Shining

Lee-Anne sent me this, and it's great ... the trailing for The Shining re-assembled to turn the film into a cheerful family drama.

http://www.ps260.com/molly/SHINING%20FINAL.mov

in poetry (no one cares about) news...

i received this interesting piece of poetry-spam -- more articulate than most:


nothing here next window sandwich a the
money side thats find filled reference fire gym
make force taught immediate back window sandwich
the we added wanted hard pretty goes drew least
latter teach different music anybody raise wrong end very allow


not too bad, really. i've seen worse. reminds me of RACTER -- spambots are language poetry machines, in a sense, which questions the status of language poetry as an anti-capitalist gesture.

in other language writing news, i wrote the following piece while working on a short paper for Christian Bok, and henceforth dedicate the work to that same man. this is simply a cataloguing of the written text-marks i made on one of the later drafts of the essay, compiled in order and with line breaks added:


, and cap?
cut significantly

which use to text’s
who assumes textual redo

and both leading ideological

s es i careful
written a things
Language Writing does not offer
redo

, but .

may e
the creation of

redo
is ing

a t
becomes a ing

i nothing more
than physical ce
constitute or

ideology in ing

but a is impossible.

Bjork - Medulla

I am amazed by the little I've heard of Bjork's latest album, Medulla. The album is comprised almost exclusively of vocals. Including Japanese beatboxer Dokaka, Inuit throat singer Tagaq, Roots beatboxer Rahzel, and other guests. I have read that there is a bit of keyboard work on a few tracks, but otherwise every sound is produced in some way by the human voice. Absolutely stunning. I encourage everyone (including myself) to seek it out in its entirety.

Also, check out www.dokaka.com for some bizarre all-vocal covers of songs like Slayer's "Angel of Death" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" among other strange things.

Qs

how is house

what are water

why is wise

when are winners

which is witches

who are whores

Grimm magazine

I received word that Grimm magazine had been trying to contact me for weeks, at my old e-mail address, about wanting to publish a poem of mine. Luckily they were persistent and managed to find my new address. So that's all straightened out, and a poem of mine called "what i would do for garlic" will appear in their next issue.

moving hassles, moving hassles ... I sent some notifications out, reiterating a past e-mail message. In other magazine news, Grain has once again foiled me ... a story that I have been waiting to send them (waiting until their reading period began again) was ready to go when I noticed on their website that they have extended the "no-more-submissions" period until next year, for fiction only (of course, it was a fiction submission). So they are out of luck, and I'm mailing it off to the Capilano Review later today.

Still, I maintain my crusade against Grain ... a magazine I like quite a lot ... and which I will pummel with submissions until they accept one. I am just lying back for a moment, waiting, to rethink my strategy.

ubu

if you haven't already, you should go to www.ubu.com -- an outstanding resource. the site collects avant-garde work that is out-of-print or otherwise generally unavailable elsewhere. some amazing stuff on there. i got a copy of kevin davies's out-of-print classic "pause button" and i notice that derek's essay "an afterword after words: notes towards a concrete poetic" is on there, it'll appear in one of his many forthcoming books but is a good read (he was kind enough to let me peruse it a month or so ago).

i am going to spend most of the weekend getting ahead of my reading list and getting my apartment and all my files in order -- everything is still in boxes at this point, or piled up on my floor. once that is done, i will have access to things like my martian press design master sheets and my mailing addresses, etc., and can get some work done. also, hoping that shaw will finally fix my damn phone, so i can make some calls (for pleasure and business). i have the following projects, all on hold, that i'd like to get back to (though the PhD is taking precedence right now):

- martian press
- spoony b press stuff (relating to the film's november premiere in winnipeg, which i am *hoping* to attend
- four hours of footage to wade through in order to pull together a comedy mock rock doc
- a music video for the punk band under pressure which i'm still hoping to finish before/at christmas, we'll see. the album is out in november, so hopefully before/around then
- some experimental films that i've had on hold forever
- a graphic novel adaptation of my screenplay "The Sandman" (based on ETA Hoffmann's story of the same name)
- a book to write (Kanada) which i started just this week, for a class. so far so good.
- any number of poetry manuscripts to complete
- another run-through / gutting of When I Am Hell

and i am sure many other things i am forgetting. but before i do any of that, i will have to organize my files and get ahead of my work/reading for class. not to mention the class i am teaching, starting tomorrow morning. life is exciting and fun but busy as hell.

Words of Wisdom from Tristan Tzara

My favourite two quotes at the moment, both from Tristan Tzara:

"advertising and business are also elements of poetry"

and of course, a great "explanation" of Dadaism:

"Perhaps you will understand me better when I tell you that Dada is a virgin microbe that penetrates with the insistence of air into all the spaces that reason has not been able to fill with words or conventions."

Prairie Fire reviews

just noticed that PF posted two reviews I wrote for them recently. I am working on another review for them, a glowing review of Jessica Grant's fine short story collection Making Light of Tragedy. Anyway, the reviews are here:

http://www.prairiefire.ca/reviewer_index.html

in vitro city

down keep it keep it
up keep it coming they

keep coming keep it
together now all (systems

go) the way from across
over easy how do you

keep it how do you
crown how do you

crow a poet breaking
break with troad diction

coupling in margins gut
ters down streets pas

sage ways all
eys vaeins

link-tastic!!

i was trolling the web & ran across Mark Truscott's site, noticed that he had added my blog to his list of links. made me think i should update my own list. will do so later in the week (or in the night, if i can't sleep --- for now, lots of reading to catch up on).

I have never met Truscott & don't remember ever having had contact with him, so it was a pleasant surprise. particularly interesting since all week I have been scouring bookstores, looking to buy his book Said Like Reeds Or Things, which I have not read but keep reading wonderful things about (i have failed, and it seems i must order the book online, which i will do once i decide what other books i will order alongside it, to save on postage). I've heard it's a very minimalist book, which appeals to me in many ways, since I grow weary of "wordy" poems (though i insist on working in long forms and sequences, I maintain that they are minimalist in essence, paradoxically perhaps, but still).

all these other blogs by poets seem to play host to poems. in the spirit of imitation, i plan to post a poem as well, and maybe more than one, soon.

update!!

i actually updated my paltry blog over at eyesinthemirror, which is more of a series of notes/reviews/theory bits than a blog. anyway, i think this last post is actually worth reading (unlike, perhaps, the other posts on the blog).

wings & things

a calgary night out, attended a reading of outgoing creative MA students. readings by Brea Burton, Jason Christie, Chris Ewart, Mark Giles, and Jane Grove. all were rather interesting, particularly liked the work of Jason Christie. continue to be very impressed by Chris Ewart's work, he read from his forthcoming Lamp which was a treat. lots of meeting new people and good times, went to some place called Unicorn which wasn't the greatest bar but a good time anyway. met ryan fitzpatrick in person and received a copy of jordan scott's blert -- forgot to bring the martian press books i meant to give him as trade, will do so later.

other things occurred, as they will. i'm talking about doing some readings, maybe getting involved in dANDelion in some capacity (nothing too time-consuming though, i must keep focused this year). picked up some more books for Bok's class. the weekend will be a rather simple one, lots of roaming around my apartment, reading and unpacking boxes and writing lesson plans.

will schedule my life soon. hoping to get my phone fixed too so that i can start getting back in touch with people again.

other blogs

everyone else's blogs are so clever and erudite. i am trying to push the genre by offering up bland, unimaginative, matter-of-fact posts. avant-garde is the only true way! (edging out jesus)

Calgary night out

Last night I walked down to F.A.T.S. (Fifth Ave Tenth St) which on Mondays has 1/2 pizza. A great deal. Invited out by derek beaulieu, a busy man these days. I'm putting out a chapbook of his this fall, he's just put out a few other chapbooks (he creates with fury, this man) and he's not only anthologized in the Post-Prairie book edited by Jon Paul Fiorentino & Robert Kroetsch, he's got two books of his own coming out this fall as well. Chris Ewart was there who I'm sure I've met before. I haven't read much of his stuff, but what I have read is fantastic. Filling Station 033 is out and it contains a prose excerpt of his, outstanding stuff. He just had a novel, lamp, accepted by Coach House which should be out in the spring (when derek is publishing a 3rd book).

In preparation for the move out here I tried to read a bunch of Calgary writers, and from my cursory examination I've concluded that there is one hell of a writing scene out here. Great writers like Jessica Grant, Larissa Lai, & Jill Hartman, to name only a few who have recently published books. Of course others like Nicole Markotic, Aritha Van Herk, & Christian Bok (who I'm taking a class from soon). I think this will be a good place to write. I think that it will push me to really experiment more, in order to keep up with some of the outstanding writers here.

Calgary seems to have a pretty busy little community too. Though there are a lack of publishers. I may have to step up production of my chapbooks so that I can start accepting some new work. Lots of good people around, I should meet more of them on Thursday at a reading organized by the creative writing department here. Also, I got into Suzette Mayr's prose writing class. Mayr is another great writer who just put out a new book called Venous Hum which I'm in the middle of, really funny & clever.

you like jokes??

my final post of the day --- a series of joke articles i wrote are appearing on www.kimono.ca --- more will appear over the next few days/weeks, starting now. check it out. funny stuff, if i do say so myself.

also

before i left winnipeg, i managed to film a mock-rock-doc thing, so that's my next film "in the (digital & therefore virtual) can" -- should turn out to be a good little comedy video. many thanks to my all-star cast & my co-producer/cameraman Phil.

i continue my "ultimate-DIY" aesthetic of employing a crew of less than four people. we actually shot this whole thing with 2 crew members, 6 actors, & myself, over two days.

we shot about 3 hours of footage. will be edited down to about 10-15 minutes of hilarity.

that's DIY at its best, my friends. more later.

Cowtown

So, I have moved to Calgary. Just got my Internet access set up the other day, been busy getting set up with my Dad, & then exploring with my visiting girlfriend, now she's on the road back home & I'm just answering email. Thought I would post an update for all interested.

As you may or may not know, I have just moved to Calgary to do a PhD at the U of Calgary. I got set up in an apartment just a ways down the street, I'm actually living on the Transcanada itself (in the city) about two miles from the U of C (right on the bus route though, not as far as it sounds to walk either). Got myself a one-bedroom in a pretty decent looking area, lots of shops etc around. Two nice bookstores about four or five blocks away, one a mishmash of used books and the other all old school collector's copies. The Kensington/Sunnyside area is not far away either, where originally I was planning to live (I ended up getting the first apartment that would let me rent for September in advance, a small but cozy and well-maintained place).

I will figure out all my school stuff soon (final class schedule, teaching hours, etc). I am happy to have gotten into a creative writing class for graduate credit, with Suzette Mayr (whose most recent book, Venous Hum, is on my nightstand & so far is a crackling good read). I will be writing a short novel called Kanada in the class, a sort of contemporary black comic take-off on Kafka's classic Amerika. More on that later.

I will get the Martian Press up & running again over the next month, in addition to getting a new website set-up. Also, Spoony B, my first film (a comedy short) will be getting ready for a November premiere in Winnipeg. I also will be talking to Dave Barber at the Winnipeg Cinemateque & starting to iron out a slate of films that I will be programming, all "Canadian Apocalypse" films. Coincidentally, I will also resume work on my prairie long poem (a serious/comedy narrative poem) Apokrypha, about (what else?) a Canadian Apocalypse.

In Martian Press news, Aaron Mauro delighted today me by emailing me to say that he has ran into Clive Barker at a convention in Toronto and gave Barker a copy of his chapbook!! So a modest little Martian Press title has found its way into the library of Clive Barker.

Not sure what else to report. I think I'll go unpack some more boxes for now. Later gators.