Performance takes interaction

or Performance is buoying

or Performance is echolocation, sonar, whale noise

or Performance needs sticky surfaces

or Energy / Tension / Static

or Blow this scene This scene is blown.

I was all ho-hum about the Blowout this year, but after last night my faith has been restored. Congratulations to fS for finding such an incredible reading venue. But how uninformative for those who weren't there. Sorry. Maybe descriptions after the hangover is less.

Why is poetry always a feast or famine? There were many enticing events over the last couple of weeks, but I couldn't make it to all of them. Partly because they coincided with the first few weeks of my new job and the last few, agonizingly drawn out, weeks of the bar course. Now that I'm all settled in, homework-free, and refreshed from sleeping for most of yesterday, there are no events on the horizon...

Anyway, starting three weeks ago: My fellow LINEbooks author Kim Minkus launched her book 9 Freight at Pages with a lovely reading. Here's a measure of success: although the audience was small, I'm pretty sure everyone there bought at least one of her books. As should you.

Then two weeks ago, the Old School reading persevered through a number of setbacks, including Calgary's ridiculous week-long callback to winter weather. Again the audience was small but very receptive. Jill Hartman, Emily Cargan, Brea Burton and Julia Williams all read brilliantly and made me feel all envious and anxious and I need to write new stuff!!

Thursdays have been bad days for me, because I usually stay up late Wednesday nights finishing my bar course assignments, and so I missed the Spoken Word Festival event the Thursday before last featuring David Bateman, Hiromi Goto, Jordan Scott, Karen Hines, and Ivan E. Coyote. I regret not seeing all of them, but particularly Ivan E. Coyote, who I saw at the Spoken Word Festival about four or five years ago and thought was incredible. Even though I was living in Vancouver for three years after that, I never managed to see any of her performances for one reason or another, but I've since read all of her books. Her writing is quite different from most of the authors I read, but it's wonderfully original, straightforward and profound.

Last weekend, I made it out to Vancouver for my reading with Julia Williams at the Kootenay School of Writing, sadly one of the last events at Spartacus Books, which has to relocate due to rent issues. Spartacus has been a great place for readings, very spacious, comfortable and welcoming. The reading went really, really well. Julia read a mix of poetry and fiction, interspersed with sardonic commentary. I've always admired her ability to extemporize wit. I read for longer than I usually do, but it was great, especially when the audience started interrupting me to ask questions and getting me to repeat one poem and generally to explain myself. That's the best response you can get from a poetry audience, I think - just the sense that what you're reading is making people think. Hopefully, the audio recording will be up at the KSW site soon.

Last Tuesday, Jordan Scott launched his latest book blert at Pages with his usual mesmerizing and haunting performance. I haven't read blert yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Again because of the curse of Thursdays, I missed derek beaulieu's launch of his new book Chains at the Uppercase Gallery, but I plan to visit the exhibition of his visual poems sometime over the next month.

Friday was the final event of the Spoken Word Festival, featuring Sachiko Murakami, Steve Collis, Colin Browne, Weyman Chan, and Fred Wah, at the Art Gallery of Calgary. I'm running out of positive adjectives and don't want to repeat myself too much. But what the hell: lovely, brilliant, wonderful, fascinating, etc. Colin Browne and Fred Wah in particular can teach everyone a thing or two about how to perform poetry.

And that's all, for now... Actually, I won't mind a lull in events too much, I have a lot of reading to catch up on.

If you're in Vancouver tomorrow, hope to see you there.

This is probably the kind of thing I shouldn't expend too much energy on, but it annoyed me, and I believe in getting things on the record:

This is a note sent out to the English Literature Students' Society email list about the reading I organized and hosted last Saturday:

Well, today was certainly an interesting day. I headed downtown earlier this evening with the intention of going to the Old School reading at the Truck Gallery. I got downtown to the gallery’s front steps, only to be confronted with a sign stating, quite clearly, that the reading was open to “members and invited guests” only. This caveat had not been mentioned in any of the advertising for this event, including the official mailing list, the readers’ promotions, and the University of Calgary English Department webpage. Not feeling inclined to try bluffing my way past the doorman (and probably woefully underdressed anyway in my khaki cargo pants and fleece sweatshirt), I decided to call it a loss and caught the next train home. Bugger all to show for my time. So let this be a lesson to all you event planners out there – if you’re going to make your do an exclusive party, be a nice chap and let people know ahead of time! My apologies to any of you who tried the same thing as I did, based on the fact that I listed this event in my last newsletter, and got the boot at the front door.

This is the email I sent in reply:

I'm sorry you had so much trouble getting to my reading last night, but I can't imagine that there was a sign like that outside the Truck Gallery. I certainly didn't see one. Maybe you were at one of the fancy restaurants on either side of it? Or the jazz club on the corner? The Truck is in the basement of a pretty old and run-down office building, and there is no way they have a dress code, doorman, or members only policy.

It bothers me that you have sent a notice to your entire mail list insinuating that I would be careless enough to invite the public to an exclusive event. I've been organizing events in Calgary for close to ten years, and my reputation in the writing community is very important to me. I'm sure your mail list is large enough to have some influence on people's opinions.

Obviously, the event was open to the public, or I wouldn't have advertised it all around town. I was hoping someone would post a correction of some kind to the email list, but so far no luck.

I'd like to be in Vancouver these days: upcoming readings by Rita Wong, Jason Christie, Wayde Compton, also David Chariandy, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Wayson Choy, Anne Simpson, not to mention recent readings by Maxine Gadd, Colin Browne, Kim Minkus... I have lit scene envy...

Last night I attended a lecture in the Shakespeare series by professor emeritus Dr. James Black, who I unfortunately never took a class with, but whose reputation for having memorized every single line of every Shakespeare play I'm of course in awe of. I've been meaning to attend one of these lectures since the series began in January, but it's always been too cold or a holiday or I've been busy. Last night Dr. Black lectured on Julius Caesar, starting with a bit about Wayne and Schuster, which the audience, mostly in their fifties, ate up, but I have no more memory of ever watching them than I do of the Friendly Giant, although they're apparently just as Canadian-ly famous. His point was that parody of J.C. only works because everyone knows it, or at least recognizes some lines from it ("beware the ides of March", etc.), because it's one of the more widely taught Shakespeare plays. He then talked about how John Wilkes Booth acted in a production of J.C., Freytag's 19th century construction of the drama theory and how J.C. transcends the formula, resonance of Falstaff as sacrificial beast in Caesar's desire to have fat men around rather than lean and hungry Cassius, resonance of cannibalism from Titus Andronicus, the politics of meals, the example of politicians handing out pancakes at the Stampede, Caesar's complicity in ignoring the soothsayer, Brutus' fatal mistake of underestimating Antony, Caesar wounding himself "among his privities" and I still wonder exactly what that means, ambition, and the overarching theme of politics linked to eating. I took copious notes, although I'm not really sure why, maybe some kind of university-withdrawal issue, and I really enjoyed the lecture. It was like being in school, but not in an unpleasant way. Looking forward to Antony and Cleopatra next week, if I make it.

I had a great time reading in Edmonton on Tuesday: the smallish but very receptive audience perfectly fitted the cozy space of the Cafe Select (upstairs), which is just oozing with ambience, all black walls and art and high ceilings. Everyone laughed when I read from Dirty Work (always a plus -- it's so awkward when you try to deliver funny lines in a funny way but the audience isn't expecting to be amused and just seems befuddled) and it was nice to read from accrete or crumble knowing that no-one there has heard me read from it ad nauseam. My fellow readers were lovely, particularly K.L. McKay, she has a great rhythm and command of lyricism in her poetry. I sold a few books, handed out a bunch of chapbooks, and picked up a copy of Spire. Also got to hang out with my sister, and her boyfriend gave us a quick tour of Edmonton sights (ie. the bridges, the river, the U of A), I always forget how pretty parts of Edmonton are -- overall, it was well worth the six hours of Greyhound hell getting there and back.

Check it out, my first time reading in Edmonton!

Factory (West) reading series:

Natalie Simpson
Diane Cameron
Kristy McKay
Janice Williamson

Tuesday, February 19, 7:30

Cafe Select (upstairs)
8404 109th Street
Edmonton, AB

rob mclennan read at the U of C on Monday night, as part of the Markin-Flanagan writers in residence exchange with the U of A. I thought the turnout was a bit disappointing, particularly from the non-student literary community. But it was a decent sized audience, and as long as the usual Markin-Flanagan spread of wine and food is available, why complain? Sina Queyras delivered a comprehensive introduction to rob's writing, quoting someone (I can't remember who, and I really have to start taking notes at these things) who called rob a northern beat poet, pointing out the Whitmanesque impulse to know the self in his body of work, and referencing an illuminating line from one of rob's poems that he later read: "a body moving past lyric into post-lyric"...

rob read from a couple of different poetry series, including his recent sex at 38, from his novel white, and from a novel in progress. I think that listening to rob read has given me more access into his poetry than I've had previously. Hearing his intonations and rhythm of voice makes his choices of form and line breaks more apparent, and more organic. I enjoyed his novel in progress, which follows a character called Alberta through some sort of experience of living in the prairies; I have to admit that when I hear people read fiction I never follow the plot at all, I mostly just listen to the sound of words and the structure of sentences. Even more enjoyable than the reading was rob's somewhat subversive refusal to engage the usual English-department-ish questions about narrative and form or Aritha Van Herk's question about appropriating Dennis Cooley's characters. Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it, but it was all very entertaining.

Heard many poetries over the past few days. First the flywheel series on Thursday evening, where I was particularly impressed by Wakefield Brewster, a sound poet with all kinds of slam poetry chops, he's an incredible performer with some really great lines (not that I wrote any down...) I was pretty pleased with my reading as well, I think it was a bit calmer and controlled than the last couple of times I've read, and my new writing seemed to go over okay. My new favorite poem to read is "a long and fitful sentence accumulating grace", basically because it's a really long sentence that tests my lung power, and I think any grace it accumulates is through sounding out loud.

Then on Saturday afternoon, I attended the Just My Type reading at the Palette Coffeehouse in Art Central, featuring derek beaulieu, Paulina Constancia, Emily Carr, Glen Dresser, Emily Elder, Stuart McKay, Samuel Garrigo Meza, ryan fitzpatrick, and Natalie Walschots. I love going to Art Central, although I didn't stay to look around after the reading, mainly because I wanted to go home and hide from the cold. The Palette coffeeshop is a great place for a mid-afternoon poetry reading, full of brightly coloured art and comfortable couches, and a wall-sized window overlooking the C-train line, part of the Telus Convention Centre, the Regis Hotel, and the empty lot that used to contain a gorgeous brick building, no idea how old it was, I just remember noticing the intricate brickwork around its roof last summer and thinking it wouldn't last long. Anyway, it was fun to watch the poets decide how to relate their writing to the theme of "love": my favorite was Samuel's series of bear poems, and I also enjoyed Stuart's observation about male poets' hairlines (hardly specific to Calgary). Two things maybe we need more of are afternoon poetry readings, and themed readings.

February flywheel
featuring:

Kirk Ramdath
Amy Joy Hild
Natalie Simpson
Wakefield Brewster
Dale Lee Kwong

Thursday, February 7
7:00 pm
McNally Robinson
120 8th Avenue SW

Thursday night the CBC held its annual Poetry Face-off, Calgary installment, at the packed Auburn Saloon. Dale Lee Kwong, ryan fitzpatrick, Sabo Forte, Jill Hartman, and Shone Abet were competing for... something, a chance to go on to a national round, I think. Anyway, I thought the jazz band added a really interesting element to the readings, especially because the CBC host asked each reader to explain their choice of music before starting. ryan's answer of "a little punk rock, Pink Floyd, and Enya" was the best, and whatever the band was playing worked really well with his reading, which ventured into the sincere end of the deadpan-t0-sincere spectrum ( ironically?) to good effect. Jill, who requested Twin Peaks type music for her "esoteric love poem", read a lovely, sensual poem that really resonated with the backing music. Dale Lee Kwong (who ended up winning) asked for "Chinese jazz", which the band did a great job with -- a slow, haunting sound fitting for her dramatic reading. All the readings were enjoyable, and the slickness of the event (CBC sponsorship, expensive bar, large crowd, judges making impassioned but essentially empty speeches about the poems, etc.) put me off less than I thought it would. It's good to see the Face-off becoming more representative of all the different poetry in Calgary, not just sound poetry.

The Creative Writing Research Group at the University of Calgary has sponsored some great readings in the past couple of months: Suzanne Zelazo, Jeff Derksen, (maybe others? I couldn't find an archive of past events) and last night's reading by Christine Stewart and Lisa Robertson at Pages on Kensington.

I haven't read anything by Christine Stewart, but I've been hearing her name more and more since she moved to Edmonton to teach at the University of Alberta. She read from Pessoa's July: or the month of astonishments, published by Nomados Press, and from a chapbook I believe is called The Trees of Periphery. She gave a careful, engaged reading that required a more attentive listener than me. When she introduced each poem by explaining sources and processes in great detail, I totally spaced out. But she grabbed my attention again when she started reading the poems; her writing is complex, nuanced, politicized, definitely something I'll have to start reading.

I've seen Lisa Robertson read once before, a little over three years ago in Vancouver. It was one of the first readings I had attended since moving there, and it was held in a small art gallery right in the middle of the Downtown Eastside. The gallery was packed, with people sitting on the floor all along and in front of the rows of chairs. The audience faced the front window and door, while the readers stood with their backs to the glass door a few feet to their right. About a third of the way through Lisa's reading, a very old and very confused-looking man, who I assume was a junkie, came in through the door and stood parallel to Lisa, just sort of swaying and looking at her. She finished the sentence she was reading, and then turned to him to say hello. One of the event organizers invited him to sit down and enjoy the readings. He didn't respond but kept standing there, looking around the room, and then walked out.

It was a strange and yet perfectly natural interruption that has stuck with me, because to me it problematized the arts scene in Vancouver. On the one hand, there's the complex association between cultural production and poverty activism. There's a generosity and inclusiveness.

On the other hand, there's the sheer pointlessness of activities like poetry in the face of overwhelming social issues. It's almost an affront that a room full of overeducated people would gather to celebrate their obscure interests in the overprivileged space of an art gallery right in the middle of the only place in the city the marginalized addicts, homeless, and etc. are allowed to occupy. It becomes absurd.

On another hand, maybe poets, artists, poetry readers, etc. are thinking more profoundly and sensitively about complex social issues than most people. And why shouldn't they occupy the same space? Besides, the rent is probably cheaper there than anywhere else in the city. Maybe I make too much of these things. Maybe I'm stretching for something to feel cynical about.

Anyway, back to last night's event. Lisa Robertson read from The Men, published by BookThug and from Rousseau's Boat, Nomados Press. Her reading of The Men made the text come alive for me. I love it when that happens, I find certain poetry resonates much more for me when I can hear the writer's rhythm and intonation. I'll have to read The Men again. She also mentioned how good it is to read a text like that in Canada, because Canadian audiences will actually laugh at funny or shocking lines, while international audiences tend to be too somber. So yay, Canadian poetry audiences!

I'll be reading tomorrow night at the Railway Club as part of Memewar magazine's Short Line series. I've never been to a Memewar event, or to the Railway Club, but I've heard good things about both. Come hear me read if you're around.

How can I top my last post? I can't. But this comes close:

filling Station / NoD launch

January 5th, 2007 7:30pm
Carpenters' Union Hall
310 10th St. NW, Calgary AB
cover $5 (or $10 for admission & 1 mag, $15 for admission and both mags!)

featuring readings by
JACQUELINE TURNER (launching her new book Seven into Even),
NATALIE SIMPSON (launching her new book Accrete or Crumble),
FRANCES KRUK (reading from her new work),
GARRY MORSE (launching his new book Transversals for Orpheus & the untitled 1-13),
REG JOHANSON (launching his new book Courage, my Love),
ROGER FARR (launching his new book Surplus),
and musical sensations HOTLITTLEROCKET!

For anybody who will be in Vancouver next Friday...

LINEbooks invites you to join us for the launch of four new poetry titles:

Accrete or Crumble by Natalie Simpson

Surplus by Roger Farr

Transversals for Orpheus & the untitled 1-13 by Garry Morse

Courage, My Love by Reg Johanson

Friday, December 01 at 8pm at Spartacus Books
319 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC

Special: pre-launch price box set of all four titles $50

Contact Michael Barnholden
Managing Editor, WCL
www.westcoastline.ca
email: wcl@sfu.ca