JOHN GIORNO COMES ALIVE!

Giorno at 2008 FVA. Photo by Isabelle Hayeur.

In 2008, I was commissioned to write a review of John Giorno’s performances at the Festival Voix D’Ameriques. It’s taken a while, but it finally has found a home at Chicago-based spoken word site the e-poets network. Check it out!

If you haven’t experienced Giorno live, there’s a couple of video clips of his 2008 performances at the Festival Voix D’Ameriques here. You can also listen to some of his recordings at the fabulous UbuWeb, and read the article I wrote about him for the Montreal Mirror here.

In other Chicago-related news, Victoria Stanton’s videopoem of ‘Oilers’ (featuring text / voice by yours truly) is being screened at the upcoming 9th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Festival.

FROM THE BOOK THAT DOESN’T CLOSE by Joe Blades

Joe Blades' latest ouevre.

I was eventually going to get around to writing about Joe Blades’ new poetry collection from the book that doesn’t close, which I read last week, but just this morning I found out he’s been the victim of a fire that has turned his whole life upside-down. Now, there can be nothing more nightmarish for a writer than a house fire. I don’t think that the fire actually consumed Joe’s apartment, wherein is housed his manuscripts, books, papers, etcetera – but water and smoke damage is almost a certainty. It’s with that in mind that I’m writing this today, hoping Joe can recover as much of the material of his life as is possible …