Yo…
Last weekend TCAF was loads of responsible fun.
At TCAF I ran into Ryan North who has been a My Summer Lair guest twice. Typically when I talk to him we get into time travel, comics and London Fogs. (Ryan makes a delicious London Fog.)
Ryan is also the current and utterly freshtastic writer on the Fantastic Four.
Toronto writers are having a Marvelous moment right now: Ryan on Fantastic Four, Chip Zdarsky on Daredevil and Batman (Chip’s Daredevil is outstanding!) and just announced Jason Loo will pen Dazzler starting September 18th; that’s a four-issue series. (Jason was also at TCAF but I missed him.)
Sweet to see Toronto contributing to pop culture.
Sticking with local writers: you’re about to meet writer and poet Cassidy McFadzean.
Following Hacker Packer in 2015 and Drolleries in 2019; Crying Dress is the poet’s third collection:
If you don’t know what a Crying Dress is, stay tuned for that.
You know me…I have issues with pants (“Down With Pants!”) so I’m not always current when it comes to fashion. (Ironically, I’m often fashionably late…rather than fashionable.)
What stands out when you read Crying Dress is Cassidy ties her poetry to a number of locations.
After she explained the whole crying dress thing to me, I brought this up in the attached My Summer Lair conversation.
We tend to focus on the personal in poetry. You know…a relationship breakup or some unresolved longing or lost love, grief…those pungent emotions are often trending in poetry.
Understandably as those universal emotions resonate with readers.
Yet location in a poem teethers the reader in such a specific and powerful way.
It’s something we don’t properly acknowledge or even discuss.
You remember those Nolan Batman movies all set in mythical Gotham City, but it was clearly Chicago streets.
It’s worse when you live here in Toronto where so much is shot.
You’re contentedly watching a movie and it’s set in "Philadelphia" or it’s set in "New York City" and yet actors are clearly walking past Roy Thomson Hall. C’mon!
M. Night’s latest twisted thriller comes out this August. Here’s the trailer for Trap; see even in this short trailer how much Toronto you can I Spy.
Shout out to the SkyDome, yo! (The outside was SkyDome, the inside was Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Classic movie lies!!)
(Production took place in Toronto from October 16 to December 8, 2023. It’s M. Night so you can safely assume the movie will take place in Philadelphia but we all know…that’s so not Philadelphia.)
When you know those locations, when you walk those streets, it disrupts the suspension of disbelief.
“I know that street!”
“I work in that building.”
Spotting those familiar locations instantly pulls you out of the drama of the movie and plunges you into your (real) life.
Location is a unique poetic tether.
Sometimes when you break up with your Special Friend you can’t go back to a certain restaurant. Too many memories and you’re marred in grief. Even just walking past that joint can summon that hurt.
And location is one of the hallmarks of Cassidy McFadzean’s Crying Dress.
“I walked through the Annex at 4 a.m.” Page 64, the poem is Energy Exchange.
“Raisin-royal, a goose at Kew Gardens wandered this eulogy…” Page 23, the poem is Just Like I Like.
“In St. Alban’s Square we sat and ate paper.” Page 28, the poem is Nursery.
You know those places…you work or shop there, maybe even had a crush on somebody cute at Kew Gardens.
Your magnetic relationship to those locations is prompted by her poetic acknowledgement. (It’s the same thing when you see a big band like Coldplay or Rolling Stones live and the lead singer says: “So…we were out on Queen Street eating at Queen Mother Cafe…” and the audience loses it. The band displays local knowledge which in rock 'n' roll is a love language.)
Other hallmarks in Cassidy’s writing include space and architecture. Aren’t those the same things?
In Crying Dress you as the reader are surrounded by surroundings.
Even in the conversation we bring up local locations like Flying Books on College St. This is one of those bookstores where you don’t go in and ask for the latest John Grisham or the latest Danielle Steel; know what I mean? Lots of indie books; the store is lovingly curated.
Anyways, Flying Books has a Mentorship Program for writers…novels, scripts, memoirs and poetry. Yup Cassidy is personal writing coach: your Tony Robbins of poetry. If writing is your jam but you’re in a jam and lost…check out this Mentorship Program. (“I’m sick of sitting around here trying to write this book.”)
I dunno how else to describe Crying Dress in a way that is tantalizing. Poetry is a hard sell, yo.
Thankfully Cassidy has the same problem so let’s start there. How do you talk about poetry? Especially as easily as you talk about movies and TV shows?
Comments are below if you have a Crying Dress.
3 timely My Summer Lair conversations:
May is Mental Health Month…Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in May in the United States since 1949. Check out Alicia Cook who often writes about Mental Health. (More poetry too: her latest collection is called The Music Was Just Getting Good.)
X-Men ‘97: Season 1 concluded yesterday. How did you feel about the season? Did you watch it? Here’s a My Summer Lair conversation with Rogue as voiced by Lenore Zann.
2 days ago ESPN Films unveiled their upcoming 30 for 30 Summer Slate. (Dude Perfect got a 30 for 30. That’s a bit much.)
The Summer Slate kicks off on June 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN (it’ll stream on ESPN+) with I’m Just Here for the Riot. #SetTheVCR for that.
Kathleen Jayme and Asia Youngman’s I’m Just Here for the Riot is about the infamous 2011 Vancouver riot following a Canucks loss to the Boston Bruins during the Stanley Cup final. It’s our first smart phone riot. The documentary chronicles the event (which was bad) and its aftermath (which was worse than the event!) while also raising deeper questions about fandom, violence, and the shocking power of an angry crowd. I’ve talked to the filmmakers and covered it in a My Pal Sammy: 30 for 30: Shame On You!
2 Upcoming Interviews:
Butterfly in the Sky is a Reading Rainbow documentary. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to talk to the host LeVar Burton; however I sat down with the directors and you’ll hear that soon.
#SetTheVCR: Butterfly in the Sky is now out on Demand (VOD) but it’ll streaming on American Netflix on May 24th.
I saw Rebecca Snow’s moving Boy In The Woods.
The movie “follows the true story of Max (Jett Klyne), a Jewish boy escaping Nazi persecution in Eastern Europe. After he is separated from his family, Max finds refuge with a Christian peasant Jasko (Richard Armitage) who hides him in plain site until a tense stand-off with some Nazi police. Afraid for his own family's life, Jasko sends Max to live in the woods where he learns to survive alone.”
Harrowing real life story.
Jett Klyne was not only the boy in the woods and a youthful My Summer Lair guest but…he’s Tommy Maximoff in the MCU’s WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That’s so cool…the first MCU actor on My Summer Lair.
#PantsWorthy: Boy In The Woods will be screened at Toronto Jewish Film Festival on June 2nd then open wide in Canada on June 21:
There’s a lot happening. I’m enjoying having the Sun out.
Does this bag match my Crying Dress…
Sammy Younan
-28-
Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
New Book Smell: Crying Dress by Cassidy McFadzean