I've just spent an amazing few days with a new guy, Hal Niedzviecki. I feel like I know him well, although I've never met him … I've just read his book, We Want Some Too.

Niedzviecki's been barely reviewed in Canada's mainstream press, but the book really seems to be selling well, according to the bookstore clerks I've cornered. The book is subtitled "Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture," and my guess is that Niedzviecki's success is indeed an underground experience.

Best known perhaps as the publisher of the popular 'zine Broken Pencil, Niedzviecki has collected many of his earlier essays into this book, and then constructed a fascinating narrative to tell the story of disenfranchised youth (kids these days), who have a deep desire to create art -- literature, music, sidewalk painting, websites -- even if it's never going to make any money, or earn them popularity and fame. These new, low-key artforms exist, Niedzviecki posits, "to bridge the gap between our products and our lives, a gap that, if it is not closed, causes us either to live life like automatons, unwittingly aping the products we produce and consume in a rote daze, or to live lives of perpetual anxiety, longing and self-disgust, trapped in a world where we hate what we are."

It's interesting to compare We Want Some Too with No Logo, author Naomi Klein's very astute rant against corporate globalism. While she writes effectively about these kids and their rising rebellion against mass consumer culture from the ivory tower, Niedzviecki is covering the same movement from the bottom up. And doing it with a sense of empathy ... and humour. Add to that, lots of good pix PLUS cartoons.

Link:
We Want Some Too

Spring Photography Exhibit
The Central Alberta Photographic Society has established quite a reputation for producing splendid exhibits in the past. They're known for experimenting with different types of cameras to wildly disparate ends. If you're passing though, check out A Class Act until July 9th at the Red Deer and District Museum, Red Deer, Alberta. 4525 - 47a Avenue, Red Deer, Alberta.

Canada's Dance Festival
Tonight kicks off Canada's Dance Festival at the NAC, with a tribute to Edouard Lock. Lock and his internationally acclaimed troupe La La La Human Steps have been together for 20 years. (Isn't that unbelievable?) What's even more remarkable is Lock's place in the modern dance canon. He performed with David Bowie and gave modern dance a "rock 'n' roll sensibility."

If you're looking for Lock's signature just think of those horizontal spins and spectacular crashes. This is the eighth edition of the festival and some other highlights include: James Kudelka's Disembodied Voice (maybe he's hearing Kimberly in his dreams), and Domique Dumais One Hundred Words For Snow inspired by Glenn Gould's music. This is augmented by a generous assemblage of new commissioned works, as well as presenting some of our country's finest dance talent. For more information on this vast festival, visit the Canada Dance website or call (613) 947-7000, ext. 601

Drop me a line.