make us it make us hip make us scene

welcome back to my blog, joel alexander.

i need to edit and expand on my museum fact from last friday, because my brain wasn't working. "shaganappi" actually means rawhide rope. it's usually cut from the outside edge of a hide that's been stretched and scraped and fleshed. it was often used to make tools - people could attach a stone blade to a piece of wood by dipping the rawhide into water (it would get soft and expand), then lashing it around the blade and the wood handle. as it dried, the rope would tighten and become hard.

so, last friday megs and i both experienced the second most ridiculous experience in our lives. we went to see some sucka crizz-ack boys play a rap show at a tiny community hall in joussard. we were the only white people there (megs' parents are both metis, but she looks whiter than i do, so for all these intents and purposes, she's white.). the reconstructed weezer sweater i had on probably didn't earn me enough scene points to, like, at least hit zero on the scale of credibility. strange that i can feel more comfortable there than amongst the edmonton music scene. there were a lot of hot dogs - people kept going into the kitchen and taking hot dogs from a big pot. we watched one guy eat five. yikes. three of the boys were brothers from sucker creek, who make up my favorite family on the reserve. i took one of the boys to leadership camp a few years ago with AFL. i really really like them. the youngest, william, came up to me after their first set and said, "hey. i know you." i said "yeah, i'm living up in grouard. i heard you guys were playing a show and i wanted to see you." he asked, incredulously, "how did you hear about us all the way up in grouard?" ha. grouard's, like, a 20 minute drive from joussard. adorable.
they only had about 10 songs, and they didn't know all the words to any of them, but they played about 5 sets anyway. apparently joussard was their "first stop in a tour around the lake." haha. awesome. the boys dedicated a song to their kookum (grandma), who had arrived at about the third set. there were significantly more f-bombs and references to guns and knives than i would EVER include in a song i dedicated to my grandma, but she seemed supportive nonetheless. neat. i really hope they do end up doing a "tour around the lake," because i really want to see them more. they are such neat boys. also, i am excited to go dancing/to shows with megs when we go back to edmonton for school, because she is fun and unpretentious and i like those things.