Raise the Hammer
List of contributors to Raise the Hammer, with a brief bio for each author and links to that author's articles.
The advent of wireless communications has made it possible for Mark to hold down a day job while spending quantity time out beyond the limits of something approaching a general conscensus about what's important in post-industrial society. In addition to working as a product demonstrator at Sobeys, Mark has worked as an ID photographer for a community college, a Kelly Girl, a Legal and Consumer Counsellor for an Auto Club, a Hall Director for a Southern Ontario University Residence, and an Aviation Analyst. He is the co-author of a television pilot called Bad Hall Director, which is unproduced but was once (and for all he knows may still be) seriously considered by serious producers, and he is the sole author of the e-novel of the same title on which it is based, and which must still exist on a CD at the bottom of a bottom drawer of his desk. He makes his home in Hamilton, Ontario.
RATDROP: An Exploration of Altitude, Liberty and the Inevitable Heaviness of Being - It's a constitutional right to own a jet that exceeds the sound barrier, burns a fantastic amount of fuel for what can only be short range flights, has no significant space for luggage, and can be fitted for weapons of mass destruction. Published Nov. 26, 2008
Lost Word, Lost Image: Photo Tour of a Sentence - All literature is about loss, and Malcolm Lowry and Proust are each exceptional in their hourly agonizing over, and meticulous accounting of loss. Published Nov. 4, 2008
The Fly: A Consideration of Animal Rights, Landscape Sketches, and Mortality - I didn't free the fly. I didn't terminate the fly. I walked away. How would a Jain judge me? How would William Stafford? How would The Cramps? Published Oct. 2, 2008
The Bardo of the Canadian Prairies: Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg (with a new translation by Jeffrey Stewart) - We are allowed five minutes exactly. We must not wander from the bus and we are told: "You may not cross the street because if you are hit by a car you will probably be injured and I will be fired." Published Sep. 11, 2008
Waiting for Denis Johnson - That's what we want from art: something that penetrates the material body, passes through it and into our mind. Published Jul. 7, 2008
The Yurts of Bronte Park, or: The Possibility of Camping on the 403 - Easy to Mapquest, and aside from being stuck-on-a-site-with-a-pole, it should end the griping about how all the good sites were already taken. A campground on the 403. You heard it here first. Published Jun. 5, 2008
The Diving Bell and the Melting Paraiso: Two Reviews and a Bridge - Cerebral misadventure meets cerebral faux-krautrock. Published Apr. 30, 2008
Eaton Centre Parkade: Parking Garage or Lifestyle Choice? - Whenever I turn down a street I've been away from for a while I'm presented with something in ruins. Published Mar. 24, 2008
Shadows: A Walking Tour of Mount Hope - I'm waiting for the phone to ring for having taken these pictures earlier this afternoon, as citizens of Mount Hope describe my suspicious activities to the authorities. Published Feb. 14, 2008
The Enigma of Cats, or A Cautionary Tale About Electricity - In my dream I see the Sphinx fading up mysteriously onto the screen of my darkened Blackberry. And we talk. Published Jan. 18, 2008
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Christ the King Cathedral - Such is the human spirit that it overreaches itself. Published Dec. 20, 2007
Orpheus in Burlington - It does not pay to look back. Except sometimes it does. Published Nov. 27, 2007
Ottawa Street: Way Too Close to Hallowe'en For Comfort - Ottawa Street is to fabric shopping as West 47 Street, New York, NY is to diamond shopping. Published Nov. 8, 2007
Hammer Walk-Up (Part 1) - A Guided Tour Of East Mohawk With Two Mini-Dramas, A Consideration Of The War Of 1812, And An Unexpected Bunch Of References To Islamic Textiles Published Oct. 22, 2007
Hammer Walk-Up (Part 2) - A Guided Tour Of East Mohawk With Two Mini-Dramas, A Consideration Of The War Of 1812, And An Unexpected Bunch Of References To Islamic Textiles Published Oct. 22, 2007
Fisk the Amanuensis - A short story by Mark Fenton. Published Sep. 9, 2007
The Narrow Road to Rymal and Nebo - A travelogue with some new poetry by Jeffrey Stewart in it. Published Jun. 27, 2007
Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4 - There is in Ives' music a man who holds sacred all the values of the Union, and at the same time a man who wants to subvert it all. Published Jun. 7, 2007
Adventures In Har[dw]are - What do B. Kliban, Lewis Caroll, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Wittgenstein, and Harare, Zimbabwe have in common? Published May. 18, 2007
Possibility for a Camera Obscura and Garth and Stonechurch - Mark sees through a glass, darkly. Published Apr. 30, 2007
How I Wrote "How I Wrote 'Fisk'" - If you like movies about how movies are made, you'll love this story about how a story was made. Published Mar. 19, 2007
Fisk - A short story by Mark Fenton. Published Feb. 26, 2007
Ancaster [Business Park]: An exploration in three mini-dramas, two snacks and a graveyard - We owe it to ourselves to walk (in stages, not necessarily consecutively) the entire route from home to the places we travel routinely. Published Jan. 24, 2007
Fisk and Me: A Christmas Tale - An unlikely Christmas story of loss and redemption. Published Dec. 13, 2006
The Roof Warrior - A stark figure zaprudered on the roof of a church spawns a genre-busting, apocalyptic literary thriller. Published Nov. 23, 2006
Ped Versus Pod - If you are in a lobby, you'd rather be somewhere else, or have no place to go, or have reached a psychic limit and have found a momentary sanctuary midway through life's journey. Published Oct. 6, 2006
Appleby Line and Highway 5 - Cars as well as houses are what we shut ourselves in to avoid the terror of the crowd. Published Jul. 5, 2006
From Centre Mall to the Fringe - Can a photo essayist and a documentary filmmaker find each other if there's no Tim Horton's to guide them? Published Jun. 16, 2006
A Lot in an Empty Lot - Mark tours an overlooked empty lot near the otherwise-bustling corner of Upper James and Rymal, and survives to tell the tale. Published May. 26, 2006
Jackson Square Rooftop - I fell in love with the Jackson Square Rooftop shortly after I moved to Hamilton. There's so nothing like this in Edmonton. Published May. 5, 2006
Meadowlands Power Centre: A Photographic Odyssey - Mark Fenton dares the impossible and discovers serendipity in a pedestrian walkway. Published Apr. 21, 2006
Real Sad He's Gone: A Response to the Death of David Foster Wallace, Published Sep. 18, 2008 under Reviews
A Response to '#$&% Jackson Pollock', Published Oct. 5, 2007 under Arts
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Aerotropolis: Will It Fly? - Wednesday, December 3, 2008, at Mount Hope Community Hall, 3027 Homestead Dr., Mount Hope.
Can Harper Prorogue Parliament? (Dec. 3, 2008) - Given the paucity of Prime Minister Stephen Harpers options as Monday's confidence vote draws closer, pundits and analysts are coalescing around the conclusion that he will ask Governor Genera
Picking a Prime Minister: A Parliamentary Primer (Dec. 2, 2008) -
We will use all legal means to resist this undemocratic seizure of power.
-- Prime Minister Stephen Harper
With the Liberals and NDP agreeing to a coalition with the support of the B
Bratina: City Hall Plan Could Save $110 Million Over 20 Years (Dec. 2, 2008) - Councillor Bob Bratina, who has proposed that the City remain at Hamilton City Centre, is claiming that this move will cost only $50 million over the next 20 years, compared to $150 million to com
City Backs Down on Airport Development Size (Dec. 1, 2008) - Citizens at City Hall (CATCH) reports that the city has backed down on at least one aspect of its dispute with the province on the size of the Airport Economic Growth District (AEGD), a planned in
Same Old 'Traffic Trumps Everything' Thinking (Dec. 1, 2008) -
Apparently, the City Traffic department still doesn't get it.
After turning James and John into two-way streets that slowed traffic down, the city is now looking for ways to speed thing
Toronto Council to Vote on Corporate, Union Donations (Dec. 1, 2008) -
Toronto City Council has another opportunity today to decide whether to allow corporate and union donations to be proffered during municipal campaigns.
City Council has voted against such don