Nice to see someone who isn’t taking themselves so seriously.  That’s right Alanis, I am not defined by my humps, or lack thereof.  The juxtaposition between Fergie’s out of control lyrics and Alanis’ haunting (and mocking) tone is brilliant.   Enjoy! 

5 events to be featured on “Jessmo’s Reality Show” if garnered a contract by FOX to capture the reality that was my life this past weekend:

1. Curled against a 83-year old women on her birthday.

2. Curled whilst negoitating my way around two frozen, dead pigs positioned behind the hack on Sheet 4 at the Claresholm Curling Rink who were later roasted on a spit.

 3. Attemped to convince my mother not to purchase a mulberry coloured Pet Stroller to showcase her new Pomeranian’s at dog shows this summer.  Mission an abyssmal failure.

4. Watched my Dad belly dance ontop of a pool table to win a BBQ.  Fucking hilarious!

5. Assured my grandmother that my 87-year old grandfather is not in the hospital with an unidentified source of bleeding because he ate something “sharp.”

A depiction of my favourite things:

My dog.  Frankie.

Pink cadillacs.  (I found this dog toy at a pet store recently.  The toy is probably more mine than it is Frankie’s.  She is completed disinterested by it.  In fact, I had to force it upon her to take this picture.)

My curling gear.

My couch. (Where I spend an inordinate amount of time reading for my upcoming candidacy exam, or watching TV in a desperate attempt to avoid reading).

My blankie.

A fellow blogger has a WTF category on his blog.  A recent encounter suggests I should follow suit.  As I walked through the Students Union Building today with a friend to purchase our afternoon coffee pick-me up on route I noticed a display for the Canadian Cancer Society.  The table was marked with the characteristic logo of the yellow daffodil, but the attire of the two young undergraduate students manning the display beckoned my attention.  It is not Halloween, so it was surprising to see these two students outfitted in Top Gun attire.  They were clad in military inspired white uniforms and flashy 80’s sunglasses adorned their faces.  I struggled to make the conceptual linkage between cancer and the movie Top Gun and when no connection came to mind, I did what sociologists do best and posed a question to the young man standing behind the table.  Our conversational exchange was comical to say the least and went something like this in competition with 80’s music blasting from a ghetto-blaster nearby: 

Jessmo: “Excuse me, may I ask what the connection is between cancer and Top Gun?”  (I gotta learn not to be so polite in times like these) 

Maverick responds by gesturing to his uniform and says, “Top Gun,” then points to his arm and says, “Top Guns” and before he can continue my friend interrupts. 

(This is when I notice pamphlets about breast cancer and the need for daily self-examination randomly and messily displayed on the table) 

Kikmo: “You mean there is a thing called bicep cancer?” 

Maverick ignores the interruption and in attempt to get to the point makes a declarative gesture to his chest as if to cup breasts, “And TOP GUNS.” 

Jessmo and Kikmo unite in laughter. (I no longer try to be polite) 

Jessmo: “And the connection between guns and cancer is?”  Maverick: “Isn’t ‘guns’ a vernacular term for you know, breasts?” 

Jessmo: “Did the Canadian Cancer Society approve this campaign?” 

Maverick: “It was our idea, but they gave us the OK.”  Jessmo: “Oh.” 

Maverick: “Would you like to hear some music from the Top Gun Soundtrack?”

(Uhm, I think NOT!)

My interest in age studies and curling has sent me into a tailspin this evening.  The Tim Horton’s Brier took place this afternoon.  Brad Gushue, representing Newfoundland and Labrador and the current Olympic Gold Medalist, age 26, was pitted against Glenn Howard, age 44, and his team from Ontario.  Glenn Howard lost the Brier final last year to Jean-Michel Menard from Quebec.  Brad Gushue won his gold medal with Russ Howard (incidentally Glenn Howard’s brother) at the helm.  Gushue threw fourth stones and Howard called the game. 

To win the right to represent Canada at the Olympic Games, your team must win a Brier like competition in which the top teams in Canada (determined by Brier wins and total funds won on the cash spiel circuit) play against one another.  Unlike the Brier, composed of teams representing their province to become a Canadian champion, the Olympic curling trials are not constrained by this residency requirement.  Hence, Gushue – who won the right to compete in the Olympic Trials due to curling accomplishments in the field years prior – asked Russ Howard (who did not qualify to compete in the Trials) to join his team.  Accordingly, Gushue shuffled the positions of his team to make room for Howard.  Gushue’s lead became their fifth player, Howard threw second stones but called the game, and Gushue continued to throw fourth stones.

Controversy erupted when Gushue won the Olympic Curling Trials.  Was Gushue worthy to represent Canada at the Olympic Games in Torino?  Did his team win the Trials because Howard had joined the team?  Although Gushue has been deemed a skillful shot thrower, his youth and inexperience is considered a draw back.  He makes “bad calls” as a skip the critics say.  In a curling game, you often have to pit “risk” (how many points am I going to give up this end if I don’t make my shot) versus “reward” (how important is it at this point in the game to score multiple points).  Inexperience – the critics comment – leads skips, like Gushue, to choose risk over reward more often than is necessary.  But with Howard at the helm, this problem was considered rectified by the critics.  And sure enough, Gushue and Howard brought home the Gold Medal from Torino.

When Gushue won the right to represent Newfoundland at the Brier this year, of course, controversy returned.  Gushue was again calling the game, and moreover, he added a new (young) player to his team because Howard was no longer with them.  Howard, instead, was competing in his home province of New Brunswick, and incidentally lost.  Critics and curling fans watched with baited breath.  The pressure was on.  Gushue had to prove he earned the Gold.  Gushue started shaky; he lost 3 games early on in round robin play but then his team came back to win their next 5 games to earn a spot in the playoffs.  As they say, the game was on.  In the playoffs, Team Ontario played Team Newfoundland; Gushue won 7-6.  As a result, Ontario had to play Manitoba, and conquer Veteran skip, Jeff Stoughton (who interestingly lost to Gushue in the 2006 Olympic Trials final). 

Howard scoffed off criticism about Gushue during an interview with CBC during the Ontario-Manitoba semi-final game – and ironically, minutes later, Stoughton lost control of the game coming up short after deciding to pit “risk” versus “reward.”  With Howard’s victory, Gushue and Howard were set up for their third match of the week.  I watched Gushe and his teammates today and along with my curling colleagues cheered for Gushue.  For the first half of the game, Gushue had control.  After the fifth end break the tides turned.  Gushue’s second flashed a take-out – and then almost in an effort to prove the critics wrong (or right) – Gushue called a gutsy shot – and missed.  Howard was up 3 points after the 8^th end.  A game that was within reach for both teams, in a matter of seconds, was out of reach for Newfoundland.  Sigh!  Critics united in victory across the country. 

Unlike other sports it has become vary apparent to me that “youth” is not valued in curling.  The curling circuit involves a gentleman’s club –and only after being on the circuit for years – and having experienced the ups and downs of wins and losses are you granted entry.  Age politics are rampant.  What the critics fail to notice for example is that Stoughton, a Veteran skip, lost the semi-final the day before for similar reasons.  He pitted “risk” versus “reward” and came up short but this blip in his repertoire is downplayed.  Moreover, Gushue is not the only “risk” playing team.  Martin and his team from Alberta are also “known” for taking risks and often end up on the wrong side of the inch.  But when risk taking fails up short for a young team lapse in strategy is hailed. 

When the Brier tankard was presented to Team Ontario today, Gushue wore the voices of his critics on his face.  And not surprisingly, Glenn Howard was asked to comment on Gushue and his team during the reward ceremony.  The camera zoomed in and focused on Gushue.  Howard said his team needed to be “patient” in order to win this game against the high caliber play of Gushue and his teammates.  Howard praised their “youth” and called them an “unbelievable team” when asked whether or not Gushue had accomplished his aforementioned goal of winning respect this week.  Notably, the question was phrased as a declarative statement, “he’s won it” – yet if he has really won it, why the need for all the questions?  And if Gushue had won today, would he really have “won” in the sense of earning the respect he so clearly deserves?  I expect the grief he feels tonight has nothing to do with failing to bring the tankard to Newfoundland.  Instead, he will need to repair the gash inscribed in his pride.  If this is the “experience” his critics say he lacks, he has at least “won” something today with this loss.

In grade school my brother offered his friend something to drink after class.  The singular option in our family household ”Caffeine free, sugar free” Diet Coke.  My brother’s friend was like, “What’s the point?”  We collectively giggled.  I love this memory.

Let’s have a moment of silence please.  Manitoba eliminated Team Alberta (aka skip Kevin Martin) from the Tim Horton’s Brier this afternoon.  Sigh.

I was reluctant to do this…  but here it goes.  My friends will love me despite my musical tastes, right?

1. Open up your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question below type the song that’s playing.

5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. No repeat artists…stuff happens (randomly!!)
7. No cheating or doctoring your list to make yourself look cooler than the person you took this from.

Opening Credits: A Good Horse – The Cardigans

Song for a Winter’s Night: Breath for Another – Esthero (Where did I get this tune?)
First Day of School: 21 Things I Want in a Lover – Alanis Morissette (New Jessmo cirriculum)

Falling in Love: Hands up in the Air – Craig David
Breaking up: Come Back to Bed – John Mayer (This is pretty funny considering an ‘ex’ once asked me to “come back to bed” after we broke up!)
Prom: Tell Me Something I Don’t Know – The Thrills
Life’s OK: In My Place – Coldplay

Mental Breakdown: Love is Everything – K.D. Lang
Driving: Waitin’ on the Wonderful – Aaron Lines
Flashback: Right for Me – Justin Timberlake

Getting Back Together: Wrong Again – Martina McBride
Wedding Scene: A Heart Like Hers – George Strait

Sex Scene: You Can’t Take the Wings Off Me – Reba McEntire (Uhmmm…)
Shelter: You Could Be So Cold – Wild Strawberries

Birth of Child: My Baby Loves Me – Artist Unknown (How appropriate!)
Final Battle: Is Anybody Home? – Our Lady Peace

Death Scene: A Home – Dixie Chicks (Actually a good fit despite the misleading title)
Funeral Scene: Sweet Old World – Emmylou Harris
End Credits: Sexuality – K.D. Lang

———————————————————————–

Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following.
Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

How many songs? 4130 (on the iPod)

Sort by Artist.

First Artist: I Do Cherish You – 98 Degrees (Pisses me off everything I hear it)

Last Artist: La Grange – ZZ Top (Again, where did I get this?  Who is he? Prolly some important songster I should know about - he sounds old)

Sort by Song Title.

First Song: ‘Til I Cry You Out of Me – Sozzi

Last Song: Zoo Station – U2

Sort by Time.

Shortest Song: 0:58 “Kung Pao” – Brad Paisley (not really a song, just annoying talk)

Longest Song: 15:57 “Eskimo” – Damien Rice

Sort by Album:

First Album: “1’s” – Mariah Carey’s Greatest Hits (Sigh, yes I do have this) 

Last Album: Your Man – Josh Turner

How many songs come up when you search for “sex”? Only 4 L (Goodie – “I Only Want Sex” – Jann Arden)

How many songs come up when you search for “death”? 11 (only Death Cab for Cutie stuff)

How many songs come up when you search for “love”? 337

Most Frequently Played Song: Gone – Aaron Pritchett (87 count) (Since May, 2006, I think.  My gang of gal pals know why this is the case!)

I don’t know how to do the rest…  me stupid!

I had a life-affirming moment today.  While reading in a coffee shop between curling games I looked up from my book to notice a middle-aged woman sitting beside me with a second hand copy of The Fountain of Age by Betty Friedan.  I am an age studies scholar today because of this book.  When looking for a Honour’s Thesis supervisor at the end of my third year of undergraduate study it was suggested I read this book.  I abided like a diligent, seeking to please student and spent coffee breaks and a large majority of my spare time that summer, reading, digesting, and making notes on all 638 pages.  By the 638^th page I was convinced.  Ageism was real – and something needing to be conquered – and like Friedan, I was going to spread the word.   

Friedan writes of an “age mystique” that is rampant in our youth-oriented society denying and distorting the aging experience.  She argues we need to re-think how we do age – and instead conceive age as an adventure, a stage with possibility, rather than decline and despair.  There is a compelling alternative, one that celebrates the fountain of age, not the fountain of youth.  She chooses “age” as the core of her model of personhood, in effect de-centering youth in her version of an authentic self.   

So, when I saw this complete stranger with my bible – I did not hesitate for a second to ask why she was reading it.  She told me Friedan’s earlier book (The Feminine Mystique) had spoken to her in the 60’s – and now that she is older, she wanted to see if Friedan had anything interesting to say about aging.  Friedan was the first to inspire me to think outside of the aging box to envision age alternatives within my own life and the lives of others.  Friedan would find satisfaction her work is doing just that – not only in my life as a young, aging academic currently planning a program of work, but in the life of this particular middle-aged woman.  Moments like these remind me there is a reason I am a sociologist and offer hope that one day my work will also rest in the hands of someone seeking questions my work might speak to.