Harlan Ellison is my hero

I'm still new to Toronto, so I'm trying to do as many Toronto-y things as possible. I experienced my first of Louise Bak's quarterly Box Salons last night, on all hallows eve, at the Rivoli. What a good idea this is--a mish mash of music, video, literary readings, performance poetry. I particularly enjoyed the poetry, by Moheb Soliman. It reminded me of a reading I attended at the March Hare in Newfoundland, by Irish poet Paul Durcan. Very different kind of writer, but Durcan's a bit of a perf-poet himself--that is, he didn't read from his work, he recited it, brilliantly, expressively. This sort of experience, when it works, makes me think maybe all poets should be performance poets, to an extent. When it's good, it's pretty electrifying.