When IU Broke the Color Line, Australia's Most Talented Writer, Dead People, Lou Reed

 Here is something I learned, the Big 10 had a color line: Indiana basketball to honor Bill Garrett in regular season opener.

I put a story into Ignatian Literary Magazine, University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine. What I did not mention was reading two stories published by that magazine, Obituary by Daniel Pié and Madeleine by Hannah Epstein. I thought them brilliant, they led to me deciding what I submitted, and I recommend them to you.

 Death keeps ticking along, I cannot seem to turn my eyes from obituaries: Acclaimed Tough-Guy Actor and ‘Rocky’ Star Burt Young Dies at 83 and Rudolph Isley, co-founder of R&B stalwarts the Isley Brothers, dies at 84.

Another musical group that prison brought me to appreciate was The Isley Brothers in the Seventies. I had their album with Twist and Shout, knew Shout, but I had not really paid attention to the latter-day stuff. I suggest you look them up.

Does a biography not serve as an obituary? Lou Reed Didn’t Want to Be King is where The Yale Reviews a new Lou Reed biography. Okay, I am a Lou Reed fan, but it is a bit odd to me that The Yale Review is the source for this review. I think the reviewer does a good job of dealing with Lou – she is also a fan.

From The Brisbane Times Book Review I found, Is Gerald Murnane our most talented writer? by Owen Richardson. I had no clue who was this Gerald Murnane. Or what made him so talented? So, I went to look, and found much of interest.

After his 1995 collection of short fiction Emerald Blue failed to make a mark, Murnane gave up writing, or rather gave up writing for publication. He then found a sympathetic home with Ivor Indyk at Giramondo and in 2009, he returned to fiction, if that is what it is, with Barley Patch.

He has since brought out the other three works that with Barley Patch are the subject of Emmett Stinson’s thoughtful, well-written monograph: A Million Windows, A History of Books and Border Districts. The other 21st-century writings – the poetry, the book about horse racing, and Murnane’s own retrospect, Last Letter to a Reader, are mentioned in passing. The book is rounded out with a conversation with Murnane that deals mostly with publication and reputation.

That reputation only continues to grow, and he is now admired overseas more than at home. Not that he has become a bestseller; rather, writing courses in the US are apparently now full of students trying to sound like him, and the clan of Murnanians can now boast some widely recognised names. Coetzee set the ball rolling with an appreciative essay-review of Barley Patch and Inland in The New York Review of Books, and hip and super-brainy younger things Ben Lerner and Merve Emre have followed suit with pieces in The New Yorker.

Two things learned: he does things his way, and he works at his writing. I need to find his books.

I started listening to LGBTQ+ and Orthodox Tradition: What Does it Actually Say?. It is over an hour long.  What I heard so far inspires my heart and sharpens my mind; it has much of the usual Orthodox surprise of humility, spirituality, and sincerity.

I must now get ready for work. I have no post-work errands to run. I should be home very early today.

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