Year of the Ox: 5th time

1st
■ Just getting started
■ Named after great-grandfather (mom’s grandfather) and my father
■ No plans

2nd
■ Grade 6 (road trip to Port Royal, Annapolis Royal, Balmoral Grist Mill, etc.) to grade 7: Bell Ayr Elementary to Jr High—same building
■ Photographing with a Kodak 126
■ Made decorative shield in metal shop/Industrial Arts @ Ellenvale Jr High

3rd
■ Intro to graphic tech, letterpress lead typesetting
■ First freelance income: operated graphic camera
■ Went to the Banff Centre (Poetry)
■ Broken Jaw Press started publishing: first a zine & poetry postcards
■ Co-founder of RePUBLICcover @ NSCAD
■ Skills Devo Grant (NS): my first grant
■ Started Bourbon Street Poetry Workshops (precursor to BS Poetry Society)

4th
■ Inter-arts performance recording & moderating my panel on poets & publishing @ League con in National Library, Ottawa
■ Open 24 Hours 5-poet anthology
■ Tribeca chapbook with above/ground press
■ Became editor of New Brunswick Knowledge Industry News
■ Photos in Against the Wall: The Art of Graffiti, UNB Arts Centre, Fredericton
■ Rcvd first Barry Award for Ashes, Paper & Beans rado show
■ Affiliated self & BJP with Canadian Copyright Licencing Agency

5th
■ 18-month gov job contact terminated
■ Applied to & was accepted into UNB grad school, Faculty of Ed
■ Apartment building fire forced evacuation
■ New home in same town
■ New jobs/contracts: LTTA Adjunct Artist; Grad TA, etc.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 25 Aug 2009

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show
Producer–Host: Joe Blades
Tuesdays 7–8 PM
CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chsrfm.ca
Fredericton, NB, Canada

Zaffi Gousopoulos "My Name Is Eleni"

T. Anders Carson poetry CD Stain, tracks 1-17.

Fredericton Arts News

Queenie CD Perfect Road

Kyra Shaughnessy "belonging"

shirt: Jim Beam
loc: Dundonald construction zone
temp: 19°C
sound: Screaming Trees Sweet Oblivion

“Joe in the Balkans”

The front cover of „Putevi“ (Roads), no 6–7, fresh from the printer . . . but you won't likely find it as your local newsstand. „Putevi“ is a literary journal published in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska (BiH).

This issue includes an interview with me along with a selection of from the book that doesn’t close (Broken Jaw Press, 2008). The title is “Džo na Balkanu: (razgovor sa Džoom Blejdsom, kanadskim piscem, izvodacem i umjetikom)” (Joe in the Balkans: (interview with Joe Blades, Canadian writer, publisher and artist)). The interview, conducted by Tatjana Bijelić for „Putevi“, and the poems were translated into Serbian by her.

Tatjana Bijelić is a poet with two poetry collections plus a book of eight British poets translated by her. Tatjana teaches in the Filozofski fakultet Banja Luka where she has a “Canada Corner”. We met in 2005 at the Yugoslav Association of Canadian Studies conference at the University of Niš, Srbjia where I was a guest artist–presenter helping launch the three author–three book anthology Slike iz kanade: Tri kanadska pesnika (SKC Niš, 2005).

The English version of the “Joe in the Balkans” interview might have found a home in a forthcoming issue of 17 seconds ( : a journal of poetry and poetics ), rob mclennan, editor.

T-shirt: Blue Rodeo
loc: Dundonald construction zone
temp: 18°C
sound: Little Feat Waiting for Columbus

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 18 Aug 2009

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show
Producer–Host: Joe Blades
Tuesdays 7–8 PM
CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chsrfm.ca
Fredericton, NB, Canada

Joe Blades at the temp MCR in The Fishbowl.

Hugh Hazelton: "The Imperial Birthday Party"
Catherine Hunter: "Rush Hour"
Clive Holden: "Wind", Transcona", & "Babette"
bill bissett: "Opening Chant"
Stephen Cain: "Alpha Bites, A Primer", "Rhinoceros", & "Pome for Viktor Shklovsky"
W. Mark Sutherland "On Disecting the Larynx", "Hiroshima", & (with Nobuo Kuboto) "Lullaby for Kurt Schwitters"
Swifty Lazarus: "History is Dead (Read My Lips)"
Verbomotorhead: "Fat Summer"

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 11 Aug 2009

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show
Producer–Host: Joe Blades
Tuesdays 7–8 PM
CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chsrfm.ca
Fredericton, NB, Canada

Scottish poet Ian Stephen: “Dry Ground”, “Satellite Stone Circle”, “Calanais”, “Stonbergs”, & “Kinloch”

Hamilton poet Klyde Broox from a 2005 demo CD titled Literary Coup—Dub Poetry: “Literary Coup”, “Foreign Accent”, “Under the Influence of Dub”, “The Revolution has Changed”, “If Mars Attacks”, “Rant Against Otherness”, “Glimpses and Glances”, “Blues on the Rocks”.

Scottish poet Janet Paisley: “Sandra, In All Innocence”

American poet Michael Lalley: “Where Do We Belong”

Utah Phillips: “Unless We Are Free”

shirt: green v-neck
loc: construction zone
temp: 15°C
sound: Komatsu WA250PT “Toolcarrier” & Propagandhi Supporting Caste