McSweeney’s List (26 April, 2023)
This week's McSweeney's (Play)List is a mix of the bands playing at L'Escogriffe this Saturday.
Social media is a breeding ground for fads. Think about how prominent the "white or blue dress" meme was in actual, factual, real, live conversations -- ever so briefly. Or how everything was cake (my Insta algo still catches me off guard with this one). I have neither the interest, nor the bandwidth to keep up with Tik Tok fads, the turnover of which appears to be hourly, or less.
As quickly as they proliferate, they fall from popularity (seriously Instagram, why is this microwave a cake in 2023?!). Some fads deserve more time than they’ve received, and so allow me to remind you of the all-too-brief rise of the Shelfie. (I can hear Andrew Jamieson shouting, “What?!” at this moment.)
It is what it sounds like: a picture of your shelf. Don't show me someone else's shelf, that's some bullshit. While I prefer book shelfies, the term also applies to any collection on a shelf, the collection able to say a lot about a person.
The term was added to dictionary.com on July 1, 2020. I don't need to remind you where we were then, but reading the titles on the spines of the books behind journalists who were filming from home quickly became a favoured pastime of mine. I'm a book lover, and also a book voyeur.
My childhood home was filled with books. Six foot shelves lined the hallway, and there was one in the bathroom, too. My parents were hoarders, so it's not a romantic vision, but I do remember the way books were treated less as a luxury, more as a necessity. Reading was encouraged, libraries were magical fairylands, spaces in which you could explore subjects and styles for free, one book leading organically to the next.
Meanwhile, Creative Director Andrew Jamieson tells me his family's rule was that only books you had finished could go on your shelf, like trophies, whereas unread books had to be kept separate, as reminders to read them. I read somewhere that Salman Rushdie was raised to believe that if a book touched the floor, he was to kiss it in respectful apology. It's fair to say that no other person in our era has personally given so much to defend the free, written word.
Which leads nicely into Andrew and I talking about e-books versus the tangible, traditional form.
We were texting when he wrote me the ever nebulous "Hmm…", and I waited for his 3 dots to clarify, ready to catch flack for my habit of bootlegging digital content. "I'm morally opposed to e-Books", finally popped across my screen (followed quickly by the statement that he also hates screens). "They're not books…it's just words in sequence…a book is a physical object."
Years ago I read How Are Things? A Philosophical Experiment by Roger Pol Droit. It's an interesting book in which the author (an actual “professional” philosopher!!!), challenges himself for a full year to contemplate the nature of the objects we take for granted. It begins with consideration for the ancient concept of a bowl, and how the invention changed humanity, continuing to act to this day as a vessel of security and the promise of nourishment. It ends with him having trouble holding it all together as objects take on too much meaning and his reality struggles to stay solid under that weight. No matter. (Editor’s Note: Don’t sound like an asshole here while you’re recording this.) The point is, I read it in its tangible form (there was no other option at the time), and I imagine reading it on a screen would've created an inescapable disconnect from the topic at hand. This all popped into my head when presented with the book versus non-book question.
My first instinct is to agree that they aren't books as we've known them, but they are the contents of books. As someone who can proudly distinguish between the smells of new books, used books, and library books (weird flex, I know), I assure you, words on a screen are sterile in so many ways. They lack the infinite textures of paper, the variety of bindings, each opening just so (and in well loved books, opening to the most favoured passages).
Andrew's books are littered with thoughtfully placed Post-it notes, and beautiful penmanship in the margins. To read a text from his library is to read it as he saw it.
I'm trying to assimilate that habit: having been raised to not write in books and to highlight only textbooks I had purchased, my reading has persisted without footprints to look back on. I wonder what a thirteen year old me might have underlined when I first encountered Atwood through her Bluebeard's Egg story collection. I imagine my impressions from then would make me smile wistfully now, whatever they were. Or when I read my first Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and it took me forever because I had never read anything like it, and it blew my adolescent mind. It fucking did.
E-books (e-texts? Digital Documents of Book Origin?) allow me to pull up all the sections I've highlighted, reading my favorite hits. For better, or for worse, I copy lines and take screenshots, sending them to friends and social networks. My Soul Sister / Hetero Life Mate Shannon (HI, SHENANIGANS!!!) also eschews screens and virtual books. She sends me pictures of passages she's reading, and it never crossed my mind that these might be better, or worse, than a screenshot; it's the intimacy of being touched by language, and wanting to share it with someone who might also share in that typically private joy.
I'm comforted having a veritable library in my pocket. In a moment of down time I can read a page instead of connecting 3 candies, or whatever we're doing on our phones now. I also get this sense of panic, a feeling of my realest self being washed away by years of administrative tasks and fake smiles, a stunning sculpture eroded into a tough mask indistinguishable from those surrounding it, suddenly aware that they had all been sculptures once….anyway, when that one hits me, a good poem or narrative can be the rope I cling to. And on my phone, I can do it immediately. Might I add that if you understand this feeling, it is important to surround yourself with people who assure you that this is not at all dramatic, and is indeed quite natural. When Milan Kundera saved my life last week, no one I told batted an eye.
Of course I have good ol' fashioned books. I can't imagine a world in which I don't. I've streamline my collection over the years, finding it easier to part with books than it once was. There will never be enough space for all the books I want, and I've schlepped too many books for too many kilometres to take the idea lightly. I've been carrying one of my books for 36 years, in fact, and I will continue to do so. It's the poetry text for kids that my grade 2 teacher gave me. She told me she’d been teaching from it for 27 years, and she wanted me to have it. And she wanted a signed copy of my first novel(!), she told 8 year old me, with my crazy long pigtails, and too many teeth for my mouth.
That's something I couldn't have gotten from an intangible. Only an object can really be an amulet. Monuments are made of stone, not memories.
It's also an important reminder that as you are what you eat, your thoughts become your life. The quality you put in, becomes the quality that comes out, even if in direct rebellion to the input. None of us think, or create, or live in a vacuum. What you let in, through screens, or pages, or eyeballs, or conversations, becomes the mana your existence is continually created from.
Surround yourself with people who's recommendations you trust. Trade tangible books and meaningful passages. Join forces and shit talk about audio "books" and their horrible voice acting.
Pairs Well With: Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins
An exciting evening of comically absurd thoughts and half naked performance art.
Performances by Elspeth Wright , Marissa Blair, Maxine Segalowitz, Ilana Belfer, Daniel Carin and introducing Robyn Ellison in their debut performance art performance.
The Weird and Powerful Mina Minou is headlining, and you don't wanna miss her, I promise.
Hosted by Miss Pretty Prentious and her alter ego Natasha Perry-Fagant.
WHAT: Absurd Thoughts and Weird Tits
WHERE: The Diving Bell Social Club, 3956 St. Laurent Blvd. 3rd Montreal, H2W 1Y3
WHEN: Friday, April 28 Doors-7:30PM Show-8:00PM
METRO: Mont Royal (Orange)
TIX: Eventbrite
Pairs Well With: I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) by Chuck Klosterman (Thanks, Andrew)
Villains make stories happen. They are the Evil that Good must overcome, the monsters we must chase from under the bed. They're also pretty sexy. We low key love them for doing and saying the things we won't.
WHAT: Comedy Villain 2 (Montreal Show)
WHERE: L'Option Musique, 4671 St Laurent Blvd., Montreal, H2T 1R2
WHEN: April 28
METRO: Laurier (Orange)
TIX: Eventbrite
Pairs Well With: Acid For The Children By Flea
If you need to punk up your weekend, this show's for you!
"Garage-Pop Provocateurs", none of whom are named Wesley. They're "mixing the perfect combination of weird-and-catchy, with a large emphasis on DIY habits".
Sounds like Sloan and The Cure made music babies.
Montrealer starts pandemic art-punk project, and now it's a whole ass band. Kudos.
This album smells like sweaty leather and beer spilled on flannel. Hubba
Ok, these Montrealers only have a single on Spotify, so while that's included on this week's McSweeney's (Play)List, you're better checking them out on Bandcamp. They've got much more stuff there that I think serves them better, including live recordings, so you know what you'll actually get. Dirty ol'punk; that's what you're getting. And that's always a good deal in my books.
I think these are the headliners. They're bringing poppy punky rock all the way from Sweden (but when you bring that much Montreal talent to the stage with you, I will I'm fact cover you). They've been at this for a bit, and they have a catchy vibe for the less than hardcore among us.
In The Year Of Our Lord 2023
WHERE: L’Escogriffe Bar Spectacle, 4461 Saint Denis St., Montreal, H2J 2L2
WHEN: Saturday, April 29
METRO: Mont Royal (Orange)
INFORMATION:
Pairs Well With: The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams
The first FringeMTL social event of the season is here! Join the fun at their first in-person live auction since 2019!
Adam Reider is returning as our guest auctioneer (he's a cool dude, and absolutely perfect for the gig!).
Get yourself prezzies while supporting Fringe! They'll be auctioning off goodies from
Your favorite Montreal restaurants, clothing stores and venues, including: Vivace Restaurant, LOPEZ, Centaur Theatre, Ezkapaz (société de création d'expériences immersives), Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Naada Yoga, The Word Bookstore and more!
Stop in to say hi, have a drink, and let's get this year's Fringe BUZZING!
WHAT: Fringebuzz Auction
WHERE: Eglise Santa Cruz, 60 rue Rachel W.,, Montreal, H2W 1G3
WHEN: Saturday, April 29, Doors @ 7PM
METRO: Mont Royal (Orange)
INFORMATION: Facebook
GRATUIT / FREE
Accessibilité / Accessibility :
Il y a 6 marches pour se rendre jusqu’à la salle.
There are 6 steps to get to the venue.
McSweeney’s List drops every Wednesday with the best events to catch each week in Montreal. Don’t forget to SUBMIT YOUR EVENT to be listed!
