Poetry and Stuff

Over the pervious three nights I was fortunate to see three great poetry shows. All of them featured Randy Jacobs, AKA RC Weslowski. I'd never seen him perform until Tuesday at the Art Bar, along with Tara-Michelle Ziniuk and Rob Gee. His poetry has with and much depth to it, but he also is funny and entertaining. I also saw him at a really fun event called the Toronto Story Slam on Wednesday at the Boat. The slam portion was won by Kevin Fortnum. I was honoured and pleased the best show (only in my opinion) of his tour of Toronto happened at my Rochdale Rhymes and Readings show at the Regal Beagle. The show also featured Joe Dewar and Robin Richardson in a couple of great other readings. I'd booked Joe once before when I guest hosted for the now defunct Cryptic Chatter series. I'd never seen Robin feature before and had wanted to and decided booking her to read at my series was a way to solve the problem.

So I didn't make it to the CNE this year. I haven't made it in a couple of years. It's popularity seems to be coming back, if not to where it once was. I went to it about three years ago on a day when a borderline tropical storm hit Toronto. It was a mess. The rides shut down early, though most people had given up and gone home before then. In 2007 I went and realized it wasn't as big or fun as I remembered. Maybe I should check it out again. I think I'm running out of time for this year and may have to wait for next year. Maybe I should put it on my to do list now.

just some updates for the week

Hi, I'm just updating how my week was and plans for the next week.

Saturday, I made my first ever trip to Taste of the Danforth, the big yearly Greek festival happening in Toronto on Danforth Avenue. There was cheap food, I imagine not as many people as expected due to the rain, yet nonetheless, it was a struggle making my way through all the crowds of people, especially with umbrellas clashing.

Sunday, I ended my hibernation from the Toronto Poetry scene, when I attended WordJam at the Free Times Cafe. Yes, people could see in my hibernation, I'd grown a beard.

Events I'm excited for this week are Dream Theater on Friday at the amphitheatre, as well as Next Tuesday's Poetry Hoedown, as part of the Art Bar series. It's an event where country lyrics are read as poetry. I know what I want to read on the open mic portion, if I get a chance to do so. I have not decided if I will attend either the Toronto Poetry Slam or Bam! the Toronto Youth Slam.

Update on Tuesday's Ramble

First of all, the Art Bar feature was a blast. It was one of my best features ever and I had so much fun doing it.

The Rust Belt Slam, an event I sadly will not be able to make it to, at least the finals, is a four day event taking place in Toronto (It started tonight with a slam for two spots on the "Wildcard Team" with Tomy Bewick and Dwayne Morgan). It continues tomorrow night with the preliminaries at the Poor Alex Theatre (Dundas/Bathurst) and Saturday at noon at the Trane Studio (Dupont and Bathurst) and the Finals at Bloor Cinema, which I predict will be a great venue, on Saturday night. There will be a free showcase in Kensington Market on Sunday.

The Rust Belt Slam is an annual poetry slam in its tenth year. Previously, it has taken place only in the mid-western United States and is venturing into Canada for the first time ever. Other than the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, which took place in 2006, this will be the biggest spoken word event the city has likely ever seen.

One other thing I want to make note of, Rochdale Rhymes and Readings is back next Thursday at the Regal Beagle. There will be a spoken word extravaganza featuring Gypsy Eyes and Truth Is.. from Toronto and Nolan Guiffre from New York State.