SUBVERTED SELFIE PROJECT POST - November 11, 2021: “Pins of remembrance”

I often wear different pins and wanted to showcase a few that came this last week from sellers on @etsy.

With #RemembranceDay just around the corner, I got 2 beautiful #poppy pins from @barnodesignsco, located in the UK. They had many variations of pins including the traditional red. I chose one that included the slogan, “ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL.” It’s a #quote first attributed to #KoreanWar Veteran Howard William Osterkamp. Osterkamp was a Purple Heart recipient who continued to #fight even after his leg was broken. The phrase is generally tied to American military members who were wounded or killed in action, but it can be associated with those who fell in any war. For me, the fact that Osterkamp fought in Korea, reminds me of my Father, Dr Han Choo (Hanju) Lee, who came to Canada in 1952 to escape the horrors of that war which physically divided his country of birth.

The second poppy I got features the poppy with the LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 rainbow colours, highlighting the fact that many gay, lesbian and transgender soldiers have fought for their countries and fallen. As someone who came out last year as #demipansexual and #genderfluid, it’s important to remember the fact that Queer individuals have fought before across the history of our world. The @BBC @BBCNEWS ‘s Bethen Bell in a 2017 article titled, “Forbidden love: The WW2 letters between two men” highlights the story of Gilbert Bradley and the letters he wrote to the love of his life, Gordon Bowsher. Having homosexual relations in the military at that time was illegal, under the penalty of death. The @wwiimuseum in New Orleans has a beautiful page dedicated to LGBTQ+ in WW2 that is worth visiting and it features many articles and stories about brave LGBTQ+ men and women who fought for America. The Canadian Encyclopedia also has a great article titled “Canada’s Cold War Purge of LGBTQ from the Military” which shows how the Canadian military discriminated against LGBTQ servicemen and women for decades, even into the 1990s.

So it might be a bit controversial to wear these variations as the @royalcanadianlegion does have a recommended protocol for wearing the poppy lapel pin it distributes, although they do state on their website that ultimately “…wearing a Poppy is a personal expression of Remembrance, and how someone chooses to wear a Poppy is always an individual choice.”

This photo and text were also shared on my 500px, Flickr, Instagram, and VSCO.

MY CREATIVE NON-FICTION: “el pastor & a musical interlude...”

A number of months ago, on September 7, 2017, at about 8:20pm in the evening I was eating dinner at a restaurant called Little Ass Burrito Bar on the the east beach of Marine Drive in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. I know the date and time because of the music that was playing. It wasn’t in English but I remember how it’s melody and rhythms flowed over me like the gentle running water of some forgotten but still meandering creek. The vocals and rhythmsvwere clearly Spanish or Mexican in origin but that’s about all I knew. Thankfully the Shazam application let me know exactly who it was I was listening to. And today that same application let me know when I first heard it.

In fact, I can still remember pulling my iPhone from my pocket, typing in my passcode to unlock it and opening the Shazam application. I worried for a moment when it took longer to load than usual, but eventually I had it listening as I held my phone up in the air like I was holding a lighter up in the air to a slow song at a concert. And after the app listened for what seemed like eternity, after it spent mere seconds calculating and breaking the sounds of the song I was listening to down into ones and zeros that it sent out over the air to find its match out on some Shazam server somewhere, it sent back to my screen the information I was looking for: the music I was listening to was by a group called Chambao. The song, Verde Mar.

My Shazam entry for Chambao

Armed with this information I bought their album, Esencial Chambao on iTunes and as I ate my Burrito al Pastor (pineapple and pork tacos), I continued listening to their sound that had drowned out most of the other sounds in the mildly busy restaurant from entering my mind.

My burrito elpastor ...

But after hearing them for the first time that night, I didn’t interact with them again. Not until tonight.

And for whatever reason, laying here in bed at just after 10pm, I decided to open iTunes and press play again while Wikipedia told me this about them: Chambao is a flamenco-electronic band originally from Málaga, Spain, known for a Flamenco Chill soun2d that fuses flamenco sounds and palos with electronic music. The name of the band is taken from an improvised form of beach tent that is constructed as a means of sheltering from the wind and sun.

 And I’m enjoying the music. I’m enjoying the memory of that night at the Burrito Bar. I can remember parking my car across the street. I can remember the dying heat of the day. I can remember how I jaywalked across the street. I can remember reading the specials on the sign in front of the establishment. I can remember entering the small restaurant. I can remember reading the menu but instead ordering the special described on the sign outside. I can remember the one other couple who was there when I went in but gone before I left. I remember the other couple come in and order takeout while I ate. And I can remember the cinnamon churro I had for desert.  

Now it’s well after 11:30pm as I pick up my phone again to type some more into this random blog posting, almost an hour and a half since I started listening to this album. And to be honest I’m surprised it’s still going as I started listening to it tonight a good 12 or 13 songs in on the Verde Mar but it’s still going strong. In scrolling through the track listing I see that this essential album would fit on two CDs if it was a traditional & tangible thing that I could pick up, hold, take a disc from and pop into a CD player to listen to not even ten years ago. More specifically I notice that Esencial Chambao has 31 songs in its track listing and iTunes  also tells me the album is just over two hours long. 

As I lay hear I find myself feeling lost, in a good way. Lost in that I have no idea what the music is about as I don’t speak Spanish. But I like it. I can infer a lot about what the music might be about just from the vocals, the rhythms and tempos. Some slower songs bring to mind thoughts of Garcia Lorca’s Poem of the Deep Song and the deep seeded waves of emotion inherent in those oral movements; while other more upbeat songs make me want to dance, and I find my right foot tapping along to the beats. 

In the near future I could see myself seeing if I can find translations for the songs lyrics that are floating through my room right now. But not today, I’m a bit too tired for that. No, today I just want to enjoy this music. I want to get to know it, like a lover I’ve met in a bar in some foreign land. A lover with whom I share an undeniable attraction even though we don’t speak much of each other’s language. A lover who I’ll spend time with tonight, and return to again from time to time to recapture the moments and the memories. But for now I’ll sleep.

Christmas Nightmare

When it comes to shopping for Christmas and birthdays, I'm the kind of person that when I see something in a store that will suit somebody I know I'll pick it up and put it away. Generally it makes life easier, as I'm not rushing when it comes to having to get a gift for someone when the time is needed. It also helps spread the spending out throughout the year.

But I don't always do this, and yesterday afternoon on December 23, I was getting a few things for my Mom at the Bay. Her birthday is in early January so I got some stuff to give her both for Christmas and for her birthday. Without giving away what I got her, I will say that the gifts are items that will match and compliment some home decor items she bought herself earlier in the year. After I paid for everything, I had to wait for the salesperson to wrap them up to help protect them for their journey home with me. When all was said and done, there were four bags that I had to take to my car. They were a bit bulky and heavy, so I took three of the bags to the car first, leaving the last bulky bag at the sales counter. I could've taken them all but they are fragile and I didn't want to risk having them hit each other or hit obstacles en route to my car. The sales lady did offer to help me by carrying the last bag herself to the car with me, but there were other people in line and I told her that she should probably help them as I could easily make two trips. This is something I've done many times before, so I didn't think it would be a big deal.

In hindsight I should've taken her up on her offer as when I came back about ten minutes later, the last bag was gone. The salesperson asked her coworkers if anyone had accidentally taken it to the back or to the office they have access to, or even if they accidentally just put the stuff away. None of that was the case and she herself checked those areas to be sure. Ultimately it seems likely someone else in line took the package - either by accident or on purpose. 

After going back to my car and bringing what bags I did have back, we went through the receipt to find out what was missing. She checked their inventory and replaced two of the missing items and refunded me for the other four items they didn't have. So now I have an uneven amount of the items I was going to give Mom - two incomplete sets. So those will be her birthday present as I'll have to get them somewhere else. There is a small bonus in this in that it will give me time to figure out how many she has in the set of what these belong with as I made a best guess.?But it's also inconvenient as I had wanted to give these now missing items to her for Christmas and what I'll now be giving her for her Christmas are the items that I had wanted to give her for her birthday (if that makes sense). Oh well.

If someone took the bag of my stuff on purpose then that's pretty bold of them as there were security cameras and it was fairly busy. If they did it on purpose they'll find the items to be somewhat odd - they are unique and will look odd next to the other items people might have of this type. On the other hand I don't know if they will be able to return the items as they don't have a receipt - but if they do return them (say to another Bay) I'm guessing all they'd get would be store credit.  

If it was an accident though and someone took it as maybe their bags were placed next to it during their purchase then hopefully they will return it. The ladies in this department did take my contact information so I could get the set I had initially purchased if this was the case and the bag gets dropped off.

Ultimately this wasn't a nightmare but it definitely was a bit of an inconvenience as it ate up a huge chunk of what little time I had left to get to the last place I wanted to go to yesterday. Certainly a first world problem.

Time for me to get some sleep now, I have to get up early and wrap some gifts and then deliver them. Then I'll be meeting my mom and will see the movie Jackie in the afternoon before going home and having a restful Christmas Eve. Happy holidays and merry Christmas to everyone who reads this, I hope you have everything you need for the holidays and get everything you want. Take care and be safe! 

a new start?

It's cliche to say that today will be a new start. But for me, it is. I'm determined to wipe the slate clean. I'm going to get up off my ass, in spite of only having a few hours of sleep, and get some stuff done. I'll push till I'm too tired to do more. Then maybe I can go to bed at a normal hour. 

 Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I reached my daily fitness goals.

My Fitbit Goal Tracking: May 31

Today I'll try and do this again. My first task of the day, after some personal grooming will be to go through the house to collect as much trash as I can as its the collection occurs today. Then I'll see where I go from there.  I've got to get my house organized. I just gotta.

 I don't think Mum will have any appointments today, so I should be able to just keep working here. I'll try to post an update on how that's going as the day pushes on.