Boogieing on Saturday

 Saturday was spent at home except for a quick trip down to the convenience store. I spoke with my sister on the phone and then called my niece. I got her voice mail and no call back. Waiting now to see if I am going to church in the morning.

So, what did I do? 

There was my email. Articles were read online. Some blog posts were written.  Submissions went out again!

"Problem Solving" went to Press Pause, Narrative's Spring 2024 Story Contest, The Masters Review Summer Short Story Award For New Writers.

A great opportunity for emerging writers! The Masters Review Summer Short Story Award For New Writers judged by Colin Barrett connects writers with agents. $3,000 and publication to the winner. More details here: https://mastersreview.com/short-story-award-for-new-writers

No Ordinary Word to The Groke and The Temz Review. I made changes to the opening and closing of this one; changed the story's vector, and shortened it by a few words.

I updated Other Literary Magazines from way back on May 15, 2023. Two publishers seem to have bit the dust. Is that good? While checking out those old links for current submissions, I went to the Virginia Quarterly Review and read Only Son by Kevin Moffett. The VQR allows the free reading of certain stories. I suggest you check them out; especially if Mr. Moffett is any indication of quality. The story is long, more discursive than plot-driven. I wished I could put that much feeling into my stories. Like me, my characters think success is enduring the emotional scars they have picked up during their lives.

I have scheduled future submissions.

While going through my old list, I also found The North American Review has a contest linked to Indiana: Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize

Transistor Sister provided the afternoon's soundtrack.

There was movie stuff from The Guardian.

Shakespeare goes pop: the best of the Bard’s work updated on screen

The selections gathered for the Criterion Channel’s new streaming collection Pop Shakespeare cast a wide net, from 1979 to 2012, and from faithful transplanting of the original verse to top-to-bottom remixes. They’re all united, however, in their earnest effort to find a meaningfully novel angle on the well-trod that surpasses mere aesthetic update to unlock fresh perspectives on the past, the present and the distance between them. While a lot of the fan favorites that might first spring to mind have been omitted – there’s no shortage of places on the internet where one can watch 10 Things I Hate About You – the eight curated titles share an iconoclastic streak motivating big-swing risks in their critiques of and homages to the playwright’s genius. The queer punk visionary Derek Jarman, for one, never met an emblem of English patrimony he couldn’t defile, and his 1979 reimagining of The Tempest “cut out the boring bits”, as star Toyah Willcox put it. He only had reverence for the theatre itself, metaphorically piling 350 years of productions on top of each other with grab-bag, all-eras costuming and other free-floating anachronisms.

MaXXXine review – a horribly watchable Hollywood tale of sex, death, fear and gore Horror is not my favorite genre, but the director was on NPR, and it sounds better than your average horror flick.

Robert Towne this past week, which might explain The Guardian republishing Chinatown review – Roman Polanski’s superlative neo-noir is still unmissable. Some Italians chided me for not having seen all of The Godfather. I feel the same way about anyone not having seen Chinatown.

Before you vote next, before you say you know American history, make sure you read The Long American Counter-Revolution before doing either.

The Boston Review interviewed Noam Chomsky under a headline that, I think, says what is most important for Chomsky: “The People Really Have the Power”. If you do not know Chomsky, this may be the place to start.

No boogie going on tonight, but one can think about it:

lit

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