incredibly delayed reading report

I thought I might get one more post in during our travels, but then New York happened. That place is big, eh? And trying to see it all is both time-consuming and laughably impossible. I'm back in Vancouver now, and have a large backlog of stuff to share. First up, a report on a reading that happened two weeks ago!

The livewords/Misunderstandings Magazine launch/wake in Toronto on June 2nd went very well. There was a strong turnout, and I was able to put faces to many names I've blogged about here in the past (including A.F. Moritz, Sam Cheuk and Jeff Latosik). Al Moritz stole the show, as I suspect he does most nights he takes the stage, reading five poems from the last issue of MM. I read an odd set of internet-themed poems, partly inspired by the news that a few days earlier Raoul Fernandes had read one of them ("Errant") at an event in Victoria, and it had gone over well - thanks for that, Raoul!

Here's a blurry iPhone photo of my reading (what can't iPhones do half as well as a computer/camera/Xbox/organic human companion?):

Thanks to Edward Nixon and Jim Johstone for being generous hosts, and to Jim for all his work over the years with Misunderstandings. His new project is Cactus Press. Cactus produces chapbooks, and though I haven't seen any of them yet, the strongest section of Matt Rader's new book A Doctor Pedalled Her Bicycle Over the River Arno, entitled "Customs", was previously published as a Cactus chapbook, so that's a darn good sign. A review of Cactus' latest set of chapbooks, written by Jacob Mooney, can be read here - keep an eye out for more titles as they come along.

Ok, that's all for now. More updates tomorrow. I have to go prepare both my party outfit and riot gear, as I'm sure I'll get to use at least one of them tonight. If I'm really lucky, both!