A fluid, vibrant and kinetic riff on one of Al Purdy’s best known poems, Bruce Alcock’s At the Quinte Hotel recalls the experimental, interpretive work of Norman McLaren. A poet waxes on about beer and flowers in a small-town basement tavern. He witnesses and joins a bar fight, which he wins. Seizing the opportunity to recite to a captive crowd, he tries to profit from the emotional effect of his poem... Using a celebrated CBC Radio recording of Purdy reading at the League of Canadian Poets in 1968, Bruce Alcock animates At the Quinte Hotel with a variety of handmade and computer-assisted techniques — oil paint on paper, charcoal drawings on paper, linoleum, bottle caps, wire, flowers, a neon sign, even an electric kettle.
Purdy writes like a cross between Shakespeare and a Vaudeville comedian (so did Shakespeare).
– MARGARET ATWOOD
If you want to read some decent strong human stuff without fakery I’d say Al Purdy, the Canadian.
– CHARLES BUKOWSKI
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