Cyber Lit: "Adeena Karasick is a Canadian poet/cultural theorist dedicated to breaking boundaries and traditional notions of genre in literature..." Now that may mean little to you, but she's one of hundreds of Canadian artists working with new media to get artistic messages across. She's one of the featured artists on the Canada Council's new website, "Spoken and Electronic Words."

Karasick's Border Control project, encapsulating a CD ROM, a web site, and a performance tour, is one of the Real Audio highlights on the Spoken and Electronic Words program. The program offers grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, to "innovative" public literary performance that are presented live or via media such as CD-ROMs, audio or audiovisual cassettes, the Internet, television or radio. (These projects already online are samples; the system is still taking grant applications.)

Another winner at the site is an audio piece by Montreal performer Ian Ferrier, Exploding Head Man. In some ways, the spoken word movement hasn't changed at all since the beatnik days, except the bongo drums sometimes get augmented -- as in this case -- with some Hendrix-like guitar playing.

And how was Karasick's video? It had that jazzy spoken-word rap to it, filmed on the streets of New York's Alphabet City, and in a more perfect world, MuchMusic would be running her poetry instead of Eminem's.

Fine Tuning: I know, I know ... Every time you turn around I'm walking up and down in cyberspace wearing a sandwich board that reads "Canada: A People's History is SO GREAT" But hey, it is! I'm totally addicted to the series and if the opportunity arises, I intend to buy a copy of the box set. It can sit next to my Twin Peaks collection. So just in case you missed episode eight on Sunday, don't despair. CBC is rerunning the show tonight and don't miss it. It's called The Great Enterprise and covers the years from 1850 to 1867.

Here's the Cole's notes on tonight's historical eye candy: "In a few short years, a handful of small and separate British colonies are transformed into a new nation that controls half the North American continent. The remarkable story of Confederation, its supporters and its bitter foes, is told against a backdrop of Civil War in the United States and a growing determination with Britain to be rid of its expensive, ungrateful colonies. The dawn of the photographic era provides a vivid portrait of the diverse people who make up the new Dominion of Canada - the railway magnates, the unwed mothers of Montreal, the nuns who provide refuge for the destitute, the prosperous merchants of Halifax, the brave fugitives of the Underground Railroad, and the tide of Irish immigrants who flood into the cities."

It's chilling, entertaining stuff. And I'm not kidding. That's Canada: A People's History at 8 PM ET on CBC