Just a short post. A few months ago I was featured on Not Your Mother’s Poetry, a radio show out of CKXU in Lethbridge. In case you missed the show, I’m proud to present it here as a podcast: songs, interview, and poems.

The interview for this show was conducted in a non-standard way. Blaine stuck me in a room with a microphone, gave me a list of words to respond to, told me to talk until I was done, and then left the room.

Listening to this broadcast is hard for me because it exposes me a real, rather than perfect. I stammer through the interview, lost in some of my thoughts. Regardless, I believe I communicate my perspective and ideas in a way you’ll enjoy. So, this podcast might be enjoyable for your transit ride or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

You can download the podcast here by right clicking on the file name and then selecting save. Note: it might take a few minutes to download.

I’ve intended to provide an update on my twitter poems, however I wanted to share this picture first.

Adam—a Calgary based Developer/Tester—follows me on twitter. As part of his technological adventures, he used my twitter poems as test data and tracked the frequency of the words I used. The size of the word in this image is relative to the number of times that it appears in my twitter poems.

As you can see, words, back, now, and night are my most frequently used words. I can’t decide if I am happy to learn about my repititions or a little disappointed that none of the words are utterly distinctive. I guess tiger is farily unique.

If you click on the image, you can see it in full size.

Last year, I watched The Darjeeling Limited three times in theatre and There Will Be Blood twice. This year, I’ve not found myself attracted by any great films . . . until now.

Synecdoche, New York
deserves high praise. I just returned from watching the film a second time and feel compelled to evangelize you about it. Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich fame), this detailed work of art elecits the full range of human emotions in the viewer. Philip Seymour Hoffman brings the full force of his impeccable talent to Caden Cotardrole—the lead character of the film.

Synecdoche, NY maintains Kaufman’s surrealist leanings and speaks powerfully about the fear and inevitablity of death, as well as the importance and absurdity of art. I understand the movie to relate art to death. While the work an artist produces may immortalize the creator, even inspiring the creator towards the continuation of life (despite its horrors and absurdities), art also frusterates and haunts the creator because, like death, the individual does not possess complete control over that which should be uniquely and solely his or her own. Our death and our art are not our own. Yet, through a process of relinquishing perceived control and desire to control, the individual looses art (and the self?) to lead the creator towards the ineffable creation—the unknown and unarticulated ideal striven towards yet never attained.

I also wonder if Kaufman makes a theological statement in the movie too. For creation to be possible, gods must submit themselves to their creation . . .

I have more thoughts on this film and I’d love to discuss it with you on or offline. Go see it in theatres!

As already noted I was featured on Spotlight on Jazz and Poetry—a radio show based out of Philidelphia, which also streams online. This was the first show to feature Canadians. I was in great company with Mary Pinkoski, the CBC Poetry Faceoff champion for 2008.

Simply because you might be impatient, I’ve made the audio of my sections of the show available in the audio player below. I’ll post the whole show soon.

Bio

High Margins (working version)

“unspeak the tomb”

Notes Towards the Wailing Wall

Power

I’m pleased to announce that, from November 9-15, I will be featured on Spotlight on Jazz and Poetry—a radio show out of Philadelphia that pairs poets and jazz artists like wine and good company.

SOJP will also include jazz musician Yves Léveillé and poet Mary Pinkoski. I met Mary at the South Country Fair this summer; she was the 2008 national champion of the CBC Poetry Faceoff.

You can listen to SOJP live (or, if you miss the show, archived) here.

If you really can’t wait, here’s a YouTube video of me reading some twitter poems, which I uploaded today:

Lastly, I thought you might appreciate the bio that SOJP is using for me:

Leif Baradoy was born in Banff, Alberta, Canada—in the heart of the Rocky Mountains—in 1981. Raised by a pentacostal christian and an atheist, Leif grew up in the small village Seebe (population 100) and attended a one room school house. Living in the Rocky Mountains instilled in Leif a love for nature, silence, wandering, and solitude.