Bill Kennedy — poet (Apostrophe, ECW Press 2006), director (Artistic Director of the Scream in High Park), general entertainer, and list maker extraordinaire — has given MONDO a glimpse into his crazy-clever mind with his most recent work: a top ten list exclusive to MONDOmagazine!
Here it is, word for word, for you: Bill Kennedy’s Top Ten Reasons to check out this year’s Scream mainstage!
Top ten reasons I can think of to come out to the final leg of our festival:
10. Our name. We’re the literary equivalent of “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim”. If a festival can last sixteen years with this silly of a name, there must be something going on.
9. Brackets. One of our events — Transl(oc)ations — has brackets in its title. In the eighties, a lot of smart literary types used brackets in this manner, making us retro-chic.
8. Bait-n-switch. We call it a literary festival, but it’s really an elaborate excuse to play Star Trek fan movies and machinima. Somehow we’ve fooled them all.
7. Lily the Pirate. Lily the Pirate has been vlogging the festival on our site (that’s video-blogging for the hopelessly behind) to give a voice to the disinclined and disinterested. Recently, however, she’s been struggling to keep up the ennui and has started attending events. Is Lily the Mikey of 2008?
6. Signs of the Apocalypse. Two years ago, 250 people sat Woodstock-like in hours of driving rain to watch our outdoor mainstage show. Last year, a tornado touched down just west of the city an hour before start time (and 600 brave souls came out in spite). This year, the basement gallery space of Type books flooded, uncermoniously ending our art exhibit. With three signs of the Apocalypse in the books, time may be running out to catch our shows.
5. Glow-sticks. The Bicycles’ considerable kinder-pop fan base have a real fondness for glow-sticks and stuffed animals that double as knapsacks. After The Bicycles play our Gala on Saturday night, we figure that we will have more glow-stick sightings than all other Canadian literary festivals combined, including the IFOA.
4. Gear. Mainstage poet Wayde Compton and his DJ partner Jason de Couto have requested 8 turntables and 2 CD turnables for their 12-minute set. Quick math says that’s a 0.83 turntable-to-minute ratio. We refuse to be outdone in this statistic.
3. Nature. We’ve taken the nature out of nature poetry and put it back where it belongs — outside.
2. Economics. Suggested admission to The Scream in High Park is $10. With thirteen performers that’s like, um… pennies a day. Or something like that (the quick math of #4 was too exhausting).
1. Bears. As in there are none, at least not in High Park. So what are you afraid of? (With apologies to Stephen Colbert.)
Find more at www.thescream.ca
