Welcome to the world of literary mashup. No, spoken word artist Dave Silverberg and novelist Lisa Moore aren't writing a book together (but they should). What is happening, however, is a hookup between Word on the Street and the International Festival of Authors starting in 2015. From then on WOTS will be held at Harbourfront rather than Queen's Park Circle where it's held now. I read some bumf today, I think from someone at WOTS, that the arrangement will help two great Canadian literary "brands" to become bigger, stronger, more virtuous, more likely to avoid fattening foods, more likely do their laundry every week...Really?
Brands? Brands! Put me down as dubious. Dubious about brands unless it's a Lazy S mark seared into the flank of a heifer, or some shrill new ad campaign for a product we don't need to be told to buy. It's far more likely that once WOTS relocates - literally and figuratively packing its tents and leaving for Harbourfront - admission will cease to be free. At the moment all events at WOTS are just a matter of showing up on time and taking a pew. But, as the WOTS spokesthingy said, there are two good theatres at Harbourfront so it's a no-brainer that for popular presentations the public can expect to be charged a few bucks to get in. What a terrible idea. WOTS should insist that as part of this new love match IFOA must eliminate its admission fees. After all, WOTS has the heft. It attracts two-and-a-half times the audience of IFOA in a single day. I've blogged before that there are lots of people, myself included, who can't afford to attend IFOA - when I brought my impecuniousness to IFOA's attention I got nowhere, just a dismissive "good luck" from some uncomprehending PR flack. I repeat: at least working writers should be admitted to IFOA events free of charge.
Still with literature - in a roundabout sort of way - them book-lovin' bros, Rob and Doug Ford, now have their own show on You Tube. That doesn't bother me at all. If they want to share broadcast space with farting frat boys and dogs playing the piano, good luck to them. No, what's interesting is that the day after the show was posted, that is today, I listened to Hogtown radio station CFRB-AM's 9:00am newscast. The lead item was about the Fords and RoFo's always unreliable claims about lowering taxes, creating jobs and so on. CFRB refuted each of the in-name-only mayor's boasts with some actual if inconvenient statistics. That's a level of detail you don't often hear on the morning news. Hmmmm. John Tory works for CFRB. John Tory may or may not declare for mayor. I wonder if, perchance, the two could be related. Nah. I'm being paranoid. Still, I wonder about what he thinks of the arts generally and what his arts policies would look like.
Brands? Brands! Put me down as dubious. Dubious about brands unless it's a Lazy S mark seared into the flank of a heifer, or some shrill new ad campaign for a product we don't need to be told to buy. It's far more likely that once WOTS relocates - literally and figuratively packing its tents and leaving for Harbourfront - admission will cease to be free. At the moment all events at WOTS are just a matter of showing up on time and taking a pew. But, as the WOTS spokesthingy said, there are two good theatres at Harbourfront so it's a no-brainer that for popular presentations the public can expect to be charged a few bucks to get in. What a terrible idea. WOTS should insist that as part of this new love match IFOA must eliminate its admission fees. After all, WOTS has the heft. It attracts two-and-a-half times the audience of IFOA in a single day. I've blogged before that there are lots of people, myself included, who can't afford to attend IFOA - when I brought my impecuniousness to IFOA's attention I got nowhere, just a dismissive "good luck" from some uncomprehending PR flack. I repeat: at least working writers should be admitted to IFOA events free of charge.
Still with literature - in a roundabout sort of way - them book-lovin' bros, Rob and Doug Ford, now have their own show on You Tube. That doesn't bother me at all. If they want to share broadcast space with farting frat boys and dogs playing the piano, good luck to them. No, what's interesting is that the day after the show was posted, that is today, I listened to Hogtown radio station CFRB-AM's 9:00am newscast. The lead item was about the Fords and RoFo's always unreliable claims about lowering taxes, creating jobs and so on. CFRB refuted each of the in-name-only mayor's boasts with some actual if inconvenient statistics. That's a level of detail you don't often hear on the morning news. Hmmmm. John Tory works for CFRB. John Tory may or may not declare for mayor. I wonder if, perchance, the two could be related. Nah. I'm being paranoid. Still, I wonder about what he thinks of the arts generally and what his arts policies would look like.
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