Haven’t done one of these in a while. I have a gig with the band tonight and a solo gig tomorrow at the King’s Head Pub, the place where I got my start in Vancouver. Should be interesting. I also bought a new effects pedal that I am slowly learning to use (so many options, so little knowledge).
I will try to get some electric stuff recorded soon, but until then, here’s a new acoustic cover I’ve been working on:
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This past weekend I convened an all-star panel to discuss a topic whose time has definitely come: masculinity and misogyny. Our discourse within the atheist community has hit a sticking point (for many) in the form of the role that feminism plays in understanding not only our own internal community dynamics, but the world around us in general. This ‘internal’ debate is happening alongside a similar discussion happening in our society at large, where the role that women play in our democracy and our day-to-day lives is under particular scrutiny.
The issue before the panel was the statement “Real men don’t talk about misogyny” – not a direct quotation, but certainly a paraphrase of a general dismissive attitude of feminism as something that only women can and should talk about or participate in. The discussion centred around 5 general questions:
The discussion (which clocks in at just under 90 minutes), a description of the panelists, and some of my own thoughts are after the fold.
Xavier and I got together this weekend and hit the ‘restart’ button on our video podcast, after leaving it idle for the end of 2012.
As I mention at the end, we are going to try and get another episode up next week, but since I’m going to be in Kamloops and Kelowna this weekend, it might be a bit tricky.
Happy Monday, all! The Rev and I were at it again, this time taking on a pair of stories of political nonsense from the United States. Video and links are below the fold:
Some of you may know that I played in a band called Even Handed Odds for a while. The band has since broken up (meaning that we no longer play our own music), but we still play covers on occasion down at the Copper Tank, a bar in Kitsilano, on Friday nights.
Here’s a video of us doing a cover of “Home For a Rest” by Spirit of the West:
Right before we broke up, we recorded two songs at a local studio. I finally got around to uploading the audio of the finished product to Soundcloud, in case people were interested.
My personal favourite is this one, simply called “Space”:
There’s also the one that would have likely been our radio single, called “Gravity”:
If you’re in the city of Vancouver on a Friday night, you should come check us out!
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Hey all,
I’m happy to announce that we have finally decided on a name for our little podcast project. We’re calling it “SERIOUSLY?!”, because the subject matter we tackle tends to be things that defy the capacity for belief in all but the most out-there segments of our society.
This week’s episode is below the fold, with some associated links:
As part apology, part self-aggrandizing vanity, here is a bonus movie on this Friday, to reassure you that my Friday movie posts are back for good.
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Xavier and I got together again and recorded another episode of our podcast. This week we talked about sexy sexy teenagers and flat Earthers on the internet. The video is below the fold.
Also below the fold is a plea for help with naming this damn thing. We don’t have a clue what to call it, so we’re throwing it open to the internet.
We recorded a second ‘episode’ of our podcast experiment this past week, and invited journalist and superstar atheist Jamila Bey to join us for a discussion of the results from a recent Pew Forum survey that shows that religious ‘nones’ represent an all-time high of 20% of the American population.
The video is below the cut: … Continue Reading
Many of you will remember that I attended the Imagine No Religion 2 conference in Kamloops, BC in May of this year. It was my first ever atheist meeting/convention, and I had a really positive experience there. I was asked to me a somewhat last-minute addition to a panel on alternative medicine, based (I imagine) on my background in health sciences, my experience public speaking, and the fact that at least a handful of people would recognize my name.
And so it was that I found myself sitting next to Skeptically Speaking host Desiree Schell, and Dr. Ian Mitchell (a local physician), talking about the wild and wooly world of alt-med. Long-time readers will know how irritated I am by the term “alternative medicine”:
These “alternative medicines” are not alternative in any way – if they work, then they aren’t alternative, they’re just medicine. The other side of the problem is the ones that are truly “alternative” aren’t medicine! They don’t work any better than voodoo or augury or invoking ancestor’s spirits.
I’m also irritated (clearly, as you will see from the video) by the doggerel: “cancer cure” and the associated conspiracy theory that pharmaceutical companies are hiding cancer cures from the public. I tried my level best to apply my own personal brand of smackdown to this odious and ludicrously nonsensical claim, with all the humour and aplomb that I could muster at 9 am after a night of drinking. I also made reference to a couple of things that the local chapter of CFI had done – debunking Deepak Chopra and staging a homeopathy workshop. Both were examples of skeptical activism, or as we coined it, ‘skeptivism’.
The full video from the event is available below the fold. … Continue Reading
