Saturday, June 26, 2010

This Ain't the Rosedale Anymore?

I wanted to use this post to promote the fund-raising efforts underway to save This Ain't the Rosedale Library at its Kensington Market location--a desperate situation explained here.

Unfortunately, it appears that there is little chance of saving the store at its current location, due to the seemingly unreasonable actions of the store's landlord.

If This Ain't the Rosedale Library closes permanently, as owners Jesse and Charlie Huisken seem to predict, this will be, to my mind, a devastating blow to Toronto literary community--far more significant, in my opinion, than the closure of Pages. This Ain't the Rosedale Library was/ is a true supporter of the alternative literary culture in Toronto, providing venues for important readings, launches, and lectures (at both its earlier Church St. location and its current space), stocking small press and micropress publications (especially poetry), and run by two informed and community-orientated booksellers (Jesse is himself a brilliant poet, and Charlie has long been a cultural-commentator which a deep interest and knowledge of the New York School)


The above is just one small and personal example of This Ain't the Rosedale's activities: a photo by Peter Culley of me reading outside on the patio area of the bookstore last fall with him for the launch of  The Age of Briggs & Stratton. A wonderful and idyllic evening spent with great company, and graciously hosted by Jesse and Charlie. Here's hoping that the store, its important activities and services, and of course its dedicated owners, can salvage this situation and find a new home in a more accommodating location.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Belated Bloomsday

I'm in the midst of moving, so my internet connection has just been hooked up again and I missed celebrating Joyce on Wednesday, but here's an old poetic dialogue from dyslexicon in honour of a belated Bloomsday:

JAMES: You ever get those things in your eye?
SAMUEL: What things?
JAMES: They're like dark spots that shift when you move your eyes.
SAMUEL: What, floaters?
JAMES: Is that what they're called?
SAMUEL: Yeah.
JAMES: What do you do about them?
SAMUEL: I don't know.
JAMES: Do you ever get them?
SAMUEL: No.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Home Movies

A crazy week--including power outages, dead phonelines, and spending my 40th birthday in Emergency at St. Joseph's with my son (everything turned out okay)--so I haven't had much time to think about this weekend's posting.

So, until next week, here's some video footage of the Hearthside Reading I did with Greg Betts back in April at Jordan and Priscilia's home in Niagara Falls. It's in four parts, but only the first section has sound, so you'll have to guess which poems I'm reading by my gestures....

UPDATE: New video footage with sound--thanks again to Priscilia and Jordan for hosting and posting!

Saturday, June 05, 2010

ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

The first poem from I Can Say Interpellation, forthcoming from Bookthug:

ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

A is for Althusser
B is for Barthes
C is for Capital
D for Descartes

E is for Eliot’s mermaid that sings
F’s for Foucault who wrote The Order of Things

G is for Gramsci who in prison still wrote a book
H is for Hegel who’s well worth a look

Ideology begins with I
Jouissance is J
K is for Kristeva on L, or Linguistics,
(Which is also Lacan’s way)

M is for Marx who put workers ahead
N is for Nietzsche who said god is dead

O is an Object and
P is Plato’s Perfection
Q stands for Query
And R’s the Reflection

S is for Said
Who troubles the border
T’s for Teleology
Which means it happens in order

U is Understanding
V makes us Vexed

W stands for Wondering
What then rhymes with X?

Y is a Yoking which leads us to Z

Which also means Zeugma

As you have just read