“And I lie on my bed./ In a McGill sweatshirt, reading Breton, listening to Bjork./I am trying to comprehend life” writes Jeffrey Mackie in what is one of several long meditations on the effect of mass culture on reality. Junkfood Architecture is actually a great title for this baby which is all about the masticated nutrionless pulp of culture that nevertheless still manages to hold up entire social structures. This book features some great writing, some terrible writing and several pages of the TV guide glued right in. Mackie’s central premise is sound. He just needs to take some time, develop his theories, and subject his poems to a rigorous editing process. After that his main point – that somewhere in the cultural morass, there must be something real, something at stake, something that matters – will be as powerful and compelling as Elvis. (HN)
chapbook, 25 pgs / main creator: Jeffrey Mackie / $4 / 5996 St. Urbain, Montreal, QC, H2T 2X5