I CUT MY FINGER (and you're invited!)

Finally got to see my new book and I'm thrilled with it!

Here's the launch info:

DOUBLE LAUNCH FOR:

I Cut My Finger, by Stuart Ross (Anvil Press)
All In Together Girls, by Kate Sutherland (Thistledown Press)

Sunday, April 22, at 8 p.m.
Clinton's Tavern (back room)
693 Bloor West (near Christie subway)

Featuring readings by Kate and me

plus some live music by Eric Bridenbaker

plus some free munchies and a cash bar

plus some excellent spun tunes

plus hosting by Jennifer LoveGrove

plus many unfinished and fractured conversations, as tends to happen at these events.

I hope you'll be there.


* * *


Much has been happening since I got back from NYC. Last Wednesday's launch for the Bookthug titles by Sandra Alland and Tom Walmsley was fanastic! Sandra has never read so well, nor so bravely. I really admired how she put the most difficult stuff from Blissful Times first, and then moved into the sound poems and the more narrative pieces. Tom, meanwhile, said before his reading that he was nervous about it: he hadn't done a poetry reading in 30 years. But then he goes up there onstage and starts by singing "Da Doo Run Run" — and then does a really amazing reading, showing the breadth of his new work: from birds to God to fellatio.

On Friday, I popped over to This Ain't the Rosedale Library, as they'd just received a supply of my new book for the launch (they're doing the selling). Even though I'd seen the cover design, I was startled to see the actual book. Gary Clement's cover design is masterful. I feel so lucky to have been able to work with artist friends for every one of my book covers.

The same day, I received an email from a dancer/choreographer in Halifax named Lisa Phinney. She wrote me a few years ago, saying how much she liked my work and that maybe she'd like to do a dance piece inspired by my work. Well, it appears she's done so. She is debuting "Hell's Inventory" in Halifax in mid-May. It was inspired by my dorky little poem "Three Scoops, Waffle Cone," which once appeared in Toronto subways. Hopefully I'll get further details about the where and the when.

Then, on Saturday, I received a couple of sound files from Bradford, England. My friend Ben Walker has set two of my poems to music — well, he's reworked and edited the pieces to fit his purposes: "Hospitality" and "Ladies & Gentlemen, Mr. Ron Padgett." They're very different: the latter is jaunty and Randy Newmanesque, while the former is lush and complex. I love what he's done with them. So I phoned him up and told him that if he recorded a couple more, I'd make a CD of them. It looks like that'll happen.

Ben's website is right over here and on his myspace site there are audio recordings and videos of him performing. You can buy his CDs over here. He's really brilliant.

Oh yeah, Dana's friend Risa Horowitz, a very eclectic and excellent artist, also cut her finger! Check out her stitches here.

Over and out.