Poem: Tanka on Tanka

Tanka on Tanka

no haiku for me
with complicated rhythm
I favour tanka
delicate waltz of black ink
on white parchment ballroom floor

(c) J S Phillips

How Chipping Sparrows See Each Other

"Birds, the reptilian descendants of dinosaurs, are tetrachromats: they can see four colour dimensions, making them able to discern colour ranges from black to white, blue to yellow, green to red, and violet to ultraviolet. They can see colours we would never imagine. What to our impoverished eyes appears as drab, dun-coloured sparrows, which birders disparaginly refer to as LBJs (little brown jobs), may very well appear to other birds as brilliantly bejewelled as a peacock. In fact, we may be seeing only some of the colours of a peacock. Researchers suspect, for example, that species that seem to us to be monomorphic -- both sexes appearing identically coloured, like blue jays or crows -- are in fact sharply differentiated in the UV spectrum. It is also entirely likely that in birds' ability to see UV lights lies the secret of annual migration."

From:

Bringing Back the Dodo
Wayne Grady
McClland & Stewart, Toronto 2006
ISBN 0-7710-3504-7
Pages 48-49

Prime Time Pornography

Somebody notify the CRTC and the FCC - network television is showing pornography during prime time! I am not talking about nudity or sexual content, of course; I am talking about the pornography of violence.

Last night, I watched a show called Criminal Minds, a show about FBI criminal profilers. The episode included an undercover police officer who was bound to a chair in a basement by a mass murderer. Before leaving the captive, the murderer sliced the victim with a knife, in order to attract rats to feed on the police man. Needless to say, there were a number of shots of the captive swarming with rats and reacting with fear.

There was something disturbing about the episode. I am not talking about the actual cinematography-- although that was disturbing enough -- but rather the casual way in which the violence was injected into the story. There was nothing implied, nothing hinted at. Instead, the producers showed the assault in all its gruesome glory.

It was as if they believe the audience expected to see gore. Perhaps they are right. I used to enjoy the CSI franchise of shows, but lately it seems as if the shows feel they have to stretch the boundaries of good taste even further than they have in the past with graphic murder and autopsy scenes. I suspect they feel pressured to push harder to keep audiences engaged.

And that could be a real problem. What will happen when audiences are no longer sated with off-screen violence or implied gore? What will happen, when two minutes of graphic assaults no longer satisfy our lust for hard-core pain?

In Touch With Our Inner Flamingos

I am reading a book called Bringing Back the Dodo by Wayne Grady. The author argues that humanity is basically a subtropical species. This, he suggests, is why we prefer mangoes and oranges to apples and saskatoon berries.

I think this is especially true of Canadians, regardless of their place of origin. We are like the birds that live amongst us. Although there are a number of lovely species in Canada -- the red-winged blackbird, the yellow-headed black bird, the common loon, to name a few -- they are notable not so much for colour as for "splashes" of colour. No vibrant plummage for these birds -- just a practical, work-a-day covering.

I think Canadians sometimes feel like sensibly-coloured mid-continental birds, human thrushes or sparrows. But deep down inside, we long to be tropical birds -- parrots or toucans or flamingos. We long to live large, to be larger than life characters, rather than hiding our colourful plummage under conventional trappings.

In Memorium

This past Saturday, four Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. The news reports said that this was the largest single day of combat fatalities since the Royal Canadian Regiment took serious losses in the Korean War. It brings the total Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 15 soldiers and 1 diplomat.

The dead deserve to be called by name one more time:

• Corporal Matthew Dinning
• Bombadier Myles Mansell
• Corporal Randy Payne
• Lieutenant William Turner

Remembrance Day will be even more poignant this year than in past years, because the list of names to be carved on cenotaphs is growing. My thoughts are with the families of the men who gave their lives for their country, and with the men and women of the Canadian Forces who serve our country throughout the world.

Movie Review - Sophie Scholl

What does it say about a society when one of the few people who are willing to stand up against injustice is a 21-year old university student whose resistance movement fights with mimeographed leaflets and slogans written on city walls at night? I am not sure, but I am certain that everyone should go see Sophie Scholl - The Final Days.

Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were leaders of the Munich-based White Rose resistance movement that was centred around the university. While the group was opposed to the war and Adolph Hitler's regime of thugs, they chose to resist through a campaign of leaflets advocating peaceful resistance. Sophie and Hans were captured in February of 1943, after distributing the sixth and final leaflet in the main university building.

This critically acclaimed movie examines the last week of Sophie's life, from the moment the leaflets were printed to her execution. Based on official transcripts and interviews with survivors, the movie paints a picture of a strong-willed young woman who has seen the face of evil and who is not willing to let it go unchallenged.

Julia Jentsch is magnificent as Sophie Scholl. While it would have been easy to paint a picture of Sophie as a martyr in the making, Jentsch portrays a young woman who takes delight in the simple pleasures of life, such as buttered bread and sunshine on a February day. Jentsch's Sophie is both firm enough in her convictions to attempt to convince the interrogator that his world view is wrong and yet human enough to pray for God to give her the strength to face her trials. Some reviewers have commented unfavourably on the shots of Sophie looking at the heavens as being "too much like Joan of Arc", but for me these shots were just another way of showing a sensitive person enjoying beauty where she could find it.

Although the film is primarily about Sophie Scholl, one of the film's other little gems is the loving relationship between her and her brother. Unlike the Nazis, who were notoriously chauvanistic, Hans Scholl treats his sister as an equal. Where other members of the White Rose try to convince Sophie not to distribute the leaflets due to the danger, Hans respects her enough to allow her to make her own choice. While her decision to accompany him ultimately cost Sophie her life, one gets the feeling that neither of the Scholls would have had it any other way.

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days is not a pleasant film to watch. In fact, the execution scene can only be described as horrifying. Nevertheless, this is a not movie to be missed. In times like these, when countries are at war, diseases are ravaging continents, and aboriginal land claims remain unresolved, we could all use a bit of Sophie Scholl's courage and humanity.

Book Review - State of War

I just finished reading a book called State of War - The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration by James Reisen. As the title indicates, it examines the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency both before and after the events of 9/11.

The book looks at a number of areas, but I found the discussion of the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to be particularly interesting. According to Reisen, the Agency was so ideologically committed to Iraq having WMD that it ignored hard evidence to the contrary, evidence which it had risked ordinary Americans' lives to accumulate. (The CIA had convinced dozens of Iraqi Americans to attempt to obtain information from relatives who were scientists living in Iraq.)

Another interesting -- and frightening -- chapter detailed the Agency's operation to provide doctored plans for nuclear weapon firing block to the Iranian government. The theory behind the operation was that if Iran obtained seemingly accurate plans their nuclear weapons development program might be led off track for several years. However, Reisen argues that providing Iran with these doctored plans may have accomplished the opposite and actually allowed the Iranians to fast track their program. Either way, this is one high stakes bluff that I wish had never happened.

I am not a foreign policy expert by any means, but common sense dictates that one must have reliable intelligence before making critical decisions such as whether or not to invade another country. As the Bush administration appears to be saber-rattling with Tehran, one has to wonder if the intelligence is any better this time around.


State of War - The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
James Reisen
Free Press, New York, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7066-3
ISBN-10: 0-7465-7066-8
US $26.00 CAN $36.00

Springtime in Toronto

I love today. It is the sort of warm, sunny spring day that makes Toronto winters worth living through.

Today, I saw three sure signs that spring is here and summer is coming:

1. there was a ladybug on the screen of my bedroom window
2. I heard red-winged blackbirds signing from the trees behind my apartment building
3. nobody was wearing a parka

It was so nice that I got off the subway before my final stop and I walked the remainder of my way to the parking lot.

Poem: Matador

Matador

I have seen my future
In the blood
On the bullring floor.

(c) J S Phillips

Welcome to My Blog

Hello.

You must be bored if you are reading this, but who cares? I suppose it beats surfing for porn or losing money at on-line poker.

I have no idea why I decided to create my own blog. I not a tekkie, nor am I much of a journal keeper. I've tried to keep a journal over the years, but I always let the diariers die a quiet death.

I guess I am intrigued by the concept of web logs, and curious about what it would feel like to share thoughts with the world. Maybe I am just bored, too.