Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal August Readings

My friend Erick Lyle (of San Francisco, California) and I will be doing readings in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal next week. Soft Skull just published Erick’s book On the Lower Frequencies, most of which was originally published in his long-running zine Scam.

We did a reading together the last time Erick was in Montreal and got rave reviews, so these should be some hot shows.

Come by and check it out!

Toronto: Tuesday, August 19 @ This Ain’t the Rosedale Library (86 Nassau), 6 pm W. Cathy Crowe and Joey Comeau

Ottawa: Wednesday, August 20 @ The Invisible Cinema (319 Lisgar, corner Bank), 7:30 pm.

Montreal: Thursday, August 21@ The Greasy Goose Salon’s “Street Meet” Edition held in front of La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse (4296 St. Laurent, corner Marie-Anne) during the street fair! 7:30 pm W. Alex Megalas and Zoe Stronyk

Tour

Last week I went on a short tour of the American North East roadie-ing for the mighty Black Feelings, who were a total pleasure to travel with and watch every night. All the shows were good and punk. One was in an art gallery in a four story house in Philly. One was in the back room of someone’s birthday party in a loft in Williamsburg and one was in the super organized punk house called the Thunderdome in Providence.

High points include driving around and looking at stuff, seeing old friends in NYC and checking out a bunch of art, including the fucked Murakami show on at the Brooklyn Museum right now. The main low point of the tour was getting disgustingly sick on the second day of tour with a flu that I’m only getting over now.

Thanks to everyone who put us up, esp. Ian and Matt in Brooklyn and everyone else who offered to put me up in NYC. Thanks to Alex in Providence for finding some natural medicine for me and trading zines. And a huge thanks to Owain, Brian and Kyle for bringing me along in the first place and being nice to me when I was ill. Total bros.

Maximumrocknroll

I was heartbroken and living in the suburbs of Tokyo. For many weeks I did nothing but skulk around the local family restaurants, taking advantage of the 100 yen unlimited coffee and reading the few English books I could find at the nearby library.

One day I woke up realizing the one thing that would make me feel better. I took the two hour train ride to Shinjuku station and found my way through the crowded streets to Tower Records. Located on the eighteenth floor of a giant shopping high rise, the third floor of Tower records had floor to ceiling windows that granted one of the most beautiful views of the crowded city. It also had an English magazine rack that sold Maximumrocknroll.

I bought the mag, and with my change bought some inari-zushi from a 7-11 near the train station. On the crowded train home I nearly cried as I read about xLimp Wristx, the singer whom I had interviewed on the last Los Crudos tour. There was also interview featuring the dry wit of Andy, an old pen pal and author of my favourite zine, I’m Johnny and I Don’t Give a Fuck. I savoured every word. Being in Japan was the loneliest time of my life but this magazine became a powerful talisman, reminding me of the rich and tangled community that I was part of back home. I was a punk, godammit, I would get through this shit!

Punk was happening in Tokyo too, of course, but it was hard to figure out where. One night I had tried to enter it but only ended up searching for hours for the club where The Locust and Melt Banana were playing. A helpful record store clerk had even drawn me a map, but the nameless alleys of Tokyo proved to challenging for my rudimentary navigating skills.

The next day I read MRR’s zine column. I almost never bought the magazine at home, but every month I went into the corporate bookstore, picked it off the shelf and read the zine reviews from start to finish, writing down the most appealing titles and addresses in my notebook before putting it back on the shelf. Over the years of doing this I ended up reading some amazing shit. As I circled the best reviews, I thought of how in just a few months I would be home.

All that said, it felt pretty good to get listed in the “Top Ten Zines” column in this month’s issue. Maybe not as good as the first time, when I was seventeen, but still pretty damn good.

New review

Thanks to everyone who came to the reading last week, especially Julian, who was great to share the stage with. Sorry to everyone who got stuck at the back and couldn’t hear me. Next time I’ll use a microphone.

I’m still waiting to see whether Maximumrocknroll and Slug & Lettuce gave the new issue a good review or not. In the meantime, here’s a blurb from Montreal musician Brendan Reed [pictured below].

You can find some of his music and video art here. He also plays in the bands Think About Life, Clues, Let Lowns and I think a dozen more. He writes:

taking all the stock photos for ghost pine zine google searchs

by b d reed

gp was 1st introduced to me at least in 1979 america

and has since remained at the top of my list of hopefuls

stunning + moving and i am, in this year, the next, without hesitation,

a follower and believer and reader, and yeah, reaper and

a keeper of the gifts given by people like and yeah specifically J E [sic.] Miller.

‘forever living’ is a phrase coined and one to live on, guru J Miller.

how does one so often struck by the impulse to, continue in, and divide on endlessly,

a dell, big calculator, and a foaming at the mouth. spun witness.

i love the floor

This Saturday (Jan. 26)

Saturday January 26th 7-9pm @ CAGIBI (5490 st. laurent, coin st. viateur)

JEFF MILLER (Ghost Pine zine)

and

JULIAN EVANS (One Way Ticket)

belatedly celebrate the release of their new zines
with a FREE reading of some kick ass stories.

JOIN US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New year, new issue

Ghost Pine #11: Crows is out now. It’s $3 from me (PO Box 42017 / RPO Jeanne-Mance / Montreal, QC / H2W-2T3 / Canada) or from my distros. Excerpts can be found on the GP 11 page.

Thanks to everyone who came by Expozine to say hi or buy a copy of the new issue. Thanks are also due to those who traded with me. The new issues of One Way Ticket, Special, Two Dollars Comes with Mixtape and QSL USA are all amazing. Michelle Sterling and Jesse B. Staniforth’s new stories collections are equally fine, as is the fimo ghost I bought from Pierre Richardson. I also enjoyed Julie and Debbie’s hilarious No More Mr. Nice Guy zine, which is the sharpest satire of punk and hipster cliches since Erick put out Zine Libs a few years back. And, of course, the best new book I picked up was Louis Rastelli’s fascinating portrait of the Plateau in the late nineties, A Fine Ending. I also managed to pick up a copy of Darren O’Donnell’s mind-blowing Your Secrets Sleep With Me, my favourite Canadian novel, from the Coach House table to replace the copy I lost a long time ago.

Happy new year to everybody. I hope it’s a good one.

Jeff

Here’s a list of some of the best books I read in 2007.

 

Roberto Bolano The Savage Detectives, By Night in Chile, Distant Star and Last Evenings on Earth; George Saunders In Persuasion Nation; Charles D’Ambrosio Orphans; W. G. Sebald The Emigrants; David B. Epileptic; John Porcellino King Cat Classix and Perfect Example; Jaime Hernandez The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.; Jorge Luis Borges Ficciones; Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita; J. M. Coetzee Disgrace; Bruno Schulz The Street of Crocodiles; Grant Morisson, et. al. New X-Men; Thomas De Quincey Confessions of an English Opium Eater; Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre; Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights; Nathaneal West The Day of the Locust; Nicanor Parra Emergency Poems and Poems and Anti-Poems; Thomas Bernhard Wittgenstein’s Nephew

 

This is Ghost Pine

Hi,

I’ve put up stories from the last four issues to read. Hope you enjoy them. These issues are available for $2 ea. (CDN or USD), except for #10 which costs $3. You can order from me:

PO Box 42017 / RPO Jeanne-Mance / Montreal, QC / H2W-2T3 / Canada

or from the distributors I’ve linked to.

Also, to belatedly celebrate the zine’s ten year anniversary (1996-2006) I put together an anniversary pack featuring issues #5-9 and a special GP sticker. Weighing in at well-over 300 pages, the pack costs $10 and is only available from me.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff