It has been a strange evening. My wife called and said she had responded to a call from Dave and taken him to a doctor. She said he was sick, and that she couldn't get CFS to find him a bed for the night. She said he couldn't stay where she was staying. He needed a safe place. I took him in. I have to figure out how to get through the next day.
I finished Larry McMurty's "Sin Killer" and reviewed it for Blogcritics. I have picked up the next novel in that series, but I haven't started it. I haven't finished "The Lives of the Saints". I went to the River Heights Branch of the library to look for one or two books by Earl Emerson and came away with some other books in the display bins, which I read and reviewed first.
The idea of the noble savage has run through philosophy, anthropology and literature for several hundred years and it seems to colour ideas about Aboriginal history. Many books and movies tend to show the life of North American Aboriginals in historical times, living with dignity, close to nature. There is an idea that aboriginal peopled have been dispossessed of their land and deprived of the right to keep on living as noble savages. In than context, the idea of the noble savage is a metaphor for the status of Aboriginal people in the modern world, where Aboriginals face discrimination and live with social and economic disadvantages.
Colleen Simard, an aboriginal woman and a writer, has a weekly column in the Winnipeg Free Press. On Tuesday October 12, 2004 her column was a reaction to Amnesty International's document on violence against Aboriginal Women, Stolen Sisters. The column begins:
"if I had been born a few hundred years ago, my place in society would have been certain. The role of aboriginal women was revered; we were the head of the family, the life-givers, the back-bone of our nation. But things have changed."
In the summer of 1995, I bought a copy of James Keelaghan's album "A Recent Future" at the bookstore at Lake Louise junction, and I was immediately caught by the ballad "Cold Missouri Waters." Keelaghan had won the Juno for Roots and Traditional Album for his previous album "My Skies" in 1994 and was not nominated again in 1995 but the song is one of his best and has earned critical, artistic and popular support.
Keelaghan has since won the USA Songwriting Competition in 2002, in the Folk category for this song. It was covered by Richard Shindell, Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky on their joint album "Cry, Cry, Cry". The song has also taken on an interesting life of its own. Keelaghan met relatives of the dead firefighters, and his song has a following among firefighters and park rangers. He rewrote a line in the song (originally he sang "North Montana" and corrected it "West Montana" in deference to how the people of the area see their land. Keelaghan recorded the slightly revised version of the song on his 2004 retrospective album "Then Again."
In 1995 and 1996 I was posting regularly to a mailing list devoted to Canadian folk music with a special emphasis on the songs of life of Stan Rogers. In the fall of 1996 I followed up Keelaghan's liner notes by reading Norman Maclean's "Young Men and Fire" and I published a set of posts summarizing the book and relating it to the song. I have brought those posts together and edited them into one piece:
"Une connerie" is a French term, and it's pronounced like the famous Scottish actor's name. It's a vulgar term for an idiotic idea. It also translates as crap or dogshit, or a term for a stupid, possibly dirty, joke.
For about 10 days before Thankgiving, the weather was warm and generally dry. We were still wearing shorts, T-shirts and light shells on most of our rides. During the week before Thanksgiving we rode Tuesday and Wednesday evening, and Friday afternoon.
The Friday afternoon ride (October 8) was interesting. We rode to Bird's Hill, into the wind. Crossing the Perimeter Highway at Gateway was a little scary because the traffic is heavy and fast. We stopped at Sobey's in Bird's Hill and bought a snack. (There is something obscenely hilarious about me eating a banana in a croissant). On the return trip Mike's handlebar broke as we were crossing the Perimeter. He was using his old bike because his bike was in the shop for repairs and a tune-up.
In the last few weeks, I read a few books - mainly mysteries, mainly recent material. I followed some serials that I already knew, and I started a new series. I tried to write a review of each one for Blogcritics. I don't want to turn this blog into a book review blog, and Blogcritics wants the text so that's where the reviews have gone.
I haven't given't up the blog. I have spent much of the last few weeks cycling, reading, watching TV, spending time with family and friends. Along the way, I have had some household projects - small repairs and some shopping for kitchen items and minor furniture so that Claire and I can cook for guests and have company.
I also rebuilt a defunct desktop computer at the office as my office computer. Any work that comes home is either FTP'd home or carried in a tiny flash drive - no more lugging the laptop around to edit one set of documents. I moved my old Toshiba laptop home, and moved files around. I am using the laptop in my study as my main computer for text writing, email, and and most of my Web browsing. That means Claire can use the Sony desktop for her purposes pretty much whenever she needs or wants it.
Life moves on. I have not been writing about it. I have been writing a few book and movie reviews for Blogcritics (see the buttons on the sidebar) and this blog has been quiet for a while. That will change as my other projects and commitments have been winding up.
