guilty pleasures

Lastnight I was driving to a party with my friend Laura and her brother. We were listening to the radio - a very faint background noise until the song Whatever You Like by T.I. came on. Laura turned up the volume, sheepishly justifying the song as one of her 'guilty pleasures'.

Why is it that we can't seperate guilt from our pleasures that aren't accepted or impressive to other people? I know I have a list of guilty pleasures; things I enjoy in secret and have difficulty admitting to other people about. I often have one friend who I'll share this dirty secret with.

For example, my obsession with perezhilton.com and celebrity gossip is something my friend Shannon and I share. We're the first ones to know which celebrities are having babies, divorces or haircuts. I guess the reason I feel guilty about this is, other than the fact that it is completely ridiculous, is that I'm a journalism student so I should have better taste in news and have more to say about politics than the latest celebrity overdose.

What else do I feel guilty about enjoying so much? Mandy Moore films (if you can call them that). Black nail polish. Those one hit wonders from the 90s that play on easy rock radio stations (i.e. She's So High, Everclear). Now that I've felt compelled to list them I'm running out of them. I guess I'm not as guilty as I thought.

What about my non-guilty pleasures? Well, it's no secret that I am in love with home decorating, making lists and running errands. When I have a car to drive around one of my first stops is Home Depot. I walk down each aisle and spend extra time swipping paint samples for rooms that only exist in my head.

If something is pleasurable for us, we should just do it and enjoy it. Enjoy the little things because the big things can sometimes be really shitty. If all it takes to make me happy is a pleasing colour palette for a fantasy foyer than I think I'm doing pretty well and have nothing to feel ashamed about.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Mail Goggles?

A few weeks ago my friends decided to take advantage of my Facebook page. I neglected to log out before consuming too much red wine. Inevitably, my drunken friends sent a racy video to a guy who had been messaging me non-stop and bugging me at work. They thought it was harmless. The next time I saw him at work was the most awkward three minutes of my life. It would have been nice to have some kind of filter to prevent this from happening. Leave it to Google to invent something close to this filter - mail goggles.

Mail goggles are intended to prevent users from sending e-mail they will regret in the morning. So how does it sense your drunken state? It doesn't really. Before it allows you to send the e-mail it asks you a series of math questions. I don't know how well this would work for me since I am unable to do math sober. Anyways, I think this feature would be best suited for Facebook or my cell phone rather than my g-mail account, but it's a step in the right direction. I suppose I could always drink less and that would be good enough prevention...

Dear Mr. Harper, I'm "ordinary"

I like to think of myself as a pretty "ordinary" Canadian. My little brother plays hockey and Tim Horton's regular coffee is my drink of choice before an early morning lecture. At my home in Waterloo, Ontario, I live down the street from a farm where we get our maple syrup, firewood and corn when it's in season. A summer's day at my family cottage in Tobermory, Ontario could easily be a Molson Canadian beer commercial. This year I even celebrated Canada Day in our nation's capital.

According to Mr. Stephen Harper, as an "ordinary" Canadian, I shouldn't care about the arts. I do. And I would have to argue that other "ordinary" Canadians do too.

The arts encompass so much of what we do as regular people. We go to movies and concerts, we read books, we take photographs, we buy paintings and sculptures. Art isn't just about going to galas to support people who splattered some paint on a canvas.

A couple of weeks ago I rushed out to buy the sophomore album of one of my favourite Canadian bands, Mother Mother. Opening up the CD case, printed on the inside cover was: "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada". Without government assistance, this album might not have been made. I have listened to this album for two weeks straight. Mother Mother is touring Canada in October. I hope to go to one of their shows. All of their concerts are at small bars, where I expect to buy a couple drinks. Each bar is a business that is part of our Canadian economy. When I buy drinks, the bar makes money. What Harper doesn't seem to acknowledge is that it is impossible to separate the arts from our everyday life.

I think the biggest misconception about artists is that they should get a "real" job if they want to make money. What is a "real" job? Is it a job where you get to wear a suit and meet clients over fancy lunches? Is it having a job where you get to leave work in time to make it home for dinner? Is it having a job that makes you lots of money, but doesn't make you happy? Is it being a politician? We need artists just like we need teachers, plumbers and construction workers.

In Harper's campaign commercials, he tells us that he sees movies with his kids and plays the piano while his son plays guitar. He is sending us mixed messages. Doesn't he want us to think he's an "ordinary" Canadian just like us?

Artists are ordinary people who pay taxes. They are also ordinary people who are going to be voting in the election.