May 26th, 2008

Here in the Blogosphere

I am a big fan of blogs, and not for the reasons that people generally use to make a pro-blog argument: they are non-corporate and uncensored, withno word-counts and no agendas, no hierarchy or no cost/training/credential impediments. All those are of course good things (except when they are bad things–sometimes we all long for a length limit or a vocabulary requirement). But those things are not what won me over.

I like blogs because they are personal, and I am nosy. I love the chatty digressive voice, the ownership of the “I” in opinion-giving (not “This book *is* awesome!” but “*I* love this book!”) I also like to be able to follow a narrative–if I read a whole bunch of reviews or articles on a blog, I am hoping to also get a sense of the blogger’s personality and life, to follow a trajectory in reading or writing or both.

That’s what I’m into, but there are some very good blogs that don’t have these things. There are also blogs that have political discourse and/or recipes for mojitos, things that hold no allure to me, so I avoid those, too. Yet, politics and mojitos and unbiased impersonal perspectives are probably also good things, as are the people who write about or with them.

There are also many many many bad blogs out there. Blogs with no punctuation, blogs with no respect for women, blogs that make no effort to be interesting.

What’s my point?

You dig what you dig. But it is strange to me that some people don’t like blogs.

I think it is very strange to dismiss a *form* of expression, because most forms are wildly various, able to express so much or nothing at all. Saying you’d never read a blog seems to me much the same as saying you would never eat anything that came out of certain bowl (unless the bowl is made out of poison). If it’s a nice enough bowl and people are hungry, most things will go in it, eventually.

I believe novels were once considered a scandalous waste of time, too. I don’t think anyone would argue that now, although really, unless you choose carefully, you certainly could waste a lot of time reading a so-called “legitamate”, non-internet-based book.

If one uses equal discretion in choosing blogs, what worlds we can see! And I don’t know what you dig, per se, but might I suggest

Dennis Cass Wants You to Be More Awesome This is a blog about how to survive as a person who makes culture for a “living” and yet still likes to eat food and have self-esteem. It is written by a journalist who wrote a book on the brain and then started a blog to promote it. He quickly realized that it’s *hard* to promote yourself, and made a really amusing/horrifying video to prove it. And then he made the other, non-promotional blog, but all of these bits of the puzzle are really interesting and very very funny. And very meta.

Another author who extends her talent beautifully into the blogosphere is Kate Sutherland at Kate’s Book Blog. This is an author of short stories who writes about them, as a craft (reflections and excerpts on how authors do what they do) and an art (various reading and reviewing groups that she runs). I have to admit that while I like Cass’s blog, I’ll probably never read his book (because I’m not into that sort of thing), but Sutherland’s territory of short fiction is my first love, and I’ll be reading (and, I hear, adoring) her second collection very soon.

Although I mentioned above that I read these blogs for the “personal” touch, there isn’t all that much of actual personal *lives* in my favourite blogs. It’s rather the *personality* behind them, people I have gotten to know as intelligent, and thoughtful about the things *I* care about. It takes a while to find that out.

Maybe when we go searching for criticism, we are seeking opinions other than our own, and the reason hierarchized publications appeal is because we are told which ones to trust and how much (ok, that’s one of the appeals *for me*). With blogs, you can get access to a world of opinions, but you still have to do the work of winnowing out both the good and the relevant from all the other stuff. To me that’s worth the work.

All the boys who called their mothers on that deadline
RR

May 24th, 2008

Good times, v. 3.0

Yesterday was my birthday and it was awesome, and now I’m thirty. I’m excited for thirty, since when you say you are twenty-nine everyone assumes you are lying. I’ve never been one of those who dislikes birthdays–I’m selfish enough to really enjoy the concept of a day that’s all about me, though with new people it’s often hard to think of a way to tell them exactly what day it *is*. Ever since I was in high school, I’ve had a clever trick–I wear glitter on my birthday, to work or school or wherever I’m going. Then, when people rightly ask why, I tell them I am celebrating and they are then forced to wish me a happy birthday. Which is all I really want out of life.

I got all kinds of other stuff, too, including a pirate eyepatch (I covered it in glitter), a sparkler that singed some of my arm hair, and many many good wishes from lovely people. Also some good stuff that wasn’t even birthday related–the Biblioasis Fall catalogue came in the mail on Thursday, and it is really classy-looking and interesting and CONTAINS MY BOOK, and I can’t pretend I didn’t flip to that page first. And that arrival inspired the Google-based ecstasy of the previous post–you can now pre-order my book via Chapters-Indigo! This is very exciting to me. Kerry pointed out that you can also find it on Amazon.ca, and then I found it on Amazon.com which is awesome in a largely theoretical way, since I don’t know many people in the states. But still…maybe I’ll meet some!

Later on tonight, I’ll be seeing a dance show (may be you want to, too

Danceworks Co-Works and Kemi Collective Present
“Between Here and Now”
choreography by Jennifer Dallas and Marc Boivin
May 22-24, 8pm
The Winchester Street Theatre (80 Winchester Street,
Toronto)
Tickets 416 204 1082)

And tomorrow, birthday luncheon.

And it’s freaking finally spring. Look how gorgeous is outside. It’s all for me, clearly.

A change of heart / don’t call me back

RR

May 12th, 2008

Today in Books

I fear change of any sort, even when the status quo isn’t all that great. When it’s actually something I *like*, though, change is terrifying. As it turns out, Julie Wilson’s Seen Reading blog, which was already perfect, hasn’t really changed in its new home–it’s just grown. As of today, there’s podcasts, and the author’s fiction archived there as well, and a lovely new layout. Share and enjoy!

Also today, the Toronto date in the Fiery First Fiction tour. Organized by my dynamic friend K, happening in the lovely Supermarket backspace, and featuring so many hot new authors–I’m excited!

The first time I sang my heart
RR

January 5th, 2008

What You Could Read

I know everyone adores playing “1000 Things We Like,” but I thought I’d post about something else for a change. Like some things that I have been reading that you might like.

For example, I would suggest reading Prism International. If you live in Ontario, this will be very hard, as they did not send our province any fall issues for some reason, but that’s the issue I’m recommending you order it because contains the beautiful story “Some Light Down” by S. Kennedy Sobol. It was my privilege to read that story in very early form, and it was heart-stopping then, and it’s thrilling to me now to see it having evolved so far. Of course, this means S. Kennedy and I know each other, but we didn’t when I first read the story, so you should take my word when I say it’s brilliant.

Another recommendation I have for the literary-minded is Jim Munroe’s mega website, No Media Kings. If you move in Toronto indie circles, you may have heard the name Jim Munroe before even if you’ve never read his books or comics, seen his movies, been to his shows or readings, or played his video games. I once had a strange job wherein (a) I often had no work, (b) I was not allowed to read books or magazines, (c) I was not permitted to surf the internet unless the sites pertained to books. These rules made no sense, but I got around them in large part thanks to Mr. Munroe, who bills his site as an “indie culture site.” Basically, if you work in one of the above media and don’t want to let your get caught up in corporate R&D, promotion, editing, distribution, etc., Jim will tell you how to do it yourself. Even if you are willing to go a little corporate, there’s still useful reading on the site–for authors, there’s stuff on grant-writing, touring, etc. that’s very practical, friendly, and go-go-go. There’s stuff on there that’s not at all practical unless you are the dynamo that is Jim Munroe–book tour via bicycle, for example—but it’s very entertaining.

Of course, all this partically obscures the reason I was curious enough about the guy to google him in the first place, which is that he is a pretty good novelist. I read his first book, Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask when I was a kid and got hooked. That was his first book, published with HarperCollins Canada, the experience that so annoyed him that he declared himself the anti-Rupert Murdoch, or, I guess The King of No Media (heh). He went on to write a number of novels: *Angry Young Spaceman, Everyone in Silico, Roommate from Hell* (all available at the above link) and to publish and distribute them himself. No small feat, though it helped I’m sure that the novels were good (if you like semi-sci-fi and silliness, and PCness–I do). Still the sheer number of hours, and the force of will to overcome not only self-doubt but the logistical nightmares… Impressive.

I interviewed Jim Munroe in the summer of 2003 for a school project (would that that transcript still existed–stupid dead hard-drive). He did it because I emailed him and said if he talked to me I’d buy him lunch. He wrote write back and said ok, showed up when he said he would, and tried to pay for his own sandwich, so obviously I was more than a little impressed. I guess there’s bias all over this post, really, but still, these are reccommendations worth checking out–it’s not my fault I’ve met so many talented people.

Smoking the same damn cigarettes
RR

December 3rd, 2007

What I Don’t Know

A quick cruise of my favourite blogs indicates that it’s year-end best-book lists that are currently fascinating and irritating people (if people-I-know are reasonably representative sample of people-at-large, which they probably aren’t). Since I need to update my links list anyway, and there’s this copacetic (not a word? unsure) moment, let me introduce you to Thirsty: A Biblioasis Miscellany is a blog run by Daniel Wells for Biblioasis press, but occasionally guest-written by authors from the press. It’s about the books, obviously, but also about Canadian publishing, poetry, grants, reviews, translation and a host of other things that I know a lot about *in theory* and yet am contunually surprised by in real life. Thirsty is a great window into how (hard) you work to get books into the world, and it’s written with such consistent passion that it also reminds you why someone would.

Steven W. Beattie at That Shakespearian Rag is at the other end of the food chain, a consumate reader and reviewer of books. I have to admit that I have trouble keeping up when I read that blog, because not only have I not read most of the books under review, I have often not read that reference points to which they are compared, the reviews that Mr. Beattie is in dialogue with, or the awards he is in agreement or dispute with. Sometimes this blog makes me feel dumb, but it is also highly educational, and the writing is interesting and broad enough that you can learn starting from square one if you have to. It’s also sometimes pretty funny, and always well-written, and we both liked *Michael Clayton*.

Both these gentlemen have been commenting on year-end booklists, as I say, and so has my touchstone of the book-reviewing universe, Ms. Clare at Pickle Me This. I would encourage you to read all three and then, if you are like me, strongly consider but not actually get around to finding the actual list somewhere.

I wrote the thesis
RR

October 23rd, 2007

Another harmless addition

Perhaps because my apartment has no hot water, the rain, and having my folded umbrella spontaneously and violently unfold as I got onto the bus, the open end in the face of the startled bus driver, and the handle in the chest of winded me, I am not in a very good mood. And so I will follow on from yesterday’s candy and candy blog post with another website recommendation that chronicles a (fairly) harmless indulgence: television.

When I left home in 1997 and the thinking-man’s sitcom was having a moment in the spotlight (I hear it’s having another one now—true?) Sports Night, News Radio, I heard Fraiser though I never watched that one. I didn’t limit myself to shows that require actual thought, either; I recall being quite a fan of Dharma and Greg for reasons that now escape me. And then there was the cultural heroin that was Friends.

When I moved to Montreal, I was probably seriously addicted to close to a dozen half-hour wonders. Um, I did actually go out of the house in high school, but mainly on weekends, when there was nothing good on.

Possibly because they were blinded by their grief that I was moving to another province, my parents agreed to a lunatic project: they would tape all the shows I would miss (except Friends—no one has ever wanted to endorse my theory that that show is funny) and I would watch them in an orgy of loserdom over Thanksgiving and winter break. This continued into spring term, when they *mailed* me tapes (and homemade brownies, which my brother had individually wrapped in plastic). I can’t remember where I found a VCR to watch them on.

Anyway, quite obviously, this arrangement couldn’t last, and second year or thereabouts, I was on my own. The “favourite shows” list whittled down fast, and I learned to rely on heresay and memory. I can’t remember quite when I discovered Mighty Big TV, but it was a happy day: a website of meticulous tv play-by-plays. I think a lot of people read shows they’ve actually already seen, just for the very funny, sarcastic recappers MBTV employed, but I eventually came to love it as a tv surrogate. I adored The West Wing for years having seen only a couple episodes—-17 pages of recap is just as good, I felt, except I often forgot what the characters looked like.

After I moved to TO, I gave up on tv in both forms, visual and written, until the day Studio 60 came to town (sidenote: are you noticing a certain shared element amongst my favourite shows? Of my favourite *writers* in the world, only Aaron Sorkin writes for a non-print medium) and then I realized my broken tv wasn’t up to the task. I went in search of my old reliable MBTV and found that it was new, bigger and better, and owned by NBC under a different name: Television Without Pity. Still great, still thorough, still snarky. There are no shows that I am addicted to these days, sadly: even ones I like, I just like when I see them, I’m not worried about Liz Lemon’s life falling into disrepair without me. But sometimes it’s just fun to read about tv. I really do love it, just from afar.

Wow, such happy memories of being well-entertained. I feel better. Thanks for reading!

No room at the Holiday Inn
RR

October 22nd, 2007

Liquor is quicker…

but it doesn’t really taste as good as candy.

I gakked this link fromKate—Candy Blog! Reviews of candy! Some of it’s pretty esoteric, but there’s some classics, too; last week there was a review of Reese’s Pieces. But the site doesn’t exactly serve a pracitical puprose in my life: I don’t buy much candy, or any really. I just enjoy the info—I like to know what’s out there, just in case there’s a candy emergency. It’s entertaining, too—the author is a playwright, articulate and amusing in her candy passion.

Instead of “I don’t buy candy” I used to say, “I don’t eat candy,” but that is such a giant lie. No, I do not need my own package of M&Ms, but I wouldn’t mind *one* of yours (a blue one). I haven’t eaten a full-size Mars bar (my favourite) in a million years, but when the workplace Hallowe’en bucket comes out, there’s definitely a fun-size Mars with my name on it. I find that lots of adults, especially women, feel compelled to say, “Candy? Meh, why would I want that?” for fear of looking, I dunno, immature? Fat? But pass around a Pot of Gold box after dinner, and people will study the map is if they are on an archeological dig.

Candy is special.

As a child, I could never go in pursuit of candy (what is walking distance from my house was: corn), and almost never did it come to me. Hallowe’en candy, yes, from approved neighbours and the also whatever my folks bought for our non-existent trick-or-treaters. Also jellybeans and smarties at birthday parties, and candy canes and jellybeans for Christmas (I really like jelly beans), marzipan and strange “jelly slice” candies for Hannukkah, and gelt at all Jewish holidays. Oh, and one real candy bar of whatever variety I wanted for the annual school hike (it was on the packing list, so my folks *had* to get it for me). The hike was held inexplicably in February. You spend 8 hours basically falling down a snowy hill, and your reward was to unwrap your hotdog weiner from its Saran Wrap at campfire, and then either set it on fire or drop it in the coals, and then eat your Caramilk bar in peace.

But that was it–my candy intake for the year. And it’s kind of engrained in me now, candy is special, for special occasions, you can’t just have it whenever. Except my colleague gave me gumdrops and caramels for brace-off last week, and they are right here in my drawer and…

Candy is dandy. And Hallowe’en is soon!

Incidents and accidents / hints and allegations
RR

September 24th, 2007

rob’s clever blog

Rob’s Clever Blog

Another writing/reading/publishing blog I can recommend whole-heartedly is rob mclennan’s blog. He is an Ottawa-based poet and publisher, and in this case putting the geographical location first isn’t a nod to form—he is fiercely pro-Ottawa; he publishes/promotes/pushes Ottawa writers and artists and seems to create a really wonderful community there. However, he is omnivorous and does a fairly exhaustive job of covering all of Canada on his various websites—once, when I ran into him at Future’s, he even mentioned me, which was quite frankly one of the coolest things that ever happened to me.

To say mr. mclennan is prolific is a sizeable understatement—he writes about everything, all the time, and it’s really hard to keep up. That website mentioned above connects to half-a-dozen other ones, including one for his new series, “12 or 20 Questions,” which I am loving since it’s interviews (of certain prescribed lengths, natch) with various Canadian authors. I am *very* nosy about other writers’ process, so I am addicted to those. Anyway, whatever your interests, if you get yourself on the mailing list you can receive an occasional index of what’s going on the blog and elsewhere, which helps keep the reading level manageable. Really, one could make a profession out of *reading* the blog, so I’m not sure how he finds time to *write* it. Fantastic.

Lots of people in your world / but I want to be your boy
RR

September 21st, 2007

Links, Life, Books

You may have noticed that I have been making some small formatting changes on this page: no more big goofy picture (I found a small goofy picture, then remembered that Blogger hates uploading from Macs, so now we have nothing. I’m sure no one cares), no more blogs that are no longer being updated (guys? Where are you? I miss you! Guys?)

To fill in the gap left by my wayward friends, I’m going to do what I promised ages ago, which is provide some illuminating links to people whom I don’t actually know personally. Shocking, I know. We’ll go slow, one at a time.

If you live in Toronto, you probably know about Julie Wilson and her wonderful, high-concept blog, Seen Reading. If you are non-Toronto dwelling or just somehow missed the boat, I think it’s totally worth at least the occasional puruse. I’m gacking the concept from her site in her words, so you can see just how genius the whole thing really is:

WHAT IS SEEN READING?
1. I see you reading.
2. I guesstimate where you are in the book.
3. I trip on over to the bookstore and make a note of the text.
4. I let my imagination rip.
5. Readers become celebrities.
6. People get giddy and buy more books.

Because Wilson generally spots her readers on TTC subways, buses and streetcars, this practice actually combines three of my favourite things (books, transit, fantasies about the lives of strangers). And she’s general a pretty wonderful writer (her Harry Potter post was a tour-de-force), and the people of Toronto pretty wonderful book recommenders, in my opinion. Plus fashion tips!

Ahem. Other things making me happy lately are butterscotch pudding, writing Thursdays with Kerry, and the promise of weekend sloth. Last weekend and the one before were jam-packed with fun and excitement, but a full day of fun is still a full day, and by Monday I was a bit puzzled as to why I didn’t feel at all rested. Couple that with going somewhere or other almost every night this week, you can see why this morning was a wee bit hard. I am in the midst of an enormous coffee right now, but we’ll see how far beyond sunset I get before I just keel over.

Before that, though, I have to dart off to the post office and pick up my exciting book order! Even if ordered online and prepaid via credit card, anything that comes in the mail feels sort of like a present, doesn’t it? And I feel that this book order is sort of a leaf-turning (oh, god, terrible use of metaphor, coffee hasn’t kicked in yet) moment.

Here’s a confession for you: I rarely buy books, and almost never new. Isn’t that terrible? I am a constant reader and writer and believer in supporting writers, but somehow I never equated that with how I got my reading matter. Until last month, I worked in the biggest library in Canada, and regularly passed several others that are quite good. I also work in publishing, where free books are as common as daisies (and just as charming), and have many bookish friends who are happy to lend me things.

And fair enough—those are all legitimate sources of reading material, and up until last month I was fairly poor, anyhow. I think it was good enough that I was talking up the books I read and reading them spine-out on the subway. But writers struggle, especially in Canada but really the world over, and if even those of us who claim to love them *best* aren’t bothering to buy their wares, who will?

So I’m going to buy books. Not everything I read, obviously—the joy of the library is that you can try an author you’ve never heard of or a topic you normally dislike on a wing and a prayer, and if it doesn’t work out, no harm done. I’d be far less experimental in my book choices if I had to back them all up with $25. But anything I’m reasonably confident I’m going to like, and think I’d be proud to own, I think I’ll pay for it from now on.

I’m not saying this is some sort of moral victory, but it feels important to me. I even bought a hardcover, which I loath (these are not designed for transit readers!) Canadian writers forever!

Let’s just skip the boring parts / Chapters one through three
RR

August 17th, 2007

This Linkable Life II

Most websites and even blogs have a link-list of the owner’s favourite and/or most visited sites on the web, sources of news, information, entertainment, pornography, whatever. Other than my personal friends , and publications I’ve been involved with, I have no such list. Not that those lists aren’t content-rich in their own rights–the book reviews at Pickle Me This and music at Idle Tigers are worth your time even if you have no idea how charming Kerry and Ross are personally. And all of the journals there are primarily content purveyors that I am really only marginally involved with. I can spend an amazing amount of time waltzing around The Danforth Review and The New Quarterly especially.

But non-literary, non-personal links? There are zero. I surf for journals and Facebook and email and blogs now. That’s it. It wasn’t always that way. I used to read a lot on the ‘net. I wonder what happened to those sites I used to like, back in the day… (if this were an episode of Scooby-Do, the screen would go wavy now…

In first year university, I got my own computer and whippet-fast internet in residence, and discovered there was more you could do than email and pathetically try to contact your friends in Winnipeg via IRC on *dial-up* (I was an idiot as a kid, ok?) and crash the computer and have your dad yell at you. I found out about websites in 1997. Is that sad?

Anne-Michelle (of no internet presence) recommend Prehensile Tales to me. Their motto was “stories that grab you”–get it? Like prehensile *tails* on monkeys. Ahahaha. Erm. Now, when I check back, the motto is “stories to make you soil yourself,” which, in my opinion, is less funny. The site’s no longer being updated, but the old content is still archived, included much from after I stopped reading, when apparently things were largely given over to critiques of pornography. But the creator, Halcyon, who back in 1997 was just an amusing and oddly hot web designer with too much free time, is now apparently sort of famous. I had no idea! He has his own tv show, Cocky Bastard TV, and billions of websites that this linkable life will not be linking, as they all proliferate off the one above. After following an endless link trail, I eventually got to what Halcyon was up to as of last week, nearly 8 years after I was last paying attention to his words. It’s a weird feeling:

“But with the help of Spotman, John The Grease Angel, GriffinOne, and my Mom, I have adopted and transformed this neglected Winnibago into a pink chariot of love.”

It’s a really weird feeling.

I forget who suggested I might enjoy The Shaaazay Cafe (yep, three As) but they were right. It’s an *NSYNC parody/humour site, which hasn’t been updated since 2004, apparently. It looks like after I stopped reading it went downhill with the departure of KD and WD, the Swedish and Midwestern (respectively) webmistresses and snarkheads.

“4. What worries you most about running an NSYNC humor site?

KD: That I might get bored and lose interest. OR! That people I respect might find out.”

What was I *doing* during undergrad? Not a lot of work, apparently.

Oh, man, it’s just as well I don’t much bother with the web-world now. The lit journals and friends mentioned before refer me to good stuff much of the time and the rest of the time…well, it’s clear I’m not good at making my own decisions. I think I’ll not pursue this trip down memory lane any further, as it is getting embarrassing. People I respect, indeed!

Sweet lady
RR