Robert Animikii Horton – Northern Reflections

Comedian Hannibal Buress once said people learn things at different times. He talked about hearing Jimi Hendrix for the first time because Hulk Hogan used his music in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which is comforting, because it suggests there are no wrong times to learn something—only increasingly more embarrassing ones. […]

There is a particular kind of alchemy reserved for music. It is a rare transformation: the moment something familiar becomes newly luminous. It happens when one artist takes hold of another’s song and, instead of merely echoing it, breathes into it a different life. A good cover is not imitation; […]

Welcome to the sensory deprivation tank. I just stepped out of one in Thunder Bay. The first thing the float tank removes is not sound, but certainty. You step inside expecting a chamber, a container—but the moment the lid closes, the idea of “inside” begins to lose its meaning. The […]

Sometimes a familiar sight conjures back memories of the surreal and the eternally memorable (as well as a loved one’s soulful laughter). Walking the aisles at our town Walmart sent me back in time recently. Whether I was hunting for gel pens, hair paste or gummy sharks is something now […]

When I was 19, I returned home for summer break from university. Mom (who worked in education and had summer breaks off too) and I were watching a movie based on the work of Indigenous American author Sherman Alexie. In one scene, the main character recalls a childhood Christmas. His […]

What does it mean to be human? This question has both puzzled and inspired writers, musicians, artists, philosophers, and thinkers throughout history. In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, the first of a series of influential works, historian and public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari shines a bright light into humanity’s […]

A recent string of political violence in the United States has unsettled many—and understandably so. Attacks on political figures, commentators and protestors have served as a reminder that politics, even in our day, can turn lethal. Times like this reveal how fragile civics becomes when violence invades politics. Acknowledging past […]

Riddle me this. If a rez dog is walking around outdoors and no one is around to hear it, does Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” play loudly from the sky?  Where do I begin? Skipper the Rez Dog did not belong to us. That’s the official line. Technically, he belonged […]

At a lunch and good conversation at the Flint House on Scott Street, the new General Manager of the Fort Frances Times extended an invitation that genuinely meant something to me. Alongside my usual columns on Canadian culture, history, music and art (and the occasional attempt at humour), he asked […]

It seems like only yesterday that I sat across the table from our mayor at La Place Rendez Vous. What was most memorable wasn’t the beauty of the newly thawed Rainy Lake, nor the 7-Up with grenadine and French fries with barbecue sauce (old habits die hard). It was the […]

In our era, popular music can feel disposable, easily scrolled past, or at least overly similar to the rest. Regardless, there remains a band that doesn’t merely stand apart. They stand firmly where concepts like genre, description, or classification are but details. These matters, merely dust on the windshield between […]

Every community has a beating heart. Its location is fairly obvious and usually easy to find. A solid building with flags clinging to the breeze.  Stone steps worn smooth by years of public duty. Inside, decisions are made. Funds and budgets are managed. Rules are written. This is where collective […]