found fond: socialism, jazz, saturday

i interact with more people on a daily basis this year, it seems. with the high-school arts-in-ed program, i meet a stream of interesting students and teachers. the winter has me riding transit rather than cycling. jazz makkar's interning at mercury so we catch up weekly, and i'm sunlighting at ryerson so i now know 30 students via text and talk.

i don't plan much time for social activity, so i'm always pleased when it pounces on me. this past weekend was a lovely tiggerish surprise. i anticipated a fairly unforgiving itinerary of short-story marking, grant applications, and house-cleaning. that quickly dissolved with derek beaulieu's visit. we had a super brunch, and then poked through my collection of small-press items from canada and norway. around 4pm, we trundled off to the communist's daughter where we met up with jordan scott, chris ewart, and sandy lam (the latter two freshly returned from cuba and en route home to calgary).

the communist's daughter is arguably the most euphoric, communally pleasant pub in toronto on a saturday afternoon. michael louis johnson (trumpet player and heart-rending singer) waits tables as he serenades the tiny bar, accompanied by his bandmates known as "the red rhythm." our small group had a fantastic experience, trading stories and loving the live music.

sunday was back-to-marking for me, my small foray into social activity a saving grace for my work-addled brain. and monday was back to school but it was a pleasure to return to the ryerson classroom after reading week ended. so pleased to see students again, to witness dedicated and enthusiastic feedback. i missed them; i wasn't anticipating that! both sections are transitioning from short fiction to poetry, so the next two weeks promise to be full of challenging and intriguing thoughts.

tomorrow's a mixture of marking and lesson prep. if i get enough accomplished, i may head to the communist's daughter again as a reward, to soak in the sounds. and speaking of sounds, i'm pretty jazzed about lesson prep on "sound in poetry." i'll post a note on what i include once it's fixed.

picture of michael louis johnson @ communist's daughter. photo by sandy lam.