Cowtown

So, I have moved to Calgary. Just got my Internet access set up the other day, been busy getting set up with my Dad, & then exploring with my visiting girlfriend, now she's on the road back home & I'm just answering email. Thought I would post an update for all interested.

As you may or may not know, I have just moved to Calgary to do a PhD at the U of Calgary. I got set up in an apartment just a ways down the street, I'm actually living on the Transcanada itself (in the city) about two miles from the U of C (right on the bus route though, not as far as it sounds to walk either). Got myself a one-bedroom in a pretty decent looking area, lots of shops etc around. Two nice bookstores about four or five blocks away, one a mishmash of used books and the other all old school collector's copies. The Kensington/Sunnyside area is not far away either, where originally I was planning to live (I ended up getting the first apartment that would let me rent for September in advance, a small but cozy and well-maintained place).

I will figure out all my school stuff soon (final class schedule, teaching hours, etc). I am happy to have gotten into a creative writing class for graduate credit, with Suzette Mayr (whose most recent book, Venous Hum, is on my nightstand & so far is a crackling good read). I will be writing a short novel called Kanada in the class, a sort of contemporary black comic take-off on Kafka's classic Amerika. More on that later.

I will get the Martian Press up & running again over the next month, in addition to getting a new website set-up. Also, Spoony B, my first film (a comedy short) will be getting ready for a November premiere in Winnipeg. I also will be talking to Dave Barber at the Winnipeg Cinemateque & starting to iron out a slate of films that I will be programming, all "Canadian Apocalypse" films. Coincidentally, I will also resume work on my prairie long poem (a serious/comedy narrative poem) Apokrypha, about (what else?) a Canadian Apocalypse.

In Martian Press news, Aaron Mauro delighted today me by emailing me to say that he has ran into Clive Barker at a convention in Toronto and gave Barker a copy of his chapbook!! So a modest little Martian Press title has found its way into the library of Clive Barker.

Not sure what else to report. I think I'll go unpack some more boxes for now. Later gators.