I've been engaged and excited by the discussion we've been having this week on gentrification, neighborhoods and the inevitability of change. But the week is coming to close (tomorrow will be my last posting) and I'm not sure how much more I have to say (for now) on the subject. So instead, here's a list of cool Toronto stuff I want everyone to know about, check out etc. Feel free to post your own picks, advice, and cultural commentary. And, as usual, don't hesitate to tell me how wrong I am.
* Friendly Rich: We Need a New F-Word - The very weird and very fabulous Friend Rich has released, with his band The Lollipop People, a new CD. I missed the release last week, curses!, but I am totally digging this work. People, get your hands on We Need A New F-Word. Surreal carnival music with understated musicality and indie sensibility, this is Friendly finally reining in his excesses in order to showcase the quirky lyricism that makes him such a talent. Songs like the Ballad of George Chuvalo can be heard via MP3 at friendlyrich.com. Also Friendly and band are doing a monthly showcase at the Lula Lounge lulalounge.catill further notice.
*Nathaniel G. Moore's Bowl Brawl - Just finished reading this local writer's phantasmagoria of bowling/wrestling madness. Inventive half documentary style complements a narrative that revolves around the meglomaniacal rise and fall of a man whose goal is to kill bowling once and for all. Though it lags a bit toward the end, this is one funny book - a mockumentary not-quite-satire about a sport that, thankfully, will never be. Buy the book, order the DVD?? and view the extras at the phenomenal bowlbrawl.com
*Kathryn Ruppert-Dazai's The Conversationalist - I'm a big fan of Ruppert-Dazai's knitted paintings. How can a painting be knitted? Well, picture a homemade sweater stretched on a canvass. Only instead of the reindeers, Ruppert stitches in free floating vaguely anthropomorphic creatures engaged in soulful dialogue with a remarkably evocative textured landscape. Ruppert-Dazai is a story-teller who uses yarn on canvass as her medium. She's showing new work which can be seen at Archive Inc. Gallery archive gallery the Loft, 300 King Street East, and doing an artist talk at that location this Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006, 3-5pm.
* Broken Pencil #30 - Yeah, okay, this is the magazine I publish. Still, we have a great new issue just out on indie culture vs. the day job. Features, among many things, a tribute to the comic artist Ryan Carriere who died in a bike accident this fall plus notes on Sherwin Tija's mini-CD set "Listen to My Friends Masturbate" and 60 or so pages of the best in indie culture. Check us out at broken pencil magazine
*And, finally, since I'm already knee deep in self promotion, I'm launching the paperback edition of my novel The Program this Sunday Feb. 26, 2006
7:30 pm - upstairs at This Ain't The Rosedale Library Bookstore, 483 Church Street, Toronto. I'll be reading with Lee Gowan (The Last Cowboy). This will be a great event. Refreshments will be provided and I'll be sporting a bottle of whiskey for the enjoyment of all...this is part of the Fictitious reading series put on by the great writer Stuart Ross . Each installment features substantial readings by two fiction writers, plus an “onstage” chat. Hey Toronto, why not come out and yell at me in person? See ya there...
For more on my books, to read excerpts and reviews, visit my website Smell It