Paragraphe Books, October 29th

We expected the attendance for this reading to be sparse, since it was a Monday night and the Green Room reading had pulled such a crowd the night before. We were correct in this assumption. However, the crowd that we got (featuring Cara Hedley, Jani Krulc, Mari Maimets, Andrew Hood, Alan Reed, and a couple of creative writing students form Concordia) was excellent.

Paragraphe Bookstore was quite good to us. They had free food! and wine! the pitas were particularly pillowy. Then an old man came and ate it all, complaining that there wasn't any red wine for him to punk.

Jani did a great job as our impromptu MC. I read sections from "six degrees of e-volition," which I don't read often, so it was fun to play around with it a bit in a no-pressure environment. ryan read "Sparrow-Song," one of the longer pieces in Fake Math, in honour of Dave McGimpsey's classically inspired pieces the night before. the more time I spend around ryan and Fake Math, the more certain I become that the longer pieces in that book are the best pieces. The shorter, snappier pieces are the most immediately memorable, the most characteristic of the book perhaps, while the longer pieces tend to be gentler and more devastating as a result -- I don't armour up against the glib. Neil read most of the chapter "Radio Drama," I piece I have heard 3 times before. Something happens to Neil about halfway through this piece, where the audience disappears, and it's just him and the text. He's carried along by it and his voice and face change. This time, it really got the better of him. great fun to watch.

Afterwards, I had a good chat with a Concordia CW student, Tara, who really dug the poetry. It incredibly rewarding to have someone who had no idea who you were a moment ago approach and initiate a conversation about your writing. I think i could really get behind this rockstar thing.

We wound up at a shockingly good szechuan/thai place that had lovely spicy pad thai, very good soup with the tenderest of beefs and the largest chicken wings in all the land. I also found a new Argentinian white that I love. Soon, none of my pants will fit and my liver will divorce me.

On the train now, heading to Quebec City for a reading tonight that I really hope someone attends. Either way, the old city is going to be beautiful.