Author Archives: Shis'ka Bob

And Another Thing

There was something I forgot to mention about the review sched. I’m going to be doing the movie and book reviews in 2 parts: 1) will be a general review where I don’t discuss any major plot points or give anything away, and 2) will contain spoilers.

So if you haven’t watched a movie or read a book that I’m reviewing, you can watch/listen to/read the first part of my review to get the gist of it. After reading or watching the book or movie in question, you can then move on to the second spoilerific part.

I debated whether I should include spoilers in every review but ultimately decided against it. I figured doing each review in 2 parts would be best so that people can go in fresh if they’re interested in reading or watching whatever I’ve reviewed.

Also, I’ve decided what I’m going to review first. You’ll have to wait until the end of the first week of June to see, that’s the time frame I’m currently shooting for.

Review Schedule

Now that I’ve had some time to compile a list of what I’d like to review, I’ve come to the realization that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

For one thing, it’s difficult to find a complete list of books and albums that are coming out this year. My album list only goes up to September and my book list goes up to October. I had no trouble finding a list of movies, the only trouble is how I’m going to see them. There’s no theatre playing current releases here and the nearest town that shows new movies is a half-hour drive away. There’s also the issue of getting a hold of new books when they come out; I don’t have much in the way of cash so unless I can find a new book at my local library, I probably won’t get to read it.

Another problem is that I came up with this idea last month and we’re nearly halfway through the year so I’m already behind. Do I try and catch up on what I’ve missed this year or just start with the most recently released material forget about January-April?

I’ve chosen an alternate path: I’ll start with the newest stuff and try to work my way back while also moving forward. My biggest concern is that since I’m having a year-end awards show, it would only be fair to include everything from the start of the year rather than leaving out the first 4 months.

Here’s the tentative schedule that I’ve come up with: during the first week of every month, I’ll do my music review. Albums should be the quickest to review so it’ll be easier to start there. In the second week I’ll review movies and in the third or fourth week I’ll review books.

That’s the way it looks right now. The other question is how much material should I review? I’ve got close to 80 things slated for review and it could get up to 100 by year’s end. That’s a lot. Especially considering that I’m already so far behind.

Right now, what I’m thinking is that I’ll only do a video review of one album, book and movie per month and the rest will be written. Video is going to take a long time to do: I’ll have to shoot it, have it edited, rendered and then have it uploaded. That’s going to take a day or two, maybe more. Writing a review can be probably be done and published in less than an hour so I’d favor that approach.

I’ve also considered doing audio reviews, they’ll take longer than written reviews but will be faster to produce than video. Everything is still up in the air at the moment; I’ll figure things out as I go along.

The beauty of all this is that nothing is set in stone; they’re my reviews, I can do them any way I choose. I could do things the way I’ve outlined them here or I could choose to go a whole different direction, I don’t really know. So stick around as I try to decide what I’m going to review first. What will be the lucky thing that sets it all off?

Stay tuned and find out.

How Now, Pow-wow?

Whenever non-Native people want to gather people together to discuss something, usually informally, they often describe it as having a “pow-wow.” It’s always kind of bothered me and I’ve always wondered why they do this. I mean, do they really know what a true pow-wow actually is?

From my understanding it’s a gathering of First Nations people for the purposes of singing, dancing, and spirituality. How do they compare?

One involves sacred ceremonies and sharing of culture, the other is a bunch of people standing around yapping about business matters in a place that may or may not have a water cooler and donuts.

Am I the only one that doesn’t see any kind of connection between the two? Other than the fact that it’s people gathering together in one place, I see absolutely no resemblance at all.

Also, “pow-wows” as non-Native people have them, are usually spontaneous and brief. Actual pow-wows take weeks, sometimes months to plan and the event itself can go on for multiple days.

It seems to me that this mis-naming came about as a result of a misunderstanding. More specifically, non-Native people misunderstanding the importance of a pow-wow and reducing it to something mundane. Unless you’re pulling out a drum and putting on buckskin and beads, guess what?

You’re not having a pow-wow.

Pow-wows are not business meetings, the two are light years apart. Maybe from now on, instead of gathering family or co-workers together to hammer out an issue, just call it a meeting.

Or, if you still want it to have an indigenous flavor, just call it a band council meeting.