civilization

I am back in the city, back to revising my thesis and working on poems. These next few weeks are going to be busy. This Friday and Saturday ( March 2 & 3) is the Talking Fresh conference at the McKenzie art gallery. It's focusing on writers whose work has gone on to be adapted into film. Here's the titles of the Saturday panels:

9:00 - 10:15 a.m. Alison Pick: "Uncertain Gifts: One Writer's Take on Being Optioned for Film"
10:30 - 11:45 a.m. Gail Bowen: "The Cheques Always Cleared: A Novelist's Adventures in the Amazing World of TV production"
Lunch on your own
1:30 - 2:45 p.m. Nino Ricci: "How I Sold My Soul to Sophia Loren: The Sequel"
3:00 - 4:15 p.m. Karen Walton: "Adaptables: the difference between Translation to Screens versus Adaptation"

I think these all look really interesting--the world of TV and film adaptation is something I've not considered.. I'm looking forward to learning a lot. "The Cheques always cleared" gave me a bit of a laugh.

Then on Wednesday March 7th I am performing with Combat Improv at the exchange. We're doing a set of soap opera scenes.

On Thursday March 8 is a Celebration of the Arts for International Women's Day at the Artesian. This is a fundraiser for Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan and tickets are through donation. I will be reading some poems with some other women poets.

On Friday and Saturday March 9th and 10th is our pop culture conference, Trash Talking, organized by U of R English students. I am excited for the Friday Night reading at Luther College Room 100 (Thorn Hall). This reading is featuring Jeramy Dodds, Kelly-Anne Riess and Coby Stephenson. Tickets are available at the door.

The next morning, March 9th, I am reading a short story alongside Devin Pacholik and Coby Stephenson. Our panel, "Ram My Interface, Click My Search Box" is focusing on the Internet.. stories about youtube, dating websites, and chat roulette. I hope some good discussion comes out of it.

Wow--writing it all out it looks really overwhelming. As someone who enjoys spending time alone in my apartment, I am sort of nervous for so much activity. Hopefully I can get through it all with ease.

In other news I am mulling over some riddles found in Jacob McArthur Mooney's Folk. These riddles are inspired by Mary Dalton's riddles found in Red Ledger. While Dalton's riddles described natural objects surrounding the sea, Mooney's riddles describe objects of contemporary technology found in Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Given that Folk explores the 1998 Swissair Nova Scotia crash, Mooney's airport riddles seem to riddle in an existential sense as well. The first riddle begins: "The utmost alter / of the technocrat religion. Believe in me. / You'll have to. Wait and I'll wink you / Onto land" (61). This poem seems to describe the faith airport passengers place on runway lighting (I think), to bring them onto land, guide them in the dark. A frightening juxtaposition to the reality of the 1998 crash. The other riddles might describe an escalator, a metal detector, one I haven't solved.. I will have to give these more thought. They are really lovely poems that capture our enigmatic encounters with the world of material things.