Luckly, unlike Nick and rob, I'm not. Shameless plug: you can catch me twice in August (see below). And for the just-like-you-were-there feeling, check out yesterday's reading's episode summary below.
Sky Gilbert.
w/ Marcus McCann & special guests.
Thurs, Aug 16, 7:30pm.
Collected Works Bookstore.
1242 Wellington W.
14th Anniversary Of Above/Ground Press.
w/ Marcus McCann, Amanda Earl & Bill Hawkins.
Thurs, Aug 23, 7:30pm.
Ottawa Art Gallery.
2 Daly (ArtsCourt).
A Factory Readying Series event.
Episode summary: Farewell for Nicholas Lea and rob mclennan with special pal Marcus McCann
First aired: July 28, 2007, Carleton Tavern
Reading commences 40 minutes late. Monty Reid, bless his heart, gives me a warm-hearted introduction, saying that “we're looking forward to getting to know” me. As in me, the opener. Anyway, it's all very flattering. The entire room is sweating. Reid invites me to read. I read.
“7 facts about the saxophone” goes over like a lead balloon, but the other three pieces seem warmly received. Among them is “The water log: for emerging Ottawa poets” (dredged up from this Spring's Peter F Yacht Club) because I was excited about the batch of dedicatory poems rob read at the inaugural The Muses reading series last week. “The water log” has parts dedicated to Amanda Earl and Nicholas Lea, so it's nice they were both there. I ended with some things I'm working on, tentatively called The Techtonic Suite.
So much for the opener. The evening's greatest stir is caused by Nicholas Lea's reading of a new piece about “the tyranny of the concrete”, which he calls “a lament”. Later, I hear Stephen Brockwell and Grant challenge him about it. He reads with an easy confidence which doesn't always come naturally to Nick. Aside from the lament, he reads a number of glistening new poems which I can't wait to see collected. He also reads from his trade collection – things I don't think he's read before. He's got a lot to choose from in that book, since it's start-to-finish brilliant. A shoe in for the Gerald Lampert award, if you don't mind me saying. Oh yeah, and he has by far the best looking fans.
There's a picture of Nick on Charles Earl's blog today, by the way: www.charlesearl.com
from Songwrithing (Everything Is Movies, Chaudiere Books, 2007):
when this is said to be hymnal in its approach. when the lock-jaw moment rises and sticks. when fall falls but the falls unfall. when we drip mysticism. when our arches collapse. when we feel unthinkingly. when thought ought not to be so congruous. when sinking isn't such a bad idea. when motion is miles from come ocean. when when went unwanting. when the moon was yours uniquely. when it sounded like a dog got hit. when you rented and ranted. when I half-draggingly went with it. when the mothership rescinded. when the car alarm medley'd. when you formed when formulating the question. when each trope choked. when the leaf yellowed under sunlight. when we are fizzy with sedatives. when the fawn on the road is exquisite but not majestic. when hair becomes almighty. when crow leaves her work. when the tourists are getting restless. when riverbank meets piggy bank. when the paperclip saves the whip. when the stigma's lifted slightly. when the catalogue's unclogged. when the onslaught of progress is too furious. when we entertain ourselves with meditations. when this is said to be hymnal in its approach.
Following the break, rob reads from a new work he's been handing out called After Spicer (draft) as well as some things from his new book, The Ottawa City Project. He mentions some little biographical details about Spicer (a gay) and Robin Blaser and Robert Duncan (also gays). His reading was bang on, fantastically timed throughout with his usual spare insights, even if his self-commentary was a bit... lubricated. The absence of rob as poet and frequent reader will surely be felt this year. As publisher and organizer, he will leave a gaping rob-mclennan's-personality sized hole in Ottawa. On the bright side, he reminded us, he'll only be gone eight months.
Jown W. MacDonald has a pic of rob on his photoblog, by the way: www.johnwmacdonald.com
from number two bus (The Ottawa City Project, Chaudiere Books, 2007):
through communities, an east end shopping centre & a west
through chinatown, little italy, westboro, the byward market, low income
housing, canier, heritage buildings, the collusions
through bank street promenade
through highway commuter traffic & the far flung edge expanding city
through every red light
through every moment
through every remarkable delay of intent & circumstance & wanting
through the little place that sides behind the eyes & watches
through the poems disappearing fading slow from banners; ronnie r brown or john flood, mine
through all the hyphenated city sections; a place a place a placelessness; how
does a city make; where hyphen hold memory, a link
to further shores, little
glengarry my apartment; little glengarry archive & a little secret
through the flat line of the page
through delays & delay; twelve minute schedule, up to twenty minutes late
through clout
through routine & ripening
through singing; the flesh cant wait
a shore is not a demon is not a thought of transportaion, public transit we are
all public, displays of affection & transportation; look at where I'm going
Also see Amanda Earl's review on her literary blog: www.amandaearl.blogspot.com.
After the reading, most of the crowd charges out onto the roof of the Carteton Tavern. I had lovely chats with a number of poets, including Michelle Desbarats, Sean Zio, Steve Zytveld, Earl, Reid, mclennan and Lea with partner Gen Wesley. Brockwell paid me some big compliments (or paid my ear a big compliment?) and lots of people shook my hand. That was nice.
Nicer than the part where we got pulled over by a bored police officer on the way home. But that's another story.
Don't forget about the Pride Week literary festivities going on this year:
Sky Gilbert.
w/ special guests.
Thurs, Aug 16, 7:30pm.
Collected Works Bookstore.
1242 Wellington W.
A Theory Of Angels.
Spoken word by Sean Zio.
Sat, Aug 18, 5pm.
Mother Tongue Books.
1067 Bank (a wheelchair accessible venue).
A Dusty Owl event.
DeAnne Smith.
Spoken word and standup.
Sun, Aug 20, 5pm.
Swizzles.
246 Queen.
A Dusty Owl event.
Reading Out Loud.
Local personalities read literature that influenced
them while they were coming out.
Thurs, Aug 23, 8pm.
Venus Envy.
320 Lisgar.
Organized by the good folk at Venus Envy.
14th Anniversary Of Above/Ground Press.
w/ Marcus McCann, Amanda Earl and Bill Hawkins.
Thurs, Aug 23, 7:30pm.
Ottawa Art Gallery.
2 Daly (ArtsCourt).
A Factory Readying Series event.
Julia Serano.
author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman On Sexism And The Scapegoating Of Femininity.
Sun, Aug 26, 6pm.
Venus Envy.
320 Lisgar.
Organized by the good folk at Venus Envy.
