December 31 - Wax Poetic's Favorite Recordings of 2008

This year we step away from tradition and bring you a show packed with spoken word cherry-picked from our expansive personal spoken word libraries.
The weather here in Vancouver has been especially inclimate and we could not, in good conscience, ask a murder of poets to brave the elements without being able to compensate them for their services.
So this year we get to "wax poetic" about the past year, and give you the heads up on what's up for the new year, spoken word-wise in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Poetry we'll be featuring work from the brand-new CD from AURAL HEATHER called "Princess Nut". The project is Heather Haley, Roderick Shoolbraid (shown above) and 'a sublime fusion of song and spoken word.' Shoolbraid is a dazzling guitarist, composer, sound designer and DJ. Haley is a maverick; a poet, singer, author and media artist often found pushing boundaries and always on the vanguard. 'A Canadian national treasure,' Haley started writing verse in high school influenced by poets like bp Nichol, ee cummings and Susan Musgrave.
Critics call the CD: 'brawny, uncompromising language from a voice that demands to be reckoned with'.
Find out more about the CD and Aural Heather here at: http://www.heatherhaley.com/aural_heather and tune in this Wednesday to hear our favorite track from the CD as well as mucho spoken word for your listening pleasure.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

We're making Christmas Eve that much more special with an East Van holiday tradition, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", performed live in studio by the larger-than-life Angus Adair AKA The Svelte Ms. Spelt.

Snow Day. No Show

Starting Tuesday night, Vancouver got a heavy dump of snow and so, as beautiful as it was, it caused a lot of havock to those who needed to travel.
My day was a series of cancelations and re-scheduling. As much as we all enjoy doing the show, there are days when it has to fall by the wayside. It came down to just me agreeing to go in and do the broadcast, but unfortunately, my friend Kali and her brother Frank, who is running a temporary bookstore on the Drive, Ziggy Books (where i work one or two days a week), was having a hard time getting back to the store from her home in Richmond so it made more sense to help my friend make some money - and me too! - by keeping her business open.

I managed to make it a day that I didn't have to leave the Drive at all. I went home after they left and had a bit of time to myself before heading back into the store for a reading by the very talented poet Goh Poh Seng, his courageously honest son Kagan Goh, and the liltingly beautiful Marni Norwich, who recently launched her wonderful book of poetry called Wildflowers On My Doorstep.
Here are some pics from that event (with video to come). My camera ran out of juice so I couldn't get much video. Missed the venerable Mr. Goh's reading completely.













Our guest had similar problems getting down to our show anyway, so I made an executive decision to cancel the show. The upside to all this is that I do have a sampling of the guest we never had, Jocelyne Robinson, an Algonquin artist, reading a piece of her work. This was taken at Ziggys' on Sunday, December 14. Also in the video was Zophia Kiefer, an amazing woman who fell dramatically from wealth and glamour to the point where she ended up living in the illegal tent city down by Science World.



I'll end this post with an excerpt from a poem Marni Norwich included in her book:

from
Poh Seng and I

I tell him I write poetry
because it's short;
it fits in the small crevices
between rent and bills.
I hope to write a book, someday,
have wealth enough to glide, like a bird
on Spirit's wing.

Poe Seng understands the dilemma of the artist's life;
he wrote one page a day for thirty-five years
while serving as a doctor in Singapore.
He works in words for full days now,
parlays love into tight black scrawl.

We meet over keyboard and water tumblers,
in a room thousands of miles from where either of us began.
We dance in the liminal space of story;
History surrounding us
like gentle rain.

Diane Laloge Launches "I Am A War" @ Yaletown Gallery

With Michelle A. Richard

Cohost Diane Laloge launched her new book, "I Am A War" to a receptive audience at the Yaletown this summer. Joining her was the lovely and talented Michelle A. Richard and the equally spellbinding Peggy Wilson to offer up some musical entertainment.

December 10 - Angus Mcleod

From Wax Poetic

This week's we take a bit of a detour from poetry and delve into Sci-Fi with our guest, Angus McLeod, who will be launching his released ebook - 2004 Daemon's Revenge - on Thursday, December 11 at A Small World Shop & Gallery.
See the press release here >>>

Emily Kendy

Part-time writer, full-time critic. Emily is a freelance writer and Music Editor of punk and metal magazine, Absolute Underground. She lives in Vancouver with no cats. Check out Emily's website at: www.emilykendy.com

She read from her new novel, What She Left Behind, about punk rock life in the Downtown Eastside.
Here's a little video of some of it:



Speaking of...
I left my camera in the studio and the boys from the next show, No Apologies Necessary, got their hands on it.

Too funny!