The changing of the blog

The short of it: This blog is finished. The new version is here: http://commutiny.wordpress.com

The long of it: I've been blogging intermittently since 1999. The first incarnation was a home-made HTML version I cobbled together on Geocities, before it joined the Yahoo! team (remember Geocities?! *nostalgia*). It was mainly an excuse for me to acquire basic proficiency in HTML, and after that was accomplished the blog fell by the wayside.

In 2000, I signed up with LiveJournal, but eventually abandoned that site for the greener pastures of Moveable Type. My MT blog (called nether or commutiny.net/her) featured thoughts on Toronto's lit scene, with summaries of local events I'd attend or organize. In 2002, I used it to show work-in-progress from LOGYoLOGY and theories/discoveries surrounding that hypertextperiment, finding it intriguing and challenging to offer text in transformation, with option for readers to feedback as it happened (to affect the course of the work, possibly, or to trouble the mystique of a writing practice/process). A real-time archive?

2003 found recurrent angst over the blog's raison d’être, and it fell silent... But my fascination with blogging couldn't be suppressed for long. With ample discussion around the need/desire for more reviews of Canadian poetry, as well as online access to ANY reviews (which, at that point, was sparse), I invited fifteen writers across the country to post reviews on a group blog I called the review diablogue. The diablogue was hoppin' for a spell, but went the way of the dodo when posts dwindled and other lit mags/journals began uploading content to the interweb.

In June 2005, I gave up MT maintenance and moved to Blogger to try my hand at solo blogging again with 537neon. The blog's been a space for publication/event/review updates, favourite quotes, musings, and frequent excited yelps. The raison d’être angst has cropped up occasionally (and there was a spell in 2007 for the bulk of content was removed for a period of months as I wrestled with persistent concerns around the responsibilities of blogging). Despite this (or perhaps because of it), 537neon morphed into HUMAN visits NATURE earlier this year.

And to mark this third anniversary of mostly consistent blogging, I've decided to try out WordPress' software. So, here we are. New look: snails. blues, categories. If you've got the old address linked, please change to http://commutiny.wordpress.com. Takk!

Aural June

Toronto, how incredible is this?!

Jaap Blonk with Robin Minard
Isabel Bader Theatre
June 4

Kronos Quartet with Tanya Tagaq
Isabel Bader Theatre
June 12/13

Laurie Anderson
Danforth Music Hall
June 13/14

Reading this Tuesday

Ciara Adams and I will perform some old slumberish work, as well as some newer echological texts, at Plasticine Poetry Series (The Central, 603 Markham St., Toronto, 8pm). Other readers include Andrea Thompson and Phoebe Tsang.

New Monk

Meredith Monk's new CD, Impermanence, is out. NPR interview here. So much of what she does rhythmically and vocally on this album relates to where I'm playing with sound-poem drafts for echology and dear s. Reams of love and respect for MM!!

Adventures in Belgium: Brussels

After Ghent, I spent a few days in Brussels hanging out with YA novelist Leila Rasheed, whose debut Chips, Beans, and Limousines: The Fantastic Diary of Bathsheba Clarice de Trop! is quite clever, delightful, romptastic. Copious thanks to Leila for her generous hospitality!! We enjoyed a fab walking tour of Brussels, one of the most exciting meals of my life (Comocomo, where Basque cuisine is created fresh and travels on a conveyor belt), and text/dancing at the Iceland on the Edge Festival.

For the festival, we met again with Helen, Jelle, and Maja at the BOZAR, in the cavernous Henry Le Boeuf Hall (seats 2100, with a King's box) to watch several poets. First up was Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, who read his series of dictator sound poems. Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason lip-synced his Montevideo poem via video broadcast. Kristín Svava's Icelandic/English poetry was accompanied by silent video of assorted dance-film clips. And Sjón ended the evening in a wrestling mask.

Following the poetry, we moved to a smaller subterranean space for music concerts. The audience felt largely confused in such a gallery space, unsure whether to view the music as an exhibit (passive in their watching) or to move, seethe, writhe to the cacophony. Leila, Maja, and I chose the latter, as the music of Stillupsteypa and Ghostigital infected us with flail.

Other highlights from my time in Brussels included much schlepping around the city with Eiki, and a visit to Sterling Books ("the English bookshop in the heart of Brussels"), where Helen works. You can see Wide slumber and Lemon Hound on the Sterling bookshelf, below!!

Adventures in Belgium: Post-Zaoem Snapshots

Merendree: Out of the city, into rural Belgium. We wound our way through cobblestone roads and cowfields to an art gallery for the visual poetry exhibit Woord en Beeld, including work by Helen White (Krikri hostess extradordinaire) and Maja Jantar (an incredible and unclassifiable artist working in polypoetry and multimedia theatre, among other grand things). The range of work in the two-storey exhibit was impressive, and it was eye-opening to see Belgium's visual poetry scene. An excellent post-festival adventure!!

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Wenduine: He took us to the place of his childhood, stretches of sand and flat ocean and horizon and the Flemish sky with its suspended turbulence.

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Bruges: Rain. Green. Clean. Any tourist's medieval wet dream.

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Ghent: We sat in the tetrahedron and, though talk was small, our past lives commingled and the subtext instinctively traced a cellular map. Longevity itudinal ing. Oh, big words. Big, big words big as Belgian hail. The sun was skyward and then it hailed and then it hailed again, the tetrahedron filled with din, our talk diminished, except. What happened next has yet to happen.

~

Partyafterparty: We made a spectacular feast, ate chocolate, and made zen gardens in red-wine salt. We improvised Jelle's klankpoezie score. Kristof, Helen, Jelle, and Maja read aloud numerous poems by Canadians, a cacophonous familiarity. Maja and I improvised on a Flemish grammar book (video below). Querida watched.

~

And so: how to return to Ghent? There's so much begs doing.

Adventures in Belgium: Maja and a.raw Improvise Flemish

Our first attempt at an improvised duet (using a Flemish grammar book) picks up midway once we suss the other's sensibilities. Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to play in the future!

Surrender strange matters

“I see that it’s important that we surrender ourselves and expose ourselves to things that we don’t necessarily understand, that through innocent, impassioned excitement we can’t help share.” – Lisa Gerrard

“To make the familiar strange, but also to use the materials of the familiar to make something highly recognizable and personal.” – Amina

“What matters isn’t what you could do but what you really did.” – Björk

Adventures in Belgium: Zaoem, Day Two

April 26th was an enchanted day for a poetry reading: warm weather, bright sky, lots of sleep, and savoury pannekoeken with Leila. Following an afternoon stroll, I prepped for the evening's performance at the Minardschouwburg. Pre-event dinner was comforting, and provided an opportunity to chat with Rozalie Hirs as well as the music performers of the evening, Ghalia and Moufadel.


Jelle Meander introduced Spanish polypoet eduard escoffet to kick off the night, and midway through his set I knew I was in love. eduard's poetry is studied and self-aware, providing performative buffers of humour between poems direct in their chaos, generous in their depths, swirling with repetition, insistence, languages rubbed into agitation/excitation. Every gesture from eduard was timed to punctuate moments in text; every movement proved necessary, careful, poignant... slow, engrossing, exact. I video-taped the end of a poem I assume was about rural cabin life, which eduard embellished by spraying some flowery air freshener. I also caught a snippet of him eating a newspaper. I missed snagging my favourite of the night, though -- "por," a list poem that ended his set. With the final lines of

por a no ser tu
por a no ser tu
por a no ser tu

eduard then stood stock still, the hiss of his tape players feeding the microphones. To stare at him in this moment had me with a rush of thought, how naked he became onstage, how potentially confrontational or open or courageous an audience member might read this gesture. And just that: like a word, eduard invited, possibly dared, each audience member to read him, to read into him, into his lit existence on that stage.

Well, that had me! Whoever programmed the evening deserved kudos for leading with eduard, a consummate performer committed to his work and so inviting to his audience.


I nearly needed a breather then, but Dutch poet and composer Rozalie Hirs was introduced, and she offered a counterpoint performance to eduard's. Rozalie focused on longer texts, looping her voice multiple times with her computer. The Dutch lyricism wove its oneiric threads around the audience, an alchemic lullaby, dulcet. I managed to snag a longer video clip of her performance, so please check below.


We'd all been invited to perform a cover text, and I'd had some last-minute hmming and haaing over what to read. Given that it was a spring night, I thought I might read my favourite Hagiwara Sakutaro poem (Hiroaki Sato translation), but indecision gripped me after Rozalie's set, as I thought how nicely Ted Berrigan's "Sonnet XXXVII" would segue between our bits. I took the intermission to wrestle with the cover, and eventually decided to go with Jordan Scott's "What is the utterance?" from blert, which had been my initial plan for some weeks. Both the cover and a favoured rendition of Wide slumber for lepidopterists went well; video clip of the slumber below.


Leevi Lehto anchored the night, proving a crowd favourite with his morphemic and lipogrammatic sound poetry. I've been looking forward to meeting Leevi, as a fan of his Google Poetry Generator and also curious about his writing practices and ntamo, so it was a pleasure to not only see him perform but also share the stage with him and chat about many things during the festival. Truly a lovely person. I started to get a little more adventurous with the video at this point (fear of running out of recording power kept my clips short early on), and so have four snippets of Leevi below. Enjoy!!

To close the evening, Tunisian musicians Ghalia and Moufadel performed Arabic music. Just gorgeous work.

Adventures in Belgium: eduard escoffet @ Zaoem

eduard escoffet performs at the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: Rozalie Hirs @ Zaoem

Rozalie Hirs performs at the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: a.rawlings @ Zaoem

I perform at the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: Leevi Lehto @ Zaoem

Leevi Lehto performs at the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: Zaoem, Day One

Day one of Zaoem: Poëzie van Nu (an international polypoetry festival) featured the unveiling of a visual poetry exhibit, readings by Flemish and Dutch poets, and an open stage. Before the festival began, I enjoyed a tour of Poëziecentrum, the regional poetry facility with library, performance space, and bookshop. The tour's highlight included an historical exhibit of experimental Flemish poetry from the last 150 years.

Pre-festival dinner found introductions to many Zaoem participants, including Mark Insingel, Vrouwkje Tuinman, Stijn Vranken, Leevi Lehto, and eduard escoffet. Leevi, eduard, and I wandered Ghent before planting ourselves at the Flemish/Dutch reading. I was particularly entranced by the poets' use of pause as they read. All voices felt quiet, intimate and invitational, and they used silence in most delicious ways.

The visual poetry exhibit was a super introduction to several new works I'd not yet seen, and it was neat to see the works crisply displayed on computer screens, sliding one after another.

Adventures in Belgium: Ghent Arrival

I arrived in Ghent on April 24th, met by visual poet/Krikriian/Zaoem co-organizer Helen White. After a bumpy wander to the hotel (dragging my suitcase over cobblestone), Helen and I took a tram downtown this Flemish city to find dinner on a boat-turned-restaurant. For the uninitiated (read: me), Ghent's a maze of canals, dollhouse architecture, chocolateries, and curving streets; I was instantly charmed despite directional confusion.

While checking the vegetarian status of numerous menu options, polypoet/Krikriian/Zaoem co-organizer "Dr." Jelle "Meander" arrived to dazzle us with overlong fiscally inclined Flemish vocabulary. Dinner proved to be the first of a string of delicious meals; Ghent was kind to this vegetarian.

Jelle and Helen gave me a night tour of the city after dinner (including Helen's favourite tree), which included a surprise stop at The Logos Foundation. A tetrahedron-shaped concert hall, Logos was founded by Godfried-Willem Raes and Moniek Darge. I had a love-at-first-sight experience upon entering this space: robotic orchestra. I could barely keep my eyes in my sockets. After a few pictures, it was agreed I should return the following day to have a wee tour of the facility.

And so, after a peaceful sleep, that's what I did! I met with local composers Kristof Lauwers and Sebastian Bradt (who both work with Logos) and had an excellent introduction to their music and magic. I filmed a little of the instruments at work, as well as a brief interview with Kristof where he tells me some instruments' pet names. Clips below.

The Zaoem Festival had not begun yet, and I'd already met four fascinating people with whom I'd like to spend more time and collaborate. Ahhh, Ghent!

Adventures in Belgium: Kristof Lauwers' Burden Birds @ Logos

Kristof Lauwers' "Burden Birds" performed by the robotic orchestra at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: Sebastian Bradt @ Logos

An excerpt from a Sebastian Bradt composition performed by the robotic orchestra at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium.

Adventures in Belgium: Logos Foundation Tour

Kristof Lauwers introduces the robotic orchestra at Logos Foundation.

KSW's Positions Colloquium

I'm convinced more and more everyday that Vancouver's a pretty fantastic place to exist, and the announcement of this upcoming colloquium is my daily affirmation. Organized by the Kootenay School of Writing, the Positions Colloquium is "thematically open-ended," and will include readings, talks, panels, and performances over a five-day period this August. The list of invited participants has me scratching my head on how I can get myself west this summer to witness the event. Cross-Canada road trip, anyone?

Flemish recap

I'm in Brussels currently, relaxing after a week of Belgian mischief with many wonderful writers and composers in Ghent and an Icelandic connection dans Bruxelles. I'll post with more detail soon, but in the interim, Flemish poet Tine Moniek! reports on her experience of the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival.

Já, Eiki!

Congratulations to Eiríkur for snagging the Icelandic translation prize for Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn.

I have an article on my early poetic adventures in collaboration in the new Gig anthology, ANTIPHONIES: Essays on Women's Experimental Poetries in Canada. Details from Nate Dorward, the publisher:

Antiphonies is a primer on some of the most exciting work in contemporary Canadian poetry. These essays deal with the period from the 1980s to the present, and discussa wide range of work, from books already acclaimed as modern classics--such as ErinMouré's O Cidadán, Lisa Robertson's Debbie: An Epic, and Karen Mac Cormack's Implexures--to the equally remarkable work of Susan Clark, Catriona Strang, LissaWolsak, Christine Stewart, Deanna Ferguson, Lise Downe, Nancy Shaw, a.rawlings,Marie Annharte Baker and others. The essays are complemented by brief selections of poems, interviews and poetics statements. Contributors include Gerald Bruns, Miriam Nichols, Edward Byrne, John Hall, Susan Schultz, Caroline Bergvall, Chris Daniels, Peter Larkin, Peter O'Leary, and many others. A full table of contents is available at http://www.ndorward.com/poetry/books/antiphonies.htm.

*256pp, 5.5" x 8.75", perfectbound; ISBN 978-0-9735875-4-8.

$20 CDN/US (includes postage in North America) £16 / 23 euro (includes airmail overseas). Make out cheques to Nate Dorward (not "The Gig").

linh dinh on english

linh dinh's been influential in pushing my thought to tricky areas, and for this i'm most thankful. his recent post to the harriet blog is incredible, and has my brain active as i process. i encourage you to check it out!

Countdown: Zaoem in Belgium

I'm en route to the Zaoem Polypoetry Festival in Ghent, Belgium (April 25-26), where I'll join poets from Belgium, the Netherlands, and other foreign locales. Festival cohorts include Eduard Escoffet, Rozalie Hirs, Mark Insingel, Leevi Lehto, Tonnus Oosterhoff, Maggie O'Sullivan, Vrouwkje Tuinman, Peter Verhelst, and Stijn Vranken. Zoom zoom zaoem!!

Zaoem poster photo courtesy Helen White, one of the excellent festival organizers.

Gadzooks! talks poetry

Gadzooks!, an online arts publication, offers an article written by Lisa Young on the Toronto poetry scene. The article features interviews with Dani Couture, Paul Vermeersch, and me.