The Windsor Review interviews hockey mask historian Fred Addis

By Heather Greene

Featured in our upcoming Spring 2009 edition, Fred Addis has combined his love of history and hockey to create a presentation full of vignettes and memories from the rough, early days of goal-tending. His presentation covered the history of the goalie mask: it’s creation, introduction, and the controversy that surrounds facial protection in the league even today. Review staffer Heather Greene interviewed Mr. Addis after his reading on October 31st. When he’s not researching hockey masks, Fred Addis curates the Leacock Museum in Orillia.

Review: How did you get interested in goalie masks?

FA: It was as a response to all the bar-room bravado I heard growing up. There’s a lot of bullshit surrounding hockey that is accepted as fact, and I wanted to peel back the layers, to find the real story between the fact and the anecdote. For the fans, watching hockey can be like sitting in a theatre, and I want to shift the focus, to tell the story of the people who live the reality: the players. I want to separate the confusion of history with entertainment. During my research, I’ve met pioneering goalies, and I’ve found that knowing the stories really enlivens the statistics. Personalities like Don Cherry use a technique where screaming beats the facts every time, but I dislike that sort of buffoonery. You don’t need to take it to that level. It alienates the thinking fans, they tend to get overlooked.

Review: You presented with Randall Maggs, author of “Night Work: The Terry Sawchuck Poems”, and your topics went well together.

FA: Yes, and I was careful to leave his story alone during my talk. His writing is so full of emotion. The topics he covers have become mythologized; it’s really a marriage of story and history. I think poetry is the greatest vehicle for that.

Review: Goalie masks and Stephen Leacock – these seem like pretty disparate subjects. Any connections?

FA:      They’re both about creating alternate identities. And they both are very much about history, and literary heritage. You have to be a good listener for both types of stories, because emotions transform the facts. Leacock’s writing is like that, yet he hasn’t been put on a pedestal by Canadians. My interest in history definitely applies to both topics, and the goalie masks are a passion that I’ve pursued around my career.

Review: Could another link be that they are both uniquely Canadian stories?

FA: Hockey exists as a tradition in other countries as well, not just ours any longer. Especially European countries, whose hockey has informed and enriched ours today. But hockey was uniquely Canadian in its infancy. It’s like Canadian literature today – it has an audience all over the world.

The Windsor Review interviews comedian/poet John Wing Jr.

Interview by Kathleen Quiring

After the Windsor Review’s hockey reading on October 31st, Review staffer Kathleen Quiring interviewed comedian John Wing Jr. about his newest book, autobiography “When The Red Light Goes On, Get Off”. Wing is a well-known comedian working in the United States and Canada, who has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Surprisingly, Wing has combined his work as a comedian with that of a poet, and has published multiple books of poetry. He hails from Ontario but now lives in Los Angeles with his family. Look for this interview in the Windsor Review’s upcoming edition in Spring 2009.

You write and perform both comedy and poetry. Do you consider yourself both a comedian and a poet? Are thee two distinct vocations for you, or are they intertwined?

I’m a comedian by trade. I’m also a Canadian poet – I wrote poetry first. But first and foremost, I’m a comedian.

What are the tools that go into writing poetry and comedy? How are they different?

They’re totally similar. In both, you’re writing something short and terse. Your aim is to produce and effect with few words. They both require brevity, rhythm, and technique. They’re both aiming for a similar effect: in one it’s laughter, in the other . . . well, for me it’s usually laughter as well. But either way it’s an emotional effect you’re creating with words.

I understand you quit university without getting a degree. Why did you choose to do that?

I had a sister above me and a brother below me. We were a family of high achievers. My sister went to finishing school at grade thirteen, and left home at seventeen; and my brother got a scholarship at a five-year high school in Port Hope, and so he left home at fourteen. Which was actually good for me, in the sense that I didn’t have that competition during my high school years. I got to college, and I got the feeling after two years here I wasn’t learning anything that would get me anywhere in the world. I was having a good time but I wasn’t being prepared . . . because I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do. I thought about getting my Master’s in creative writing . . . and you know, I would have been very happy doing that. Because that’s what I want to do – I could teach writing professionally.

But why didn’t I stay? I was afraid they were getting ahead of me – my brother and sister – and I needed to get out in the world and prove myself. I needed to get to Toronto first.

Mary Ann Mulhern Tackles Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

By WJ Hull

You can tell that a book of poetry is important when the hall in which it’s launched is packed to capacity ten minutes before the reading is even scheduled to start. On Thursday, April 10^th, as many people as could fit in Katzman Lounge, the largest reading venue on the University of Windsor campus, were crammed together to witness the launch of ex-nun Mary Ann Mulhern’s groundbreaking anthology, “When Angels Weep”. Most listeners were forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder for want of space—but every single one came away glad that they did.

“When Angels Weep” is a collection of poems that outline the abuses of Father Charles Sylvestre, a priest who had been bounced around Southwestern Ontario, abusing little girls at every stop, moving whenever the local authorities became suspicious. He had been victimizing children for decades before finally being turned over to police. He was found guilty of 47 counts of sexual assault, spending his last few days in a jail cell, dying alone in prison.

The evening began with Irene Duchaine, the organizer of SNAP—the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests—addressing the audience, informing them of the severity of sexual abuse in the church. She spoke of how instances of abuse can destroy a child’s entire life. Irene then lauded Mary Ann Mulhern on her achievement with this book of poetry as well as her skill as a poet. Mary Ann’s sympathy and understanding towards the victims with which she had worked had been incredible, and, through “When Angels Weep”, Mary Ann demonstrated that, as Irene stated, she could “not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk.” Irene then led the audience in a moment of silence for those who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy and had subsequently been led down a destructive path.

John B. Lee Launches New Book of Poetry

by WJ Hull

In spite of constant gusts of wind, ominous clouds that blotted the sun with promise of rain, and an earlier tornado watch declared for the region, spirits were high at the McPhearson Lounge on the outskirts of the University of Windsor campus as it filled to capacity to celebrate the launch of John B. Lee’s newest anthology of poetry, “The Place That We Keep After Leaving”.

The celebration of John B. Lee’s newest work began with poet Carlinda D’Alimonte taking the podium, reciting work from both her first book of poetry, “Now That We Know Who We Are”, and a new piece for an anthology that she is currently in negotiations over publishing, reminding the local poetry community of her status as a promising new author. She was followed by charismatic poet and friend of John’s, Marilyn Gear Pilling, reading pieces both old and new, nostalgic and humorous.

Giving the audience a break from poetry, nationally renowned author Eugene McNamera took to the podium with the slow, steady surety that inevitably encompasses a seasoned artist, delivering to us a moving excerpt from one of his momentous works of prose before working his way into an unpublished poem. Next on the bill was poet Mary Ann Mulhern, who has recently launched her tremendously important work “When Angels Weep”, a powerful book of poems that explores sexual abuse in the Catholic church and its effects on the children involved.

Returning the mood to one of jovial celebration was Michael Schatte, a frighteningly skilled musician who blasted the crowd to awed silence with his passionate renditions of some of the most complex ‘folksy’ songs I’ve ever heard. Midway through his set, he even broke out a mandolin, and his set was ended with uproarious applause. He informed us of an upcoming performance at the Chatham Cultural Centre on May 23rd for what’s known locally as ‘the guitar summit‘.