another christmas in old glengarry

Very little blogging lately, since I’m full-time finishing Ottawa: The Unknown City for Arsenal Pulp Press [see my previous post on such here]; the book is scheduled for fall 2007, so I actually have to be finishing the thing in January or February. Anything you might know out there that I should be putting in?

Saw the coolest documentary last night, "the real intrepid,"about the Winnipeg native (yes!) who became the most important spy between Britain, Canada and the United States, working during the Second World War (Churchill code-named him "Intrepid"), saving Igor Gouzenko when no one else would, and finally retiring to the Bahamas, where his neighbour Ian Fleming used him as the basis and influence for the James Bond novels. What the hell? A guy from Winnipeg? Also saw our regular routine, my mother & I, of watching Jay Thomas knock (or try to; Dave actually got it this year) the meat ball off the Eiffel Tower at the top of David Letterman’s Christmas tree (after the Lone Ranger story & Paul’s bad Cher impression). It’s been at least five years now, watching that with my mother. This is probably the first year I remembered in advance.

I recently found my copy of the certificate from The Ottawa Citizen, proof that I survived the record snow-fall in Ottawa (etcetera) on March 21, 1971 (I was a year & a week old at the time). Apparely my mother’s father got a stack of them for us, since he was celebrating his 25th year as a line type operator & mechanic at the paper around then. I don’t remember the snow (but I do remember the ice we had a few years later for Christmas: 1974, maybe?), but I’ve had this thing around (obviously) for years (& haven’t even lost it yet). Working to find out more information from the newspaper on such; was there an equivalent from the ice storm? Also, apparently, my book needs more "wierd murders"and other such that you’d never find in newspapers or other more polite city-related materials; something the other books have that mine so far lacks. Suggestions?

I’m not entirely sure why Sina Queyras is talking about shutting down her blog, but I feel a loss at the idea. I would not like her to stop it; one of the few I read regularly & get plenty out of. But how to respond otherwise? & did you see this neat bit that a rawlings wrote, responding to a poem of mine?

Today dropped some copies of Clare’s novel at Second Time Around Books in Alexandria; hopefully we can get some sold that way. Apparently they’ve been selling a few of my poetry books since I was there last! What the?

Stephen Brockwell recently gave me a cd of a pile of photographs from our various trips over the past couple of years (I'll post some soon, when I'm not on my father's eastern Ontario dial-up), including of some of our (more polite, ahem) adventures in New York City with Clare Latremouille launching groundswell: the best of above/ground press 1993-2003 (why only the one photo from such?) [see my post from such here], Toronto in 2004 (the second of two combined ECW/Talon launches we were involved in), England & Wales in August/September of this year, & Prince George in early November. Why are so many of them blurry? I would be terrible at filming porn with this unsteady hand...

Before I left Ottawa, a visit briefly with Priscila Uppal & Chris Doda (Toronto); when I get back, Kate Van Dusen (Toronto) & possibly even Jason Wiens (Calgary). Hopefully back to regularly scheduled programming in a couple of weeks; going through the new Dennis Cooley, for example...

& then at the end of the day today, Kate & I saved Christmas again.