ARTICLES BY Sonny Orr

Murphy’s movies

I recently watched yet another rerun of Dab Iyiyuu and it brought back memories of the day when I was in the movie business. I was a soundman, a professional sounding board (no, not a soundman sounding bored), location scout, casting director and pyrotechnical technician. We were filming fantasy stories on ... read more ››

Take my editor… please

Sometimes the old adage, “the customer is always right,” still applies. For example, one visibly outraged customer complained to me that I wasn’t funny enough to meet his demands to make him laugh. I quickly retorted “humph!” and left him still fuming. Not funny eh, we’ll see who’s not funny around ... read more ››

The Travelling Willies

At the time of this writing, I’ve been on the road for three and a half weeks and gradually becoming accustomed to the ways of the urban nomad, foraging at fast food joints and finally understanding why McD’s has sold billions upon billions of patties. I’ve been achieving the zen ... read more ››

Smarter than a ?

After scoring a dismal 75 per cent on an “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?” quiz, I resolved to relearn the things I studied (or thought I had) in school. It was a lot harder (it seemed) to answer questions back then, because we were just learning in school ... read more ››

Alice Cooper’s Offspring

Back in the 1970s, the infamous Alice Cooper was turning heads with his trademark makeup and by being the most reptilian rock star in the world’s least understood rock band. Meanwhile, Cooper penned the best tunes for adolescents everywhere while staging THE SHOW to watch. The lyrics from their best ... read more ››

Losing it big time

I once was walking (I’m lying, I was driving) by a road in Chisasibi and noticed that my cousin was walking at a quick pace. I asked him what he was up to and he replied that he was losing weight, about a pound or two. Another quick walker sashayed ... read more ››

The evolution of revolution

I recently returned from a business trip to the heart of francophone Quebec, a place where the French language is all too resoundingly in favour of putting the ’oise at the ending of every other word. I, unfortunately, have limited communication skills with la belle langue but I was nevertheless still ... read more ››

You take my breath away

It’s beginning to become quite obvious that the world is now a crowded place – unless you live in some remote area where no one is around to displease you with their opinionated version of how the world was created. It’s hard not to turn a corner without someone lambasting ... read more ››

Our goose is cooked (and roasted, boiled, smoked, dried or fried)

The secondary eyelids blinked repeatedly over her avian eyes, nearly popping out from the pressure I applied to the ribcage to force the air out of the lungs until the bird’s life was gasped out in a final breathe of air and the eyelids flickered no more, glazed over in ... read more ››

El turismo, a climate change omen

The figure, just a distant dot to the west, moved surprisingly quickly. No sound was heard, so a snowmobile was out of the question. What or who was it? It came in a zigzag, zipping back and forth. Soon it became clear, it was a man. But how did he seem ... read more ››

Forward to the not-too-distant past

A long time ago, back in the seventies, there was a place we could go to in the spring, a place that was special, a place where you changed in a rite called “your first goose.” This was usually accomplished with a single shot .410 on a lone goose that ... read more ››

Goose fever in the cornfield

The lone goose flew overhead, its honk resounding clearly. I responded instinctively, crouching and calling. A neighbor reminded me that I was away from home, visiting a small suburban community outside of Ottawa, and that spring arrives earlier in the south. The neighbor, wondering what the ruckus was (my goose calling), ... read more ››

Get a job, Jack

Some lives are inspired by the examples of others; some are inspired by nothing other than making money, which is of course, often the driving force for nearly everyone. As I type out this column, I feel the forces in my fingertips of the many genius computer nerds who created ... read more ››

The silly season

Political friends, foes and mortal enemies are all wearing the same face, that of the “if I don’t get what I want when I want, I either walk away or all over you” type of expression. Some of your best allies, then, should be your best enemies, because the trust ... read more ››

When good girls go bad…

It used to be that being bad was a boy’s domain. The snot-nosed kid with the slingshot, the ruffian with a rebel cause, the guy who would fight for his girl with switchblades twirling and grease dripping off his ’do fit the image of the good old bad boy. This image ... read more ››

Snowblind

Fine. So winter is back. I take back what I said in an earlier issue about the balmy winter. I won’t complain anymore about the warmth. Two weeks later, a perfect winter storm arose from the northwest and settled in with a vengeance (an expression I’ve heard quite often these days, ... read more ››

Getting by on by-laws

Some issues just don’t seem to go away: racism, unemployment, poor health, abuse of every kind, sorrow and injustice and a general lack of get-up-and-go attitude. Somehow, all these issues have some type of reparative or solution in the form of programs, funding, courts, or incarceration complete with laws that ... read more ››

January at the Beach

I look out onto Hudson Bay and the waves that come crashing onto the shore remind me of summer days gone by. What? Waves in January? Well, welcome to global warming, the most talked-about phenomenon since the last ice age. What can be done about it? Apparently politicians can do something, ... read more ››

The last days

This year was a tumultuous one, with the waves of progress beating on our shores of contentment and washing up the froths of excitement and or discontent. Whichever way you look at it, the last year is still memorable. The Great Accounting Book of Eeyou Istchee will record these past 12 ... read more ››

Shopping: the new reality

I’ve been traveling quite often to the south lately. Each and every trip, I go to some mall, looking for that good deal. In every mall or Walmart, I’ve bumped into hundreds of Cree, roaming and searching for the things we can’t get back home for the Christmas Season. I’ve tried ... read more ››

As the earth moves…

The world as we know it changes constantly. There’s nothing static about it, nothing remains the same. Paradoxically, even though we complain all these changes happen too slowly, we resist all change. Take, for instance, the rate of change with relation to time. We were relatively unchanged for thousands of years ... read more ››

Forgotten heroes

War is something we all wish would not happen, but sadly, war is part of life. Today, literally hundreds of conflicts around the world are eclipsed by the big war against terrorism, in which a constant media barrage downplays the fallen soldiers who return home in caskets. This hasn’treally affected ... read more ››

Sugaring off

I switched on the news the other night and beheld a glimpse of our possible future, one right out of the film Escape from New York. Yes, I’m talking about a futuristic Orwellian state, in which someone else can tell you what to eat, for health’s sake. The future, apparently, ... read more ››

XX vs. XXX

To my knowledge, I was born from a woman. She was born from a woman, who was born from a woman, who was born from a woman, who was…. That gets me wondering how those facts affect the argument between the supporters of creationism and evolution: was man created first, or ... read more ››

Women’s work

When I was a kid, women were some kind of superheroes to me. It was nothing to see a little old lady slash her way through the bushes to set a snare, or topple an ice-age old tree into cords of wood, ready to be snowshoed out and ferried across ... read more ››

The ups and downs of Cree TV

The latest buzz around is the CREETV concept. Yep, Crees on the boob tube. It used to be just about everyone’s dream to be on TV, with Canadian Idol and all that, but just imagine what could be done with CREETV. Bingos, if aired on TV, would be a big boost ... read more ››