18 March 2011

St Paddy's Day on Crescent Street

St Paddy's day on Crescent street
if your judgement fails
then you're DONE

done like that scrawny guy
the bouncer pushed him against the wall
he was starting shit
but then they gave him shit
and he was kicked out
his eyes bugging out of his scrawny shell

done like that girl
who sat beside me and who couldn't believe that
most people in montreal speak two languages
she showed me her fake ID
the picture on the card looked like a plastic doll
she said "doesn't it look like me?"
then she left without paying for her drink

done like that guy
who told my african friend that she was beautiful
then asked if her hair was real
he was grotesquely muscular
he was wearing a shirt that read "IRON MAN"

done like the girl
who was lying on the wet concrete
she was shrieking incomprehensibly
all her friends were standing around her worried
i went to feel a pulse, then the EMS came
she was only wearing one shoe

Then i went home in a cab
both me and the cabbie agreed
that their parents would be very disappointed
if they knew

Matrix Magazine/Pop Montreal Litpop Competition!!!




The 2011 Litpop Awards Competition is now open!

Enjoy the dirty glamour of rock stardom, combined with the cultural capital of literary esteem. Enter the 2011 Matrix Magazine/Pop Montreal Litpop Awards! Now with a new category of Creative Non-Fiction!

The Pop Montreal International Music Festival and Matrix Magazine have once again teamed up to bring you Canada’s most innovative and exciting literary competition. We are looking for the most unique and original voices in North American writing. So if you’re an emerging poet, essay writer, or short story writer, it’s time to prove it! If you have what it takes, you will get your work published in Matrix, and get free travel to Pop Montreal for a night in your honour.

Just send your work in for consideration by June 20. Three winners, one from each category of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction will receive a round-trip ticket to Pop Montreal from September 21-25, 2011, a VIP pass to the Pop Montreal Festival, free accommodation at a bed and breakfast, fall publication in Matrix Magazine with full honorarium, and presentation at a special Matrix Litpop event during the festival.

The deadline for all submissions is June 20. Winners will be notified in August. Poets are asked to send no more than 5 poems; fiction and non-fiction writers should send stories of no more than 3000 words. Each entry is 25$ and entries and entry fees should be mailed to Matrix Publications, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., LB 658, Montreal QC, H3G 1M8. Cheques or money orders should be made out to “Matrix Publications.” Multiple entries are welcome. Entries can also be emailed to litpop2011@gmail.com and will be considered valid once payment is verified. Full contest rules and regulations can be found at popmontreal.com and matrixmagazine.org.

The CREATIVE NON-FICTION judge is John K. Samson, the acclaimed singer and songwriter for indie rock band The Weakerthans. The band's most recent studio release Reunion Tour garnered praise from an assortment of publications. He has published poetry and essays in Matrix and Maisonneuve. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he's also the managing editor Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

The POETRY judge is Mike Spry, the author of the poetry collection JACK which was shortlisted for the Quebec Writers' Federation A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. He is the author of the forthcoming short story collection Distillery Songs. He lives in Montreal.

The FICTION judge Katrina Best is originally from the U.K. and now lives in Montreal, where she works as a story editor, screenwriter, and script analyst. Her debut collection of short fiction, Bird Eat Bird, is a regional Commonwealth Prize winner and a finalist for the Commonwealth Prize for best first book.

14 March 2011

Milo Magazine-- Renemaphone, Druni, and Sarah





Found this in an old email to myself, c. 2006. Remember Milo Magazine, the one who published the "Chicken of God" article? Run by Catherine Toews who was an art student at U of M at the time? Anyway, they had a section each issue profiling someone's living space, and here's the piece I did about Renemaphone, Druni, and Sarah D. I think this was their apt right near the Corydon Village.

If you click on the images you can see them much better...

09 March 2011

art: sacrifice and risk

From the book I and Thou by Martin Buber - a lovely little tome.

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'This is the eternal origin of art that a human being confronts a form that wants to become a work through him. Not a figment of his soul but something that appears to the soul and demands the soul's creative power. What is required is a deed that a man does with his whole being: if he commits it and speaks with his being the basic word to the form that appears, then the creative power is released and the work comes into being.

The deed involves a sacrifice and a risk. The sacrifice: infinite possibility is surrendered on the altar of the form; all that but a moment ago floated playfully through one's perspective has to be exterminated; none of it may penetrate into the work; the exclusiveness of such a confrontation demands this. The risk: the basic word can only be spoken with one's whole being; whoever commits himself may not hold back part of himself . . .'

01 March 2011

Art Sale

Clearing out the basement and getting ready to have a sump pit installed, so I decided the time was right to hold an Art Clearance SALE!!!!! Art can be viewed at http://denisprieur.blogspot.com/ .


I can deliver art to anyone within the city of Winnipeg. I am willing to ship to out-of-towners wanting to purchase art; you choose the shipping method (UPS, Canada Post, Greyhound) and you pay the costs.