I admit I'm biased. I love Spartacus Books. I'm part of the volunteer, non-profit collective that runs the store, and every single time I come in to work a shift, I have a surprisingly good time. On my last shift I spent the morning chatting with a co-worker who is brewing mead. Mead! How medieval!!! We discussed all his brews: the "absinthe" batch with wormwood and yarrow; the herbal anti-allergy batch; the cold and flu mead. Then I went about combing through a box of donated records, admiring 70's era Diana Ross, Billy Joel, and Kenny Rogers cover art. It was way more fun than your average shift in retail.

Spartacus has been an integral part of the local activist scene for over 34 years, providing access to books, pamphlets, zines, magazines, and other 'counterculture' sources of information just aren't available anywhere else. After the store burned down in 2004, volunteers put in thousands of hours to rebuild from scratch, eventually renting a new space on the second floor of 319 W. Hastings, one door over from the old location. This week to clear out stock and get the new store on an even financial keel, Spartacus is having a sale. From June 15th till midnight on June 22nd, everything is on sale: 10% off all new books; 30-90% off used books; and, until the store runs out, every kid who comes in gets a kid's book, free.

tall as a telephone pole and as old as the oldest house on
the block the pear tree lights up the whole sky above our alley
every spring and every fall it's a pear a day for every kid who
saunters down the alley -- something round to bite into some-
thing ripe to splatter the nearest garage door with.

Those are the opening lines of the Pear Tree Pomes by Roy Kiyooka, originally published in 1987 by Coach House Press, and paired with David Bolduc's illustrations. When the pear trees were in blossom a couple of weeks ago, and I found myself frequently wheeling by Kiyooka's old house on Keefer Street, I was moved to re-read this book. It's very small in scope (a few seasons meditating on a house and a backyard), yet lovely.

You know how when you go to a book launch they only have out a plate of stale, broken Wheat Thins and wilty, shiny cheddar and you're snackish so you end up eating it anyways, all the while thinking how awesome it would be if there were a way to combine the comfort of food with the comfort of books? Well LUCKY YOU, because tomorrow night is the launch of Arsenal Pulp Press' Comfort Food for Breakups - The Memoir of a Hungry Girl, by Marusya Bociurkiw and as if it's not awesome enough that she's writing about comfort foods, they will also be served for hungry listeners!

I don't know that much about Marusya Bociurkiw, but I like her already. This is what Arsenal has to say about her:

Confessing to anyone that you're a writer can be a harrowing experience. Laughter, faked enthusiasm, and even something akin to ridicule are just some of the things a would-be writer can face. And that's just from family members.

But while New York and Montreal do seem to have the prettier pedigree when it comes to the pencils of Mordechai Richler or Tom Wolfe there's still a few notable resources here in Vancouver for any aspiring professional liar, er, writer.

Read on to find out where...

OK, this is a little last minute --but I just found out that Stuart Ross will be at Pulp Fiction tonight launching his new book, Cut My Finger.

Stuart Ross is the real deal. A fanatical, but at the same time mild-mannered street-poet, Ross began handing out sheets of photocopied poems to passersby on Toronto streetcorners waaaay back, long before 'zines, or slam poetry, or so many other indie poetry distribution and sharing methods had come into vogue.

And he is hilarious. The man has written my single favorite sly-handed ode to the lonely heart personal ad.

In the summer of 2003, eleven prominent Canadian writers and artists were among thirty-seven paddlers who undertook three separate journeys along three of Canada's last wild rivers--the Wind, the Snake, and the Bonnet Plume--which flow into the Peel River and later the Arctic Ocean.

These remote northern rivers include significant habitat for migratory birds and caribou, and their waters are the lifeblood of a vast area of boreal forest ecosystems. But in recent years, the possibility of oil and gas development as well as mineral exploration have put the rivers, and especially the Peel Plateau, under threat--today 1500 scientists from 50 countries issued a declaration asking Canada to preserve more of the boreal forest. To raise awareness of the Three Rivers, CPAWS Yukon is touring a multimedia show of the photography, art, and writing that arose from the river journeys. The exhibition arrives at the VPL Central Branch tonight at 7pm, anchored by a talk from the project's founder, Juri Peepre. Artists Haruko Okana and Brian Brett will also be there.

"Astra castra, numen, lumen munimen!" That's at the top of performance poet Alexandra Oliver's myspace page, and to be honest I don't even know what it means. Something in latin, about light and stars. Meanwhile, a very theatrical, Noel Coward cabaret-type ditty--Long Live the King!--is playing on the page player.

If I didn't know a little about Alexandra, I might be a bit scared .... but actually I admire her. She's not really 'over my head' or 'over the top'. She just has flair, and it's bound to come out tonight at her book launch. The venue, the Forufera Centre, is a dance studio with a fireplace and burgundy curtains, designed to recall a 1920's Parisian salon --a the perfect place to discover a book titled "Where the Housewife Shines."

Tonight's Vancouver Poetry Slam Finals will be one of North America's most hotly contested regional battles. Vancouver has a huge slam poetry scene. With the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships hosted right here just a couple months back, the poetry fusion, passion, and level of practice just keep going up. Tonight, after months of preliminaries, Vancity's top slam poets are fighting it out for slots on Vancouver's team for the National (really North American) Poetry Slam Championships in Austin in August.

Like other Slams, tonight's event will be audience judged. You can walk in to a slam knowing very little and moments later find yourself a judge, holding up scorecards with a raucous crowd surrounding you, hooting and hollering about your decision. This happened to me @ the World's a couple month's ago, and it was a pretty intense experience.

It's tougher today to say exactly where you stand on the whole American 'Defenders of Democracy/Evil Empire' thing. Especially as Canadians who've always had to deal with living on the elephant's back. No matter what your conclusions are, as Canadians there's bound to be some hypocrisy. A lot of left-wingers in Kits still enjoy their Starbucks while a whole wack of right-wingers out in Langley still vote for universal health care.

A good start to finally deciding for yourself is to go and check out Linda McQuaig at the Maritime Labour Centre (1880 Triumph Street) next Tuesday (May 8th) who is going to be reading from her book, Holding the Bully's Coat.

On Saturday night, Canada's most widely-read literary magazine, Geist, celebrates its 64th issue with a party at the Listel hotel (1300 Robson Street) beginning at 7:30. Drinks are a toonie and the food, readings, and merriment are free. And supposedly the artwork and sculptures in the hotel are quite amazing.

Geist is well-loved for its many small treasures. A few immediately come to mind:
-cartoonist Eve Corbel's True Funnies
-the regular lists of regional Canadian words like 2-4, or gumboots
-the sidebar collections of odd words or phrases, such as a complete listing of candy heart slogans,
-the famous back page "Map of Canada" which picks out all Canadian place names that fit a monthly theme, be it menstruation or royalty

Rather than feeling paralyzed by the plethora of upcoming events -- including BC Book and Magazine Week, the North Shore Writer's Festival, and a number of other good readings -- I've decided just this once to do a wee digest of some of my literary picks and pans for the next week.

Firstly, and most low-brow: Did you, or do you, loathe Leah McLaren? For all those who used to squirm, seethe, or squeal as the daughter of Globe and Mail editor Cecily Ross rolled out column after Generation Why column with titles like "Enlightenment comes with balance--and the right clothes" or the classic "Why everyone should be blond like me" -- tonight it's time to meet her successor.

Know what I don't get? I don't get how really specialized little bookstores survive. As much as I love them, I don't know how they manage to stay in business when faced with the Chapters and Borders and Indigo boom. At least, I don't know how they manage it EXCEPT in the case of Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks, which is just so lovely, it can't help but thrive.

Orignally located in Yaletown, then on Granville Island, a 2nd Barbara Jo's recently opened up on W. 2nd Ave.

It. Is. Charming.