Magdalena O!

“I could not make a move without making love.”

Magda O! — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:53:35 +0000

The summer has started in Montréal, at least for me. I came back from Europe last week, and the unrelenting European rain chased me back to the city, but the rain needs to nourish us all before the sun can have its way. I accept their moves. This morning I woke up, happy to have a mom that loves me, and that has never even yelled at me before. She’s had it tough, really tough, tougher than I can ever write about in a public space. I guess all moms have it tough in one way or another. I mean, just the thought of opening up your body to support a living human being inside you doesn’t cease to amaze me. The act of holding onto a life other than your own, and then splitting your body open to let it out into the world is just… WOW! RIGHT?! I hope I can have a child or two or three someday and then maybe my children can love me and depend on me, then grow up, take me for granted and make me feel useless, until they grow a bit more and need me again. <3

So anyway… I grabbed my mobile as soon as I opened my eyes, still in bed cuddling with my cats, gushing, “YOU’RE MY MOM! MY MOM! I AM YOURS!” She laughed, and calmed me with her zen-like voice, the one she uses when she’s teaching pilates or IMT (integrated movement therapy).

Then, I noticed that it was FaltyDL’s birthday today, and he shared with the world, a beautiful track, just the type of track you hope to come across on a sunny sunday mother’s day. Listen to it, I promise, you’ll keep it on repeat. It kept me company all morning until I rode my bike across town to Parc Lafontaine where we suntanned and talked about being grad students and how lame and counter-productive the notion of “publish or perish” is, but how much it guides so many young academics, us included. Most certainly, I’d rather talk about all things great, like the rose of Gertrude Stein.

I took photos of myself to remember the first day of summer. Happy Cat.

*the title quote is from a short story by Miranda July.

Portugal (in love)

Magda O! — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:08:01 +0000

I presented at a conference in Madrid – a city of dirt and noise. It doesn’t make sense to me, but maybe it makes sense to you.

I travelled to Portugal for the first time & fell in love with it as soon as I stepped off the airport express onto Rossio Square in Lisbon surrounded by a bright sky and small uneven cobblestones playfully hurting my feet. I will write about my love soon and with fervor. There is so much to say.

Love at first sight is the best feeling in the world, because love at first sight to me isn’t some superficial lust and desire and awe, but a beginning of becoming.

I will go back to Portugal, yes. But for now, back to Montreal, the city turning into a police state, hurting its citizens and taking apart the things that make it such a great city to live in.

Love. &protest

Magda O! — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:56:36 +0000

NO ONE CAN TAKE THE WAY I LOVE AWAY FROM ME.

I love with tenacity. I will never stop. Never. Ever.
I will always keep fighting. I will never give up.

I love people unabashedly and overwhelmingly. I memorize Beyonce songs and sing them on top of my lungs imagining you in front of me. YOU. I learn dance moves to serenade you with all of me, all of my body, all of my body moving towards and inside you. MAKE LOVE TO ME. I find mountains in the city and go running up them, like the Kate Bush song, with the hope that I find you on the other side.

Then I stop and remember that you taught me a thing or two about tenacity in love too.

…

I took this at the largest demonstration in Quebec History on March 22, 2012. Over 200, 000 came out in solidarity to stop the tuition hikes and stop the commodification of education.

There are major strikes and protest happening all over Quebec, and in my city of Montréal. I am out strategizing, meeting, striking, protesting, picketing every day. IF WE LET THEM WIN, THEN WHAT THE FUCK DID WE FIGHT FOR? I hate the discourse of win/lose, but it is the government’s and it is what we are in – a game. Please be mindful when reading the Anglo media, they are conservative, they are misrepresenting our actions, our motivations and our tenacity for a better way. Read the French media if you can.

LINKS: http://altunies.wordpress.com/
http://profscontrelahausse.org
http://www.tuitiontruth.ca/

Audre Lorde:

“Your silence will not protect you.”

“and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive”

Quebec-wide student strikes

Magda O! — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 06:03:33 +0000

I have much to say but I will just leave you with this selection of photos I took at the student march around downtown Montreal today. Students all across the province are striking a 75% tuition increase over the next several years. You can read about the history of student strikes in Montreal HERE. Read it. Be informed. Don’t listen to mainstream media, as always. They focus on violence and drama and not the energy and spirit we have for our future. Many of us are abstaining from class and submitting course work not out of convenience. We are striking, negotiating, strategizing, focusing, meeting around the clock….

One of the best things to ever happen to my life.

Magda O! — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:21:17 +0000

After weeks of reading every freakin review on every single forum to death (amazon.com, chowhound, apartment therapy, etc. etc), I bought a stand mixer. Oh the value of life products give us. I mean, look at this thing, this thing is like a world – a world I will get to explore through dough! Pasta, breads, cookies, angel food cakes, whipping cream, pies, pastries, oh my!

Seriously though. If you know me then you know my #1 passion in life is gluten free cooking and baking. Nothing else compares. Well, maybe dancing to amens on drugs. But I hardly do that anymore, so stand mixer wins this one.,, for now.

Onion, feta and cremini mushroom tartlets are on their way in the oven…!

Private property has made us so stupid.

Magda O! — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:21:55 +0000

“Private property has made us so stupid and one-sided that an object is only ours when we have it, when it exists for us as capital or when we directly possess, eat, drink, wear, inhabit it, etc., in short, when we use it. Although private property conceives all these immediate realizations of possession only as means of life; and the life they serve is the life of private property, labour and capitalization. Therefore all the physical and intellectual senses have been replaced by the simple estrangement of all these senses – the sense of having. So that it might give birth to its inner wealth, human nature had to be reduced to this absolute poverty.”
— Karl Marx 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844)

This is one of the most important things I ever read when I was young & it’s just as important now. I want to print this out & hang it up in my flat & read it anytime I get sucked into capitalist propriety.

yé-yé girl

Magda O! — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:51:58 +0000

Chantal Goya moments. Full of youthful love. Except I don’t think I would ever date a guy like Paul. Ok, maybe I’d sleep with him but I wouldn’t let him spend the night, even in the coldest of winters. Not even after he confesses to being in love with me, sitting on my bed cross-legged while we listen to Nouvelle Vague covers. I’d write him love poems using other people’s words, and say things like, “The world is full of paper. Write to me.”

MP3: Nouvelle Vague – In a Manner of Speaking