Happy National Aboriginal Day everyone!
Wab Kinew, always concise, does 500 years of ‘Canadian’ history in 2 minutes.
National Aboriginal Day – Wab Kinew’s “500 years in 2 minutes”
June 21, 2015
video
Mountain Don’t
April 23, 2015
As a friend pointed out upon seeing this ad, “do we really need Mad Max meets Deliverance”? Actually it would be great to see Tina Turner showing up and knocking something over, a table maybe, or the narrative, but she is exactly not what this nostalgic fantasy is about.
Album: Native North America Vol. 1
March 9, 2015
This is a superb and historically important album, a compilation of music by indigenous musicians in Canada 1968-1985. It’s telling that I had only heard one of these tracks before hearing the album; it points to a disturbing lack of airplay of native music during those years.
What might ancient Babylonian songs have sounded like?
February 25, 2015
What did ancient Babylonian songs sound like? Possibly something close to this. Composer and performer Stef Conner and the Lyre Ensemble have put out an album of songs they believe are close to ancient Babylonian songs, using the original poetry.
Ursula K. LeGuin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”
November 29, 2014
Reprinted from Parker Higgins of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who transcribed Le Guin’s speech:
Ursula K. Le Guin was honored at the National Book Awards tonight and gave a fantastic speech about the dangers to literature and how they can be stopped.
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Goodbye Mork
August 11, 2014
Shazbot. Sad loss of Robin Williams today. Thanks for the many laughs.
And Robin before a Senate committee on preventing homelessness
Navajo chief’s blanket ends up on Antiques Road Show (2004)
May 23, 2014
This is for those who haven’t seen this decade-old segment which for some reason has been making the social media rounds again.
It is so nice to see a truly beautiful textile get this sort of attention (and from men too, which speaking as a textiles person rarely happens in North America, in contrast with other parts of the world).
Easybreath mask and snorkel innovation
May 21, 2014
After many years of few changes in the old mask and snorkel setup, this is an interesting innovation. It just won the 2014 Oxylane Innovation Award (I have no idea what that is, but I suspect it’s just the first of many awards for this contraption).
Mick Jagger in Peru
May 16, 2014
I was talking to the very knowledgeable owner of a shop of antique weaving in Cuzco, Peru, and after a while he mentioned that Mick Jagger had been in the shop two years before.
Ed Snowden’s surprise from-remote appearance at TED 2014 in Vancouver today
March 18, 2014
Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance at the TED 2014 main conference in Vancouver today. TED is calling it “Here’s how we take back the Internet.”
From a remote location in Russia he could remotely control a wheeled bot that allowed “him” to turn around and look at the audience.
