Stop Making Sense

Okay I am probably going to be the only person who thinks so, but….

This is maybe a little bit funnier if you know much about the Talking Heads. There’s at least 4 Talking Heads jokes (kind of) in this post.

Anyway when I see them together I just can’t help but see it. This is not a commentary on either person, just, hey, it seems similar.

Granted it is 2am and I am tired so I am seeing many things at this point. Also this is an ongoing problem wherein I have no filter and I just post whatever it is I doodle. But I am particularly proud of both my swan and Byrne sketches thank you.

More David Byrne in his suity goodness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-mxVxFXLg

Some guy also named Andrew Swan who was the only one who turned up on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI00YFkoUoA

011.George Simpson, Problem Solver

And now you see if they hadn’t moved and had instead insisted on being flooded every bloody year, we wouldn’t have Lower Fort Garry, which is where George Simpson moved them to avoid flooding. And I’m going there this weekend. If you hear excited giggling on the breeze, that would be me FYI.

006.Gabriel Dumont Has a Bad Day

Poor Gabriel Dumont. These two seemingly impossible things did indeed happen at the beginning of the North West Rebellion at Duck Lake. By all accounts, Dumont was an excellent shot with a gun and a bow, a great strategist and also a good horserider. The Ying to Louis Riel’s Yang, it seems like Dumont thought out what would be the best plan and Riel hyped up the people. And sometimes Riel wouldn’t let Dumont go through with certain plans if he didn’t like them, but Dumont was okay with that. They were a team, but he knew who the leader was.

ANYWAY according to Dumont’s memoirs he was shot in the head (the bullet ricocheted off the skull) and is said to have replied “When you’re shot in the head and you don’t lose consciousness, then you don’t die from it.” And he just kept on fighting! Dumont had fightin’ blood in him, no question. Even as at 11 he had war on his mind (though I suppose many did since there was a rivalry with the Sioux) and warned his family at Fort Pitt. There were no Sioux, but his uncle gave him a gun as a reward. And three years later, Dumont would go to battle in the Battle of Grand Coteau.

So the being shot in the head story would normally seem like an opportunity to exaggerate the facts and create an impression of how awesome you thought you were. But I don’t think that’s the case here, because Dumont immediately follows it up with the fact that his pants fell off. What happened was that Dumont suggested that one of the Metis, Baptiste Vandal, take his  gun and ammunition (since, being shot in the head, Dumont was down for a bit). However, when Vandal tried to untie the ammunition belt from Dumont, he untied his actual belt instead. Whoops! Despite all this, the English would soon be in retreat.

Guest appearing in this comic as well is Le Petit, Dumont’s Winchester rifle. I think it’s the rifle he has in most pictures taken of him, but I’m not sure. Also if you are a soldier and your commanding officer gets shot, don’t exclaim “Sir, you’ve been shot!” He/She probably already realizes that.

005.Late Night with Alexander Morris

Alexander Morris, by some accounts, was a decent guy who started off as a bit of a jerk imperialist but grew to be a more accepting and reasonable person. He played integral roles in negotiating Treaties 3-6 and renegotiating 1 and 2. I can’t help but think this was a difficult job. I’m not sure if he knew that most of the demands they were making would never be kept, but he did realize it eventually. He felt really bad about it, for what it’s worth. Good recent reading on this subject is Robert J. Talbot’s Negotiating the Numbered Treaties, which takes a more sympathetic side to Morris than what is customarily known.

Also, he was terrified of speaking publicly, hence the fact I have him presenting in a town hall, which I’m pretty sure never happened.

And in case you are curious, the Treaty he is referencing in this comic is Treaty 4.

002.Giant Riel

This idea originated when I saw this statue while in St. Boniface. I joked that it was life-sized, and was indeed the severed head of the giant Riel. This is probably blasphemous, but please ignore that part. This is a good example of a comic that has little basis in fact OR history, and probably not the last to feature laser vision. So let us count the factual errors:

1. Louis Riel was not a giant.
2. Louis Riel did not have laser vision.
3. Louis Riel probably wouldn’t have used laser vision to indiscriminately burn down houses, as he seems to be here.

You may notice that  Riel seems to be standing in a river, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. He is there because I cannot draw feet so I needed to put him somewhere to obscure them.

The “statue is a bronzed life-size version of someone” joke really works for any statue, but spending most of my university days in St. Boniface, the number of Riel statues overshadowed all others, so the joke works especially well in my head.

But a true fact about Riel:

1. Upon his death, they clipped off tiny bits of his hair and beard, which can now be found at Le Musée de Saint-Boniface which is very very fun if you like looking closely at historical artifacts LIKE ME.

I am still confused why they took beard clippings. I understand having keepsakes for the record of history, but seriously, beard clippings? I just don’t understand the usefulness of it I suppose. On the up side, this means that we will be able to clone Riel! But he will only be made of hair follicles, unfortunately.