MUSELETTER #11
12/27/99
Hello everyone,
Museletter brings a report from Ian Ferrier in the far north (Montreal) this week. . . along with our warmest wishes for the winter holidays. We hope you all had an inspiring view of last week's once-in-several-lifetimes full moon at perigee, and a Serene Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kool Kwanzaa, Beneficent Boxing Day. . . all leading into a poetically spectacular millennium eve.
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT.COM
Symbol, image & metaphor are the stuff of both poetry & religious ritual -- poets will find lots of interesting reading at About.com's Alternative Religions site:
- Guide Tammy Todd recently featured a discussion of the pre-Christian roots of many Christmas symbols & traditions.
- Find out about the runic ogham alphabet in her Druidism links library.
- Follow her Shamanism links to read songs & learn about shamanic practices from Estonia to Laos to Ireland.
MONTREAL/CANADA
Perfect Waste of Time
One of the nicest events of the last few weeks was the launch of a new, improved version of a zine called Perfect Waste of Time. Edited by Victoria Stanton and Vince Tinguely, the expanded zine features whatever they feel like putting in it, and this issue included poetry, essays, interviews and a special column called “Ask Ross,” where readers could ask Ross Rebagliatti, or a good imitation of him, any question they liked.
The true Ross--for those who don't remember every moment of history--is the Canadian snowboarding champion whose gold medal Olympic performance at Nagano was almost nullified when he tested positive for marijuana. His medal was restored when it was discovered that all Canadians test positive for marijuana.
The evening featured everything from the shame lady in the window, asking you to pin messages on your dress, to a fine dub improv sung by Naila and Debby Young, to Corey Frost's lecture on quotations (and I quote): “If it's a quote, by definition it's been taken out of context.”
In town for the event was Jill Battson, producer of the remarkable Word Up poetry CD, as well as (one of her descendants perhaps) poet Blair Ewing, producer of a CD called Word Up Baltimore. This latter is a poetry CD featuring three cuts by Mark Strand, hip hop pieces, poetry music pieces--a total of (count 'em) fifty-three others by a variety of poets from in and around Maryland. This is a nice piece of work, inclusive rather than exclusive, but according to Blair there are only about three copies left for sale in the universe, so you may not hear it unless it's on the radio.
Copies of the Perfect Waste of Time zine are $2. For info on getting your own, or to contribute to the zine, you can email: perfectwasteoftime@compuserve.com.
Bud Osborne
Also touring through town since I last spoke was Vancouver poet Bud Osborne. Osborne was here with a new CD called Hundred Block Rock featuring him and a band that included long-time Mecca Normal guitarist David Lester, and bassist Wendy Atkinson. Where're the drums, you ask. . . ? Turns out with these three you don't need drums. This show rocked!
Here's a quote about Bud from Arsenal Pulp Press's Web site:
“Bud Osborn's point of reference is the street of the disenfranchised--literally, the street corners bordered by Main and Hastings on Vancouver's notorious East Side, known as 'Hundred Block Rock'--the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. While this area is well known for its drug users, criminals, and prostitutes, it is also home to recovering addicts, single mothers, and those whom society has cast aside. As a poet who has known the nightmare of addiction and poverty himself, Bud Osborn sheds light on the unforgiving darkness of Hundred Block Rock, putting faces and names to those who somehow find ways and means to survive there....”
Bud is one remarkable fellow, and the show he put on at Jailhouse Rock was a tour of how poets can fashion words into tools that can change the society in which they live. One senses from Bud that it is the power of words too that has allowed him to express--instead of succumb to--the harrowing background from whence he has come. The book Hundred Block Rock is available from Arsenal Pulp Press; the CD, from Get to the Point Records, is distributed by Festival Distribution.
Salon des Livres & Planete rebelle press
Also in town was the Salon des Livres, the massive book fair that exhibits just about every word available in the French language in North America. Finds included a fine new series of CD/books by Planete rebelle press. This series starts off with two CD books by French author/performers and one in English by me (finally I publish another book!!!!). The debut marks Planete rebelle as one of the few publishers of performance poetry, storytelling, poetry/music and other forms of oral literature in Canada.
Andre Lemelin, the publisher of Planete rebelle, unfortunately missed the whole show, as he had decided to go sailing in the Caribbean during a hurricane (“It was no problem. I was 150 miles from the eye,” he shrugged) and couldn't get a plane out.
Also from Planete rebelle is a first book by Mitsiko Miller, the founder of the Vache enragée poetry series in Montreal. Now in hiatus, this was one of the best series in the city, and the only one to consistently feature poets from both the English and French communities. Entitled Le Coeur en Orbite (The Heart in Orbit), Mitsiko's book is featured with other Planete rebelle releases at their Web site. (For readers who want an audio taste, but don't speak even a ghost of French, you can sample the site by hitting the “Livres et CDs” link, and looking for audio extracts from La Vache Enragee or Hold Up.
There were lots of other events happening too, but the ones I've mentioned all marked out new ground: CD books, poems that change the way you see the world, and new extensions to the Montreal cabaret scene. This scene, which fills night clubs and bars with variety shows of poets, musicians, fire-eaters, kids, dogs and photographs, is holding out its hand to acts as varied as jazz, hip-hop, performance art and lectures—-all in the same evening. This makes for excellent shows, and one of the real exports you'll see coming out of this town in the next eighteen months.
