I'll be heading over to the Mile End this evening to check out Coach House Books' Fall Launch. I'm looking forward to discovering some new authors and poets but I'm most eager to hear Brian Joseph Davis read from his new book of poetry: Portable Altamont.

Literature exploring celebrity and pop-culture may not be everybody's cup of literary tea but it's something I'm fascinated with. I have a love/hate relationship with mainstream entertainment so I was instantly hooked when I read Davis' satires exploring the good, the bad, and the ugly of our celebrity obsessed culture.

If anything, I know I just got a kick out of reading the Swedish chef reciting T.S. Eliot and the poem stating David Lee Roth is actually Phillip Roth's brother. Great stuff!

Some other writers I'd recommend who have successfully bridged "high" and "low"culture or explored the beauty of the popular/everyday are Leonard Cohen (for his difficult masterpiece Beautiful Losers) and the poems of Frank O'Hara (especially his ode to Marilyn Monroe, "The Day Lady Died".)


Coach House Books - Fall Launch - Montreal Edition

starring:

Adrian Michael Kelly
Howard Akler
Brian Joseph Davis
Sherwin Tjia

special guests:

Larissa Andrusyshyn
Wanda O'Connor
Anastasia Jones
Ian Goodman

hosted by: Jon Paul Fiorentino
Sunday, October 30th
The Green Room (5390 St. Laurent)
readings start at 8pm

www.chbooks.com