Wednesday 22 October 2014

The Afterword

From Tuesday, October 21 to Friday, October 24, I am the guest editor and columnist of The Afterword for the National Post.

The first column is about one of my important artistic influences -- Devo!
A Brief History of Devo, Part 1: 
On October 12th, Devo performed a free concert in New York’s Times Square for the CBGB Film and Music Festival in celebration their new film Hardcore Devo Live that premiered in the festival on Friday, Oct. 10. Filmed at Oakland’s historic Fox Theatre, the film documents a performance from last summer’s ten-city tour featuring the band’s “hardcore” material: avant-garde proto-punk songs originally recorded between 1974 and 1977, many of which hadn’t been performed in almost 40 years. 
Coincidently, in the author photo on the back of my latest book, I am wearing a Devo T-shirt. It’s not just an expression of my admiration for the groundbreaking — and often misunderstood — new wave band; it’s a tip of the hat to one of my important artistic influences. 
Read the rest here

The second column continues my profile of Devo. 

Last month, Neil Young premiered the director’s cut of his 1982 cult film Human Highway at the Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, the film stars Young, Dennis Hopper, Sally Kirkland, Russ Tamblyn, Dean Stockwell, and all five members of Devo as hapless inhabitants of Linear Valley, a small town about to be destroyed by nuclear war. 
Devo appear in the film as workers at Linear Valley’s nuclear power plant. It’s a compelling bit of casting as the band’s dark humour and foreboding philosophy of de-evolution dovetail seamlessly with the film’s odd vibe and apocalyptic premise.
Read the rest here

More to come.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

A Celebration for Gordon Lightfoot: Monday, November 17th.

On Monday, November 17th, I will be one of the poets reading a poem in honour of Gordon Lightfoot at Hugh's Room to celebrate Gordon Lightfoot's birthday and the launch of the anthology 50+ Poems for Gordon Lightfoot. Music by Jory Nash & Friends. Tickets available at Hugh's Room.



A review in Lemon Hound

Writer Diego Bรกez has written a review of my new book for Lemon Hound. Here's a snippet: 

"Like Y2K survivalists and street corner preachers, Paul Vermeersch seems to insist the apocalypse has been upon us for a while, now... he brandishes a hallucinatory aesthetic, truly visionary, akin to controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier, and fashion wunderkind Alexander McQueen: morbid and glorious, extravagant, obscure, with an almost taxidermic fixation on the sublime and horrifying." 

Read the rest here


Monday 20 October 2014

Did you know I also paint?

I've added a section to my website to showcase my paintings. I don't have a lot of time to paint, but I'm glad to be doing it again after a long hiatus. There are only two paintings there now, but I will add new paintings to the site as they come.





Thursday 16 October 2014

The Wilhelm Scream

I've written an ode to my favourite movie sound effect. "The Wilhelm Scream" is up on NewPoetry.ca today.


And here is a compilation of the the Wilhelm scream in action:



Wednesday 15 October 2014

Review of Don't Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something in Q&Q

"Demonstrating remarkable virtuosity and range, Vermeersch here assumes the mantle of the prophetic, post-apocalyptic poet, and the poems suitably offer a paradoxical mix of cynicism and hope."
-- Jason Wiens reviewing Don't Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something in the new issue of Quill & Quire.



Thursday 9 October 2014

The Casual Optimist rounds up a bunch of birds!

I was very happy to see my book in Dan Wagstaff's round up of avian-themed book covers on the Casual Optimist blog recently.






Wednesday 8 October 2014

I've never been called a "Teen Idol" before. A report on my book launch...

I'm grateful to The Town Crier and to Domenica Martinello for a spirited review of my book launch and happy appraisal of the last ten years of my writing.

The first living Canadian poet that ever fascinated me wasn’t Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, or even my fellow Montreal-native Leonard Cohen; it was Paul Vermeersch. The year was 2007 and I was a bright-eyed 16-year-old. It was a time before I knew how to frame poetry as ‘contemporary’ or ‘lyrical’ or as anything other than straight verse. My boyfriend was taking an acting class where he was assigned a poem and asked to translate its emotional resonance into some sort of performance piece, and I was asked to take a look.
The poem was “Lambs"....

You can read the entire article here.