Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

This is kind of cool, if deranged. Drawn with a set of colour ball point pens. Reminds me a little of Louis Wain’s cats, but I haven’t completely gone around the bend yet. Writing an odd script for a science fiction comic story. It would be nice to finish that, and actually do something of it. I feel like starting to draw it right away. But I want to get further along in the story, to see if there is a story there. Already, it’s going places I wouldn’t have thought. But, they’re interesting places.

I’ve really had trouble getting work going that isn’t just for a paycheck. But I don’t just want to be a freelance drone, working on other people’s projects. I want to get out some stories of my own. In whatever form. Some of those forms might be surprising, in the future, if I can get certain projects off the ground.

At the moment, they’re just in my head. But it’s a new year, and I have no idea what i’ll be doing for most of it. That’s the kind of life this is.

Sad to hear about the death of Henry Lehman. You can read about it on the Fagstein blog here, along with some writing by him.

There weren’t many art writers working in English in Montreal. So, during the few times I ran into him, at an art opening, or on the street, we could chat and share experiences. Funny, but what we most seemed to share were the occasional mistakes: getting a name wrong, for instance, or some fact. I think, since I was in the same business, he could confess sins to me without fear of judgment.

It’s not always easy being an art critic. Artists and galleries rely on you to get the word out about their shows, but don’t want your opinion to get in the way. On the other hand, readers and editors want an exciting story, or at least to learn a little about art in this city. Hard making a living writing about art, and Lehman did that, for a while. Now he joins the pantheon.

I’ve been avoiding writing about this, because it hit me hard, when I heard about it last July 31. Didn’t want to announce it before the obituary came out, because I didn’t want to be the crow, the one bearing that news.

Sad, because Sonja, along with her partner Geof, who ran Zymergy Magazine, plus a poetry press, were among my first and longest-running literary friends in Montreal. They sort of picked me up when I went to an open reading, having just gotten to the city and didn’t know anyone. The crowd didn’t receive my Calgary short stories very well, but those two took me in. Very funny and strange people. With fingers in a lot of pies in the Montreal lit community. It’s difficult to think of Sonja without Geof, Geof without Sonja. They were a duality.

Anyhow, now that she’s gone, I think she’s joined that pantheon of dead poets that I remember. Ruth Taylor, Artie Gold, Robert Allen. They’re purified now, in memory. Unhappy I won’t see her again, but there are those memories. Dinners at Amelio’s Pizza, her crazy cats. Driving around Montreal, and hearing stories of the oddballs who submitted to her poetry press.

She was very private and urban, almost agoraphobic. Still, I mostly ran into her with Geof downtown in shopping malls, which show up in her poems a lot. (see link below)

http://www.coraclepress.com/chapbooks/skarstedt/abundances.html

Anyways, that’s it. I’m not so sure about an afterlife, reincarnation, or heaven, but she lives on in the memories of those who knew her.

Nice article from the Gazette about Sonja: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Sonja+Skarstedt+definitely+Montreal+poet/1864470/story.html

I wish I could find this Gazette “Lifestyle” photo spread from the 90s showing Montreal women poets, including Sonja, wearing the latest fashions. Good for a giggle, anyhow.

Nora Small Cat ™ has her own filing system, of which she is very proud. Actually, she was unhappy when I sealed away my own files, because she had a habit of shredding them to make a little hideaway. So I made her a decoy box of scrap paper, and she’s happy with that, because she can’t read.

I’m happy, because I also dealt with the piles of paper that were spread everywhere around here threatening to overwhelm. Putting them into one big pile, and then sorting that into easy-to-remember (I hope) categories, which then go into their own folders inside the cabinet.

This something exciting which I’ve been sitting on. But the embargo is over, so i can tell you about it now. Background on the court case here: http://erdc.ca, (UPDATE: and check “News and Announcements” for an impromptu history of the action thus far.) It’s taken us about 12 years to get to this step (one of the other side’s tactics was to delay, and we’ve had our own setbacks on our side). This is “authorization,” which means the Quebec Supreme court recognises that we have a case. Now it can go to trial.

It’s an historic time for Canadian freelancers!

Here’s the press release:

QUEBEC SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO CLASS ACTION OVER ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION RIGHTS

Link to judgment (in English) http://www.jugements.qc.ca/ (Search for
Superior Court decisions in March 2009 (cour superieure, keyword: ERDC)

Here’s a link from another blog which talks about the hearing which led to the decision, over a year ago: [link]

Link to New York Times Obituary

I grew up with his writing. At one time, tried to read everything he wrote. That would be difficult, considering his rate of production. Still, with all his faults, and his establishmentarianism, he was one of my heroes.

Friskies ™

She’s never far
When dinner time is near.

Soon, I’m ready to serve
This nasty-smelling meal.

by jack ruttan

I think Wallace Stevens would be trembling in his boots — if he wasn’t dead.

Here’s a slideshow of the cats playing around.