. Laurent, I found an interesting posting. "BOYCOTTONS - KR(swastika)FT - Kraft-Altria, NY, US."
and on the reverse of the little note said "PSYCHIATRES + KRAFT = NAZISME". I wasn't really sure what this meant, at first i thought it was an advertisement for a nazi-punk show, featuring a band called "BoyCottons" and "Kraft." Nazi's being one the oldest enemies of comic book super heroes I found this disturbing.

So later at home when I googled "Kraft" to find out moe about the band, all I got was links for the Kraft food company. After searching "Kraft Altria" I realised Altria was a mega corporation (previously known as the Phillip Morris Company) that owns 20+ tobacco companies, KoolAid, Jell-O, Kraft Dinner and a bunch of other food brands. And then I realized BoyCottons isn't a "clever" band name, it's just french for Boycott. So long story short, I don't know the direct connection between Nazi's and the mega-corporation Altria, but we cans safely assume they are both bad organizations.

Wow, so after that Honesty had to go home and I took a trek to Park du Mont Royal, (aka the MOUNTAIN) to see if anyone needed help. When I got there I was ambushed by drug dealers! and by that I mean, about 8 people asked me if i wanted to by some weed. I thought it was pretty odd, considering I'm dressed like a super-hero... which generally wouldn't be known to smoke pot... but I'm not a fascist so i don't hold it against them. One of my general rules for life is that any body who is educated on the subject should be able to put what ever they want into to their body. After having a sit down in the shade, I decided to retire for the day.

So long and Good Day,
Mx Justice.