I’ve been out of the videopoetry, poetry film loop since stepping down as Artistic Director of the Visible Verse Festival in 2015 but will be serving on the international jury of the CYCLOP coming up in November. Here’s the lowdown:

Submissions are now open for the 6th CYCLOP International Poetry Film Contest. The deadline for submissions is September 30, and the screening will be during the 6th CYCLOP Poetry Film Festival, which will be held on November 25-26, 2017 in Kyiv.

6TH CYCLOP INTERNATIONAL POETRY FILM CONTEST | ENTRY FORM!

6th CYCLOP International Poetry Film Contest

1 August — 30 September 2017

Rules and regulations:

Films of up to 10 minutes duration that are no more than two years old (January 2015) may be entered.

There are no limitation about subject and language restrictions. All films that are not in English must have English subtitles. Each application must also contain the text of the verse in English.

Video can be performed in any techniques using any necessary equipment (video, animation, flash etc).

Each video should be placed on the Youtube channel in free access.

By sending your film, you confirm that the film may be shown at the CYCLOP Poetry Film Festival. The artist must have all property and screening rights.

Each artist can’t send more than two videos.

All videos must be sent with the following characteristics:
File format: .MOV or .AVI.
Standard: PAL. Codec: H264.
Resolution: HD — 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 (16:9) / SD — 640 x 480 (4:3) or 640 x 360 (16:9)

Terms of the contest:
Acceptance of applications — from August 1 to September 30
Scoring — from October 2 to October 15 (remotely)
Longlist announcement — November 1
Screening the best videos — November 25/26 (during the festival)
Announcement of the winners — November 26

Contact information
Email for questions and suggestions: info@cyclop.in.ua
Website: cyclop.in.ua | Facebook Page: facebook.com/CYCLOP.in.ua

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Happy Pride Y’all! I’m queer, don’t exactly wear it on my sleeve, much like my beloved Uncle Doug whom I am very proud of because he did out himself in spite of growing up Catholic in small town Quebec in the 50s. Both my mother Corona’s brothers were tall and handsome and very “sharp” dressers. Doug was the younger and fair. I think my son inherited those ears! He was very kind and loving, smart and funny. I miss him.

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All right! We have a date; Sat, Sept 23. I’m working with Jason Flower of Supreme Echo on promotion though he’s already lined up several interviews and record store appearances. Also, after much intensive scouting and thanks to DJ Jeffrey McCloy we’ve found a skookum venue, What’s Up? Hot Dog! on Hastings in East Van.

Girls with Guitars         ZELLOTS Record Release Party!

Come celebrate with the Zellots, fans and Supreme Echo who have just released the never-before-heard and complete recordings of the all female Vancouver punk rock sensation the Zellots, with Heather Haley (vocals), Christine deVeber (guitar), Jane Colligan (bass), and Conny Knowe (drums). Modernettes member John ‘Jughead’ McAdams replaced their original drummer and is featured on the recording. Three incredibly catchy and memorable songs with a high level of musicianship and witty tongue in cheek lyrics sung by the phenomenal Heather Haley whom later formed the .45s (with Randy Rampage of DOA, Brad Kent of the Avengers and Karla Duplantier, ex-Controllers).

Do not fear the flexi ! This deluxe DMM mastered, silver label, custom round 7″ comes housed in a dye-cut paper dust sleeve with a thick closed-pocket cover and booklet! An important piece of herstory! Limited 525 copies.

Rare and collectible indeed! I hope you will join us.

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I wrote a darkly funny poem called How To Remain for my last collection Three Blocks West of Wonderland that was largely about how to preserve one’s body and thus life but lately it applies to our fight to remain in the city we love-and love to hate at times-Vancouver.

And oh how I love waking to the irritating and now familiar sound of suitcase spinner wheels rattling down the sidewalk. Thanks Air BnB. I harbour ambivalent feelings about this pervasisve sharing economy. Several friends use Air BnB to help pay their rent, and with Vancouver’s astronomical cost of living, who can blame them? But, of course, that makes it difficult for people to find places to live, people like my son and I. We lucked into this tiny, cockroach infested 1 bdrm after nearly a year of looking and Junior’s been trying to find an apartment for the past eight months. Craigslist is a wasteland so thanks to word-of-mouth he is now waiting for a family friend to move out so he can move into her place. Anyone who has lucked into affordable rents can’t afford to move as one is unlikely to find a better deal, if any deal at all. I’m desperately trying to get into a co-op, can’t see how I’ll be able to remain here in the long term any other way.

I recently took in friends Charles Wilksinson and Tina Schliesser’s documentary No Fixed Address which handily documents the crisis and is beautifully shot, by the way. Several things I took away; British Columbia’s main industry, which at one time variously used to be lumber, mining or fishing, is now condos. The problem is global, and, I’m determined to stay and fight. Why should I-or anyone- be forced out of our beloved home? But like one of the film’s subjects I find myself contemplating a move to Mexico. Despite my skepticism I can’t help but hope this new government will actually do something about the problem, specifically the fixed term lease loophole, the type of lease we felt we had no choice but to sign. I was even spurred to action, wrote my MLA. I received an automated response of course, let’s see if I get a real message or any action.

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A rock opera perhaps? A spoken word song/performance poetry piece as in one-woman show, is a possibility as well.  Maybe it’s a multimedia fusion of song and verse extravaganza with a full cast. In any case I’m working toward adapting my novel, The Town Slut’s Daughter to the stage.  At this point the project is embryonic but I may have found a director and a composer. Fingers crossed! I need a creative outlet, a break from scrubbing toilets. Whatever form it takes, the production will fuse rock and verse in the vein of my spoken word song project AURAL Heather. More details soon.

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I was dismayed and heartbroken to hear of the recent attacks on London. Truly one of the world’s great cities, I love London Town, had the privilege of visiting this past May, which I still haven’t posted about as I’ve been too busy to blog, but I wasn’t surprised to hear that pub patrons hurled chairs and pints at the murderers. Carry on. Remain calm. That is the British way, but what choice do people have except to fight back? Resist terror. Sadly, extremists cannot see that their attempts at destruction are epic fails, as my gamer son would say,  my son being a much more cheery topic. His YouTube channel, RAYCEVICK,  just reached 100,000 subscribers!

A digital native, my media savvy, technically adroit son has been on the Internet since he can remember. Lucas started his first YouTube channel and taught himself how to edit video at the tender age of ten, which is not really surprising as he’s been surrounded by musicians, poets and artists all his life. We did limit screen time and monitor his online activities, including video gaming, and I worry that he isolates himself at times, but he’s carving out a niche, and it appears able to make living doing what his loves. In other words, he’s blowing me out of the water. I am one proud mama.

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“Families First.” What a crock. Christy Clark will say anything to get re-elected. That is for certain, as is the case with most politicians, but Clark takes dishonesty and hypocrisy to new levels. The Liberals-such a misnomer-are very good at coming up with snazzy sound bites though. As the parent of a child on the spectrum I know that autism funding is a huge political football. The same with MSP fees, which have doubled, which no other province pays. BC Liberals effectively do nothing as people struggle with constantly rising costs of living including food, hydro, daycare and housing. Clark is very helpful to her wealthy donors by providing tax breaks while our wages remain low and jobs part-time. Anything below $15. an hour is a poverty level wage, especially in Vancouver. I will vote this spring but as usual there is not much choice. I doubt the NDP have the ability to oust her and the Liberals. We will be stuck with more lies and subterfuge.

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This bears repeating…Christy Clark is a liar!

“Families First.” What a crock. Christy Clark will say anything to get re-elected. That is for certain, as is the case with most politicians, but Clark takes dishonesty and hypocrisy to new levels. The Liberals-such a misnomer-are very good at coming up with snazzy sound bites though. As the parent of a child on the spectrum I know that autism funding is a huge political football. The same with MSP fees, which have doubled, which no other province pays. BC Liberals effectively do nothing as people struggle with constantly rising costs of living including food, hydro, daycare and housing. Clark is very helpful to her wealthy donors by providing tax breaks while our wages remain low and jobs part-time. Anything below $15. an hour is a poverty level wage, especially in Vancouver. I will vote this spring but as usual there is not much choice. I doubt the NDP have the ability to oust her and the Liberals. We will be stuck with more lies and subterfuge.

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