BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR

"Aunt Mamie Talking About Supper" by Able Parris.

During the sixteen days of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I'll be working nightly with Vancouver writer Alex Leslie on a project we're calling BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR.

BLACKOUT is a site-specific collaborative installation featuring the found visual and process-based works of audience members, artists, and curators of the arts salon at The Candahar. Leslie and I will be on-site, providing the opportunity for our collaborators (that's you) to selectively erase months worth of local and national pre-Olympic news with a bucketful of Sharpies. All poems will be shown during the last few nights of the salon and the best of the blackouts will appear in SubTerrain magazine.

Presentation House Gallery is staging The Candahar at the Playwrights Centre Theatre on Granville Island as "a locus for social interaction and the host site for an ambitious series of nightly events — musical programs, theatrical presentations, and performances. Highlights include an opening intervention and inquiry into the pub itself by Vancouver based artist Rebecca Belmore (Feb 12), presentations by authors Timothy Taylor (Feb 22) and Lee Henderson (Feb 15) musical performances by The Rodney Graham band (Feb 26), Tom Anselmi’s Hello World, (Feb 20), Lisa Marr (Feb 14) and Kevin Schmidt (Feb 27), talks by Nicolaus Schafhausen (Feb 13) and Skeena Reece (Feb 19) a performance by Althea Thauberger (Feb 21) as well as video screenings of Olympic interviews by Nardwuar the Human Serviette (Feb 16 and 23). Evenings are capped by guest DJ’s including Vancouver artists Stan Douglas, Adrian Buitenhaus, Stephen Murray and Tim Lee as well as an Olympic “wrap up” salon with talks by Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickenson, Clint Burnham and Ken Lum among many others. For precise program details and regular updates visit www.presentationhousegall.com beginning February 1. The Candahar is programmed by Vancouver author Michael Turner and invited guests.

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR acknowledges the support of SubTerrain magazine, the City of Vancouver, and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

God of Missed Connections Reviewed in the Toronto Star

Barbara Carey has reviewed God of Missed Connections, alongside John Barton's Hymn, in the Toronto Star.

Vancouver's Best Literary Crawl, Saturday Jan 9

The painting is Michael Morris’ The Problem of Nothing, 1966.

Be like me. Do the best poetry crawl of 2010 (so far). There are three events: 1pm, a talk with the remarkable American poet, Charles Bernstein (you will never hear another poet like this); 3pm, a curatorial talk by Vancouver author Michael Turner for his new gallery show at SFU called to show, to give, to make it be there: Expanded Literary Practices in Vancouver: 1954-1969; 6-8pm follow everything up with an afterparty for the show at Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer's amazing project space, Every Letter in the Alphabet, on Powell street at Victoria. Walked by it last night on the way to the beer and wine. Look for the dream machine in the window. Don't miss it.

Here is the info for all the events. Get in your cars/on the bus/on a bike and just GO.

1: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 1pm: CHARLES BERNSTEIN: Is Art Criticism 50 Years Behind Poetry? Or Aren't You the Kind that Tells? (Introduced by Jacqueline Turner) at ARTSPEAK 233 Carrall Street, Vancouver.

2: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 3pm: OPENING OF “to show, to give, to make it be there”: Expanded Literary Practices in Vancouver: 1954-1969. Where: Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby – the Gallery is in the south side of the AQ in room AQ 3004 – one level below the pond, one above the main mall outside the Library. The opening is 2PM-5PM, with a 3PM tour

3: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 6-8pm: after-party for “to show, to give, to make it be there” at Geoffrey Farmer's project space, Every Letter of the Alphabet, located at 1875 Powell Street (at Victoria Drive) 6PM-8PM. All are welcome.

God of Missed Connections at the Malahat Review

Here's a blurb from a review by Mitchell Parry of the Malahat Review. Refreshingly, you won't find the whole thing online. You'll have to subscribe for which you will receive an actual literary journal in the actual mail.

"There's a confident, edgy humour throughout [this] collection, in spite of the darkness of the subject matter...Bachinsky balances the tone precicely. Her control over form—and her willingness to bend form when necessary—ultimately make God of Missed Connections a deeply moving and tremendously satisfying read."

You'll also find new poems by George Elliott Clarke, Jan Zwicky, Barbara Nickel, and lots of others, as well as reviews of newly released works by Margaret Avison, Robert Bringhurst, David Zieroth, Barry Dempster, and others.