Darkling – An Experimental Opera by Anna Rabinowitz and Stefan Weisman
Anna Rabinowitz, whose poetry I have reviewed here and here, has collaborated with composer, Stefan Weisman, to create what they describe as an “experimental opera – theatre work” called Darkling which they have released as a two-CD recording from Albany Records. The libretto draws upon a book-length poem of the same name which Rabinowitz published [...]
Continue reading...1Q84 – A Complete Waste of Brain Cells
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
I bookended 2011 with two large novels. In January, I read Witz, by Joshua Cohen, a sprawling brilliant novel which I would set on my shelf beside the likes of Gravity’s Rainbow and Infinite Jest. In December, I read 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, also a sprawling novel which at least one critic has likened to [...]
Continue reading...Annual Literary Housekeeping
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Every year begins with certain literary rituals. The first is to pay homage to Public Domain Day – the acknowledgment of literary works which have passed into the Public Domain and therefore are no longer subject to copyright law. Because copyright terms vary from country to country, one must be careful. In the U.S., for [...]
Continue reading...Short Story: The Masterpiece
Friday, November 25, 2011
Below is perhaps the most sentimental short story I’ve ever written. It involves death, relationships, and all that stuff. I have also posted it on Smashwords in case you want to download a free copy for your ereader. Here is the short description I provided there: “When a novelist learns that he is dying, he [...]
Continue reading...Review: Death Wishing, by Laura Ellen Scott
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Death Wishing is the debut novel from Laura Ellen Scott whose chapbook, Curio, I featured here earlier this year. It’s hard to know how to classify Death Wishing. Magic realism, perhaps, although it behaves much like science fiction, with a single wild premise producing conflict that drives the action, and characters who reveal themselves as [...]
Continue reading...The Well-oiled Pistons of the Juggernaut
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Have you heard the news? Publishers Weekly reports that a Japanese insurance company purchased Toronto-based ebook seller, Kobo, for $315 million dollars. My initial response registered somewhere in the anger/betrayal range of the emotional spectrum. Rather than spend a lot of time bitching, I channeled that anger into a poem.reading underwater, words burble and pop [...]
Continue reading...Poetry in the Afterlife
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
I dreamt I died and went to heaven. When I got there, they told me there was no such thing as print media. They said: books are physical things, but we, as incorporeal spirit beings, have no fingers to turn the pages. I asked if they had heard about digital media. They laughed at my [...]
Continue reading...The Vox – Kobo Launches a Tablet eReader
Monday, November 7, 2011
A year and a half ago, Toronto-based Kobo launched a bare bones eReader to give its biggest competitor, Amazon, a run for its money. It was a decent offering supported by a decent library (2.2 million titles and counting) especially when you consider the behemoth it was battling. See my review here. Kobo followed up [...]
Continue reading...Murder in the Cathedral
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
No, this post is not about the T.S. Eliot play, but about an episode I’m writing as my excuse to participate in NaNoWriMo – the discovery of a body in a church and subsequent revelation that the priest had been having sex with the victim (when she was still alive). My aim is to take [...]
Continue reading...NaNoWriMo Begins
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
This morning you may have heard the starting gun for NaNoWriMo or the erroneously named National Novel Writing Month. It really should be GloNoWriMo, substituting Global for National. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world try to write at least 1,666 words each day for 30 consecutive days at the end of which (theoretically) [...]
Continue reading...Demystifying Camp
Monday, October 31, 2011
My wife is an active alumnus of a summer camp in Longford Mills on the north eastern shore of Lake Couchiching. Every fall, staff, alumni, and friends of the camp gather for a weekend of work and fun. The object is to close down the camp for the winter, taking in docks, storing boats and [...]
Continue reading...Pussy
Friday, October 21, 2011
Note: Part way through writing this piece of flash fiction, I got my testicles caught in a band saw. Industrial accidents are a horrible thing. Always wear protective clothing. Billy-Bob turned to Jethro and said: “Hey man, let’s drive into town and get us some pussy.” “Yeah, BB. You know there’s nothing I love better’n [...]
Continue reading...Two Poems for a Wednesday Afternoon
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Half-choked Blooms I give my best to the morning and the balance to the afternoon in the half-choked blooms of the roses and the thorny brambles of a dying quince. Profile of a Poet i used to worship in a church but the air was stale and dead i slunked away an outsider not meek [...]
Continue reading...You Can Observe A Lot Just By Watching
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
I observed this sign on the wall beside the door at 457 Bathurst St., Toronto. The location looks to be abandoned or at least between tenant/owners. In that tautological Yogi Berra sort of way, these are words to live by. Now pay attention!
Continue reading...Where is the Church in the Occupy Movement?
Monday, October 17, 2011
A question about the Occupy Movement: where is the Church? October 15th was supposed to be a global day of action, and by all accounts, it was successful, drawing crowds in cities all around the world. But where was the Church in all of this? The question was posed in Religion Dispatches nearly two weeks [...]
Continue reading...New eFiction from David Allan Barker
Hogtown is my gift to the Occupy Movement. Download from Smashwords for free.
Sex With Dead People is an ebook collection of short stories. Download from Smashwords for free.
The Land is an enovel. Preview here or buy for your favourite ereader. Also available as an audiobook.
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Monday, January 9, 2012
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