Out of the Woodwork

2009-07-10T00:47:00.001-04:00

I won't be have internet access for at least a week. Hopefully, I'll be creative in that time. In the meantime, here's a site to enjoy: 3-D tours of world heritage sites. I start you off with Chartres.

Robert Creeley

2009-07-06T21:32:00.001-04:00

ECHOES

Step through the mirror,
faint with the old desire.

Want it again,
never mind who's the friend.

Say yes to the wasted
empty places. The guesses

were as good as any.
No mistakes.

-- From Selected Poems (originally from Mirrors)
Supporting material for a review forthcoming in The Rover.

Robert Creeley

2009-07-05T11:49:00.003-04:00

SAD WALK

I’ve come to the old echoes again,
know it’s where I’ve been before,
see the same old sun.

But backwards, from all the yesterdays,
it’s still the same way,
who gets and who pays.

I was younger then,
walking along still open,
young and having fun.

But now it’s just a sad walk
to an empty park,
to sit down and wait, wait to get out.

-- from On Earth: Last Poems and an Essay (2006)
supporting material for a review forthcoming in The Rover

back

2009-06-28T00:46:00.009-04:00

The trip to Van was wonderful -- we were blessed with fine weather every day -- LCP Conf/Fest was highly enjoyable too, and made a number of interesting poetic contacts and discoveries. Nevertheless, the meeting with my uncle was the highlight. Still spry and lucid at nearly a hundred -- he'll be reaching his centenary in a couple of months -- he's a walking oral history. Filled me in on all kinds of details of our family past, plus vivid recollections of what it was like to be a Nova Scotia coal miner back in the '20s, and even the Halifax Explosion, as experienced 60 km away on a farm near East Mines, NS.

On my last day, though, I felt a sore throat coming on, and on the plane back the congestion started -- which lead, it seems, to a classic case of barotrauma -- otherwise known as airplane ear -- when the plane made an unusually fast descent. A week later, my ears are still blocked. The cold became a nasty one; I'm still not over it. Still, with end of school stuff and other matters, I was surprised to find today that I had scarcely looked at this blog in over two weeks. Ah well, things happen. Will post eventually.

off to van...

2009-06-10T09:31:00.009-04:00

I'm flying to Vancouver tomorrow for the League of Canadian Poets' Annual Conference/Fest. There I'll take part in AGM-type meetings, seminars, readings and book launches -- including another launch of Passenger Flight. Will spend a few days afterwards visiting the town. May I have at least one afternoon on one of it's many beaches -- although the forecast looks a little cool yet. I'll be visiting a few relatives there -- including an uncle (who I haven't seen since I was about 15) who celebrated his hundredth birthday this year!

LCP News From Quebec

2009-06-10T09:17:00.004-04:00

Here's my account of Quebec League members' activities, probably my last for good or at least for a good long while, since I'm stepping down (again) as Quebec Rep on the League of Canadian Poets' National Council.

NEWS FROM QUEBEC

According to the latest stats, about 8% of Quebecers—a total of around 605,000 -- are Anglophones, and most of these – about 480,000 -- live in Greater Montreal. That makes a town little bigger than, say, Kitchener-Waterloo. Considering these figures, one can hardly deny that Quebec is a sizzling hotbed of English Language poetic talent and activity. This year as always a significant volume of production took place, contributing to the province’s particularly lively literary scene.

LAUNCHES/PRIZES/HONOURS etc.

Oana Avisilichioaei launched feria: a poem park (Wolsak and Wynn) in September.
Carolyn Marie Souaid launched her fifth collection, Paper Oranges (Signature Editions) in October.
Brian Campbell (yours truly) launched his second collection, Passenger Flight (Signature Editions) in April.
20 Canadian Poets Take on the World, edited by Priscilla Uppal, was launched in Toronto and in April, in Montreal. The book features translations of 20 foreign poets; among the translators was Quebec’s Erin Mouré.

Erin Mouré along with Robert Mazjels was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize for their translation of Nicole Brossard’s Notebook of Roses and Civilization; the same book was also shortlisted for the 2007 Governer General’s Award for Translation.

Winner of the 2008 Quebec Writer’s Federation A.M. Klein Award (Poetry) was Peter Richardson for Sympathy for the Couriers (Vehicule Press). On the short list were
Katia Grubisic’s What if red ran out (Goose Lane Editions) and Joshua Auerbach’s Radius Of Light (DC Books). All three are LCP members.

Former member Nina Bruck’s chapbook, Still Light at Five O’Clock (Sky of Ink Press) was one of three winners of the 2008 Writer’s Circle of Durham Region Chapbook Challenge, a competition that saw submissions from all over North America. The chap, by the way, was edited and produced by myself and Raphael Bendahan.

“Emblem”, a poem of mine previously published in Prairie Fire was chosen by the BC Ministry of Education for use on its Grade 12 exams. Lesley Pasquin, meanwhile, won first prize for Poetry with Room Magazine. Carolyn Marie Souaid took over this year as poetry editor of Signature Editions.

READINGS/EXHIBITS ETC.

The Atwater Poetry Project, besides giving stage to a number of prominent out-of-towners, also saw readings by Maxianne Berger, Kaie Kellough and former member Carmine Starnino.

The Yellow Door,Visual Arts Centre, Poetry Plus, Noches de Poesia, Words and Music, and WIRE (West Island Reader’s Electric) are the ongoing local English language poetry series in and around Montreal – and this year their stages hosted (besides a fair number of out-of-province poets) the likes of Stephen Morrissey, Maxianne Berger, Julie Mahfood, Fortner Anderson, Geoff Cook, Ian Ferrier, Stephanie Bolster, Helen Zisimatos, Johanna Skibsrud, Carolyn Zonailo, Joshua Auerbach, Angela Carr, Erin Mouré, Lesley Pasquin, Oana Avasilichioaei, and myself.

The June 2 2008 QWF Schmoozpalooza featured two panels, with each member championing an outstanding short literary work by a Quebec English-Language author. The poetry panel consisted of Stephanie Bolster (who chose The Slough by Bruce Taylor), Geoffrey Cook (The Confused Heart by Robyn Sarah), and Catherine Kidd (Stanazas 1-13 of the Encantadas by Robert Allen). This event was hosted by CBC host Anne Lagacé Dowson.

23-26 October Bryan Sentes read and presented a paper “ Charm Schools: Modes of Petitio Benevolentiae in Contemporary Canadian Poetry” at the States of Art International Poetry Conference in Saarbrücken, Germany.

In October the Spoiled Artists’ Liberation Army (SALA) did its bit to put on ice Stephen Harper’s election hopes in Quebec, with this YouTube video excoriating proposed culture cuts. Some of you may recognize its incognito participants, who may be found hiding in certain secret caves in the hills of Mont Royal.

Endre Farkas’ play “Haunted House” was presented by Tableau D’Hôte at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in late February through to early March. The play is about A.M. Klein, whose 100th birthday was in February 2009. The play was well received, had very good reviews and sold out most nights.

Also in February, Fortner Anderson’s recent drawings and collage work were exhibited at the Luz Gallery in Montreal.

University of Montreal’s Sense and Sustainability conference in March 2009 featured readings by myself, Ian Ferrier, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Charolotte Hussey, and Bryan Sentes. In the same month, the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival featured Erin Mouré and Oana Avasilichioaei.

Carolyn Souaid also read at the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival in April and hosted two panels at the Blue Metropolis Festival. Kaie Kellough, meanwhile, ran a multimedia show at Blue Met which involved a dramatic reading of improvised material generated by an audience of several dozen tapping furiously on laptops.

Maxianne Berger was April’s Poet-in-Residence for the League’s Young Poets’ Forum, and in July will give a tanka workshop at Camp Haïku in Baie-Comeau.

All those who launched books have embarked on national reading tours – Carolyn Marie Souaid to Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria, myself to Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, and Oana Avasilichioaei to schools in Ontario as well as other destinations (well, she didn’t give me details) far and wide.

On May 3, Quebec members had their (W)rites of Spring reading and fundraiser at the Arts Café. Featured readers included Kaie Kellough, Maxianne Berger, Angela Carr, Charlotte Hussey, Michaela Sefler, Johanna Skibsrud, Lesley Pasquin, Carolyn Zonailo, Stephen Morrissey, myself and Ontario member Sonja Greckol. The event was well-attended, featured raffles for books and feedback from Steven Michael Berzensky (Mick Burrs) and Maurice Mierau, and raised a total of $145 for the League.

The reason I’m writing the report this year is that Angela Leuck, who took over from me as Quebec/Nunavut rep last June, had to step down for personal reasons. I agreed to take the reins again as of last February. As always, it has been a great pleasure to serve as Quebec/Nunavut’s rep. Ian Ferrier will be taking over from me this June, assuming his acclamation at this year’s LCP Fest and Conference. Former QWF President and prominent facilitator and participant in Quebec’s Spoken Word scene, Ian has many talents and abilities to bring to that role. He intends in particular to use his connections with younger poets to increase awareness of the League and bring more members into its fold.

Busy this week...

2009-06-08T10:27:00.010-04:00

...organizing a training session in school on technology in the classroom, doing in a QWF workshop leader application (which meant a time-consuming update of my literary CV -- the latest having been lost in the crash), and writing a review of Christiane Frenette's After the Red Night for the Montreal Review of Books -- my first paid reviewing gig. That's due at the end of the week, but since I'm flying to Vancouver Thursday for the League of Poets' Fest & Conference (aka AGM), it's got to be in sooner.

Also...recovering & re-updating files after the crash.

For security, my wonderful computer guy suggested an external hard drive, which goes for an extra $120 or so. This may be a good option, especially for saving programs and settings. (It also assures a little extra money for his pocket.) Burning disks is also a solution, although recordable disks can become unreadable in a scratch. But a 4 gig UHB stick, which goes for like $12, is adequate in most cases including mine for My Documents and photos... but, so easily lost!

Here, though, may be the securest and cheapest solution: on-line storage. You can even store 2 gigs for free. Here's a couple of sites a friend suggested:

idrive.com
mozy.com

If your house burns down, your stuff is "out there". If there's a nuclear holocaust, well, maybe they're stored underground. (I'm sure I'll want to get at my stuff, after I'm vapourized.)

Clearly, with about one in ten hard drives failing every year, this security issue is worth obsessing over until it's dealt with once and for all. Anyone "out there" -- are there known (i.e. hacker) issues with these sites?

UPDATE: Well, I tried downloading mozy free version, but found that I didn't have much flexibility in choosing files to back up: My Documents as a whole is greater than the 2 gig limit, and I couldn't break it down to choose the most useful folders that would fit under that limit. Then I balked about paying say $60 CN a year for the unlimited backup. What am I buying into? What are the security issues about storing files online? Could hackers ever get into my files? (There are issues even with incrypted software). Mozy it turns out is better-rated by a number of review sites than Idrive, but there have been some complaints that, like the old AOL, it's difficult if not impossible to cancel a subscription. Anyway, I need to be convinced, even though it does seem a quick and easy way to obtain off-site data backup.

2009-05-31T10:55:00.005-04:00

Searching "Brian Campbell Passenger Flight" on Google, I round this odd little tidbit:

... She waded through chest high water, unaware she sustained a gash to her leg, and herded folks forward to get out on the wing.
Brian Campbell, a passenger in the rear of the plane, said, "Turn around, you’ve got to get out on the wing."
Upfront were Dent and Dail who got folks out on the wing and into rafts.

Seems, unbeknownst to me, that I was on US Air Flight 1549 that crashed into the Hudson.

Apparently my book is available not only at Chapters Indigo and Amazon, but at sites I never heard of: Books XWZ, Keenzo, Hard Cover Deals, AllBookStores.com. Of course, no reviews as yet, but that's hardly to be expected.

back...

2009-05-31T01:43:00.013-04:00

My computer crashed again, this time fatally -- so I got another one, a 2-year-old HP Workstation XW 6200 with a new 250-gig hard drive & CD burner for about $400, taxes included (according to the link above, this thing once retailed for $5,500... hard to believe the depreciation). My repairman gave me a rebate on much of the cost of the previous repair (about $300), which really didn't work out. This one is a solid, highly rated beast that nevertheless runs very quietly, more quietly than my laptop -- and he tells me it should keep me happy (can any machine keep you happy?) for years to come... I'll keep my fingers crossed. I've been saying PC stands for Piece of Crap; if this one doesn't work out any better I'm definitely moving to Mac.

I've been busy customizing the system, reconfiguring e-mail, etc. (Second time this week.) I lost Dreamweaver, so it may be a while before I am able to update my website.

There's a poem in this drudgery, I'm sure. May Sisyphus be my muse.

in flight...

2009-05-23T09:57:00.003-04:00

Sasquatch Literary & Arts Performance Series

Featuring yours truly reading from Passenger Flight
(& playing some songs as well)

&Jocelyne Dubois reading from her chapbook, Hot Summer Night

Royal Oak II (map), downstairs, 161 Laurier East,
between Cumberland and King Edward, Sandy Hill

Ottawa, Sunday, May 24 @ 2 pm

Some poetry reading secrets

2009-05-22T12:54:00.018-04:00

I find it really frees me to prepare the reading beforehand: to time with a stopwatch (easily found online) all the poems I intend to read (good reading practice anyway), and then plan the performance down to, say, the half-minute. (I also plan for alternative poems I might feel like reading.)

On stage, with no distractions related to time, I know exactly where I am in the performance, and can focus entirely on delivery, etc. Believe me, uncertainty about time -- how much you have left, whether you're in danger of running over -- can affect your focus more than you even realize.

One large bookmark with the poems, times, page numbers and talking points is better than all those silly little bookmarks or post-its poets often use.

Some moderators, owing to personality or circumstance, can be time Nazis -- again, best not to go through the humiliation of being told you have time left for just one short poem, etc.

Don't read too fast. Don't use what Mayhew calls "poetry voice".

Better to recite poems than to read them, actually -- that's the way it was done by the Ancient Greeks and other oral cultures, as well as, of course, by the best performance poets today -- but with so few gigs, it seems a questionable investment of time (time again: seems an obsession in this post!). Reciting one or two poems can be pretty dramatic.

Back

2009-05-22T12:15:00.007-04:00

I've got my computer back -- suddenly it wouldn't start because of an "error or missing file" in the registry -- but a power outage while the repairman was reinstalling Windows caused an even worse crash, resulting in major complications. I've lost a lot of files including my most recent backups (it seems my backup disk was damaged beyond repair), and the rest, recovered, are so scrambled that... well, it's as if someone took all my file cabinets of 20 years, dumped them on the floor and shuffled all the papers. Also largely gone or scrambled: my email address book, my bookmarks, most programs.This will guarantee lots of hair-pulling over the next months.

The Toronto reading went well. Joe Rosenblatt, his delivery slowed by a recent minor stroke or heart medication (I never got that clear), delivered a curmudgeonly performance of witty, self-deprecating animal poems. Ed Nixon was decent in content and better in delivery. My reading was -- blow own horn for few seconds -- as good as ever, and I sold ten copies to family, friends, and a couple of strangers, now new acquaintances.

The tour continues...

2009-05-14T15:02:00.001-04:00

I'LL BE READING FROM PASSENGER FLIGHT AT

The Art Bar Poetry Series

Clinton's, 693 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Tuesday, May 19 @ 8 pm

Also featured: Joe Rosenblatt, Edward Nixon

Considerations of cliche: Paul Laurence Dunbar ("the mask")

2009-05-12T10:29:00.001-04:00

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Here's a poem that grabbed me from PoemHunter.com, which sends me (mostly) stilted classics every day. I don't know how I got on their mailing list. The blend of rhyme (a kind of mask in itself), theme and diction is perfect until, for me at least, the sympathetic contract is strained by the trite "tortured souls" and "vile clay" in the final stanza ... . But it could be argued that that too -- and the belief system behind it -- is Dunbar's mask, and the rhetoric of the poem does demand that kind of emotional crecendo at the end. If the poem seems dated, well, Dunbar did live between 1872 and 1904. One of the first African American poets to achieve prominence in white-dominated American and European literary circles, his bio is fascinating. More Dunbar poems can be found here.

Considerations of Cliche: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

2009-05-11T10:53:00.013-04:00

Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames] by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....

Got this from poetry.org, which continues to send me daily poems ... for them, I guess, Poetry Month is about 40 days long. I remember enjoying Ferlinghetti's early stuff, but this is, mildly speaking, not him at his best. The best line -- the only line worth retaining, to my view -- is the first one. The rest is -- if I may press on -- a bunch of tired cliches, name-dropping and irrelevancy. "The North Pole is not where it used to be" -- how does that contribute? "Manifest Destiny is no longer no longer manifest" -- I'm inclined to shout "Horray!"-- creepy, imperialist doctrine to begin with. "Civilization self-destructs." Absolute Deadsville. Was it George Bernard Shaw who said civilization was a good idea, we should try it some time? "Nemesis is knocking at the door." This is a little better. I might keep this one, if I were him. But I want to say, come on, more flames -- is there any fire here? Only stale rhetorical questions, tiresome qualifying phrases, the hollow pronouncement at the end... well, this poem fails to conquer me, let alone the conquerors. Although I do appreciate the sentiment. Somewhat.

The interesting thing about this poem is that it shows Ferlinghetti is still writing -- lame drafts, at least -- and that because he has (and deservedly so, I might add) a much-beloved name, poetry.org thought it was worthy to send to all and sundry.

The use of cliche interests me. There are a bunch of so-called "plain-language" poets -- I can think of not a few that appear quite frequently on our local scene, and I'm sure they are to be found on every scene, stalwarts who seem to have have little trouble breaking into print, or even printing book after book -- who appear to actually relish the "howling winds" and "driving rains" in their poems. As long as their heart and politics are in the so-called "right place", this kind of stuff is considered fit to publish. To a reader like me, it's plainly speaking, unacceptable. (Normally, if it hadn't been Ferlinghetti, I wouldn't have read past "Civilization self-destructs.") But at times, cliches actually work -- their common touch actually touches. This does interest me.

It seems to me that a poem has to have a certain "zinger quotient" of linguistic freshness to sustain a dead or half-alive metaphor -- even though most of the time dead metaphor or tired phrase will automatically second- or third-rate a poem. It could be an unusual concept or slant, a formal mastery or otherwise saving grace. When examples come up, I'll explore this. Indeed, I've already found one. But tomorrow.

RIP Robin Blaser

2009-05-09T16:45:00.002-04:00

Robin Blaser (May 18, 1925 - May 7, 2009)

2009-05-08T11:45:00.002-04:00

"Florence" by Barbara Adler -- a powerful videopoem on illiteracy.

Passenger Flight tour

2009-05-05T01:03:00.007-04:00

Tonight I'll be interviewed and read some poems from Passenger Flight on Howl, CIUT 89.5 FM. (That's University of Toronto campus radio.) The show runs from 10:00; Nik Beat, the host, tells me I'll be on at 10:30 for 20 minutes.

Other dates this month:

The Art Bar Poetry Series, at Clinton's, 693 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Tuesday, May 19 @ 8 pm Also featured: Joe Rosenblatt, Edward Nixon

Sasquatch Literary & Arts Performance Series, Royal Oak II (map), downstairs, 161 Laurier East, Ottawa, Sunday, May 24 @ 2 pm Also featured: Jocelyne Dubois

Book signing at the Canadian Library Association conference and trade show, Palais des congrès, Montreal, Sat. May 30 @ 1 pm

Frederick Seidel

2009-05-04T09:01:00.004-04:00

Today's poetry.org daily poem is an engaging oddball choice. I had never heard of this guy, but would like to read more of his work. Click on the his name to read about the extreme controversy his first book stirred up.

Ode to Spring
by Frederick Seidel

I can only find words for.
And sometimes I can't.
Here are these flowers that stand for.
I stand here on the sidewalk.

I can't stand it, but yes of course I understand it.
Everything has to have meaning.
Things have to stand for something.
I can't take the time. Even skin-deep is too deep.

I say to the flower stand man:
Beautiful flowers at your flower stand, man.
I'll take a dozen of the lilies.
I'm standing as it were on my knees

Before a little man up on a raised
Runway altar where his flowers are arrayed
Along the outside of the shop.
I take my flames and pay inside.

I go off and have sexual intercourse.
The woman is the woman I love.
The room displays thirteen lilies.
I stand on the surface.

2009-05-02T17:39:00.003-04:00

LEAGUE OF CANADIAN POETS
(W)RITES OF SPRING
POETRY READING/FUNDRAISER

Arts Café
201 Fairmount Ave

Sunday, May 3
7 – 10 pm

$5 suggested donation Featured Readers:
Kaie Kellough,
Maxianne Berger, Angela Carr, Charlotte Hussey, Michaela Sefler,
Stephen Morrissey, Carolyn Zonailo
Johanna Skibsrud, Lesley Pasquin,
Brian Campbell, Sonja Greckol
Books/feedback raffle

General public open mike

May your poetree burgeon into bloom!

O Canada!

2009-04-30T23:48:00.000-04:00

The Obama administration added Canada Thursday to a notorious blacklist of countries where Internet piracy flourishes, reflecting a new, tougher line in Washington over the Harper government's chronic failure to deliver on promises of new copyright laws...

Canada now joins a group of countries designated as being especially lax in protecting intellectual property, including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela. No other advanced Western democracy is on the list and Canada is regarded as a lawless hub for bootleg movies, ripped-off software and pirated chips that bypass copyright protections.

Jack Gilbert

2009-04-30T00:49:00.007-04:00

With all but two or three exceptions, since mid-month, poems of the day from poets.org have been entirely forgettable -- cerebral, complex and somewhat inert. Here instead is my own poem-of-the-day choice from one of the books below:

Jack Gilbert

IN DISPRAISE OF POETRY

When the King of Siam disliked a courtier,
he gave him a beautiful white elephant.
The miracle beast deserved such ritual
that to care for him properly meant ruin.
Yet to care for him improperly was worse.
It appears the gift could not be refused.

2009-04-30T00:40:00.009-04:00

Books recently come in the mail:
Charles Simic, The World Doesn't End
Robert Creeley, On Earth -- Last Poems and an Essay
Heather Spears, Poems, Selected and New
Thomas James, Letters to a Stranger
Jack Gilbert, Transgressions
Galway Kinnell, A New Selected Poems
Frank O'Hara, Lunch Poems
Thom Schramm, ed., Living in Storms: contemporary poetry and the moods of manic-depression
William Harmon, ed. The Classic Hundred

Books bought signed from their authors at recent readings/launches:
George Elliott Clarke: I and I
Barry Dempster: Love Outlandish
John Ralston Saul: A Fair Country

Barack's first hundred

2009-04-29T10:49:00.001-04:00

The poetry of Obama's first 100 days.
Perhaps this should humble him too:
Afghan poets tackle scars of war

DUELLING WITH AMERICA

2009-04-27T08:58:00.013-04:00

Tariq Ali is an Oxford-educated East Asian expatriate who has nevertheless maintained deep ties with his nation of origin. Famed for his silver-tongued oratorical skills, he kept a packed, multi-ethnic audience captivated with his account of American interventions in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, and brought out ripples of laughter and applause with caustic assessments of the Bhuttos, the Bush legacy, Barack Obama, and Michael Ignatieff.

In his most recent book, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, Ali describes how Americans called the shots in Pakistan, pouring billions of dollars into the military while the country’s poverty deepened, always finding the kind of general they wanted–profoundly fundamentalist or profoundly secular – to satisfy short-term, disastrously short-sighted policy aims. If they had wanted a hermaphrodite general, he joked, they would have found one. He didn’t mince words about the Bhuttos.

Although Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came in with an idealistic platform of land reform, etc. a la India, he didn’t put it into effect because fundamentally, according to Tariq Ali, he didn’t consider it necessary, coming from the landed gentry himself. The problem with his daughter Benazir was that she had married “a rogue” – one of the most corrupt landlords and administrators in Pakistan. She and Tariq Ali had been quite close. He helped Benazir write her inauguration speech and advised that if elected, she leave a positive legacy, including state schools for girls and a health centre in at least every two villages, so the poor wouldn’t have to go to the big cities for medical attention.

Like her father, she doubted she could enact such reforms without support of the power elites – an impossible condition to hope for from the start. Ali was as upset as any when she was assassinated – but found it absurd that the Western press should paint her as a sort of “goddess of democracy,” when in her political will she had left the leadership of her party to her husband.

Ali had written The Duel during the Bush years. Obama, Ali remarked, is almost certainly the most intelligent President in recent memory, one who can not only read books, but actually write them. “Unfortunately, if you wear Caesar’s robes and put on Caesar’s crown, you have to act like Caesar. The previous one was like Caligula. This one is more like Claudius.” He mused as to whether Michele would make a more decisive President.

Asked whether his own political convictions had changed over the years, Ali replied that of course times and he himself had changed dramatically, but that fundamentally, he had always remained on the left, in support of human rights and a better lot for the poor – “unlike certain liberals who have gone on to advocate the Iraq war and apologize for torture, like your future Prime Minister.”

—

CBC host Paul Kennedy wrote his interview notes on a coffee coaster. Jian Ghomeshi, the interviewer of Jonathan Goldstein a few hours later, wrote his on a couple of barf bags from two different airlines, which brought him to compare the merits of the two airlines, as well as other uses for those bags should the interview go like the notorious one that had recently taken place on Q. What’s with these CBC hosts? I thought. Well, both were very smooth and professional, which made these little foibles all the more endearing.

—

Jonathan Goldstein said he felt like a truck backing up. A.S. Byatt said she could hear ghostly fairy pipes in a forest. The source of their metaphorical inspiration? Feedback from hearing aids and cell phones in response to the elevated speakers by the stage – a new technological interaction designed to vex hosts and bring on flights of whimsy from featured guests.

This is my second (and last) entry on the The Rover's Blue Met Blog. It was fun wearing a Journaliste tag for a few days (at last -- a clear identity) and honing a somewhat different type of writing skill. Besides, I got free passes to a many interesting panels to which I would probably not have otherwise gone! Because I sold several copies if Passenger Flight to friends and acquaintances I bumped into on the crowded floor (feeling, mind you, a bit like a street hawker with stolen watches inside his trench coat), I almost broke even on my own book purchases and The Delta's usurious bar tab...