by Nathaniel G. Moore

(November 2007)

Lit-related news from around Montreal

Montreal Story is newish from Automatic Vaudeville Studios of Montreal. Highly recommended for anyone in search of deadpan self-referential hilarity (that works on video, and not necessarily in literary journalism). It is described on the Autovaud website as:

Conceived in mere minutes.... shot in a single day... and now a cinematic classic for all time: it's Montreal Story* - a spirited homage to Ozu and The Out-of Towners, wherein a young American couple finds their summer vacation to la belle province commandeered by a gypsy-cab driver with a dubious agenda. Starring New York's premiere celeb couple - PBN's Stu Jenkins and Sharon "Nurse Mindy" Eisman - as well as a handful of AVS brass, Montreal Story is yours to enjoy in the comfort of your own home.

The Recommendations is one of the funniest literary parodies I have ever seen, and should be watched by all those members of the literati who take themselves with two lumps of uncut seriousity. The Recommendations (think The Corrections) is a fictional documentary about Montreal's literary community and a strange and brutal series of events that shakes it to its very core. "Our short-feature comedy about jealousy and revenge in the literary milieu. We finished the film in 2005, showed it in a couple of festivals, got some favourable press attention." Jason Anderson of Toronto's EYE weekly gave it 3 and 1/2 stars.

Could you imagine hiring Automatic Vaudeville to promote your next book? As promoters of actual existing books, we could all take lessons in how to put on an amazing live show and add depth and hysteria to the meek and quotidian world of the book launch. 

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• A relatively new magazine in Montreal that you can find in a variety of clothing and DJ stores on the main is Rage. 
• Ladies Luncheon are always worth visiting, with their high-art gutterisms and social pep talk performances, bordering on that strange line between chandelier swinging and spoken word.
• J.R. Carpenter has a new web writing project called les huit quartiers du sommeil. 
• Vallum Magazine continues to publish their journal online and in print. 
• Matrix’s Literary Hook Up Feed
• Vehicule Press’s blog
• Fortner Anderson on CKUT (90.3 FM) every Thursday evening. Anderson plays recordings of some of his favourite poets and spoken word artists, and will let you know all about other local lit events to come. And Jeffrey Mackie has another poetry-related show on Friday mornings on the same channel. Both worth checking out.
• Distroboto! Get cool small art and book items from a cigarette machine.
• The Pilot Reading Series, the city's premiere live literary soirée is back for a brand new season, getting impressive numbers (80) for their first showcase in late September.

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Expozine, Montreal's only small press, comic and zine fair is expanding it's festival to span two days this year (November 24-25) with more than 229 exhibitors of printed matter in our countries official languages.

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Debut novelist Jeff Parker is off and running with Ovenman (Tin House Books) of which Montreal Mirror's Juliet Waters wrote:

At times, it feels almost a little too inventive. Parker has enough natural talent he could stand to turn down the relentless, distorted, surreal quirkiness a notch. But just a notch. From, let's say, 11 to 10. Anything less would risk nostalgia and if the '90s could be against anything, retroactively, it should be nostalgia.

Visit www.iamovenman.com for original Ovenman music and video.