Dixie Chicks rock

Two months after the Grammy blah blah hoopla crap, relistening to the last Dixie Chicks album, Taking the Long Way, you gotta admit this is a great album. One the best made by the mainstream these days: love, politics, home, protest, great musicianship, song writing, and arrangments. I laugh, I cry, I bellow (er, sing.)

I watched them at the Grammies and thought they weren't ready for all the hoopla, and so didn't do themselves justice. And they clearly thought it was political only, the reasons that they won. It was political of course, a great big mea culpa pretending that sexism in the industry is non-existant and they didn't have to stand up for themselves through music and movies. They had to fight back hard, and they won. I just hope the music stands on its own and they and everyone else get it as a whole: they deserved the win for the music as well as for the fight back.

Art and politics and women's lives...

ya, sometimes it comes together...

(now on to Indigo Girls - more southern women doin' more than kickin' the dirt...sing it Amy and Emily!... (album: Become You))

Tamara

A beautiful thing...

Conrad black blah blah blah, Sponsorship scandal blah, Cancer blah, end of the world blah...

Winnipeg - Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth. YAY!

http://www.carolshieldslabyrinth.ca/

'She wrote about ordinary people and those were her heroes. That's what this project is. It's just about an ordinary community, citizens coming together.'—Anne Nesbitt

Okay, this is why I love the CBC. No one else is talking about this most excellent thing, based on one of my favourite writers, a veritable queen of CAN/CON and a feminist to boot. Just the CBC. Thank you and thank me for being a Friend of the CBC ( http://www.friends.ca/) to make sure we still have the CBC so I (we) can find stories like this that perk me (and hoepfully you,) right the heck up.

so here's the story:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2007/04/27/shields-labyrinth-tribute.html

The labyrinth is based on the novel Larry's Party, one of the best novels, ever.
Order it here: http://www.peoplescoopbookstore.com/
and check out this blog here: http://wordspinning.blogspot.com/2004/12/carol-shields-larrys-party.html for a quick synopsis.

I met for the first time with my intrepid feminist writer's group last night. We talked about everything and we also read the essay Woman and Bird from Adrienne Rich's What Is Found There. (http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall03/031246.htm) She talks about the disconnect between poetry and science and politics, and the loss of meaning that results. I think Larry's Party resonated with me so much because it goes a long way toward braiding these bits back together.

And now, this live in the real world thing is happening, leaping out of the pages and into a public park in Winnipeg. It is being brought to life by the people who loved Carol Shields dearly, and the people who love her work dearly. Earth and roots and carbon and chlorophyll and artistry and community and good honest labour and a good deal of imagination.

Thank you to all involved. It sure made my day to find out about this. And gave me another reason to consider adding Winnipeg to my next road trip route.

peace.