Wordfest 2014

“What is going to be healthy and delicious, and also make me happy?”The host of Literary Death Match is starving. Maybe not quite to death, but definitely in that just-got-off-a-plane and made-it-through-customs kind of way. Yet Adrian Todd Zuniga is not the type to order off a menu without some intense Q&A.

I get it. We’ve met at Joey’s Eau Claire, just around the corner from the Westin, the Wordfest hotel of choice, so I can do some grilling of my own. Once Adrian finishes his blackened basa, I want to know — what will he be wearing tonight as 4 authors face off onstage?A cornflower blue suit. Of course.

Literary Death Match is a traveling word circus. With Adrian as its ringmaster, no staid, snooze-inducing readings are allowed on his world stage. The show, which visits dozens of cities a year, is Def Poetry Jam meets American Idol (minus the meanness) meets Double Dare.

The Los Angeles-residing, Missouri-born author and screenwriter created LDM eight years ago. This is his second visit to Calgary. Being a man of style, he abhors being seen in the same outfit twice.

“I rotate through suits. It’s very important for me not to wear the same thing in the same city. It would be lame.”Last year Adrian wore a red velvet smoking jacket, which bookended nicely with 2013 competitor Todd Babiak, no slouch in the wardrobe department himself. See my style feature on Todd here.

Besides making sure he didn’t lame out with a suit repeat, Adrian didn’t feel comfortable wearing a bow tie back-to-back with his last appearance in Calgary. Also important to note: “I don’t wear bow ties on dates. I think it’s too much of a statement. I think I’m a more subtle gentleman on that front. But I do wear suit jackets to pretty much everything.”Even while our interview cuts into his pre-show quiet time, he has the rumpled flair of someone out of a Robert Doisneau photograph.

Like “The Kiss” sans a girl to kiss. Which is confirmed when Adrian volunteers, apropos of nothing, “I haven’t kissed a girl in Calgary yet.” Later that night, onstage, he mentions he is single.The downside of his fashion daring can have drawbacks. Like when he told his friends his new suit was the ultimate in Don Draper. They said, ‘You mean the Pete Campbell suit?’

Luckily, the Sterling Cooper doppelganger apparel on stage at the GRAND couldn’t derail the momentum of the 2014 Death Match. In fact, the cornflower shine only added to the intrigue of authors Michael Crummey, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alison Pick and Matthew Thomas being rated on literary merit, performance and intangibles.

LDM is normally judged by a panel of three, but the only way to compensate for a last-minute cancellation by Mayor Nenshi was to bring in two backups. From left to right at the black table: comedian Chris Gordon, author Carrie Shyder, Olympic hero Mark Tewksbury and author Johanna Skibsrud. I will totally name favorites: even though Mark claimed he wasn’t a literature type, the author of three books was hilarious and enthusiastic. Ginger Jesus, aka Chris Gordon, was a close second, and as he made very clear, sponsored by Hudson’s Bay.

The evening ended in a race to ring the bell, to identify classics from one-star Amazon ratings. Lone stars, as Adrian aptly put it.

“I believe the way you dress is a compliment to the people you are with,” says Adrian. “So I’m sorry that I’m basically saying, go fuck yourself, by what I am wearing today.”

Don’t worry, Adrian, I’m not taking it personally. And thanks for this candid with the cows, by the way.

Kidding! Great to see you! Literary Death Match marches on to Austin, London and San Francisco next. I have no doubt Adrian’s closet can support the world tour.

In a wonky Wordfest mashup of fashion and literature, Calgary’s book festival (on right now!) held an event last night devoted expressly to an anti-fashion book on style: Women in Clothes.Held at Theatre Junction GRAND, festival-goers got to experience one of the coolest venues in the city. Built in 1912, the Grand Theatre was a glorious space for live performance. Gradually, though, it sank into disrepair. In 2004, its existence as an indoor golf driving range embodied the depths of its despair. To top it off, developers were about to turn it into a parkade. That’s “parking garage” for my American friends.Luckily a few forward-thinking citizens stepped in to save the heritage building. Some of the old despair is woven into the uber-gorgeous design of the current re-vamp. The box office attendant told me countless people have asked her when the ceiling will be repaired. Sigh.The space is also home to WORKSHOP Kitchen+Culture. Opened just last month for lunch and dinner, it’s named for the original theatre company at the Grand.But I totally, completely digress. Upstairs, the audience was getting warmed up for the Women in Clothes event with a clothing swap, which reminded me of my old YEG days, when my friends would take turns hosting closet-cleaning giveaways. Items not snapped up by the girls were donated to a worthy cause. Same principal here, but perhaps less wine. In a Wordfest-y twist, the swappers were encouraged to pin a note to the clothes they were trading, explaining the specialness of the items.On to the main event, inside the Flanagan Theatre: a reading of some of the stories edited by Sheila Heti and Leanne Shapton (Heidi Julavits was unable to attend). The book is based on a survey of women’s emotional connection to what they wear. The stories have a depth that takes us way beyond the glossy pages of fashion mags. In one, we heard from a mother who wears her mom coat, a puffy black-grey or grey-black number. While it has the bonus of bounteous pockets that can carry goldfish, sippy cups and other items needed for her kids, she yearns for a wardrobe that is exclusively Comme Des Garcons and causes constant confusion. In another, we heard from a garment worker who will never wear the intricate and expensive bras she sews. Hilarious and poignant.

The reading was followed by a sit-down with surprise special guest: internationally-renowned-yet-Calgary-residing fashion designer Paul Hardy. He recently upped the style situation at Calgary Stampede, check out my one-on-one with him this summer.The resulting conversation, moderated by Shelley Youngblut, was philosophical and funny at the same time. But I couldn’t keep my eyes off the swap leftovers Paul had brought up on stage with him. Those green pants looked like they would be a perfect fit.I was distracted by the man sitting beside me — one of the few in attendance. It was Calgary’s Poet Laureate, derek beaulieu. FYI that’s not a typo, he prefers the e. e. cummings mode of moniker. The second only poet laureate for Cowtown, he’s already started his two year term with a digital bang, bringing poetry into the everyday on Pattison billboards around the city. He’ll be hosting Wordfest’s Poetry Cabaret this Friday.The evening wrapped up with author autographs, while the final unswapped items remained onstage. I swooped in and got lucky.

Wordfest continues in Calgary and Banff October 19. Maybe I’ll see you at Literary Death Match tomorrow night!