Under the Bridge Downtown

This Saturday from noon on there's a hip hop festival happening under the Dunbar Bridge, where Bronson Street crosses the Rideau River.

MCs and DJs from across Canada, Bboys and Bgirls, graf artists doing their thing all day on a legal graffiti wall, music, poetry and break dance battles. . . I'm posting it here because hip hop culture is such a culture of the word. Words become visual art, the lines between music and poetry get really hazy, and all of it brings out the innate political power of words - not even necessarily what you say with them, but what you do with them. 

Check it out. Oh yeah, and there will be break dance lessons and a history of hip hop workshop. The spoken word segment is from 1:30-2:00 (for those of you interested in the poetry angle.)

the one book meme
I was tagged for this by Amanda Earl... 

an intriguing idea via rob mclennan.

1. One book that changed your life:

For the silly (or maybe not so silly, depending on how you look at it) response to this: one book that changed my life was probably a roleplaying game rulebook. I'll semiarbitrarily pick the rulebook for Mechwarrior, which might have been the first one I used, although in itself it didn't have much effect on my personality (I was way more affected by the World of Darkness books from White Wolf Game Studio - from my environmental and social convictions on up.)

You're looking at me like I'm an übergeek now, right? But the fact is, getting into roleplaying games both introduced me to most of what is now my life - my friends, my interests, my passions, the places I've been and the causes I champion -  and also managed to suck my time, creative energy, money, academic grades and physical well-being for years. They've been both a good thing and a bad thing. But I would definitely not be who I am now, at all, if it weren't for them.

I don't know if I can think of another transformative book that would have the power to redeem me from the shadow of nerdiness that has now descended on me. Um ... how about the book in the next question? Can it do double duty?

2. One book that you've read more than once:

This one's easy. Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. I first read it in my teens, and for a while whenever I travelled I had a copy of it with me. I can't count how often I've read it. My copy is battered and the cover's been replaced with tape twice. It's such a dense book that the first two or three times I read it I'm sure I didn't understand any of it, and I think I was just reading it again as an act of literary machismo, in reaction to people saying, "You're reading that? I tried, but.... wow. You must be hardcore." But then I started to really get into it, and I've been rereading it ever since.

As a result of my enthusiasm for Foucault's Pendulum, my parents have started buying me a copy of each of Eco's new books as they come out, for birthdays and Christmases. I have everything from The Name of the Rose to The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, as well as a couple of collections of his essays. I don't get tired of the man.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:

The Worst Case Scenario Handbook, of course. Or the much-rumoured, often-banned The Anarchist's Cookbook, for the handy survival skills and how to perform an appendectomy on yourself without tools.

I would also bring along a lifetime supply of paper and a Pen Of Eternal Ink so I could write my own stories for entertainment.

4. One book that made you laugh:

Can I say a comic book? Preacher, created by Garth Innes and Steve Dillon, has a couple of scenes that made me fall over laughing (and a couple of scenes that disgusted me, and a couple of scenes that gave me nightmares.) But, as I can't probably say a comic book . . .  

Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson, caused me to laugh out loud on a city bus. It's really hard to explain why. Read it. If you laugh at the bit where the mathematicians figure out how to divide their inheritance, or at the phrase "Abandon shit!," let me know.

5. One book that made you cry:

The Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth. A novel told in sonnets. I haven't cried that hard over a book in ages.  I'm such a sucker for pathos.

6. One book that you wish had been written:

My father's unwritten children's fantasy novel. I'd have loved to have read it. My dad's got a great eye for children's literature that avoids truisms, easy-outs, cliches, oversimplification, magic that doesn't make sense, and icky subtexts. And his two heroes would have quoted Monty Python to each other all the way through it.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

I could pick a book I just didn't like but I don't know if I'd wish it had never been written, just that I'd wish I hadn't had to read it - something like Hard Times by Charles Dickens. A book I wish hadn't been written at all would have to be a book I think is dangerous, and that's hard. I'm mildly annoyed by The da Vinci Code, but who isn't? (Besides, see the above reference to Foucault's Pendulum - I've already got my conspiracy book thanks.) So I'll be silly and say that if Jacques Derrida had never written anything, I wouldn't have had to get into so many arguments in college. So there.

8. One book you're currently reading:

The Alchemy of Stars: a collection of Rhysling Award winners (the Rhysling Awards are given for science fiction poetry). Edited by Roger Dutcher and Mike Allen. Some of it is silly; some of it is disturbing, some of it is gorgeous.

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

Ever since Jian Ghomeshi announced "Canada Intends to Read" on CBC's Sounds Like Canada a month or so ago I've been feeling guilty - I said I'd try to read Ulysses with him and then just plain didn't. But then isn't everyone 'meaning to read' Ulysses? I also go through bouts, every so often, of wanting to go back to trying to read everything by H. Rider Haggard. It's just this thing I have for cheeseball adventure fiction.

[9b) Supplement: Most memorable book you've read in the last year or so:

This one is also easy. Snow Crash, also by Neal Stephenson (he's getting two mentions!) I can't help it, I just find myself in conversations saying, "You know, that's just like in Snow Crash where..." or getting into discussions about religion, politics, western culture, economics, or language and realizing that my illustrations or examples are all coming from that book. Changed some of my ideas. Clarified some others. Made me think things about the mind and the world that I didn't think before. Plus it's funny, a great ride, and would make a hell of a miniseries. All this and it's SF? Who knew?

So... Have my picks surprised anyone yet? Disappointed anyone yet? Confused anyone yet?

10. Now tag five people:

Sean Zio, S. James Curtis, John W. MacDonald's already been tagged hasn't he ... um, need more bloggers - Christine Paul and ... okay, can I get away with three and a half tags? 

What kind of geek am I if I only know a handful of people online? 

Where's the Next Hunter S?
Now Playing: Steeleye Span

A friend sent me this link to a cool article. What happened to gonzo journalism and what would it take to resurrect it in a form that responds to the 21st century? 

The Next Gonzo Journalism

Serendipity
Topic: readings

Incidentally, I'm back from vacation (you'll note the gap; apologies, but I was on the East Coast.)

If I hadn't been having a picnic with Steve and Cathy Zytveld yesterday evening in the Park of the Provinces (below Christ Church Cathedral) we wouldn't have spotted rob mclennan biking up the Parkway. We wouldn't have yelled, "rob! get over here for some couscous and wine!" and he would not then have told us that jwcurry was going to be reading all of bpNichol's Martyrologies at the gazebo behind Parliament Hill. 

And we would have missed out on an exemplary moment of Ottawa's true oddness. Ottawa seems like such a vanilla place until you get to know it, and as we walked past the setup for the Sound and Light show on the Peace Tower, it seemed both pretty and totally conventional. Then we got to the gazebo. There was a gorgeous sunset going on over the Ottawa River, and a small group of people were milling around the gazebo. We signed a 'guest registry' (the back of a lined notebook) and grabbed a seat with what was left of our picnic, and around 8:00 jwcurry got up, pulled his shirt off, and started reading, after a short preamble about the possible breaks we might have to take for the Sound and Light show and where in the process he might, or might not, say something about the book. This is a seven-volume poem, and it's hypnotic when you get into it, with all kinds of sound changes being rung, themes cropping up again and again, a voice that roams across Canada and through decades - and it's almost as impressive to try to read the whole thing out loud and maintain enough energy. If anyone can do it though ... 

We had to take a break for the fireworks show over the Casino in Hull, and it was fun watching the confusion of the tourists coming up to the gazebo before we paused and trying to figure out what was going on. The sun went down, it got dark, but the gazebo is illuminated slightly, so the reading went on. Someone else had also brought some wine, and there might have been 14 or 15 people there at the most. Who comes out to hear a poet read a six-hour-long poem? A surprisingly diverse bunch, as it turns out. I had to leave at midnight, as we were getting to the end of Volume 3, and there were still about eight people gathered in a corner of the gazebo. As jwcurry said, "if it gets to be three in the morning and I'm still here reading to no one, that'll be. . . neat."

Charles Earl took this picture. Check out his site at www.charlesearl.com.

So very tired....
Topic: Writing

I'm just really tired. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the story, and at the moment I'm just slogging along wishing it was midnight.... but then I keep remembering that I have to at least try to finish it. Three and a quarter more hours...

... and the space around my computer looks like I've been living here for the last day and a half. Scary. 

(a little later)

Second wind? Maybe not. But a certain amount of desparation has gone out of this. I know I'm going to expand this a lot when I go back to it. And I know I might not get to what I'd consider an ending.

But I can start an ending.  And the point is not to write a good novel in three days.

Oh, and for Canada Day....
Topic: readings
Just thought I'd add this - poets will be on deck at the Swizzles Parking Lot Party on Canada Day. From 1:00 to 5:00, at half-hour intervals, spoken word poets will be up to take the mike in the coolest parking lot in Ottawa... between Elgin and Metcalfe, Albert and Slater. So far we have Ritallin, Oni the Haitian Sensation, Steve Sauve, and maybe DJ Morales and Jacquie Lawrence, up to alternate between karaoke craziness, beer and barbecue, and dancing. Dusty Owl will have a merch table there, of course, for books and buttons and t-shirts oh my. Come by and say hello!

The Slog
Now Playing: random music, threatening rain, coffee
Topic: Writing

This is going to be such a marathon. Halfway through, I think, or less, with a day to go, and I know that I've written probably a total of 8 hours in the last couple of days - actual time-on-task, that is - so I know that in the next 12 hours I _can_ write enough to fill out this novel. But I have to have the stamina to just sit here and type. For the rest of the day. God help me. 

The point is to write a novel in three days. Not to write a good novel in three days.  

And I have to say, I'm still curious to find out what will happen when I get into the writer's equivalent of runner's high... 

Day Two Down
Now Playing: the soundtrack to my 3 day novel - lots of Pearl Jam and Tea Party
Topic: Writing

The point of this exercise is to write a novel in three days. 

Not to write a good novel in three days. 

I keep having to tell myself that. And keep plowing on even though I know the plot is weak and sooner or later I'm going to have to accept that my vilain is, in fact, a fairly blank slate so far with no actual game plan or even motivation. And my premise is ludicrous. And I am less than a third of the way through, and two-thirds of the way through the allotted time. 

Everyone should try this. There's a real lesson in learning how to write badly. Usually, when I write fiction, it's because I have a cool idea, and it's pretty decent. Now, I'm writing because I have to, and it's forced and awkward in spots and illogical in others and will probably wind up choppily paced and anticlimactic.

Everyone should try this! 

Day one down....
Topic: Writing

Wow. Nothing points out your skills at procrastination like a deadline, and a totally self-imposed one at that. 

Day one of the three day novel, 11:30, and I've managed to write 10 pages, waste a lot of time on the bus, talking to people, working on publishing other people's stuff, going to a grant writing workshop (which was, admittedly, useful) and discovering that probably the best thing I can do at this point is go to the public library, (where rob mclennan kindly pointed me at the cubicles with electrical outlets,) plug my laptop in at one of them, snag some CDs from the first floor, and work there, because Oh My God is my apartment conducive to procrastination. 

rob pointed out that although it is the 100th anniversary of the Ottawa Public Library, there was nothing listed on Lycos (the catalogue system) including the word "Ottawa." Curiouser and curiouser. 

 Tomorrow I think I'll go to the library in the morning. I got more sustained writing done there than I did the whole rest of the day. Cable internet can be a bitch.  With any luck, I'll feel less . . . literarily flaccid . . . by the end of tomorrow. That feeling of having missed the boat shouldn't be kicking in this early in the game, should it?

My friend Sean has got his novel all plotted out. I feel so... haphazard. 

Oh, the grant writing workshop - fairly useful and inspirational. Run by the Trillium Foundation, and nicely attended.  

Here goes!
Topic: Writing

60 hours and 45 minutes left in which to write my three day novel. So far, I've got a page and a quarter written, which I started as soon as the clock struck midnight last night/this morning. This morning I've managed to make coffee and some toast, and check my email, and come waste time here. The feeling when I woke up was interesting, though - almost felt like the morning of a particularly tough exam.

Better get to work, I've got 40 000 words to write (or as close as I can get...)

Oh, and the review of Quebecite? Apparently the new interface this blog host has just put up (which I don't like much) won't let me cut and paste it in, and I'm not retyping it now, so it'll have to wait until I can post it as a web page (which I've been meaning to do) and link to it. Apologies.