What makes us humans do art? Why is it that art is central to every person's core cultural practices? Is art life? Is life art? From what I know about art and the feelings it gives me, I would say that art creates a sense of smallness inside of us, but also a sense of oneness with our fellow man. It connects us to the animals. It connects us to land. It explains a complexity by letting us in on the 'cosmic joke' that we call life. "Why are we here?" "What are we doing?"

I just want you all to try and comprehend the images from these shadows and the junk piles that are making those shadows into images we understand. It's just a simple trick, but it really tickles my core to know that this world can contain somethings from nothings.







Pretty damned impressive huh?

But art can be fun and sly and small in scale. It can be things that remind of us that we are alive. There is always that beauty in humor that let's us appreciate art and our reality.
For example we have art like this:



This art slyly let's us see the sarcastic side of reality. It just makes me smile. It's simple yet so funny. A friend of mine Terrance Houle (http://www.myspace.com/terrancehoule) does really great stuff but recently he put out a series that was absurd and beautiful. The images just made me smile when I saw them. Cheers to Terrance for these next few photos.



Haha. So damned cool huh? Such complex circumstances solved and given to us in a way we can understand. The joke, and by that I mean the grand joke of life, is revealed so quickly. So honestly. Keep making this great stuff my man.

But even serious art can let us in on the big pitcure. Watch this clip from the artist Theo Jansen.

Isn't that nuts? He's creating life, or something that replicates life, by simulating movement. Isn't the only thing that makes us alive our movement? Our breathing gives us a tempo. Our heart pumps our blood. Our brains that shoot electricity throughout our body.

In the end, the simple pleasures of art live within every single one of us on this planet.

If you watched that and didn't shed a tear of joy for the human condition, then I don't know what else to say. James could sing man. He could sing his damned soul out of his body. He didn't harmonize particularly like we are used to, but he did something else. He did something you can't put your finger on. It's simple because you understand it and feel it, but you also know that it's not easily replicated. His style was his, but belonged to us. His soul spoke to all of us.

I'll close with just one clip here. From master teaspoon slide guitarist Hannes Coetzee (check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/hannescoetzeeteaspoonslideguitarist)


I will say that sometimes I wonder if no one knows the punchline to the 'cosmic joke', because the jokes on us. Maybe we're not supposed to get it.

I love life. I love art. I love jokes. I love. We all do. We all share that oneness that art reveals to us.

Peace to all my people.

Hey all! You know I've thought a lot about prosperity recently in the context of the whole "economic development" rhetoric being thrown around indigenous political spheres worldwide. I think that prosperity is great as is economic development to a point, but there is more than just being rich. Isn't exploiting and destroying the land and our drinking water for money a mistake?

There's an old Cree saying that goes "Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."

Wow! What a simple concept to grasp. Prosperity is about living well, and not exploiting. I had a conversation recently with a very interesting and remarkable man named Jacob Beaton. He put me on to this quote off of a blog by Judy Rebick, in which Bolivia's indigenous foreign affairs minister David Choquehuanca talks about Bolivia's flag called the Wiphala...



"What we want is simply to live well, which is not equal to living better. For us, robbing is not living well. Not to work is not living well. To exploit is not to live well. To attack nature is not to live well. Possibly attacking nature will allow you to live better or exploiting might allow you to live better but we don't want to live better. We want to live well. And in (reprentative) democracy, the word submit exists, for example, the minority has to submit to the majority. But submission is not to live well. And that' s why we make our decisions by consensus and not by democracy. In our communities we make our decisions through consensus. And to arrive at consensus, we have a process that includes up to five stages to arrive at an equilibrium that does not exclude anybody. And for that reason we use the Wiphala, made out of little squares. The little squares say that all of us are the same size. That nobody is either superior or inferior. And more than that, it says that all of us have to participate. A Wiphala cannot be without even one little square. And in addition, its square - that means that we are looking for a society that's balanced and equal. For example the national flag of Bolivia; its sides are not all the same length so it represents the society of inequality. Conventional flags like the Bolvian flag are like that with sides of different lengths. For us that represents inequality, a society of inequality. . The Wiphala demands of us that we keep our promises. The Wiphala is a code. It says to us that we must keep our promises."





David Choquehuanca sums up my own views on prosperity better than I can.
Peace to all my earthlings.


Here's a link to Judy's Blog and a link to the myspace page of Prosperity for First Nations.

Okay... This is speak. Speak is a Hungarian rapper. He's a Magyar M.C. Check him out.



So... I know it's funny. I mean his rapping is just really talking and his adlibs of "yeea c'mon" and the "that's right" are just so innocent and sweet you can't help but laugh. But isn't there something to his message? Isn't the way he's delivering his message getting through? I'd invite SPEAK to have a beer with me anytime. I hear you Speak my man. Stop the wars, we're all brothers. Yea C'mon, that's right.

Who doesn't like to dance? I don't like to, but it is not that I can't dance it's just that there's no one making tunes today like Michael Jackson in his darker skinned years. Hell even Black or White was a great song and dance tune.

But there is music that moves me. Doesn't even have to be instruments. It just has to have soul. Has to have something that is bigger than my soul, so that it steals my soul and claims it for it's own. Bagpipes do it. Didjeridoo/Yirtaki does it too. But what are these things that move our soul and make us want to dance that isn't played in clubs? I have collected a few videos for you to watch and enjoy. They all show me how beautiful dance is and how culturally we are all one people with the same soul.

Here's a haka from the New Zealand Allblacks:



WOW. What a beautiful sight. How moving is it? I was laughing at the end because dancing is what we as humans do to connect with our bodies. We tap into our collective soul, and the our souls move us. It is why a group dancing can be a powerful and spiritual sight. Aren't we wonderful creatures?

Here's some Blackfullas from Australia(BIG UPS TO YOU BRO'S!! HOOOOO!) doing their thing:




Oh these guys got it. They got it. It's not on the same epic scale as the haka but you know us blackfullas ain't into bragging on the epic scale. That was a joke of course. But in all seriousness we're different in our approach. But isn't it just as breathtaking? Even one dancer or one person connected to the big collective soul can move us. And even in a group it is the feeling of being an individual and part of something spiritual that is exilerating. One or two dancers can make us feel like we are in the presence of a large spiritual force.

Here's some Metis jigging and some Pow Wow dancing from North America:




MAN! Those Indian folks can dance hey? Look at those moves! What a beautiful scene it is to see such a young woman pulling off those moves so slick. She's a great talent, and what I love about the jig is that it incorporates the mixture of dance cultures that make the Metis people who they are as mixed ancestry Indigenous and European peoples. But let's not forget those fellas and fellettes at powwow huh? This is individual dancing on the epic scale. Sort of a mixture of the grandeur of the haka, but with the individuality and strength of the individual blackfellas dance. I want to move my ass now.

Ever heard of a guy named Dave 'Elsewhere' Bernal? Check this out if you want your mind blown:




This guy has MOVES! He turns dance into a public frenzy with a few quircky twists of his limbs. He's from the new culture of pop-locking and breaking, but he's expanded on it to show more of his individual self while keeping the soul of those two dances intact. This type of dance though is no harder to perfect than the Metis Jig, it's just different. But don't all these dances connect us as humans to the same place?

In most aboriginal languages there is no word for art because art is what we do with our time on this planet. It is our life. These dances are the type of thing that fill me with pride as a person on this earth. Whether it's Michael Jackson, or the haka... I'll dance if it moves me. Keep it up my people, and I do mean everyone on earth when I say this. I love you.

P.s. Can someone get these guys a dance coach?

Worst haka ever...

Okay... So have we all heard abou the Michael Richards rant yet? Hopefully we have. I'm trying not to let it taint Seinfeld for me but the whole thing just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. Anyway I hope we all know who Paul Mooney is. He's a refreshing man. One who speaks his mind and has a quick wit.

I just had to post this after watching it only to quake with laughter.

Hope you all enjoy it too.



Soon after Michael Richards apology Mooney was on television again. He had this to say.



The question is... Can Richards redeem himself in your eyes and in your heart?

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I got skinny wrists like my nana, and skinny ankles like my mum.

I got knobby knees like my uncle, and two dimples above my bum.

I got a loud voice, and I'm fast when I run.

I got a long jaw, I got a big tongue.

I'm proud to be me. I'm gonna shine like the sun.

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Written November, 18th. 2004

I've been to the Yukon recently and I had told Richard Van Camp I was going to try and blog the experience. I regretfully didn't blog however I'm here blogging now, so there's to be no mention of foretold unwritten blogs. There is only my word that I would blog to Richard. So here goes:

I miss Australia. Miss it everyday that I'm here in North America and I always have missed it, but I'm good at management of my seperation anxiety now after growing up in New York City most of my life. I don't miss New York much. Partly because it just wasn't my place. Partly because I wasn't in a good place during my last few years there. I do miss the friends I don't get to see every so often. But now I'm meeting new people and being filled with new experiences.

Hence, the reason why I am blogging for Richard Van Camp.