April 7, 2010

Idiotically Optimistic

No, the title above doesn’t refer to me. I’m stupefyingly optimistic, but that’s another story. L’Optimist Idioteque in question is none other than Alexandro Jodorowski, one of the most unique figures in the contemporary avant-garde scene. In an interview for arthur magazine he not only describes himself as “idiotically optimist” but he takes us down a rabbit hole, memory lane tour of his life that begins with a wresting of the avant-garde torch from Andre Breton and company. A must read for anyone in need of an inspiration shake-down. Abandon all hope of normalcy ye who enter: in the center of the horror of the civilization is the happiness to be alive

alejandro_jodorowsky

April 3, 2010

April is the Cruelest Month?

Perhaps T.S.Eliot, employed at Lloyd’s of London for eight years, was lamenting the influx of income tax forms in his famous poem “The Waste Land”. In any case, we now have National Poetry month to turn Eliot’s cruel adage on its head. In Canada and America there are going to be contests and activities galore. If you’re interested in writing a poem everyday to document your take on various perspectives of the month, check out Poetic Asides, where the resident poet, Robert Lee Brewer, provides a prompt everyday as an entryway into a poem. I’m taking a break from my daily twitter poems to participate. Here’s my effort for today, which is based on the prompt of a title: Partly ______:

Partly Blanked Out

Something funny he said when they met fifty years ago. Something an ant would use as a microscope. Something soft in his voice she responded to. Something promised under the moon at its apogee. Something screamed in a delivery room for the first time. Something felt in five fingers around one. Something placed between their bed and their window. Something passed so fast like a river. Something unwrapped in seconds for a ten-year-old. Something screamed in delivery of a promise. Something given within the crush of an embrace. Something forgotten like a continent fallen off a map. Something worn in memory of retirement. Something taken in the crush of voices. Something recommended by the doctor to stave off something. Something written down among many things written down. Something funny he says about the moon apropos of nothing. Something soft in his voice. Something she cries.

March 24, 2010

“I feel like poetry tonight!”

Essayist, editor, critic, and poet Carmine Starnino is reading tonight as part of Locution’s Reading Series at Pulp Fiction Books (2422 Main Street) 7:00 pm.

March 15, 2010

Whatever your Free Will Tells you, Don’t Ask Babstock if Poetry is Dead

Thanks to one of my classmates at the University of British Columbia, I’m currently on a Ken Babstock binge, a poet who’s fast becoming my favorite. On the weekend when I was playing pool in a pub where brawls are just a whiff away, I didn’t hesitate in recommending Babstock to my six-foot something opponent. It’s rugged poetry that gives you calluses while also challenging you with big picture questions. It’s like building a log-cabin in the great outdoors with a philosopher who wants to chat Plato and Aristotle over lunch breaks. An amazing breadth of balance in confronting the world. Here’s a little clip that I found online of him reading from Air Stream Land Yacht.

March 10, 2010

Bolstering Book Store Sales

And the prize for the most photogenic bookstore goes to...Macleod's Books

And the prize for the most photogenic bookstore goes to... Macleod's Books!!

Here’s something that’s a little embarrassing. After eight years of writing in various guises online I’ve never once plugged a single bookstore. They’ve provided me with places to meet friends on a rainy day, afternoons of musings through random meanderings in aisles, a quick fix of something inexpensive but invaluable, a great place to launch a book or hear an author read, etc. and so on. Not that I haven’t recommended bookstores to friends, family and students, but I’ve never thought to lend support online. I wondered about this the other day and the more I thought about it the more I realized that setting up a category of Local Bookstores is the very least a writer/reader/lover of books can do to help increase awareness about the bookstores that are out there for people to wander into and discover something new. Duthie’s closed recently and I certainly hope we don’t have to witness the end of any other bookstores in Vancouver for a while. I would urge other writer/bloggers to be sure to include lists of local bookstores on their websites in order to keep these important places in the front and center of our consciousness. I certainly don’t want to see my city going the way of Laredo, Texas where bookstores are extinct. As important as new forms of media are, there are certain “real world” entities that need to survive if we hope to have informed and meaningful discussions and thoughts online and off.

March 3, 2010

Trying on Essays for Size

What’s the difference between a blog posting and a personal essay? As I review a series of essays for my creative non-fiction class at UBC, this question comes to mind. I review the points provided in our course pack by our ever-thorough (and enthusiastic) instructor Andreas Schroeder and one line about essays stands out: “it is mostly exploratory, giving itself time to peruse, analyze, speculate or marvel.” This sentence spring-boards into a theory.

Essays take up time whereas blog postings take up (cyber)space. This is a simple bifurcation but valid. How many people gaze up from computer screens with pensive expressions? While surfing the web you move from place to place, from text to video, and time is usually measured in the seconds you wait for something to load. In essays there is time to slowly and sensuously wrap your head around a thought. Time is of the essence.

I also consider how a personal essay is Socratic in its questioning approach whereas a blog posting is more declarative. Usually, people are getting some grief off their chest or promulgating some position or stance. There are a dizzying number of great blogs but on the other end of the spectrum you have people shouting: look at me! At the end of the day, it’s easier to shout a sentence than a question. (Try to imagine a crowd chanting a thoughtful question.)

I file my fingers through all the readings that Andreas has given up. One of the best essays in this superb collection in front of me is Cristina Nehring’s Our Essays, Ourselves, a piece of writing that shimmers in its rhythms of insight. What I also enjoy is the succinct analysis of the history and import of essays. We are taken from Seneca, the founder of the essay form, to Lee Gutkind, a contemporary proselyte of creative nonfiction and founder of the literary journal Creative Non-Fiction (which currently is running a competition on essays about animals with a deadline of April 2nd).

If this were an essay I’d wrap all this up with some insight into UBC’s remarkable MFA program, a reference to a cat I met yesterday on my walk home and the view I have as I type this on my iPhone as I look up through the diamond shaped UBC library window and wince at a fissure of brightness breaking through the clouds in the sky.

But this is just a blog posting and you have other places to go.

February 20, 2010

Sunday Afternoon Reading on Granville Island

Here’s something to check out if you should find yourself on Granville Island Sunday afternoon. Below is the blurb on the Thursday’s Writing Collective page.

The Thursdays Writing Collective is participating in the Cultural Olympiad at the art installation “The Candahar,” Sunday, Feb 21, 2-4pm, at Playwrights Theatre Centre, 219-1398 Cartwright Street (on Granville Island just past Kids’ Market on the right.) Tickets at door $7.

A dozen participants of the Collective will read pieces of published work and discuss the process of arriving on the page. Please join us for an afternoon of laughter and entertainment with an edge.

The Candahar is a locus for social interaction and the host site for an ambitious series of events — musical programs, theatrical presentations, performances and dialogues, both scripted and unscripted — curated by Winnipeg artist Paul Butler and Vancouver author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo).

The name “Candahar” refers to the original location of the now defunct Blackthorn Bar in Belfast pub. Irish artist Theo Sims has recreated the bar in Granville Island’s Playwright Theatre. Part sculpture, part theatrical stage, The Candahar is an artwork that is also a functioning bar, open to the public and staffed, in collaboration with two Belfast bartenders who act as unscripted performers. The project fuses the authentic with fantasy, spectacle with stage, and at its heart acts as a catalyst for conversation, debate and dialogue — and a pint here or there.

February 12, 2010

Kudos to Cran

Vancouver’s poet laureate, Brad Cran, has stated that he won’t participate in the Olympic celebrations. In case you haven’t heard, here’s what’s behind his decision. Obviously, the whole question of the Olympics is a hugely complicated debate between millions of hopes and hundreds of thousands of concerns. I, for one, am concerned about the nature of big-budget global spectacle as the template for a future where cities pull out all the stops for the chance to produce the next “block-buster.” Under this analogy, the future is Waterworld, bad acting and all.

February 10, 2010

Elevating the Printed Word

If you find yourself in East Vancouver anytime soon and you’re interested in a quiet little place to read or write, I can think of no better place to recommend than Geoffrey Farmer’s Every Letter in the Alphabet. It’s a temporary gallery set up for one year, but in its short life-span it’s hosted a number of excellent shows. There are some great books to browse through and most wonderful of all there’s a book on a rotating pedestal in the display window. How often is it that the right things get put on pedestals in this world?

photo1 photo

February 9, 2010

In Conversation with Tobias Wolff

Lit lovers and makers are in for a treat tonight when Entitled Opinions features author Tobias Wolff, who’ll be discussing his fiction, J.D. Salinger and the art of short stories. That’s today from 4pm to 5pm on KZSU 90.1 FM in the SF Bay Area or you can listen to the live stream at http://kzsu.stanford.edu/ The episode is also available on the Entitled Opinions website and on iTunes.

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