Hi everyone!

*waves*

I'd do a little life update but the idea is kind of exhausting at the moment. So I'll just not...

I've been wanting to write about my favourite new (to me) artist, Kent Monkman. He's of Cree ancestry and does amazing installation pieces and photography and films, often through the perspective of his berdache alter ego, Miss ( Read more... )

Nick Cave's son is a model/ enjoys the confederacyhttp://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/31789071.htmlRead more... )

I love this. They didn't find "self-styled" (my current least favourite descriptor) to be objectionable, but that's OK ( Read more... )

Yay Barack! A lot of people I know are slightly cynical about him (after loving him to death at first) which I understand, but damn just look at them. And listen to him speak. He's the anti-George Bush in almost everything ( Read more... )

Sometimes life throws you unexpected little gifts -- I just found out that SALIF KEITA is going to be doing a show in Ottawa next week -- and this time I can actually afford to go see SALIF KEITA. I have sorely regretted not selling some books or jewelry to see him last year, but this time it's only 25 bucks. I'm rather happy. Any of you Ottawans ( Read more... )

Ah, but I got to see both Kinnie Starr and Buffy Sainte-Marie yesterday. They were fabulous. The entire day was Aboriginal Women musicians -- it was so good.

Later on we got to talking to a white guy who seemed to be doing radio stuff there, who started to say a bunch of shit about the women and turned out to be one of those people. A brief ( Read more... )

Wow. I'm watching (on www.cpac.ca) the run-up to the Prime Minister making what will be an 'apology' to victims of the Indian residential school system (at least 150,000 children were forcibly taken away from their families for over a century, to 'kill the Indian' in them). Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, looks like ( Read more... )

Ha Ha. Sometimes I lose my faith and trust in religious conservatives to be simultaneously mercenary, evil, and vulture-like without a hint of irony, but luckily I always hear something that puts me back on track. Tonight I've been doing a little research for a piece about the regulation of conflict diamonds (or to be more dramatic, blood diamonds ( Read more... )

The news makes me feel sick these days. I have to approach it all indirectly and speak about it as little as possible. PMSing and unable to think about it much for the past 2 days for fear of crying in public ( Read more... )

Tonight I'm pulling my first all-nighter of the year to finish writing something. And so, since I have nothing to do: have I pimped out (should I be using that term?) my favourite 'new' (to me) music love, The Coup to you all yet? They're damn commies. Pro-revolutionary hip hop. So funny (how else would you react to a song called "5 million ways to ( Read more... )