Career Limiting Moves: Fred Wah and Margaret Christakos at Emily Carr

Friday, September 26, 2008

Fred Wah and Margaret Christakos at Emily Carr

6 comments:

Evie Christie said...: umm thanks for posting this?; September 26, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Zachariah Wells said...: Hey, no one's making you listen to it!; September 26, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Anonymous said...: We've never met, I don't believe; interesting that you recorded the evening for yourself, not sure why you would have done that and posted it with a snide comment attached to it. Apparently you think my work is crap; opinion noted.

Also, regret you didn't introduce yourself to me so I could have had the opportunity to put you together with your critical print voice, which I quite appreciate in its many venues and insights.

Cheers,
Margaret Christakos; September 26, 2008 at 10:10 PM
Zachariah Wells said...: No, Ms. Christakos, we haven't met, tho I think you and your family were travelling to Bathurst or somewhere in the vicinity on a train I was working a few years ago. Est-ce possible?

I wouldn't say that I think you're work's crap, altho you're forgiven for thinking so, based on my churlish one-liner. It's true that not much of what you read at Emily Carr jingled my bells--tho I do think you read very well--but I quite like "Queen," "Andalou" and, especially, "What Stirs."

I went to the reading largely because I was reading the book. I recorded it and posted it because that's something I do around here, regardless of how I personally feel about a given reading. I didn't introduce myself because that's not something I generally do. Also I've been made to feel unwelcome at KSW events I've attended in the past, which doesn't particularly make me inclined to say hi. No doubt this is merely neurotic of me, but hey ain't we all?

I didn't like Fred Wah's reading at all (most of it felt like the attenuated fiddlings of someone too comfy in his station as admired-senior-poet-mentor-to-many); coming first as it did, it probably coloured your reading for me. There wasn't much time to cleanse the palate in between, as it were.

Thanks for stopping in, and apologies for any offense given and taken. I've deleted the line, which was none too bright in the first place.; September 26, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Morning Zachariah, thanks for your response; I appreciate your taking the time to fill in the picture for me as it does not seem your intentions were so negative after all. This reading was the second I'd given from this brand new book, and I am happy to be able to hear it aloud. I was selecting work in part for the perspective of the visual art class in attendance there. The night before at UBC I read a completely different selection, and I'm looking forward to shaping other readings for various publics. I find that process kind of interesting; I hate doing the same reading twice. I hope you won't mind if I refer people to this recording? It's possible Coach House could put a link on their page to the file--would that be okay with you?

Yes, that was an overnight train from Chancy to Bathurst, on a trip I took with my family to Nova Scotia one summer. We don't drive so we tried to have a rather extended trip across half the country anyway, and the whole thing was magical. Do you work onboard the trains still?

Thanks for coming to the reading. I hope we'll meet at some event in the future. Regards and respect.
Margaret; September 27, 2008 at 7:44 AM
Zachariah Wells said...: I'm in my fifth year working on the railroad, my second on the Canadian, running between Vancouver and Winnipeg. It's as good a dayjob as a grad school dropout's apt to find.

No need to link to post, tho you're free to do so, of course. This isn't a private space and the recorded voice is yours after all. The player on the post is an embedded link from archive.org. You or CHB can link directly to that page if you like.

I hear what you're saying about doing different readings, particularly from a new book, tho I don't think there's much of a need to tailor readings to one demographic cohort or another. I've been told in the past I should use fewer 4-letter words when there are blue-haired ladies present, but I think they can handle it.

As far as the matter of poets and painters goes, I got a kick out of an exchange I once had with my painter uncle, who was friends with John Newlove and still is friends William Hawkins, in which he asked: "Do you like other poets? I've always enjoyed hanging out with poets. But I can't stand painters."

Cheers,
Z; September 27, 2008 at 7:59 AM

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