Tuesday, July 1, 2008

BIRTH OF A CLEAR VISION -- THE NARRATIVE


(NB before playing the video of this event, please read the narrative below to enrich your enjoyment. On some images, place cursor over image & click to enlarge)

On a sunny summer afternoon, June 26, 1976, seventeen Units of Verse of the Unitverse (Poetariet) occupied the grassy knoll at the base of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. This poetic event, entitled Birth of a Clear Vision (BCV), was sponsored by the Creative Intelligence Agency in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Inspiration of the Peoples Republic of Poetry (PRP).

It was opening day for the public to visit the world’s tallest free-standing structure – a record it had held for 31 years. At midnight it was opened “officially” by Canadian cabinet minister, Donald Macdonald, whom a CTV National News report referred to as “Canada’s tallest free-standing politician.”

A contiguous thread weaves through many of the uncertain actions taken by the PRP. One such thread that terminated with BCV, began April 18, 1974 when the Truth Squad of the Federal Bureau of Inspiration served a search warrant on Member of the Provincial Parliament, Frank Drea, in his Queen’s Park office and removed a wiretap from his telephone. This uncertain action was taken as part of a larger poetic event entitled: PROJECT ITT (INTO THE TRUTH)

It was a necessary pre-emptive move to protect and reinfarce the metaphorical stealth of Poetry. The gov’t of Canada declared the Protection of Privacy Act effective July 1, 1974. The law prohibited the wiretapping of telephones by anyone except elements of the state of Canada with a warrant required from other elements of the state of Canada.

This foreign intervention of mediocrity into the state of affairs of state of the PRP caused some temporal diminishment of the policy of Little Brother Watches Back, as enunciated in the Protection of Poetency Sonnet Verse 3.1, sub-verse 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3c, 3d, 4c, 4d, 5e, 5f, 6e, 6f, 7g, 8g, of the Primacy of Poetry Proselytization and Proliferation Act (PPPPA). The “Frank Drea wiretap”, along with others acquired from other government and cultural telephones, are secured at the National Ark-Hives of the PRP.

On April Fool’s Day, 1975, at a nearby staging area, the top section of the CN Tower was open for the day for students to tag it with their names. In the wee hours of April 2, two Units of Verse of the Unitverse clandestinely slipped through the fencing and adhered a fully operational wiretap (the one removed from MPP, Frank Drea’s phone) to the top of the top section. Beside the wiretap a Poetic Licence card was permanently adhered, with epoxy resins. The wiretap was positioned so that whenever a maintenance crew went up there, the hatch door would flop over on top of the wiretap, rendering it non-visible. On April 2, 1975, the city’s attention was focussed on the final lift-off of the top section of the CN Tower. The wiretap remained operational during BCV.

The PRP offered the CN Tower a circuit board bound in red tape, and a portable tv wrapped in chrome mylar and bound in red tape. These iconic metaphors were offered to celebrate the CN Tower for its triumphant mandate – to provide to a wider audience a clearer vision of sitcoms and the bloody news.

(During the 1970’s, Toronto was one of the most tv-saturated places on Earth. Toronto benefited from border overlap – receiving signals via Buffalo, USA. The signals were received by antennae mounted on the rooftops of homes. Antennae cluttered the suburban skyline like the upturned legs and feet of long deceased flamingos.)
The Poetariet wear white clothing in accordance with the policy of the PRP. (The minutes of the Poetburo meeting where this policy was formulated remains classified: TOP SECRET – INSENSITIVE). Chrome is the image national colours of the PRP. It is the custom of the PRP to author an apropoetic poem for all of its poetic events; they are written in two formats: (1) in Spontaneus Printout NuSpeek Txt and in (2) Sub-Verse Standard Text

Each Unit of Verse spread out their chrome “prayer” mat. As is the custom at all Poetic Events, Poetician1 (a.k.a. Langtek) led the Poetariet in the recitation of the Image National Prayer. The Poetariet, thereafter "worshipped" and celebrated the CN Tower by chanting "ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON . . . "

This activity attracted passing locals and the appearance of a CTV National News crew. It is the policy of the PRP to not speak with the media except to respond to any direct queries with “I am at liberty not to say.” This policy compels viewers to process what they are witnessing with their own spin. Whatever a news farce says is happening becomes true until and unless the PRP asserts otherwise.

In the presence of the CTV News crew, the Director of Security for the CN Tower dispatched some minions armed with bullhorns, to place the Poetariet in detention. “Are we being detained? On what grounds?” asked a Unit of Verse. “On the CN grounds, what do I know?” replied another.

The Director of Security brought in a Metropolitan Toronto police officer to witness the declaration that the Poetariet was on private property and requested they leave forthwith. The PRP complied with a well-conducted police escort, thereby ensuring the reputation of the CN Tower as a safe ejection site.

The Poetariet returned to Poetry Plaza to co-mingle and applaud ourselves when CTV National News broadcast the poetic event across the nation, declaring, “This group of people consider it engineering gone mad. Their sense of humour was not appreciated, however, and they were kicked off the grounds.”

The PRP hereby proclaims that it had doubleplus never never doubleplus ever ever considered the construction of the CN Tower to be “engineering gone mad.”

The above narrative was released by the Re-Verse Poetent Policy Committee.
-- Minister With Poetfolio, PPPPA-01072008


(NB: The June 28, 2008 inauguration of the LED show on the CN Tower.)

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