Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

Yesterday,in between going to my first same-sex wedding (and hands-down one of the best weddings ever!) and Oh Susanna, Paul and I went to the Mall.

It’s been a while (not for Paul–I had to send him there in the morning to get a gift). (I was busy, OK!!) But I was excited to hear that Abercrombie and Fitch has reappeared there, near the Ice Palace. There was one there, years ago, when Phase II just opened. The old store was fashioned in the whole safari outfitter/imported goods-from-the-colonies thing, remember? And it tanked. Sport Chek is there now. But the chain got rebranded into a frat boy $50 t-shirt kind of place in the late ’90s or so, and so here it is again along with its kid brother, Hollister (down the hall, towards the Bay), which seems to want to be a nightclub with its subdued lighting and really loud music.

And all those T-shirts you’ve all heard about are there! You know, the ones for girls that say, “These (pointing down to breastular area) excuse anything” or one kinda clever (if it weren’t totally awful) that says, “single” one one side, but you can see “taken” screened on the other side. It looks like you’ve turned your “taken” side inside out, basically. And the guys’ ones “What do you mean by “girlfriend”?” and other variations on appreciating the looser specimens of the fair gender. Basically, T-shirts for cheaters. This is the store that made those “Two Wongs Make it White” shirts and “With These (again, toward the tits) I Don’t Need Brains” and child-sized thong underwear.

Speaking of which, I can’t believe its smaller-than-zero sizing! Seriously, there I’m a medium.

So anyhow, we’re there in Hollister and I’m looking at the “I’m a slut!” shirts, and what do I see? A little misfit, sitting in a big untouched pile. Why do the young teases of Edmonton avoid this shirt? It says, “Nerds have big hard drives.” And they don’t want everyone to know that they do nerds. I, on the other hand…

Paul buys me one.

Last week, I interviewed Russell Barr, writer/performer of this monologue. And what a kerfuffle that (and the other press) caused!

He repeatedly discussed his dislike for drag queens, calling them deceptive and violent. His show is about a particularly violent incident that is based on his own experiences working in a drag bar in Glasgow,peppered with some truly funny and some horrifying anecdotes about his family and friends, and I think he is genuinely disturbed and terrified of some of the people he used to know. He lives in London now. So, his comments to the press are consistent with that. I don’t think he is against drag per se, just the people he knew who practiced it. Too bad he came across as hating all drag queens.

Nevertheless, the play itself is average Fringe fare. It still feels a draft or two (and a rehearsal) away from being a “real” play. As it stands, it’s pretty good pub storytelling, meandering and over the top. I especially disliked how he would pause for effect after he said something terrifically horrible.

Friday is supposed to be a Q&A session, but rumour has it that Darrin Hagen (who was supposed to moderate the talk) now refuses to participate. What a shame. If anyone could take that guy to task, it’s Darrin. Oh well.

I’ve been doing a little writing for the Folio, which is a University of Alberta newspaper. This week, they sent me to cover the visit of Princess Takamado of Japan.

She seemed like a nice lady. Very energetic and outgoing, in the way that you wouldn’t expect a Japanese princess to be (more on that later). She was there to demonstrate some new videoconferencing equipment donated by Sony to the Prince Takamado Japan Studies Centre. The equipment wasn’t foolproof; for one, UBC couldn’t figure out to press the “speaker” button on their remote, so we never heard from them.

Her speech was nice and fairly neutral as expected. Bridges and community and shared culture blah blah blah,basically a call for earnest self-expression. Then they let students of Japan Studies ask questions from all four universities participating. Victoria couldn’t come up with any, and U of Calgary only wanted her to “say something in Japanese.” So she said, (and this is a rough translation) “Good morning! Japanese is hard to learn, isn’t it? Go get ‘er! Please!”

But then some doofus at the U of Toronto said, “I have never heard English so well-spoken. Where did you learn English?” WHA?

She’s a princess. And he totally patronized her. If he had read her bio, he would have known that she had spent part of her childhood in America, and then another 12 years in the U.K. I mean, I’ve been told that my English was pretty good for a Japanese person too, but she’s a PRINCESS. She’s RICH. She’s EDUCATED. It’s been her job to travel around the world representing her nation. Of course she speaks English! What a dork.

This just confirms my theory that people who are fanatically attracted to Japanese culture are not, in fact, trying to build bridges or break down barriers or do any of the things that the Princess hopes her money and patronage are going to do at the universities. These are the people who are the ones with the offensive questions, the assumptions. They’re the ones who expect Japanese people to all be nice and quiet and accommodating. The ones who treat foreigners like pets and think they can figure out an entire culture and then get resentful when they go and are made to feel like outsiders. Based on my experience as both Canadian-born AND an immigrant (it’s a long story), well, no duh. People treat you different if you ARE different. Deal.

But yeah, it was really a surprise to witness such blatant prejudice like that. Especially towards Her Imperial Highness, The Princess Takamado of Japan!

End rant.