Aquarelle

Free (ing) social theory!

Monday I realized just how hungry I've been for intellectual stimulation and, even better, that I am not alone! Thanks to the Vancouver Institute For Social Research, a free series of professor-led talks that aims to free critical theory from the confines of the University,  I am now able to flex my brain once a week with about one hundred wool clad, designer framed theory nerds of all ages (who made up the majority of those present) at the Or gallery!

The list of speakers is awesome including two of my own heroes, Steven Taubeneck (who I took existentialism and post-war German lit with and who made an impression on me by forcing the most entitled students-as-consumers tell him what they thought of the state of the world) and Thomas Kemple (who I took two theory courses with, who encouraged me to write unorthodox papers and who got my ass into grad school.) 

This week's speaker, Clint Burnham, presented a genealogy of the "unconscious" from Freud, to Lacan, Benjamin, Jameson, Krauss and Zizek and examined the degree to which the Internet functions as an extension of this tradition. This was in many ways a "graduate class" in so far as the levels of abstraction reached by both the speaker (and the thinkers he presented) require some degree of higher education to comprehend (either formal or informal yet library based), which demonstrates the degree to which this really is a "para-university" and therefore not completely inclusive. But the choice of conceptual device to expand on these thinkers made the talk somewhat more accessible, and quite brilliant. My head kind of hurt by the end of it but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the seminar and felt strangely energized the following day! The evening also restored some of my hope in the world to tell you the truth, due to the number of people who actually voluntarily showed up reminding me, much like the Anti-Olympic and Occupy movements did,  that Vancouver has a place for political discourse.

These talks happen every Monday from 7-9 (though show up early because seats fill up) until April 1st (and hopefully thereafter, as this is the pilot phase of the project). Readings are accessible online and free of charge on this website, which will also tell you a bit more about the varied topics that will be discussed: 

http://visrfreeschool.wordpress.com/

And check out the Or Gallery website to find out more about this and other events: 

www.orgallery.org/VISR

Puppeteering and Careering

Some days working in a big non profit in the DTES exceeds the usual levels of absurdity. Generally these moments of ridiculousness stem from the people above me in what is a highly bureaucratized (though always disorganized) and increasingly corporate environment, rather than from the clients deemed "crazy."

A few weeks ago my coworkers and I were scrambling to start serving the meal (on "special," aka "no soup" Thursday), when a slick, bald man with a a big camera showed up in the kitchen. He asked to talk to me about my experience cooking for the clients (completely ignoring the fact that I am not the one actually running the kitchen and that the woman in charge was standing right there) for a "pitch" "they" were making to Whole Foods with a number of other organizations who had also been invited by the CEOs to compete for funding (yay corporate responsibility). My "experiences" were already on display: plates were crashing; clients were knocking on the door repeatedly asking to know what we were serving or when the coffee would be on; there were about 130 people waiting for food as tensions were rising on the floor, and my coworker was stressing over the fact that we didn't have enough lettuce for the salad! This was obviously a time of chaos, which this PR person (freshly contracted) seemed oblivious too, until we pointed out that perhaps we would be less distracted before opening the following morning.

The next morning our friend showed up exactly ten minutes before we open the doors to the hungry, decaffeinated masses, with an even bigger camera and a tripod. Apparently this was to be a filmed pitch (more compelling, I guess) and we needed to go through a few "dress rehearsals" to make sure we answered the questions effectively (my coworker and I were at this point looking at the time). We were informed that "props are always a good thing," (though he asked our loyal kitchen volunteers to move out of the way) and when I suggested he take pictures of all the rotten donated fruit I was about to sift through in order to painstakingly piece together a breakfast nominally healthier than the donated, stale pastries ubiquitous on the DTES meal circuit, he sort of brushed me off. I added that showing what some of these donations actually look like would really drive the point home the degree to which food funding is needed and the degree to which charity is an inadequate means of feeding our nutritionally vulnerable clients, throwing in that Whole foods does indeed provide some of our better donations. He told me to stress the last part and provided us with the three questions we were to practise answering:

1. what do i like about cooking for --- society

2 what impact on people's lives does the food i provide make

3. what are some challenges

(or something along those lines)

We had about 3 minutes to answer these questions (!)  and were subjected to three takes by the end of which I  lost steam (and interestingly the last one seemed to be the most palatable take despite our dwindling dynamism). By the time we had performed satisfactorily, the clients had already asked for their second pot of coffee. All the while I was wondering why actual meal program recipients aren't asked directly about their experiences consuming these services? Would that not be "cutting edge" in the competitive, fund raising arena?  My coworker asked our friend if this funding, if secured, would actually go to the society's meal programs (currently completely un-funded) and got a shrug. I also explained to the gentlemen my particular interests (and yes, expertise) when it comes to the question of food security in the DTES and told him that I would be willing to help out with "pitches" to stakeholders in the food industry (free of charge!), all the while feeling like a careerwhore for mentioning this. I got a blank faced "interesting, I'll keep that in mind, "  as he looked at the clock and packed his stuff. We asked him to keep us posted on how it went and have heard nothing.

Yes, people are busy.