GREETINGS!

Hi! Steve Sauvé here, and I'd like to welcome you to the website for whirred: poetry for your ears, a multimedia CD-based 'zine dedicated to promoting the diverse talents in the Ottawa spoken word scene. That's quite the mouthful, so if you want a detailed description of what whirred is a good place to start would be here.

NEWS

JUN 25, 2004 (00:32): Been a long time since I updated. I've got a really good excuse, though: I spent three-and-a-half months in the hospital. During this time, I had one of the valves of my heart replaced twice and was moments away from death on a few occassions. Obviously I survived (I've been out of the hospital for almost a month and a half now), but the length of time I spent out of commission has lead me to make the very difficult decision to put the whirred project on an indefinite hiatus. I am still just as committed to this project as before, but I have to shift my priorities in order to ensure I stay, um, alive. The first CD probably won't surface until some time in 2005 now.

I intend to remain active in the poetry community throughout my rehabilitation. In fact, I'll be the featured poet at Golden Star Lounge tonight (Friday). To stay up to date on my spoken word adventures, come to my brand-spankin'-new blog. I have also started a page up on ZeD.

JAN 18, 2004 (16:00): Spoken Words Broken Brushes has changed dates and times! From now on, the event will be on the first Wednesday of the month and start at 7:00 pm. Please make note of this. This also means that the show previously scheduled for Sunday, February 1st will now be on February 4th.

In other news, for those of you who've been dying of curiosity over who's going to be in the first installment of whirred: poetry for your ears, your wait is over! Head on over to see who's involved. (N.B. There are still a couple poets who may appear on the CD but are not yet listed)

JAN 10, 2004 (14:00): My first night hosting Spoken Words Broken Brushes turned out fairly well. It could definitely have gone smoother, but I didn't have an anxiety attack and there were no civilian casualties, so I think all in all it was a success and I can't wait for next month.

For those who are interested, I will be on John Akpata's new radio show Monday Night Scribes on Monday, January 12th at 10:00 pm on CHUO FM (89.1). If you do not live in the Ottawa area, you can still tune in from anywhere in the world via CHUO's live audio stream.

JAN 2, 2004 (14:00): Here's a quick reminder that I'll be hosting Spoken Words Broken Brushes this Sunday at 8:00 pm at the Mercury Lounge. Are you nervous? I'm nervous...

DEC 15, 2003 (01:57): So, the release party for Thursday Heroes: Live at Café Nostalgica was held on Saturday, December 13th. It was a blast, especially for those of us who stayed to the end at 3:30 in the morning. The CD is available for $15 at Café Nostalgica (603 Cumberland St. on the University of Ottawa campus). Here's the track list:

1. Ronnie Deschênes, "Wail, Wail, Scream and Sail"
2. Trevor Tchir, "Thursday Heroes"
3. Graham Greer, "To Whom It May Concern"
4. Kris Northey, "Pulsenation"
5. Peter Webb, "Victory Gin"
6. Emile Pelletier, "Makin' Time of Living"
7. Amanda Charlotte Earl, "Drum Poem"
8. Purple, "Sweet Baby Jesus"
9. Phil Lafrenière, "Great Big Smile"
10. Marc Spooner, "Leaky Faucet/The Laff"
11. John Gillies, "Sun of the South"
12. John Carroll, "Avant Gardener"
13. Steve Sauvé, "Sweetest Marie"
14. Patrick Ang, "Trisha's Song"
15. Max Middle, "(excerpt from) A Creation Song"
16. Lighthousekeepers, "Matador"
17. Straight No Chaser, "Stellar Voyage"
18. Kristy McKay, "Canadian Hoochie Mamas"
19. Antoine Kerninon, "Tomorrow's News Today"

I highly recommend the CD, and not just because I'm on it. Thursday nights at Café Nostalgica are amazing... This CD does an incredible job of capturing the magic that goes on there. Of course, to really get the full experience you should go there.

DEC 8, 2003 (17:05): For those who weren't at Spoken Words Broken Brushes last night, here's the surprise I was telling you about earlier: I'm the new host and organizer! That's right: Drew the Drunken Dragon has stepped down and asked me to take over the event for him, an opportunity I was not about to pass up. As many people know, SWBB is my favourite event in the city... I am deeply honoured that Drew has chosen me as his successor. While the event will undoubtedly go through several changes as time goes on and I become more and more comfortable in my new role, it will always stay true to Drew's vision as "a space where folks of all kinds can express themselves in a friendly and open environment." Drew has assured me that he will continue to attend the event regularly. I do not expect my duties for SWBB to interfere with my efforts on producing whirred, and it's still on track for a Q1 2004 release. Watch this site for announcements regarding SWBB until I get around to giving the event it's own website, and thanks again, Drew!

DEC 5, 2003 (14:15): Just a quick update... I added Golden Star Lounge to the "where to hang" page as promised earlier. I've also added a link to the Canadian Spoken Word Olympics website and added some more hypertext here and there around this site.

DEC 2, 2003 (12:00): I'm trying to get back into fairly regular updates of the website, but with the submission deadline approaching I'm spending what little free time I have trying to make sure that all of my contributors are staying on track. That being said, it has also become less of a priority to immediately update the submissions section because I have a lot of artists signed on now and I really don't need anymore at this time.

In other news, I went to the Golden Star Lounge on Friday and it was awesome! I would like to thank Anthony Bansfield (a.k.a. the nth digri) and everyone else involved for putting on a wonderful show. There'll be a bit of a break during the holidays, but it'll be back in February and normally occurs on the last Friday of the month at the African Palace Restaurant. See the website for details; I know it's definitely going to be a regular destination for me! Expect to see it added to my "where to hang" page when I get the chance.

Another event of interest is MediumRAW at Café Nostalgica on Saturday, Dec. 6th at 7 pm. This will be the third installment of the series and it sounds really interesting: poetry, experimental music, a comic book jam... I'm expecting (and looking forward to) utter chaos. Check out the Human Hybrid Media Headlines page for details.

Don't forget the events I've been pushing all along, either! The Café Nostalgica Open Stage goes on every damn Thursday at 8:30 (although, call it a hunch, I doubt they'll be open Christmas and New Years). They will soon be releasing a CD entitled Thursday Heroes: Live at Café Nostalgica which includes tracks from several of the poets and musicians that have performed on their open stage. I'm one of the people appearing on the CD, and there are a few other poets on this CD who will also appear on whirred (hint, hint). The next Spoken Words Broken Brushes will be this Sunday... I've got some interesting and exciting news about that, too, but you'll have to wait to find out what it is. I've got a secret, I've got a secret... For more info on the Café Nostalgica Open Stage and Spoken Words Broken Brushes, you can (as always) check here.

NOV 19, 2003 (19:55): I haven't forgotten the promised updates! However, I'm currently working 13 hour shifts at work. Combine that with commute time and meals and it's a wonder I had time to post this quick little note between sleep and work! I will update when I get the chance; In light of the recent changes I mentioned in the November 14th post below, the submissions page will probably be completely rewritten. I didn't like the way it was organized, anyway. More later!

NOV 14, 2003 (21:00): Miss me? I know it's been a while since the website has been updated, but the project has not been abandoned. I've been working hard at getting more poets signed on for the inaugural issue of whirred, and let me tell ya: the current cast of performers is stellar. I'm really excited with how this is developing. The final product will be well worth the wait...

Speaking of waiting... Over the past month I've put a lot of thought into the work involved with putting all of this together, and I've come to several conclusions:

1. I have never tackled a project of this size and scope before. I may face unexpected obstacles on the road to completion. Releasing the first issue of whirred one month after the submission due date may very well prove to be an unrealistic goal. Thus, I have rescheduled the release of issue one to occur within the first quarter of 2004. You may also notice that I have removed references to whirred as being a "quarterly" 'zine for the same reason.
2. In my e-mails to several contributors, I gave a submission deadline of November 30th. I am now extending that to December 31st because there are still many people interested in submitting and I have room for a few more tracks.
3. While I would really like the artists to come up with some cool ideas of their own for the enhanced portion of the CD, it's become obvious that it wouldn't hurt to provide some concrete suggestions. I will soon add detailed requests and suggestions for multimedia submissions in the submission guidelines.
4. I have come up with a slew of new ways to submit your work, including videotaped performances! This will also appear in the submission guidelines as soon as possible.

OCT 19, 2003 (23:45): It's been a couple days, so I thought I'd update the site to let y'all know how things are going. Word about whirred is starting to get out, thanks in part to the folks at Bywords.ca and the Writers' Deadline!! mailing list. We've even gotten our first unsolicited link—local poet Pearl Pirie was kind enough to mention whirred on her site, Page Half-Full Poems. Check out her poetry and "humanyms."

I'd also like to thank everybody who's expressed an interest in aiding with this project so far. I've been contacted by several people interested in having their poetry appear on the inaugural issue of whirred, as well as those offering to assist in every level of production, design, and marketing. It's wonderful to see such an enthusiastic response to my ideas and I appreciate all of your support. Keep the comments and submissions coming!

OCT 15, 2003 (02:15): New content on the "What is whirred? Who's involved?" page, including a definition of spoken word that (hopefully) adequately describes what I'm looking for in submissions. Lots of other non-website-related work behind the scenes as I march towards making whirred a reality (while taking the occasional break for a pint of Guinness along the way).

OCT 12, 2003 (13:20): Oops! I had forgotten to put audio export settings in the submission guidelines. Just made a quick fix there and changed the downloadable guidelines (available here) to reflect the new addition, as well as reformatting the download from Word to RTF. I think RTF has better cross-platform compatibility; I could be wrong...

OCT 12, 2003 (02:00): Last-minute addendum before I go to bed— Since the submission guidelines are so long, I put them in Word format for download. You can get the file here.

OCT 12, 2003 (01:15): Today, the submission page was updated with the information promised yesterday, and I made a few tweaks here and there to improve the website. Any of you out there with some know-how in XML, Javascript, CSS, and the like who would like to volunteer their services to make the website a friendlier environment should contact me. The enhanced portion of the whirred CDs will also incorporate HTML, so your services may be of use there as well. Keep in mind that I did say volunteer, though. As for the rest of the updates I had planned... I think I'll enjoy my birthday first and worry about that other stuff tomorrow. Er, wait— tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Tuesday then...

OCT 11, 2003: Lots of new content is being continually added to the site. Today I have posted detailed submission information here. I hope to have information on recording software and preferred settings, as well as a detailed mission statement and description of exactly what kinds of poetry I am looking for within 24 hours. Of course, tomorrow is my birthday, so all bets are off if anything, uh, interesting happens.

OCT 8, 2003: Despite some initial setbacks, the whirred project is still underway. I am expecting to release the first issue in January of 2004. There are already many local poets who have expressed an interest in paticipating in this unique endeavour, but I could always use more. See the page on contact and submission information if you are interested in having your work appear on the CD.