You know it’s spring in Ottawa when the festival announcements start popping up faster than the crocuses. WestFest‘s schedule is out, the Jazz Festival lineup came out yesterday, and Bluefest’s is expected next week… The FolkFest and others won’t be far behind! If you’re like me and missed the Rich Aucoin show last night (I blame spacey-Wednesday-afternoon-brain), thankfully there are plenty of shows to console us. And what better show to do this than Raekwon (of Wu-Tang Clan fame) at Ritual? Also this evening is Tarun ‘Tspoon’ Nayar’s album release... | Continue reading article

Peter Gibbon is a poet/editor/former Ottawan. His most recent chapbook was entitled Eating Thistles, published by Ottawa’s Apt. 9 Press. He will be launching a new small print magazine entitled Conduit in the spring of 2011. Marble is the cross-section of a cloud. What, then, if the forms we know are sections of a full body whose dimensions are timeless and bodiless, like poems, whose unseen dimension is the mind? - Louis Dudek, from Poems from Atlantis In his introduction to The Long Poem Anthology, Michael Ondaatje pontificated on a... | Continue reading article

Fans of music history, you are in for a treat. Well-respected music critic, Alex Ross, is making a special stop next Sunday at the NAC as part of their ‘Musically Speaking’ series. The New Yorker writer and blogger will draw from his latest book Listen to This as well as his extensive music collection to trace recurring motifs, trends, riffs and bass lines across nearly a millennium of music in his talk “The Lamento Sessions: Bass Lines of Music History.” Alex Ross became The New Yorker‘s music critic in 1996.... | Continue reading article

Ah, the first full weekend in 2011. The perfect time to reward yourself for keeping all of those well-intentioned resolutions so far, after a busy week of fitting in those 6am workouts and cutting out all trashy tv. And unless you resolved to avoid all things fun and exciting, you shouldn’t have to worry about breaking any of those resolutions this weekend. Kicking off the new year is a plethora of new art shows. There are three vernissages just tonight – Enriched Bread artist Joyce Westrop will be exhibiting her... | Continue reading article

There’s one thing I definitely love about Ottawa in the spring: it’s just! so! green! Even if gardens aren’t your thing, it’s hard not to appreciate the bright spring colours. It just so happens that my ancestral home, in the continued tradition, has sent over the usual batch of bulbs, leading to a plethora of tulip celebrations. If you want something more exotic, check out this unusual plant sale. Patios are also opening up around town – the question at Apt613 headquarters is whether last year’s chichi favourites will stay... | Continue reading article

By long-time Ottawan Samantha Everts, who ended up out west for love but quickly came back to the city she truly adores. It’s that time of year again!  Yes, friends, April 22-27 is the time when dozens of brilliant writers crawl out of their offices and studies into the spotlight to answer their dear readers’ questions and offer insight into the writing life. The 13th annual Ottawa International Writers Festival promises to offer up a wide range of subjects, including fiction, non-fiction, film screenings (Naked Lunch, anyone?) and poetry, from... | Continue reading article

Certain body parts are said to have a mind of their own. You know the ones I’m talking about: those appendages that like to remind you that the fun comes now and the consequences later. If they could talk, would they be remorseful for all the trouble they caused, or would they just start blabbing about all the fun you could be having but aren’t? Nadine Thornhill, an award-winning poet, playwright, blogger and actor, is about to have that very intimate conversation. As the feature act in this month’s edition... | Continue reading article

Good afternoon transit fans! We love talking about public transit. We actually launched Apartment613 in the midst of the transit strike last year – so complaining about public transit is really part of our blogging DNA. If you’re interested in a more smarty pants an actually intelligent discussion on the transit issues facing Ottawa you can now download the Journal of Public Transit in Ottawa online here. The Journal of Public Transit is a community reviewed publication offering independent analysis from interested writers, researchers and members of the informed public.... | Continue reading article

ABSTrACTS/RéSuMÉS: An Exercise in Poetry Presented by The A B Series and The Ottawa Art Gallery Doors open 7pm / Reading at 7:30pm Thursday, January 28, 2010 Club SAW 67 Nicholas Street Ottawa Free admission / donations accepted ~~~ Poets perform works inspired by Michèle Provost’s installation ABSTrACTS/RéSuMÉS in the context of the exhibition Fibred Optics Featuring poets: jwcurry John Lavery Pearl Pirie Carmel Purkis Sandra Ridley Grant Wilkins Hosted by Max Middle For more information ABSERIES dot ORG

This review of the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair is courtesy of Jeremy Hanson-Finger, an editor at the Moose and Pussy, Carleton’s best (and only) erotic literature magazine. Despite attending two funerals this week, rob mclennan, the Frank Zappa of the Ottawa literary scene (moustache-wise, at least), was in a remarkably chipper mood last Saturday about the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair and the future of small presses in general. mclennan, a local  poet and fiction writer, is a fervent supporter of small presses – the local, independent labels of... | Continue reading article