Top Three DickTool Co Collages on Flickr

There are 39 other collages by DickTool Co just as entertaining here.

#3

Dummies

The only thing I miss about not having the Avenger is not hearing the amazing break in “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Sinatra real loud at 110 kms an hour down a perfect highway with the blue dome overhead.

#2

Ask Not For Whom the TV Tolls

Early televisions transmitted through human thoughts and bone structures but the relay method, stimulated by less than three-tenths of a car length, never quite synced up with the beam eye babes.

#1

Destiny

Umber Aja swims next to his dolphin brother, Climie, through the Gulf of Boredom as they try for the world title in tandem flexing at 8:30 every time it comes around which for the boys is just about often enough as they catch their combined breaths gulping the sewage-spoiled water. Climie almost swallowed an eyeball about an hour ago but spit it out at the last second. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56088356@N02/ 

Hip Hop Violin

Paul Dateh and inka one

Prairie Dogs Have Their Own Language and Can Describe What Humans Look Like

 
It’s a language that would twist the tongue of even the most sophisticated linguist. Prairie dogs talk to each other and can describe what different human beings look like, according to scientists. The species – only found in North America – call out to warn their friends when a predator approaches their habitat. Not only that, but they have calls for ‘human’, one for ‘hawk’ and another for ‘coyote’, radio station NPR reports.

Professor Con Slobodchikoff, of Northern Arizona University, has been studying prairie dogs for 30 years. He is particularly interested in deciphering their language because to do so would ‘open the door for understanding how other species communicate’.

The prairie dog’s barks, yips and chirping sounds are really a sophisticated form of communication that contains a vocabulary of at least 100 words, Professor Slobodchikoff claims. ‘The little yips prairie dogs make contain a lot of information,’ he said.

Professor Con Slobodchikoff, of Northern Arizona University, has been studying prairie dogs for 30 years

‘They can describe details of predators such as their size, shape, colour and how fast they are going. ‘They also can discriminate whether an approaching animal is a coyote or a dog, and they can decipher different types of birds.’

Professor Slobodchikoff and his students hid themselves in prairie dog villages and recorded the noises the rodents made whenever a human, hawk, dog or coyote passed through. What they found was that the prairie dog issues different calls depending on the intruder. The researchers discovered this by analysing the recorded calls for frequency and tone. They concluded that it doesn’t have one call for ‘danger’, rather it has a collection of warning noises – or a language.

To further develop this line of investigation, Professor Slobodchikoff gathered four volunteers and had them walk through a prairie dog village four times. On each occasion they wore the same clothing, except for different colour shirts. The prairie dogs responded by issuing different calls, depending on the colour of the volunteers’ shirts.

Professor Slobodchikoff then discovered they also issued different calls for varying heights, and even for abstract shapes including cardboard circles, squares and triangles. He told NPR: ‘Essentially they were saying, “Here comes the tall human in the blue,” versus, “Here comes the short human in the yellow.”‘

Above section from internet

This is an article I wrote about prairie dogs and a well-known painting showing them in praise or rapture or not.

Mid-Century Winnipeg – Restaurants

FIVE WINNIPEG RESTAURANT ADS FROM 1958 TOURIST GUIDE

Linda and Reid in Photo Booth

Somewhere back in the mists of time, about 1982, Linda and I took this photobooth picture to use in a promotional collage.

The collage (below) appeared in Midcontinental, a publication of Plug-In Gallery, March 1982 edition

Fifteen Museums That Don’t Exist

BEFORE AND AFTER VAL MARIE

 Reid Dickie  

BEFORE

            At Ipswich McCauley’s Museum, you will see five hundred sixty one pairs of baby shoes dating back to 1750; one hundred twenty of them are bronzed, some are moccasins worn by Sioux babies.

Down the road apiece is Doanne Skweizer’s grandfather’s collection of wrenches, 184 in all. Next to each wrench is a glass jar of nuts and bolts the wrench was used on.

In Lipton Seeback’s farmyard is a small shed that contains three hundred eleven early electric fans and a couch made of horseshoes welded together. Not even one of the fans work but, improbably, the couch is extremely comfortable.

Astwurst Shfickins brought his mother’s collection of dolls made of goat dung – all two hundred seventy three of them – from Norway. She made every one herself. He keeps them under locked airtight glass domes, each dome lit by an intense overhead beam.

A mile detour gets you to Ditdit Kbeema’s House of Coconuts. It is not a house made of coconuts but rather a collection of all the varieties of coconuts the planet provides.  Ditdit will always try to sell you a polyester Hawaiian shirt. Do not buy one.

Lukas Smallth claims to have about $30,000 worth of coins that he watched being run over by trains after he put them on railway tracks. When you ask him the obvious question, Lukas will likely weep.

Pershing Dowhauser inherited an uncle’s collection of clothespins and displays them on a clothesline holding up an aunt’s collection of Irish linen tea towels with birds on them. Everyday is laundry day at Pershing’s house.

As a school project when he was eight, Gorse Grass started keeping a diary of his toilet habits and still persists at this fifty-three years later. He will show you his twenty-seven volume diary, point out highlights, explain his rating system and, if he is in a good mood, show you the entry for his most favourite bowel movement ever.

Dawn Intrafficschool’s museum features the two things she collects: ribald stories about nuns and obscure laundry detergents. Dawn will enthrall you all day with her nun stories, which she reads aloud in her bold voice. Since she blushes easily, she will spend most of the time beet-faced and embarrassed. Next to her wringer washer is her collection of rare laundry detergents with names by Pek, Jer, Poomt, Durf, KKKleen and White World. Whether removed from the market due to corrosive natures, unhealthy emissions or witless naming, all her detergents have a story to tell, just like Dawn herself.

VAL MARIE

            I stopped at a pay phone outside a garage in Val Marie, Saskatchewan at 3:00 am to call in my report. A small green ball of light shot around the streets of the tiny village the whole time I made my call. It ignored me and, making a tiny rocket noise, zoomed about four feet off the ground up and down the dozen dusty streets that comprise Val Marie. The few streetlights in the village were the old-fashioned, loaded-with-shadows white light types so the brighter-than-neon green gave an eerie organic illumination to the scene.

As I drove out of town, the green ball streamed by me then turned down a street it had traveled 80 times in the last 5 minutes.

A few miles on, I stopped at the side of the highway. As I stepped out of the car, Orion stepped out of the sky and rubbed my shoulders. I palpitated next to Highway 18, massaged by a constellation.

By a stream, I fell asleep. I know this.

I am eastbound now, horizon speaking directly to me in the dim yellow language of morning.

AFTER

            Toodhow Klippenhaus will show you his collection of Venezuelan toreador hats for a small fee, usually from $5 to $8. He has over 800 to show you. Set aside a day.

At Aurora Gaunt’s Soup Museum, taste sixty-six kinds of consommé.

Watch for the dozens of flags flying at Biffyland, the world’s largest collection of outhouses, all in working order. How many? They have lost count but you can count on getting lost in the Biffy Maze. This is a recommended pit stop.

For some odd reason Clynmyst Gigglougg kept everything his mother told him never to put in his mouth. And here it all is, awaiting your perusal. Warning signs are posted.

The Old Testament is written on the west wall of Bryton Galosheski’s barn, on the east the New Testament. The gable ends are painted to look like the fore and aft of Noah’s Ark. All along the ridge top of the gambrel roof is a large wooden cutout of the Last Supper, elaborately painted on both sides. The entire roof area is covered with antlers, horns and hooves of wild animals fastened securely with airplane wire. Some say “awesome”, others say “ghastly.” You decide.

If broken scissors are your bliss then do not miss the stimulating displays at Dayton Drayder’s Home for Wayward Half Scissors. Dayton can answer all your scissor-related queries, even “Is half a scissor better than no scissor at all?”

  March 15, 2004

 None of these museums exists. Sorry.

Val Marie does exist in southwestern Saskatchewan at the western edge of Grasslands National Park. It has 137 people, an excellent bed and breakfast called The Convent, interesting tour guides and the Information Centre for Grasslands National Park. It is often the Canadian hot spot.

Sacred Places Locations

      Now that summer returns to the prairies, you may be planning personal journeys to some of the Sacred Places I have written about on my blog. Although several of the sites are on private land and require special permission to visit, most are accessible without consent.

       I have developed driving directions to six Sacred Places in Manitoba and six in Saskatchewan but I don’t plan to publish them. Instead, if you’d like specific easy-to-follow directions to any of these sites, email me at linreid@mts.net and I’ll supply the details. Please include a bit of information about yourself such as what province or state you live in, your interests, etc.

       The six Sacred Places in Manitoba are:

• Medicine Rock
• Star Mound
• Boissevain Dancing Ground
• Thunderbird Nest
• Bannock Point Petroforms
• Spirit Sands

The six Sacred Places in Saskatchewan are:

• St. Victor Petroglyphs
• Minton Turtle Effigy
• Big Beaver Buffalo Effigy
• Buffalo Butte Ceremonial Site
• Pine Cree Park
• Herschel Petroglyphs – limited access

Sacred Places

PINE CREE PARK, SK

Reid Dickie

1995-2010

“Sleeping on the Continental Divide.”

 “Coulee: from the French couler meaning “to flow”, is the term used for a channel down which melted snow and rainwater flow. Some coulees are very deep and wide, others only a few feet deep and so narrow that only a single human on a horse can ride through.”

– Sharon Butala

            Most of the sacred sites I have reported on occupy the highest hill around with amazing vistas in all directions. Pine Cree Park is an exception in several ways. Laid out at the bottom of a deep coulee (the steepness of the access road is about 60 degrees prohibiting large trailers), shrouded in verdant pines, pick any of the two dozen primitive campsites and you can hear the laughing water of the South Fork of Swift Current Creek as it passes beneath the boughs. The Creek burbles out of the top of the coulee about 2 km away and eventually drains into Lake Diefenbaker near Beaver Flat.

Pine Cree Park inhabits the eastern foothills of the Cypress Hills and sits almost exactly on the Continental Divide. If you stand on the one side of the creek you are on the Hudson Bay watershed into which all rivers, including the creek, eventually drain. Step across the creek – it’s only a few inches deep – and you are on the Gulf of Mexico side of the divide where all rivers drain into the warm gulf.

            With its good supply of water, game and protective, towering pines, this coulee was a favourite wintering spot for aboriginals, including Sitting Bull and his tribe, Crazy Horse and his people and millennia after millennia of wanderers. Thousands have overwintered here. Choirs of coyotes still serenade each night, since year 2000 bison once again roam the hills above the park. A mysterious and quite visible aura hangs over the intimate little place.

            This is my favourite camping spot on the prairies for its beautiful and unusual natural setting and long use. The old trees in the park are protective and add to the sheltering effect of the coulee. Thunder is amplified as it echoes off the coulee walls. Rain and windstorms pass over the coulee, tearing up trees and crops above but barely rippling the sides of my tent. Long into the night coyotes enchant the darkness.

            Good hiking boots to protect you against the prickly pear cactus are required to hike up the wall of the coulee. Access from the south end of the park offers a worn two-track trail through tall grass which ends with a spectacular view of the rolling hills that sweep westward and upward into the Cypress Hills. I often did my morning warrior tai chi atop the couleeside then would sit on a well-lichened stone as my morning prayers and songs arose spontaneously within me. I wrote of the experience, “A sense of wonder and secret joy carries me along, my body now just a device through which the Universe speaks. The intent of the earth is evident in my being; my feelings arise naturally in this nurturing space.” The park is one of those in-between places that shamans love and in which they thrive. 

            I first camped there in 1995 on my initial journey of discovery into the Saskatchewan Holyland. At the time I was reconnecting with the Earth and Pine Cree Park offered a serene and supportive setting for my sacred endeavours. Using the rituals and practical applications of Toltec shamanism, largely from the work of Victor Sanchez, I regained my strong connections with Nature and its mysticism, which contributed to my new-found shaman’s path. I seldom camp two nights in a row at the same spot but Pine Cree Park, with its welcoming mystery and peaceful aura, enticed me to linger several times.

            I encountered elemental spirits for the first time at Pine Cree Park. In 1996 on my second visit, little hazy water spirits gathered around me as I sat in light trance by the stream. Rock elementals and some tree elementals joined them in a wispy dance of happiness. My experience with elemental spirits suggests they are be happy spirits. Generally very local and not very powerful, most elementals positively influence my mood, which Pine Cree elementals did every time I camped there.

            During my second stay in the park, I found, or was found by, an oddly-shaped smooth stone with a dull point at one end that felt very amenable to traveling with me. I had gone for a hike up the couleeside and when I returned, the stone was sitting on my picnic table, source unknown. Later I journeyed to discover information about the stone and my spirit helper Broken Fingers had me experience “stone time” and “stone space.” In my journal I wrote “stone time feels like an endless slow pulse with a glimpse of eternity now and then; stone space is a fluid pattern of lights that go on and off incredibly slowly.”  

Broken Fingers also informed me the stone is a spring-starting stone that can be used to create a spring at a certain place. He gave me very specific instructions on how the stone is to be handled to make a spring and how to hand-dowse an area to find a good spot. From his deep wisdom, Broken Fingers told me of another way to sense for a good spot using my tongue as a sensor, which I have since used for several other purposes. Amazing the information we can gather if we use all the tools we’ve awarded!

            On my 1997 trip, I stayed at Pine Cree Park on my birthday. Earlier I had unwrapped the present Linda sent along with me. It was a beautiful blue Brazilian agate, cut thin and delicate. When I cupped it between my hands, I felt such warmth and love pouring from the stone. I could feel my heart beating inside the stone. Similar stones are used by Brazilian shamans for communication at the throat and brow. At twilight, which comes early this deep, I gently washed the blue agate in the cold clear waters of the South Fork. Welling up from within the earth just over a mile away, the water has little time to warm. It is numbingly cold but I could still feel my heart beating in the stone even underwater. Now an integral part of my medicine bag, the blue agate serves a new and significant purpose when Linda and I communicate.

            My most recent experience at Pine Cree Park was in August 2010 when I spent two wonderful hours reconnecting with my old friend. That’s how Pine Cree Park feels to me – an old reliable friend, protective and welcoming. During my time there, the rain I’d encountered from Regina stopped, then resumed as I left. That’s the kind of friend Pine Cree Park has become, a gentle and comforting teacher.             

Located about 9 km off SK Highway #13, and about 20 km north of Eastend or 30 km south of Shaunavon, Pine Cree Park still offers seclusion and quiet, except on Fridays or Saturdays. Try to stay there on a weeknight or Sunday. Choose any spot and know that beneath your tent or trailer is an ancient campfire. Listen for the echoes of drums and quiet singing wafting through the trees. Hike up the steep side of the coulee for magnificent vistas in all directions. Discover the balance that comes from sleeping on the Continental Divide.

            One more quote from my travel journal to end. This is from the morning of  August 5, 1997, “What a wonderful rest! If the coyotes performed their prairie opera, I slept through it. If a passing deer sniffed curiously at my tent, I slept along unaware. If Great Spirit stopped by to smile at me, it occurred outside my knowing. I am home.”

Very Clever Mirror Prank

There is no mirror !!!!

The woman in the grey suit is facing and moving in sync with her twin sister.

http://www.wimp.com/mirrorprank/

Do You Have a Last Will and Testament?

Reid Dickie

Recently I made changes to my last will and testament which required two people to witness the signing of the new document. I asked my neighbour and her partner to witness for me. I was surprised to learn that neither of these professional people, both approaching retirement within a decade, have written their will. Though neither have children, both own property and have assets. It got me wondering how many other people are intestate – without a will.

Despite the morbidity of the idea of a will and the introspective considerations creating a will requires, the process is well worth it. Wills don’t have to be complicated tracts that require expensive lawyers and reams of paperwork. I do recommend getting legal advice if your estate is large or complex, if you are separated or considering divorce, contemplating marriage or elderly and subject to undue influence from potential beneficiaries.

Otherwise making a will is easy. Go to Staples (UPDATE: As of 2013 Staples no longer carries the Self-Counsel products but I still found it at McNally-Robinson Bookstore in Winnipeg, $16), find the Self-Counsel Press display of legal and business forms and buy a $9 will kit. The kit has two blank last will and testaments and two blank living wills, all of which are legal everywhere in Canada except Quebec, and instructions on filling them out.

Decide on your executor (male) or executrix (female) and ask them if they are willing to fill the role for you. Handwrite your instructions clearly with dollar amounts in both numerals and written out in words. Be sure to include what powers over your estate you are giving your executor/trix such as power of dispute resolution, power to employ agents, power of sale and realization, etc. Appoint a guardian for your children if they are minors. You can state your wishes about having a funeral or not and any other considerations you have about events after your death. (Funeral or no funeral should be something your family already knows.) Have the will signing witnessed by two people who are not beneficiaries, store a copy in a safe place and give a sealed confidential copy to your executor/trix. Now you are testate, your final testament to the world has been made known. Die smiling.

What if you die intestate? Try not to do this; it just complicates everything for everyone. Though it varies from province to province, basically, without a valid will, your estate will be divided according to the estate property laws of your province. If you have no will and no living family members, your entire estate goes to the provincial government. If you die without a will but leaving relatives, the law will apportion your assets among your immediate family. An estate administrator to act as your executor/trix will be appointed, your family members and their portions of your estate will be determined and the age at which minors become beneficiaries will be set. In Manitoba, the spouse of the intestate is awarded $50,000, if the estate has that amount in it. This amount differs from province to province. The rest of your estate will be distributed to children and other eligible family members. Please remember that each province defines “spouse” and “family” differently.

While you are at it, make a living will, sometimes called a health care directive, as well. A living will differs greatly from a last will and testament in that it has no legal surety and only expresses your wishes. Should you become incapacitated, incompetent and/or unable to make decisions for yourself, a living will suggests heavily what you would like to happen but doesn’t necessarily guarantee it. Six provinces – British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec – have living will laws. Here’s how Manitoba’s is stated: “The wishes you express in your directive are binding on your friends, relatives and health care professionals (unless they are not consistent with accepted health care practices) and will be honoured by the courts. However, health care professionals treating you are not obliged to search for or ask about a signed directive. It is important to be sure that family, friends, your doctor and your proxy know you have a directive and know where it can be found.” The part in brackets is the bugaboo.

For a living will to be effective, even with supportive provincial laws, the onus is on you to make sure you have fully discussed your wishes with your family, friends and medical professionals. Give copies to the relevant people, listing their names on the bottom of the original. Keep the original living will readily available. Don’t keep your living will with your last will and testament. They serve different purposes and are relevant at different times in your living and dying. It’s an excellent idea to reread your living will once a year. Initial and date any changes you make to the original, distribute new copies to your principals.

By having wills that express your pre- and post-death desires, you are doing yourself and your family a big favour. Illness, accidents, old age and death strain our coping abilities so the more clarity and help you give your providers when the inevitable occurs, the better everyone will feel and cope. Bonus! You’ll be remembered with even more fondness!

Small but complete aside: I looked up the suffix trix which indicates a female doing something specific, like aviatrix or executrix. I posit it’s the root of the name Trixie. And that’s my theory and it’s mine.

Check out my post on obituary euphemisms.

Kangaroo Birth Cycle Coat Gets 200 Hits!

      Another milestone in DickToolery! It may not seem like many in the context of viral videos, but Kangaroo Birth Cycle Coat has become the first DickTool Co video to achieve 200 hits in five months on YouTube. Viewed most in the United States, it’s received hits from Canada, Italy, India, Malaysia, Australia, Saudi Aradia and Myanmar too.  Thanks for viewing! Winnipeggers may recognize the background music, Fascination. Local furriers, M. Hurtig & Sons, used it in their radio ads during the 1960s. Watch our video again for the first time.

Happy Birthday Alex Rosales

 Many Air Canada passengers to Chile, Japan, just about everywhere have experienced Alex’s hospitality. In the picture at the Dali Museum in Figueres, just outside Barcelona, Alex seems pretty confident that whatever laid that egg is long gone. In a Dali minute, everything can change. I have had many elegant and sumptuous meals at Alex’s table. He is an amazing chef and host! Today I wish him the happiest of birthdays! It’s only a number, Alex. Besides, you still look 25! With love, Reid

The Beatles in Winnipeg 1964

The Beatles never performed in Winnipeg but they did spend 35 minutes – about the length of their concerts at the time – on the tarmac at Winnipeg International Airport. It was Tuesday, August 18, 1964. Their plane needed refueling on its way from London to San Francisco where The Beatles started their 1964 North American tour the next evening. They played 25 cities in 31 days, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal their only Canadian dates.

Linda talked about hearing The Beatles were coming on the radio, called some friends to try to arrange a ride but, alas, the Fabs were long gone before she got to the airport.

The Beatles Winnipeg stopover gave a young guitarist named Bruce Decker the chance of a lifetime. Fit and fast, Decker took off across the runway, ran up the stairs and almost into the plane before being nabbed by security. This is the story in pictures, taken by Free Press staff photographer Dave Bonner, of Bruce Decker’s dash to fame as the young man tried to board the Beatles’ plane for a look at his idols.

Here`s how the Winnipeg Free Press reported Decker`s Dash:

Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his adventurous attempt was to earn him not only chuckles from the Beatles but also rapturous admiration from several Beatle fans.

“The whole thing was fantastic,” the 17-year-old Silver Heights School Grade 12 student said in an interview afterward.

“A group of us heard about the Beatles arriving while we were in a car preparing to drive to the beach. This was about 1:45 p.m. We decided to head for the airport and by the time we got there, the Beatles had already gone into the plane. In any event, we couldn’t see anything from the observation platform, so we sneaked down to the ramp and mixed with all the people down there. There was a group of girls standing near me and they were saying how they’d like to storm the stairs of the plane. Suddenly I decided I’d try to make it. I thought if I got a foot in the door, I’d be able to see them and that they’d speak to me.”

He said he looked up and saw the door open with no one standing on the steps. He decided to risk it and dashed off like a young gazelle across the 25 yards of apron to the stairs. Just before Bruce darted off photographer Bonner, for some uncanny reason, decided to take a shot of the group of young people standing on the apron. As Bruce started his run, Dave just followed through, clicking off his camera for this quick-action series. As Bruce bounded up the steps, Pan American’s local airport manager came out the door and grabbed the youth. Within seconds, three Royal Canadian Mounted Police men had dashed up the stairs, too, and put the long hand on the youth. He was carried across the apron amid rousing shouts of encouragement from the mob of teen-agers at the airport. Then he was taken to the RCMP office in the terminal and cautioned.

“Just as they were wrestling with me, I caught a glimpse of the Beatles through the door and they were all chuckling,” said Bruce. “I just did it for a bit of fun and didn’t realize there was anything serious attached to it. But, although I’m a Beatle fan, I was amazed at what happened afterward. For a joke, my friends started to collect ‘bail’ money for me and raised 29 cents so quickly they thought they’d better quit. Then, after the police had let me go, a girl recognized me and begged me to let her take my photo. Then another two girls saw me and pushed me into a corner. Tears were streaming down their faces as they asked me: ‘What do they look like? Did they say anything? How does Ringo look?’ ”

Bruce says he moved away from there and went into the coffee shop for a cup of coffee. “Another girl saw me and said, ‘That’s the boy who dashed for the plane.’ Then she put $1 down on the counter and told the waitress to give me anything I wanted to drink. I was completely stunned by all this,” said Bruce. “I mean, I like the Beatles but this is too much. The girls thought there was some kind of magic about me just because I’d got so close to the singers. Oh, well, it was a lot of fun while it lasted, but I just hope I didn’t cause the police too much trouble.”

       Bruce played with Burton Cummings in the Deverons and, for a short stint in 1966 after Chad Allen left, rhythm guitar with the Guess Who. In this Guess Who picture, Bruce is on the right. He also played in the Electric Jug and Blues Band. Bruce died in 1986. Watch The Beatles perform the next day in San Francisco.

Wild Vancouver VW

          Parked just off Robson on Saturday afternoon, I showed the front of this mobile art project in my Vancouver report. Here’s the side view. The passengers are stuffed animals.

Linda & Reid Remember Plug-In Gallery in 2002

          Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg offered several DickTool Co works to the public starting about 1975 including video, performance and music. In 2002, as a celebration of Plug-In’s 30^th anniversary, one of its founders of Plug-In, Suzanne Gillies, created a retrospective of some of the artists who showed there.  

           We were interviewed in our home for Back in the Day 1972-2002. Suzanne introduces the show and our interview follows. It begins with a discussion about video art and VPW’s reaction to our TV show. Click pic to play the 7-minute interview.

            The camera operator for this interview was a rookie named Nicole Shimonek. Eight years later, when I approached Video Pool about creating The DickTool Kit, who should be available but Nicole Shimonek, now with years of advanced technology training and experience. Nicole’s ability made The DickTool Kit look and sound great.

Filling Up The West – 1923 Canada West Promo Cover

        Watch my short video on free farms

          Clifford Sifton, the Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905, was the driving force behind the greatest immigration scheme in Canadian history. Through his efforts, the Department of the Interior distributed tens of thousands of pamphlets similar to this 30-page atlas on western Canada. The atlas describes the opportunities and the free homesteads that were available for prospective immigrants in western Canada. The style is flamboyant and spectacular  –  not to mention overstated  –  and had some similarities to a travelling “medicine show.”

         Through an aggressive propaganda campaign, Sifton hoped to saturate the United States and Europe with positive opinions about the Canadian West. Canadian immigration agents were sent to important European centres, and overseas journalists were given expense-free trips to see for themselves the “Last Best West” and its great promise.

         Sifton’s sole objective was to populate the West and his policy was simple: “only farmers need apply.” For Sifton, agriculture was the backbone of the Canadian economy and everything else depended on its success. The best European agriculturalists, Sifton believed, came from northern areas  –  Britain, Scandinavia, western or eastern Europe  –  while the least desirable came from the south. Sifton disdained southern Europeans, especially Italians, because as migratory labourers, they preferred to settle in the urban centres rather than venture into the countryside. However, Sifton encouraged east-European immigration. He considered east-European immigrants to be hard-working, obedient, agricultural people. Stated Sifton, “I think a stalwart peasant in a sheepskin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers had been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife, and a half-dozen children, is good quality.”

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html

Mid-Century Winnipeg – Eaton’s Beatle Bar

Ad for Eaton’s Beatle Bar, Winnipeg Free Press 1964

Counting Down the Top Six Religious Albums of the Week

#6

A big jump for little Lowell Mason this week, in at #6 up from #15 last week.

#5

The mass publicity garnered when Mama Genets was rushed to hospital with another Tums overdose helps the trendy trio hold at #5 this week.

#4

Leaping into the Top Ten from #24 last week, Benny, Nola and Nola’s perpetual bad-hair-day earn them #4 this week. (There is a rumour going around the Internet that even God doesn’t understand Nola’s hairstyle! What if that’s true?!)

#3

Bunnies and bears all under the same hairdo. Li’l’s campaign to put the yeast back in Easter fizzled but he’d still beloved among his numerous shut-in fans who order his albums through the mail. He’s climbing the Top Ten, up from 7 last week.

#2

 The power of wishful thinking comes through loud and clear in Ira’s new release which debuts at #2 this week. He’s touched a nerve or two.

#1

Long known for having a feel for their audience and still holding on at #1 for an astonishing 69 weeks, The Fab Four, The Ministers Quartet and their quadruple platinum classic Let Me Touch Him.

Like this? There’s more here.

Vancouver

Reid Dickie

 

            I’m home after a wonderful week of old friends, fine food, great conversations, amazing massages and Vancouver scenery. Everyone talks about the weather in Vancouver but I lucked out. After a day and a half of rain, we were rewarded with sunny skies and warm days for the rest of the week!

            The picture above is my 20th floor view from the Delta Vancouver Suites, a hotel and chain I highly recommend. Spread before me was Burrard Inlet with giant container ships loading and unloading at the Vancouver Docks, the Seabus beetling back and forth between downtown and North Vancouver, a busy heliport, a rail yard jammed with containers and beyond this the gorgeous mountains, their snowy caps contrasting with the dark green forest cover.

            As “supernatural” as Vancouver’s location is, it’s people who made it supernatural for me. My friends were so loving and caring. Three long memory-filled meals with my childhood and hometown friend Bob, whom I haven’t seen for 15 years, gave us both enormous joy. The ease and comfort between old friends and Old Souls helped both Bob and I deal with our recent challenges. Spending time with him was a great tonic for me!  

            Through Bob, years back, I met Dan, a superb guitarist with an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop music. We’ve been in touch online and I often post Dan’s forwards here. I spent a stimulating evening with Dan and his partner Joan who works in the Vancouver Library System. A delicious meal at Foo’s Ho Ho in Chinatown (102 E. Pender, go there!) was followed by a glass of wine overlooking English Bay from the lounge of the Sylvia Hotel, a luxurious heritage hotel and landmark. More fine conversation ensued.   

            Lori worked with Linda and me at IF you have to get dressed in the morning for over five years and was very instrumental in the success of the business. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years so we spent a fine evening sharing a meal, a bottle of wine and our shamanic experiences. Lori is another Old Soul who helps young people overcome addiction. 

            Speaking of Old Souls, you first met Travis in Be Happy, my 2010 year-end review. He is successfully pursuing his career as a registered massage therapist at an upscale spa in Vancouver. It worked out that I was able to get three of Travis’ amazing two-hour massages during my stay. As well, once again he came to my rescue and helped me recognize and reconcile some difficult steps in my personal evolution. I am blessed to have Travis in my life. I have never met anyone like him. The wisdom of the Ancients shines through his eyes.

            A walk through Stanley Park with Dan one sunny afternoon turned up two of the most unusual encounters of my trip. I had no clue that blue herons nested in trees!

            On the edge of Stanley Park in the tops of mature trees were dozens of large stick nests, bigger than crows’ nests, clearly visible in the leaf-bare trees and inhabited by blue herons. Dan said once the chicks are born the leaves are on the trees and it becomes “Pterodactyl City” with the raucous hungry cries of all the heron chicks. I had assumed blue herons were shore birds, nesting among reeds.

            In Morton Park right on English Bay, A-maze-ing Laughter, a public art exhibit by Chinese artist Yue Minjun, is the happiest place in Vancouver. Fourteen cast bronze male figures, each about 9 feet tall and 550 pounds, exhibit the postures of laughter. Their hilarity is spontaneous and palpable in their presence. The figures were shipped from China, welded into place and reinforce our need to be happy every day.

            On the warm sunny days the sidewalks were thronged with people, crowded on into the evening along the trendy streets with bright boutiques and coffee shops, the air alive with languages from around the planet. The man in a wheelchair with pigeons sitting on his shoulders begging for change in front of a shop that sells $5,000 handbags was a cruel disparity often repeated.

            I was glad to see The Georgia Straight still publishing after these many decades. Saturday afternoon on Robson Street brought out the decorated Volkswagen and a larger throng.

I was glad to be getting out of the hive, into the air and back where there is room to breathe and move freely and be happy. But it was a seamless trip that dispelled the winter blahs. I return rejuvenated and ready for my summer adventures wherever they may take me. Thanks for a great time, Vancouver!

Sacred Raptor

Reid Dickie

             As I walked up the easy incline toward the Turtle Effigy in southern Saskatchewan, overhead I heard familiar prairie music – the piercing screech of Red-Tailed Hawk. The bird had followed me from Wild Man Butte, half an hour away, or so it seemed, and would meet me again at the Herschel Petroglyphs, hundreds of miles away. As I prayed amid the stones on that serene hilltop, Red-Tailed Hawk hunted up and down the surrounding ravines.

            I have encountered this beautiful creature at sacred sites all over the prairies. The call of Red-Tailed Hawk punctuates the vast loneliness of wide-open spaces with its desperate, even crazy edge, a shrill urgency meant to frighten small timorous critters from the safety of grass nests to become hawk breakfasts. Hear it.

            To the south of Turtle Effigy, the plains roll away toward Big Muddy Lake, usually a shallow, white-rimmed affair. In a bluff down the hill, an uneven nest of sticks built near the swaying top of a huge cottonwood indicates the home of Red-Tailed Hawk. Nests like these abound from Alaska to Panama. A successful bird, Red-Tailed Hawk is the most abundant hawk in North America and the largest, the female a third bigger than the male. The bird’s size caused ancient inhabitants to call it Red Eagle.                                                                                                      

            Red-Tailed Hawk, of the genus buteo (pronounced ‘beauty-o’), comes in a striking array of colour combinations. The consistent feature is the rufous-coloured tail, redder on top, pinkish underneath.

            I have watched Red-Tailed Hawk’s skillful hunting and heard the melancholy cries at buffalo pounds, turtle effigies, burial mounds, snake pits and petroglyphs all across the southern prairies. If it is hunting in a valley, I may never see the bird but only hear its cries. Their numbers make them ubiquitous out here. Extremely rare in cities, they prefer lonesome expansive grasslands or rich marshes.

            A special encounter with sacred Red-Tailed Hawk occurred in an unlikely place. A few days before my double-bypass heart surgery in June 2002, with my prayer circle and spirit friends in place, I was taking a walk down our elm-shaded streets when I heard the distinctive sharp cry of Red-Tailed Hawk! In the middle of the city! It was clear and recognizable in the midday din.

            The sound of the hawk immediately transported me back to the sacred sites I’ve come to know over the years. I recalled the helpful local spirits at these places and realized, since I have a familiarity with them, they would be an important part of my healing.

            I don’t know what made the sound of Red-Tailed Hawk in the middle of the city – I didn’t see the bird, only heard its cry. Whatever it was, it reminded me of the places and the powers I have encountered, how they manifested in my life on the verge of surgery and how they could play a role in my healing afterwards.

            Thank you for reminding me Red-Tailed Hawk.