The Kommunist Manifesto or Wot We Wukkerz Want

At the Ottawa International Writers Festival, 20 April 2007, Chris Jennings photocopied (& annotated) this excerpt by Steve McCaffery from Imagining Language: An Anthology edited by Jed Rasula & Steve McCaffery for Simon Armitage, the latter both Yorkshire men. It appears that it was left somewhere & i just happened to find it & annotate with my own chicken scratch as you see at bottom left.

Listen on Penn Sound

http://mediamogul.seas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/McCaffery/Mccaffery-Steve_Kummunist-Manifesto_c1990.mp3

Book Launch tomorrow

Ian Roy launches Red Bird at the Manx in Ottawa at 5pm as part of the Plan 99 Reading Series.

OIWF photo by Suzy Juneau

Writing Life #3 - 19 April 2007 - left to right Kate Heartfield, Andy Brown, Tanya Chapman & M.A.C. Farrant

Puddles

Three Puddle leaflets for the Ottawa Intl Writers Fest - #15 by Adam Seelig #14 by Nico Vassilakis & #13 is one I made with the image below & is titled 'AT TA : Rudiments'. I was talking to a scientist yesterday who was struck by the resemblance it bears to the termination signal in a DNA sequence. This is pure coincidence since my knowledge of DNA science is limited to say the least. Hmm...

Ottawa International Writers Festival * photos by Suzy Juneau *

left to right: B.W. Powe, Sandra Alland & bill bissett at the Poetry Cabaret 18 April 2007

bill bissett at the Poetry Cabaret 18 April 2007

left to right: George Murray, rob mclennan, George Bowering, Stephen Brockwell
Poetry Cabaret 15 April 2007

Premier Screening of Documentary about Poetry in Ottawa

Posting this on behalf of documentary filmmakers, Josh Massey massey.josh@gmail.com & Ben Walker benwalkervideo@gmail.com

Heard of Poets
by Josh Massey & Ben Walker
Documentary Film Screening
Saturday April 21^st @ 4pm
Library and Archives of Canada
395 Wellington Street, Ottawa
Ottawa International Writers Festival
Spring Edition
A free event

Heard of Poets takes a look at poetry as it happens in Ottawa. Featuring a wide array of poetic performance and discussion from a multitude of poets, several of whom currently work in Ottawa, others have worked in Ottawa & yet others have visited the city to perform as part of reading series & festivals:

Seymour Mayne, George Elliott Clarke, Susan Robertson, Mark Frutkin, Max Middle, Shane Rhodes, Oni the Haitian Sensation, AJ Levin, Jim Larwill, Pauline Michel, Kabriya Coghlan, Heather Taylor, Terry Ann Carter, John Akpata, Drew Bernard, a.rawlings, Nicola Volpe, Melissa Upfold, Stephen Brockwell, bill bissett, Paul Muldoon, Gustave Morin, Michael Dennis, Becky ‘Big Red’ McKercher, Christopher Levenson, Danielle Gregoire, Jason Sonier, Anne Davison, jwcurry, Gregory Betts, Greg ‘Ritallin’ Frankson

The documentary traces the site of poetic expression from the thundering cataracts of Hog’s Back to a serenely calm Buddhist mediation centre; from Archibald Lampman’s grave to Glebe Collegiate Institute. The resulting documentary uncovers a vital literary heterogeneity belying Ottawa’s underfun reputation. The bold experimentation undertaken by these writers, many of whom are central to the Ottawa literary scene, is a testament to the creativity & vigour of contemporary poets working in Canada.

aprés Puddle

Puddles #13 & #14 printed today

'Thought Though' by Nico Vassilakis & 'AT TA : Rudiments' by yrs truly hot off the photocopier today, Puddles #14 & #13 respectively - yes i took on the #13 & spared other contributors any association with that number. One more on the way - will let you know when it's published.

Thanks to Grunge Papers papers publisher Grant Wilkins for continuing to provide such excellent assistance in the production of these leaflets.

& documented above are leftover paper parts from the printing process.

The Four Horsemen Project

On March 28th, I went to see The Four Horsemen Project at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. It was an excellent treat to visit the Great Canadian Theatre Company again; it's been far too long - next thing you know they'll be in their new digs on Wellington at Parkdale. My first attendance at the GCTC was in high school when I went with a drama class to see a musical theatre production - all I remember now is a song performed by Ian Tamblyn with the lines "somebody find me a job / and you better do it quick". So it was great to be back there to attend a performance: this time I was accompanying Gwen Guth, a poet who also happens to teach English literature at the CEGEP Heritage College, and one of her students, Al. A couple of excellent Brocks joined us - Stephen Brockwell and Barbara Brockmann. Stephen and I both did workshops with Gwen's class; mine was on the subject of sound poetry hence the relevance of the 4H show. Barbara teaches at the elementary school that I attended so long ago. David O'Meara and John W. MacDonald just happened to be there for the same performance - coincidence or not? The Four Horsemen Project had been built up for me by blog coverage from Gary Barwin and Angela Rawlings (see my earlier post) + there has been much buzz on various literary listservs.

The piece that initially captured co-creators Kate Alton and Ross Manson's imagination was 'Allegro 108' which they heard on Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio in 2000. I was listening to the same broadcast in Edmonton (guess I would have heard it a couple hours later with the time difference). It's a highlight in the performance - clearly a virtuoso thing to perform with the memorized reading coordinated with some pretty sophisticated movement. "The arrangement is the Four Horsemen's, with a few custom tailorings by us [the Volcano theatre company] and musician Bill Brennan - who helped decode the original recording." from the program for The Four Horsemen Project, 13 March - 1 April 2007 at the Great Canadian Theatre Company

After seeing the production, many avenues of thot have been opened - new knowledge about the Four Horsemen, ideas about how to conduct sound poetry performance (alas, not on the same scale, ah budgets).

If they come to your town, go see them! I believe they'll be performing in Victoria and Vancouver later this year - check in on volcano.ca for details.

In the meantime, have a listen to the 4H recordings on PENNsound:

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/4-Horsemen.html

It's excellent that the recordings of the Four Horsemen are available on PENNsound and Ubu Web. It may eventually be possible to hear, over the Internet, a recording or two by the canuck soundpo ensemble of the same era, Owen Sound.

John Sobol happened to be there the same evening according to his blog. I've never met John - hence I didnt recognize him in the crowd. Here's a link to his post about the show:

http://thetalkingshop.ca/2007/03/28/the-four-horsemen-project/

Poetry Vids

Lots of views of the Max Middle Sound Project video I posted to YouTube recently:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MaxMiddle

Wharton Hood for Mayor

unfortunately, the campaign for Wharton was unsuccessful in last November's municipal elections. he was running in Ottawa. anyone know what Wharton's doing now?