IT’S EIGHT O’CLOCK

garage rock extraordinaire

It is eight o’clock and I’m lying on my bed reading Miranda July. I’m reading No one belongs here more than you and I’m hearing Miranda July’s voice as I read – because I know what her voice sounds like. I’ve seen the movie she did, Me and you and everyone we know, and she not only wrote and directed the film, she starred in it. So it’s Miranda July non-stop, 24/7. Her voice is the voice of Miranda July the movie actor, not Miranda July the psychotic-sounding Kill Rock Stars recording artist. When I heard those CDs – and those CDs were the first I heard of Miranda July – I thought she must’ve been about as punk rock as it gets. Then I saw her videos at GIV, this place in Montreal that has a big library of artist’s videos – and DVDs now, I guess – and the projector kept fucking up on one of her videos and so we – there were other people there watching the videos too – we only got to digest this one video of hers in weird pieces, because it just kept stopping. Miranda July of the videos was definitely out to disturb the audience. Like the one with the baby – that was disturbing. Not disturbing like Ju-On, but disturbing like pushing the audience’s buttons to show the audience that hey, look, you’ve got buttons I can push to disturb you a little. By the time she got around to doing a movie, she’d toned it down. Same with No one belongs here more than you. Or maybe I’m just used to her now.

CABARET CARTE BLANCHE

I’ll be doing an experimental sound art piece with John Stuart (as FINGERDOG) at this upcoming show.

Throw Poetry Collective Presents a night of mixed mediums; dance, music and poetic experiments served:

Cabaret Carte Blanche

Friday June 5th, 2009

Doors 7:30 Show 8:00

Theatre St. Catherine – 264 St. Catherine St. E.

$10 at the door

Throw Poetry Collective is bringing together Montreal based artists working in the disciplines of spoken word, music, contemporary dance, theatre and performative visual art -including those who skirt the lines between mediums, mixing talent and technique. The cabaret will feature both emerging and established talents such as Ian Ferrier with his band Pharmakon MTL, spoken word poet and songstress Moë Clark, live body painting by artist April-Anna, the haunting voice of Michelle Tompkins, and experimental spoken word performances by members of the Throw Poetry Collective, including Chris Masson and Alessandra Naccarato.

Featuring:

Music by Pharmakon MTL, Michelle Tompkins, James Irwin, Jindalee Lehman

Spoken Word by Moë Clark, Larissa Diakiw, The Throw Collective (including Chris Masson & Alessandra Naccarato)

Mixed Media Performances by Tender Morsels, Rachna Vohra, Fingerdog (Vincent Tinguely & John Stuart)

Live Body Painting by April-Anna

& more

Voila: Cabaret Carte Blanche!

MOVIETIME

Edvard Munch's 'Vampire'

When I’m at home, which is most nights, I generally like to spend a couple of hours watching movies. This is my personal compromise between needing something to do when I am too tired to read or write, and wanting to avoid the absolutely mind-wrecking shitstorm of what’s available on TV. (Also, since moving to a location below Mount Royal, in the shadow of various skyscrapers, the quality of my television reception has been brutally reduced. Yes, I still watch TV that arrives for free from ‘signals’ in the ‘air’, as opposed to what is piped in via cable for a hefty fee.) Lately I’ve been trying to cut my screen time down by getting stoned and lying around listening to music instead, but there can be no denying the powerful attraction a filmic voyage can have on my imagination.

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 …

REVIEWS, MOSTLY LIVE, SOME BOOKS

First of all, I’d like to give my Maxell ‘digital’ headphones, which are right now piping Nico’s ‘Innocent and Vain’ into my brainpan, these headphones bought cheap at a pharmacy, I’d like to give these headphones of mine a bad review. The sound quality isn’t bad – I, who have had a lifetime career of listening to scratchy rock through shitty speakers, am not one to judge sound quality – but because they have only little padded speakers that sit on top of my ears and squish them all up. They squish the shit out of my ears. Failing grade. Next time – really really big earpieces that go right over the ears and don’t squish them.

It’s officially spring, and springlike outside, even if cold. Springlike sunlight sprinkling down upon us all like shy flower buds awakening slowly, sensing something …

Openly Gaia.

I am honoured to be part of the panoply of poets and writers on Saturday. This is my first ever academic conference so I will be on my best behavior and will try not to break any of the furniture.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONFERENCE MAKES SENSE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Montreal, Quebec, Canada: March 3, 2009

Scholars, artists, and activists from across North America will be converging on Montreal on Friday March 13 and Saturday March 14 to present their papers and poems which address and attempt to make sense of the various meanings of ‘sustainability’. A University of Montreal conference, ‘Sense and Sustainability’ plays on Jane Austen’s title to examine all aspects of sustainability in literature past and present, from sustaining the ‘self’ to sustaining environments.

Thirty scholars from across North America will meet on Friday to present and discuss their papers with titles like ‘Green Morality: Ecological and Ecocritical Redemption in The Lord of the Rings’, and ‘Katherine Mansfield and the Ecology of Feminine Space’. The keynote speaker is a University of Montreal alumnus, Clive Doucet, poet and author of Urban Meltdown.

Thirty creative writers and performers from across North America will meet on Saturday. Led by local celebrities Gail Scott, Sina Queryas, Mary Soderstrom, Ann Diamond, and Ian Ferrier, they will present and discuss their work. The closing speaker is Algonquin Elder, Jacob Wawatie, Director of Kokomville Academy who will present clips from Le Peuple Invisible.

Free lunch and coffee are provided between presentations and artists, activists, scholars, the public, and the press are invited to continue their conversations as they dine.

Conference organiser, Chris Dilworth, a doctoral candidate who studies cybernetics in literature, says that “as the present ecological and economic crises demonstrate, the consumer-economic model is fatally flawed. We have to start looking for other models of sustainability. We must re-examine our relationship to technology.” He adds that “only art provides an ‘essential reflection upon technology and [a] decisive confrontation with it’; art makes sense of sustainability”.

‘Sense and Sustainability’ is the sixth annual conference hosted by the English Graduate Students Society of the English Studies Department at the University of Montreal. Department Chair, Robert Schwartzwald, received the Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies on May 31, 2008. Research at the Department focuses on British, Canadian, and American literature; it offers both MA and Ph.D. degrees.

Contact information:

The Conference website is at:
http://www.egss-umontreal.org/colloquium/

Press contact S&S Co-Chair (e-mail only):
Chris Dilworth chris@egss-umontreal.org

Event contact S&S Co-Chair (Academic)
Brigitte Boudreau: brigitte@egss-umontreal.org

Event contact S&S Co-Chair (Creative)
Kevin D’Abramo: kevin@egss-umontreal.org

FOUR MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT LAUNCH

The latest issue of Four Minutes to Midnight!

I’m reading a little at this event on Saturday night. There’s be various bands / performers to enjoy, and you can pick up a copy of Four Minutes to Midnight no. 10, featuring great stuff by myself amongst all the other geniuses.

Boredom is Counter Revolutionary

Four Minutes to Midnight Issue 10 Launch Party

Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 8:00pm

Lab Synthèse

435 Beaubien Ouest, Loft 200

Four Minutes to Midnight is proud to launch its 10th issue at Lab Synthèse with the bands Shortpants Romance, American Devices, Little Scream and The Great Vowel Shift. BYOB!

$5 / $13 with zine purchase

BEFORE I COMPLETELY FORGET

Like I said, I want to write something that vaguely resembles a review of things I am looking at, but these past few months have been sort of a blur of events, and although I have indeed been plowing through a lot of interesting material, I’ve had no free time – I mean, really free time – to write anything about anything. And by now I’ve probably forgotten more than half of it. Which raises the question, Why bother reading anything (or watching any films, or attending any live performances, or doing anything cultural) at all? There are many publications that devote themselves to chasing the Newest of the New – your average weekly, for instance, which every week breathlessly gushes over the latest films and touring bands, or monthly music magazines, or even the occasional literary publication, although it becomes less and less likely you’ll find any reviews in those things. Or so I’m told. But why bother? It all just goes by, it’s like being stuck in a car or train, or even a plane; eventually, all the beauty and variety of things passing the windows becomes a blur.

POEM FOR DEIRDRE

Chipper day co-host with
Punk art hair and
Old thrift store house dress chic
Just 18 and ripe to bursting
Staunch baby dyke defender of
Gay rights and abortion rights
Said it outright on radio and
I, awkward, a-gah, a-guh
About all of it
But slowly milling and mulling
Until summer came and she went away
And I went
Where the wild things are

Now she’s a video star and
I sneak into her latest installation
Sit solitary with multiple screens
Staring as she
Shimmers in sexy sepia tones
Same old Deirdre
Wide-eyed, questioning,
Never wavering
O the home of the brave
O the little
Superman