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.

Fredericton’s NO LIMITS 12 HOUR READ-A-THON

Hey folks,

This is for real! It’s your chance to be heard … on your terms. It’s the very first NO LIMITS 12 HOUR READ-A-THON. It’s on Saturday, May 19 and it’s sponsored by the Maritime Writers’ Workshop and Literary Festival.

It’s all over downtown Fredericton and there are no … absolutely no … limits on what you can read. No limits on who or what you are … you can be a writer, you can be a not-writer. You can read something you’ve written or something somebody else has written. You can read your favorite letter you’ve received from an old friend. You can read your favorite piece of documentation. You can read your favorite poem. You can read from your blog. You can read from somebody else’s blog. You can read a short story you’ve written.

There are NO LIMITS. You can be 9 years old or 90 years old. You can be a journalist or somebody who reads newspapers and magazines. You can be a sidewalk bard, a folk singer, a river poet, a radio copy writer, a computer documentation writer, an annual report writer … there are NO LIMITS!

If you’re interested send me an email at biff@biffmitchell.com or send Andrew Titus an email at atitus@unb.ca. We need to hear from you soon because Fredericton’s very first NO LIMITS 12 HOUR READ-A-THON is just 17 days away.

PLUS … there will be a poetry slam, a reading on the Green, a special venue for kids!

And please … forward the url to this blog to as many people as you can think of who might be interested in reading ANYTHING they’ve written, or anything anybody else has written … like the lyrics to their favorite Doors song, or the funniest for sale sign they’ve seen on a bulletin board, or …