Happenings

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post:

Scott & I caught the Springsteen solo concert at the ACC on July 14 ... according to Scott, over half of the songs he performed in this sparse style are now Scott's favorite versions ever!

On Saturday, July 16, I entered Stuart Ross's Poetry Boot Camp for the day. The man is no false advertiser: he worked us hard and taught us all kinds of fun techniques for tapping the well. Thanks, Stuart!

We also managed to take in the AGO's current exhibit The Shape of Colour on Sunday, July 17. We loved it so much, we plan to visit again before the show closes on August 7th.

Later the same afternoon, we wandered up and down Bloor Street, enjoying the Annex Patio Art Show. I was especially taken with Anna-Lea Boeki's photographs ... we both loved Andrea Nesbitt's watercolours.

This past Sunday evening, we were at the Art Bar to hear Marty Gervais read. Bravo! taped the reading for their Heart of a Poet series. The episode featuring Marty's work is scheduled to air sometime this fall.

Next stop was Sneaky Dee's for two fabulous sets by Aidan Baker and Picastro.

Tonight, we're off to the 4th annual ART BAR POETRY SLAM (hosted by Jill Battson) ... unfortunately, I won't find out who wins until next week: THE AMBiENT PiNG gets rolling at 9:30 pm with Planet of the Loops. Tonight's show features Andrew Aldridge and Aidan Baker (no such thing as too much Aidan Baker!!!).

Lookin' for Hot Spots

I installed the Wi-Fi software that came with my Dana Wireless yesterday ... Scully & I are heading downtown looking for hot spots later today.

I first read about the Dana Wireless on Emily Pohl-Weary's web journal. For years, I've been looking for a truly portable word processor ... after further investigation, I knew this was the one for me.

Scully is perfect: half-way between a laptop and a hand-held, I can stay organized and work on writing projects wherever I am - on the subway ... in the backyard ... in pubs and cafes ...

Scream in High Park

Hosted by RM Vaughn, the Scream finale starts @ 7 pm tonight in High Park.

Mainstage performers include: Belladonna, Jeffrey Moore, Goran Simic, Jordan Scott, M. NourbeSe Philip, Emily Schultz, Paul Vermeersch, Michael Holmes, Trey Anthony, Karen Hines, David Bezmozgis and Loris Lesynski.

Last night was ECW's Midsummer Night's Scream at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West). For me, the highlight of the evening (aside from Richard Vaughn's hilarious reading) was being given a copy of Kevin Connolly's Happyland at the door. (Sorry, Pages.)

On Saturday afternoon, Maggie Helwig moderated a panel discussion about genre writing, Specific Pleasures, at Supermarket (268 Augusta Avenue). I'm still trying to mesh Peter Robinson's comments about poetry with Bruce Meyer's proclamation that I manage to "master mystery" in Moon Sea Crossing. As usual, I just don't get it.

Beware Les Girafes!

After dinner on Friday, Scott & I headed downtown for the Broken Social Scene concert. We arrived at Dundas Square and were immediately surprised to see that Les Girafes were still going strong. After 40 minutes of unrelenting aural and visual assault, their demented performance finally wrapped up. Unbelievable! The worst part was that the giraffe fiasco cut short the BSS show. Ah, well ... in the end, the BSS concert was well worth the wait. No surprise there.

Click on the title above for more (objective) info.

a Moon Sea Crossing update

Moon Sea Crossing is off to the printer's this week - whoo hoo! Signed copies will be available through my website ... check back for details.

all things Broken Social Scene ...

Whew! Scott & I have had another busy week: this time with Broken Social Scene (& Scenester) concerts. We survived the heat on Olympic Island with uber-cool concerts by Metric and the Broken Social Scene crew last weekend. Things only got better at Harbourfront's Canada Day celebration with knock-out performances by The Apostle of Hustle and Feist. Check out the arts & crafts record label by clicking on the title above.