Sleeping Crash-tual

The (getting to) sleep phenomenon.
This past month. I went through a phase of contact-lenses-in post-porn-machine laundry-nest crashing after I quit my recent NGO job. Last night (glasses on, thank Dog), I decided to sleep on the couch. It makes me feel like "Busy Daddy".
I guess the WAY we "fall asleep" has a lot to do with how we want to imagine ourselves in waking, we ask ourselves, however briefly and subconsciously, "How do I want to awaken?"-- sometimes I feel it's important to wake up naked, other times (like last night), I needed to feel like Busy Daddy and wake up fully clothed and ready to smoke-drink-coffee and make a list of things I was looking forward to and not looking forward to in the day.
One thing that my dear friend and ex-boss found was really helpful and important in her sleeping ritual (NEVER in a totalizing way, but rather as a tool, as a technique, as a MODE of sleep-preparation), was to get into her bed-ware (flanel nightgown probably) and get into bed and WRITE IN A JOURNAL. Rather than ending your day/evening by EXPOSING yourself to more information and images, why not take the time to let out some of your feelings and thoughts onto a page, in ink, (I know you are a calligrapher, Sensei). The cursive is an imitation of the winding roads of the mind itself, the page will be there, adorned by your words and doodles when you awaken, eyeballs unfettered by contacts (if you decided to remove them), body clad (or not) with materials (or lack thereof) of your choosing.
The fact that your crash-tual (crash ritual) has become a moment worthy of reconsideration is also significant. It represents self-care in the liminal state between waking and dreaming: it is the closest we get to freedom and slavery as resolved dualities within us. It is involuntary self-care.
Bisou,
J

Reconciliation Circle / Restorative Justice

1 - Reconciliation circle will focus on main and most objective harms that have occurred.
2 - Overarching moral/ethical concerns AND interpersonal issues need not take precedence or be discussed
3 - The issue of violence will have to be addressed either in a different context of point #1
4 - In the circle, for the dialogue and justice-seeking to occur, we need at least 2 pillars (i.e. "elders" in the Native/First Nations and Quaker sense) to be present to witness the circle.
5 - All must agree that dialogue and justice are desired by all for the health of the community. Uh-huh. Yep. ALL.
6 - Each party should bring a facilitator/friend, who, without being impartial, is at least not emotionally involved, i.e. has not been harmed or accused of whatever bad thing did or didn't occur. The facilitator is there to help the parties TALK, they are also there because they understand the process and also have a vested interest in the health of the community.
7 - In some models, you have a moderator or moderating tribunal (3 moderators) to help the whole thing happen. In the absence of this element, the presence of pillars and facilitators is supposed to be enough to allow for equal and open dialogue in the interests of justice, forward-looking intentions, transparency, and communal reconciliation.
8 - The Circle is not punitive. End results can be action items, but not necessarily. Broken trust and hurt feelings can be discussed, but the purpose is truly for there to be a communal recognition of what has occurred and genuine desire to move on to be voiced and felt. This will not always occur, but it is at least :
i) Harm reductive
ii) Non-conflictual
iii) Non-punitive
iv) Dialogue-based
v) Egalitarian

Which is more than you can say for many processes.
One key word I forgot to mention was Restorative Justice, that is the praxis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice

Check it out!

Takes One to Know One Salon Nov. 21st 1-4pm

Hi peeps,
It's Jordan with some organizational brio calling.
Saturday, Nov 21st, my buddy Borden has offered his windowless loft near Clark and J-T for our Takes One to Know One Salon, an afternoon atelier of new DIY video and perf.
Here is the game plan:

Get back to me by Nov. 2nd if you are interested!
We will be having a "craft night" meet and greet at my house 4863 Jeanne-Mance, on Nov 7th to make the flier and plan the Facefucking/tech needs.
There will be a door charge but it will mainly serve to pay for people's cabs and/or tech needs. Borden is not greedy about the daytime loft usage.

My idea for this salon is to première new works that we have not had the space or wherewithal to show yet, to show something to a small and appreciative audience that we may want to workshop or dialogue about in the future, to give an opportunity to break the interactive video ice. I will be showing a new, non-cabaret, non-comedic, work called jordan/émilienne about family trauma: yay! It does not matter how short or long or rehearsed or not your piece is: *Takes One to Know One* is about vanquishing panic and paranoia and moving on healing action/performance/memory-making. The only theme is "interactive video". I would invite you to forward this, but I have chosen you special few because I feel you know what I am talking about, and we only have the long from 12-4:45 in total, so we have a max of 2hours for the perf'in.

Please let me know if you are interested. I will post this info on thedutymyth.blogspot.com where I will also post all the updates on this proposal. I want this salon to be as inclusive and boundary-breaking as possible for everyone involved, and I hope you are stoked.
xo,

Remember this? Thanks to Amber to Nightwood for featuring me in my pre-blog epoch

http://nightwoodband.com/2009/05/07/dressed-in-black-jordan-arsenault

New semiannual manifesto.

OK Fuck it. The Harper Government is coming down. I'm starting a new chapter of ACT-UP, and I accept my flaws as part of life's unbearable magic. See you in the Spring, with a new minority in parliament, less serophobia, and another manifesto. Bye.

Yes blogging beats Facefuck

Facefuck is definitely an inferior web tool. My "status update" from earlier today somehow didn't save. This has made me feel like I lost part of my subjective narrative, that my own understanding of time and the world is somehow destabilized. Where did it go? Was it witty or cryptic? Did it capture a merely experiential moment or something more like a realization? Who was I then?
You can never, as someone said, put your hand in the same Jordan twice. Ahem. Back to watching Last Chance Harvey and wondering what I lost, and what to snack on so that I will forget about, you know...

Just in anticipation of the Facefuck invite and flier, here is the
line-up and basic info for τριάντα εγκράτεια:

A c t s :
3 : 3 0 M a p l e F a l l s (Mtl)
4 : 3 0 Z s o f i a Z a m b o (Mtl)
5 : 1 5 : C a y l i e S t a p l e s (TO)
6 : 0 0 N i k k i M a c M i l l a n (Outremont)
6 : 4 5 G a m b l e t r o n (Mile End)

7 : 3 0 : S p e c i a l G u e sts

8 : 1 5 A ï d e n C ö k e n b a l z (Bare-lean, DE)

P r o j e c t i o n s :
9 p m : * D e u x d e u x * b y A r a B a l l
9 : 1 0 * n o t h i n g e v e r h a p p e n e d * by J e s s M a c
9 : 2 0 : S c r e e n i n g o f * T h e G a r d e n o f t
h e F i n z i - C o n t i n i s* by V i t t o r i o d e S i c a .

O t h e r i n f o :
Sat.17.Oct.2009
C l e a ' s 3 0 t h ! J o r d a n ' s 1 s t !
4 8 6 3 J e a n n e - M a n c e (+ St-Joseph Ouest)
3 p m - 1 1 p m
I n v i t e o n l y , i n a g o o d w a y . $ 4 c o v e
r w i t h a m o j i t o .
k i t t y k n o w s b e s t @ g m a i l . c o m

You can of course start inviting people, but anyone you want to invite
should also be sent fliers or facefuck invites so we know they are
real friends/fun-lovers and not interlopers! (By that I mean,
un-vouched for interlopers). Hot, respectful, vouched-for and friendly
interlopers will be welcome the day of, for sure :-)

J

Hunting and Fishing

ARRRRRGGGGGGG
That feels better. J

hola / âllo / hello

Caros lectores: bienvenido a mi nuevo blog.
Chers lecteurs: merci de consulter mon nouveau blogue.
Dear readers: welcome to my new blog.

Most of my posts will be in Canadian English, sin embargo, les invito a hacer notas en castellano; veuillez me laisser des notes en langue française si vous voulez.

Things I have loved this month:
- Traniwreck with Aliza Shapiro www.truthserum.org at the Middle East on Sept. 23rd.
- Meeting Camryn from Big Moves (finally!)
- the lady of colour at the *Start Laundry* in Mission Hill, Boston, who told me to "Stay out of trouble"
- Dontà Cheyenne Simmons
- Watching the last 45 minutes of John Hustonès Key Largo on a balmy night in Cape Cod.
- Legal Sea Foods;
- Zobriety;
- Frère Geoffrey at www.ssje.org
- Jess Mac, Stikki MacMillan, Heather Influenza, C.T. Horné and Jessums Barr.
- Jerusalem in My Heart.

Things I have raged against this month:
- Keeping in touch with toxic friends from your past;
- Middle-aged German émigré interlopers putting up Obama posters with Sharpied-on HITLER 'staches (Bonaventure métro, Montréal, 3 Oct. 2009, 11am)
- Passive aggression;
- War, patriarchy, hate, and its discontents.
- Narcissism without self-awareness;
- Bad self-esteem gay bitchiness.

Please post photos and videos of me at your leisure. This is an open-dialogue blog, but the rules of good argument will be imposed: good intentions, non-violence, hate-free and socially inclusive. Gracias / Merci /Thank you!