Blog of Sal

A few years back I got bored and created a 10 minute edit of my favourite film, ROUNDERS. I didn't publish it for fear of copyright infringement and later just forgot about it. In any case, it is here (for now) for your viewing pleasure!  My editing process was to first create a logical 30 minute version, keeping as many of the important plot driving elements, best moments, and best lines as possible. Next I just kinda spliced away with feckless abandon until I had something that felt right and was exactly 10 minutes long. The full film is available  here on Amazon Prime .     D espite minor inconsistencies with technical poker aspects and maybe a few unnecessary eccentricities, the movie holds up very well as a depiction of what poker was like in the 1990s (the film was released in 1998). I would have some natural sense of this having cut my own poker chops in the Montreal underground in the early 2000s, a time when poker was receiving a sma...

post first published  in my poker posts on Quora O ne of my poker stories stands out. It was back in 2004, the year after everyman Chris Moneymaker pocketed $2.5 million winning the World Series of Poker Main Event, forever changing the culture of the game in the process. By winning a cheap online satellite tournament (these events are common and equate to a qualifying event), Moneymaker secured his seat in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em 2003 WSOP Main Event for the bargain price of $25. This proved once and for all that anybody can win big at poker. Moneymaker in 2003 Over the course of the next year, poker rose from obscurity to hit the mainstream. Every casino opened a card room. And the rooms in the pre-existing meccas of poker, like Bellagio in Las Vegas, were full of people from all walks of life, including even Hollywood elites.  I’d been hired by the Casino de Montreal to deal Blackjack a few years before these events, an amazing opportunity for me at the time. Af...

The first of a few pieces I call 'photo poems': The photos were taken in Big Bend National Park, near the Rio Grande which is the natural border with Mexico. We were in the middle of the road trip of a lifetime from L.A. to Toronto via New Orleans. On a sidenote, it's very cute to hear a 3 year old say, "Alabama". Here's my wife and son in the Rio Grande. The river flows on both sides of the island to their right and it's not clear whether they're in Mexico or The States. Sam and Amy in the Rio Grande The quiet in "Far West" Texas (the moniker given to that section of West Texas that's I suppose just a bit more "West") was unlike anything I'd experienced before, despite several forays through rural places like Saskatchewan, Montana, and the desolate parts of Nevada. The vastness of the landscape takes you right out of your head, to consider things larger in scope, the history of people on this con...

The San Francisco food and coffeehouse scene, 90s caps, hoods, and NICE mustaches. Still groovy after all these years...

This film exposes media propaganda in the West (especially the United States) in a unique and creative way. I found Santee Sioux  John Trudell 's words of wisdom especially fascinating. : I think the erosion of democracy leads to the end of all freedom. Democracy and freedom are the tools needed to build a better world. If we can't think for ourselves, if we can't be usefully autodidactical because we're distracted, then we have lost everything. Propaganda that controls the masses for the benefit of a few is a dreadful machination. Some Americans may think that modern overseas conflicts are beneficial for them. They may think that if they can justifiably control other nations that at least they , as American citizens, will gain. But this is not what's happening. The individual  owners of America are controlling more and more of the wealth, and they're global citizens. The idea that they care about America or its citizens is laughable. All th...

I've mentioned Grandfather William Commanda in a post in the past . He was a great Algonquin chief from near where I grew up in Ottawa, and he passed away recently at the age of 97. I thought re-sharing this nice letter from his facebook page (see below photo) would be a nice way to celebrate Canada Day on No Sound Mind. I realize now that the adolescent angst that fueled my creative development was often based on a similar feeling of frustration to the one Algonquin and all First Nations people have felt for over 300 years. North America doesn't have to be this way. Our politics can allow for more protection of the planet, and a higher level of social justice. Yet we continually squander the power to deeply improve our plight, and neglect to work towards  emancipating the world.  We so easily slip into a cycle of wallowing in a vapid world of  consumerism  and hype.  Recognizing this cycle as a problem is the first step towards solving i...

~~~~~{~~<@ excerpt from youtube: This video memorializes the Screw The Status Quo Zine, which published creative content online from February 2009 to Sept 2010, and stayed live until Aug 2011. The images featured are of STSQ contributors, slogans, remnant website images, and a bunch of art from the zine. The first song was by The Flowers Of Hell, the second by Heroin And Your Veins. Sal, the STSQ editor decided to discontinue work on the zine after starting a new project with writer Jeff Campagna. The new project is called Zouch Magazine and some of the original STSQ writers, including Meghan Clarkston and Kyle Gallagher have also joined the new posse. The editorial duo agreed to carry forward Sal's original publishing philosophy, which is to work as a team, assisting indie artists and writers disseminate their work to a broader audience, ignore the mainstream as much as possible while building out of the creative energy of the team, organically and serendipito...

They came from every corner of the world To be a western man From every walk of life they hailed To figure in to this new plan A merging of two worlds To bitter and wealthy ends A western man did come to be A hero and a friend At first they came from Europe To settle a new land To mix and match with Indians To delegate, rule and plan A future of democracy Innovation and adventure In this age the west was to the world Below, and still indentured Later came the modern age Of trains and planes and autos America, a prodigal son Had matured into its motto To be the greatest land on earth Through hard work and bravado And a swath of culture from this place Accross the world did echo The Eastern seaboard was now changed Through years of industrialization The midwest was it's factory Incesant with production Throughout this new east The dream had changed forever Slanted towards industry And away from adventure But tucked away Accross the new world In p...

I donated my artwork, 'Chief Commanda Dances At Asinabka', to the Asinabka Project in Ottawa, Ontario in 2007. My goal in creating this piece was to link my soul to Chief Commanda's vision and to unite his being with the land, in a way others could easily interpret visually. It is a depiction of his reaction to the realization of his dream. I hope I've encouraged in some small way, those actively working on the project to persevere. You can learn more about the project by visiting the website, http://www.asinabka.com /