Haiku Horoscopes dot com

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the mass email, just thought I'd let you know that, with the help of cartoonist/web designer Ryan Hill, I've launched www.haikuhoroscopes.com. You can check it every Monday for a new set of Haiku Horoscopes.

The site archives old horoscopes. There is a year's worth in the archives already, and each week an updated and in some cases rewritten variation of the column from two years ago will appear on the site. By now you should have forgotten these all, so they'll practically be new to you (only slightly used). You can also click to view all horoscopes for your sign in the archives, or search the archives for specific words (in case you really want to read all the horoscopes about cheese, for example).

So each week from now on you can check your haiku horoscopes online (Mondays at www.haikuhoroscopes.com) and in Uptown (Thursdays -- in print or online at www.uptownmag.com). How can you have two weekly horoscopes in one week, you ask? The answer: MAGIC.

Enjoy,

Jonathan Ball, registered fraud

Quills poem publication

Quite by surprise, I found in my mailbox a copy of Quills, a poetry magazine published in Vancouver. I figured it was a freebie to try to coerce me to subscribe. I scanned the table of contents for recognizable names and, lo and behold, spied my own name!

I had assumed that Quills rejected my submission to them, since they didn't get back to me about it (they don't respond when they reject somebody). Apparently they accepted the poem "Breakfast in Bed" and published it in the current issue. They forgot to contact me about it, I suppose, or maybe with all my email problems the acceptance was deleted. So that was a pleasant surprise.

"Breakfast in Bed" has done quite well for itself. It won me the Ray Burrell Award for Poetry contest in 2004 (along with a nice little $500 prize) and was published in The Grist Mill, and now it has been republished in Quills. Hopefully this bodes well for the poems and stories I sent out to diverse places recently. Having been lazy about submitting for a while, I am back to it with renewed vigor. Anyway, check out Quills and my poem if you are into that kind of thing.

On another note, went to see ...or in the next a play by Ken L. Freund. Very funny. Friday is the last night so go watch it. Watch it!!! Or you will pay for your negligence in the afterlife.

new blog: artist's notebook

i've started a new blog called eyes in the mirror which will basically just serve as an artist's notebook. i doubt anybody will care about it, since it will just be a basic repository for notes and thoughts on art, more for myself than for anyone else. still, it's there, if anybody wants to look, though i probably won't post anything on it for a week or so.

My Comic Cameos

I was reading online comics today and remembered that I have done some comic cameos. Thought I would archive them here as points of interest. After you click the links below you may have to enlarge some of the photos to read the comics.

1. A comic by Ryan Hill documenting a behind-the-scenes moment which occurred during the filming of the Gutterwidth short movie. Click here.

2. A comic by Ryan Hill made using live action shots taken while filming the Gutterwidth movie, in which I play The Other Guy, made into a Gutterwidth comic, in which I play The Other Guy. Click here.

3. A comic by Kelly Leschasin, parodying Gutterwidth. Kelly was Managing Editor of the Manitoban at the time, and made this comic after we filmed our scene in the offices. Click here.

4. A second comic by Kelly poking fun at our office adventures. Click here.

Spoony B update

So I completed a rough cut on my first film as director, How Spoony B Got His Ho Back, today. Went into the Winnipeg Film Group with editor/star Aleksander Rzeszowski and co-creator/Under Pressure guitarist Patrick Short. Peter Vesuwalla dropped by for a little while. All is looking good. Should be able to finish up a fine cut by the end of June or middle of July. For now, Alek is in a play that everyone should see:

... or in the next
a new play by Ken L. Freund
June 16-18 and 23-25
Joint Theatre, 3rd floor 62 Albert St.
9 PM

Ken plays the villianous Snidely S. Cracker in Spoony B --- been laughing at his outstanding performance all day.

I'm also working on another film, a short experimental poem/film called Worms which I am putting together in the WFG's tinting and toning workshop. Will go in tomorrow and try to finish that thing off, at least the physical film manipulation. Again, I won't finish that film until July sometime, maybe August.

In the meantime I will be trying to both find an apartment in Calgary and doing some pre-production on Opening Band.

Still trying to write two books at the same time. Actually, I am doing rather well in this quest. A little behind on my prose but not too bad. I am happy with how things are shaping up. Going to try to get more exercise these days too. I would like to lose a little weight and get in better shape. Healthy mind and body and all that jazz.

Doing my pre-Calgary reading as well, will re-read Maus soon (maybe tomorrow). This morning I read Dennis Cooley's first book, Leaving. On my reading shortlist is War of the Worlds, Maurice Mierau's book on Tuberculosis, and Susan Sontag's book on TB, AIDS, and Cancer. Also Sontag's On Photography which Gloe Cormie was so kind to lend me.

After that I am going to read Kafka's Amerika (lost my copy and ordered a new one) and I will then read a bunch of short fiction by Hemingway, Faulkner, Nabokov, Mann, and Dostoevsky. This is the summer of short fiction, as far as I am concerned.

Martian Press - new site & books

The Martian Press has released its first two publications, The Martian Press Review and Film/making. More about these books and The Martian Press can be found at the new Martian Press site, www.martianpress.blogspot.com.

Martian Press book launch

Two good things happened tonight (posting a bit late: I mean the night of June 6). The book launch for The Martian Press went well, and I figured out how to upload photos to this blog.

The event occurred at the Grant Park location of McNally-Robinson in Winnipeg. In addition to being the official launch of the press itself, the first two titles were launched: Film/making (a long poem by Jonathan Ball) and The Martian Press Review, Volume I (an anthology of 9 writers: Rehman Abdulrehman, David Annandale, Gloe Cormie, Nathan Dueck, Ariel Gordon, Ken Kowal, Maurice Mierau, Mark Sampson, and Kevin Spenst).

The reading order went Nathan Dueck, Rehman Abdulrehman, Mark Sampson, David Annandale, Gloe Cormie, and Jonathan Ball. Pictures below.

A number of authors were unable to attend for various reasons. However, the creative Kevin Spenst uploaded a video of himself reading one of his stories from The Martian Press Review HERE.

Both books are available for sale at McNally-Robinson, Grant Park, or online by emailing info AT martianarmy DOT com. $5 each.

Thanks to Lindsey Wiebe for taking photos, and to everyone for coming.



The book display table. Books left to right: The Martian Press Review, Crown Fire by David Annandale, king's(mére) by Nathan Dueck, Sea Salt, Red Oven Mitts and the Blues by Gloe Cormie, Kornukopia by David Annandale, and Film/making by Jonathan Ball.

Nathan Dueck 

Rehman Abdulrehman 

Mark Sampson 

David Annandale 

Gloe Cormie 

Jonathan Ball 

Quote of the Day

"You can't blame yourself for what gorillas did."

from Team America: World Police


Tonight is the launch of the first two Martian Press chapbooks. I am going to bring my digital camera along and then tomorrow I am going to try to figure out how to post pictures to my blog. I wish I wasn't so computer illiterate. I don't know how I managed to design these chapbooks and have them look decent.

Henry Rollins quote

"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you."

- Henry Rollins, Do I Come Here Often: Black Coffee Blues pt. 2

been busy

it's been a busy but productive time:

- on June 1 i attended convacation and now hold a Master of Arts degree
- on May 31 i put up my final poem on the www.maydaypoems.blogspot.com site
- from May 26-29 i was Assistant Director for Solomon Nagler's new short film, Fugue Nefesh

coming up i've got a chapbook/press launch (see the post below)

Winnipeg chapbook launch

Hey kids

I have started a micro-press to publish literary chapbooks. The first two books are being launched Monday, June 6 at McNally-Robinson, Grant Park location. The event is at 8pm and will feature brief readings from Rehman Abdulrehman, David Annandale, Jonathan Ball, Gloe Cormie, Maurice Mierau, and Mark Sampson.

Film/making by Jonathan Ball is a small long poem about the process of attempting to craft an experimental film. The poems examine the creative process and as such should be of interest to non-filmmakers. They should also be of especial interest to filmmakers, particularly those involved in hand-processing, as the poems grew out of the Winnipeg Film Group's hand-processing workshop.

The Martian Press Review, Volume I is edited by Jonathan Ball and includes works by 9 authors. The works range from traditional free-verse poetry to experimental poetry to prose poems to short comedic fiction.

Those unable to attend the event can still go visit McNally-Robinson (Grant Park) and check out the book display (just inside and to the right of the doors to outside) and pick up either of the books for $5 each. There is also a temporary site online at www.martianarmy.com and books can be ordered by emailing me at: info AT martianarmy DOT com (replace caps with punctuation, of course).