ridiculous things

1. Near 17th avenue and 14th street, the Smoker's Corner is right next door to Health for Life Ltd.

2. On a concrete wall on Centre Street, just north of the bridge, is an awesome graffiti of a dog wearing sunglasses and the words "WEED POODLE!"
(I have to start bringing my camera to work with me.)

3. Googling the law the other day:

"you can't spell manslaguhter without laughter"

4. From a contract review:

"The Franchisee acknowledges that the Confidential Information is highly confidential."

5. In Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, 1979:

"Fighting words

Fighting words, which may constitutionally be prohibited, are words directed to the person of the hearer which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the person to whom, individually, the remark is addressed."

Abandoned attempt at listing lines of poetry that have stuck with me

1. I once had

...oh rose thou art sick the invisible worm that flies through the night through the howling storm has found out thy bed of crimson joy and his dark secret love does thy life destroy...

running through my head over and over in an anxious loop as I wandered around campus smoking cigarettes in grotty doorways over several months in second year of undergrad. At the time I thought Blake's mental illnesses could be transmitted through the words, and yet felt the poem acted as a sort of warding-off mantra. Love the poem but not the memories.

2. Margaret are you grieving
Over goldengrove unleaving
Leaves like the things of man you
Care for with your cold heart can you
etc.
[quoted from memory, could be totally wrong]

Good ol' Traintrack.

3. Single fish single fish single fish eggplant single fish sight.

I used this line in my thesis as an example of a sentence that prioritizes poetic function over the other Roman Jacobsian functions of language. I like how the sounds of "eggplant" are all low and full amid the rest of the S sounds, all high and thin.

graffiti revision

From a seat-back on the bus:


Lee Webb is always my man!

(I will kill any woman he hangs w.)
                          /\
                       other

It's a good thing she clarified that...

Ogresse Oblige

Below is a recording from the flywheel cover night earlier this month of me reading from Dorothy Trujillo Lusk's Ogresse Oblige.

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More recordings from the flywheel and other events around Calgary can be found here, courtesy of Dale Herrington.

I regretted that I didn't properly introduce Dorothy Trujillo Lusk and her work before I started reading -- I don't know why I always assume that everyone reads the same poets I do. Anyway, more on her here.

rob kindly comments on my newest chapbook, Bus Plunge (at first I typed Bus Plunger, that might be a better title).

Save the SSHRC

Potentially even more damaging to the arts than the proposed magazine funding guidelines: restricting SSHRC funding to "business-related degrees." WTF? Protest here.

Things I like

lately include:
17 seconds Issue 1, especially the Rachel Blau duPlessis piece - very sentency;

The Capilano Review's latest issue on the poetics of erasure - smart and pretty;

the Open Letter Summer 2008 issue on New Canadian Poetries - lots of writing by and about current and former Calgarians;

the Olive Reading Series and collective - no podcast of my reading last week, sadly, but a kind and welcoming audience, really engaging open mic, and lovely chapbook of my new writing, of which I have several copies to distribute, let me know if you're interested.

Olive reading

If you're in Edmonton this week, come see me read at the Olive series on Tuesday. I'll be reading from "Bus plunge," a brand new mini-ms the Olives are chapbooking.

headlines are my favorite drug

This week's dose, courtesy of cbc.ca, the Calgary Herald website, the Globe and Mail website, and the Calgary Sun box outside my office:

“Joy of Six”

“Nurses rack up record rebukes”

“Dolphins capable sea chefs”

“Teachers aims at Petrocan”

“Driver run over by own car”

“Ban stun gun use on young people”

“French couple cloaked in suspicion”

“Is that a pigeon in your pants?”

“Powder vets”

“Sex becoming ‘cultural wallpaper’”

“Birth raises ethical issues”

"When I first knew Gertrude Stein in Paris

I was surprised never to see a french book on her table, although there were always plenty of english ones, there were even no french newspapers. But do you never read french, I as well as many other people asked her. No, she replied, you see I feel with my eyes and it does not make any difference to me what language I hear, I don't hear a language, I hear tones of voice and rhythms, but with my eyes I see words and sentences and there is for me only one language and that is english. One of the things that I have liked all these years is to be surrounded by people who know no english. It has left me more intensely alone with my eyes and with my english. I do not know if it would have been possible to have english be so all in all to me otherwise. And they none of them could read a word I wrote, most of them did not even know that I did write. No, I like living with so very many people and being all alone with english and myself."

- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Chapbook PDFs

of above/ground press's Alberta Series now up, including my Dirty Work. Dig the albertarrific design.

9:26 to 9:33 Discovery

Red person, green sort of person
combination of soil, water all plays into it
run this place for ten years
both read and green picked sooner longer on the vine
will continue forever
oh man, red enchilada, is that good
see what he says liking this red
it’s good best red enchilada I ever had
lot of problems labor problems
forcing us into other crops not enough people some of the
best chilies in the world growing what everyone
else is special in the best possible ways
capital buttes and mesas raging white water
clean living actually sporty wet suit well no
what's the worse actually have that sitting on the tube
save the scene going south shot backwards
into the brink a few tarrying moments dragged
a lot of it surprise to me today was no different
this being most American can’t use enough good
flavour beer not burning in there fire or beer
radicchio and Mexican beer rest your wary briquettes
barbecue comes with everything soon when grilling
check by poking vegetables superb sleepless road trip joys

names

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is a man whose last name is Judge, so his official title is Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge. And he was also made a baron, so maybe you could also address him as Lord Chief Justice Lord Baron Judge. Or you could call him Igor.

Also, check out Picasso's full given name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

9:48 to 9:51 Slice

no change
after two weeks it's ok
pretty good
try the target
next two weeks
what's the problem
you know what that means
go ahead and change

i need a miracle
follow through
come on
flip the tires
up and over
do things she never thought
the end and back
for sure
tone you out tighten up
must fit in that
dress
do you believe
do you

8:39 to 8:46 Learning

Sense of originality it’s good
Cool it’s awesome
Don’t fail me
Like the phoenix every day

Never allow false eyelashes
I look good
Toddlers at ten
Shoe new type of wipe
Baked on cheese
Dual action
Small cap soften
Yes
Concentrated three times
Scent pearls
Feel more

Tattoo of his guitar
Our lad of guadalupe
Definitely resonates
Last chance to run
So hope it doesn’t
Not the actual phoenix but the metaphor
No matter worse and worse
Going down keep going
Gotta be like the phoenix
Like crawling through a mile like
Working step back and look
Every day
Just a little angle
Any little strokes
Stand out in the background
Get out and take a look

9:34 to 9:38 Outdoor Life

this guy
up off cold sands chills away
ease of filming mistake or not
little button rock
couple times work
down low
considering the rain
small bear hooked at the top
wandering around
not a little one
devil’s club
just covered
just hurts
just came teeming down
darks coming in
home sweet see how I do tonight
feels protected

9:03 to 9:09 Discovery

Choose to craft heating a miracle an air seal install twin simple adjust any length slip space
Size
This good this can simple things really a piece of cheese that’s what’s cool
Enlightening seafood half hour north love and hate one block six other places taverna
Old man bars unimpressed come on swimming a bit more special
Most delicious into the can fourth generation his ideal canned seafood
Cockles quality tuna expand why not products available he goes
Season stops buys breads manually very carefully
No relationship stoned oysters desperate only better
Small stuff like nosebleed hundred dollar euros
Something else a bit of fat get better blend in juice little beads
Something so liberating weathered wood beer lively setting eat or don’t eat
Never repeat brothers change the world not enough
Lab and proving ground natura new direction
Not premeditated reactionary rejection everyday spongecake
Almond powder sugar make holes into the microwave yup
Goop in a cup

Nobody knows what I am trying to do but I do and I know when I succeed.

- Gertrude Stein, quoted in The Third Rose by John Malcolm Brinnin

New years resolutions:

1. Learn German;
2. Learn to play bass;
3. Start a reading series;
4. Travel outside the country.

And some very good advice.

One nice side effect of practicing law is finding obscure and archaic words nestled in the proverbial fine print. While browsing through the Notaries Public Act to make sure I'm doing it right, I ran across this clause:

A notary public may, during pleasure,
...
(e) demand, receive, and have all the rights, profits and emoluments rightfully appertaining and belonging to the calling of notary public.

Emolument. Apparently it comes from the Latin emolere, which is to produce by grinding, and it means compensation for employment.

Employment is a grind, but notarizing documents is one of the least grinding ways I've had of earning my emoluments.