In these tumultuous times, it’s nice to know that there are still pop-cult certainties to which we can cling. Namely, that Madonna will forever serve as a muse for queers, freaks and misfits.
That inspiration can play out in weird, wacky and unexpected ways. For a testament to this fact, look no further than local musician, activist, poet and writer Ryan Kamstra’s latest offering, iNTO tHE dROWNED wORL_D (Insomniac). The second book of poetry by the Toronto-based creative force (he also fronts rock band-cum–performance art whirlwind Tomboyfriend) is a surreal bricolage that’s set, Groundhog Day–style, in a perpetual day-before-the-turn-of-the-millennium. Tied together by direct addresses to Madonna (who shifts, chameleonlike, between the entertainer and the virgin Mary of the New Testament), Kamstra’s vivid poetic fragments evoke a turbulent, decaying culture mid-apocalypse. His text is as much of a kaleidoscopic sensory assault as any one of Madonna’s live multimedia stage shows — if not more.
According to Kamstra, selecting Madonna’s 2001 Drowned World tour as a thematic focal point for his collection was, in part, a cheeky joke. The writer/performer says that, in the wake of the “weirdly prescient” nature of his first collection, 2002’s Late Capitalist Sublime (which approached the seemingly “edgy” nature of globalization with critical wariness), he yearned to produce something that would capture the breathless “end times” spirit he was experiencing in the world at large.
“It’s interesting for me to be an observer of the world as well as a poet,” he begins. “I don’t think poetry is timely — really, you’re better off going to the internet more in that regard. And when I reflect on the iconography of everything that’s happened to us in the last eight years — planes going into the towers, harrowing images from American prisons in Iraq, soldiers getting decapitated — somehow, choosing a minor tour of Madonna’s, one that even her fans weren’t all that excited about, as a major symbol struck me as the place to go.
“I really like the idea of this character, who wakes up in a destroyed room, looking at a poster of the Drowned World tour. At that point, he barely remembers Madonna as a character. Rather than [merely recalling] memories of events from the recent past, it’s an excavation process.”
Fans of both Madonna and the dizzying rush of good postmodernist mash-up art will be satisfied by Kamstra’s official book launch, which happens this Tuesday (Nov. 18) at Mitzi’s Sister. In addition to straight… er, bent readings by Kamstra and others, egghead critic Carl Wilson will hold court over a Madonna trivia contest. There will be a prize (!) awarded to the brave soul who shows up sporting the finest Madge-inspired costume. And Kamstra’s band, Tomboyfriend — renowned for their combo of outlandish props (i.e., Jello blood) and arch, socialist critiques — will perform two different sets.
Kamstra’s ideas seem to be founded on a rigorous critical platform, so I’m mildly surprised by the simplicity of his distinction between his poetry and his musical output.
“I don’t know how well it comes across, but I’m vastly studied in all things poetic that happened in the 20th century. And it seems to me that, today, you just don’t get to do a simple rhyme when you make poetry. That’s where music comes in,” he crows. “I love fucking rhyming! There are a couple of sections in the book where I nearly rhyme. Most of that is aping romantic ballads. But all the Tomboyfriend songs are based on A-B-A patterns. There’s a gigantic payoff that comes from simple rhyming.”