BOOKS ACROSS YOUR FACE

Why not listen to Vancouver and Toronto authors and book activists, Dina Del Bucchia and Nathaniel G. Moore, in the pilot episode of their new podcast, Books Across Your Face! In this episode they discuss Sasha Grey, The Myth of Book Trailers, literary life in Vancouver and Toronto, plus engage in general chit-chat about a whole bunch of things you could hope for in a podcast about books in Canada. Bonus: Mr. Moore reads poems by Liz Worth.

JUNE 19th 2012 ART BAR POETRY READING TORONTO

In my first reading in nearly two years in Toronto, I am pleased to say I'm reading at the Art Bar for at least 20 minutes. Poetry. I will also be reading work from those I admire including: New Order, Spencer Gordon, Liz Worth, Morrissey, Daniel Scott Tysdal, Damian Rogers and Jean Genet.

Notho will make you

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

I had lunch with my mom to discuss the finer details of my novel I'm selling to the highest bidder about our life together. "So it's about you and your family," my mom said. "Yes. Structured like a fan's dream box set of New Order songs, like as if me and Bernard Sumner went through the book and chose songs together." She likes the idea and thinks the end is very emotional. "You won't top that," my mom said. I told her she was recently voted most influential person of all time in my life and she said "you mean least influential," and I said "No way. There was some competition but you really won."

LIFE IS ABOUT LOSING EVERYTHING

“GO STUDY A COPY OF VILLAINELLE” – Eminem, 2012 Click here too! If it was up to me You muthafuckas would stop comin up to me With your hands out lookin up to me Like you want somethin free When my last cd was out you wasn't bumpin me But now that I got this little company Everybody wanna come to me like it was some disease But you won't get a crumb from me Cause I'm from the streets of Compton I told em all All them little gangstas Who you think helped mold 'em all Now you wanna run around and talk about guns Like I ain't got none What you think I sold 'em all Cause I stay well off Now all I get is hate mail all day sayin' Dre fell off What, cause I been in the lab with a pen and a pad Tryna get this damn label off I ain't havin that This is the millenium of Aftermath It ain't gonna be nothin after that So give me one more platinum plaque and fuck rap You can have it back So where's all the mad rappers at It's like a jungle in this habitat But all you savage cats Knew that I was strapped with gats When you were cuddled with cabbage patch

savage

Left Scarcasm Right Ames To Kill Death Track Dolls montreal

LIES WITH OCCASIONAL TRUTH

It was Lies With Occasional Truth that actually got me back into writing Savage in 2008. I can't remember if I had a draft of the book or even considered it a book back then, perhaps in mid-2007 I had started a family type story that jumped around a lot through the 1980s and 1990s with a lot of wrestling jargon in it.

Then Lies asked if I had anything along the lines of Randy Savage's Moustache the 2003 piece from Career Suicide! This was the same weekend of the Throwdown in Ottawa I think, so I started polishing the Elizabeth chapter, which, though condensed, resides now in the final 90,000 word novel Savage 1986-2010.

Savage was tough to write back then, and their encouragement lit a fire under me to at least try and come up with that type of voice or intent one more time.

For Nathaniel G. Moore history month, this is Nathaniel G. Moore

For more on the completed manuscript Savage, click here.

JESSICA BUNDY

Tightrope Books is very pleased to announce Toronto singer Jessica Bundy will be playing sets in between readings at select Tightrope Books spring launches. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, why not check her out on soundcloud
http://soundcloud.com/jessica-bundy

POETRY MONTH CONTEST

Leave a comment of your scariest poetry moment ever! And win some poetry books!

A scary encounter, scary reading, terrifying line break.

Dear Notho,

OKAY so here is what scares me the most! Non featured poetry readings in the category of amateur. Now I'm all for amateur drinking, porn and cosmetic surgery, but I draw the line at poetry! OKAY, here’s where I start to get raging with open mics. I do think it is important for people to be encouraged around and bring their poetry limbs out for me to chainsaw into bits and made to feel safe in presenting it to me though ultimately I will reject and suppress their ambition and make them feel weird unless they are a youngish girl who I can somehow exploit then leave at the bus station confused with her manuscript in tears but where does the quality of writing come in to be a factor for survival and me not murdering these amateurs with my rage? What I see happen at the amateur level is that everyone gets wild apple sauce ovations. In fact, sometimes the most inexperienced writer gets mad props yo and the most applause when the applause and power and love and shoulder hoists should go directly to me as I am the white wizard and chainsaw poetry monster who invented poetry. Is it possible that open mics reward bad people whose work should be, along with them, cut by my hateful chainsaw of hate?"

from Charles Mansfield


Get creative.

Or scary!

Winner announced May 1st.

Robocall Scandal, Katy Perry and your rights to knowledge

The Robocall scandal here in Canada is affecting everyone in different ways.

As reported earlier last year on this blog, early reports of a Robocop prequel or Robocop 4 being in pre or early childcare production came to a close when it was revealed Katy Perry would not be involved.

News services nation wide are sharing the national concern with anyone who will listen or read.

LISTEN TO A SONG ABOUT KATY and ROBOCOP written sung and performed by NOTHO


"The unnamed individual behind misleading 'robocalls' during the last federal election misdirected 5,053 voters in Guelph, Ont.'s 519 area code, but also called 74 people in suburban Toronto's 905 area code, 35 people in Toronto's 416, 22 in the 705 area of northern Ontario, 14 in 613 — which includes Kingston and Ottawa — and one person in Thunder Bay, the Post's John Ivison reported on Friday."

It has been reported via a clip about movies that are coming out with a guy with a British accent, that Russel Crowe will be playing the part of Robocop in the franchise reboot. And Katy Perry will be doing a 3D film about herself singing on stage in front of fans for an extended period of time.

If she would simply sign on to my production of Robocop and sing on the soundtrack, it would be the greatest Rom-Com since There's Something About Mary.

Fans can get the final word on Katy Perry, Robocall scandal, Robocop and more when the script is published in THIS IS THE ZODIAC SPEAKING.

The closest we'll get to Robocop and Katy Perry it seems is her video about being a space girl.

It is odd how much stuff comes up when you google these two. (ROBOCOP and KATY PERRY)

THIS IS THE ZODIAC SPEAKING (a book) NATHANIEL G MOORE

Fusing my own interest in public spamming and persona and male terror, I want to do a series of mock Zodiac Killer letters, poems and messages, entirely linked together in narrative and voice from the POV of the Zodiac serial killer’s original sardonic, ocassionaly infantile yet sincere tone. However, unlike the actual Zodiac, my voice does not play out an endorsement of violence, nor does it recall acts of violence. I don’t harm anyone physically anywhere in the book, nor do I glorify violence in any capacity. Why do we use violent language to describe momentary episodes of anger, frustration, even love? It's tone over persona, it's voice over experiment in this new collection of epistolary poetry that extracts the violent images and acts from the Zodiac killings and repurposes them to a more general anxiety rooted in rant culture, in tangents, anger issues and luke-warm psychological horrors of the human experience. Written in deadpan desperation and the unabashed form of the old-fashioned hand written letter, This Is The Zodiac Speaking is post-appropriation, inter-connected missives and diatribes, a chain-linked, chain-mail letter culled from one's own private stash of communications, remixes and other lexical secrets. Tone is heightened by dissolving the traditional barriers of first person dialogue exchanges we take for granted in live speech or correspondence into one chorus of self. Divided up in four parts (Vallejo Situational Comedy, The Film Buff, Barista Celebrity Gossip Foreplay and Club Soda). In Vallejo Situational Comedy rage banquets are confessed, re-enacted blow for blow as The Zodiac and girlfriend Ione Skye relive their bad news boozing affair in the unofficial sequel to the 1989 romance film Say Anything. This nightmare overshare leads to section two, The Film Buff, where The Zodiac abandons humanity for a few pages and reviews a series of dystopic post-modern films including Robocop, Planet of the Apes, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Exoricst and Friday The 13th part 2 and 3 as well as other award-winning productions. Trying to connect to a younger generation in Barista Celebrity Gossip Foreplay, The Zodiac discusses Katy Perry, Marky Mark, George Michael, Chris Issak and The Beatles to any barista who will listen, while in the final section of the book, Club Soda, The Zodiac attempts to comprehend his distorted world view and confronts former child-star and dimming best friend Kerry Segal who has abandoned her glossy roots to study mid-wifery, performance therapy, and tree envy. The final days of their friendship is mulledover by casual and disenfranchised gaze of Kerry, the penultimate wayward old friend who can't crack the Zodiac's code --but more importantly, doesn't really want to. We make pop culture such a stigma, but isn’t your childhood best friend just a big a part of pop culture as R2D2? The way we covet these people in our lives, part of our daily intake of thoughts, our caloric self? Our changing views on said properties, our subjective evaluation, exploited for all to witness. Those who will read it, believe it, listen to that voice.

American Apparel Does Canadian Literature

ORDER TODAY!

OUR MONSTROUS LOVE (KATY PERRY)

Katy is obsessed with 2001's PLANET OF THE APES She loves Marky Marky yo.

KATY NOT AT TEEN AWARDS THIS YEAR

she canceled her appearance as she just broke up with her husband. feel better katy dont be so maudlin.

2011 in Review: WE WERE BORN TO DIET

Raymi The Minx, Lohan Leak, White House Studio Project, Randy Savage, Katy Perry, Telekenis, Lana Del Rey, Wheatus, Saving Gigi, Ferno House, Little Scream top Critical Crushes Year In Review




THE BANDS, BOOKS, ART SHOWS & MOVEMENTS THAT DEFINED THE YEAR

2011 is now a footnote in the annals of time and space. It was a strange ride for me, almost getting the swimsuit issue of Descant up and running (they said it could happen in 2015, no joke) I curated an art show, emailed people 265,331 times, made new friends in the Calgary, got banned from the worst bar in Toronto (Ciros) and finished Savage the novel. I was really into Lana Del Rey in June and she even tweeted to me when I said some comment to her about her video, this was before she was really big I guess and was stalking me.

The year began with an interview with Wheatus. It was an insightful and memorable time.

I saw Little Scream in concert at her Toronto launch for The Golden Record which is quite brilliant and super if you are into really good progressive poem pop pixie charm. -- Maybe the word pixie is over now. Maybe she is post-pixie, maybe she’s more gypsy than pixie. Watch out guys. Dreamy colours run right through.

My Verbicide interview with Screamy here.

Anyway check her out she is the bomb. Speaking of bombs, Katy Perry won an award for being the best person ever! She had 5 #1 hits from Teenage Dream (American Music Award made up a prize just for her at the awards show a few weeks ago) proving that pop is still king and that its okay to have fun in music and move around and not take things to seriously. That’s what Canadian poetry is for.

Speaking of which why not read Jacob McArthur Mooney's second poetry collection Folk or the entire 2011 collection from Ferno House including Spencer Gordon, Liz Howard and David Brock. These are limited edition chapbooks (Ferno) so get them while you can.

Telekenis was my favourite new band this year. My friend Ghostfaced Knitter described the sound as the perfect band to hoolah-hoop to. Doubt it? Listen to this.

Lindsay Lohan was naked a lot. My friend Kyra did a short film with her. For real. She also worked with Franco I think. Man does anyone care about him anymore? Art now is just about showing up and telling the people "Ya, ya, I'll do something. Do you have a website? Twitter?"

Toronto / London artist Alison Honey had some nice things to say about her favourite exhibits this year, exhibits that continue into bits of 2012. “The two exhibitions I attended this year that were by far and away my favorite were: Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at The British Museum and Miracles and Charms at the Welcome Collection (part of the Welcome Trust). The exhibition is composed of two separate shows - Infinitas Gracias: Mexican miracle paintings and Felicity Powell - Charmed Life: The solace of objects.” Honey says both exhibitions are thought provoking and inspiritational and both run til mid-February. “So anyone lucky enough to be in London should make seeing those two shows a top priority!”

"I am already over Lana Del Rey," Raymi The Minx says, and I sort of agree with her, not just cos she wouldn't do an interview with me. Vanessa at Saving Gigi does a great five second version of Video Game, ask for it next time you are there. I went to Raymi's garage sale in the summer in between senseless barbecues.

Though Vanessa might have competition in the humour category of Lana covers. My friend from Germany Julianna made this.

I made my own tabloid version of Video Games by Lana here, (me and Amy are at the 5 through 8 second mark)

Did you guys know that Saving Gigi is now liscensed? It's pretty cozy and they have special Gigi night food too.

The Minx says it was a busy year, she liked Rule of the Bone book-wise, and says when she's writing or "creating something amazing or performing" she feels tops.

"La Vie En Rose (in several versions, Empire Ants, The High Road, Man Down by Rihanna and the Diet Coke Tiff Party were also highlights for Raymi.

Read more about my Raymi and blog women adventures here.

I jogged with Christine Estima my sassy blogging novelist friend.

My Randy Savage art show was the only good thing that happened to me this year and I hope that in 2012 something better happens. Thanks to Adam and Xenia and especially Vanessa at White House Studios for all their fine work. And Anisa Cameron for her great song and energy and coming all the way from Montreal to perform!

Remember when I was on television?!Remember that time Geoffrey and Tibi pretended they were ten years younger than they are and morphed into international tennis stars from 31 years ago?

Holy Crap he's Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains.

I saw Geoff and said that Kirk Cameron's childhood was looking for his leather jacket. Anyway I like Kirk Cameron and his religious values, at least he has something to think about. Maybe Pugen's Utopics can be revisited with Kirk Cameron at the helm as some sort of Antagonist. Speaking of Lynn Coady OMG. Did you know she liked my Canadian Poets postcard where the guy has a chainsaw and it says CANADIAN POETS are always angry about something? Her book The Antagonist is excellent.

Though again Pugen he looks a lot older than the teen heart throb from season one in 1986. Perhaps he should wear make up for some of these no frills middle class recreations or use his own photoshop potions on his aging face. We are all getting old, someone from Germany commented on my wrinkles yesterday. There is no escape.

Pugen's art is becoming Halloween or something. Post-appropriation I guess. The death of the self. The self that never was. In 1991 I did Jacques Plante, Han Solo and Randy Savage drag.

When Penguin or Anansi or Random House publish Savage in 2014, you can watch these VHS classics with me and Lisa Moore and Claudia Dey and Zsuzi Gartner I enjoyed her book a lot.

Remember when I was awkward?

Maybe art is just an event or a planning meeting that is over, and like my Savage show, the death of art perhaps in its totality.

Maybe its just about what you can get away with the production of the art as the art itself; post context. One can just google the reference and comprehend its social impact and perhaps contextualize it for their own generation. So yeah, Pugen has another show in January. That's like five in about a year? That is a lot. The first one of 2011 I believe was the one I helped write: Sahara Sahara.

But I find it fun that Pugen and I both went from trying to build our own worlds (Utopics, Bowlbrawl) to just becoming American white culture fanboys. There is something extremely offensive about the work, that it assumes a narcisms when no one asked for it. It's male privilege and aggressive and morbid all at once. Gratuitous and self-obsessed, cocky, white, banal and aimless. Yet the self as phantom, so the obsession is a vortex.

However, no one asked for these portents.

Of course I was George Michael in 2007, before my career was destroyed by God's anger. George covered a New Order song for charity this year. Man that seems years ago.

Art on the internet vs books on the internet. Think about it. When you see art on a blog or written up somewhere it is replicated once again. Is digital art ever touched? If a jpeg of art is uploaded onto a blog but no one sees it is it still art?

And think about dancing and writing the next time you think.

Remember when I put the books in the clothing stores and took half an hour to explain it?

Maybe Katy Perry is the most retarded singer ever and I just have no fucking life. Some one take me on a vacation or pay me to write please I'm going insane.

Here are some popular posts not necessarily from 2011.

Follow NOTHO on Twitter!

MORE PICS FROM SAVAGE ART SHOW NOVEMBER 12

MORE RANDY SAVAGE ART SHOW INCLUDING VIDEOS AND REVIEWS HERE