intertext

I'm prompted to make this post by two things. Most recently, by sartorias posting some awesome music videos this morning - she and I obviously share taste in music as well as other things.

Then, I've had for some time a curious bitter-sweet reaction to the news posted hither and yon about the Northwest Passage opening up because of global warming. When I was in China, I gave a talk about Canada to my students and told them if they really wanted to understand Canadians they should listen to Stan Rogers, "Northwest Passage" and I copied out the words for them and played them my tape of it. It's one of those "heart songs" for me, with all kinds of complicated resonances, not least of which is the tragic fact of Stan's too early death in a plane crash/fire.

Here's a really nice video version of it, with eye-candy. Apparently Paul Gross sang the song in the last episode of Due South - he must feel about it the same way I do. That many of us do - this song was chosen in a CBC radio poll some years ago as Canada's unofficial national anthem.