Hot Stuff

I listend as a mother told her child, "Bethany ferns can be poisionous." Bethany stuck her toungue out further and fatter towards the fern.

Though it defies the good sense and survival instincts gifted to most mammals, humans seem to learn to knowingly reach out for trouble from a young age.

"He's not good for you." (Wonder if he'll go on a date with me?)
"Why don't you wait and see? (Because I want it now.)
"Spending time over there is going to cause you drama." (Let me get my coat on.)

If dancing with trouble is how humans learn, then you'd think we'd be smarter. The only rationale for this behaviour is others' expereinces of reality seems to be less beleivable than our own.

"The stove is hot." (Let me touch it for myself.)

Sometimes the best way to learn is to ask someone who's been through it. Whatever "it" is. After all the stove really is hot. Why burn your hand needlessly.

(Because sometimes a good burn reminds me I'm alive?)

Searching


Some people are looking for others' company in there standing stillness. I'm looking for my own company in my moving forward-ness.

Warning

...When you told me not to talk about the weird stuff...

Between The Rhymes

I finally got around to having that New Year's champagne. I'm celebrating being more honest in 2008 than in 2007 and I'm only six days in.

When I reach the end of my journey I'm going to smile to know that I've lived my life like poetry. Sure some people can't deal with it. They can read newspapers.

Amoungst the Ruins

In 1999 I was sitting in a frozen Chevy Cavalier in the parking lot of a Community College in the dark. Listening to the "Top 9 At Nine." Trying to will myself into going inside the building and attending my "Basics Of Accounting" course. I had no job. No prospects. Talents. But it was all in the wrong package. So decreed the world around me. Britney Spears, meanwhile, at the age of 17, had just had the #1 song of 1998. (The title needs no repeating.) ahead of even Cher's "Believe." ("Do you Believe In Life After Love?" is always a sentiment worth repeating.) Britney was on the radio this night in the Chevy. I hauled ass into the accounting class. Debits credits. Ledger lines. I still don't know to this day! Now, flash ahead 9 years and Britney has been taken from her mansion in California strapped down to a stretcher. Then put in a "mental lockdown" in a Los Angeles hospital.

As it is, here's too many office workers reading the celebrity pages of "Ottawa Metro Magazine!" as they ride to work on the bus. (An awful, yet compelling, sight I witness daily.) So my point is not to discuss celebrity gossip. Especially when there are children starving in the world and whale populations dwindling. Rather to rememeber that, while it is hard, try not to be jealous of others; because we never know where they're going to end up. Or where we'll end up.

I may not be at the Top of the Pops or on the cover of Meglomania magazine. But I am not strapped to a stretcher either. There's all sorts of local celebrities ass-kiss networking their way onto radio specials and leaving me in the dust. But I find being in the dust is such an artistic place to be.

I don't want to be a jealous person. I avoid the few misguided fools who have stated they are jealous of me.


I did pass that basic accounting course. I forget who did the homework assingments for me...

Show Me

Glad my book of "daily lessons" reminded me we have a lot to learn in this life, and some of it comes from what others observations of us.

"I've been told to work harder by the lazy. To be more on time by those broken down on the road. To communicate better by the brick wall. "

Not the easiest lesson: that others have lessons for us. I spent most of my teenaged years yelling, "Don't criticize me!" It became a quote people associated with me. (That and the Whitney Housten lyrics taped in my locker.) Well no more. Now I say, "Criticize me baby. Tell it to me like it is. So I can tell it to you the same way. Oh yes... just like that."

In Life the Milk Is Always Kept In the Back Corner

I walked through the grocery store, because I had a sense I would seee a friend. Wasn't sure which one. I did see a freind. Who I'd been thinking about. In this case, no problem. But it did start me thinking - thinking about thinking about people. It can be embarrassing. Or grand. It definately leads somewhere. Often to the person being thought of. It doesn't go unnoticed by the stars. this thinking about people. Help me. It's too beautiful.

Laugh Anyway

My grandmother has been gone 3 years today. She is still here.

She was a fan of irony.

She would have liked when I stood at the steam tables in the cafeteria with the other drones. What a contradiction. What an irony.

She would have liked to hear (the blind) Jeff Healey sing "Angel Eyes", up to and including, "I could look but I could never touch!" For politically correct zealots possibly offensive. For fans of irony - hilarious! Jeff Healey himself probably gets a laugh at this.

Anew

Who can say where the road leads, only time" - Enya

This year I'm getting away from the woman who loudly describes the 50 types of hamburger toppings available at the mall.

I will have a more healthy 2008 than 2007.

I visited my new friend. The one I have to carry.

I'm moving to a window with a better view.

Sidney Crosby looked gorgeous in Buffalo.

I'm going to ask myself for advice before I ask anyone else.

Outrageous and Courageous

I saw the fireworks over Ottawa, ON to ring in the New Year from across the river.

An impromptu blues song was sung in my honour. A gift to rememeber.

We laughed at all those who are on the radio simply because they networked (kissed ass) and made art people could tune out to while eating dessert.

I am where I am supposed to be.

There was much heartached in 2007... Much was learned as a result...

My favourite memory for 2007 was playing Pop Montreal to a crowd that liked what they were getting, though they didn't know what they were getting. While looking the best I've ever looked, without getting into the obvious specifics.

Still Rolling



I've been over 2300 kms in 9 days. How about you?



Some of the many highlights for me included:



Dec 22 - Standing on the end of a wharf covered in snow and looking at a huge lake in the mountains relieved of its summer tourists

Dec 23 - Buying a pair of trashy ankle boots on sale. These are so rough and decadent!

Dec 24 - Going swimming at a public pool in a NY ghetto.

Dec 25 - Seeing a plum pudding on fire for the first time.

Dec 26 - Talking to people over 90 years old and watching them still enjoy the buffet table

Dec 27 - Seeing people skiing on the sidewalk, and petting a black lab puppy in a tiny NY State town

Dec 28 - Sending suggestive text messages while looking at the CN Tower dressed up like a garish candy cane

Dec 29 - Learning all about Ontario's "Collision Centres" What a fascinating world of torment it is.

Dec 30 - Looking at the Kingston Penitentiary and reflecting on "cages" in Kingston, ON

Hidden

The universe watches those who steal others' ideas, words, imagry. Even if the ideas are just coop'ed as an "inspiration" to start something "new" of our "own". Bad dog! Let's kiss and start again.

Boot It Over The Moon

One month after my attack on O'Connor St. in Ottawa, ON, I have now completed the necessary dealings with the Ottawa police services. It was a long, discouraging, at times re-victimizing, and necessary experience. In the end I felt that the woman at the police services was doing her best, considering she was just starting her contract.

I encourage anyone who's been the victim of hate related attacks (including verbal assaults) to report the experience to the police. I felt I reclaimed a bit of my dignity and person empowerment by giving a detailed description of my assailant and the events that occured.

Now I just wonder if the whole thing happened so I could find the saucy grey hat in the thrift store where I eventually showed up to sign the final police incident report!

Broke Boundaries

I broke boundaries today that had been set up by my own mind.

The snow fell so hard that the buses between Hull and Ottawa were useless. Miska and I ran across the inter-provincial road arm in arm singing some nonsense holdiay song. What a laugh.

Earlier we had gotten out the speakers that came with my cell phone (I had left them in the package for months) and danced around with the speakers on our heads.

Universe

I didn't know how describe what I was looking for this past weekend. But I knew what it looked like. But only after it occured, did I recognize it as the experince I was looking for.

The universe has a way of putting in to action what we can't put into words. -MM

Stay open.

Climate Chaos

I participated in demonstration on Parliament Hill today, to demand that Canada respect the Kyoto Agreement. It was the second political demonstration I ever participated in. I figured it would be interesting to meet people outside of rock n' roll and civil service. People who "care about issues". Tree huggers. Bunny lovers.

One of the speakers, an African farmer, told the crowd of 300 + that global warming was increasingly wrecking the small farms in Africa. So that's another example, of people who had almost nothing to start with , and had even that taken from them.

Lots of good solar energy from the people at the demonstration. More people are needed to really insist that Canada commit to reducing green house gas emissions. If a glamourous and high maintenance person such as myself can go to a demonstration, so can you. I encourage you. I felt reinvigorated by attending.

To learn more about how every person in Canada can make a difference in reducing climate change visit:

www.climatechaos.ca

Under The Tree

This time of year, I regularly see loads of frumpy women and underworked office workin' men dragging around garbage bags full of mass produced toys. I saw one of then said, "Ashley Age : 14 and a 1/2. the thought of this "Ashley" stopped my mind for a minute. What sort of life does Ashley have?

Sometimes I'm better at buying gifts then others. Once I gave a gift a pair of antique opera glasses inscrbed with "See Love." another time, I gave a cassette tape of Weird Al Yanovick!

Hugs In Vogue

Yeah, what a weekend. It's worse to wait around for people than it is to be alone. Much better to be alone. Least then there's no expectations. Other than it's up to you to live your life. To make a plan.

I did get to a craft fair. Very soulless. Buy Buy Buy. Granola, fridge magnets, felt purses, guitar straps, vintage earrings, hand made cutting boards, greeting cards, plush toys. endless hedonism. these people searching for connection by buying their way straight into hell. Buy buying themselves under holiday consumer goods higher than the tallest Christmas tree in the field. I was exhausted and deeply disturbed by it.

Freee the mind from shopping chaos. A hug is a better gift than a diamond.

The Big Day

It's an anniversary for me this weekend. I've said many times over the years that we should invent our own anniversaries. It's the only way to mark time. Slow time.

Though sometimes the "big day" can lead to big expectations. Big expectations can lead to even bigger disappointments. All of my reflecting was leading to an existential crisis.

I phoned up a musician with my existential music crisis. He couldn't deal. It is so sad to meet people who understand music but not art.

Keep going.

The universe is listening to those with pure souls.

Roughed Up

The rest of November was quiet for me. Regrettably I was victim to an episode of hatred in Ottawa, ON, on November 12 th from a random bigot, which was quite traumatic for me, and necessitated a call to the police. (The police still haven't completed their work.)

This trouble at least renewed my inner dialogue to be more gentle with myself, and also to continue my quest for building regularly scheduled calm into my week. I feel like I'm in an intriguing recovery mode from many burdens and health hazards. Luckily I have received the wake up call in time for me to be more proactive about my health.

He's 100% Not Interested

It has occured to me that we are all unwanted by someone. This point was accentuated for me recently when a very handsome man told me a story about a woman who didn't want him.

Being unwanted seems really unfair - devestating even- when this happens to us. (Why doesn't s/he want to date you/me?)

The only answer I've come up with to answer the perverbial "Why?" is that if everyone wanted /desired the same person, that person would be mauled and trampled to death. While the rest of us would be lonely old bachelors and spinsters in our beds. So, basically, the world wouldn't function. Wedding cakes wouldn't be ordered. Carrabian cruises for two wouldn't be booked. You know?

So, really the only solution for being unwanted is to remind ourselves:

- Take comfort that this is just the way world has to turn in order to function, and be glad for the world for it's functioning

- Stop beating your head against someone who is apathetic about your wonderful and sexy self

- Start look for someone who does find you facinating and want you

10 Cents A Song

I attended the 2007 Canadian Songwriter's Symposium. I may not have had any business there, considering I can barely spell, "symposium"; but since I showed up to the event a week early, I decided I owed it to myself to at least go back on the right day.

In brief, I went as a sceptic. For a couple of reasons. One being: Can songwriting really be taught? (No, but there's a $$$ dollar a year industry that will tell you otherwise.) Second, I went to this event in 2005. I had a "professional" songwriter evaluate my song. (He was professional for co-writing a Rod Stewart song from 1989 and a few terrible "filler songs" on a Cher album. Oh, and I think he wrote a song for the "Cocktail" soundtrack.) Anyway, he told me, "your songs are too personal" and, "never sing your demos again." ( I went on to play every festival I wanted to play.)

This time around someone who partially wrote an Allanah Myles song in 1987 showed up and explained how he thought of the song. And he threw in a few video clips of interviews with Neil Young and Tina Turner (this relates how) for good measure. He then went on to tell us "success" stories of making "loads of money" writing songs for a Hilary Duff Disney special. He also told us he had assembled the "songwriting writing team" for the tragic Canadian "drama" called, "Instant Star." Just for a laugh, I eventually asked him how I could get a job as one of the songwriters on, "Instant Star." He told me that he only hired "known writers" and that the business was "very hard." Translation: Thanks for spending $29.00 on my seminar, now get your nose out of my songwriting business.

There were some friendly folks in the room. All we could do was try to laugh our assess off at our common fate of being writers. I know I did.

Looking Back on 10 + Years in Indie Rock

Considering I started out a runaway teenager with nothing but a dream and a few plastic grocery bags of my possessions, considering the years I was hassled just for walking down the street, considering the "huh? what's that? Never heard of That - Must not like it!" mentality of the main stream music biz, considering all this well, it's pretty amazing that I have been able to get to the point where I had a band and made music in public at all, let all played big music festivals and was a hit.

Along the way I encountered all the cliche negative forces:

- as soon as people think you "have something", they want a piece of it
- jealous people (hilarious, as if most of these jealous souls had my handful of cards they'd fold)
- special interest groups trying to claim you or define you or limit you with their labels
- music cliques
- musicians I booked for shows not returning the favour
- people who quit with no notice

But also many positive forces:

- sister solidarity
- kindred spirits doing their writing and reflecting
- cheers, applause and encores! from the crowds who felt touched by my music
- meeting friendly new people
- feeling that I did it despite the odds

The Super Model Syndrome was a group of friends, acquaintances, hired hands and excellent musicians. Our main accomplishment was that we offered unique subversive music that had not previously been seen in homogeneous music towns like Ottawa, ON.

I wanted the Super Model Syndrome to go out with a big bang rather than a fizz. So, I chose Pop Montreal, 2007 as the the gig that would be our last show as a band. And what a bang it was. (Description in a previous entry.)

I will now return to my roots, and simultaneously move forward, by working as a one woman show.

I am actively seeking to play only a limited number of shows in 2008. So, if you have an audience that would appreciate "heart music" (honesty, humility, stories, simplicity and soul) then please do get in touch with me to further discuss. In a band and want to book a gig together? Also worth chatting about.

Readin' N' Rockin'

Mackenzie has been nominated Entertainer of the Year 2007 by the readers of Capital Xtra Magazine. It was an honour to be nominated by the readers.

Pop Montreal 2007 Show Highlights In Brief

I played Pop Montreal on October 6, 2007 with Spy Machine. The bar looked like a combination of the set of the TV show "Cheers" and a hunting lodge.

I had out up posters in Montreal in the rain. I knew the posters would quickly be plastered over by someone else's poster. And they were. But I wanted to be able to say I had tired. That I had postered Montreal by hand. Rather than stayed at home and watched, "Law and Order." Hey, Madonna used to hand out flyers to her shows in the streets of NYC. Can't knock it.

Briefly what happened at the show was I decided I didn't want a single "bar conversation" to be uninterrupted during my performance. Simply because I'd dragged my piano through the subway system to deliver my message to people, and I wanted them to hear it.

At first people didn't listen. So I started singer like a tough dyke trucker. That got their attention. Soon enough, all the folks in the bar pulled their chairs around to face the stage in a big semi circle that looked like they were sitting around a camp fire at girl guides camp.

I spoke to the crowd in French about how Montreal was the city of my second birth. I was very honest with them. To my great surprise my truths touched people and the entire bar gave me a big round of applause. I got to deliver my message : See your scars as beauty marks. At the end of the show I announced that people were witnessing the last Super Model Syndrome show and collapsed on staged. I then received calls of "encore" through out the room. (Was this my life?) And that was that. an almost impossible mission of glam rock. Accomplished. We then drove home in a beat up rental and failed miserably at cooking a Thanksgiving turkey.

Mackenzie Plays Pop Montreal

Mackenzie MacBride was selected to play Pop Montreal 2007, one of North America's most pretegious music festivals.

Saturday October 6, 2007 with Spy Machine and others.

Check the festival schedule for venue info.

COME SEE ABOUT SHE

*Live Video on You Tube*:West Fest 0ttawa 2007, Main Stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYvcPDu9nik

Pride Toronto, 2007, Alternative Rock Stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhGeNBfvVUQ

Pride Ottawa 2007

Poetry Reading -

Mackenzie MacBride will read poems and maybe even pose trivia questions. Mackenzie opens for Sky Gilbert, a well known playwright from Toronto, ON. Marcus McCann, journalist at Capital Xtra will also be reading.

August 16 th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Collected Works Bookstore
Westbro Village Ottawa, ON Canada

New On You Tube

The last two songs of Mackenzie MacBride's Pride Toronto 2007 concert are now on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhGeNBfvVUQ

Behind the Scenes:

Two videographers were hired so as to ensure at least one of them would show up. Sure enough, one of them didn't show up. After the show Mackenzie and band were whisked away on a giant golf cart. Who knew?

Mackenzie at Pride Toronto, 2007

Mackenzie MacBride & Her Super Model Syndrome will appear on The Alterna Stage@the Alexander Parkette Stage Located in the little park next to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, between Maitland and Alexander near Yonge Street.Arrive for 3 pm. This Sunday . June 24, 2007 at 3:25 p.m. Please come out for some fun.

Here's the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=12+alexander+st.,+toronto,+on&daddr=&sll=43.661335,-79.379257&sspn=0.007016,0.014462&ie=UTF8&ll=43.663696,-79.37959&spn=0.007016,0.014462&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

Compliment In FAB Magazine

Singing From the Soul Aint Always Pretty

"Mackenzie has an amazing voice. I always think of Klaus Nomi!" - Pride West 2007 Promoter in Fab Magazine # 321 with colour photo June 11, 2007

http://www.fabmagazine.com/

I was hoping to get in this fun magazine for years. One day it just happened.

At Her Best At West Fest

As the sun set on Richmond Road in Ottawa I was up on the CBC stage looking over the crowd. "How did I get here," I wondered? A lot of hard work. In the distance I could see a big church steeple. I focused on that for a while. Slowly I started looking at individual people. I could see they were really our music.

I dedicated the entire show to the late and great Tiny Tim, who died in 2007 of a heart attack after consuming nothing but beer and raw potatoes for years. (The other side of stardom. eh?)
I felt like Tiny Tim was watching over me. The camera man for the fesitval said, "You stole the show." after we came off stage.

Putting a 6 piece band on the stage is more work than coordinating a class trip for 30 kids in Grade 3. So glad it was a hit.

Also to view a clip from the show here's the You Tube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYvcPDu9nik

MacBride In Concert

West Fest June 8- 10, 2007

Mackenzie MacBride & Her Super Model Syndrome will appear at Ottawa's best live music festival, West Fest.

Mackenzie will appear for a full set of music:

Sunday June 10 th

beginning at 5:00 pm.

Please bring your sense of fun and dreams of NYC to her stardusty performance on the outdoor stage on Richmond Road.

For more info and directions please go to:

www.westfest.ca

West Fest is free.

Often cute people and tasty eats.

Kitch Appeal

Mackenzie MacBride's folk electro beat record "Eccntric By Accident" was reviewed at the Montreal Music and Tech Conference (May 30 to June 2, 2007) by a panel of judges.

Comments included:

"I would listen to this longer. I like music that's like a car crash. Great craptronics!"
- Patti Schmidt, former host of Brave New Waves, CBC Montreal

"It sounds like there should be a stage show that goes with it."
- Seth Horvitz (Sutekh-Context) (A record company in San Francisco

"Very unique. Thanks for giving us something different to listen to. It stands out."
- Richie Hawkin (Mmus) (A record company in Berlin.)

I sat in the back and laughed with delight that I have a new term for my music. "Craptronics" Hoorah! Luckily it was meant with respect. Those who are able to laugh at themselves will never cease to be amused!

Self Made Glam Girl Rocks On

Here's a great read on my emergence from underground cult rock figure to present day. Thanks to J. Donnelly at the City Journal.

http://www.cityjournal.ca/article-100327-Selfmade-glam-girl-rocks-on.html

Don’t ever tell Mackenzie MacBride she doesn’t have the right stuff to be a singer. She’ll just laugh in your face, pull out a mic and belt out another glitzy show tune.
Perseverance is what’s kept the self-styled “cruise-ship Vaudeville glam rocker” sane all this time, she admits. “I’ve been at this over ten years and it’s only in the last year that anyone has paid attention,” says MacBride, a self-taught musician and dirty-blonde Cyndi Lauper type.But after what’s seemed an eternity of brush-offs and Cheshire smiles from promoters and fellow musicians alike, the singer – who this past year alone has birthed numerous Ottawa shows alongside high-profile acts like Hilotrons, The City Above and Lesbians on Ecstasy – is finally getting what she considers her just desserts.She just rocked the Russian-styled Avant Garde Café this past Saturday with Night of Knights and Emile Pelletier, and is set to lay down another set of “story-songs” at the CRIAW Conference with slam poet Oni the Hatian Sensation at the Elgin Street Church this May 5.The act itself is completed by backing band The Super Model Syndrome and is one of sheer sonic mayhem, a wave of guitars, liquid synths and oddly belligerent, operatic vocals ripping holes in conventional stage performance like runs in old pantyhose. “It’s New York City balladry, or glam rock,” she explains, adding she draws on influences like Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart to write her offbeat songs.“My music is from the days of bleeding ballads and eloquent words,” she says. “The concept of telling my own truths, and my own stories came to me over time… but I think what people are picking up on now is that I’ve emerged from what we could call a musical bunker.”That bunker, she explains, was her experience growing up in rural Nova Scotia. A land of conservative views and predominantly Celic-style tunes, MacBride says she couldn’t find a single musician to work with for years.Over time she grew more comfortable with her eccentricity, she recalls, playing electro-lounge sets on “B-grade cruise ships” for a while. As her comfort level rose, however, so did kudos from critics and fans alike.“I like to titillate people’s senses, and that includes their laughter button as well as their soul button,” she says. “I like to get onstage and tell the truth as I see it, and in my case I’m trying to share universal truths of heartache, hope and perseverance.”Indeed, jaded lyrics like “Everyone’s sending out their press kits and promos/begging the papers to run their front-page photos” from her tune ‘There’s a Rock Band on Every Corner’ go over well with the indie rock crowd, and MacBride has garnered a local following of fans of late.It’s through a celebration of truth and emotion in all its facets, from sublime revelations to rock-bottom depression, she says, that she's able to connect with audiences. “I try to present that for people so they can see that life is full of highs and lows,” she philosophizes. “Some people it grates on like sand in a shoe, but ultimately people tell me they ended up feeling comfortable with their own uncomfortableness.“And that’s what people come out for. It’s a gritty, angstful evening.”

Radio City

Mackenzie will be interviewed on CIUT (University of Toronto Radio) on Saturday May 5 th at 5 pm. She will be discussing her music. The conversaion will also examine the challenges (and odd triumph) of working in a sex and gender rigid music business.

Basically, here's a show that celebrates being outside of the box. yay! for Sex City!

Tune In:

http://www.ciut.fm/schedule.php

The pod cast for this interview will be published in July, 2007.

For the Gals

Mackenzie will sing an intimate set of music for the CRIAW Conference on May 5 th. The CRIAW Conference is a conference focusing on women's issues.

Where:

The Well
St. Mark's Anglican Church
9 pm,
Elgin St., Ottawa, ON

CRIAW website:

http://www.criaw-icref.ca/indexFrame_e.htm

All are welcome!

Local Spectacle

Staging NYC themed kitch rock concerts in Ottawa is not easy.

Ottawa, known for it's two social extremes of:

1. Sleepy office workers who enjoy watching Jim Carey movies in their basement rec rooms and

2. Punk rock, heavy metal and scenester music cliques who control the local bar scene

...

Noone could argue how making unique music in Ottawa could be a project that is:

"hard on the heart"

Luckily, it's a labour of love, and there's some fans of kitch rock in town.

One of them turned out to be a journalist with the Centretown Buzz, David Gladstone.

He wrote this fun article about Mackenzie's musical ups, downs, and all arounds.

http://www.centretown.net/news_detail.php?news_id=176

Mackenzie MacBride, Singer/Songwriter/Bandleader

Date Posted: Friday April 20, 2007

Written by David Gladstone
After taking in three shows since the beginning of 2007 (at the Avant Garde Bar, Barrymore's Music Hall, and the Saw Gallery) by Centretowner Mackenzie Macbride backed up by the The Supermodel Syndrome, I got together with her at Elgin Street's Bridgehead coffee house on Good Friday. While the WiFi crowd tapped away, we had an old-fashioned chat.Mackenzie has lived in Centretown for the past five years, having moved to Ottawa from the Annnapolis Valley, where she grew up, including picking apples and strawberries. She graduated from St Mary's University with a Bachelor's degree with a majoring in Industrial Psychology. After a fruitless job search in Nova Scotia, coupled with wanting "new musical opportunities" ("creative ambition and mercenary practicality") as she puts it) she was offered a job in our fair city, where she works as a government communications officer.Her first two-and-a-half years in Centretown were spent in a MacLaren Street apartment overlooking Somerset Street with a prized view of the Library of Parliament, "which made me feel I had come a long way". She now lives nearby in the Abiwin Coop.Music is clearly Mackenzie's passion, a love she discovered early on, starting with the piano (which she played on the Bar Harbour to Yarmouth ferry), moving on to the alto saxophone and then the singer/songwriter's favourite instrument, the guitar. She started to write songs, in order "to find my own voice...to find my own pure light and my own creativity". She describes her style as being "New York balladry" a la Lou Reed and Annie Lennox, agreeing that her voice resembles that of Cyndi Lauper.What does she sing about? "I deal in truths...my own personal observations of the world. I deal in pain and hope and continuing on". She's had four CD releases so far, the last full-album "Eccentric by Accident". Songs on them include "Hollywood in the Morning" - about an office worker who wants to be a star-- "Curtains Come Down" (on a 10-year friendship), and the autobiographical "This is My Story". Mackenzie works hard on her musical career, contacting clubs, postering for her shows (which is what got my attention, incidentally) and putting together The Supermodel Syndrome (mostly Carleton Music graduates, including "musical partner" Emile Pelletier), who back her up. She's been interviewed by Capital Xtra, but refuses to be "labeled" and wants to develop a fan-base.Want to see Mackenzie MacBride and The Supermodel Syndrome in action? They play The Avant-Garde Bar (Besserer Street) on Saturday, April 28th and, in a bit of a coup, WestFest on June 10th. In May, they'll be playing clubs in Toronto and Montreal.Check out www.mackenziemacbride.com for more info and/or to contact Mackenzie.

A Glam Ruckus - A Music Show

Mackenzie MacBride and the Super Model Syndrome
with Guests:

Night of Knights (Soft rockers from Kemptville, Ontario)
Emile Pelletier (Pop/Folk singing and guitar)

Saturday April 28 th
Avant Garde Bar
135 1/2 Besserer St., Ottawa ON
9 p.m.
19 + All Ages
$3.00 at the door

Please join us for a night of fun music, stories and Russian liquor!

Carnie Night!

The Carnie is March 31 st, 2007 at the SAW Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario.

Here's a Q and A to get everyone primed about the vision behind the evening and what they can expect if they attend the show.

What is your definition of a Carnie?

A Carnie is an evening that celebrates unique, odd ball, non-conforming yet wonderful musicians and performers. It's an opportunity for artists who may be marginalized from the Top 40 scene to have access to stage time and a positive experience by sharing their music with others. I keep bringing it back to my guiding belief, which is that the world would be a better, safer and more dynamic place if everyone could see and appreciate the beauty that lives inside the bizarre. What made you want to put together one of your own? I put this Carnie show on for two main reasons. One, as a way to live with a, "Carnie Spirit." Meaning to, "do it" rather than give up on your dreams. You don't have to stay home just because your sponsor is not Cadillac. You don't have to quit just because the homogenous music loving "artistic director" of a local music festival passes on your unique musical act. Be determined. Keep looking for the audiences and "artistic directors" who can look beyond their hang ups to see your musical magic. This is what I try to do. The "Carnie Spirit" of dancing even when you're missing a shoe inspires people. To keep trying. To grab back moments from our troubles and enjoy life a bit more than we had originally planned. Second, I put the Carnie show on to encourage unique, non-conforming, but wonderful musicians to keep making their art by inviting them to be a part of the show. A good Carnie hostess knows that everyone needs encouragement to keep going with their art. I could have used more acceptance, encouragement and solidarity from other musicians over the years. So this show is about reaching out to people like I would have liked to have been reached out to. In the process, I've given myself the chance to be a part of the dynamic of musical community after all. So there's some healing and "making good" for the "Carnie worker" in me.

How is this event Carnie-like?

The performers at the show will be making their own unique and sometimes counter culture music. Music is outside of the meat n' potats Canadian indie rock and "Rising Star award" templates. Performers like this share a lot in common with Carnie workers. They are both sought out by audiences interested in unique arts and looked down upon by mainstream types. There's a beauty and a loneliness associated with Carnies. The fine line between being celebrated and ostracized. The fine line between being authenically appreciated for your art and just being the fodder for rubber neckers. Modern day musicians who don't fit the cookie cutter Indie Canadian mould are like the Carnie workers of by gone eras. We're not sure where we are on these fine lines, but we keep going on with our art and music. Like most Carnies, it's fun, low budget, do it yourself and a unique experience every time. It's not like a prefabricated trip to Epcot Centre, a black tie event with a "Carnival theme" or stale production at a Casino or a youthful rehash of Neil Young. The decor will be sparse and the guiding principle will be, "This is a DIY evening. Like life, it will be as fun as you choose to make it." The space will be a "safe space" for all. The event will be "All Ages." Noone should feel they are too conservative, too old or too uptight to attend the show. There will be office workers in attendance. There's more to live entertainment than a night at the NAC.

Tell me a bit about the recipient of the evenings' funds--why you wanted to fund Camp Ten Oaks.

Camp Ten Oaks is an Ottawa based not for profit charity that treats the children/ youth of glbt parents to a week of summer camp. The week at camp focuses on fun and learning while providing a supportive environment where the children can be themselves and talk openly about their family life. Campers come from all over Ontario and Quebec. People can get more info at http://www.camptenoaks.org/ I found out about this charity when I was doing some journalism work at CKCU FM. I related to this charity because it started with nothing but a dream and some courage, and made it into something that makes people happy. That's a near equivalent to my journey with music making. As well, I ended up meeting a 3 years old child in my apartment building who has two Moms. I want this camp to still be going strong when he's ten years old so he and other kids can go to the camp in the years to come. In general, I try to pick charities that don't receive a lot of corporate sponsorships or tax dollars. This charity fits that profile.

What exactly will happen that night (give me a rundown of performers, etc)?

We will open with a bit of spoken wood performance, and then move into music, which including:

Mike Dubue (of the Hi Lo Trons) - Pop / New Wave
Emile Pelletier - Folk Rock Singer / Songwriter
The City Abuve - Ambiance / Experimental
Mackenzie MacBride & the Super Model Syndrome - NYC Theatrical Balladry

Burlesque

I performed at a Burlesque Show at SAW Gallery. the show as put on by AGITE, a group of queer woman of colour as well as a local Women's Burlesque group. I really appreciated the chance to open the show with a song. I told every woman in the room about the upcoming Ottawa Carnie show. Hopefully they will show me some sister solidarity and attend.

Toronto Cover Band Fails to Stop the Glambiguous Superstar

I learned a lot about the treachery and solidary of the music business this week. Dido for the human race.

I had a backing band booked for two months. A group of worn out cover band musicians who've gigged Toronto's bottom dollar establishments for 20 years. Let's call them the "Jip Rocks."

The woman called up and told me the entire band was quitting two weeks before the show. "We thought this was Dolly Parton cover tunes and roots music." Huh? The band I had then booked to open for me then proceeded to have a fit and try to force me off the bill. Let's call them the " Hassle Hens"

After much work to find new players and a rush trip to Toronto to rehearse the players I found myself working with true professionals who really enjoy my unique music.

We played the gig last night in Toronto. At that time I learned that the band the "Hassle Hens" had tried to book to yank my gig from me was none other than the "Jip Rocks." Isn't that just so dirty? The band I invited on the bill and my own backing band conspiring to steal the gold and leave me on their sinking pirate ship.

We had a full house of people in Toronto. I dnaced on top of the booths where people were sitting, pulled someone's hair and sat in someone's lap.

Aside from the other musicians, luckily it's not all combative. I've had some really touching and beautiful responses from every day people. One of the most unexpected things is people like to start talking about themselves after they've seen my show. Maybe it's because I've been so real, unapologetic, and yet vulnerable on stage that they feel free to take down their own facades. After a recent Toronto show, a woman sat me down and told me her son's "coming out" story. I think our chat was her “coming out.”

Not Over Night

My music making was the featured story in the Ottawa Citizen's Thursday Arts Section by Fateema Sayani.

When I saw the cover picture I was standing in the midst of a very vaudville scene.

I was in a grocery store talking on the phone with my freind Seamus in Vancouver who had gone to my earliest shows in Halifax years ago. A senior citizen was complaining about politicians. A man with dark sun glasses was playing Bette Midler classics on an out of tune piano.

My story has been one of determination and carrying on despite rejection. How have I gone from obscure sonstress to a musican to be noted in city papers. The answer is certainly not "over night."

I'm opening for the Hi Lo Trons on Feb 17 th at Barrymore's. This hall is an old theatre with a golden ceiling styled like an ornate Roman palace. I can hardly believe Dee Snyner and Twisted Sister have played the same stage in 1982.

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/ottawa/story.html?id=08639932-53ec-49e6-99cb-7ea28eb83fc8&k=75417

Canada's Counter Culture Carnie - Premiere Dec 15, 2006

The Carnie got off to a great start in Toronto by being snubbed by too cool for school scenester kids, dismisive queers and stuck up fashion designers. Instead we had fun with edgy scnester kids, fabulous queers and talented fashion designers.

Putting on the Carnie was hard, hard, hard. It was a true exercise in DIY and not giving up. Such an experience warrentls counting our little successess. We were able to get press on the CBC, Queer West Toronto, and other leading Toronto net blogs. We were also on radio stations at both the University of Toronto and York University. If I can find these links and podcasts I will put them up. In the meantime, please enjoy some pictures of the event.

The next stop of the Carnie is March 10 th, 2007 in Ottawa at Maverick's Bar. Don't just stay tuned, get involved. We are seeking musicians, indie fashion makers and audience members to get in on the fun. Please be in touch if you want to participate.

About the Carnie:

The Carnie has two main focuses. The first is music. This is a Carnie styled music concert. The bands on the play bill are from a collage of genres including opening acts that play indie rock and headliners that play disco rock and glam rock. Some people associate indie music with rough crowds and seedy joints. Here's a chance to catch a medley of quality local music in an uptown venue with your very own chair to sit in if you like. Some people may not be able to see themselves at a Carnie. But if so, where do they see themselves? At home on the sofa? Can you say, "364 days a year"? If you come to the show, then in two weeks you'll remember where you were on Dec. 15 th without having to write your "daily gratitudes" in a journal Oprah Winfrey hawked you. No need to be afraid. It's not communism. It's a Carnie.

The second focus is living with a, "Carnie Spirit." Meaning to, "do it" rather than give up on your dreams. You don't have to stay home just because your sponsor is not Cadillac. You don't have to quit just because some music editor is putting her friends on the cover of arts rags instead of you. Be determined. That's the Carnie way. To soldier on even when you're broken. Offer the world a toothless Carnie grin and fire up the Ferris wheel. Have a fun time along the journey. This "Carnie Spirit" of dancing even when you're missing a shoe inspires people. To keep trying. To grab back moments from your troubles and enjoy life a bit more than you had originally planned.

Proceeds this time around will go to Camp Ten Oaks, a charity that treats the children of queer parents to a week of camp where they can take pride in themselves. Last year the camp had a waiting list of ten children. Every child who wants to go to camp should get to go. So we thought we'd try to help them get there. ***What kind of fashion is it? Is it DIY stuff based on a theme, or products by established local designers?***

The actual event is Canada's only Counter Culture Carnie. The show the Carnie is putting on in this case is called, in extreme jest, "The High Fashion Show". The fashion component is meant to be an accent. There will be some DIY fashion for sale at tables. As well members of the bands will model some of the fashions when they are playing on stage. But anyone who expects to see garish gowns and matronly patterns needs to be ready for a make over! We tried to get designers who make fashions that make you wish you'd known about their merchandise before you went out and bought a mass produced piece of costume jewelry from Le Chateau. But it's no small task to find these obscure but talented little fashionistas. Hopefully, the world will spread that this show, and the show in April, 2007, aren't about going to a stuffy fashion show at the mall that's being MC'd by personalities from the local news! It's about being edgy.

Carnies know that everyone needs encouragement to keep going with their independent arts. The Carnie is a way to reach out to local people making fashions with their own hands, imaginations and passion. We wanted to showcase them so as to encourage them. We want them to keep on going with trying to provide us with an alternative to having to buy everything at Suzie Shier.

Thanks to big business and sweat shops trying to pass themselves off as haute couture at the mall, it's getting harder not to be one of the people at the office wearing the same shirt as the next cubicle soldier only in a different colour. Carnies hate moments like those. Almost as much as they hate cubicles. Obviously this event is meant to give props to people who are trying to, at least in part, employ themselves with their own talents rather than work exclusively for the Man for minimum wage.

The current website for the Carnie is www.highfashionshow.com but it will be moving soon.

Two pictures to get us started at a look back on the premiere. More pictures to follow.

Don't tell me about no givin' up, ya hear?!

Counter Culture Carnival - In Toronto December 15, 2007

Boys and Girls! Welcome to Carnie Night At Buddy’s !!!

Here's an Indie Music concert combining Music, Fashion and Charity.

Featuring Disco and Indie Bands:

After Party
LipstickMachine
Coyote On Peyote
Hot MonogamyAnd
Carnie Hostess Mackenzie MacBride and Her Super Model Syndrome

Proceeds to Camp Ten Oaks: Sending Toronto children of to summer camp
Canada’s Only Counter Culture Carnie and Touring Cabaret Gala !!!

Friday Dec. 15 thOne Night Only7 PM Early Show!!! Followed by Buddys Friday night dance

Buddys In Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St.

$7.00, or $5.00 with a donation of hats or mitts for kids
Forget “Law and Order” and sipping egg nog.
Come to the Carnival and be bedazzled.

Details and poster at: http://www.highfashionshow.com/

Upfront Ottawa Magazine

I have been doing some journalism work for Upfront Ottawa magainze.

Upfront Ottawa is a great magazine covering arts, news and culture in Ottawa, Ontario. I highly recommend reading it as it is full of great writing. Upfront is available at many downtown Ottawa locations as well as location in the Market area.

In the November, 2006 issue I was interviewed for an article called, "Mademoiselle Music" by Angie Neatby where I cited my influences as being "Cyndie Lauper and Jesus Christ."

In the December, 2006 that featured the theme, "The Seven Deadly Sins" I wrote a piece about a sin I know all to well: "Lust"

"When dealing with lust it can be useful to call a trusted freind who's, "been there" from a pay phone. It has to be a pay phone. It is all in the spending of the quarter. You've invested hard currency in your own misery. Now that's validation!"

I felt privlidged to have been given a chance to write a bit for this magazine. I've been writing for a long time. This was one of the first articles I actually got published. Thanks Upfront.

http://www.upfrontottawa.com/currentissue.pdf

The High Notes

I was happy to learn that the good people of Capital Xtra magazine thought enough of my music, my story and the Wild Bird Rescue Centre benefit show that took place on October 7th, 2006.

Here's the link to the profile in the September 28th, 2006 edition of Capital Xtra.

http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=2&STORY_ID=2139&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2

In case you can not open the link, here is the text of the article.
___________________________________________________________________

The musical magic of Mackenzie MacBrideMUSIC / Performer's stage act challenges audiences
Hayley MacPhee / Capital Xtra / Thursday, September 28, 2006

GIVE UP OR STAND UP. The eccentric Mackenzie MacBride has created her own unique sound and a stage act that challenges audiences. (Pat Croteau)

"My life has been one big journey through corners on two-wheels and somersaults and near-death experiences," says Mackenzie MacBride, the Ottawa-area singer-storyteller."I am a woman who got short-changed. I like to think that I have two angels and one of them is Patrick and the other one is Damian, and Damian is this rock and roll angel who temporarily forgot about me and ran off with some chick," says MacBride. "All I ever set out to be in my life was a woman. No prefixes, no suffixes, no multi-syllable qualifiers. And that disappoints some people when I talk like that. But I understand the difference between defining myself and being in the closet. I define myself but I am not in any closet." MacBride is certainly the character she purports to be. She is wearing a tight, frilly, orange and black, three-quarter length shirt, khaki capri pants and clunky oxfords, tied together vividly with a string of lime-green beads.Hailing from the secluded shores of Minas Basin in rural Nova Scotia, MacBride is quick to explain that she was a poster child for all things queer while growing up. MacBride recalls attending Acadia University where she was menaced and intimidated by the general populace while walking through campus, and was eventually given security guards to escort her from the residence to the dining lounge. She also describes attending St Mary's University in Halifax, where she spent her time alone in her foggy residence room listening to Melissa Etheridge. No one ever called her except her mother and one girlfriend. It was at this low point that MacBride decided that she was going to have to "give up or stand up.""The movie Hedwig And The Angry Inch paints a very brash, 'snap-snap' type of got-it-all-together bravado, but in real life it's hard to be a person on the margin day in and day out," says MacBride.Moving to Ottawa was a wake-up call that helped MacBride realize that her eccentric character went far and beyond being part of the queer community. "When I came up to Ottawa I was like, 'Well, here everyone's a tranny and everyone's got a MySpace and there's nothing special about you.' It's not my queerness that defines me as an eccentric artist; that's just one little portion of me," says MacBride, whose je ne sais quoi sets her apart even in the queer community. Despite being a self-described oddball, MacBride says that she still feels a lot of solidarity within the community. "What keeps me coming is back is I feel like I have something to share with other queers. What's true about me but not a lot of others in the queer community is that ... it's the queer way, to take our misfortunes and move forward. The survival instincts, transcending these hardships, is how I feel such a commonality with that community," says MacBride.MacBride says that one thing that hasn't changed from living in the Maritimes is that she's still a curiosity and still a source for scrutiny. And she still hears comments about the way she looks.But major a conduit for MacBride is, of course, her music. The career was not easy to begin in Halifax - MacBride can remember calling every single performer in a pamphlet of musicians looking for gigs and being turned down by every single one. Being in Ottawa helped to advance MacBride's career, and she was able to develop into her own. MacBride says that what sets her apart is her storytelling and her witty yet earnest delivery - her way of sharing her struggles, minus the clichéd Hollywood happy-endings. MacBride says that her act is a mix of Tiny-Tim style screeches and Dolly Parton kitsch and camp. At each show, MacBride invites her audience to transcend the homogenous and the mainstream, and to experience the outlandish, the "off-off Broadway.""I do it with a style, and a depth of humanness you can't get from every dime MC act. It's not pretty, but it's honest. I'm humble enough to take the risk to get up on stage and sing in that sexless voice, which could be thought of as social suicide, even by myself on some nights," says MacBride. MacBride hopes that her earnest vocals, lyrics and inexhaustible wit are enough to transcend all ages and social groups, and instill tenacity and perseverance in the face of hardship. According to MacBride, her music brings a lot of joy to those who have ever been "battered and beaten.""I want them to start making lemonade out of lemons, to treat each day as a chance instead of a promise. The biggest reward for me is when people come up to me after a show and say something like, 'Wow, I don't feel so alone now.' I try to demonstrate beauty and love with honesty, outside of conventional clichés. Beauty as a barbed wire fence that has been cut open, not a kitten on a Hallmark Card."MacBride has enjoyed touring the Golden Triangle circuit this year, but has begun planning her own gigs. MacBride's current project is a benefit called Rare Woman For Wild Birds for an Ottawa-area bird sanctuary that saves and cares for the injured animals.
www.mackenziemacbride.com

Sister Solidarity

Lady Fest Ottawa

I was thrilled to have been invited to not only play, but to open the 5 th Lady Fest ottawa festival. I first played this event in 2003. I was a heartbroken little Annie Lennox emo/ fashion/ passion type with a schreechy voice and a keytar. I am proud to say I am still sharign all this camp with audiences.

I met and interviewed Lesbians On Extasy the night of the show. They were approachable, down to earth and ready to chat. In other words, they are my type of gals! I also interviewed Nicky Click and her dolls. What a moment to meet another true "orininal" on Rideau St. Let's just say Nicky did not have a bag from "the Gap" or "Jacob" under her arm. she had on a white lepard pattenred dress that clung to her like a second skin. She let m know she was going to return it to the store. The tags were still attached. I was delighted.

The concert also marked the first time the mainstream arts and entertainent paper, "The Ottawa Express" mentioned me. Hopefully it won't be the last. There's a lot of barriers though. One never knows. I'm enjoying this bit of recognition. I have walked through the valleys of apathy and sailed into the winds of indifference for years. Be vigilient. I encourage "sister solidarity."

http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/music/music.aspx?iIDArticle=10402

Or read it here:

Ottawa Xpress/ Sept 21, 2006

Hey, hey ladies... Andrea Simms-Karp
Montreal's own Le Tigre of sorts : Lesbians on Ecstasy Ladyfest kicks off with lesbians, click, a librarian's touch and a bride...Wednesday nights are not usually the time to buckle down and dance your little heart out, but this week will have to be a particularly wild exception.
As Ladyfest Ottawa rolls into town, the city is getting hit with an electro-extravaganza unlike anything that usually graces the middle of the week. Montreal's Lesbians On Ecstasy, Olympia, Washington's Nicky Click (who's opened for Lady Sovereign), Toronto's Librarian's Touch (Lindsay Gillard is a former member of Ottawa's the Sick Lipstick) and East Coast's Mackenzie MacBride are all descending upon Maverick's for a night of well-deserved booty shaking. And although the lineup is proudly queer positive and lady friendly, all are welcome to get their freak on.

Fruity Frankie of Lesbians On Ecstasy says that anyone can enjoy the band's high-energy sets - as long as they don't mind watching a group of women strutting around the stage in chaps (nobody has a problem with that, right folks?). Same goes with Nicky Click, whose video art and music is deliciously quirky. She says she often tours with a doll, Petunia Pie, to make things interesting. How this lineup could ever be dull escapes me, but so it goes.
These women have a whole lot more in common than their dance-driven sounds and keen party sense. All of them have made strides in an industry that isn't particularly geared towards women. Electronic art, from multimedia to DJing, is often a dude-dominated realm. For many young women, the thought of going into an audio store to buy gear is daunting. Well-known artists like Le Tigre and Peaches have helped encourage girls to experiment with electronic media, but there is always room for more support.

Nicky Click got into video art with a cheap camcorder and some know-how, but she says she would have gotten into it much earlier if she felt encouraged. "I was lucky to find women who were willing to share their techniques," she says. "Now I'm seeing women creating and saying what they need to say."

Fruity Frankie says she is happy to have seen the genre grow and diversify, even in the relatively short time her band has been wooing crowds. "Our project grew out of Montreal, which has a huge dance scene, but very few women involved. There were a whole lot of guys twiddling knobs," she says, laughing. "But in the past three years, we've seen women really making it for themselves. And we've gotten a lot of props from places we thought would hate us."

Considering that Lesbians On Ecstasy charged the international scene after coming together as a bit of an experiment, it's no wonder they've been getting props. They were asked to tour with Le Tigre, veritable giants of the genre, early on in their career, and are now getting ready to record their follow-up to their buzz worthy self-titled debut - the album's sexy covers of queer anthems could win over even the most skeptical listener. Heck, with names like Fruity Frankie, Bernie Bankrupt, Veronique Mystique and Jackie "The JackHammer," you could go for the camp and stay for the beats.

If you think Wednesday's lineup looks fun, stay tuned for an endless string of stellar shows as the week winds down. The doors to Ladyfest are about to be kicked open.
Ladyfest Presents:Lesbians on EcstasyNicky Click
Librarian's Touch
Mackenzie MacBride
Wednesday, September 27 (19+)Maverick's

" Mackenzie MacBride - Not A Grab and Gripper"

"What's Hot With Me" - Marcus McCann / Capital Xtra/ Sept 5, 2006

Marcus McCann publishes his Top 5 favourites. Right below Kinnee Star he listed me for the Sept. 6 to October 1, 2006 edition of Capital Xtra. It was just one line. But it meant so much to me. I am not a scenester. I am not a poser. I don't try promote myself under the guises of charity and community activism. I am not a "grab and gripper." Nor do I want to be around people exhibiting this type of fakery and narcissism.

My "be for real" philosophy means I have often found myself on the "out"side of queer "in crowd". This is ironic considering I was the personification of queerness in rural Canada for most of my life. But I am not bitter. I am simply pointing it out as a fact. I am comfortable with my outsider status.

Back in high school there were ridiculous "90's era" cliques. The doctor's son and the suburb construction developer's daugther were the King and Queen of Winter Carnival and thought themselves to better than everyone else. They wore Sun Ice winbter jackets in bright yellow and Nike sneakers with space age thick soles. They had a whole lot hangers on. Jock guys and little trotter girls with lots of hair spray. They would all hang around in the front entry of the school or in the adjoining gym.

I can remember being petrified to walk past them in my pink Ocean Pacific tee shirt and "Potato sack" shorts. 10 points for anyone who remembers potato sack shorts. But all these years later where are all these cool kids and posers. Well the doctor's son is an "ears, nose and throat "Mc' doc". And that only barely a "McDoc" because his gradfes were so poor that he had to get is medical licence from Guademala! (Can't you just barely wait for your next trip to get medical care in Canada?) And the the daughter of the suburb developer and her Sun Ice jacket? She sells pharmicutials in Edmonton and worships at the "Church Of the Lamb" along with her hsband - from our same high school. (Hey, if was comfy for her, why change it? Evolution? How passe!)

So take it from me it's better to be one of the nerds in the band room in the basement than a total fake.

So having said all this, to get to the point, I was so happily surprised when I read in Marcus McCann's Top 5 for Ottawa list for September.

"Mackenzie MacBride. Note to Ottawa: Fuck You for not noticing her sooner."

It is a real honour to have caught the attention of an ally. Someone who really "gets it". I have yet to meet him. I hope I do someday. No, I was not noticied. I was in the basement band room. Bring some of your favourite Cher sheet music and let's jam sometime.

New Review

“MacBride gets credit for putting so much of herself out there, and admitting to things like having days when she could barely make it to work over all of this love business. To turn the energy from a bad situation into something productive is always a good thing. She could be on to something.”
- Broken Pencil Magazine of Indie Culture / Reviews / Liz Worth / Toronto /
Issue 30/ June 2006.

Toronto Arts Review

“Mackenzie MacBride, Ottawa, is back with a new CD and her one of a kind lounge act based on storytelling and glam rock.”
- Xtra / Arts / Gordon Bowness / Toronto / April, 2006

Lounge Act Reviewed in Alterheros.com

Mackenzie MacBride, est une musicienne qui chante dans une style de lounge et glam rock.
Elle utilise un synthétiseur, les drums électroniques et la guitare pour raconter l’histoire de sa propre vie, tout en démontrant une franchise hors du commun et faisant vivre bon nombre d’émotion à son public.

Sa voix rappelle à la fois les styles opéra et blues. Avec son style excentrique, elle sera difficile à oublier. Pour la connaître d’avantage, vous pouvez visiter son site perso au www.myspace.com/mackenziemacbride

- Alterheros.com / In the Community / Montreal / April, 2006/ Translated from French

Rock Band

April 23, 2006 - Ottawa, Ontario

Trying out "There's A Rock Band On Every Corner" for a live audience.

Next Show

04/28/2006 09:00 PM - The Lighthouse

930 Rue Champagneur, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA, ,CA - 10.00A multi-artist evening of performance artists including music and spoken word. Queer themed. All ages. Directions: Off of Van Horne, 161 bus and near the subway stop Outremont Metro (Blue Line)

Write It, Read It. Post It. – “Gender Privlidged Vs. Gender Peculiar”

When you’re angry at something or someone in the office the old saying is,”Write It, Read It. Rip It.” But I’m going to Post it. Because “high society” just doesn’t get it. To define my terms, “high society” is people who have access and invitation to participate in the social networks of mainstream society. A mainstream society that includes both the strait world and the queer community. But not people who are gender peculiar.

By social networks I mean the basics of meeting friends and having people actually calling us and inviting us out. How it works is: Each meeting and inviting leads to more of the same. Enurta. High society. It isn’t about money. Though that comes with it. In that people get jobs through who they know. Get music gigs and press from people they know.

Call me Jealous. Imbittered. Angry. Chip on the shoulders. Worked over. I’d for sure agree to “Worked over.” But I’m really done with being told, “Oh. Why don’t you just organize a show?” Or “You can get press – you just have to go out and get it.” Or, “if you’re good at what you do people will just hire you.” Sorry. No sale. All of those comments, however well meaning they may be, are coming from a place of “privlidge.” People who are privilidged to be main stream enough that high society will let them participate in the strait ahead ratio of “Effort = Results”. They ignore that it just aint that simple for people who are ruled “peculiar” and especially, “gender peculiar” by society.

Lets take a closer look at who is “gender privilidged” and who is “gender peculiar” - and why.

If you find yourself lost already, in order to understand what kind of “outsider” status someone who is unconvential in gender faces let’s consider Tammy and Little Billy. Tammy, is a trans gal trying to get in with some non trans people so she can read her poems at the local watering hole in town. Even though she knows most of them are a bunch of damn posers. Little Billy is a queer boy sitting out in a rural town populated by farmers and bible thumpers all lined up at the church pot luck for second helpings of strawberry shortcake of a warm July evening. Billy is often the outcast. Just not let in the club. Tammy is like Little Billy. Little Billy doesn’t have any hetro privlidge. Tammy doesn’t have any gender privlidge. They are both on the outside looking in on the rest of the town, otherwise known as – you guessed it: “high society”. But being a butchy young thing, Little Billy, with his straw hat and faded denium overalls, at least has gender privlidge. Their gonna give him a bowl of strawberry shortcake. Tammy, well she’s just out in the cold. No strawberry shortcake for her. And no saucy limric from her poetry scribbler is gonna fix that, you all.

Now that we have a better idea of what the hell I’m talking about let’s continue. There’s lots of folks, artists and otherwise, out there who are “different”, or “characters” or “unique”. People who dress larger than life to get attention, have a rare talent that they exploit to gain notority, or big personalities that command an audience wherever they go. These “characters” are sought out and revered by society for their “different” qualities. Different, as in “special”. Special, as in “appreciated”. But all of these traits are a second coat of paint over top of their base coats of being conventionally gendered. Their gender matches their body and their sex. It always has, and it always will. Conventionally gendered. This is a safe and approachable base coat of paint for most people.

This safe, conventional, and basically mass appealing gender presentation earns these “characters” two things, if not more. One, it earns them entrance into the privlidged, conventionally gendered high society. And they get into the club because they give people in mainstream society something safe to hold onto. Something called “gender” that lets mainstreamers say, “I can deal with this person – cuz underneath they are “just like me””. And once these “characters” are in the club of privilidge what do they get? : A big play ground to network, earn livings, date, become rock stars – whatever’s on their agendas.

Secondly, it earns them the right to play. Play with fashion, piercings, tattoos, looks, styles, bravado, and all other outward presentations of themselves. Play so hard with their appearances that they can make themselves into real, “freaks”. But they’re still safe. Hardly scary at all. Becauase no matter what they do they’ve still got this base coat of gender normalcy underneath to keep them in the good graces of a main stream society that’s holding the keys to privilidge.

But what about those “characters” who seem to court gender diviance but still come out on top of the heap? The chick dressed in leather and big hats and singing with a real booming voice and a drum kit and the punk boy with mascara and painted nails whining away in a high piched nasal voice above his electric guitar. Those two. And their legions of clones. Good for them, but no, this doesn’t move them from the status of “character” into, “peculiar”. This is still just playing with appearances. Putting a real shocking second coat of paint over those convential gender base coats of theirs. This is all just part of their schitck. Their gag. Their attention-getting machine.
A base coat of paint that mainstream “high society” views as safe and a second coat that main stream views as flashy– what a recipe for success. The by line reads something like, “Amazing female vocalist solid as an 18 wheeler” and “Punk frontman sings like an angel.” The prerequistite for success is gender. These artists deliver. And “high society” eats it up by consciously or unconsciously saying, “Well, I can deal with 18 wheelers and angels – I mean it’s a man and a woman I’m watching here at the end of the day.”

It’s these “characters’” choice to look like that though. It’s on them. Not in them. They could strip all of that rockabilly toughness and punk strut off for Monday morning, walk down the street without being stared and and get that job in the coffee shop on the corner without much of a problem. Not being stared at. Getting that job. Dressing it up or down whenever it’s more convenient or necessary to fit in. All of that is part of gender privilidge.

Some of these “characters” get a real buzz out of defining themselves as “outsiders”, and not a members of “high society” at all. So, ofcourse, they will fight tooth and nail to try and deny that they are in fact “prividged”. Even conventioanlly gendered privlidged. It always amuses me when these self-described “outsiders” fight so hard to be recognized as “peculiar” because they are such “insiders.” Gender insiders. And if they were to be granted the “peculiar” label, it would be a classic case of, “Be careful what you wish for” because they’d immediately see they’re convential gender fueled accesses and privlidges clawed away by main stream
“high society”.

On the other side of the line, the “peculiar” person, the person who is not conventional in gender, has the opposite paint job going on. A base coat of paint that main stream “high society” views as scary. A base that is not on them like a costume, but inside them like a feeling. A feeling that can’t be taken out, whether it turns the coffee shop owner’s crank or not. And a second coat that main stream views as boring – a schtick that’s already been done. (We’ve all seen, “TransAmerica”, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, and “Boys Don’t Cry”. Move on.
Stop whining.). The gender peculiar person is not likely walking down that same street without getting stared at. And isn’t likely getting that job in the coffee shop either.

It’s also worth pointing out here that plently of conventionally gendered people never amount to much in life. Just as many gender peculiar people likely wouldn’t amount to much either if gender suddenly was no longer a big deal in high society. The difference is: whatever opportunities conventionally gendered people squandered or chances they had wrentched away from them by others, one thing they didn’t face was having their potential pinned down by a glass ceiling in the form of being denied access to the goodies that come from possessing gender privilidge.

I don’t resent people who are conventionally gendered. After all, just like gender variant people – it was just how they were mentally hard wired in the womb. And not all conventially gendered people are against non-conventionally gendered people. A few have even said, “I’ll help you.” But both the conventionally gendered person and the non-conventionally gendered soon find out that this benvolent offer finds its demise in its naivity. What worked for the conventionally gendered person in terms of getting press, a job or a lover usually doesn’t work for the gender unconventional person. They can’t, don’t and won’t walk the same path. And many a conventionally gendered friend and non-conventionally gendered friend have looked at each other and said, “Why is that?” The explanation is very short. But once you find it, it is so very simple. Tammy and Little Billy, the answer is: Gender privilidge.

So while I don’t resent people who are conventionally gendered for being conventionaly gendered, I do resent conventionally gendered people telling me that I have access to just as many opportunities to go out there and mix it up with main stream high society as they do. For the more well-meaning people flogging this flawed logic, I give them a break because privlidge born out of gender is really subtle. Because almost everyone has gender privlidge. It’s easy to overlook how much of leg up being conventionally gendered gives a person until you really walk a mile with the effeminate gay boy at the “strait acting” night club, the lip stick lesbain at the stone dyke poker game or the trans gal trying to get some press for her music.

But to state it clearly and simply, once and for all, with few exceptions, people who are gender peculiar are not part of the in crowd. Not invited to the bar for drinks with the hotties. Not thought of for being added to the line up of performers for the multi-artist fund raiser. Ignored by the call outs to join the posing poets for their “reading series”.

And while it is easy to overlook, for all its subtly, I’m not going to roll over and pretend this type of gender privlidge doesn’t exist. Because to ignore it, to say that opportunities and access for conventionally gendered people (conventionally gendered “characters” included) and “peculiar” gender unconventionals are equal would be to make the the oppression that comes from going without gender privilidge even more oppressive. It would be to say, “Oh well. It’s my fault. I didn’t get that press. I must not have tried hard enough.” One more marginalized person blamed for their marginalization.

So if you are gender peculiar give yourself a break. Now that we’ve named the beasts: That you are most likely oppressed by a “high society” that is obsessed with gender as a concept of two polar opposites. That this same “high society” has likely marginalized you by that doling out or holds back gender privlidge, and the trappings that go with it, on a case by case, or gender by gender basis. Now that we’ve carefully disected what’s been leaning on you, uncurl yourself from that ball. You shouldn’t compare what you are able to achieve with that of a conventionally gendered person with the accomplishments of a conventionally gendered person with all of their gender privilidge and access to high society. What the gender peculiar person and the conventionally gendered person can make happen is often going to be on a different scale, even if their talents may be basically equal. And now that this is oppression is out in the light, if you are the friend of a gender peculiar person, please - a little less on the, “Why can’t you make it to the other end of the pool – I did.” routine. It’s hurtful.

To gender peculiars and our friends - don’t quit. Break down the walls. One bricks at a time if necessary. So you can try in little and big ways to gain access to what all humans should have the right to do, participate fully in their communities and socities. There’s not much in journalism or creative writing that’s worse than people giving dogmatic pep talks to complete strangers so I’ll keep this “feel-gooder finish” to a brief personal anecdote. I’ve sent out press releases and promos about my music from everyone to queer magazines, local rags to the freaking CBC and received not a bite. But I’ve rolled up the newspapers heralding punk rock boys with mascara and women in leather and big hats, with their safe base coats and their gender insider status that attracts the press like magnets on grandma’s fridge. And I’ve thrown the whole lot of them in the recycling bin. And I’m moving on to thinking about just who in “high society” I can go up to next and point out – “Hey I exist too, wanna give me a chance?”

04/02/2006 09:00 PM - Buddies in Bad Times Theater

12 Alexander Street, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, ,CA - multi-artist evening of performance artists including music and spoken word. All ages.

Thanks to everyone who attended and waved their arms so romantically during, "I Saw You"!

Being Trans Is “Stylish” - at least so says the CBC

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) Ottawa bureua website ran a story by Alec Scott in which he described being trans as being very, “Stylish” and very “Now” . What a way to degrade and dismiss all of the years of suffering most trans people have gone through to find a home for their souls in their own bodies!

Being trans is not a style or a fad. Or a bit of campy fun. It is an identity. A true self. This true self is not chosen by the trans person like a pair of cutsey barettes to match a $100.00 haircut. It is a true self that is there whether the trans person or the people around them like it or not.

Right wing conservative Preachers, Ethicists and, “People who have found God” berate trans people by saying they should choose to “correct” themselves. But these right wing bigots stand corrected. The only choice involved in being trans is to choose to accept your true self as is, or to reject your true self.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/trans.html

I wrote the following Feedback article and sent it to the CBC. It details just how, “Stylish” it is to be a musician who people label as trans.

To Alec Scott,

I thought that since you went on record in your Feb 13th, 2006 article, “Trans Mania” as saying that, “trans is very stylish, very now” that you might be interested to know just exactly how “Stylish” being trans in Ottawa REALLY is. The best way I can think to do this is to tell you about “a day in the life”.

First let me introduce myself. I am an Ottawa based songwriter/ singer who does a one of a kind lounge act based on story telling and glam rock. I am a true tortured artist and underdog in every sense of the words.

Now for an account of my day. This account isn’t designed to be a sympathy ploy. I don’t want anyone’s charity. Just their understanding of the facts of what it’s like to be a trans musician in Canada.

Today I decided to venture out into the world in search of some social contact. I had been sequestered all weekend working on songs for my new album. Not that I had a lot of choice. A trans person often has very limited social networks. People who literally are cast to the fringe of society can literally live in almost constant social isolation. Just like a shut in senior citizen who is just waiting for the telemarketer to call or her once a week visit from her daughter from out of town. Except young, so the mind is still sharp and the loneliness felt especially poignantly. Just one of the many styling aspects of being trans.

I was extra motivated to find positive social contacts today because I had viewed a show on Global TV which was extolling right wing anti gay and anti trans views. The show even featured real life success stories who had `corrected` themselves from `deviant sexual lifestyles`. Nothing like another positive reinforcement from the media about how much self worth a person should have.

My default venue was a trip into the Dusty Owl Reading series, a monthly “I have no friends” club for a bunch of amateur poets to get up any revel in the sounds of their own voices set to the back drop of a seedy queer bar in a basement of downtown Ottawa.

On a trip into the washroom to throw out some orange peels a woman could be heard in the stall calling out,

“Just a minute. You can use this washroom. I just wiped the seat.”
I said, “I’m just here to throw out orange peels”

She emerged from the can. A stocky dyke decked out in an orange ball hat and a fleece Mountain Gear vest and looks at me and says,

“Oh well if it had been a woman well she would have appreciated me wiping the seat. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

I exit the washroom telling myself for about the 5000 th time in my life that perhaps I had misunderstood or misheard what was obviously blatant transphobia.

Later I returned to the washroom and the woman – who must have been some sort of crapper urchin – was back in there again. From the next stall over she said,

“ I didn’t catch you name. What’s you male name? ”
“I am not a male! ”
“I thought I knew you from the scene from years ago. ”
“No. ”
“I thought you were Scott. Are you Scott? ”
“No.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you. I know what it’s like to be trapped. I’ve done a lot of reading on that. ”
“I am not sure why you would associate any man or any Scott with me. ”
“It’s just that when you came in the bar, everyone started saying, “Look at the transvestite.”

(She, like you in your article, was using really archaic language from the 1970’s that is a derogatory term used for men who get sexual pleasure from dressing up as women. If you wanted to appear more savvy on social issues, I’d suggest dropping that word from your lexicon. It really is what the word “nigger” is to a black person. It’s a slur. Almost too contemptible to even use as an example of a slur.)

“Why were people saying that? ”
“Well the sun glasses. ”
“Women don’t wear sun glasses on their heads?
“Well who was saying it. ”
“Never you mind. Why do you care what people are saying about you?”
“Well since you are telling me this I thought I should pursue it. ”
“Well now that I look at you, I can tell you are a beautiful woman and they were wrong.
So don’t mind that people call you names. ”

So either through my indignation or my beauty I convinced her that she was “wrong” and that I was not a “transvestite”. As a result, she was basically letting me know that she was letting me off the hook: excusing me from being associated with this category of people, this obvious insult. An insult, which only minutes before, she was saying was not an insult as she tried to label me with it. So from either side of the coin I was once again having someone map out all of their transphobia all over my body. How stylish.

Meanwhile back out at the bar, some 60 year old bald librarian look a like had slipped a business card inside my poetry book with the message, “Please call”. And he’d borrowed my own pen to write me the note!

And remember this was the social experience that I was counting on to be my social contact for the entire weekend.

I decided that, as usual this crowd of scenesters and pretend friends did not deserve me. I announced I was leaving and that my name should be removed from the reading list. Oni, the Haitian Sensation, who was the hostess for the evening, recognizing my authentic artist status from previous interactions, immediately put my name to the top of the list and I decided this gesture of support was grounds for doing my poetry reading after all. I took to the stage and immediately let the crowd know,

“I’m not going to lie to you – this night is a rough one. Some old dude gave me his business card which just says , “By appointment only. Please call” on it. What sort of business do you think he’s in? Hair?” Everyone laughed.

I went on to read the following poem,

Road Less than Less Traveled

Our living room plans were as storied as the streets of Nashville
I can almost see Neil Young and Emmy Lou Harris in a big old Lincoln.
But we’ll have to find a less cliché way to make it in music
Cuz they don’t want the lies of us at the Grand Old Opre

This poem was written to illustrate the heroic challenge a trans person faces trying to make it in the music business. When we think of the music business – it is thought of as the road less traveled. Shania Twain and Terri Clarke are considered “trail blazers” for leaving small town Canada behind and going down to Nashville. They took “the road less traveled.” But they had pretty faces, pretty voices, were conventional in gender and looked the part. Through no special effort of their own. They were just born into their underlying conventionalness.

Soon enough producers and studio players were lining up to write songs with them and even marry these gals. But imagine if a trans country singer arrived in Nashville. She might as well have stayed home and kept washing dishes at the Manx on Elgin St. She’d be laughed off the stage. Or worse. The “Remembering Our Dead” Trans Day of Remembrance vigil that is marked around the world in cities including Ottawa named trans people that were killed in such states as Tennessee and Kentucky. Just in the last year. Just for being trans. How trendy. I can almost see them accepting their Grammy in the sky…

Being a shunned woman has held me back in all sorts of ways in the music business and in life in general. For example, living in Halifax in the 1990s, when I finally decided I would reach out to other musicians to try and make a CD, I called every musician in, “Play” (the Atlantic Canadian Music Industry Index), and not one of these musicians - not one - would work with me. The book was over 150 pages thick.

That set me on a lonely road to try and learn to do everything myself. With my money exhausted from paying for 3 demos songs in a professional studio with engineers who could hardly see me below their curled lips, I fell into a trap that many people fall into. I tried to get into “home recording”. I saved up the money to buy computer recording equipment and software. Saving the money took years of toil at degrading minimal wage jobs – at one point I dissected garbage contents to figure out what percentage of it would have been recyclable. Another perk of being a trans is that employment is difficult if not impossible. Through sheer determination and smarts I was able to get a job a government job some years back. But I know if I lost this government job tomorrow and I applied to McDonalds on Bank St. or Starbucks in the Chapters on Rideau St. (Ottawa, ON), I would not be hired.

All of the computerized recording equipment turned into a huge 3 year night mare of computer crashes, technical problems and results that could only be described as computerized. It’s only been in the last year that I found an organic way to record my lounge act on a no budget basis. It only took 15 years to be acquire gear a lot of kids are given for Christmas.

Meanwhile lots of low talent and conventionally gendered people are making it big in music. Around Ottawa and around Canada. Why? Because they were not on the fringe. They were out at bars. Making friends. Making connections. Starting bands. Not being laughed at and asked their “male names” just by showing up. Not having to do it all themselves. Meanwhile I was, despite my efforts, in musical and social isolation battling computers.

And when it came to gigs for these afor mentioned main steamers? People wanted to see their bands. It was about music. But if I had managed to get myself out there and make a show. Well it would be “the tranny show”. It wouldn’t be about music. It would be seen as a gimmick. And if there was an audience? No straight bar would have it. Off to the queer bar with you. (Where as you can see from the above anecdote, “The dog did come from my own kennel”. )

Drawing from your own articles examples, the creator of the movie “Trans America” Duncan Tucker is quoted in the Ottawa Express (a free local entertainment rag) as saying of his movie, “I only hope that people won’t think, “It’s a transsexual movie. It’s strange and inaccessible.” The creator of the very film that supposedly portrays trans people with such honesty prefers to take the good of the gimmick of being trans and leave the bad of the taboo of being trans. His basic pitch can be paraphrased with, “Come to the freak show. You can see freaks. But we won’t scare you too much. And noone will think you’re a freak for going to the movie either.
I promise.”

The Ottawa Express even got it wrong. The title read, “Felicity Huffman makes like a man in Tranny Tale”. Makes like a man? Tranny Tale? She’s not a man. That’s the point! Or so the movie might have told a few people if the stupid title of the Express article hadn’t told them the reverse and confirmed the negative misconceptions people had about trans people going into the movie experience. And won’t it be tragically ironic that when Felicity Huffman wins an Oscar, it will be for playing a role based on my real life experience. Except instead of being celebrated for my experiences- people have used them to systematically keep me out of the music business.

An example from my own life now. When I was promoting my CD at the 2004 CanZine festival of DIY and Independent Arts festival in Toronto, some dude from the York University newspaper just waltzes up to my table and says he wants to include me in a supplement his paper is doing on trans people.

The guy has never met me. He doesn’t know me. Doesn’t know what I’m about. He does not know how I identify. He decides for me. In his self rightousness he thinks he is the appointed person to define me. He knows me better than I know myself. So he thinks. So he gets to label me. With labels he is comfortable with. Labels that help him maintain his view that the world or sex and gender is binary (one or the other). He tries to make me an unwilling participant in his binary world. He completely disregards that I’m promoting a musical creation – not my crotch. For him, it’s all about my crotch, my status, my freakishness. All of which were sandblasted onto me by his presumptions, without my permission or invitation.

Ofcourse, as much as I need the PR, I didn’t accept his offer. When I was little I saw myself as a girl, and I saw myself as wanting to become a woman when I grew up. I sure didn’t think about the day when I could grow up and be a TS or and transgender or even a TS woman. Just a woman. All those other labels are just jargon for uninformed people to keep people “not like them” in neat little categories and moreover, devices to keep people “not like them” down. To deny people “not like them” the validation that society is ready to agree with us that we are who we say we are. An Asterisk on Woman* or Man*, as the case may be, that says: * - Not quite. And no PR is worth that for me.

So I’ve had to learn not to compare myself to the accomplishments of others. I face more obstacles than other musicians. Both in connecting with other musicians and with getting audiences and shows. The average main stream person just “gets the goodies” from life – just by being them. By virtue of fitting in. If they start at 0 every morning, then ofcourse they can get to 7, 8 or even 9 out of 10 everyday. The trans person starts out at like – 10 every morning and is lucky if they see beyond zero on a good day. Those are the odds. Not to mention that over 60% of trans youth commit suicide before they are 30. Well, I’m not 30 yet. But I intend to make it there. But while I’m on route, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t align my life of struggle and torture to escape rural Nova Scota to become a veritable -yet to be discovered-Canadian lounge act with being “Stylish” and vogue.

Reviewed:

"Poems Even Your Boyfriend Will Understand" the chapbook has been reviewed by Xtra, which is Canada's # 1 Queer monthy newpaper magazine. A big thank you to Sandra and Gordon who took an interest in independent writers and followed through on their plan to review my chapbook. More action than talk. These are my kind of people.

Arty giftsZINES / Indie stocking
Sandra Alland / Xtra / Thursday, December 08, 2005

There's more than one cool artist in Ottawa. Mackenzie MacBride's Poems Even Your Boyfriend Will Understand: Uniquely Painful Poems And Desperate Accounts is full of soul-searching romantic longing. MacBride manages to undercut the clichéd confessional style of much journalling. I have no patience for love-whining, but this is a page-turner ($5; mackenziemacbride.com).

Entire article:
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?SessionId=32867794-315a-44b0-b3a0-4f94d5e11aef&AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=1187&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2