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.

Heart Beats: Warriors Against Violence

A few years ago, I wrote a song with the ridiculously talented Vancouver musician and community builder Russell Wallace. The song What Shall I Sell? is now available on the benefit CD Heart Beats:Warriors Against Violence. All the proceeds from the CD go to help fund the Warriors Against Violence Society, Family Healing, Violence Prevention, and Youth Services. Email warriors@wavbc.com to order your copy.

God of Missed Connections at the Advent Book Blog

Hey, Neat. God of Missed Connections has been recommended not once, but twice (twice!), on the Advent Book Blog.  

See it Recommended by Angela Rawlings.

See it Recommended by Megan Adam.

Better yet, head on up to my neighbourhood bookstore  People's Co-op Bookstore and buy the book. I spotted two copies there a couple of days ago. Thanks for keeping it in stock, PCB.

And thanks to Sean Cranbury and Julie Wilson for keeping the blog up and running. What a cool idea. I made a little recommendation myself. And one more for good measure!

Happy Holidays!

November/December Report

Okay, I'm checking in to report on my activities this fall. I've been pretty busy, so I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I'd like. So, here goes: My last big readings were at Calgary's WordFest and the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Calgary was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Paliser Hotel downtown and performed at the Vertigo theatre, which is attached to the hotel via a network of underground tunnels. I read with Billeh Nickerson, Alexis O'Hara, Chris Demeanor, Hal Niedzviecki, and Roland Pemberton, and a jazz ensemble directed by Mario Allende. It was a pretty fun reading. Hal gave a visual presentation on his book The Peep Diaries, Alexis O'Hara made a lot of great noise, Billeh read from his new book McPoems, Roland Pemberton read with the jazz trio, and Kris Demeanor surprised me with a great short story about a Ukrainian couple recently relocated to Calgary. His reading was a nice segue from my God of Missed Connections. I was also on a Sex-in-Your-Writing panel with Zoe Whittall, Thomas Trofimuk and Barry Callahan in which I spoke too much and too vehemently about, well, sex—and after the readings in Calgary, we were shuttled out to the Banff Centre for a Poetry Bash hosted by Lorna Crozier. It was the best poetry reading I'd seen in a long time. It was particularly delightful to see Karen Solie read—whom I'd never seen read before—and to meet Shani Mootoo who was my date for the evening, a wonderful writer and a truly delightful person to spend time with. Then I was off to read in Vancouver, the highlight of my year, I think. I read at the Poetry Bash at Performance Works on Granville Island with Robert Bringhurst, Xi Chuan, Carol Anne Duffy, Heather McHugh, and Greg Scofield. It was a real honour for me to read there since I've been going to that event for as long as I can remember and I've seen a lot of great poets on that stage. This night was no exception. The other readers were hilarious and strange and erudite and warm. It was thrilling to read with each of them, so much so I didn't quite know what to say, so I didn't say much. I was so nervous before the reading, I thought I'd pass out. I opened the night with a set from God of Missed Connections with the help of a group of Ukrainian folk singers from Vancouver's premier Ukrainian folk chorus, Zeellia. Special thanks to my singing teacher Beverly Dobrinsky for making that happen. Dearly wish someone had recorded us singing. If you did, please let me know. I'd love to post it. I was particularly thrilled to meet Carol Anne Duffy and Heather McHugh, two poets I admire very much and whom I may never meet again. Wow. OK, that's enough for now. Later.