Rob Ford Crack Tape Re-surfaces in Police Hands

A crazy day in Toronto politics, as Police Chief Bill Blair stunned the city by announcing that his investigators have evidently located the notorious, and much sought-after, video of Mayor Rob Ford smoking from a crack pipe. While it has still not been shown to the public, Chief Blair said it’s part of a larger investigation of Ford associate Sandro Lisi. Charges against Lisi now include extortion, though it’s unclear so far whom he was trying to extort. It could be Ford himself, though if that’s true I guess he and Lisi aren’t such good pals, after all. No doubt there will be more to come on this story in the hours, days, and weeks ahead.

#FridayReads, October 25–Grant Lawrence’s “The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie”

Lonely End of the Rink#FridayReads, October 25–Grant Lawrence’s The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie. Very excited to begin reading my copy of the new book by my friend, Canadian broadcaster Grant Lawrence, which just landed in my mailbox this afternoon. The book, which chronicles his uneasy relationship with the Canadian national sport, was officially launched last night with an event in Vancouver, BC. Grant loves to meet with booksellers and readers and is one of the hardest working authors I’ve ever observed. On his website you can find details on the extensive book tour he’s taking, with stops in many Canadian cities between now and December 12.Lonely End back cover

I loved Grant’s first book Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and other Stories from Desolation Sound, a memoir of the many summers he’s spent in the wilds of coastal British Columbia, in the environs of a family cabin on the vividly named Desolation Sound. It went to #1 on the BC Bestseller List, won the BC Book Prize for the 2010 Book of the Year, an award given by booksellers, and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction. I’m hoping for similar success for his new book, which I will begin reading this weekend.Adventures in SolitudeGrant at Radio 3 picnic
[cross-posted at my other blog The Great Gray Bridge]

NYC Launch of Daniel Canty’s Playful “Wigrum: An Inventory Novel” at Mellow Pages

Zine wallWednesday night at Brooklyn’s Mellow Pages Library and Reading Room francophone novelist from Quebec, Daniel Canty and his translator Oana Avasilichioaei, jointly read from his book, newly published in English, Wigrum, subtitled by publisher Talonbooks of Vancouver BC, An Inventory Novel. Canty and Avasilichioaei were joined by poets Brandon Downing and Michael Ruby.

It was my first time at Mellow Pages, and I found it a very genial place for presentations and literary appreciation. Located in the same loft building on Bogart Street in Bushwick that houses the art gallery Studio 10, very near the Morgan Street ‘L” train subway stop, Mellow Pages is a big square-ish room with a stamped-tin ceiling high overhead, wide windows of the sort with wire mesh threaded through the glass, and two walnut-paneled walls festooned with chapbooks, zines, monographs, and printed material of all kinds. Along the walls, bookcases and shelving combos were arranged, with books on vertical and horizontal axes. The chapbooks and zines, being so thin and hard to shelve, were hung, and in some places fastened to hangers on the walls.

Jacob, co-proprietor of Mellow Pages, kicked things off by describing how the library and reading room works–people can pay to be a member; as well, if you donate 10 books to the library’s inventory, you’re a member. Their tumblr includes this statement: “Mellow Pages is an independently-run library & reading room located in Brooklyn, NY focusing on providing limited-print fiction and poetry to the neighborhoods of Bushwick, East Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy. With a collection of over 1,200 titles and zines, come check out the space and have a coffee, crack into a new one.”

After Jacob finished his set-up, before the readings, Brandon Downing asked me to say something about Talonbooks, and I obliged, mentioning the Vancouver location, their extensive list of contemporary Canadian playwrights; They Called Me Number One, a memoir of surviving the punitive residential school system by Chief of the Soda Creek First Nation band Bev Sellars, #1 bestseller in British Columbia; and translated fiction, with such examples as Wigrum.

Brandon was then the first reader, presenting several multi-part poems from his current collection, coincidentally titled Mellow Actions (Fence Books, 2013). He said that unlike the truly mellow vibe of the library and reading room where we sat, he’d chosen his title a bit sardonically. In fact, several of Downing’s poems expressed honest anger, always a tonic to hear read aloud, with anger so often suppressed in polite company. He was followed by Michael Ruby, who in a nod to the evening’s Pacific Northwest motif, read three longish poems inspired by Seattle’s hometown rock heroes, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, from his American Songbook (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013).

Then Daniel and Oana moved to the front of the room and, trading off, they read alternating sections from Wigrum. I’ve been dipping in to the book all week in advance of the reading and have found it to be an ingenious creative enterprise. The novel is ostensibly the census of an idiosyncratic collection of objects, owned at one time by the elusive figure, Sebastian Wigrum. The printed book itself is beautifully presented with crisp typography and clean design on bright white paper. Precise drawings, each one well printed, depict each of the 149 objects in Wigrum’s mysterious collection. This imaginary world has also produced a novel with marginal notes and an index. Here’s a list of five of the objects catalogued and described herein:

  1. 1) a feather from the wings of Icarus;
  2. 2) Holden Caulfield’s “ear-flap hat”;
  3. 3) a handkerchief that William Faulkner had asked be tucked in his funeral suit, though it never was;
  4. 4) a set o keys called the “Come and Gone Keys”; and
  5. 5) a special egg that P.T. Barnum held in his museum of marvels. As the book reads on page 74, Barnum once had occasion to show it to Benjamin Franklin,: “On tiptoe, [Barnum] led the philosopher to his desk, extracted this egg from a drawer stuffed with banknotes, telling him the daughter of Cristobal Colon slumbered forever within, and that if he brought the egg close to his ear he would hear an endless refrain of all Native American nouns of animals and plants. Barnum dropped the egg while handing it to Franklin, spattering his forick coat. He apologized, profusely, but Franklin obviously thought the business was putting him on again. He makes no mention of the incident in his Autobiography.”  

Their reading was very well received, with everyone enjoying Wigrum‘s humor and philosophical play. Book sales and informal conversation followed. I took a few photographs during the readings and was pleased to see, blinking through the window behind the readers, the lights of the Chrysler Building. Barely a half-hour subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, this view typifies how easy it is to visit Mellow Pages. I’m sure I’ll be coming back for a return visit soon. Click here to see those pictures:

Upcoming NYC Launch of Daniel Canty’s “Wigrum: An Inventory Novel,” a Typographical Treat

WigrumHey Canadians and other NYC friends-I’m going to be at Mellow Pages Library in Brooklyn tonight as local rep for Talonbooks of Vancouver, BC. Details:

Talonbooks invites you to the launch of Wigrum
a novel by Daniel Canty
translated by Oana Avasilichioaei
with illustrations by Estela López Solís
and graphic and editorial design by Daniel Canty and Feed

with guest readers Michael Ruby
American Songbook (Ugly Duckling Press, 2013)
and Brandon Downing
Mellow Actions (Fence Books, 2012)

Brooklyn
October 23, 2013
Doors open at 8:00 PM
Mellow Pages Library
56 Bogart Street
mellowpageslibrary.tumblr.com

Three Fun Showcases for Great Canadian Acts at NYC’s CMJ Music Festival

During CMJ in NYC last week I attended showcases sponsored by Canadian Blast, Saskmusic.org, and M for Montreal. Good seeing Cara Wodnicki-Buckley; JP Ellson, Michael Scott Dawson; and Mikey Rishwain Bernard, respectively at the fine events they put on, Each organization put on terrific acts and provided a genial setting to listen to and enjoy great Canadian indie music. Among the bands I enjoyed was Kandle, a 5-piece from Montreal fronted by Kandle Osborne, a dynamic young female performer. Here’s a music video for Kandle’s new single, “Demon,” followed by pictures from the three showcases below.

Maple Leaf Decorated Pumpkin Pie to Mark Canadian Thanksgiving

Oct 13, 2014—Happy I can re-share this post for Canada Day 2014.

I’m sending out festive greetings to all my Canadian pals who have the good sense to celebrate Thanksgiving this day, instead of Columbus Day, which we’re observing here in the States. I have much personal gratitude for all the talented Canadian bands I’ve heard this past year, during my annual visit to Toronto for NXNE, when I loved hanging at Cameron House, and in NYC, listening to such acts as Ben Rough, Greg Ball, The Strumbellas, Shawn William Clark, Jill Barber; Elliott BROOD, and Elephant Stone; all the bold Canadian authors who’s books I’ve encountered, including Kathryn Kuitenbrower, Gill Deacon, Antonine Maillet, Howard Engel, and Jan Wong; and all the great Canadian friends I’ve met and re-met in Toronto and on CBC Radio 3’s keenly interactive daily blog. Until the next time we bump in to each other, here’s a pumpkin pie decorated with the maple leaf. Hope you’re having a celebratory day, and thanks for visiting Honourary Canadian!
Kyle's Pumpkin Pie


Oct 21, 2013

I rarely photograph food I’m about to eat but the pumpkin pie Kyle made this weekend, dotted with maple leafs made from her delicious and flaky crust, looked too special not to first make a visual record of it. It tasted as good as it looked, best I’ve ever eaten! As a belated observance of Canadian Thanksgiving last Monday, I’m glad I could share my photograph of the pie.

1st night CMJ Music Festival

 

Ben Caplan with collaborator Taryn played a stunning keyboard and vocal duet in his opening set at Canadian Blast‘s CMJ showcase Wednesday night in Manhattan. The piece had a theater-like quality with their voices soaring and plummeting, and keys clashing. It reminded me of a song I loved years ago, and haven’t re-listened to in ages. I told the talented Taryn about it when we spoke during the break after Ben’s set. That long-ago song was by Judy Collins, a long one (5-6 minutes) about a figure, I believe from the French Revolution, his name spelled something like Marat-Sade. I’ll look it up later, and see. I’ve been to two other full CMJ showcases this week (Saskmusic.org, and M for Montreal.) and still doing my usual book business, so too rushed to do it right now!  

All Hail Alice Munro, 1st* Canadian Nobel Laureate!

 

 

Great news for all readers that Alice Munro was named this morning as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As the tweets above chronicle, I’ve had a glancing professional acquaintanceship with Munro over the years. She is the first Canadian writer to win the Nobel,* and only the 13th women to receive it, among 110 total laureates. As a reader, I’ve also savored her work. Amid all the excited coverage this morning, I found this great quote in a Canadian Press article spoken by her some time ago:

I want to tell a story, in the old-fashioned way–what happens to somebody–but I want that ‘what happens’ to be delivered with quite a bit of interruption, turnarounds, and strangeness. I want the reader to feel something is astonishing–not the ‘what happens’ but the way everything happens. These long short story fictions do that best, for me.

Here are copies of two editions of Munro’s work from my own library. Munro photoRunawayCastle Rock

*I read a NY Times blog post by Adam Sternbergh later today reminding readers that Saul Bellow–Nobel Laureate in 1976–was born in Montreal, so he might qualify as the first Canadian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize. And yet, he grew up in Chicago and more strongly identified with the US, and was often described as “the Canadian-born American writer.” Sternbergh concludes, “With Munro, however, there are no…caveats. There is no need for any asterisk.”