Tuesday In Muncie - Getting Caught Up, Hanging with Mamet, Sarah Paine, and Weird Indiana Stuff

 I went no further than the closest convenience store today.

There was a research project started, two naps, and submissions made.  No other writing done but this.

“Going for the Kid” went to  Electric Spec, Unlikely Stories

“Pieces About A Small Indiana Factory, 1976-1984” went to Sand Hills, Sunspot Literary Journal, Southeast Review, Small Print Magazine, OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letter, StoryBottle Co,  The Coachella Review, Barnstorm, AZURE, The Writing Disorder, 

 “Ahab in the Moonlight” went to Heimat Review, Unleash Lit, The Academy of the Heart and Mind

A rejection:

Thank you for submitting "Agnes" to CRAFT. We appreciate that you thought of us as a potential home for your work. Unfortunately, we have to say no at this time. We wish you luck placing this piece elsewhere soon.

Best,

The Editors

CRAFT

While I have been reading and submitting, I listened to the following:

 

 (Because I never understood why Stephen Stills was considered a Big Deal.)

 

 (Because I do think smartphones are addictive and dangerous to our well-being—also a bit of Michigan/national politics.)

 

 (Words make us, even if we do not always get to make the words.)

 

Some videos about Indiana:

 

Listening to Sarah Paine will make us all smarter (even if it is too late for me):

 

 

Some historical stuff - between amusement, a movie watched, and a fascination with Mexican history:

 

 

I read “The Yellow King” while in prison and thought it was typical Victorian weird fiction. While there I also watched a lot of “True Detective.” I did not know that the latter had anything to do with the former, or vice versa.

 And I finish with David Mamet; herein, I found him cantankerous, a bit of a jerk, and insights on art and writing that made me glad to have put up with the other bits. It might also be that I agree with him about Sinclair Lewis not being a great writer, albeit one whose stories I find can sneak up on you. (Not that I will ever go back to read Main Street  or Babbitt!)

 

I thought of saving this charming and informative video essay about Gulliver's Travels (another book I possessed for a long time but did not read until prison) for a separate post, but here it is,

 I finished watching "Conduct Unbecoming" over dinner—I had seen a bit of it decades ago. Not bad, but there are points where time or direction let down the whole thing. I would call it a 6  out of 10.  It could be a good starting point for discussing honor - which is almost extinct nowadays - and the entanglements of comradeship.

 Songs for the day:

 

sch