That was somewhat freaky - but cool at the same time! I'd never really associated the prairies with rock music before.

Thanks Somegal. It was a freaky three years, stuck in a freaky landscape with a freaky culture I hadn't even known existed, an outdated, backwards culture which shunned me and treated me with hostility and suspicion. It was a difficult time for us. I wanted to convey something of that scariness in the video.

To me, coming from the mountains, the flat openness was terryfying, not being able to see what was out there, and in some places not even being able to find any landmarks with which to position myself within the world. I felt exposed and vulnerable, and like I was literally in nowhere.

As a kid when I had the fever, twice I hallucinated that my bed was a flat white field of nothingness and that it was coming to eat me. Pretty terrifying. The prairie reminded me of that. It might seem a pretty dumb move then to buy a house there, pretty rash, but it was also an adventure, and I collected some knowledge I wouldn't otherwise have, and some investment income I wouldn't otherwise have also.

Another song that I associate with the prairie is Jan Arden's "Where No one Knows Me": gonna drive till I drop, till the tires turn to metal, Gonna stop when the last drop of gas turns to vapor, Gonna ride til I can't even seem to remember..., a place where no one knows me... I'm gettin outta here at last...

We got the Bauhaus cd while we lived there, and when The Flat Field started we both laughed, cause it was so appropriate. It has been the prairie song for us since.

I just realized that the title and band did not come up on the video. It's Bauhaus: In the Flat Field.

Actually, prairie pop/rock is almost a genre here given how many artists and bands have come from west of Ontario and east of the mountains. There's the Winnepeg crowd (the Guess Who/BTO guys, Neil Young are the best known), Joni Mitchell (originally from Alberta, but also lived in Saskatchewan), and the most recent addition is up and comers The Sheepdogs (also Saskatchewan). Probably a lot more that I'm missing. Nickelback, maybe? Are they from Alberta or BC? I think the sisters from Heart are prairie girls, though the band is actually based in Seattle and is a mix of Americans and Canadians.

Mendalla

It shows at the top of the embedded video before you hit play.

Mendalla

That's funny, maybe it showed for me yesterday. I don't see it today, even when I hover over it.

Nickleback is from Hanna, Alberta.

Jan Arden is from Calgary

The Northern Pikes are from Saskatoon

Heart are all from the States. The Wilson sisters grew up in California and Taiwan, the men in Washinton. They came to Canada to avoid the draft, landing in Vancouver.

Wikipedia:

"Heart's residency in Canada was long enough for the group to gain recognition as "Canadian artists" by the CRTC for broadcasting purposes.^{[citation needed]} This meant that the group's early recordings qualified as "Canadian content" and therefore would receive increased attention from radio programmers.^{[citation needed]} In this period Ann Wilson told audiences that the group was from Canada,^[9] even though all the members of Heart were citizens of the United States and were never permanent Canadian residents."

We visited Joni Mitchel's hometown several times. Funny that she came from there. Fort MacLeod.

The Northern Pikes did a great prairie video for The Things I do for Money. I like the crazy girl in it. Ya know that was my first glimpse of the prairie, that video. I had a dream about that video long ago, when I was about 19.

So Mendalla, what did you think of my video?! Was it scaaaarey?!?

Knew Jan was a prairie girl. Just forgot. Didn't realize the Pikes were from Saskatchewan, though. One of my favorite bands of their particular wave of Canadian bands, largely on the strength of that song.

Mendalla

that was pretty good, Elanorgold -- you've definitely got the 'bug' :3

the music makes the film seem warmer to me

EDIT:  you aren't the only one intimidated by that much sky.  i like living in an area with limited sky

It's funny - I knew about all of those bands (except the Sheepdogs) and where they came from, and yet I still don't associate the prairies with rock. Perhaps it's because all of those bands come from cities, whereas I associate the prairies with small towns and country music.

BTW - Nickelback is from Alberta, but they live in BC now - the same goes for at least a couple of members of The Guess Who/BTO as well as Joni Mitchell.

Thanks Inanna. It was really cold that day, but I get what you mean! The sky was really interesting at times, but yeah there was an awful lot of it. The land scared me more than the sky though, oddly enough. I'm seeing about putting together a positive prairie sky clip. Wish I had filmed storms. We had purple clouds and whiping winds, sheet lightning, funnel clouds, rain falling like an over flowing giant bathtub in the sky...

Somegal, you're right. ANd they do all come from cities. I can't think of any small town rock bands. Certainly Bauhaus and the like were alien there. Part of why they were afraid of us! When my boss found out I was into "Dead Can Dance", she got more than sceptical. I think of country music too when thinking of the prairie, but I don't listen to it. It is definately dominant on the prairie. Jan has a country twang too. SHe's about as country as I get, and I just like a few of her songs.

Here's those scarey Bauhaus guys:

You did a good job of compiling this slideshow Elanorgold.  It really portrays your feelings about the prairie lanscape and how you experienced it.  It is well done and innovative.

For me though it brings feelings of sadness that you didn't feel the soul expanding wideness and the glory of the landscape and sky in the same way that I did when I was there.  Neither of us are right or wrong - and really, I DO appreciate the differences between us in this. 

I'm looking forward to seeing any future slideshows you create.

Thanks Kay! It's interesting as I work on my next one, prairie skies, to explore my feelings about that, and I've chosen a song I really like. It will be an inspiring slideshow.

I think what I felt was the opposite of what prairie dwellers feel when they come to the mountains. They feel trapped and closterphobic. Perhaps if I had grown up on the prairie I would be that way too. But I like to be cocooned in secure things like trees, mountains and walls. I also don't like large open rooms and high celings in houses. I was like a jungle pigmy having his first glimpse outside the forest, thinking a far away helicopter was a huge bug right infront of his face, unable to fathom the distance. I felt much better when we had heavy clouds above.

ANd I realized this morning, I spoke too soon about small town prairie rock bands, Hanna Alberta is such a place, where Nickleback hale from. It is a cookie cutter nowhereville of 2 1/2 thousand people. We actually drove through it once. There is hope for the prairie yet!

I spent the night in Hanna once - it was a stopover on my way to visit friends in Saskatchewan. Frankly, I am surprised to hear it has that many people in it! After supper I decided to take a walk around town. Twenty minutes later, I had done a complete lap of the main part of town.

I had very memorable experience just prior to arriving in Hanna - I saw a meteor crashing towards the Earth! It was dark out, but the whole sky lit up for 7 or 8 seconds as it flew past. I was completely freaked out and had to pull over for several minutes as I was convinced that I had just seen an airplane that had caught on fire and was crashing through the night sky. When I finally got to my hotel, I immediately turned on the television and it was all over the news. Apparently most of it landed in the fields of Saskatchewan - a few hundred kilometres away.

Neet!!!

Yeah I was surprised about the population of Hanna too. Maybe it includes outlying areas... It says that 1208 of its 1317 dwellings are inhabited, and the population is going down. Man, we drove through that way too going to Saskatshewan, and it's sure dire, just endless nothing with these strange little nowherevilles planted along the road. Freaky. People actually live there!

Shaky cam! Elanor, you could make it as a cinematographer these days (cf. Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and the whole "found footage" genre in general). You did capture a certain mood and view of the prairies quite well. You also reminded me why I don't listen to Bauhaus (never done much for me musically).

Mendalla

Lol!!  Thanks for that. Yeah the hand held thing... It's hard to hold it steady. I'm getting ideas about using my mini tripod... But I think the shakey thing works well for the angsty feel of this one. I wish I could get gorgeous gliding boom shots!

I think you'll like my next one the Prairie Skies one, using a gorgeous Mike Oldfield song. It was fun to make and explore the positive side of my feelings for the prairie, and remember the good memories.

That's actually the idea behind shakey cam in movies. It's supposed to look like it was shot on a handheld camcorder or phone camera as a way to give it "authenticity". The problem is that when you do home-style video on a screen that's bigger than some houses, it gives a certain percentage of the population motion sickness.

Mendalla

Yeah, I imagine! My Bauhaus clip is very authentic then! Cool.

I watched a lovely time lapse video yesterday, and about half an hour later the penny dropped, "I can do that!" Just need something pretty to film now....