About last Thursday's Visual Arts Centre reading: All the readers were excellent, if I may say so myself...as could be expected, as three -- Kaie Kellough, Fortner Anderson, and Catherine Kidd, are stalwarts of Montreal's renowned Spoken Word scene. I was particularly impressed, though, by Fortner Anderson... a surprise, actually, since a previous reading (quite a few years ago) left me impressed with little more than the size of his ego. He did an extended piece following the trope "Sometimes I think...." Anguished, funny, brilliant, it strikes me as a kind of masterpiece... not just in the performance, but the writing. Even though he followed Catherine Kidd, also a superb performer of her work, it was his act that turned out to be the tough one to follow. (Poor Jennifer Boire -- quiet even for a poet of quietude -- was the one who followed.)

This also may be the most attractive poetry venue in Montreal -- a gallery space with a large picture window, polished wooden floors and acoustics so bright that a mike (though provided) is hardly necessary....