On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people from all backgrounds gathered all over Canada to celebrate National Aboriginal Day, which honours First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples’ invaluable contributions to our history and culture. The post National Aboriginal Day Celebrated in Canada appeared first on THE CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE.
Continue readingTag: history
Scripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Hollow Crown: Henry V
As I started to watch the last film in the Hollow Crown series, I wasn’t sure whether Tom Hiddleston was up to playing the iconic role in Shakespeare’s most patriotic (and jingoistic) play. I thought Hiddleston’s Prince Hal in Henry IV had just a little too much of Loki –
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the book thief, an anti-war novel
I’m sure many of you have read The Book Thief, Markus Zusak’s youth novel about a German girl and her (non-biological) family during World War II. If you haven’t yet read it, I recommend it. I had little interest in reading this book. I picked it up for professional reasons:
Continue readingEclectic Lip: How Trinity Western University (unintentionally) promotes divorce
Trinity Western University has been in the news recently, as law societies in Ontario and Nova Scotia voted to not recognize lawyers trained at the religious university’s soon-to-open law school. These two law societies – like your blogger and the vast majority of Canadians – recoiled in horror at the
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: The ‘Vankleek Hill May Show’ is dead, long live the ‘VKH Victoria Day Weekend Arts Festival’… or something TBD later.
We’re doing just fine, thanks. …there’s a rumour going around that Vankleek Hill’s ‘May Show’ has been cancelled this year. But it really hasn’t. Vankleek Hill’s ‘May Show Arts Festival’ started in the early 1980’s — this would have been … Continue reading →
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Colonialism and Churchill
Winston Churchill about the Palestinians, in 1937: “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Colonialism and Churchhill
Winston Churchill about the Palestinians, in 1937: “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Now That…that is a Catch-22 – Belarus 1942
If you have not picked up or borrowed Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder yet, I suggest you do so. It is a shockingly candid dissertation on what happened to the people on the Eastern Front between Stalin and Hitler. I quote from that text:
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Now That…that is a Catch-22 – Belarus 1942
If you have not picked up or borrowed Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder yet, I suggest you do so. It is a shockingly candid dissertation on what happened to the people on the Eastern Front between Stalin and Hitler. I quote from that text:
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: A 17-Minute conversation with Williamstown artist, Erica Taylor… because 20 would be too much awesome for your brain.
This blog is meant to be a learning tool… both for us and others. A few weeks ago, Erica Taylor — the Williamstown-based painter / graphic designer / illustrator / wood worker / carver, agreed to sit down for an … Continue reading →
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Lost Shakespeare play found?
Cardenio. Written by William Shakespeare. Based on an episode in Miguel Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote. The novel was translated from Spanish into English in 1612. The play was known once, but lost. Performed by the King’s Men in 1613, the same year Shakespeare penned Henry VIII, or All is True
Continue readingPostArctica: Mammoth Miners Memorial, Mammoth, Arizona
Came across this remarkable art in honour of dead miners. “The Mammoth Miners Memorial honors 55 miners who lost their lives over the years in the San Manuel, St. Anthony and Tiger mines. Along with a statue of a hard-rock miner and ore buckets, the memorial features a sculpture of
Continue readingPostArctica: Mammoth Miners Memorial, Mammoth, Arizona
Came across this remarkable art in honour of dead miners. “The Mammoth Miners Memorial honors 55 miners who lost their lives over the years in the San Manuel, St. Anthony and Tiger mines. Along with a statue of a hard-rock miner and ore buckets, the memorial features a sculpture of
Continue readingArt Threat: Painting, Resisting, Giggling: An Interview with George Littlechild
I first stumbled upon George Littlechild’s art at the Comox Valley Art Gallery in my hometown of Courtenay, British Columbia. After reeling from the emotional turmoil and historical reopening, rapprochement and reordering rendered in his bold and colourful brush strokes and integration of collage through archives, I was delighted further
Continue readingwmtc: some thoughts on emily brontë’s wuthering heights
Cover of 1943 Random Houseedition with woodcut illustrations Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights in 1847, under a pseudonym. Brontë died the following year, at age 30. It was the only book she would ever publish. How did an isolated young woman, a parson’s daughter from a remote area of Yorkshire, who never married,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reflections on Chartres Cathedral, the death of civilization and the deification of the banal
Thinking of Chartres Cathedral, I ask myself, what, if anything, have we built in the past eight centuries, that compares to this? The iPad, computers, cell phones, the internet? Are you kidding me? You must be joking. We have more ways to amuse ourselves, yes, but when has our
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Civilization, Capitalism, Consumption – Why stop the Orgy?
I’m glad I’ll be dead when humanity’s collective shit hits the fan. I used to get all wrapped up in debates about Capitalism and the slow motion Seppuku we’re committing. I was genuinely flummoxed when my arguments were characterized as hopelessly naive and that my positions were unfounded vis-a-vis economic
Continue readingwmtc: march 19, 2003: don’t call it a failure. it was a huge success for so many.
Eleven years ago today, the US invaded Iraq. This unprovoked invasion of another country that had not threatened the United States was justified by the pretense of finding weapons of mass destruction (which the US knew did not exist), and as payback for 9/11 (which the US knew Iraq had
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Machiavelli and the Elizabethans
In 1555, Bishop Stephen Gardiner wrote a treatise to King Phillip II of Spain, in which he borrowed (aka plagiarized) extensively from Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Discourses. Gardiner did not credit Machiavelli or attribute any of his quotes, but rather copied some of Machiavelli’s content verbatim or very closely.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Lucretius and the Renaissance
It’s fairly clear, even after reading only a few verses, why Lucretius’s didactic poem, On the Nature of Things – De Rerum Natura – made such an impact on thought, philosophy, religion and science in the Renaissance. It must have been like a lighthouse in the dark night; a “Eureka” moment for
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