Writing for the sake of writing

I've been busy with school work and getting out to promote RDRR (Dec. 3 at The Regal Beagle with Sachiko Murakami, Myna Wallin and Allan Briesmaster). I've studied a lot on the history of heavy metal magazines and have done a lot of work on this. Fun times.

It's about bloody time I wrote something on this blog. What I'm about to say next is controversial, but I'm not too sure anyone reads this blog.

I was at the Toronto Poetry Slam last night to see the return of Electric Jon as the feature. I'm just going to come out and speak my mind and say TPS has lost a step or three. In the last few months it's become overrun with aspiring rappers delivering the same thing over and over. I can't believe I'm saying this. A year and a half ago I got into a nasty online debate (I wasn't alone) with local poet Paul Vermeersch over the value of spoken word to poetry. He argued slam was full of failed rappers with big egos pretending to be poets. I told him to write about what he knew about; otherwise, shut up. At the time I don't believe he knew what he was talking about. Lately the major slam here in Toronto has become more like his description. It's probably because there is an influx of new people into the scene who have the idea it's nothing more than an a cappella rap off. I'm not putting down everyone who wants to rap their poetry. I thought a few of the more rap style poets (Relevant, in particular) were very good. But just rapping off the same cliches over and over gets tiresome after awhile. There's been a lack of originality in recent months.

Don't get me wrong. I'll continue to attend slams and support the scene. I'm not griping that I didn't make it to the second round last night. This isn't a case of sour grapes. I just feel the shows are starting to become stale. Last night some of the old guard I was hoping to see were eliminated before the show (eliminated by the draw), which was disappointing, though it's good to know nothing is fixed in the slam.

Metal!

Late last week I had the opportunity to interview Tim Henderson, most famous for being the publisher behind Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles. From the time I discovered it in 1997, BWBK was my favourite magazine. It was a metal magazine that stayed true to its roots and just didn't cover the flavour of the week. It started out as a black and white magazine on gray stock paper and eventually developed into a full colour glossy magazine that was internationally respected and distributed. It came wrapped in plastic and included Knuckletracks, a sampler CD, in every issue. In the early days it often included other promotional items like other sampler CDs, stickers, cassette tapes, folded posters, etc.

Henderson was able to gain nationwide distribution through HMV, as he was the buyer for the hard rock/metal section at the Megastore on Yonge Street. That section of the store became THE place (I'm editorializing) to buy metal CDs. When I visited Toronto from the Peterborough area, the first place I was interested in going was the third floor of 333 Yonge St.

The magazine no longer exists in print, with its last issue coming out at the end of 2008. But BWBK still exists as an online magazine. Unfortunately, this is a trend with metal magazines, as American magazines Metal Maniacs and Metal Edge went out of print this year as well.

I'm writing the story for a Book and Magazine Publishing class. The program is going well. We are in career week. Today we met with magazine professionals and watched The September Issue. Tomorrow is a day for meeting with book professionals. Yes, talking about magazines going out of print when I'm studying in this type of program is depressing.

Silly, silly, silly

I read in the Toronto Star today Michael Jackson has been nominated for five American Music Awards, including artist of the year. I know now that he's dead everyone wants to honour him and pretend they never thought he was a joke. I know those award shows are lame-brained, but he didn't put out a proper album in the last five years. He just put out some posthumous single. He's not artist of the year. Bestow some honour on him like artist of the century or artist of the last 25 years. Award shows are meaningless anyway. They're a way for artists to celebrate being total sell-outs and not feel bad about it.

In other funny news, I got a haircut today that looks pretty bad. I can wear a hat and I'm a guy so it will grow soon enough. I don't care. But I end up having to wear a hat because it looks funny, and it's so damn cold!

Time for an Update

It's time for an update.

I've been in school for over a month. Admittedly, I was a little intimidated as most other students had university degrees, and in some cases, masters degrees. So far I am happy to say I am holding my own and doing fairly well. I am happy to be back in school. Money is tight, but I'm used to that anyway.

It's unfortunate my time for poetry readings and time to promote RDRR is lagging. I'll really have to work on this as much as I can, even though I go to school full-time and also have a job.

I'm on my way to Peterborough this weekend. That's my hometown. Other than a one-day visit in late July, I've made a trip in mid-March and early June. That's it for this year. I'm excited to be headed home for Thanksgiving. I'm also excited to check out the debut of my good buddy Paul Longhurst's band... I think they're called Revival or something. The band features most of the original members of the now departed Shitreign, who I believe I've discussed somewhere on this blog before.

September 11th

What do I think about when it comes to September 11th?

I don't think about how the western world is doing in Afghanistan or Iraq. I don't think about how how much safer North America is for declaring war on Afghanistan and Iraq, though I do think of the innocent people who've lost their lives in the "battle for freedom." I don't think about alleged inside jobs that have no real evidence. I don't think of "Jewish conspiracies."

I sure as hell don't think of the bravery of the suicide bombers. I've heard some people say this was deserved upon America for everything America has done to certain parts of the world and talk about this as a noble act. This is disgusting.

I think and pray for the well being of those children who on September 11th had to go to bed without their parents who perished, regardless of what they did for a living.

As much as we might want to criticize George W. Bush and everything that happened afterward, let's remember those children who went to bed without their mom and/or dad on September 11, 2001.

Interesting thing on Facebook

So I got one of those Facebook page suggestions that was actually intriguing. A kid in Franklin, Tennessee whose Facebook name is Jackson S., ended up with a demo from a band called Oceanship. His dad works in the record industry and was away and he and his mom listened to the demo. He decided to make it his science project. He would see how successful he could be to make a Facebook page increase the popularity of one unknown band. I wrote I found the band unoriginal and repetitive (think of Coldplay, who I'm not a fan of, playing virtually the same song over and over. I know, most Coldplay music sounds the same. But think of Coldplay if they were even more repetitive). Nonetheless, it's a very good idea for a science project. Check it out here.

I saw Sachiko Murakami read at the Art Bar tonight. I thought her book, Invisibility Exhibit was the best poetry book of 2008. I told her afterward what a fan I was of her. I'd love to have her at Rochdale Rhymes and Readings now that she lives in Toronto.

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.