Monday, March 17, 2008

OPEN TEXT READING SERIES: LOUIS RASTELLI

Sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts
& the Creative Writing Degree Program at Capilano College

The Spring 2008 OPEN TEXT series at Capilano College continues on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 with a reading by Montreal novelist and small-press organizer, Louis Rastelli:

Library 321 @ 12:30

Capilano College
2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver

LOUIS RASTELLI is the author of A Fine Ending (Insomniac Press, 2007). His writing has appeared in Vice, Clamor, Saturday Night, The Montreal Mirror and numerous other publications, as well as in a series of miniature books of short stories and historical essays. In 2001, Rastelli created the Distroboto network of cultural vending machines, which are former cigarette machines converted to sell local art, crafts, music, film and writing in cafés and bars. In 2002, along with other small publishers, he co-founded Expozine, Montreal’s annual small press, comic and zine fair; he also co-founded Archive Montreal, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the various ephemeral creations that flow steadily out of the independent cultural scene of the city. Since 1996, he has published Fish Piss Magazine, named “Canada’s best zine” by Broken Pencil. He lives in Montreal.


“It’s like Mother Nature’s revenge,” said Stephanie.

“But I wish we could say, okay, we learned our lesson, can
you bring the power back now?”

I told Stephanie about the big building projects I worked on at my day job and described a photo I’d seen of an aluminium smelter. Huge mounds of raw materials, shipped in by rail, sat at one end of the smelter, and rows of trucks loaded up massive bars of aluminium at the other end.

“And that’s only to get the aluminium into all the factories that make stuff,” I said. “Those raw materials have to get chewed up and regurgitated a lot of times before they become a pop can.

“If the machines and factories stopped working completely, we’d have to make stuff by hand again. Or at least add some treadmills or something to run the machines with, like those old sewing machines with the foot pedals.”

“My grandmother had one of those!” Stephanie said.

“I wish I had one of those right now. It would help me stay warm too.”

While we were still on the phone, my power came back on.


-- Louis Rastelli, from “A Fine Ending” (Insomniac, 2007)


For info:
Roger Farr
rfarr@capcollege.bc.ca
604.986.1911 (2554)

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