re: redemption.......

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/41cd18a00251b5db0c7bdde912eb8f04/video/27512891
so, here's the 500th post on this blog......way more than i ever thought, and this blog has taken me way further than i ever expected.......

this link is to an interview i did with richard van camp sometime this past summer. it's weird to see yourself and hear your self. i look bloated. in fact, i probably am, from too many good times over the summer. once i saw this video i realized i had to slow down. the past four years had been a weird boom and bust time for me. lots of shows, gigs, festival and exhibitions all over the country, and people happy and excited to see and meet you. it's easy to get carried away on a good time. sometimes, it develops into a weird, slow search for oblivion. not on purpose mind you, it just sort of happens, one good time blurs into the next, one tour in the next next and then you realize you're exhausted and just need to sleep in your hotel with the cooking channel on, so you can hear sizzling meat in the background.

in the meantime, i've got some writing to do, some guitar to play, and as always loads of research to do on art and the like........films to watch, and whatnot........i'm gearing up to leave town, and i ain't coming back......after awhile, you need to redeem yourself and some of the ground you've lost, and that comes through introspection and time away from it all.......


until next time kids,

hugs,

cb

re: nearly five hundred posts........

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers.......

here's a quick poem and some photos i just found on my iphone from recent travels.......

the poem is a quick kiss goodnight, and the images are places to take you in your dreams.......

Bakery, Deli.......
are some of the signs
i read as i sit
on a bus
slowly weaving
and winding it's way
through town
like a thick piece of yarn
ready to snap back
my eyes pierce the eyes
of those fortunate enough
to drive automobiles

stuck in the glow of a red light

and i see into their worlds
at fleeting moments
a silent invasion over
the already conquered

we wait for the light
to change

red light

beautiful woman
i see you
stuck in traffic
beside the bus
your child wailing
and rolling away
in the seat behind you

come with me
my love
and we will abandon
our worlds
cut through our chains
form our own bonds
and escape our worlds
our pressures
our "responsibilities"

we will live at last
free to submit to our desires
to accommodate each other
our needs our fantasies
and we will grow stronger
by commandeering
convenience stores late into the night
and declare war upon palaces
of poverty

bingo halls

and they will no longer hold the poor ransom
as we burn and pillage
our way across kanata and les etats unis
and ultimately
the world

standing before you
i will take your purple
tank-top off
and taste you
letting my tongue
trace the lines and curves
of your body
like time
and your husband never
could

beautiful woman
come with me
and together
we can burn
in the cities
of
the night........

a free prize goes to the lucky person who can guess where these tour photos were taken?

until next time lovers,


cb

re: lacking a computer these days.......argh!

hello fans, friends, lovers and the like,

i've been lacking a computer (that works!) and only getting to update stuff when i can score one for a couple hours.......and haven't done any digital art for awhile! IRK!!

but i've been playing guitar like a madman and really digging it!!

and listening to lots of music, lately getting back to some of the SoCal groove i grew up on as a punk ass kid skating around van and the loops, being bored, getting into trouble for kicks and the like......one of my favourite all time guitarists is Rocky George, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and currently, Fishbone.....great bands......

just thought you should know.......

in the meantime kids, i'll be back......

cb

re: the onondaga madonna.......

 

 

Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947)

The Onondaga Madonna

1898

She stands full-throated and with careless pose,
 This woman of a weird and waning race,
 The tragic savage lurking in her face,
 Where all her pagan passion burns and glows;
 Her blood is mingled with her ancient foes,
 And thrills with war and wildness in her veins;
 Her rebel lips are dabbled with the stains
 Of feuds and forays and her father's woes.
 
 And closer in the shawl about her breast,
 The latest promise of her nation's doom,
 Paler than she her baby clings and lies,
 The primal warrior gleaming from his eyes;
 He sulks, and burdened with his infant gloom,
 He draws his heavy brows and will not rest.

so, most people have no idea, who this guy is, 

i ask it all the time in universities, high schools 

and the like, across canada 

and i get blank faces staring at me.......

the same is for the "Apology" from Stephen Harper 

to us NDN's in Kanata

.......

what it demonstrates in some ways, 

is the cultural sensitivity or lack thereof, 

or the continual "Dumbing DOWN" of our society

what are your thoughts?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/pm-statement.html

i've been under the weather all week, 

and also currently do not have a working computer, 

so i'm not online or doing art....

i am playing lots of music though 

and writing a whole whack of new songs....

i'll be collaborating with my friend soon and we'll

hopefully be recording and writing more stuff soon!

exciting!

until next time peeps,

cb

re: wanted dead or alive......

ahhhh, how i would love to have a time machine, i'd definitely go back and change a few screw ups.....that our wonderful society has wrought upon many people around the world.........

namely this guy, duncan campbell scott.......if you have no idea who he is, why are you looking at this blog? go and do some research and then come back.......

until next time kiddies, i'll continue exploring dreams and nightmares.......

hugs,

cb

re: bury my heart at wounded knee.......

son of morning star, george armstrong custer, an arrogant sumbitch that paid a heavy price.

meh, good riddance.

hugs and love,

cb
ps: the novel, "bury my heart at wounded knee" should be required reading for everyone in north america. just because it might, just might have shifted this reality we live in for the better.

re: space/time

i'm watching a movie called "pandorum" and it's pretty trippy.......it's cool.........

anyways, i'm working on some new art.......inspired by garry gottfriedson, we're gonna work on something cool........

life continues to change and shapeshift the world around me........i'm tired, but i have to keep moving on.......

in the meantime, check this out.......

cb

re: home......

i just got back from prince george, did a wicked fun reading up there with garry gottfriedson and richard van camp! it rocked! great crowd, great crew of people who put on the gigs, and i really enjoyed myself!

 

went to UNBC and read at the Gathering place, and then a really cool bookstore downtown......it had a large space for gigs upstairs, called "artspace". 

PG kinda reminded me of cranbrook.......

i'm hoping to get some art done, right now i'm editing some old video project stuff to get out of the way.......and working on getting some cash to get a new laptop, and find a roommate coz life is a bit expensive..........

i flew up to PG in a really tiny plane, a beechcraft 1900.......but it was actually a really smooth flight......the last time i had a gig up there i caught a greyhound, this time i flew, it was kinda triumphant and felt good.......coz i started this year driving to my gigs, and put over 25000 km on my poor rez car, and now i'm able to fly to gigs.......hopefully i can keep the momentum going.......kinda tired though........and someone read and wrote a really strange/creepy pome to/for me during one of my workshops.......

anyway, gotta run, i'm tired.......

cb

re: tour time again!!!

hello friends, fans, lovers, etc......

i'll be hitting the road again this week, after a couple weeks at home......i'll be casting off to Prince George to partake in the UNBC Weaving Words Celebration!! Richard Van Camp and Garry Gottfriedson will also be there, so it should be great fun! I'll be hosting another rowdy session of "BINGO POETRY" as well as reading with Garry on Saturday.......

so, if ye be from thar, come check it out and have a good time!!!!

in the meantime, here's a few images of Garry's latest book, "Skin like Mine" and "Whiskey Bullets."

Garry was one of the first people who believed in what i was doing as a writer, and i'll never forget the first time i met and heard him read. It was around 1998, and i was TRU in Kamloops, skipping class, when the First Nations Student Worker, Linda Thomas nabbed me, and forcibly introduced me to Garry. She said, "I HAD to come to his reading!" I tried to dodge it, but she grabbed me and dragged me to the hall in the Campus Activity Centre. Well, it blew my mind what Garry had read, flames, barb wire and gasoline spewed through the air, vitriolic, explosive, and even savage.

He read with such a beauty and ferocity that i had no idea could exist in one poem.......i went up immediately and bugged him, asking him questions......blown away totally.......he even gave me a copy of the poems he read that day, eventually we forged a friendship that has lasted off and on to this day. I've even got a rare copy of his manuscript "Coyote Moon Story." He changed my life for the better by encouraging to express myself and to not be afraid of using my voice. A great mentor.

Also, Richard Van Camp, another great mentor who championed me to get a book deal with Theytus books about five years ago. My first professional foray into the world of publishing. I was a bit naive, and probably a bit over the top in terms of just being a keener and wanting to get the book out there.

Anyway, Richard was living here in Kamloops, and sometime around 2003 i managed to get a copy of my chapbook famously titled "God Hates Us All"........which i came up with before the album by Slayer. So, i give a copy of my chapbook to a friend, who passed it on to Richard, then a few weeks passed by, and i get a phone call from someone claiming to be Richard Van Camp and wanting to meet in half an hour at Tim Horton's for a coffee.

Nervously, my girlfriend, Scarlett and I went to Tim Horton's and lo and behold there he was, the man himself, sitting with my chapbook, excited about what potential there was in it. We must have talked excitedly for an hour before we decided it was time to go, and Richard said he'd keep in touch, and do everything he could to help me get a book deal, that my talent shouldn't go to waste. What a champ, i love the guy so much. He's always been a great supporter, and a friend to myself, to my ex, and our children. He edited my first book, "Somewhere in this Inferno" while on tour in France, and would send me updates nearly daily about how much he loved the book. A labour of love that never quite found the home it should have, but strangely, people have heard about it, and have tracked me down asking for any kind of copy of it. I think it will live to see the light again........

So, i've been fortunate enough to have mentors appear in my life when i needed them most, and i will always remember them and what they've done. Other great mentors have been Doug Buis, for showing me how to edit in Final Cut Pro, forever changing my life for the better in video, and Ashok Mathur for providing me with a home for over a year at the CICAC, the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada........Jen Budney was also a great mentor to me in the arts administration, and just teaching me a lot about the art world in general..........and there are more.........

well, it's nearly four thirty in the morning, and i've got to get some sleep........

see you soon somewhere down the road........

chrisbose.
ps: by the way, i have read and really value the books my mentors have written......do check them out.....and mine too!!!

Stone the Crow is published by Kegedonce Press, and is my collection of 12 years or so worth of poetry........i've already written another volume of poetry and hope to get it going soon too.......

you can order any of these books online, and at your favourite bookstore!