seeing i2i

i'm at the banff centre. i have a beautiful studio in the middle of the forest, with windows all around. it's so peaceful and quiet. friends and colleagues-- sita rajkummar, melina baum singer, ken singer, and lily cho-- are here for an installment of i2i, a project ashok mathur is running through his crc at thompson rivers university in kamploops. trying to write poetry, which is not a luxury, though it sometimes feels like it.

my friend leila sujir is also here working on this amazing 3D video installation about venice, trade routes, and globalization. i've just come from a studio visit. it's amazing on so many levels-- where the technology is at and how she is thinking about space, motion, and politics. baco ohama is here too, but i haven't caught up with her yet.

madcap drive across the rockies yesterday. i had sfu residency stuff on tuesday, so had only one day to do the roadtrip. i started at 6 am. sick! wildlife spotted by the side of the road: 1 coyote, 2 deer, 3 mountain goats, a young elk. stopped in the middle somewhere for walk beside a still, peaceful lake.

feeling more open again, finally. soaking up ideas, energies. nice to be in this, especially after the panic on tuesday of my committee's copies of the diss going missing somewhere in the university of calgary internal mail system.

read! participate!

So one of the really cool things I get to do as part of my Writer-in-Residency at SFU is see some of the newest work getting produced in my beautiful city. Those of you have come to see me: Thank-you for sharing your work. I'm amazed by much of the stuff I've seen, and it's really great seeing work grow and change, and know I've had a hand in it.

I'm organizing a reading to celebrate this work. It will be on the evening of June 29, 2006, location TBA. Unfortunately, I don't have everyone's email. So, if you've come to see me for feedback anytime since I started, and would like to read on that evening, please do drop me a note, or leave a message for me through Linda Elliot in the English Department main office. Participate! It will be fun. Or for those of you who respond better to guilt: You owe it to your communities.

coming up for air

thanks for the well wishes folks. but it's not over yet-- still have to defend!

it's been a deep sea adventure. didn't realize i was drowning. that's what you get for being part fish. but now i've had a few days to breathe air, which is sometimes good and sometimes confusing.

cool moments in the past week or so:
chris ewart's book launch at ubc robson square bookstore, with adrian kelly. lots of friends and family were there and chris sold all his books. congratulations mr. e! hope he is enjoying his giant bubble maker and electric pigeon. there were many calgary folk. drinks afterwards had this distinctly grad lounge-ish feeling.

cousin visiting from boston/hk. wow, i have all these cousins here. it is wonderful, and strange. didn't really grow up with cousins. we went to stanley park, bridges for dinner, a little sunset walk at sunset beach, a stroll down robson.

today-- ikea run. the apartment is still a shambles, but getting better. this afternoon, interesting talks at the _decolonizing affect theory_ group meetings organized by sneja gunew at ubc. jackie stacey talked about the re-biologization of the body in michael winterbottom's _code 46_. kirsten mcallister talked about the ethics of applying theory from colonial/imperialist centres to local experience, specifically japanese canadian internment. it was good to think about other people's work for a change.

next week, i'm off to the banff centre to take part in _babel, babble, rabble_. or a bit of it anyway. the residency is all about language as art object. at least as far as i can tell from where i'm sitting. i think i might try to work on a second installment of _nascent fashion_. still looking forward to seeing the chapbook ryan fitzpatrick did, with travis murphy's cover. i'm awake now! presents please! after the residency, i'll be in cowtown, quietly freaking out until the day of the defense.

nalo hopkinson just sent her new book _the new moon's arms_ off to her publisher. congratulations nalo!

off to see the wizard

singing *ding dong the diss is done, the evil diss is done!* just back from kinko's, where i made copies for all my examiners. can't quite believe it, someone smack me.

sea stars, anemones

time makes a rocky island. all the tide things live there, washed by salt water, mist, occasional sun. the island changes us. we aren't the creatures we were when we arrived. the water outside calls to the water inside: move, don't stop. water doesn't stop until the moon does. take the leap. keep leaping until flight feels more familiar than walking.

primal states

Wow. I now have a new address in a swanky neighbourhood on Vancouver's West Side. I feel like I've moved to a different city. I believe, I believe. I believe all chaos can be resolved.