Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Fredericton International Simultaneous "Words of the World" Poetry Reading and The Culture Crawl

Just stole this from an email from Broken Joe ...

Everyone is invited to participate or to listen to the multilingual Fredericton International Simultaneous "Words of the World" Poetry Reading on 28 May 2007, Monday, at 5 pm, at Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts gallery at 117 York Street. The reading is free.

This multilingual reading coincides with Palabra del Mundo at the Basilica of the Franciscan Convent, Old Havana, Cuba. Poets in fifty Cuban communities have joined this event and they have invited poets in other cities around the world to join in by organizing an event in their own cities. The Havana reading is within the context of the XII Festival Internacional de Poesía de La Habana, 2007.

Simultaneous readings are happening in: Asunción (Paraguay), Bologna and Lanusei (Italia), Dolores, Luján and Morón (Argentina), Douglas and Fredericton (NB), Guadalajara, México City, and Pachuca (México), Magdalena (Perú), Málaga (España), Recife (Brasil), San José (Costa Rica), San Salvador (El Salvador), Saskatoon, and other places around the world.

The Fredericton reading is sponsored by Capítulo de Fredericton, Academia Iberoamericana de poesía, Nela Rio and the Registro Creativo (Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas), revue ellipse mag & Festival Side by Side, BS Poetry Society, Broken Jaw Press Inc., and Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts.

Poets reading in all languages are welcome to participate. Please email your lead poem and your intent to participate in the Fredericton reading to: Joe Blades joeblades@nb.aibn.com.

Stole this from an email from Ingrid Mueller at Art+Concepts:

Dear Friends,
The first Culture Crawl of 2007 will take place on Thursday, May 24 5-8p.m.
Please join us at Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts and share in the beautiful arts and crafts created by the region's leading artists. The beautiful vessel by Peter Powning, featured on the poster, will be on display at our gallery. We look forward to seeing you.

Ingrid and Peter Mueller

We look forward to seeing you

Ingrid and Peter

Gallery Stops:

(Map available at all locations)

Charlotte Street Arts Centre Gallery
Gallery 78
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Botinicals Gift Shop Inc.
York-Sunbury Museum
Sue Lawrence Hair Spa and Gallery
Bejewel Gallery
The Barracks Fine Craft Shops
The Gallery at NB College of Craft & Design
Gallery Connexion
City Hall Gallery
Mazerolle Gallery
Aitken’s Pewter
Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts

For more info: 460-2411 or 460-2129

visit www.downtownfredericton.ca

FREE Open Houses

Gallery Tours, and Studio Demonstrations
4th Thursday each month, May - September, 5-8 pm
Start anywhere.
Go at your own pace.
Celebrating 2007 Craft Year!!!!
FIRST CRAWL MAY 24TH

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 6 (Wilser’s)

Maybe it was the beer. Maybe it was the day. Maybe it was waking up at 3 in the morning and wondering where I would be living in less than two weeks. Maybe it was tired batteries in my camera. Or maybe it was everything under the sun … but the pics I took at Wilser’s (the former Tap Room) in Piper’s Lane (where the all-out massive orgy takes place in Ladies of the Fountain, the dirty story I read at Art+Concepts) came out glumpy. They just didn’t look right. Oh sure, Mark’s picture turned out OK, but his dog, Jack, stood in front of me, teeth bared, while I took it and said, “Fuck up Mark’s picture, Biff, and I’ll bite your balls off.”

I think that was the best picture I took all day.

So … out of fairness to everybody else, though, I put all the pictures into one. Including Jack’s (or at least, what I could see of him as he sniffed around looking for the spot to bite). Here’s the picture …

Here’s what happened … Matte read. Kora read. Kora’s father read. Mihaela read. Jordan read. Dino read. Marc read.

There was a lot of reading going on at Wilser’s to top off the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon. Dino read an interesting history of the Maliseet Trail that actually had everybody spellbound. Mihaela’s sultry poetry stoked the steam out of the ears of most of the men in the room. And Kora’s father read Scottish haikus. They were pretty cool and had me wondering what the world would have been like if the Japanese had been Scotch. Hmm … I think I’ll stop that thought right there.

And that was it. During the day, over 30 people read and over a hundred people participated as either readers or listeners. Next year, the Read-A-Thon will be back, bigger and better, so start writing something today … a poem, a recipe, a letter to yourself, a memo, a list, a …

The Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 5 (Read’s)

So far, we’d heard poetry, prose, kid’s lit, letters, songs, picture books translated into words, and … well … the traditional forms of literature. Now, it was time to explore some of that new-fangled stuff … blogs.

Read’s Coffee Shop and Bookstore in right in the heart of downtown Fredericton and the city is wired up wireless to the Internet. It’s called WiFi and it rocks. Free Internet! But, as usually happens, everybody printed out their readings. Next year, we’ll have to introduce a blogging law … laptops and PDAs only.

Dennis was up first with his politically incorrect caveman Ug bloggings.

Several women sitting in the front row listened politely to his sexist rant … and then ate him alive when he finished. One of them remarked, “Hm … tastes like chicken.”

Broken Joe read next … from Broken Joe. At this point, it might be a good idea to click on Broken Joe and take a look at his blog. This is blogging at it’s best.

Sharlene was up next. She was going to read letters from her son in Afghanistan but, at his request, just talked a little about some of the things her son wrote about. However, she did read from a blog written by a Canadian soldier (I’ll be in touch with her over the next day or so and get the url and post it here).

Then, things started to get weird. Jennifer Chiasson became the first person on earth to do a reading of a bookmark in a 12 Hour Read-A-Thon. She read the bookmark for the Maritime Writers’ Workshop and Literary Festival. We all had shivers running up and down our spines. Quiet now … this is Jennifer reading a bookmark …

Next, Greg Cory read a coffee can. Another first. We laughed. We cried. We ordered coffee.

Next: The Grande Finale at Wilser’s

The Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 4 (Art+Concepts)

So, Ingrid Mueller, Princess of Art, Driving Force for Cultural Enlightenment in the Spiritual Greening of Fredericton, let us take refuge from the rain in Art+Concepts, a gallery too well hidden on York Street across from King’s Place. I’ll be interviewing Ingrid after I’ve found a place to live (I have a whole 11 days now) and get settled into my new digs (probably my car).

This is Ingrid …

You’ll be hearing a lot about this woman in the future.

Now, a lot happened at the Gallery. The WolfTree Writers were there with some powerful poetry. They brought student writers, who gave us a glimpse into the next generation of writing talent in this town. Surprisingly, none of them predicted the end of the world. I found this interesting, being a DoomSayer and all. They joined in with Broken Joe to read a chapter from Body Traffic, a novel by Rita Toews and her husband Alex. Rita is the founder of Read an eBook Week and one of Canada’s pioneers in electronic publishing. Greg was there with his girlfriend. They were still looking for a new title for his story.

Amazingly, all these people read at the same time. It created an interesting effect that I was somehow able to capture with my camera … hear’s what it sounded like …

Pretty cool, eh? When they finished reading, the walls absorbed them and now they're art.

Vanessa and Carson finished up the first segment of the readings with a mind-blowing literary duo blast. Carson read letters from the 60s written by Vanessa’s late father. Vanessa read poetry she’d written in the last few years. She read in English. He read in German. Their readings crossed paths frequently and the simultaneous bilingual sound created a haunting effect of time converging. Here’s what it sounded like …

The second segment of readings was the Adults Only segment. I was the only reader. I read Ladies of the Fountain for 45 minutes and then died. In the picture below, I’m just about to grab my chest around the heart area before slumping into the floor and becoming art.

Next: Reads at Read’s

The Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 3 (The Library)

After my depressing story, some of the audience wandered off to the bridge and jumped. Some threw themselves into oncoming traffic. Some thought … well, maybe we can brighten our spirits with the Kids Only readings at the Fredericton Public Library. So those still living, set off to the Library.

As you can see from the smiling faces, this was a crowd with hope.

BTMG member John was up first. He read from his forthcoming book, Poems for Naughty Young Children.

His poems about rutabaga soup and bogie men were so scary that several people peed their pants. I did. It was … warm.

Old Skull was up next reading a story about magnificent animals and, oddly, wine. I think. Or was that another time?

The highlight of the event was hearing Sam’s story. He was the only reader in the entire 12 hours of the read-a-thon to recite his story from memory. He told it with his voice and he told it with his hands. He knows how to tell a story.

Next: We go to Ingrid Meuller’s Art+Concepts to raise hell and havoc.

The Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 2 (Officer’s Square)

As we approached Officer’s Square saw Whitefeather in the distance. She had just finished reading to her music box. This can do strange things to gravity, but the reading went off well and nobody fell off the world.

However, the audience did need some minor adjustments.

Old Skull read next. He read from a book with many strange symbols and images.

I think I may have been something that caused further disruptions in gravity. In fact, Old Skulls reading lifted Karen off the ground and she ran on air.

Greg read from one of his works in the works, called Lake of Authority – but he assured us that he would be changing the name.

John, dressed in MotorCycle BlackTop, read from the Cheap Red Wine Manifesto.

Chris read from the biggest book in the world. Much of what he read had been drawn.

Chris’s second reading was in accompaniment to a dulcimer. Sam held the big book with all its resplendent drawings. The music was calm and relaxing the words were decadent.

The Other John sang his reading and played guitar.

Then four of people stepped forth and read for Larry Swatuk, university professor in Maun, Botswana. Here they are waving to Larry just before the reading …

Each of the readers had a page and brought their own voice to Larry’s compelling poem which, BTW was called On Reading.

I finished up by reading excerpts from one of my family stories, Sleeping In Ditches.

Next: We go to the library for children’s readings.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

The Violent Preemption of Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad) by the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon, Part 1 (The Boyce Market)

OK, so wasn't really the Boyce Market (otherwise known as the Farmer's Market because farmers go there to eat samosas and watch city folk once a week to reaffirm that they're living in the right place). We actually met on the front porch of the Science East building.

This building houses an amazing display of science stuff ... like old animals and metric stuff. It used to be the County Jail House. Prisoners used to whistle from the exercise yard at women walking from the parking lot to the government building across the street. A friend of mine spent much of his early youth there. He said the food was great.

Karen read first. She read some e e cummings ... the guy who couldn't type caps because he was really a grasshopper. Then she read a letter from a friend who gave her a lot of advice. I think there was something in there about not going to jail because of the food ... or was that just a ghost voice from the past?

Lori was up next. She read letters from her mother. Her mother sounds like a really cool person and she writes a dynamite letter ... or should I say, draws a dynamite letter ...

While she was reading the last letter, she started crying and we all laughed at her because we're writers and writers are mean people.

The Liberal Member of Parliament for the Fredericton area, Andy Scott, rushed over and threatened to pass a law making writers illegal if we didn't stop laughing at Lori.

This made Lori smile again. Karin smiled too, because she's not a writer. She's an artist. Artists like to make people smile.

Lori stopped laughing, though, after the dinosaur bit her bum and then ate the artist.

In this picture, a young child tells a writer to stop being mean because he's making the dinosaur grumpy.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-A-Thon Schedule

NO LIMITS
12 HOUR READ-A-THON
MAY 19 (Saturday)
9AM – 9PM

9am – 10am
Brunswick St. across from Science East
Poetry & Prose from ...
Stephanie Yorke
Karen Ruet
Lori p. morse
Biff Mitchell
Andrew Titus

10am – 12pm
Officer’s Square (RAIN: under the eve of the Museum)
Poetry, Prose & Music
Blacktop MotorCyle Gang
WhiteFeather
John Heinstein
Andrew Titus
Biff Mitchell
and special guests ...
John Bowie
Chris Giles
Greg Shupak

12 pm – 3pm
Barracks (RAIN location: Library)
KIDS ONLY!!!
John Heinstein
Biff Mitchell
Andrew Titus
KIDS!!!

2pm – 4pm
Lighthouse (RAIN location: Ingrid Muller Art + Concepts)
Poetry & Prose
WolfTree Collective
Venessa and Carson Butts

4pm – 5pm
Ingrid Muller Art + Concepts<
ADULTS ONLY!!!
Biff Mitchell

5pm – 6pm
Read’s Cafe and Bookstore
Bloggers & Poetry
Denis Poirier
Pierre Huard
Joe Blades
Sharlene Keith (letters from Afghanistan)

6pm – 9pm
Wilser’s (at Piper's Lane)
Poetry, Prose & Music
Mihaela Ulieru
Matte Robinson
Kora Woolsey
Jordan Trethewey
River Group
Marc Jarman

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Surge: Act II (Pre-Surge Intermission – On The Deck at Wilser’s)

So there we were on a dark and stormy globally warmed day in May, gathered around a table at Wilser’s before heading over to Surge at the Art Center on Charlotte Street.

Our barkeep was a beautiful young woman named Picaroons. She had a great talent for keeping full glasses before our drink-hungry eyes. Remember, we had just been wined-up in the name of art at Art+Concepts. We were a motley crew of writers, musicians, artists … not a respectable soul among us. But Picaroons never flinched; in fact, she smiled.

After which, we ordered many fine and frothy beers and stomped our feet in joy so hard that we nearly brought the deck down. But Eric rushed to the rescue and grabbed the railings and held them in place.

We were so grateful, that we drank his beer for him … himself having his hands full of railings and all, you know. Some old fart with a severely hair-challenged head looked on at the merriment and mumbled, “Wouldn’t see nobody drinkin’ nobody else’s beer in my day. No siree.”

Matte said, “Shut your fucking mouth, you relic has been from the 60s… you could’ve gone to Woodstock but you missed it, you fucking loser.”

Andrew and Mark were disgusted with the old fart. Andrew said, “Yeah, man, what’s that all about? Missing Woodstock. I’ll bet you missed the Monks as well. How do you live with yourself, man?

Joe showed the old fart a picture he’d just taken and said, “This is what somebody who missed Woodstock and the Monks looks like. Maybe you should just push your head into your beer and drown yourself.”

Deanna said, “I’ll draw a picture of you, you old fart. And show you how the rest of the world sees you.”

She grabbed Joe’s notebook away from him, bit her finger, and drew this likeness of the old fart in blood …

Yes, I know … there’s only a bit of red in here for a drawing rendered in blood. It’s one of those artsy-fartsy things involving exchange of ideas, rock n’ roll, and flashbacks to the 60s. And you might even be wondering if the old fart really looks like this.

Well, probably not. You see, the vast lines of this drawing actually conceal the truth of the artist’s true intention … to kill the subject of the study, as can well be seen when you look closely at what’s hidden between the lines …

Do you see the old fart’s skull? Yes, murder she drew … murder on the deck on a dark and stormy day at Wilser’s.

Next: Surge: Act III (Life in the Strange Lane: A Camera Goes Bad)

Extra Note: Don’t miss the readings from 6 till 9 at Wilser’s this Saturday as part of the NO LIMITS 12 Hour Read-a-Thon. Matte will be there. Mark Jarman will be there. And there may even be a gaggle of paddle poets.

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Surge: Act 1 (Pre-Surge)

It was early evening before Surge and all through Ingrid’s gallery, all the creatures were stirring and revving their pre-Surge engines with a special reading by several shady characters from the BlackTop MotorCycle Gang.

There was much bantering

… and drinking of wine

… and more wine …

… and more wine …

… until things started to look strange

Outside, Matte and Andrew added nutrients to the air ...

… while bantering continued inside …

Three kids were naughty from too much wine and had to timeout in a corner, on the floor …

Eric Hill read several spectacular poems, all of which escape me at the moment, probably as a result of the amount of wine that somehow found its way into my bloodstream.

Andrew Titus was up next reading … um … something about wine. Yeah, that was it … about wine.

And then came Katy Brown, the Lady from Querty, with much to read about … wine … and strange cats.

Matte Robinson read to a bowl

… even though he promised to read something dirty to the rest of us. But, as it turned out, the dirty part was about a penis, and somehow, he lost his penis …

Whitefeather (also a member of the BTMG) and Chris were outraged. “Your penis? You lost your penis, you say?” said Chris. “I think I found it,” said Katy.

And through all the wine and bantering and loss, I managed to get a really good picture of two amazing women ...

... Deanna Musgrave (who later did a very good likeness of me in ink) and Ingrid Mueller, Art+ Concepts (and I'll be doing a blog on her and the gallery in the near future).

Coming next: Surge: Act II (Pre-Surge Intermission – On The Deck)