Archives for March 2011

Ricci Lauds Globe’s Late Payment Policy

TORONTO (QP) 11:42 AM 28 Monday 2011 – Nino Ricci has learned that as of Friday, March 25, 2011, a cheque from Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper for an invoice that had gone unpaid for six months began wending its way toward him through the reliable services of Canada Post. Average Canada Post delivery times suggest the cheque should reach Ricci’s home, which is located about a fifteen-minute cab ride from The Globe‘s offices, only a week to ten days after he sent out an open letter to The Globe calling attention to the missed payment and expressing fears for the newspaper’s finances.

“I’m certainly glad they didn’t waste any money on a courier,” said Ricci. “That was what I was afraid of at first, when they were so apologetic. But it’s only costing them the usual fifty-nine cents.”

Ricci was also extremely pleased to learn that The Globe and Mail would NOT be including in their cheque to him a late payment charge he had added to his most recent invoice to cover interest charges on expenses he incurred on The Globe‘s behalf as well compensation for deferred income and for the time and energy he has put into seeking payment. The Globe‘s payment policies, Ricci was informed, do not permit it to make any compensation for late payment.

“This is wonderful news!” said Ricci. “I didn’t even know you were allowed to have policies like that! You can be sure I’m going to be setting my own in place right away, so I won’t have to be paying late charges any more to any of my creditors.”

Andy Warhol

So Ricci gets a hard-on because he trended on twitter for fifteen minutes. Pathetic. What writers will stoop to for a little attention. Meanwhile he’ll never work in this town again.

Then there’s those ten thousand hits on his web site. Average pageviews: one. Average bounce rate: 85%. Average length of stay: ten seconds.

About nine seconds more than Ricci deserves.

In the beginning was The Word. Then came OG. OGtheBLOG was born.

Fears of Globe’s Difficulties Unfounded

TORONTO (NP) 25 March 2011 – After an open letter to Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper expressing concern that his unreasonable demands for payment had placed the paper in financial difficulty, writer Nino Ricci has been assured that the paper is alive and well.

“The best part is they’re still going to pay me. . . . I can’t wait to tell my children.”

“I’m sorry we’ve put you through this,” responded editor-in-chief John Stackhouse in the face of Ricci’s contrition, and added, “other writers have suffered the same,” suggesting that Ricci has not been alone in experiencing guilt for a relentless pursuit of payment.

Ricci, for his part, was greatly relieved to learn that his actions had not placed the paper in peril. “And the best part is they’re still going to pay me. The cheque is in the mail, they said. I can’t wait to tell my children.”

Access Copyright AGM

The education exemption in Bill C-32 needs to be rethought. Not only does it unilaterally claw back rights that have been recognized for centuries, it will likely end up doing more damage to education in this country than good, by disrupting the delicate ecosystem that has allowed publishers, creators, and educators to develop curricula relevant to the Canadian context.

Nino Ricci delivers the keynote address at Access Copyright’s 2011 AGM, speaking on Canada’s proposed new copyright legislation, Bill C-32. Friday, March 25th, 2011 at 1 PM in the Regatta Room of the Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto.

St. Jerome’s University

Nino Ricci speaks at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario on the Italian-Canadian experience. Thursday, 24 March 2011, 2:30 – 4 PM. Contact Professor Vanessa Rukholm, 519-884-8110, ext. 28200.

March Hare Redux

Join Matthew Byrne, Ron Hynes, Randall Maggs, David Michael, Lisa Moore, Nino Ricci, Nico Rogers, Agnes Walsh, and Baxter Wareham for the second installment of March Hare West, the Toronto leg of the 2011 March Hare. Saturday, March 5th at 2 PM at Brass Taps, 934 College St., Toronto, between Ossington and Dovercourt.

March Hare West

The March Hare, Atlantic Canada’s largest poetry festival, originated probably in 1988 as an innovative but inauspicious winter entertainment at the Blomidon Golf and Country Club in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.1 That an important literary event should owe its birth to three golfers attempting to generate business for their local club during the bleak days of March might seem unlikely, but given that the begetters were poet Al Pittman, organizer Rex Brown and club manager George Daniels, it perhaps should have been expected. The March Hare was one of a series of events they concocted to enable the club to stay open during the long winter months – the Swish, Swallow and Swill Gournament, the Blomidon International Night, and the Great Tack’s Beach Growl Tournament – its original purpose not substantially more noble than theirs. Unlike the other events, however, the March Hare survived – survived the deaths of George Daniels and Al Pittman and a change of venue downtown to the Columbus Club – to become a unique trans-island celebration of words and music, involving seven events in three towns over five days, attracting writers from all over Canada and indeed the world, and featuring the best traditional musicians in Newfoundland and Labrador. . . .

Adrian Fowler, The March Hare Anthology

Join Matthew Byrne, Ron Hynes, Randall Maggs, David Michael, Lisa Moore, Nino Ricci, Nico Rogers, Agnes Walsh, and Baxter Wareham for March Hare West, the Toronto leg of the 2011 March Hare. Friday, March 4th at 8 PM and Saturday, March 5th at 2 PM at Brass Taps, 934 College St., Toronto, between Ossington and Dovercourt.