Word Things

More zine history

2009-06-05T13:52:00.005-04:00

Aw, I was tickled to see that Broken Pencil editor Lindsay Gibb mentioned my blog and my involvement with the Shameless Anthology in this write-up in the Utne Reader (and look at how adorable she is in that photo!). It also reminded me that a few weeks ago when I was at my parents’ place, I dug through my filing cabinet of zines and picked out a few favourites. When I visit, I often like to grab a stack and flip through them. They’re such beautiful things. Everyone was so feisty and sincere. So here are a few (click on the photos for bigger versions).

I started off mainly reading zines about mid-nineties Canadian indie rock. “In the Meantime” was one of the very first, and it was really Sloan heavy and incredibly sweet. I never met Carol, who wrote the zine, but she always seemed like the nicest person. “Tally” was written by a girl named Heather in Halifax, who I also never met, but I always kind of idolized – she seemed really smart and funny. And “In Morning Clouds” was the photography zine for Canadian indie rawk. Sarah Evans, who I've mentioned in this entry, is amazing.

I remember being excited to grace the pages of an issue of “In Morning Clouds”:

Look at those glasses! No wonder I was an angsty teenager.

An excerpt from “Minstrel Heart”. I don’t know if many people read this zine but I loved it so much. Sarah had a distinctive style – kind of rustic and obscure and poetic – without being pretentious or too cool. I remember Sarah putting the Wooden Stars and Pavement on a mixed tape for me. And so wonderful, she’s now this ridiculously cool DJ in Toronto.

This was the first zine I ever read from the United States, a beautiful thing from Brooklyn. Molly Kalkstein was the genius behind this zine and I think it is widely acknowledged that Molly always made the prettiest, most elegant zines. And they weren’t just pretty – they were written beautifully and evocatively. She was a huge inspiration when I started moving away from writing about Eric’s Trip. This is an early Tyger Voyage – they became more elaborate in future issues (thick card covers with tiny skeleton keys sewed on, letter press, velum photocopies). Molly now lives in Montreal and we’ve had many Jean Talon market adventures together. She gave me a bright red pair of American Apparel underwear at my bachelorette party a few weeks ago, even.

I started reading more zines from the States after that:

“Pink Tea” (by Keight of uncapitalized.net), “Power Candy” (by Ericka, who was the zine mistress behind Pander Zine Distro and now does awesome photography), a one shot by Nidhi (who is still creating great art), “Hope” by Elissa, “That Girl” by Kelli. And some Canadians are slipped in there as well – “Open All the Time” by Angela and “Other Ramona” by Laura! It’s kind of mind blowing when I think of how many of these zine girls I actually met and still stay in touch with.

And look, it’s the nogoodforme.com girls in zine format! I loved their zines. I remember once visiting Laura at the coffee shop she was working at in Mississauga and the two of us gushing about Liz’s latest zine. She was maybe 16 then? I’m so happy the three of them have now started what is probably the most awesome blog on the internet.

Amy Greenan is also wonderful, and is someone I now consider a good friend. She's also an incredible artist (we have one of her paintings hanging on our walls, and she recently painted the most amazing portrait of our grumpy cat, Archer). We met at a Cut n Paste zine fair in Toronto years and years back and now whenever I'm passing through Buffalo or Niagara Falls, I try my best to meet up with her.

There are so many other zines I didn’t get to photograph (I am noticing a distinct lack of Marissa Falco, Amanda Wheeler and Ciara Xyerra zines in here), but I’ll do more shortly, along with actual excerpts.

She's Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back

2009-05-31T18:57:00.005-04:00

I'm proud to have an essay included in this forthcoming anthology. I wrote about zines and how important they were to me growing up, and I really hope that a teenaged girl in some suburb will read it and consider cutting and pasting something together. If you live in Toronto, you should go to the launch - it's going to be amazing. I would go myself (all the way from Montreal!), but I have a pretty good excuse: I'm going to be getting married in Greece on June 20, 2009 to this guy. So.

She’s Shameless / She’s Writing: June 23rd

Save the date! She’s Shameless launches June 23rd in Toronto at The Gladstone Hotel! Join the facebook group here!

SHE’S SHAMELESS / SHE’S WRITING
Shameless magazine and This Is Not A Reading Series celebrates the launch of She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back

What media event five years ago transformed the lives of teenaged girls across North America? Here’s a clue: it had nothing to do with a boy wizard or the misadventures of trust fund brats. In June of 2004, Shameless, a magazine for “girls who get it”, first appeared on newsstands. We’ve assembled She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back (Tightrope Books). To celebrate the launch of the inaugural Shameless collection, contributors will perform short pieces, and five teenaged girls will join them on-stage and present monologues from a writing workshop conducted that afternoon by acclaimed writer and teacher Ibi Kaslik. The evening will conclude with an early ‘90s-themed, Sadie Hawkins prom, featuring a noted local DJ. – A This is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Tightrope Books, Shameless, NOW Magazine, Gladstone Hotel and Take Five On CIUT.

Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St West, Toronto

Tues June 23; 8pm (doors 7:30pm) $5 (Free with Book Purchase)

A list

2009-05-31T18:48:00.004-04:00

For reference, since I've been really bad at documenting this - books I've been reading in 2009:

The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolano: It took me forever to finish, but it was amazing. But everyone already knows this.
Pigeon - Karen Solie: I read most of this collection on my thirtieth birthday and it made me realize that Solie is my favourite Canadian poet.
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan: Fascinating.
The Principles of Uncertainty - Maira Kalman: Beautiful and whimsical.
February - Lisa Moore: This book better win all kinds of awards this year because it was fucking awesome. Some of Lisa Moore's stories absolutely gut me, and I was a little disapointed when that feeling didn't translate to her first novel, "Alligator". But man, this one did. It's gorgeous.

2009-03-28T20:17:00.003-04:00

Stripmalling – Jon Paul Fiorentino: God, this book is funny. It kind of has everything: a mix of personal essays, dispatches, reminisces, jokes and comics. Jonny once worked at a Shill Station in Winnipeg, fooled around with his drug dealer, dated, moved in and had a baby with a fellow stripmaller, moved to Montreal, had an early-thirties life crisis, etc. And there's more! You should read this.

See You Later - Christopher Pike: Shut up. Yes, that is the Christopher Pike you may remember from your youth. In the spirit of documenting everything I am reading in 2009, I couldn't not mention a book I read while in Toronto a few weeks ago, visiting my parents and, therefore my childhood book collection. Usually when I’m home I like to flip through my old things, and this trip I chose “See You Later”. This was my favourite back then and I wanted to see if it stood the test of time. IT TOTALLY DID. Christopher Pike wrote some fucked up shit (Um, "Whisper of Death"? Or "Scavenger Hunt" where it turns out that two of the students were LIZARDS?, and then he started doing weird sequels of books, which I never got into), but "See You Later" was sort of sweet compared to the rest, and more sci-fi than horror. When these characters go on dates they eat ice cream and ride oil rigs. And there are characters from the future and telepathic aliens and most of all there is a love story. So yeah. A good one.

Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: While on that same trip to Toronto, we caught a screening of "Watchmen". I wasn't expecting to love it so much, but I did. The characters fascinated me (I can't decide who I liked more: the serene yet disconcerting blue-glowy Dr. Manhattan or Rorschach, with his shape-shifting mask and unwavering conviction). I bought the comic soon after and tore through it. I think the movie was an excellent adaptation of the comic - there were some panels that were recreated perfectly in the movie. Surprisingly, I preferred the movie ending to the book - the movie was just more powerful to me - but they are both equally excellent.

So, thumbs up all around! Maybe next I will finally write about "The Savage Detectives", which I am absolutely loving, but for some reason taking forever to get through.

Window-display.

2009-03-28T20:09:00.003-04:00

If you're in Toronto and happen to pass by She Said Boom on College, you'll see a lovely zine installation put on by the Toronto Zine Library folks. That little red one is an old melt the snow!

Zine history

2009-03-17T22:31:00.002-04:00

I was in Toronto over the weekend visiting my parents. Whenever I'm there, I like flipping through my zine collection, most of which I left behind. I normally read other people's zines, but since I was looking for something in particular, I started going through my own. There's no way in hell I will ever reprint any of these zines, but I'm glad I still have reminders of them. I don't have copies of every single issue, but I do have the flats, at least. Anyway, I snapped a few photos of them.

Here's Melt the Snow #4,5,6,7,8, 10, 11, 12, 13. Issues 1,2 and 3 are old and I made very few copies of them. Issue #9 is a mystery to me - I don't remember what it looks like or what I wrote about. I was pretty good at keeping up the bare-branch tree motif (except for 13, but that was the last issue of mts and I was starting to get bored of the trees, I guess). My personal favourites are #11 (the repeating tree lino print) and #12, the two toned lino print.

Here's a page from #8, I think. This is the kind of design I liked most, but only sporadically achieved - I like the nostalgic photcopied old photos, the smudgy hand drawn lines, that particular computer font. That photo is of my grandparents.

After mts, I started "The Second Part". This is the first issue, with fancy Print Gocco covers. Yes, that's David Byrne. He became the coverboy when his print turned out to be the most successful of the ones I was testing out at the time. I should credit the photographer, but I photocopied it from a book and I don't know his name. Either way, I like the way it turned out.

I ended up bringing back most of my zines with me to Montreal, and over time will pick out some of the less embarassing pages to scan. In the meantime, you can peak through my personal archive over here.

2009-03-09T21:22:00.000-04:00

Matrix, Spring 2009, Issue 82 – It's only natural that I start with Montreal-based Matrix when writing about the Canadian lit magazines I read. It really represents the stuff I love in these types of publications: a healthy mix of emerging and established writers, a variety of styles, a good undercurrent of energy infusing the whole thing and an overall respect for the literary community. Plus it has comics. The Spring 2009 issue is the anxiety issue, edited by Mikhail Iossel and John Goldbach and has short stories and poems based around the theme of anxiety. For instance, Josip Novakovich writes about a character buying beta blockers in Saint Petersburg and Jeff Parker's main character in "Calmth" is trying to figure out how to feed a bald, screaming baby. In addition to the anxiety stuff, I particularly liked the featured poetry of Nick Thran (who summarizes the book I'm currently reading perfectly in his poem "Letter to L From Spencer Ave": "...I've been reading Bolano's The Savage Detectives / and L. you would love it; desperate young poets/ too frail for this world, barreling through Mexico and Europe toward/ an awareness, I think, that they'll have to make some other life." ) There are also featured interviews with Catherine Hunter and Jacob Wren, who are asked questions like "when was the last time you ate a pear?" and "are public readings part of or counter to your creative progress?", i.e. questions I'm sincerely interested in knowing the answers to.

Oh, and speaking of Canadian magazines, there's a great post on the Descant blog about the importance of these publications. Kerry Clare writes, "Behind every rejection I’ve ever received is someone who folded a piece of paper into three and licked the envelope shut. Considering the number of rejections I’ve received, that licking and folding has required an enormous amount of manpower, and I am just one ordinary Canadian. From this you may begin to understand the amount of resources necessary to produce a magazine. And that there is really nothing small about these literary magazines after all, except their readership. If you consider 5000 small, that is, and I’m not sure that I actually do."

Yeah.

2009-03-08T09:53:00.000-04:00

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table - Molly Wizenberg: Orangette is my favourite food blog. I have always loved Molly's writing and delicate, clean photos and, most importantly, her recipes are consistently killer. Her braised brussel sprouts are a standard in my winter dinner meals, and I've made her lemon yogurt cake countless times. I was excited when I found out she got a book deal, and bought the book almost immediately after it was released. As I thumbed through it in the bookstore, a girl approached, leaned forward and pulled another copy off the shelf. "We have the same book," I said, pointing to mine. We laughed and talked about the blog. "She's just lovely," the girl said. The book has a format similar to the Orangette blog - a story followed by a recipe - but, unlike other books I've read by bloggers, it doesn't have that annoying "bloggy" feel. It's more cohesive than that. She writes a lot about her family, especially her father, who died of cancer when she was in her mid-twenties. She also writes a lot about her husband, who she met through her blog. Some people have been throwing around the MFK Fisher comparison, and she is entirely deserving of it. So yes, like the girl in the bookstore said, Molly is lovely, and so is the book.

More on Canadian magazines

2009-03-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

With all of this brouhaha around Canadian magazines, I thought it would be a good idea if I actually started writing about them. I read many Canadian literary magazines. I enjoy them, obviously, because I like new short fiction and I like poetry and I like reading reviews of books. I also read them because I’m a writer, and I would like to get published, and in order to get published I need to know what kind of stuff specific journals are looking for. I don’t want to submit a coming of age story about a girl in the suburbs to a magazine that focuses on experimental poetry. That would be embarrassing. And a waste of an editor’s time.

I get some magazines delivered right to my mailbox – stuff like The Malahat Review, Room Magazine, Geist, This Magazine, Matrix – and others I pick up along the way at bookstores (i.e. Book City or Pages in Toronto, Paragraphe in Montreal, but in a pinch Chapters or Indigo generally has a copy or two of certain lit mags in their shelves) or events like Expozine or The Blue Met.

Many of my subscriptions stem from the fact that at a point in time I entered one of those literary magazine contests. The subscription fee doubles as the entrance fee for the contest and I know, I know, people get whiny about this. Sometimes I do too. But, then I got over it. If you don’t want to pay to enter the contest, you don’t have to. These magazines accept submissions on a regular basis anyway and all you have to pay for is the stamp to mail the manuscript (most magazines archaically do not accept electronic submissions, although my guess is that it also has to do with weeding out email happy burgeoning writers who would bombard their inboxes with multiple submissions if given the chance). But with these contests you get the advantage of getting a subscription and finding out in a timely fashion if you’re going to be published. And working with a deadline in mind is usually good motivation to get that story done and mailed off.

I’ve also read articles about people complaining about the whole “contest” thing in Canadian literary magazines, how they tend to be biased, how judging is not done blind, etc. My first cynical reaction is, well, duh. Unfortunately, like most arts, writing depends heavily on who you know. Sometimes it’s slimy, and sometimes it just makes sense: no one gets paid very much (or anything) for reading submissions. If a writer comes approved by another writer, chances are their writing is readable and maybe, hopefully, good. It saves time. That doesn’t mean that it’s pointless to enter a contest or to slog through the submission process. I’ve know many people who have gotten published without having any connections.

Here’s my track record: I’ve entered many contests. I haven’t won any. I’ve been shortlisted for This Magazine’s Great Literary Hunt twice, which I’m proud of (and I don’t know anyone who works at This). Stories that I’ve entered in contests have subsequently been published in other magazines where I have never met the editorial board (i.e. “Baby Teeth”). And, as a result, I’ve got the chance to read and support a lot of magazines. Not so bad. (Here’s a good article about assessing the validity of contests: http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/contests.html)

Up until March 15, 2009, Magazines Canada is having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal for Canadian magazines (not just literary ones): http://secure.magazinescanada.ca/

You can also read about the Canadian magazine industry here: http://canadianmags.blogspot.com/

Ok, so now that I’ve talked about how easy it is to acquire magazines, I’ll start actually writing about what I’m reading in them.

I don't mean maybe.

2009-03-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Fool the World: The oral history of a band called Pixies by Josh Frank and Caryn Ganz: A few days ago I was looking at our bookshelf and found this book, which Andrew had purchased a while back. I didn't care much for it at the time, but like I mentioned earlier, I've suddenly become a huge Pixies fan. I took it off the shelf thinking I would flip through it idly, pick out a few pages, whatever. In general I don’t read many books about music. First of all, unless you’re a big fan of the band or musician, it’s easy to feel like you’re filling your head with worthless facts. Or, often the writing in music books is just so-so. It’s a hard balance. Anyway, so this book? I got really into it. It’s an oral history, so it just jumps back and forth between various people speaking, and as someone who only recently got the Pixies switch flipped in their head, there’s satisfaction in reading this book while listening to their albums. It also does away with the bad writing problem in music books because it's so chatty. It's the ultimate in liner notes. Plus, it helps that they were charming or at least interesting, especially Kim Deal. I like knowing that Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields auditioned to be their drummer, and I like reading Kim Deal describe her adolescence (“I'm like 15, 16, 17, talking about why "Dominance and Submission" is a better Blue Oyster Cult song than "Godzilla" ever was. Just doing shit like that, just pouring over the record collection. Smoking pot. Snowing, constantly snowing, and doing drugs."” Also, she was a cheerleader.) And I like reading about how everyone thought Charles Thompson/Black Francis/Frank Black was really “feminine” at first. I didn't even know his real name wasn't Frank Black. And he broke up the band via fax (kind of) and that U2 only paid the band $750 per gig when they toured with them?! Etc. Useless facts, yes, but I had a lot of fun reading the book.

The Pale King

2009-03-01T16:23:00.001-05:00

There's a powerful and heartbreaking article about David Foster Wallace in the New Yorker that gives frank details about his last few days and discusses the unpublished novel that will be coming out next year. I hadn't heard anything about "The Pale King" prior to this article and was surprised to read that it's about a group of employees working for the I.R.S (funny, considering that I pointed out that accounting-related footnote when I read "Brief Interviews".) From the article:

As Michael Pietsch points out, in choosing the I.R.S. as a subject Wallace had “posed himself the task that is almost the opposite of how fiction works,” which is “leaving out the things that are not of much interest.” Wallace’s solution was to overwhelm his seemingly inert subject with the full movement of his thought. His characters might be low-level bureaucrats, but the robust sincerity of his writing—his willingness to die for the reader—would keep you from condescending to them.

and

Wallace began the research for “The Pale King” shortly after the publication of “Infinite Jest.” He took accounting classes. He studied I.R.S. publications. “You should have seen him with our accountant,” Karen Green remembers. “It was like, ‘What about the ruling of 920S?’ ” He enjoyed mastering the technicalities of the I.R.S. bureaucracy—its lore, mind-set, vocabulary.

I'm an accountant, but not a tax accountant by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, most people are surprised to learn that an overwhelming amount of accountants know very little beyond the basic tax facts (that's why we have a tax department at work! that's why there are people who actually specialize in tax accountancy!), but I totally understand what he could see in focusing on it as a jumping point for his book.

The article is here.

And you can read an excerpt from The Pale King too.

Musical interlude

2009-02-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

Julie Doiron, "Glad To Be Alive"

Support your Canadian literary magazines

2009-02-27T14:14:00.000-05:00

This is awful - funding cuts to literary magazines with a circulation of less than 5000 would be disasterous, not just for beginner writers like me who rely on these magazines for potential outlets for publication, but for the reading population in general. There is so much amazing stuff that gets published in these magazines (for instance, I was reading the latest issue of Matrix on the metro this morning, and it's fabulous).

Here is what's written on the Facebook site for the Coalition to Keep Canadian Heritage Support for Literary and Arts Magazines:

Canadian literary and arts magazines publishing in either English and French are in danger of losing a key federal funding source.On February 17, 2009, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore announced in a speech he made in Montreal (http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/minstr/moore/disc-spch/20090217-eng.cfm) that the Canada Magazine Fund and Publishing Assistance Program will be merged to create the Canada Periodical Fund. Initiatives from this new body will come on stream in 2010. Departing from his prepared remarks, James Moore indicated that eligiblity for funding could potentially be restricted to those magazines with an annual circulation above 5000.

With a few exceptions, the circulation of virtually every Canadian literary and arts magazine, large and small, is below 5000. We have to make sure this possibility does not become an actuality, for if it does, as April 1, 2010, these important and praiseworthy magazines will no longer qualify for funding that they have been receiving for years from the CMF and PAP despite the excellent work that they undertake for the readers and writers across Canada (and around the world)! The Coalition to Keep Canadian Heritage Support for Literary and Arts Magazine feels strongly that to render these magazines ineligible for this support would be unjust. To quote Andris Taskans, editor of Prairie Fire, to do so would be "a slap in the face"---not only to the magazines themselves but to the many writers that they publish, many of whom began illustrious, international careers in these seminal if modest publcations. To do so would also be a "slap in the face" to the ordinary (and extraordinary) Canadians who read them.

By joining the Coalition, readers and writers everywhere send a strong message to the Honorable James Moore, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Canada Periodical Fund that we believe in our literary and arts magazines and feel that they should continue to do so by supporting them through well-deserved and sustained financial support. To do so, would be the cheapest economic stimulus package the Government of Canada could initiate. Every single dollar granted to us or paid to us by a subscriber or a newsstand buyer goes back into the economy. Put it this way, when Canadians get into their Chrysler and GM cars, they have to drive somewhere. A lot of them drive to their newsstands and bookstores to buy a literary or arts magazine.Say yes to continued Canadian Heritage funding through the Canada Periodical Fund for Canada's arts and literary magazines!Say yes to the writers and readers of Canada!For more details about these potential funding cuts, read coverage that appeared on the Quill & Quire website on February 20 and 24, 2009 (scroll through the news section to read both stories):(http://www.quillandquire.com/omni/article.cfm?article_id=10538).

You can join the Facebook group over here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53103444468&ref=mf

Short films, big questions

2009-02-21T00:10:00.000-05:00

I was feeling a little overwhelmed today - too much stuff to do these days - and after running a bunch of errands in the evening, Andrew convinced me that we should get out of the house for awhile. So, we checked out a screening of the 2008 Oscar nominated Best Animated and Best Live Action short films at the Cinema du Parc. I haven't had the chance to watch prior years' nominees, but, give or take a film or two, the 2008 batch dealt with the big issues of Life And Death: an older person reflecting back on their life, someone on the brink of death reflecting back on their life, someone placed in a new situation and reflecting back on their life. You can definitely pack a punch in the gut in two to thirty minutes of film. It was a little exhausting.

These were my favourites:

La Maison En Petits Cubes (Pieces of Love, Vol 1), Japan, 2008, Dir. Kunio Kato: This animated short was beautiful - a kind of scratchy, painted animation - about an old man living in a heavily flooded area. Every time the water level rises, he builds another floor on his house, resulting in a cubist Habitat 67 esque tower. He takes a scuba diving trip to retrieve a dropped item, and as he descends deeper into his house, he relives moments from his life. It's the kind of movie that made even Andrew a little weepy. I hope this one wins Best Animated.

In the Live Action category, I can't pick between two. New Boy (Ireland, Dir. Steph Green) is based on a Roddy Doyle short story about a young African immigrant starting school in Ireland. It's only 11 minutes long, but the film feels way more substantive than that. The children acting in this are fantastic. It makes me wonder if short stories are the best form of literature to adapt into films - there's just so much more space to work with (i.e. think of "Secretary" or "Brokeback Mountain"). Auf Der Strecke (On the Line) (Germany, Switzerland. 2007. Dir.: Reto Caffi) is almost 3 times longer than New Boy, which allows it to incorporate more ambiguity and a longer story arc. It's about a department story security guard who spies on a bookstore employee. He regularly "accidentally" boards the metro with her because he can see when she's leaving work, which eventually leads to his bizarre and sad involvement in a tragic part of her life. There's a scene where he overhears her discussing Zadie Smith's "On Beauty", and then buys a copy for himself to impress her. You see him flipping through the book and creasing it up to make it look like he's actually read it. He should've read it! It's a fantastic book.

Anyway, I'm curious to see who wins on Sunday. As for my other Oscar picks, all I want is for Mickey Rourke to win Best Actor for The Wrestler. Everything else, whatever. Oh, and Heath too, but that's a given, isn't it?

ETA: So, my favourite for best animated short won. Yay! My favourite for best live action short did not. Boo! And Mickey Rourke sadly did not win Best Actor, thus denying the TV audience of a repeat of a speech like the one he gave at the Independent Spirit Awards. Double boo.

2009-02-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Am currently reading “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” by David Foster Wallace. The blurbs on the back make it seem like it’s a veritable laff riot, but it’s actually pretty bleak. But I guess all of his writing is like that, a complicated mix of fun and misery.

This is just a small inconsequential portion of a footnote in the story “Octet” that does not have any special meaning out of context from the story, but I would’ve been that one person out of a thousand, so I’m gonna point it out (in the footnote DFW is doing the meta thing and talking about what he was trying to do in the story and stuff he could’ve done if it hadn’t fallen apart):

“The second part of the “Q” part of the Quiz spends five lines constructing a possible analogy between the world’s joy/misery ratio and the seminal double-entry “A = L + E” equation of modern accountancy, as if more than one person out of a thousand could possibly give a shit.”

I would’ve gotten a kick out of that.

John Krasinski (aka Jim Halpert from The Office) adapted the collection of short stories into a movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out. The trailer is available over here.

2009-02-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

I’m having a bit of a music crisis these days (hence the embarrassingly unupdated music blog). I shuffle through songs on my Ipod and hardly anything feels right except for the following: Okkervil River’s “The Stand Ins”, anything by the Pixies and “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. It’s weird. I wasn’t into the Pixies as a teenager or even an early twenty-something. But then Andrew and I listened to them a lot over Christmas holidays and I guess something clicked. And I don’t know why that Bob Dylan album is the one that’s doing it for me, but it is. I suppose the Okkervil River fascination is the least strange, although I’ve overdosed on their other albums and can only stand to listen to this one. Particularly the song “Starry Stairs”, mainly for the way Will Sheff sings the phrase “I’m alive/ but a different kind of alive/ than the way I used to be”. I don’t know, there’s something about it. I like it.

The first creative writing workshop I took was in my second year at the University of Toronto, and it was an awkward little class. We weren’t very chatty and we never really bonded with each other. I can imagine that our professor felt like he was pulling teeth; we were so tentative. The stories I wrote for the class weren’t very good, but they were the first “serious” stories I wrote, so I was defensive about them. The class was kind (or at least, not very verbose) and I escaped unscathed, but I do remember the really sweet girl who wrote a story about the death of a pet. It was maybe the only time we banded together to tear something apart. She started crying, and we realized that it was autobiographical. Shit. My childhood pet Snowball had also recently died and I felt awful – I knew how she was feeling! I lent her a Red House Painters CD, the one where Mark Kozelek has a song about his cat. I’m sure she thought I was weird when I pressed it upon her. Anyway, the point is that, other than the cat incident, the thing I remember most clearly about the class is that the professor distributed “Okkervil River” to us to read together, the short story by Tatyana Tolstaya and it was one of my favourite things I read that year. So years later, when I learned about the band Okkervil River, I figured they could only be good. And they are.

Here’s a live version of “Starry Stairs”

And, how wonderful, a clip of Will Sheff reading Tatyana Tolstaya’s story: http://daytrotter.com/bookery/1471/okkervil-river-bookery

2009-02-01T17:03:00.002-05:00

Oh, and before I forget. I have a story called "Baby Teeth" published in the most recent issue of Room Magazine (Volume 31.3 - Glass Houses). The editor's note calls it "unusual and inventive", and also "dark". Hurrah. It is, I guess, darker than what I usually writer. I kind of don't want say, my parents or co-workers to read it. But, either way, I chose to submit it for publication, so pick it up if you get the chance; Canadian literary magazines tend to only be read by other writers - here's a good article about the importance of these kinds of journals.

2009-02-01T16:51:00.001-05:00

How Not to Write a Novel - Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman: I love writing books. It's vaguely embarrassing, I guess - there's something a little uncouth about admitting to reading writing books, kind of like saying you read self-help or new age or whatever - but, they're fun and sometimes helpful. I read an article about this book on the Guardian, and it made me giggle. I realized they had it in stock at the bookstore down the street from my office, so I picked it up one day at lunch. It's a hilarious thing, the kind of book that makes you laugh out loud on the metro or while eating McDonalds in the food court (uh, not that I did that or anything). The book is littered with wisdom like, "Giving a reader a sex scene that is only half right is like giving her half a kitten. It is not as cute as a whole kitten; it is a bloody, godawful mess." or reminders like, "An unprincipled gold digger who gives twenty dollars to a beggar is enchanting. A crusading human rights lawyer who volunteers at an animal shelter and also pauses on his way to court to give twenty dollars to a beggar makes us gag." I mean, this is stuff that we as writers know deep down (or should know), but still sometimes give in to. Maybe not on the exagerated level demonstrated in the book, but in little ways that can still fundamentally sabotage the book you're working on. Definitely recommended for those of us with a novel hiding somewhere in our computer files or head.

2009-01-30T11:04:00.001-05:00

Anagrams – Lorrie Moore: I read this book a few years ago, loved it, and then had to return it to the library. I found it in a bookstore in Vermont this past weekend and bought a copy for myself. I couldn’t stop myself from rereading it, even though I’m currently in the middle of two books. Lorrie Moore is most successful at short stories and one of the reasons I love this book so much is that she’s managed to really integrate the short story format into a novel. Moore is also the queen of funny/sad, although upon second reading, I was especially struck by the sadness of the story. The book is an approximation of an anagram, different characters refracted into different situations. Almost an anagram, but not quite. You’re never quite sure what’s really happening and what’s being imagined and even when you’re told up front that certain characters are imaginary, you’ll probably cry when they have to leave. Lorrie Moore is definitely in my top 5 list of favourite writers; I’ve learned so much about writing from her books. And, after a few years of not publishing much, she has a novel coming out in 2009. I’m psyched.

Partly because of your love for yoghurt

2009-01-30T08:31:00.000-05:00

It has only recently occurred to me that I can search for writers on Youtube the same way I search for musicians or television or movie clips or whatever. Here is a video of Frank O’Hara reciting one of the loveliest poems ever, Having a Coke With You.

I’ve never been very good with following television shows and have been staying away from Mad Men, but then I found this:

Jon Hamm/Don Draper reciting the last part of O’Hara’s heartbreaking I-am-getting-over-heartbreak poem “Mayakovsky”:

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.

Ok, I really need to watch this show.

2009-01-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

Drown – Junot Diaz: I’m in the middle of reading “Pride and Prejudice”, but it’s slow going. I needed a little reading boost, so I devoured “Drown”, Junot Diaz’s first book, a collection of short stories. I took the advice of the scores of Best of 2007 lists that declared “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” best book ever, and read it this past summer (in 2008). I really, really loved it. And this collection of short stories has the same elements I loved about Oscar Wao – great pacing, freshness, a style that’s not distracting from the stories, heartbreaking details, etc. I think the title story “Drown” is my favourite, or maybe “Fiesta, 1980”. While doing some Internet searching, I found this youtube video from the Google campus. Turns out they get authors to come by at lunch to read and talk about their work (there are also videos for folks like Michael Pollan and Anthony Bourdain). Yet another reason to wish you worked at Google too. I would much rather listen to Junot Diaz than dial into a “lunch n learn” conference call about revenue recognition. (P.S. I think it's funny that the Google employee describes "Drown" as "super excellent").

Wisdom - Andrew Zuckerman: It's kind of unfair to say I've "read" this book, since it's really the kind of book that you work your way through slowly, picking and choosing. Caroline gave me this gorgeous, huge book for Christmas, and I've had it by my bed since then. Sometimes I flip through it to look at the photos, and sometimes I open to random pages and read. It's a meditation on wisdom, different people (everyone from Dame Judi Dench to Desmond Tutu to Graham Nash) giving their take on wisdom. It's especially good to have nearby on days when I'm feeling kind of down; it gives perspective.

My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals - Melanie Dunea: This is another fun book to leaf through (also, a Christmas present, this time from Andrew's parents. Basically, books are the perfect present for me.) When you take 50 famous chefs and ask them to describe their ultimate last meal, you're going to get a variety of answers, but you're sure to find foodies standbys like foie gras and caviar and truffles in the mix. The accompanying pictures are amazing (yo, there's Anthony Bourdain, naked, except for a strategically placed marrow bone) and there are even recipes for elements of the chef's meals. Incidentally, my Last Meal would probably involve a bacon cheeseburger and an ice cream sundae. No need for foie gras. And it would be eaten outdoors, in the summer, with a glass of cold white wine, even though white wine totally doesn't go with bacon cheeseburgers.

In which I start documenting books I read in 2009

2009-01-07T14:17:00.001-05:00

In which I will keep track of books I read in 2009

Magic for Beginners – Kelly Link: Les gave me this collection of short stories for Christmas, and it was a great thing to read while I was on vacation in Toronto, the snow falling, comfy in my pyjamas. I think there is something extra-special about reading surreal, fantasyish stories over Christmas (last year it was the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy, which was coincidentally also a present from Lesley!). Kelly Link’s writing could be described as fantasy: there are stories about enchanted handbags (you step into the bag and disappear into another realm), haunted houses, people who inherit telephone booths from their dead relatives, etc. Her writing is fresh, quirky and hip, without being as annoying as all of those adjectives might lead you to believe. I still find myself flipping through it for inspiration as I write.

Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan: Sagan wrote this novel when she was only eighteen and that air of super-confident, slightly petulant adolescence infuses the book. It’s a slim enough volume that I read most of it on subway trips around Toronto and I loved getting lost in the world of beaches in the South of France, beautiful and sly French ladies and handsome and clueless French men. It’s the kind of book that makes you wish you looked good in a Jean Seberg haircut and a stripey shirt, that you could smoke cigarettes all sexy, have a part in killing someone, atone for it, and study philosophy like it was all totally natural, whatever, c’est la vie.

Statcounter things

2008-11-28T09:33:00.001-05:00

I could probably make a crossword puzzle out of the “Recent Keyword Activity” queries that lead people to this site. For example:

words to greet engaged people
how to word things
making things with flour
things in the word
word for things
things cement is made of
things for housekeeping
comforting words after losing someone
things to keep me warm
things I regret not doing in NYC

And whoever searched for these things:
personal essays on rainy days at a garage sale
zines and accounting firms

Let me know if you found anything useful at other sites. I'm intrigued by the garage sale personal essay. And I'm probably one of the top experts on the intersection of zines and accounting firms, so you should probably just email me about that.

Housekeeping

2008-09-11T13:57:00.002-04:00

I think those of you that actually check up on this blog would know this but just in case:

Saturday September 13th
Redbird loft, 135 Van Horne, 8 PM
Free

The Art of Trespassing is an anthology of 13.5 new stories about sneaking in, crossing over, and breaking through. Written by thirteen wire-cutting writers, each piece in this collection invites us to consider the relationships between people and the spaces they move through—real or imagined, geographical and personal—and reminds us that sometimes the best stories lie in the places between, the cracks where the weeds are poking through.

Join us on September 13th to celebrate the release of this awesome new book. The launch will include readings from several of the contributing authors, including:

Dan Gillean
Anna Leventhal
Sean Michaels
Jeff Miller
JB Staniforth
Michelle Sterling
Vincent Tinguely
Teri Vlassopoulos

And in Toronto:

Friday Sept. 19th
This Ain't the Rosedale Library, 86 Nassau
Free
6 pm

Anna Leventhal
Michelle Sterling
Wasela Hiyate
Teri Vlassopoulos

You can buy the book online over here: http://www.invisiblepublishing.com/aoft.htm

And in other housekeeping matters, Andrew and I are moving and we’re having a garage sale on Saturday (Sept 13) (or Sunday if it's rainy, I guess, which we've just come to expect this summer). If you live in Montreal and are curious about our junk, you’ll find us on the corner of Sherbrooke and des Erables (one east of de Lorimier) hawking our wares.

Monastery, Nova Scotia

2008-08-17T23:10:00.000-04:00

Got this postcard in the mail the other day from my old zine friend, Sarah (by old I mean - this girl has probably read every single one of my zines, including "Melt the Snow" #1). She co-founded and helps run the awesome Anchor Archive in Halifax. Anyway, if you've read "Cement, Flour, Saints", this is the holy stream shrine I mention in "Saints". She found the postcard in a thrift store in PEI and sent it my way. Thank you, Sarah!