webspametry

Posted on July 23, 2010 by laurie macfayden

you wrote that you looking moped rental and chicago
here you have all what I found:
put down your brush
comet holds the secret to life
after he cheats
cup of tea the answer
why women really love wearing shoes
tori spelling’s dress: sad, limp and purple
how long does meat keep in your fridge?
kim kardashian denies causing stench on airplane
discovery hints at real aliens
my septic guy told me
bad foods that are good
four steps to a better shave
five things never to put in a dishwasher
angelina jolie is turning shiloh into a boy
zombie outbreak likely to lead to collapse of civilization
unless dealt with quickly, university of ottawa students conclude

Frontenac/Dektet poets climbin’ the charts

Posted on May 10, 2010 by laurie macfayden

Pages On Kensington’s (Calgary) Bestseller List

(May 2, 2010)

Original Edition Fiction and Poetry

1. Beatrice and Virgil – Yann Martel

2. Other Family – Joanna Trollope

3. Love Market – Carol Mason

4. Hypoderm – Weyman Chan

5. Children of Ararat – Keith Garebian

6. Fallacies of Motion – William Nichols

7. (Sic) – Nikki Reimer

8. Confessions of an Empty Purse – S. McDonald

9. White Shirt – Laurie MacFayden

10. Solar – Ian McEwan

5 minutes avec chemise blanche

Posted on May 2, 2010 by laurie macfayden

on the nightstand:

outliers by malcolm gladwell; left hook by george bowering

on the iPod:

david gray; emmylou harris; the supremes; abba; kd lang; the fugitives; justin rutledge; kate rusby; laura love; rufus wainwright

what white shirt had for breakfast:

egg, potato, spinach & red bean burrito; two coffees with homo milk

SAY WORD / SAY WHAT?:

‘If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off,
I know that is poetry.’

~ Emily Dickinson

cufflinks of the week:

garlic grilled cheese sandwich at cafe mosaic; raving poets open-mic at the kasbar (wednesday) jocko benoit at greenwoods’ bookshoppe (thursday).

the gospel according to white shirt:

… are you getting any REM sleep, greenland?

(indelirium, page 60)

a white shirt goes with everything

Posted on April 20, 2010 by laurie macfayden

Greetings, poetry lovers. My book White Shirt (Frontenac House; $15.95) is hot off the press and now available for purchase.

White Shirt of the Week

“In this debut collection, best friends scream downhill
on their ten-speed bikes; a tree planter spells out her lover’s name in seedlings; and a mysterious entity
steps out of the mist in Stanley Park. The author
contemplates how best to seduce Joan of Arc
and goes on an abstract-expressionist date with Jackson Pollock.”

Like the white shirt in the title,
these poems are crisp, seductive
and a little bit sweaty.

White Shirt is one of 10 poetry titles selected by blind jury to be part of Dektet 2010, a celebration of Canadian poetry marking the 10th anniversary of Calgary’s Frontenac House publishers.

Please support your local independent bookseller (in Edmonton, Audreys Books, 10702 Jasper Ave; Greenwoods’ Bookshoppe, 7925 104 Street).

If you live further afield, White Shirt and the other Dektet titles may be ordered from the distributor, Alpine Book Peddlers.

Phone: 403-678-2280, (toll free) 866-478-2280
Fax: 403-678-2840, (toll free) 866-978-2840
Email: info@alpinebookpeddlers.ca

It’s also available online via Amazon.

the word on white shirt:

“This is the ‘classic’ hard-drinking, hard-living, gravelly poet’s voice – only it comes from a woman. It’s a bust-out-of-the-closet voice where occasional touchstone rhymes and furious lists score the page. The poems are stripped down, poignant, exact, and as heartily playful as any serious blues.
Here is Sappho crossed with the Supremes.”

— Jury, Dektet 2010

Trofimuk

“Laurie MacFayden is one of my favourite poets. Her poems vibrate with a sensorial precision that never fails to capture … She does what all great writers do – that is, she shines her incredible, unique light on what it is to be human. MacFayden pushes at the darkness with her poetry – she titillates, teases, intrigues and entertains – and I hope she keeps doing it for a very, very long time.”

— thomas trofimuk, author of waiting for columbus

“when i first heard laurie macfayden read in edmonton, it was obvious she was a cut above the pack of poets waiting for their turn to be heard. she’s a drag queen in a pink limousine, journalist of whyte ave. & the two-lane world, an important lady in an important time.”

— c.r. avery, beatbox poet/spoken word artist

poetry immersion 101

Posted on April 10, 2010 by laurie macfayden

it’s national poetry month — and what a month it is!

on april 3, i had the pleasure of sharing the stage with michelle boudreau, mary pinkoski and jasmine whenham at a music & poetry shindig at the axis cafe.

on april 10, edmonton’s raving poets celebrated 10 years of spoken word wonderfulness with a big bash at riverdale hall. i was one of 10 featured readers selected to help represent the decade of debauchery & drinking — two things the RPs have helped define (or is it refine?) over the years.

the highlight for me comes near the end of the month. a year ago my debut poetry manuscript, white shirt, was selected for dektet 2010, a 10-title collection being published this month by frontenac house in celebration of their 10 years of showcasing canadian poetry.

the book is now a reality.

if you’re reading this blog and happen to be in the vicinity, you’re cordially invited to attend the edmonton launch of dektet, featuring white shirt, on tuesday, april 27 at stanley milner library theatre (7 sir winston churchill square) beginning at 7 p.m.

all 10 dektet authors will be there, reading from and signing their books, and all 10 titles will be available for purchase ($15.95 each).

two nights later the dektet festivities continue in calgary (thursday, april 29,
7 p.m., john dutton theatre, macleod trail) in conjunction with the calgary international spoken word festival.

to help promote the dektet collection, i’ve been invited to talk poetry with george bowering, canada’s first poet laureate, during the edmonton poetry festival’s ‘book chat’ at CBC centre stage, city centre mall, on thursday, april 22 starting at noon. this event is not being broadcast live, so if you want a front-row window on the conversation, come on down and be part of the audience. it’s free, and audreys will have a book table set up featuring the works of pofest authors.

the rest of the pofest sked is available here.

spread the word.

p.s. my poem ‘things you need to know before you give yourself to a poet’ appears in the lists edition of the new quarterly (TNQ) literary journal. look for it on magazine stands in early may.

My Canada includes Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Posted on January 19, 2010 by laurie macfayden

Just days after Canada lost poet, novelist and painter P.K. Page at 93, Kate McGarrigle has left us at the far too young age of 63.

Mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright (she used to be married to American folksinger Loudon Wainwright III), Kate is best known as half of Quebec’s beloved folk duo, the McGarrigle Sisters.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle are folk and roots music legends; true Canadian icons (not like Celine Dion or Nickelback, god forbid, but in the manner of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, and, dare I say it, Pierre Trudeau). For three decades they weaved a simple, understated magic with their harmonies and original songs, which have been covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur and Kirsty MacColl.

Kate died at her home Monday in Montreal after fighting sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, since 2006.

“She departed in a haze of song and love surrounded by family and good friends,” Anna posted on the McGarrigles’ website. “She is irreplaceable and we are broken-hearted.”

Count me among the broken-hearted.

Love Over and Over (from the early ’80s album of the same name) has always been one of my absolute favourite songs, its catchy baby baby baby ’til my tongue spirals outta my head … riff impossible to get out of your own head once it’s gleefully inside. One of my top two Edmonton Folk Music Festival workshops (the other being Buffy Sainte-Marie rockin’ out with Mary Gauthier) featured Kate and Anna on Stage 6 with Tom Russell, Nanci Griffith and Greg Brown. Songwriters’ songwriters, every one of them. The afterglow lasted for days.

The unglamourous McGarrigle sisters sang of joy, of sorrow, of driving cab for the Star Cab Company and of eating dinner at the kitchen table. They sang jaunty folksongs in French and English. They sang love is a shiny car / love is a steel guitar / love is the pleasures untold / and for some love is still a band of gold.

I’ll allow that, like Iris Dement, they were a bit of an acquired taste. And just as there are many Canadians out there who have never heard of the remarkable P.K. Page, there are many who will claim to have never heard of Kate & Anna McGarrigle. To them I say, you may not have heard of them, but you’ve definitely heard them.

If you’re Canadian, eh, and of a certain age, you would have heard them providing the delightful vocals on The Log Driver’s Waltz, a song written by Wade Hemsworth and forever engraved on our true north DNA thanks to a three-minute animated National Film Board vignette that got tremendous play on the CBC network in the 1980s. (“For he goes birling down a-down the white water; that’s where the log driver learns to step lightly. It’s birling down, a-down white water; a log driver’s waltz pleases girls completely …”)

To me, Kate and Anna McGarrigle represented the best parts of a Canada that doesn’t exist anymore. A Canada that is polite and proud of it, eclectic, a bit fearless, a bit naive, and still (thankfully) a little untamed; a fair and caring nation, heartbeats accelerating.

I would like to have it back.

And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I’ll rise with it till I rise no more

(Kate McGarrigle, Talk to me of Mendocino, 1975)

20 minutes

Posted on December 5, 2009 by laurie macfayden

Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte.

Killed in a 20-minute war on ‘feminists.’

Lest we forget.

oot and aboot / from the kiwi road less travelled

Posted on May 31, 2009 by laurie macfayden

three reasons why i’ll never be a travel writer:

3.) you need to have an attention span; i had mine surgically removed some years back.

2.) you need to make careful observances about regional landmarks and scenic things, and take lots of notes. i am unable to do those things when i travel. i eat what’s in season, and i drink what’s on tap at the local pub, and i take pictures of visually appealing meals that are plunked down in front of me, and i stare at these most amazing clouds, and i forget the names of almost everything that is shown to me, so that later, when it comes time to write about these things, i can’t remember a thing.

1.) you need to capture the essence of place in your writing, in a way that is compelling and interesting for the reader. being totally self-absorbed, and constantly in search of comfort foods, i tend to capture little but the essence of what’s on the end of my fork at any given time.

that said, what follows is the sum total of the woefully inadequate jottings from my upside-down travel journal, new zealand, 2009.

january 16: finish packing. tidy computer desk. clean basement. leave for auckland, 4 p.m. flight

jan. 17: the lost day

jan. 18: arrived in auckland 5 a.m. it took half an hour to get our bags and another 30 minutes to get through various customs checks. a security beagle sniffed out my cashews, which were missed (ha!) by the spaniel.

lindy’s friend claire met us at the airport and drove us to blockhouse bay road. had coffee/tea and chatted a bit, then went for groceries (to two stores, and still forgot some things, which meant another trip out later in the day.) i slept from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. while lindy and claire went out walking. ate lunch around 2 p.m. — bread, cheese, tomatoes and a nice hummus with jalapeno and lime and even coriander (which was, mercifully, disguised by the jalapeno).

took my camera for a walk for about an hour, and then sat on the back step and stared at claire’s clothesline and garden. dinner was pasta with artichokes, olives, rocket, preserved lemon and haloumi. yummy.

claire and lindy at galbraith's pub, formerly a library

claire and lindy at galbraith's alehouse, formerly a library

jan. 19: woke around 5 a.m. after seven straight hours of sleep. got up at 6 and made coffee. there’s a bit of rain but also lots of blue sky above. to get: coffee. claire took us on a literary tour of auckland / ponsonby / devonport (lunch).

jan 21: gannet colony (takapu refuge) and muriwai beach.

jan. 22: vector arena. leonard cohen concert. 7:30 p.m. awesome. 26 songs, including seven during three encores. (when cohen sang the line, “democracy is coming … to the u.s.a.” — this being two days after barack obama’s inauguration — the entire place erupted.)

jan. 23: women’s weekend at whatipu lodge.

jan. 24: walked two hours up big hill overlooking the water. (ed’s note: see what i mean about lack of attention span? details, macfayden. grab some freakin’ details.)

jan. 25: sick. sore throat and flu-ish. left whatipu (pronouced fa-ti-poo) around 2. stopped for lozenges on the way home. (thank you, claire.)

jan. 26: *mail birthday card to shelley. 7:30 a.m. train to palmerston north — 10 hours. met by maree at 5:30 p.m., then about a half-hour drive to tangimoana. still feel sick. ate supper at 9 p.m. — zucchini soup, potatoes and beans, pasta with zucchini and beets. sabine made me thyme tea with honey for my throat. (thank you, sabine.)

sand dunes at tangimoana

jan. 27: toast and honey for breakfast. walked with lindy to what we thought was the sea, but was in fact the mouth of a very large river. took lots of pictures. had soup for lunch. sabine made a thai curry for supper. still sick.

jan. 28: throat worse. (like i swallowed razorblades.) sabine & maree insisted i see a doctor in palmerston north before we boarded the bus for wellington. am now on penicillin (it’s probably strep). 4 p.m., checked into cambridge hotel, wellington. paid $17.50 for two beers at a bar down the street. had dinner at an indian restaurant.

jan. 29: $2 breakfast special (egg and toast) at the hostel cafe, and another $6.50 for tea and coffee. $4 for a takeaway coffee at a cafe and $2.50 for a lemon-thyme flavoured chocolate for lindy. picked up groceries: almond butter, hummus, yogurt, juice, tea, milk. te papa national museum / shopping for merino wool items on cuba street / willis street / indian supper on courtenay.

pumpkin coconut soup at leafee cafe, wellington

jan. 30: rode the “iconic” wellington cable car to hector’s observatory and the botanical garden. lunch (pumpkin/coconut/curry soup) at leafee on T. road, then more tramping around the botanic garden. supper at one red dog cafe (pasta, salad, beer).

jan. 31: still in wellington. lindy made penne pasta & veg. stirfry for supper in the hostel kitchen, which took over an hour on the world’s most inefficient stovetop.

random notes: wellington has a nifty writers walk along the harbourfront. te papa museum is amazing. went there twice and still didn’t come close to seeing everything. the botanic garden is huge, full of many paths with unclear signage that became very irritating by late afternoon. saw some cool installation art (e.g., white lace and red ribbons on trees) and many more mutant hydrangeas in lovely light blue and lavender colours.

feb. 2: 8:25 a.m. ferry to picton (south island). rough crossing. walked from ferry dock to sequoia hostel on nelson square. then walked back into town to check out cafes, stores, eco-tours, etc. had supper in an indian restaurant. found a nice red pinot noir — mill road hawkes bay 2006. and i generally don’t even like pinot noir, but this one was something to write home about.

feb. 3: this hostel serves free breakfast (toast & jam, coffee, tea) in the mornings and hot chocolate pudding with ice cream every night at 8 p.m. for lunch we cooked penne with swiss chard (called silver beet down here) and garlic. in the afternoon we went on a four-hour eco-tour to the motuara island sanctuary; along the way we saw diving gannets, spotted shags (cormorants), a rare “king” shag, hector’s dolphins and fur seals. on the island we saw a blue penguin chick (in a nesting box). supper was beer and very tasty greek pizza at the slip inn restaurant, where the power kept going off.

feb. 4: (happy birthday shelley b. and kathy s.) rainy day, too wet for another boat tour, so we played scrabble and watched LOTR, part 2, in which the dialogue sucked but the scenery was stunning.

feb. 5: 1 p.m train to kaikoura. quenched our thirst with a monteith’s original on tap, then found a thai restaurant for supper. excellent green curry and veg. pad thai (spelled “pud” thai on the menu). receptionist at dolphin hostel huffy, stuffy and downright rude. toilets are co-ed and smell like pee. room so small we can barely move around the bed; no place to hang clothes or stow our backpacks. we’ll remember this when it comes time to fill out the “backpackers hostel rankings” survey.

Sperm whale tail, Kaikoura

feb. 6: waitangi day / mario’s birthday. train to christchurch didn’t leave til 3:30 p.m. so we had time to go on a mid-day whale-watching tour. saw three sperm whales and a pod of dusky dolphins. took about 300 pictures (culled down to 50). guy on the boat sitting next to me got seasick and puked his guts out. arrived christchurch in early evening. women’s guesthouse has a nice herb garden, spring water, and lots of places for hanging clothes — a concept that is lost on many hostel operators.

feb. 7: christchurch market; mailed postcard to sarah (who has a thing about christchurch).

feb. 8: 8:15 a.m. train to greymouth. global village backpackers hostel = nice, clean, cheery. took their bikes out for a walk. (lindy felt uncomfortable riding on the sidewalk, even though it was sunday afternoon and the place was a ghost town.) 4 p.m. tour of monteith’s brewery. our guide paul was very generous with the pour when it came to sampling the six varieties. 6 p.m. laurie’s now-infamous hostile/hostel meltdown (unsuitable content removed by moderator).

feb. 9: 2 p.m. shuttle van tour to punakaiki / pancake rocks and unco-operative blow hole. walked the truman track through rainforest. took lots of photos. very humid.

feb. 10: train back to christchurch. ate hummus & sprouts sandwiches for lunch on the train; supper was nuts and rice crackers and lots of WINE at the women’s guesthouse. light rain in evening. there are two guineapig mascots at this hostel, named princess and duchess.

feb. 11: laundry day at the guesthouse. while lindy toured yet another museum — or was it another botanic garden? — laurie visited the casino and won $2200 NZ. thank you, pink panther slot machine.

feb. 12: rain. women’s guesthouse overbooked, so we moved a few blocks away to foley towers (NOT fawlty towers). met sabine at the art gallery and took her to lunch at the lotus heart. then went to the paua shell house exhibit at canterbury museum. hilarious kitsch. pizza for supper at the bohemian cafe.

Stones from Birdlings Flat, on the way to Akaroa

feb. 13: 8:40 a.m. bus to akaroa for harbour cruise. cruise ended up being cancelled due to rough seas, so we had lunch (pizza, beer) and stocked up on more merino wool apparel (lindy bought a scarf and gloves and longjohns, and put ALL of them on, because it was so cold that day); laurie got attacked by a flock of vicous red-beaked seagulls.

feb. 14: lunch at the twisted hop; nice pub grub (couscous, roasted vegs) and an outstanding beer sampler. caught a matinee performance of la cage au folles, followed by happy hour (marlborough wine, cheap like borscht!) at a cafe next to the art gallery, followed by valentine’s day supper at lotus heart, followed by email check at an internet cafe. a good heart day.

feb. 15: 7 a.m. train to picton, then 1:10 p.m. ferry to wellington. staying two nights at downtown packpackers hostel.

feb. 16: viewed outstanding “monet and the impressionists” exhibit at te papa. (this was the reason we changed our itinerary and made room for two more nights in wellington. well, that and another lunch at the backbenchers’ pub, home of the best french fries and aioli in the freakin’ salty snack universe!)

feb. 17: 7:25 a.m. train to marton. lunch at the mothered goose cafe in bulls. pasta supper at laura’s (another friend from the gardening email list).

feb.18: 10:25 a.m. train to auckland. arrived at britomart station at 8:30 p.m., one hour late. bumped into claire on the way up from the train at avondale.

feb. 19: auckland. a day of laundry and email.

feb. 20: RAIN. all day. sick (again). claire drove us to thames (“tims”) tonight. we’re spending the weekend at julie and steve’s B&B.

Lunch in the Coromandel at Driving Creek Cafe

feb. 21: still SICK. cold, flu. (bah.) thames market / coromandel town. lunch at the driving creek cafe. rainforest, kauri grove …

feb. 22: lunch at SOLA (voted best cafe in the region). still sick. stopped at bird refuge on the way back to auckland.

feb. 24: bus to rotorua. lunch at the fat dog cafe, home of the world’s most unique veggie burger. after supper (and poking around steaming stinky sulphur holes), had a lovely soak at the polynesian spa (hot springs). sat outside under the stars at the funky green voyageur hostel and ate brie and drank white wine. lots of white wine.

feb. 25: shuttle tour to lady knox geyser, mud pools, various other places full of of geo-thermal wonders whose names i cannot recall. (ed. says: wai-o-tapu, waimangu, you idiot.)

Laurie on the boat to Motuihe Island

feb. 26: bus back to auckland.

feb. 27: claire’s birthday. small celebration with cake at home, then out to dinner at an indian restaurant.

feb. 28: were supposed to go to mangawhai but will now stay in auckland. (nice to stay in one place and just hang out, after so much travelling about.)

march 4: buy tim tams. pack. afternoon boat cruise to motuihe island, to take part in a special release of 18 kakariki (red-crowned parakeets) into the wild. fabulous way to spend our final day in auckland.

march 5: 7:30 p.m. return flight to edmonton, via san francisco.

(at this rate i should have the paris trip bloggage posted by august.)