Men’s Volleyball

More about regular things instead of me holding up books I’ve read.. I feel like that would be more of a tumblr thing. Then again, you can do anything you want to WordPress so I really shouldn’t care.

I’ve been watching Men’s Volleyball, particularly our Canadian team, and being so impressed by them. They’ve been so inspirational — although I think it primarily is the game itself rather than the teams — that it’s made me want to take up volleyball again. I haven’t played since high school but I was always decent. I remember being frustrated at my classmates/teammates because I longed to have an actual rally between the two teams but it never got further than one or two hits and then the ball would inevitably hit the floor. I know I can be very competitive and driven, and I think it would definitely help if were I to start playing again. The only thing that frightens me about the sport is having a hard ball come flying at your face at 100+ km/h. And the giant smashes that I’ve been witnessing on TV. Jesus.

I looked up some volleyball drop-ins/courses at the community centres around town and I think I should register. It’d be great to play again, even if it ends up being just like high school where I serve ace after ace (which, trust me, gets boring after a while).

Also, whenever I watch this — and I must’ve watched this clip about 7 times now — I get so pumped, it surprised me.

My love letter to Russia

Here I am, talking about what Russia means to me. Please share if you can!

Six Love Letters to Russia — Lucia

My friend and super smart, artistic, creative, brilliant writer Chris Gatchalian, put together a video project featuring six Vancouver writers and artists who wrote love letters to Russia in response to all the gay stuff that’s been happening over there. I was delighted and honoured when he invited me to be a part of the project, as this issue had been on my mind for a while and I didn’t know what I could do about it. Writing and reading a love letter to Russia seemed like a good, creative way to make a statement.

The first video was uploaded today and features playwright Lucia Frangione recalling her visits to Russia. It’s so well-written and measured — I really, really enjoy it.

My video will be up in a few days. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, share this video!

Watching Olympics stresses me out

Does it do that to others?  Today, I was watching the Canada vs. Japan match for women’s doubles badminton, and I was so on edge and stressed out watching it, that I had to switch the channel and watch some guys do kayak slalom, which was not even close to being as stressed out.  It was just really exciting!  I don’t believe Canada’s had an badminton team go so far in the Olympics before, and the fact that the scores were, at times, so close, was really nerve-wracking.  Yikes!

Saturday Morning Documentary: One Day in September

I said I would post a SMD movie so here it is!

Saw this one a while back so it’s not super fresh in my memory, but One Day in September is an Oscar-winning documentary about the Palestinian attack on athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.  I can’t remember if there was a history lesson included in the film or if they just launched right into it but I learned the background of why it happened during my history class this past semester.  The Middle East is super f-ed up, to say the least.  The Palestinians, who had been living in the area we now call Israel.  After a whole bunch of events including the fleeing from the Nazis in WWII, Jews who had been living in Europe were displaced and a significant population returned to the Middle East, where they are now known as Israelis.  But the Palestinians didn’t really like this big influx of people who were now taking over what they considered to be their land (and the Jews thinking the same too) so then all this conflict and killing and crap happened between the two groups up until present day.  In a nutshell.

The documentary, narrated by Michael Douglas, tells the story of the now infamous terrorist attack in the athlete’s village in 1972 during the Olympics in response to what was happening during the Middle East.  The film is captivating, intense, and harrowing, as we see the events unfolding.  There are some really disturbing things that happen (complemented by some photos) and when the situation moves over to a small airport and helicopters are all involved… wow.  It’s so dramatic it seems like the plot to a movie (though Munich dealth with the terrorists after Black September). And despite all of this, there’s still a sense of humanity in the film — both positive and dark.

Fantastic film.