Love Song No. 6

as some of you may know: ages ago i was in an amazing all native rock and roll band. we grew out of the drama team at the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre over there in Sudbury, Ontario. ah but those were some glorious and exciting times!

on stage at the Northern Lights Folk Festival (ages ago!)

the band was called No Reservations and gosh they were a wild bunch! some day we need to write a book about that one.

and so around that time, i bought a Fostex brand 4 track recorder which used basic cassette tapes. i’d plug a cassette in there and use those 4 tracks to try and make something song wise i could take to the band. of course we had that Fostex sitting around at the party house too and some mighty weird songs were recorded on there including the infamous: What to do with Sunday Afternoon… (also on my Youtube channel, warning: coarse language and sexual content in that song!)

anyway: the Fostex and all those original tapes lay buried in a plastic bin back home on the range, for who knows how long. about 5 years ago someone who knows how to transfer these old analog tapes to digital went to work on a few of them and we ended up with some snap shots of the past, which we still need to make videos for and post them to the twinravens youtube channel. for kicks you see!

recently though i was given a gizmo that connects a guitar into a computer to record on Garage Band. this thing is an Apogee brand “jam” connector. the line in is the 1/4 inch jack and the line out is this magic whatever it is that turns your guitar into a digital. but instead of plugging the quarter inch line in jack from the guitar i plugged the far end into this Fostex and boom: we can hear all these old tapes once again but this time on computer. super fun stuff especially as some of this “insane and abstract” music hasn’t seen the light of day since 1995. like: The Shadow of You. (yikes! what a song!)

anyway. i haven’t got the details sound wise figured out: how to mix these four tracks into the digital without a lot of back ground noise, buzz, and all that crap that goes with a jangle of wires all over the table top. and i’m no ACE when it comes to using Garage Band! i’m still trying to figure that one out!

but here is Love Song Number 6 for you! fussed with last night to the tune of a half a dozen beers, a lot of wiggling and waggling of wires and yes the mix is very muddy, but this is our first run at reviving these old tapes and putting them on the youtube air.

Fostex analog to Garage Band digital, first attempt.

i think i wrote and recorded this in 1994 when the band was starting up and really getting going. we were a rock and roll band so this song definitely didn’t make the set list.

i put this cheesy video together last night after fussing for several hours with the sound and those measly 4 tracks! (gosh the business of recording sound, songs and so on is time consuming! best not to be consuming a half dozen beers along the way… (we’ll try it again on the sober straight and narrow very soon!)) the drawings in the video come from that time! those are drawings of mine from a sketch book dated 1994/1995. you’ll even see the famed Stacie from Malibu in there! gosh she was a thunderbolt!

anyway! there it is! my first attempt to revive these old songs of mine that never made the No Rez set list or album list. i had a lot of fun trying to figure this out last night and yes, those tasty German beers can become a diversion in the process but you have to remember last night it was a blistering 30 C plus! up here on the 3rd floor it was smoking hot! we were down to our bikinis!

Me and Shag going to work in No Reservations

ah but the music business was fun and how i would love to get back into it. but a fella like me needs a band and right now my band is working other irons in other fires.

the glass ain’t half empty/full, its BONE DRY!

you see in the band i was never one of the vocalists. we had 3 good singers up front and that is where they’re supposed to be! a voice like mine just couldn’t run in that race but i was mighty happy to be in there on one of the guitars.

here is what the band really sounds like, with all the bells and whistles of a fancy studio production:

Nice work!

so i’ll go back to work on those old cassette tapes and see what we can scrounge up in the lost songs/Fostex dept. (might be best to start the project in the morning minus the German pilsners! ha!)

and that’s the story behind: Love Song Number 6. words and music by Mark Seabrook. artwork too, drawn over the fun times of 1994 and 1995. what art fun!

update: November 8, 2022: full moon is on the rise, very far north on the tree line to the east, out here on the open range. no wind on a night like this means sweet and wonderful beauty! the landscape is at peace which means we can be too! wonderful way to spend a Tuesday night! anyway: I wanted to re share this classic twinravens song with you. I hope you like it!

Rolling Up on Year End!

it started off looking good but things sure got weird fast on March 13th! ever since, this old boy’s art making tools got dusty.

cruising with the Kitty in Muskoka in November

it’s a good thing the book sales have been through the roof because the art sales have been in the gutter! that black Kitty doesn’t run on thank you notes or best wishes!

Book 5, Found poetry and Art Journal

in place of painting i’ve been fussing with the art journals and found poetry and coming up with some pretty weird poems and pictures. the above drawing is my version of Norval Morrisseau’s Thunderbird with Inner Spirit, 1978. (also watched the doc: There Are No Fakes, and actually made it through this time! over at the Bytowne 2 summers ago i tried sitting through it twice and fell asleep at both showings!)

Book 5, Found poetry and Art Journal

gosh yes, some days it would seem there truly is, but i’m certain i was just over tired when it came to pages 178 and 179. tired too of club being closed!

Book 5, Found poetry and Art Journal

book 5 has been in the works a long time! we started that bad boy way back in the good old days: February 24, 2020. mind you we do have book 6 and book 7 also on the go.

Book 5, Found poetry and Art Journal

and so i got to thinking about these one of a kind works of art and writing. what “other” book shelves might they go nicely with?

Chief Hurting Dude, Salvation Army, O Town

saw this weirdness over at the Sally one day while on the snoop. someone actually followed through with it! wowza!

A Self Portrait in 2009, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection

we’re at the very last of the Stevenson paint! the paint company, rest in peace, served me alright and i was happy to know them but i guess its time to switch brands. we’re going with Golden Heavy Body Acrylic starting in the new year. even though we only painted 4 pictures since March 13, with every brush stroke i was thinking about the last of my brand man! i was a Stevenson man!

Who has this?

i was thinking about a collector friend of mine the other day, she’s long gone now, and i was the last one to truly see her, and i wondered what happened to her collections. if it was just me at the very end, well then where did this 4 piece end up? who has it?

the rig. artwork by Peter Purdy, 36×48″, acrylic on canvas. twinravens collection!

xmas is rolling up too! what will become of our treasured gathering on xmas eve? just 5 participants allowed at the party? what kind of party is that?!!! sheesh. well anyway the gift giving is still on and so i got this rig for my old buddy Jasmine Moon. don’t tell her as i want it to be a surprise! she’s 18. i was 18 when i started playing guitar. stole an acoustic off my cousin! took it right out from under her bed! ha! i don’t think she ever missed it. so i hauled it off with me to art school and with a little book showing the chords i started out on my own. didn’t know how to tune the thing! no instruction! took me ten years but i finally fell in with the right bunch of fellows! and a gal!

NR: that’s my Band!

that band should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by now but nope! in the end we F’d it all up! one thing is for sure, it turned out to be the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that flipping valuable again.

but back to Jasmine Moon: 18 years old. time to pick it up. she didn’t take to the acoustic so maybe this Les Paul copy and a dirty amp will do the trick! bring on the power chords!

and what about xmas? i guess we’ll find out when we get there.

Blazing Down the Highway Vol. 2

when i’m deep in the city during a heat wave i’m dreaming about one thing! to get back home, back to the range, back to a paradise on earth: Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. a place where this Covid crap just is not an issue. a place where this road rage is for chuckle heads. a place where this heat wave doesn’t mean a thing when you’re… well. on an island. you’re surrounded by the Great Lake Huron: crystal clear waters.

classic unrequited love…

life in the city: scenes in every direction. there are a lot of folks in this town who are just plum off the map!

i split the city around 7 p.m. going solo west bound on Highway 17, with the full moon in the forecast! me being a child of the DARKNESS, the moon and me go way back. there is stretch between Deep River and Mattawa, Ontario, on Highway 17: the wilderness! out there, you can see the moon and the stars or the galaxy without any light pollution and it being alongside a river, you can hear the wild goings on out there in the great wide open. and remember the fragrance of the almighty: it is there. yes there there may be specks of pollution here and there, like the fireflies dancing in every direction, but the fragrance is on full and with a few deep breaths you can feel… almost! like you’re back home.

Back home: sunrise in early July

i made it without incident, arrived at sunrise and man that is a work day: up at 4 a.m. Friday morning. at the office 9 to 5. rigging the rigging till 7. the open highway from 7 until 7! nice one. got home and immediately hit the Blue and Green. which of course means the river too!

The River on Saturday afternoon, July 4

there are so many places of magic along that stretch! this certainly is one of them and i spent many a wonderful hour sitting right there! it was everything i dreamed of and imagined when i was in the city in the grinder in the heat.

Best foot forward, at home, in July, at full moon.

yes i asked for it and i got it! that river is magic. and it is medicinal! and for you folks that believe in “other things”, well they were out there too! i could hear them. and for a few moments i thought we were being infiltrated! i got my phone camera ready to record the situation between me: home owner on my homeland, clearly and identifiable INDIAN and the now infamous “Karen and Becky” team…

weirdly… there were no signs of infiltration after we went out there to check the wire. weird. hmmm.

The Range in early July 2020

it IS very dry this year. and i worry about my willow tree. the yard… not the lawn of years past. but then i’m not home to take care of things.

The famous GREEN and BLUE

that is a morning, afternoon and evening trail for the folks who understand why it is there. and out there, in this photo, in the distance, you can see the crib! that green and blue is a real place of peace and paradise. Shell wants trees on both sides and i said it might take 30 years but hey! there are some trees out there on the right side. maybe it will happen.

that trail: in the glorious summer time: it was before i came back here so it was i know, 5 summers ago at least. one of my super glamorous and supremely gorgeous gal pals was with us and we were on the river together. it was an afternoon in paradise, at the waterfall. as we OD’d on vitamin D, around 4:30 i could tell the weather was changing. i told her it might be a good idea to head back to the house as the rain was coming and a thunderstorm too.

she said she didn’t mind the rain since we were in our bikinis anyway! but i told her i think its going to be a big one! so we started out back to the house down that little trail. in the north we could see the storm approaching.

The Blue and Green before a summer storm

it was like this scene and i said: wow! this is going to be a big one! she said i want to watch it roll over us. well it was a smoking hot 35 C at the very least! i knew the raindrops were going to be BIG!

the sky was filled with sounds!

so we stood there at the place where the cedar grove trail goes up onto the wild hay field and watched it roll in. it was indeed an incredible scene.

The MAGIC of a summer storm!

i said it was a million dollar view and we started walking, barefoot down the almighty. we didn’t get far when boom the storm landed right on us. for some reason we started to run and i’ll never forget. she was as tanned as i, and i saw that tanned and soaked skin of hers, her long black hair soaked and wild all down her back and on her gorgeous face, her beautiful laughter. hands out over the tall grass. those big rain drops running down her arms and down her legs…

i looked down and saw my tanned legs with the rain pouring down them.

we ran all the way down the trail and back to the house where the chilled, very dry chardonnay was waiting for us. what a grand memory.

that was just 5 summers ago now that i think about it. before Jazz went to high school. i’ve been over here now, on the road, for 4 years.
and there is no way i could make that run, not the way i am now. not with the life style i’ve been living…

yes that was a grand and beautiful run. a poetic run! an art run. a run like that goes into your personal history! (i was reminded of said day on the drive back to O Town: i watched a summer storm roll over the La Cloche Mountains at 6 p.m., as seen from Highway 6. what sky scenes and what memories they brought with them!)

That Weekend at the Cottage, No. 6

a love story… as it always is when you’re out there: at the cottage… a weekend for you unlucky folks or for 12 weeks like us lucky folks.

That Weekend at the Cottage, No. 7. A Love Story.

ah yes. i need the time and space of the open range to fire up some exotica! here in the city: there are so many angry people… nothing wrong with the city! it’s the people that make it ugly. and in this town they come in every shape and size.

anyway. i saddled up on Sunday around 530 p.m. and started the long ride back to O Town. it is, like i said, a full 8 hours. no short cuts. but the sky was clear and the full moon was up there! and so we turned that 8 hour drive into a full 12 hours and yes it was magical, wonderful, and glorious. all of what i imagined! all of what i asked for. and wowza!

rolled into O Town just as the light of a new day was starting: what a scene. and what a change of scenery! got to the apt., switched out my jungle clothes for the mild mannered Clark Kent/Peter Parker wear, and hit the office for 9 a.m. yes you can get 20 hours from your day! and you can see a great many things along that way!

Acrylic on canvas board, 7×9 inches, artwork by Mark Seabrook. Private Collection.

and so yes: lucky indeed, once again! there is a golden horse shoe stowed somewhere and let me tell you here and now we want to make sure it continues to be stowed…. yes x 3, Ducky style.

New Painting here soon!

Miigwetch.

a song in closing:

The great rock and roll band: No Reservations

Indigenous Writing

we’re still up here on the swanky 9th: Sunday morning in a blaze of sunshine, clock watching, and fussing with the re do of SUN INFINITY MOON.

Version 2

here is the new cover idea in basic. the artwork is “Feeding the Wolves”, acrylic on canvas, 36×48 inches. the painting is in a private collection on the other side of Canada, last i heard. we’re going to drop the warning on the cover and that will be the end of the “course language” fiasco!

Crossroad Cant, published way back in 1997

i wish i’d kept the review someone sent me of this little book of poems. the woman who reviewed us loved Mary and Ann but hated me and Shafiq. she called my poetry: “the whining and maligning of Mark Seabrook”. ha! i was whining about the 60’s Scoop Experience, racism directed at Indigenous People, culture genocide, the raping of the Canadian environment, the death of a close friend, sweet memory lane and old love stories. so yes, in her view: i was whining and maligning. in my view we were slightly ahead of the curve with said subjects.

the view from the 9th: Saturday afternoon, June 27th

you do not want to see what is below that frame: trust me on that one! inside the 9th we’re in AC and yeah man: we’re chilling.

Beautiful Markham, Ontario, Canada

the sky was filled with drama last night. too bad we had all this crap in the way of seeing such wonder. and don’t forget the roar, the noise and the exhaust that goes with a photo like this… (i’m going back to the range next weekend.)

the utmscribes bit i was going on about yesterday

fun stuff! many thanks to utmscribes!

i like how they didn’t call it whining and maligning! i guess you could say the world has come a long way since 1997.

darn rights!

every now and again i see something on instagram that is worth another look! i like that one.

hmmm…

60’s Scoop: we’ve been there and done that! and let me tell you, that kid, age 0 to 6: that was a nightmare!

Thanksgiving at the River

we shall get ourselves safely back to that river one of these days soon where we can spend the rest of our days in peace.

Paintings, Writings, Music and road tripping Native Style

Power Bird on the Range, acrylic on canvas board, 7×9″, Artist Collection.

in the spirit of Pride, the Power Bird on the Range, artwork by Mark Seabrook. ah yes was it the summer of 2013 when we walked out to what became “the Art Bridge” and re visited our landscape painting? the Art Bridge is part of the laneway into the range, back home on the island. and the “twinravens” landscape is something we were developing way back in art school: many moons ago. developing yes. unfortunately not connecting the dots, never following through. the idea was brewing alright and one day when i get home to the range i’ll snap a photo of one of the paintings from that era, where the brewing was beginning! in recent years, in full brew (ha!), we managed create paintings like this:

For Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women, Acrylic on canvas, 36×58 inches

i’m pretty happy with that one. many thanks of course to the good folks at Abstract Expressionism, c. 1950.

Body, Mind, Spirit. Acrylic on canvas board, 12×12 inches. Artist Collection.

we’re going to hang onto this one as we were almost there with the idea. what we need though is a block of time back at the bridge! maybe we can get back there in August, as i have been thinking about that one!

Clouds over Lake Mindemoya, acrylic on canvas, 16×20″. Artist Collection.

we want to remember too, that THIS was part of that landscape idea from art school. this one was painted during 3rd year and thank goodness we still have this sketch! the large painting of this idea is the first painting i sold! many thanks to those doctors from Toronto. (Doc: if you’re reading this please contact me as i’d love to see the big painting again.)

Anishnabe at Full Moon, acrylic on canvas board, 16×20″. Artist Collection.

we want to remember we still have this going on and its going to continue to go on!

The Lottery Ticket in Thunderbird Stories Edition One

i want to say Aanii and Boozhoo to any of you folks here from the UTM Scribes on Instagram! “The Lottery Ticket” is a part of the horror story: SUN INFINITY MOON which is my first attempt at a novella.

the famous: Moosonee Proof!

yes we kind of rushed through production last summer and what they gave us was a book full of howling errors! errors like cockroaches, i didn’t see all of them until i started paying attention last autumn. so if you come across one of these copies, what it is is the Artist Proof. sorry about that. it is being retooled and we are soon printing the cleaned up version with a brand new cover. example of howling errors: right there on the cover: the clown changed my “coarse” language to his “course” language…

you see this is what happens when…

yeesh.

anyway. we move forward.

Very much still active a full 25 years later!

the famed twinravens Summer Mission Statement. words we lived by up until just a short 4 years ago when this road trip started. we have had bits and pieces of this mission statement covered since but some that have not been covered are: “swim out beyond the confines of the cover, into the big water where the big fish like to go”, “spend a morning, afternoon and evening with your mom and dad and have them tell you about the times when they were your age”, and “design your own tattoos”. my tattoos have faded away, now long gone. (Meen Geezis translates to: Berry Moon, or July)

Page 178, from INFINITY

yes there is a lot of coarse language and mad capped high jinx going on within the pages of INFINITY but the same can be said about SUN and MOON. this ain’t no Indian Disneyland type story.

Refer to: this piece at cbc.ca

The Doc Project·Personal Essay

My adoptive parents tried to erase my Indigenous identity. They failed.

Kim Wheeler was adopted during the Sixties Scoop and fought to find her way back to her culture

Kim Wheeler · Posted: Jun 18, 2020 5:29 PM ET | Last Updated: June 18

well that is Kim Wheeler’s tale. mine is quite different. my parents did NOT try to erase my Indian identity. what they did instead was save my life.

but going through that adventure: The 60’s Scoop, for me, sure did open a lot of doors where a natural born artist like me can stand and see a great many things, people included. i was one of the lucky ones.

Words and music by Shag Shaganash

i didn’t write any part of that one. that’s all Shag and his work. but that’s my band and lets hope and pray one day we get that show back on the road. the world could use some NR.

Words by Mark Seabrook, Music by Shawn Corbiere, Vocal by Jen B.

i did write the words to this one and you can hear in the lyrics: that 60’s scoop experience… many thanks to Mr. S.C. for the music and the great Jen Brunelle for the vocal. Danny Boy on the drums! (Hey that record was nominated for a Juno Award! just saying.)

well we are here and it is now: we’re on the swanky 9th. the cook is working up something very nice for lunch and the afternoon is all ours: what to do with Saturday afternoon?!!! ha ha. i say that knowing the mad capped twinravens classic: “What to do with Sunday afternoon?” (on my youtube channel), some of you found offensive and accused me of being obtuse!

Summer in the city

what we have to do is make up our mind which is our best foot and put it forward! GO!

Love Song No. 6

as some of you may know: ages ago i was in an amazing all native rock and roll band. we grew out of the drama team at the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre over there in Sudbury, Ontario. ah but those were some glorious and exciting times!

on stage at the Northern Lights Folk Festival (ages ago!)

the band was called No Reservations and gosh they were a wild bunch! some day we need to write a book about that one.

and so around that time, i bought a Fostex brand 4 track recorder which used basic cassette tapes. i’d plug a cassette in there and use those 4 tracks to try and make something song wise i could take to the band. of course we had that Fostex sitting around at the party house too and some mighty weird songs were recorded on there including the infamous: What to do with Sunday Afternoon… (also on my Youtube channel, warning: coarse language and sexual content in that song!)

anyway: the Fostex and all those original tapes lay buried in a plastic bin back home on the range, for who knows how long. about 5 years ago someone who knows how to transfer these old analog tapes to digital went to work on a few of them and we ended up with some snap shots of the past, which we still need to make videos for and post them to the twinravens youtube channel. for kicks you see!

recently though i was given a gizmo that connects a guitar into a computer to record on Garage Band. this thing is an Apogee brand “jam” connector. the line in is the 1/4 inch jack and the line out is this magic whatever it is that turns your guitar into a digital. but instead of plugging the quarter inch line in jack from the guitar i plugged the far end into this Fostex and boom: we can hear all these old tapes once again but this time on computer. super fun stuff especially as some of this “insane and abstract” music hasn’t seen the light of day since 1995. like: The Shadow of You. (yikes! what a song!)

anyway. i haven’t got the details sound wise figured out: how to mix these four tracks into the digital without a lot of back ground noise, buzz, and all that crap that goes with a jangle of wires all over the table top. and i’m no ACE when it comes to using Garage Band! i’m still trying to figure that one out!

but here is Love Song Number 6 for you! fussed with last night to the tune of a half a dozen beers, a lot of wiggling and waggling of wires and yes the mix is very muddy, but this is our first run at reviving these old tapes and putting them on the youtube air.

Fostex analog to Garage Band digital, first attempt.

i think i wrote and recorded this in 1994 when the band was starting up and really getting going. we were a rock and roll band so this song definitely didn’t make the set list.

i put this cheesy video together last night after fussing for several hours with the sound and those measly 4 tracks! (gosh the business of recording sound, songs and so on is time consuming! best not to be consuming a half dozen beers along the way… (we’ll try it again on the sober straight and narrow very soon!)) the drawings in the video come from that time! those are drawings of mine from a sketch book dated 1994/1995. you’ll even see the famed Stacie from Malibu in there! gosh she was a thunderbolt!

anyway! there it is! my first attempt to revive these old songs of mine that never made the No Rez set list or album list. i had a lot of fun trying to figure this out last night and yes, those tasty German beers can become a diversion in the process but you have to remember last night it was a blistering 30 C plus! up here on the 3rd floor it was smoking hot! we were down to our bikinis!

Me and Shag going to work in No Reservations

ah but the music business was fun and how i would love to get back into it. but a fella like me needs a band and right now my band is working other irons in other fires.

the glass ain’t half empty/full, its BONE DRY!

you see in the band i was never one of the vocalists. we had 3 good singers up front and that is where they’re supposed to be! a voice like mine just couldn’t run in that race but i was mighty happy to be in there on one of the guitars.

ah for kicks here is another one of the Fostex tapes digitized by one of the lads who really knows how to make the sound proper and clean. well, as clean as it can be considering the tape is 25 years old! (this is what Love Song Number 6 is supposed to sound like, less the tasty German pilsners!)

WARNING: Coarse language and sexual content.

made up on the spot, Sunday morning, Suds, 1995

this is one of those songs made up on the spot: no lyrics written, just made up as the tape rolled. same with the guitar, i picked up Shag’s 12 string and hit the record button. you can hear Shag in the back at the beginning, he’s cooking up breakfast. that’s also Shag in the background vocal which is kooky as he is a LEAD vocal!

here is what the band really sounds like, with all the bells and whistles of a fancy studio production:

Nice work!

so i’ll go back to work on those old cassette tapes and see what we can scrounge up in the lost songs/Fostex dept. (might be best to start the project in the morning minus the German pilsners! ha!)

and that’s the story behind: Love Song Number 6. words and music by Mark Seabrook. artwork too, drawn over the fun times of 1994 and 1995. what art fun!

update: November 8, 2022: full moon is on the rise, very far north on the tree line to the east, out here on the open range. no wind on a night like this means sweet and wonderful beauty! the landscape is at peace which means we can be too! wonderful way to spend a Tuesday night! anyway: I wanted to re share this classic twinravens song with you. it is a cluster you know what, but still, after all these years, I believe in in a lot more than UFO’s. ha!

I hope you like it!

Snow on May 9th!

what the flipping flip is up with the snowflakes flying at this time of the year?  yeesh.  its like the whole world has gone bonkers.  this virus crapola has us pinned down 9 weeks now, going on 10, snow is flying, can’t get home, the walls are moving in closer by the minute.

better put the headphones on for this one…

okay so things haven’t gotten quite that artsy around here but if this snow doesn’t stop, i can’t guarantee you any further stories will be true!  but i can guarantee that they will be stories!

last Sunday morning:  east of Ottawa.  it’s the best we can do for now.  i’d rather be driving the backroads between Tehkummah and Snowville this time of year but we’re a long way from that!

i haven’t picked up a paint brush in 9 weeks.  holy mackinaw!  out where we are: the spirit just isn’t here, to do what is needed.  and so the stack of canvas, canvas boards, jars of paint, brushes too, sit.  waiting…

the mighty raven watches but i’m sure doesn’t wonder.  this boy wonders!  when is the all clear going to be given?

we ran this photo a few weeks ago:  since we have no painting going on we’re switching gears and picking up the guitar.  later today i’m going to give this Garage Band thing a turn.  its the onboard computer home studio and today we’re going to see if we can record the twinravens actual “classic”:  No Smoking.  that song goes back way before there was a twinravens actual!

here are the lyrics:  (i don’t know how to fix the double spacing thing so here it is in one block of text)

no smoking.  no unloading.  of your trash.  on my trash.  in the city: an indian’s day is never done!  if this weren’t the city: there’d be no shoes on my feet.  no ugly sounds in my ears.  no ugly sights in my eyes.  the only ones left: are my brother the raven.  brother raccoon.  andek esban anishnabe…  the three of us shunned (x3).  in a white man’s world.  police aint here to serve and protect.  police are here to racially profile.  guys like me in a white man’s world…

the stupid auto correct always wants to change “esban” to “lesbian”!

so yes those are the mod lyrics to No Smoking.  i wrote and recorded the song at the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre back in the summer of 1994, in the youth lounge, using a Fostex 4 track recorder which, ha!, used cassette tapes!  i sat myself down and played track one: acoustic rhythm.  track two and three:  lead guitars.  track four:  vocal.  and in the background, it being the youth lounge over at the FC, you could hear some cats playing billiards and so the pool balls were cracking around in an off timed way which i thought really added to the kookiness of the recording.  we were in the city.  it was a song about urban indio reality.  back then it was true and more so today.  i recently added the bit about the cops.  back then i was innocent and believed in things.  today it is different.

No Smoking, just saying, has only been performed live: 3 times!  (the best reading took place at the Rivoli, Queen St. W., July 1995.)

and so we have an acoustic guitar from the pawn shop, we have this Garage Band program, the flashy microphone, and the afternoon off, with snow flying as i write.  we’ll give it all a spin and see if we can make something of it.  time is noon!  the guitar playing  might wake up my old buddy Jazz, she’s still in the bunk.  her hours have gone strange now that the schools have been closed for 9 weeks and will remain closed for another 3 at the least…  the poor kids.  what a rip off it has been for them.

Jasmine Moon is supposed to be in grade 12, graduation coming up, but will there be a party?  yes these poor kids have been ripped off.

here is some super heavy duty:

my beautiful daughter.  and a proud father i am.  and the empty nest is looming like never before…  she talks about her own apt. and a room mate and being closer to the post secondary institution…  which leaves this old boy, i guess, free to go.

who knows.  maybe by next winter i’ll be back to this, back home on the range, back down by the river, back in the old country, far away from the war.

Social Isolation Gabfest No. 3

was blabbering up the joint the other day with a few of the hacks going on about great rock and roll bands and i said one of the greatest bunch of wild men and ultra women were in the rock and roll outfit called:  No Reservations.  i got to telling them the story about NR going to the Northern Lights Folk Festival way back whenever it was, a few summers ago, and how, we arrived at the local indio rez for 1 hour of rehearsal, wrote out a set list and headed off to the gig.

now what we have to remember is the great NR hadn’t played a show in a war whooping 17 years!!!  (that’s not good.)  and the gang in NR hadn’t been in the same room together in 17 years!  but they managed to do this:

that is Jen and Shag going through Red Dog Blues with 2 sessions guys.  i have no idea who the 2 session guys are, never saw them before that and haven’t seen them since!  in a perfect world Mr. S.C. would have been there playing the lead guitar, Danny Boy should be there on the sticks and Crazy Davey H.B. should be on the bass, me on 3rd.  Red Dog Blues was one of those 10 or 12 or 20 minute extravaganzas with the guitars going on full.

in this version of the NR classic you have just 50% of NR going to work on the party standard: Red Dog Blues.

but here is the frigging freakish part of it:  that song hadn’t seen the light of day in 17 years!  Shag and Jen never rehearsed it.  they just went up there and did it while we were giving the rig a test run.  (we were booted off the stage right after this one by festival management!)

you have to admit:  that IS pretty amazing stuff: no rehearsal.  no rest of the band.  50% of the team up there going to work and pulling that off, first time in 17 years…

gosh darn that band should still be on the map.  but like the Incredibles, they are out there somewhere, doing other things…

too bad.

here is the other fun video:

showtime:  first time the gang played a live show in a brutal 17 years…  too bad for us and too bad for the WORLD!

ah well.  it made for a great story.

like this one:

Moon Boy, Acrylic on canvas, 36×48 inches:  Private Collection.

does anyone out there know where this one is?  i’d love to see it again up close.  great story:  it was created for a show at the CUBE Gallery in Ottawa way back when.  it was delivered and never made the opening!  someone bought it before the show opened!  the fresh owners agreed to let it stay in the show and so the last time i saw it was in the gallery.

but a few summers ago i crossed paths with a gal who said she was now the owner.  another friend of mine, one of the indios from the trenches, confirmed that yes, someone was indeed the new owner and the painting was no longer at the address after the CUBE gallery show.  so where is it?

if you’re out there, and reading this, email me please!  i need to see it one more time for a new project i’m working.

many thanks and Miigwetch!

Social Isolation in Sea Major

week 6 in the books, week 7 on the door step:  the madness is full serve but we’re still in the game!  so far…  so good.  we’re past keeping our fingers crossed and now we’re just going with it.  if we ever get out of here, back to that island, we’ll be coming in “aged”.

the crazy stuff you see in every direction these days.  as an anishnabe on the road, you can bet if i want to set me feet in the Manitou River, i’ll be setting my feet in the Manitou River.

mental slippage is starting to show!  check this dude out:  he’s taking his walker up through the drive through at Rotten Ron’s!  as you know the in house dine is closed.  but this dude…  he’s going through counter clock.  i thought maybe it was a suicide in progress.  and check out Riverside to the right, one car rolling down the road at 6:30 p.m., Billings Bridge, O Town.  normally that road would be jam packed with insane drivers!

our beloved mayfair, on Bank Street.  likely taken over by cockroaches by now…  so sad to see.  and THIS was on Friday afternoon, 3:30 p.m., when the war on Bank Street with the insane drivers is usually in full service madness.  that road at that point in time on a Friday is so bad, they have cops standing there between cars looking in at the drivers as they roll past.  this past Friday: you’d have better luck getting run over by a tumble weed!

un flipping believable:  Laurier between Bank and O Connor, at 3:40 p.m., Friday afternoon.  now this one for absolute sure is a complete scene of lunacy during regular blah bitty blah blah.  you can stand on those sidewalks and see the animals rushing like lemmings, the horror.  but not this past Friday.  look at that!

as if.  actually waiting in line to get into the LCBO.  what is the world coming to?  the spooks were in there too!  i managed to get out with my Tenuta Frescobaldi, Castiglioni, 2017.  we’re waiting now for that bad boy to get to room temperature.  wasn’t sure if my imagination was playing tricks on me the last time so we’ll give it another go around just to be sure.  (beauty afternoon for cooking!)

today’s love poem:  That Sunday in August.

your love, sex.  Use it. Build it.  She, resting her hands flat…  feeling everything.  The lovely bed, the beautiful view.  She sent love and assurance.  She whispered “I will find you”.  She opened the floodgate inside and let it wash over.  She turned her inner river on.  

The Night Market.  a sly, charming smile.  Impressive, he said.  

She felt the warmth of his praise.  His magic swirled around her.  

And you liked it didn’t you?  You’re really going to enjoy what you’ve become.  You are mine.  

No, she barely whispered.  Her breath faltered.  Her whole body shuddered.  

You are lovely as ever.  And you are so graceful.  

He extended his hand.  She followed.  Yes, she whispered…

from the Found Poetry Book 5:  Heir of Autumn.  a work in progress.

SUN INFINITY MOON:  the Moosonee Proof.  well the good news is we’ve spotted nearly all the outrageous errors in the first run of the novel!  true:  it was me who made 3 of them.  i let 3 slip past.  but when i said hit the print button, there were things i missed, things i definitely should have seen point blank, for example:  the cover!  the grade five clown they put on my project over at the layout, switched out my “coarse language” for his “course language”…  (ultra super mega DUH!  now:  we’re going back for a reprint with a new cover design and so i sent it over to them and it came back with…  you guessed it:  “course language” on the new and revised cover…  which means i’m going to have to go over there and kick that young dumb ass’s arse up around the moon by now.)

i was okay with the paragraph indent disasters in the first run, which had nothing to do with us!  that was them!  i was willing to let that slide.  but after we got to looking at it up close with our glasses off, like looking for gnat shit in pepper, it was then we saw the howling errors!  like i said, my bad:  i made 3 of them.  but the rest…  good gravy.

also:  i sent copies of the book to twenty so called professors in the indigenous studies departments, at universities around Canada and the US, hoping to hear back.  this was back last August.  i didn’t hear from any of them!  now i will say this:  a lot of these so called indigenous professors, Ph.D.’s, who claim to be indian, to me, sure do look like a bunch of white boys.  white boys in the same way our old scam artist and Grey Owl wannabe Joe Boyden looks…  and Joe B. is the biggest scam artist of them all in recent years.

when you’re an indian, a real indian, who actually looks like an indian, AND have spent the entire work career at the front with actual indians, you can come up with some pretty weird feelings watching white boys passing themselves off as indians, finishing first in the classic game of Cowboys and Indians.  but then: who IS owning and operating these publishing houses? (cool grammar huh?!!!)

i will say this:  i sent a copy over to the book reviewer at Anishnawbek News, over there near North Bay, Ontario (Anishnawbek News is a paper that’s been around for 30 years anyway) and i didn’t hear squat from them!  nothing!  or our old buddy at CBC in Suds:  Waub.  he never returned my call!  same with Rose over at UNRESERVED, cbc crazy indian show one hour a week!

so i’m at a bit of a loss over here wondering:  Just how does a real indian get in the door to one of these big league houses?

some real indians:  that’s me and Mr. S.C., 50% of the rock and roll band:  No Reservations.  AND!!!  Brothers in Arms.

anyway.  the tuned up version of SUN INFINITY MOON will be ready soon.  for those of you who bought a copy of the black and white cover version, the first run, i owe you a 7×9 inch acrylic on canvas board painting!  just send me an email and detail where you bought it, and i’ll send you a selection of 7×9 inch canvas boards you can choose from and i’ll send you one free of charge.  how is that for a deal?

like i said:  i didn’t see all the howling errors in the first version.  i should have taken more time when i looked at the e version the layout folks sent.

ah.  it is what we artists call:  The Artist Proof!  and if you bought one, well i owe you.

bottom line though is:  the HORROR story is there, intact.  with or without the jungly super errors throughout the layouts.  (the hard copy is more horror than the actual story!!!  ha ha!)

here is one of my favourite pages from the novel:  BE WARNED:  COARSE LANGUAGE AND ADULT SUBJECT MATTER.

ha ha!  from:  INFINITY, of SUN INFINITY MOON.

ah well.  here we are, at the end of week 6 in this ridiculous situation the world has gotten itself into, week 7 soon to start.  we’re lucky to have a few levers to pull: what do we want to do:  paint pictures?  write song lyrics?  write stories?  create new music on the guitars?  or maybe it’s time to crack open that red, it must be up to room temperature by now.

lastly:  every now and again i see at the bottom of my posts that the comments are turned off.  i don’t mean for that to happen!  if i could figure out how to use this blog thingy, that stuff would never happen.  because we want you to leave comments!  and we enjoy hearing from you!

many thanks, miigwetch, and best of luck staying healthy!

oh yes and i almost forgot!!!  some of you asked about the H.L. cooking scenes with those sweet “preparations and kitchen sounds”!  found the vid on youtube and so here it is!  you might want to put the headphones on for this one.

always enjoy!

Social Distancing Blues in A

and so we’re in the thick of it now.  wild stuff is running rampant here, there, and everywhere!  it’s Saturday night in the slab and we’re following Doc Spook’s advice: when in like this, enjoy good vins and good cooking!  so i am cooking and the vin is closing in on room temperature.  while we wait for that to happen an IPA from England lights the way!

truth is: i’m not much of a cook.  i always do it Rez style, and i’m talking back woods Rez style, back woods like down by McBean Harbour in Sagamok style.  there AIN’T no flash to what we’re cooking.  but i fancy it in day dreams.  when we’re out there on the open range in sweet home sweet home, back on the Manitou River, down there on the Range, things are different as we’re usually in the company of some very exotic and beautiful ladies in bikinis: and so!  the cooking has to be classic show bizz style.

you better put the headphones on for this one:

that trick with the egg flying and the spat:  i need to learn that one!  mind you:  what we’re doing in our kitchen tonight is baby shit along side what this dude is doing.

and so it is Saturday night: we’re in, where we are hopefully safe.  the cooking is on going.  the vin is.

this is super social distancing!

out there on the streets of O Town:  one morning on the walk to work last week:  the flipping streets were empty save for this black bra.  it was empty too as you can see. how long it’d been there i don’t know but it wasn’t there the day before…

Power Bird with Medicine Bundle, acrylic on canvas board, 16×20 inches, by anishnabe artist and ruthless wild man:  Mark Seabrook.  (experimenting with new paints…  )

Calling Up the Almighty:  Assist. various inks on wood panel, 11×14 inches, by anishnabe artist and exotic dancer:  Mark Seabrook.  while we fuss with the new paint selections, there is room to go back to the good old days.  i’d be one for visiting them!

“Man Changing Into a Thunderbird, panel 1, in reverse”, cheap acrylic paint, various inks, on 1990 issue paper, hard cover repurposed book, Found Poetry Book 5, a work in progress, by anishnabe artist and brutal savage:  Mark Seabrook.  while we’re waiting for paint to dry, we can muddle over what some folks have said to us, me in partic, anywhere along our way.  those “some folks” do not like us!  and they do not like me and my ways of savagery.  to them it is evil and bad.  to me its another day at the office, here in Canada.

“Writing on the Wall…”, cheap acrylic paint and various inks on 1990 issue paper, hard cover repurposed book, Found Poetry Book 5.  if you ascertain my meaning…

the guitar is always there, waiting for us.  anyone can pick it up.  (my old buddy Carlos said that!)  and so while we ride out the storm, this Yamaha  FG-345 ii that i scammed out of a pawn shop over there on Montreal Road will assist in the to and from.  i’m an old school guitar player who liked to record on a Fostex.  this Garage Band stuff on board the mac book isn’t like the old school “cassette tape” that i know and love.

recording on said Fostex.  that’s me on the 12 string, one Sunday morning many moons ago.  you can hear Shag in the back ground at the beginning, he’s in the kitchen cooking up breakfast.  but that is also him on the background vocal.  if you do listen to it:  BE WARNED:  coarse language and sexual content. (best to put the headphones on for this one…  )

ah yes.  the Fostex.  a 4 track recorder great for on the spot song writing for old timers like me.  i really like those 12 string notes at 45 seconds into this recording.  i took the song into the No Reservations rehearsal hall but the boys rejected it, saying it was too camp fire.

i on the other hand think its an awesome snap shot of “one of those days”, back when we were a lot younger, when 201 was one of the coolest spots and…  this one though was recorded at the corner of Simcoe and what do you call it, over there in N’Swakamok.

“What to do on Sunday Afternoon” was written and recorded and performed by yours truly!  i just made it up on the spot using Shag’s 12 string.

how grand it would be if Shag and the boys came over to my place and we ran through some of those old No Rez selections and booted around the idea of recording those other 12 songs we had in the hopper.  the world needs to hear things like:  The Creator Song.  Broken Home.  Thunderbird.  Red Doggg Blues.  You Had Me But I didn’t Have You.  Concrete Shoes Love.  Baby You’re a Crocodile.  Bats With Wings.  That Night in the Byway.  and one of my personal faves that we only played in the club:  Drive In Theatre: We Actually Watched the Movie…

we’re still cooking, 2.5 hours in.  i think the vin has arrived at room temp., so my thing is this:  why wait till later?

or as my dad would say:  Why take any chances?

more fun cooking vids from one of my fave movies:

Be safe!  Stay out of trouble!  And don’t get yourself killed, or worse!

Many thanks and hope to hear from you soon!