Bathurst & Lawrence

In and out of cold symptoms.

This afternoon I drove up to Bathurst and Lawrence, to the Negev book and gift shop to find a bar mitzvah gift for my cousin's son, Harrison. Harrison is obsessed with computers and sports, so I decided to get him a poetry book. I'd call that a prescriptive bar mitzvah gift, instead of a descriptive bar mitzvah gift. Wound up with a hardback volume by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, and a graphic novel called The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar. It was a really emotional feeling being in that very very very Jewish place. In that very very very Jewish neighbourhood. Got weepy when I left and felt anxious for the rest of the day. My missing family, my missing religion, my missing.

Yesterday was a book day of a different nature. Katherine Parrish organized the second Going To Press at Marc Garneau Collegiate in East York, and I was the keynote speaker. On two hours' sleep I delivered a talk I'd completed only a few hours earlier. Seemed to go over well, at least among the kids who were listening. As always, I became a little flustered and forgot an important element -- a bit of show and tell of some items I'd spent hours digging up the night before: the box issue of Scat, a poetry T-shirt of mine (E.V.M.) and a couple other things.

Part of Going To Press is a small press book fair, and I had a table at that, along with 15 or 20 other small pressers. I don't expect to sell anything there, because it's mainly high school students, but I did sell a few things, primarily to visiting teachers. It was a lot of fun, as it always is to sit behind a book table. Spent far more than I made, and here's what I bought:

Edward, by Rose Red (Feed My Eyes), an amazing ziney story with fantastic scratchy visuals.
The Archival Stone, by Beatriz Hausner (Lyrical Myrical), a poetry book.
Stormy Weather/Foursomes, by Stan Dragland (Pedlar Press), a gorgeous collection of short prose pieces.
The Amazing Challengers Of Unknown Mystery, by Evan Munday (Building & Loan Comics), a comic book about the kidnapping of Avril Lavigne.
Monstress, issues 2, 3, 4 and 8, edited and mostly written by Una Crow, and this film/etc zine looks to be excellent.
Hung No. 1, by Shannon Gerard, a graphic fiction thing. Vigilante Poet Shannon sat beside me and we had great discussions about art interventions.
Year, by Shannon Gerard, a crazy little artist's book, again with fascinating images and fine text.
Feral Delights #2, ziney poems and texts by Rose Red.

After the fair, Jen LoveGrove and Sandra Alland and I went to a Goodwill about a block away and I bought:

So Beautiful, by Ramona Dearing (The Porcupine's Quill)
Billy Tinker, by Harold Johnson (Thistledown Press)
Mile End, by Lise Tremblay (Talonbooks)
The Stand-in, by David Helwig (The Porcupine's Quill)
Loitering With Intent, by Peter O'Toole (MacMillan)
Open Letter, Ninth Series Number 3: Summer 1995
Baroque-a-Nova, by Kevin Chong (Penguin)
The World's Best Optical Illusions, by Charles H. Paraquin (Scholastic)
The Cat, by Pat Gray (Ecco)

Today I finalized the venues and dates for two literary events: the first instalment of The Fictitious Reading Series, which I'm organizing with Kate Sutherland and which will feature Harold Johnson and Heather Birrell; the Mud Game 10th Anniversary Complete Reading, which I'm doing with Gary Barwin. Both events at This Ain't the Rosedale Library, on December 4 and 15 respectively, both at 7:30 p.m.

Better go get some sleep so I can wake up and pick Dana up so's we can go to the bar mitzvah.

Over and out.