Night, winter, snow on the ground. One person, male, wearing bulky coat and knit tuque on head, forearms raised, holds a digital camera in front of his head to talk a photograph without flash, tight to the glass, faces the building, on the outside looking in. Building exterior—layered glass walls, interior window walls papered from inside. Other buildings, streetlights nearby.This is going to be a great book! I'm so glad you're in it.What? How am I in it? I never answered her raft of questions. Did I do something that I have no memory of doing?
When Hélèn Rioux was in New Brunswick as an author-translator participate in Side by Side Festival Côte à Côte in Sept-Oct 2005, one of the projects she discussed was that she was a guest editor (with Daniel Pigeon) of a forthcoming issue of XYZ : la revue de la nouvelle on the theme of « Cimetières ». 
1 marzo 2007: registration deadline—XIV Encuentro Internacional de Editores Independientes, 27-30 abril, Punta Umbría, España: Email: edita.edita@hotmail.com
Poet Karen Solie reads tomorrow night, 7 pm, at the Fredericton Public Library, 12 Carleton St, Fredericton, NB.
Call for participants for the 21 March, Wednesday, 10 am-6 pm: Multicultural Festivel . . . exhibits, food, costumes, arts & crafts, musicians, dancers, storytellers, human rights speakers and more . . . Multicultural Assoc of Fredericton @ the WW Boyce Farmers' Market, George St, Fredericton, NB.
the Why Cheap Art? manifesto of 1984. I still like it. Found this copy in a NBCCD drawing studio in the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, Fredericton, NB.Canada’s national arts funding agency has challenged Canadians to help it celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2007 by stepping up their involvement in the arts.So here I am, a creator and a consumer of the arts . . . I've been feeling like a hermit, in from the cold and living with low level burn-out. How has my participation been so far this year?
The Council is asking people to participate in 50 arts activities during the anniversary year—ranging from reading a poem to singing in a choir to attending a film festival to looking at a painting—keep a record of their experiences and let the Council know about it.
—from a Canada Council for the Arts media release
Just photographed some accordion fold books I'd made yesterday while writing up a project proposal for a school workshop I'm scheduled to lead on 2 March. Simple little bookwork, I believe. Seven folds to the strip of paper. Paste or glue on the covers. These ones made with strips of kraft paper and rectangles of corrugated cardboard. Low cost, non-precious materials = more fun, more play!
T-shirt: New Brunswick Filmmakers' Co-op, 15 years of filmmaking, 1979-1994
road trip fighter practice weekend
matrix loaded with armour for three
bound for some unknown monkeyton
after lowliest deputy's two sorties
successfully recover troll box
and more for shire and exchequer
lord isard and olaf vinalf
with lady muirghean hewitt—
first mate of the roisin dubh
merchant/mercenary household
—after olaf and muirghean
fought in the keep of mcasphalt
after a generous meal of ham and spuds
l'le penguin red wine and black forest cake
with genuine sour magyar cherries
we crossed the disputed border bridge
from shire to barony such that vasárnap
morning found me on the frozen windswept
shore of its canton of ynys y gwaed
one can't block quote absent text
one can't fight a active marshall
olaf inaction sitting wallflower
watching a bout with pole arm
and great sword in the great hall
before attempting to defend
a drawn circle and dying
sunset aglows waterside viring tanks
as we traverse near empty streets
from closed door to closed door
until welcomed in gahan house
a table in the darkened backroom
brewery under the floorboards
table covered with samples of the bestshirt: Pennsic XXXII
of the house set afore me—six on tap
from sir john a' honey wheat ale (pssst . . .
he's the shaded man on the 100 rave bill)
island amber red and iron horse dark
to sydney street stout rewarding a pint
before a milky way night road to rann
[Wouldn't it be wise, smart, fun, proud, worthwhile . . . if we had one of these celebrations here in Canada. Sure would make sense, consider the smaller size of many Canadian small presses, and the number of them here —Broken Joe]
National Small Press Month March 2007Small Press Month is co-sponsored by the Small Press Center: the New York Center for Independent Publishing; PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association; and Council of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP]. Additional support has been provided by Book Sense; American Booksellers Association; The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen; Publishers Group West; The New Press; and Small Press Distribution. We would like to acknowledge the generous support of Ingram Publisher Services, Selfpublishing.com, Lulu.com, and BookExpo America, the largest English language book and publishing event in the world. Special thanks to Alice Walker.
To:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance
The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Honourable Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage
We are writing in response to the announcement of cuts to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) for Public Diplomacy. This funding currently supports the creation, dissemination and promotion of Canadian arts, Canadian cultural initiatives, and business opportunities for Canadian artists internationally. The health and expansion of existing international networks depend on DFAIT funding not only to create opportunities for artists to participate in an expanded, global economy, but also to bring professionals and key decision-makers from abroad to Canada to create and promote cultural exchange and business opportunities here at home.
The $11.9 million cut over two years represents a 100% withdrawal of the Public Diplomacy budget – funds that would normally enable Canadians to participate in international festivals, exhibitions, concert and lecture tours, dance and theatre productions, conferences, and academic exchanges. These cuts to the Public Diplomacy budget will jeopardize Canada's longstanding international reputation as a free and democratic nation with a commitment to supporting Canadian values through its arts.
We believe that fiscal responsibility involves securing our long-term investments into the arts and cultural industries in Canada, and that sustaining Canadian culture abroad is an effective and productive use of our tax dollars. The effects of the Public Diplomacy cuts are aimed at hard-working Canadians who depend on international recognition to succeed in their field. This withdrawal of support to diplomatic funding is particularly disconcerting considering that other governments are continuously increasing their Public Diplomacy funding, such as the United States, which has tripled its efforts in cultural diplomacy since 2001.
We, the undersigned, would like to see the international dissemination of Canadian culture and values maintained as a priority for Canadians. We urge you to reverse your decision to cut these funds to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
For example, take a poet. Say that the poet is single and living in a Canadian city of less that 50,000 people. Say that the poet needs a $20,000 income to be at or just above the poverty line (this without calculating additional income needed to cover expenses such as accounting, travel, books, computer & printer, etc.) and the poverty line is higher in larger population centres, higher again when the poet is a single parent, and so on . . . The poet writes, does readings to audiences from their work, works to get books accepted and published by book publishers. Most poetry books in Canada are published in a "first edition" print run of 500 copies. Most poetry books, unless they win a major book award, do not see a second printing, Even some that "win" awards or author recognition do not get reprinted. If that poetry book is priced to sell sell for $20 (most are not, most are priced lower) then the poet should be positioned to earn 10% of that price, $2, in royalties on each copy of the book that has truly sold (gross sales – returns = net sales). This would mean, for the poet to earn/receive $20,000 in royalties income, that there would need to be net sales of 10,000 copies of their book. When you start with a print run of 500 copies (including marketing and promotional copies) that's rather impossible. Even more impossible is the prospect of the poet publishing 20 or more new books every year that sold 500 copies each.How much pottery must a potter make and sell, or how much must a weaver make and sell to net $20,000 in income for living?
"These proposals included cries for billions of new money for . . . more business subsidies in the name of 'cultural identity' . . . I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.”As Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Harper has to represent Canada, not just his own narrow mindset. Canada is supposed to be a wise nation for its years, but we have again taken two steps back instead of two steps forward. Harper might be marching to his own drummer but that means he is out of step in our Canadian culture dance set. In addition, two steps forward will usually frame/crop a better, more interesting, photograph. Two steps forward might actually put one to the fore. Might draw attention. Might mean a commitment to a position on something or action . . .
The Bulldog, 1997
"There is a continental culture. There is a Canadian culture that is in some ways unique to Canada, but I don't think Canadian culture coincides neatly with borders."
Report, 2002
Words to the wise from a long ago writer, newspaper publisher—Novascotian, defender of the freedom of the press, and politician (including being Premier of Nova Scotia, a member of the first Dominion Parliament in Ottawa, and Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia at the time of his death in 1873). Joseph Howe's statue is on the grounds of the provincial legislature building in Halifax.
Another year's writing done. 
When it was warmer than it has been in recent days this sign got frozen in place. Finally, this afternoon, it has warmed up enough for light flurries to fall. More flurries expected tomorrow . . .
Publicity Release
