i was just wondering…

And there it was being discussed at Newspaper Rock – a whole lot of stuff about the old Indian Head B&W test pattern that used to appear on TV after or before the sign off.

I remember CBC-TV used one of their own with a CBC/Radio-Canada logo. But I’m certain CBC used the Indian Head at one time as well.  Anyway, always interesting, thought-provoking, and very pro-Indigena over there. Thanks.

another born every minute

Recently, I vented about New Age hucksters out there, the spiritual poseurs who sell ceremonies like those “Inuit” carvings that tourist traps sell as “genuine native craft.” Here’s a relevation – they’re fakes. Nothing but cheap plaster casts painted black – not soapstone carvings. They’re mass produced and their only purpose is to cheat tourists out of their money. You know what I’m talking about. These cheap fakes sit alongside those postcards of unsmiling Indians in buckskin and plains headdresses bracketed by stern-looking RCMP officers and cheezy cups embossed with the Canadian flag. None of the money from the sale of these fake “native crafts” went or will ever go to native peoples. They’re made by hucksters expressly for dumbasses who think they’re actually buying a bit of genuine Inuit art.

I don’t have much time for New Agers and crystal keepers, in general, because they remind me so much of the mindless tourists who willing shell out money for these fake goods. But I reserve my contempt for the charlatans, the fake shamans and elders, those individuals who see an opportunity to take advantage of naive idiots. Thus the title which is borrowed from that huckster-par-excellence, P.T. Barnum; about a world of suckers out there just waiting to be fleeced. Most New Agers, IMHO, fit the bill to a “T.”

religious theft and other misdemeanors

This post isn’t about something new, or particularly “new age.” It is about racism, exploitation, denial, cultural and

Yavapai County Sheriff's Office

spiritual debasement, and in a some cases fraud, theft, rape and even murder. This is how the post evolved.

A couple of weeks ago near a small town in Arizona, three people died during or shortly after a “sweat lodge ceremony.” Those quote marks are deliberate.

dig it

That’s all. I’m left breathless by the song, the performance, and the production quality of this video. I met Raven for the first time when he was just a little guy. I met him again, all grown up and making fantastic, wonderful music as part of Digging Roots. If you can’t tell by now, I’m a fan.

Here’s the write-up, posted on Facebook by Raven’s father – if you can’t tell, an obviously proud father too.

“Digging Roots have a brand new music video for the track, ‘Spring To Come’, produced by Big Soul Productions and directed by Charles Officer- Winner of the Premier’s Award for Excellence 2009. There will be an official screening of the video during ImagineNATIVE film festival, (the very same week as the CD Release Party- October 13 in Toronto’s Mod Club, 722 College Street, 7:30 pm on)! Followed closely by hitting the mainstream highway on APTN, MuchMusic… and BRAVO!”

not the only one

I seem to be in good company in an earlier post about the lack of federal action to protect the lives of Indigenous women and girls, “so get off your butts, and do something!” Read the snippet below, then go read the whole story in the Calgary Herald newspaper.

ladies and gents, djimon hounsou

With an excellent primer written by Binyavanga Wainaina (a really good writer and journalist) on how NOT to write about Africa (which BTW is not a country).

Quiet on the set…. a-a-a-and action!

so get off your butts, and do something!

Don’t you just hate it when politicians see something going on in society, something they’ve ignored for years and years, maybe even stonewalled attempts to ameliorate the situation, perhaps even cut funding for programs that might have helped groups working to improve lives, yet here they are trying to take some credit for doing something when they’re actually doing sweet F-A!

Why that’s it!  Why not have an award for yolks like this?  How about the “Sweet Eff-Ay Award“? Hmmmm…. where to begin?

Why not with this news release?

i like

This is for all the people who think I hate everything. I know, I know. Well, I don’t hate everything. I can actually like something every now and then. Like this list of do’s and don’ts for journalists who really want to change the way things work in today’s news media. Before you say: “Wait a minute… this is one of those “top whatever lists” the writer’s grumbling about.” Well, it ain’t.

missing & murdered in montreal

Ellen Gabriel tells me the man with the megaphone got involved four years ago, taking respnsibility for organizing the first “Sisters in Spirit” march and vigil four years ago. He worked with “Missing Jusitce,” a group in Montreal trying to shake people out of their complacency about the hundreds of “disappeared” and murdered Indigenous women across Canada, across Québec, in Montreal and area.

“That first year, there were only about 25 people who showed up. That first year, there were less than ten marches across Canada.”

This year, there are at least ten times that amount of marchers in Montreal, and about 77 marches and vigils taking place across Canada.

Here’s a taste of what it was like.

(Note: having trouble uploading the movie)

I am outta here

A blog full of short, sharp snark on why they slammed that door – and didn’t care if it hit smacked someone’s ass on the way out!

“I found out his ex-wife, who he said was his ex-girlfriend, was actually his stepsister!”

Ouch!