Launch (we Blasted Off)

Still recovering from the launch party high. Zeke's Gallery, October 6th. Cool. Thank-you to everybody who made it happen. And who made me sign autographs for an hour-and-a-half. It was cool to be surrounded by trash-amalgam robots.

Sarah Mangle opened the show with her banjo ukelele, singing to us from the heights of her ladder. She took us into her patch of sun-dappled sky. Matthew Fox read from Cities of Weather and won the Devil's Checklist prize, a free copy of Tattoo This Madness In, after being certified the room's worst Jehovah's Witness. Tanya Schuh read the most touching poems, including one of my favourites about a non-princess and a pea. Richard Burnett's playful arguments with Zeke between performers kept us all entertained.

After the break, my darling beau Mark Harris read from my book, giving it a life in the world of sound I never could. His fiery readings of Diamanda Galas and Patti Smith was a masterful work of cultural synthesis. His vocal tribute to TTMI, an Antony and the Johnsons gem, was pure emotion.

Then the Ottawa crew, who travelled by bus and by car and by camel to get there, ended the event brilliantly. Sean Zio spread his infectious love-energy around the room, bringing spoken word into our bosoms. Kathryn Hunt, of Dusty Owl Press, wormed into our psyches with her thoughtful poetry and riffed a duet with Zio to wrap up. Steven Zytveld, Dusty Owl's resident Owl, read animatedly from Chapter 2 of my book, and then rippling material of his own.

(Check back to hear the entire show via webcast)

Gotta do this again.