Shadowboxing with Boxing Day

Christmas has passed and many of you will go out today to partake in that great capitalist hoarding known as Boxing Day. Starting today and continuing for the rest of this week, most large retailers will mark down their wares in the hopes of sucking out whatever dollars might be left in the pockets of shoppers everywhere. With the crush to get everything they could for everyone on their Christmas lists now out of the way, the typical Canadian shopper, now more than $800 lighter in their pockets on average, is heading out onto the streets to take care of me.

Not that there's anything generally wrong with people buying items for themselves. In fact, if people didn't do that, how would they survive (since Christmas is but once a year)? People work so they can provide for themselves. But Boxing Day is crazy.

As a child, I remember December 26 as a time when people stayed home because stores were not legally permitted to open. The big sales didn't start until December 27. Now the "other Christmas holiday" is holy all right -- the holiest of shopping days. Kneel and pay homage. Save us from deprivation and want, oh glorious shops and stores of Robson, Yonge and Ste-Catherine. Get your groove on. And keep the plastic in your pocket warm. It's going to be quite the workout.

I'm finding it tougher and tougher not to be cynical about consumerism's excesses. As life moves along and surviving becomes harder, I know I cannot participate in the craziness directly, even if I wanted to (and I don't). As I see kids and adults everywhere tinkering with the new toys of the new millennium, I begin to wonder if there's a point of happiness in all of this. And I don't think there is -- covetousness knows no bounds in the human experience and even though the holy books prohibit it, wanting what other people have is a very real fact of life in Western society.

Once this week ends and the New Year is upon us, people take the time to look at the financial damage -- sky-high credit card bills and empty bank accounts -- and suffer through the cold of January penniless and (sometimes) stressed. We shop 'til we drop to keep up with the Joneses and every year the painful bite it takes out of people gets a little sharper, a little deeper. And then there are those who can't afford to get in the game who feel inadequate to the task of being a truly Westernized family. Or the poor who sacrifice everything to make Christmas happen and then have nothing left for the immediate future. The jeopardy people place upon themselves to be part of the Christmas phenomenon means that belongings have become more important than protecting our belonging.

And what does that really say about us?

Some thoughts a week before Christmas ...

It snowed today in Ottawa for the first time in weeks. The snow lasted about four hours. Remember as kids that when the week before Christmas rolled around, you already had cracks worn into your boots from the ice, snow and cold? ...

If Ottawa-Gatineau is the fourth-largest urban area in Canada, why is it so bloomin' impossible for municipal Capital politicians to do the right thing -- build a north-south and an east-west rapid transit train/subway line, with a downtown tunnel, sometime before the Toronto Olympic Games? What's that you say? Toronto hasn't been awarded an Olympic Games? Think about it ...

The Philadelphia 76ers traded Allen Iverson, a.k.a. The Answer, to the Denver Nuggets (pending approval from the NBA's head office). It's one of the biggest developments of the young season, coming on the heels of the "brawl" between the Nuggets and the New York Knicks on Friday night. I love basketball and I often wonder what comes over these young men when they start throwing haymakers, like the recently suspended Nuggets superstar Carmelo "Bitch-slap-tha-mo'fo-'n-run" Anthony. His years as an endorsement vacuum, sucking millions of dollars out of the economy and into his pocket, are over. Sidle up to Barry Bonds and see how much you enjoy the view, 'Melo ...

Liberal Party Leader Stéphane Dion, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, NDP Leader Jack Layton and millions of Canadians have finally persuaded Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the environment should be one of his top priorities for the duration of his government. If he hadn't so completely failed to do anything useful with his Clean Air Act (when he was in full control of the agenda on climate change), and if the duration of the government didn't coincide with the date my orange juice will finally go rancid, I might believe him. "Top priority" means "defuse issue before next election" in Harperese. Am I concerned about the environment? Do I think things have changed since I was a kid? Refer to today's snowfall in Ottawa for proof of my feelings ...

Mark my words -- the Toronto Raptors are the next major league team in the Big Smoke to win a championship. Not the Leafs, not the Jays, not the way those clubs are managed ...

Christmas is my least favourite holiday. I like aspects of it -- getting together with family, relaxing, playing games, enjoying the company of loved ones -- but I detest the way it has been taken over by corporate interests. I wish I could skip the December 23 to 28 period altogether and head straight for New Year's Eve.

Plus, the whole "Christ's birthday" is also problematic. It's like the recent celebrations for Fidel Castro's birthday. It should have been celebrated months ago, but because he was sick they were put off. Even then the man of honour didn't show up. It's the same with Christmas. The birth of Jesus is not believed to have happened at all in the month of December, and he never shows up for it. Unless the guy in the red suit is Jesus. Didn't The Son of Man spend forty days and forty nights in the desert? Must be a pretty plentiful desert ...

George W. Bush is an idiot. Okay, it's not a profoundly original thought, but it crossed my mind ...

I've been reading The Hanging of Angelique, the book about Canadian slavery written by Afua Cooper. It's brilliant, and if you don't have a copy, you should. It's the definitive work describing the reality in opposition to Canada's greatest myth -- that slavery did not happen here. Shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, it's a crying shame the book didn't win. And on top of that, Dr. Cooper is a fantastic dub performer and one of the humblest, kindest poet/writers I've ever met. She's a Canadian hero (or heroine, depending on your level of sexism) ...

Ottawa's airport is nice now that the new terminal is operational. But it's still undersized for a city of its size and importance. It's nice, though. Does anyone remember coming in the front doors of the old terminal, practically tripping over people trying to drag their luggage off the baggage claim carousels? I thought I was in an airport in Jamaica or something. It was nutty. But I wish I were on an airplane to Jamaica right now. Does Canjet fly there now? ...

Ground chicken is far superior to ground beef. But is it better to be a vegetarian? Given all the recent scares with contaminated produce, and people getting sick from E. coli and botulism, I'm not so sure these days. I wonder if the militant vegetarians are a little less smug these days? ...

Be sure to read my column in the City Journal (www.cityjournal.ca), where I have a bi-weekly arts and entertainment column called Shine. I've already profiled The Souljazz Orchestra, Amanda Rheaume and her weekly open mic in Old Ottawa South, and DJ Ben Jammin. My next column will appear on January 3, 2007 ...

Everyone, have a good holiday and try not to overeat during the festive season. I'll be chillin' at home, eating fried plantains and watching basketball. Can't wait for this year to be over. Here's hoping 2007 will be a better than this year ...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz!

A new beginning ...

Hello everyone! Here is a new place for me to write out my thoughts and share my opinions with the world.

For those who don't know, I am Greg Frankson, a.k.a. spoken word artist Ritallin. I am based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and I am a columnist for the Black community newspaper The Spectrum. I also have a bi-weekly arts and entertainment column in City Journal, Ottawa's urban newsweekly. I am a published author and my voice is featured on two solo projects and two compilation CDs produced in the last two years.

For three years I have been a performer, writer, organizer/promoter and speaker in the National Capital Region. My work has taken me coast to coast and I absolutely love the life of an artist. Currently I am working hard on two main projects. The first involves working with youth as an arts educator, visiting schools and community centres in different parts of the country. I am also the National Director of Spoken Word Canada, and through that volunteer position I am leading the effort to create a community of performance poets from across the country, as well as building the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (which will have its fourth installment in October 2007 in Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Why a new blog? Well, the old one has been dormant for a long time as I sorted through the deep bag of wrenches thrown my way during the last twelve months. The year 2006 will be remembered as a time of trial for me. But at the same time, a lot of positive things have happened that help to focus my mind on the tasks ahead.

So strap in for a wondrous ride. I plan to write here about politics, community life, poetry, working with youth, the state of the world -- whatever happens to pass through my mind and motivates me to write. I hope you enjoy the words that will grace this site. Comment freely and engage in a discussion on whatever you might happen to read here. But most of all, I hope my raging will tickle your brain just enough to elicit contemplation of the world in which we live ...