NinjaRadio

• 140hotfrmbuckangelpart02 · 44.05 MB

Special K and I just got back from the Opera. Here was the story. Boy meets abused Girl. Boy marries abused Girl. Boy talks up how wonderful his Half-brother is. Half-brother meets abused girl. Instant fireworks. Half-brother makes love to abused Girl’s hair. Boy finds out about the hair fetish. Boy pulls abused Girl’s hair. Boy kills Half-brother in a jealous rage. Abused Girl dies of abuse. Everyone’s life is ruined.

This graph is my own creation. See lots of others at GraphJam.

Photo by Mark Berry

Last month, Buck Angel spent a week in Toronto. He did two workshops for the sex shop, Toronto’s Come as You Are, a performance at the club Goodhandys and a question and answer talk for the Aids Committee of Toronto, ACT. I was fortunate enough to be granted an interview with Sarah, one of the owner’s of Come as You Are, Sergio who took care of Buck during his week here, and Buck himself at the ACT event.

Born a woman, Buck spent a great deal of his life before his transition unhappy and dissatisfied, one might say, desperately so. All that changed when Buck transitioned. He also became the first and most famous transman porn star. Arguably, Buck Angel is the most famous female to male transsexual in the world. Buck has a fan base that spans many countries and demographics.  As the only Transman star in the sex film trade, his fans are men and women, gay, straight, and all combinations in between.

Buck Angel does not care a whit what you think of him. He defies labels because he refuses to resolve any of the contradictions that anyone finds in him. And this is one of the things that is so wonderful about him, making him an inspiration and poster boy for following your dream. His life is a direct contradiction of how quick people are to put labels on things. If we don’t label things and put a cage of definition around ourselves and others, there is the fear that we might spiral out of control and that society would be reduced to anarchy. If you are a queer of any awareness, you already have a solid foundation in the issues that transsexuals face in our society. But you may be critical of Buck’s life choices all the same. If you are straight and have never given transsexuals more than the sensationalistic nod that the media gives transpeople, you may be shocked by Buck’s choices and lifestyle. I think we are shocked and critical because we are unable to see the shades of colour between black and white. We crave easy simple answers where often complexity, contradictions and paradox are the only explanations. It is for these reasons that you must listen to this show today.

• 139hotfrmbuckangelpart01 · 32.35 MB

Today Ninja gives you part two of the Geek Gathering. We folks know how to live in the moment. Katherine talks about the tedium of editing. Scarborough Dude takes photos of us, continues to swear and Ninja is pretty sure she hears him talking about wife swapping at one point. Talk turns to the meaning of religion and its sense of community celebration and sharing. It occurs to the group that perhaps the flood described in biblical times may actually have happened. We conclude that all religions are basically the same. But first there’s a comment about the last show from Kentie of the flatus show.com and his co-host that venerable old man Jose, and a couple of notes from Rob commenting on and correcting some of my assertions. Thanks Rob and Ken.

Links:

Zeitgeist the Movie

The Vatican

The Daily Breakfast

Cardinal Ambrozic

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Search Engine

Spark

• 138hotfrmgeekgatheringmetacast02 · 32.50 MB

We broke the plastic bag holder. It’s not the one with the tartan pattern. I gave that one to Charlie. She really wanted it even though so did I. The tartan one was a gift and I liked it better the one we already had. She didn’t want the canvas one Special K and I brought for ourselves in Sydney, Australia a few years ago when we went to the gay games. So I gave her the tartan patterned one. Now the canvas one from Australia broke. Well it didn’t break and so that all the bags came out. The rope holding it up on the hook in the bathroom tore away from the bag. I yanked it off the hook actually and it fell to the ground like a dead weight. Well not a dead weight. A dead weight doesn’t roll. A soft dead weight that rolled. “Oops - shit”, I said. Now we’ve got a plastic bag holder that we can’t pull the bags out of because we can’t hang it up. So I took it to Special K. “Can we put it back together?” She turned it this way and that. She examined it. She examined the rope. “I think what’s really happened is that I tore the hem that may have been holding the rope in.” She continued to contemplate the condition of the bag and how to repair it. To be honest with you I walked away soon after I lost interest in her forensic exercise. Special K does not give up easily. I checked in on her progress a few hours later. “This rope was stitched into the top of the bag,” She announced. “What do we do?” I asked. “Help me. We’ll staple it.” She brought out her mini-stapler. “Wait,” I responded enthusiastically, “I have an office stapler. That’s more heavy duty. Let’s use that.” I stapled and she held the rope in place. “Was there any other option?” I wondered aloud to her. “Well we could have sown it.” “Hmmm. Nah. Lesbians don’t sew. What are you talking about? We had no other option.” Didn’t we?

Nerd Girl by Steve Hilbert

Joan comes to a podcaster’s meetup and starts asking questions that everyone wants to answer yet digresses from. Revealed: What is it about podcasting that makes us want to spend hours and hours editing? Podcasting is about passion. We discuss the intimacy of podcasting, lattes, beer, and subjectivity. Sean admits he can listen to a knitting podcast and be thoroughly engaged. And challenges us to listen to his podcast about songwriting at Ductape Guy.

We learn that podcasters are communists, anarchists, members of knitting cults, hobbyists, navel gazers, former hippies, and most important of all: communitists – a new word coined by Joan. (Later that evening Katherine comes up with the verb form: communitize). Scarborough Dude swears a lot and then Joan swears back. So listen to this MetaCast with Sean, Katherine, Ken, Daniel, Rob, John, Valerie and others.

Other Links: Green Planet Monitor, Wayne McPhail, Rabble Radio, Librivox, Voiceprint

Web Nerd TV

• 137hotfrmgeekgatheringmetacast01 · 37.49 MB

In the true spirit of tree hugging, Ninja and Special K head down to the park to celebrate Earth Hour 2008. On the way they meet a star gazer, a cottager, and several screaming children. Oh yes and Ninja notices a computer mouse attached to a shampoo bottle slung over an overhead wire. Join this soundscape for a taste of the event Toronto style.

• 136hotfrmcelebratingearthhour2008 · 17.50 MB

• 135hotfrmevolutionrevolution · 23.05 MB

Traffic shaping? What? I guess that’s what’s been happening to my P2P activity in recent weeks.

Network Throttling

Bell Canada holds back bandwidth

Oh No They Couldn’t Have

Here’s someone who says, “What the hell are doing anyway with P2P? It’s bad netiquette. Don’t you know that?”

I am a strong believer in net neutrality. Google explains it like this: “Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online. Today, the neutrality of the Internet is at stake as the broadband carriers want Congress’s permission to determine what content gets to you first and fastest. Put simply, this would fundamentally alter the openness of the Internet.”

If you really want your eyes to glaze over look at the Wikipedia entry on it. But as a netizen, you must educate yourself.

Read it and weep podcasters! We have 3% of the total number of people listening to audio. The Globe and Mail asks: What type of radio do you listen to? and here were the results out of some 10,000 votes:

Traditional 74% 8185 votes

Satellite 7% 722 votes

Internet streaming 9% 1015 votes

Podcasts 3% 328 votes

None of the above 7% 782 votes

A herd of cows (well actually only four) are freed on a busy highway during the Toronto morning rush hour. Witnesses saw them in their backyards, munching on what little exposed vegetation could be found. Three were rounded up, but a forth was unfortunately shot when it displayed aggressive behaviour. Special K wonders why it couldn’t just be tranqualized instead. Special K and Ninja wonder whether it would do any good to boycott the 2008 Olympic games. The human rights issues associated with Chinese internal politics haven’t changed merely because Bejing is hosting the games. They feel that a boycott may only punish the athletes and serve no other purpose. Last year 2.2 million people turned off their lights for one hour in Australia. If they had sustained that level of energy savings for a year it would be equivalent to taking thousands of cars of the roads for that year.

Official Olympics Site: http://www.olympic.org/uk/index_uk.asp
Bejing Olympics 2008 site: http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/beijing/index_uk.asp
Ninja’s Earth Hour page: http://www.earthhour.org/user/rS1j
Earth Hour Main page: http://www.earthhour.org/

• 134hotfrmtillthecowscomehome · 22.48 MB

Zeitgeist is a German word that means the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era according to the Merriam-Webster. It’s the title of a documentary that you can find at http://zeitgeistmovie.com/. It was produced by Peter Joseph and won an Activist Film award. Its premise could be controversial: That our lives our nothing more than fuel cells for a few lucky powerful people. Somewhat like the matrix except there is no need for a red pill or a blue pill. The produce of our toil feeds the few wealthy and powerful while we ask for nothing more than beer, medications, mindless televison and films, Second Life and other web 2.0 false realities.

He builds his case by showing us first that Jesus never existed. Religion is a tool, he suggests, to keep us under control. God is a myth that is so convincing that we are unable to question it. Next, he shows how 9/11 must have been an inside job. Furthermore, he asserts, no buildings can fall in such a controlled fashion unless they have been preloaded with explosives that result in such a perfect demolition. Finally and this is where for me the arguments become the most obscure: our money has no meaning and no value except what the one central bank declares it has. The rise and fall of the markets and my spending power is little more than at the whim of the controllers of the bank whose own money is always protected. They will get into the market and out of it before I feel its effect.

One nice touch in this movie are some still brilliant scenes from Network (1976) where Peter Finch admonishes our attachment to mindless entertainment in the form of television. The scenes from Network were actually the more powerful message for me. What the newscaster says is still relevant today. But did Zeitgeist itself shock me? No. Did it disturb me? Absolutely. Because at the core of its message I think is an invitation to question basic assumptions of what my life in society really means and to whom it benefits and in what ways. From that point of view I loved the movie. As long as you keep an open mind and do not merely open your mouth like a bird to receive it as some kind of false nourishment, it can be thought provoking and serve to spur on any personal inquiry into these matters that you may have been reluctant to explore.

I parked my car somewhere tonight and well I didn’t think about it. I just went about my errands and met up with Special K. We went out for a nice dinner and then walked back to the vicinity of my car. “Where’s the car?” she asks. “Er…near Dearbourne.” (Maybe on Dearbourne…no no on the street north/south to Dearbourne…yeah that’s it). So we get to that street, the name escapes me, and I’m trying to reconstruct where I may have left the car. “Ninja. This is much worse than not remembering in a carpark. Much worse.” (I think it’s further down…) “It’s further down. Keep walking.” But somehow I know it’s not further down. Oh. Now. Where did I park that car? Oh yeah yeah, it’s on Fairview. Maybe. “Ninja - do you know where the car is?” “Go over to Fairview.” I remember now. “I’m nervous Ninja. Do you know where you parked the car?” “Of course. Of course.”

Yeah right, Special K thinks.

Ninja recounts her experience with an ear, nose and throat specialist who insists she does not need devices to enhance her hearing. Strange sucking noises and what else sucks according to WIRED Magazine.

• 133hotfrmcanyourepeatthatplease · 23.17 MB

Whoa. As a teenager, I worked with autistic children as a day camp counselor. Nothing was harder. I was given instructions on what to do and how to behave with them and how they would behave with me. Not being able to connect with these kids was complete torture for me. Especially when I could, in comparision, fully express myself in relation to the other so called, normal children. I remember with joy and affection how I was able to be a friend and playmate, (I was little more than a child myself at sixteen), to the other children. But the autistic children were seemingly unreachable. Odd motor behaviours, strange repetitive movements and sounds - I had no idea how I was supposed to react. There was no yardstick for knowing whether I was doing the right thing or not.

So it comes as a great surprise and revelation to me that though the autistic interact with their world differently than I do, they have no less awareness about that experience than I have about mine.

If you have not seen it - you must watch this video. You can also supplement that experience with this article from the March issue of Wired.

Photo credit: Jessica Dimmock.

The rest of the world is. This last weekend I interviewed my neighbour, whose political views are informed and well thought out. My neighbour is a Canadian Vietnam veteran. He served as a volunteer for the Americans some 40 years ago. For most of his life he has leaned to the right but recently and because of what he sees as the Republican party character and mistakes of the current and past administrations, leans more and more left of centre in recent years. In my interview, he looks critically at the Democratic presidential nomination race and what it would mean for America and the world if the Democrats win the presidential race in November. If you’re an American and haven’t made up your mind, then Mike’s thoughts will hopefully help you make that decision. It might motivate you to respond or do your own further research on the matter to make the best informed decision you can. Enjoy the interview and find out who Mike would be voting for in November if he were an American and why.

Some of the ambient hiss you’ll hear is his refrigerator and furnace and oh, yes: In the background you will hear enthusiastic shouts and laughter of his family and Special K playing with the WII.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 132

Tomorrow my neighbour has offered to do an interview with me about his feelings regarding the American Democratic nomination race. He’s turning into a democrat and we’re all surprised. I’d like to hear what he has to say. But the weekend is another tight one. I’m hoping to schedule him in between snow shovelling and cleaning up inside.

So, I think that love is the most important thing in the world and then humour is a close second. But Special K thinks that humour is the the most important thing in the world then love comes second. Furthermore, she thinks you can’t have love without humour as a foundation. Am I that funny?

In response to nameless faceless agents of Facebook removing some of Imogen’s photos, Imogen wrote that:

I have recieved two warnings in my email about removed pictures. I was sure I had checked and removed any pictures that were offensive, but ok, I accept there may have been more pictures that I did not find offensive, that maybe your moderators did.

I have logged in, clicked the box to accept that I have recieved the initial warning, only to find this message revealed afterwards…

“Your behavior indicates that you may be in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here “

But there is no mention of what behaviour this was ? and no way of finding out ? Without this information, how can I (or indeed anyone) be expected to moderath thier behaviour ?

Can you tell me what, apart from posting the removed pictures, I have done wrong ?

I enjoy using facebook, and wish to continue as a member… But this kind of ambiguity makes it rather tough sometimes.

Thanks in advance.

Imogen Jyame Mann.

Imogen has a point. If we are supposed to operate within a certain range of behaviour on facebook, perhaps it might be a good idea to qualify and quantify what that behaviour is. If there are photos, language, images and other content that is unacceptable - how is that defined? What is the acceptable range? Imogen has no way of knowing what, if anything, she has done wrong.

Er…could it be because she is transgendered, hmmm? Let’s just say they are hardly being straight with her to put it wryly.

I am so out of it. First I didn’t know that the spec was that Ellen Page might be the next Jodie. I had no idea. And I just found the Big Gay Sketch Show. Check these out.

That’s the question of this blog Stuff White People Like, also reviewed at the L.A.Times. I think the blog is very funny. The writer Christian Lander is Canadian. P.S. Do I smell a book deal?

If you want to go for extra points - white people really love FAIR TRADE coffee, because paying the extra $2 means they are making a difference.

It seems to me that last year I had very little problem ever finding time to get shows together, edit and post. But this year it’s been a challenge. I am just very busy. Yeah, I did get a new and more demanding day job and I have other extra-curricular activities that take up a lot of my time. And I cannot stand it when Special K stands alone on a weekend while yet again I don my headphones and laptop, which I seem perpetually connected to like a cigarette girl or hot dog jockey at half-time. She gets that sad lonely look that for some strange reason transforms into rage after a snowstorm. Why? Just because I am not there to help dig the house out from under? Phhht! She can handle it on her own. Can’t she?

Well show number 131 is finally posted all the same despite the harsh winter:

OsakaBeats

I found an interesting site while looking for temple links for the podcast. Enlightening and entertaining. http://www.do-not-zzz.com/. It’s ZEN for the web. Web Zen.

So far I have really enjoyed podcamp. I cannot actually believe that it is already noon. Only a few more hours to go. I have experimented with blogs using blogger and some local desktop tools which I can talk about at another time, but I have not been so much into the visual word since I began podcasting in August 2005. It’s mostly a time issue. I will use this site as vehicle to keep you informed on where the podcast and my new media skills are going. This weekend I have talked to a great many people who are very friendly and want to share information about what they want to get out of new media. The flavour is much different from last year where there were web media organizations flogging their products or marketing managers wondering how to make money from it. This made a lot of the more geeky participants nervous and anxious I think. This year it is more about what does it mean to each of us and how can we use for our own purposes and goals regardless of whether that goal is money or community.

I am of course using the term new media rather loosely to mean that mythical beast WEB 2.0. An expression I completely loathe. What does new media really mean? I think it means use of technology to solve old problems. Like making money. Like communicating important information in terms of news and health. Like creating community. It is often claimed that technology isolates and alienates people. There is the common picture of a seventeen year old boy sitting in a dark corner of his room with nothing but a keyboard and the glow of the screen to keep him company. But really that is not what is going on at all. He is any age, all genders, all ethnicities using the internet to find and influence his community and is interacting in a new way with that community. He is on facebook, msn messenger, myspace, hi5, twitter and e-mail.

People do want to touch.

Why would I even mention Carlos Castaneda? That obscure writer with a huge cult following who believe that his semi-fictious stories about Don Juan and the indigenous peoples of Mexico hold the keys to power and enlightenment. Ninja is a skeptic. She doesn’t believe in any of that rot - but they are best books being peddled as non-fiction that I have ever read.

Years ago, I caught an edition of “Imprint” on our local public television station TVO. The host, Daniel Richler, was leading a panel discussion about native spirituality and its literature. At one point during the discussion Richler held up a copy of Carlos Castaneda’s first book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. He said with great confidence and certainty that Castaneda’s works about the Yaqui Indians of Mexico represented the greatest hoax since the Piltdown Man. With that, he seemed to dismiss the book out of hand. I had already, if truth be known, dismissed Castaneda as a new age phony long ago so I too moved right along with Richler to the next item of discussion. I was surprised then when one of the panel members, Medicine Grizzly Bear Adams, brought the discussion back to Castaneda. He said that Castaneda must have really been trained under a traditional man of knowledge, (as Castaneda referred to don Juan). Otherwise,Adams insisted, he must be “one of the greatest philosophers or genius’ of your time…” to be able to synthesize the information he presents in his books from his sources, whatever they may be.

That made me revisit the body of work Castaneda wrote, and since then I have read all the books about his so called tutelage under the nagual, Don Juan. They are most entertaining and thought provoking and many quotes from the book have come down to us into the popular culture. The most well-known of these is has come down as something in the form of following a path with heart.

“…a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask: ‘Does this path have a heart?’”

There are many more gems like this in the books. He was a spiritual genius. Whether or not he made it up, he weaved the work into a self-contained reality in its own right.

If I were Carlos Castaneda I would be don Juan’s successor. I would be the Nagual. I would be with my party of warriors. I would spend my time not-doing. I would practice the magical passes as he taught them to me. I would recapitulate and then I would recapitulate again. I would spend my days and nights in the second attention. I would dream and stalk. I would be making car engines stop dead at my will. I would be weeping with joy every second. I would be awe-struck. I would be a man with no personal history. I would be inaccessible and impeccable. I would be silent.