#flash
TODAY: In 1947, Lydia Davis is born.
A few excerpts from her collected stories - Letter to the Funeral Parlor is particularly fun:
https://www.npr.org/2009/11/30/120953449/excerpt-the-collected-stories-of-lydia-davis
(Re)Introducing The Napkin Project
Sixteen years after the series last appeared in our pages, we sent cocktail napkins to ten writers we love. Here are the short works of fiction they wrote on them.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a44466086/napkin-project-short-fiction/
"I hadn’t learned the sumptuous clutter of overwrought metaphor or the way we both keep everything we’ve ever touched on tables and shelves, if we can’t keep it inside."
Imperfection & Other Promises by Isaac Pickell
https://brevitymag.com/current-issue/imperfection-other-promises/
#Yamaha #SY99 #Franken #Grand: #Scriabin #Etude Op. 2 no.1 - #OffTheMatrix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOL-dBoRU8k
This is a #demo of the #new #piano that was #developed for the Yamaha SY99.The Franken Grand was created by using the #best #samples from several #pianos, including samples of a #Bösendorfer #Imperial. The samples really captures the warmth and weight of a large #piano. #AFM made it possible to create a stereo image with mono samples. The #bank uses over 900 kb so it requires that the #flash #RAM of the SY99 be expanded. #Memory #boards for the SY99 can be purchased from #Sector101. This piano could also be used with the Sector101 #WaveBlade on a SY77.
The piano can be found at;
https://www.offthematrix.net/product-page/sy99-franken-grand
doing a bit of review of my last published book - Prosthetic Amalgams III
Here is one from it.
No Where Left to Go
by Kenny A. Chaffin
Just before the sun exploded we popped out of the system. Jin was always pushing it right to the edge closer and closer every time. Adrenaline junkie – I guess we all were. Each time we jumped we lost thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. That was just part of the physics. Everyone we’d known were long gone. We might be the only intelligent creatures in the universe for all we knew -- or cared. The universe was growing older and we stayed the same. The stars dying, the dark growing, the universe dimming and us laughing and loving. And finally we were there, at the end of the universe. Just few muted dispersed red giants hardly glowing at all and this one bright late-born star at the end of time, at the end of life. We watched as it grew. Expanding and then collapsed back on itself in a final death throe. We watched as it exploded, the blast reaching out, rushing at us at lightspeed, Jin wearing a shit-eating grin, finger poised over the jump button. Justine looking worried. Jin pressed the button. Nothing happened. We stared at one another in horror as the nova tore us apart.
A Stranded Moose
by SYDNEY LEA • May 1, 2023
(almost a bit of how to create an essay)
#dwr #foto #fotografieren #mywork #goodmorning #fbg #fbd #jamendo #CC #fedibikes #MdRddG #MdRzA #Frühstück #Kakao #Tee
#Tousled #Crane on #Tour
#Welt! Bist du noch da?
#Krokusfeld in der #Downtown
Pffff, bin geschafft, mehr ist im Moment nicht möglich. Jetzt noch den Morgen überleben und dann #Wochenende!
#Kaffee schaffe ich noch und was aus der #Mottenkiste:
https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=w3PB95immXs
Bleibt senkrecht und gesund!
Departing #sunspot AR3234 produced another X2-class solar flare on March 3rd (1752 UTC). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme #ultraviolet #flash:
Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. Aviators and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal and other unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz for as much as an hour.
New sunspot AR3242 is magnetically complex and crackling with M-class #solar #flares. This morning in Hong Kong, David Leong pointed his solar telescope at the #sun and immediately saw an explosion:
"AR3242 was already flaring when I started shooting at 5:11 UT," says Leong. "The unusually dark filaments kept changing shape minute by minute on my computer screen. It was an hour of wonder and excitement."
This sunspot is turning toward Earth, and it will soon be in our planet's strike zone. Stay tuned.
https://spaceweather.com/
CRAFT ESSAY
Prose Poems, Paragraphs, Brief Lyric Nonfiction
and one of my favorite Flash Nonfiction Pieces - Moving Water, Tucson by Peggy Shumaker
I went for a #NatureWalk this afternoon with some family. It has been quite damp and dull and so it was quite muddy, which doesn't bother me at all. On the #trail, there were many fallen trees and on some, #BracketFungi were growing on them, like the specimen here. The colours are very vivid but I had to use a #flash to get a sharp image.
"God Joins a Writing Workshop and the Old Testament Critique Doesn’t Go Well"
by RL Maizes
Jason (workshop leader): God, do you want to start by reading a few pages? Maybe get to Wednesday or Thursday of creation and stop there.
God clears Their throat, reads.
Jason: Thanks, God. By the way, do you prefer God or Yaweh? Of course, during the discussion we’ll just call you The Author.
God: My friends call me Ya.
Jason: Ya it is. Okay, folks, so what did we think of the Old Testament?
Levi, flipping through pages: The beginning was a quite a slog. Does anyone honestly care about the firmament? (Workshop participants shake their heads no.) Maybe just start with the apple incident and give us information about the rest of creation when we need it.
Selena, looking up from her laptop: Is the book supposed to be nonfiction? Because I don’t get how a couple like Adam and Eve who are just starting out can afford to live in Eden when I can’t even make the rent on my Jackson Heights studio.
God: Can I just—
Jason: Sorry, Ya. The Author doesn’t get to talk during the discussion. You’ll have a chance later.
God: I could smite you.
Jason: You could, but then you’d never get to hear what I think of your work.
God tugs Their beard, appears frustrated.
Alexa, cradling her kombucha: Why does Eve get blamed for everything? She didn’t force Adam to eat the apple for God’s sake—nothing personal, Ya. Where’s Adam’s agency? And I think the term “helpmeet” is offensive. I’m guessing The Author is a Philip Roth fan.
Jason: Moving on, what did people think of the flood?
Selena, sighing deeply: I found Noah pretty unlikeable. I mean, the whole planet’s getting wiped out and the guy just sails into the sunset with his pets. Also, the market for eco-fiction is saturated.
Amar, opening a bag of chips: I wasn’t sure if the dove carrying an olive branch worked. What if you had the bird return with something else, like a waterlogged mouse or a rusted sled from Noah’s childhood or—
God: If I could just—
Jason: Please, Ya. You’ll have your chance. Levi, did you have something you wanted to say? You have the pained look of a writer who isn’t the center of attention.
Levi, flipping pages: I’m not sure what point The Author is trying to make with the Tower of Babel. Do They have something against construction workers? It’s really classist.
Rina: And the way it’s described as “a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.” Freudian much?
Jason: Anybody notice any similarities between the building of the Ark and the building of the Tower? No one? Okay, then. Let’s move on to Egypt.
Selena: The parting of the red sea was great. Very cinematic. Nice work, Ya.
God blushes. Pretends to take notes.
Jason: How did people feel about the plagues?
Amar, eating a chip: Having ten is redundant. Do you really need more than one insect? Have locusts or flies, but not both.
Alexa, shaking her head: Making blood a plague is anti-woman. We all know who bleeds. Sips her kombucha. I’m guessing The Author is a Norman Mailer fan.
Levi, flipping to the front of the manuscript: Can we talk about the title? I’m assuming Old Testament is just a working title. How about something more exciting, like Secrets of the Israelites Revealed?
Amar: Or Camel Ride to Destiny. And what if The Author told the story from the point of view of the camel or, even better, one of the humps?
Jason: Oooooh, I like that. Leaving the title for a minute, what did folks think about the begats?
Alexa, Rina, Selena, Amar, Levi groan.
Jason: That’s what I thought, too. Kind of slow. Can anyone think of a reason why The Author might have included them?
God: Could I please just say one thing?
Jason extracts pencil from his man bun, taps it on his pad.
Jason: Absolutely not.
Rina: Maybe They included the begats because They were hoping to get paid by the word.
Selena and Rina snicker.
God rummages in a backpack, pulls out a lightning bolt.
Jason, smirking: Any other parts of the book that you liked?
Rina: I like where Cain murders Abel, but I think Cain’s character should have been developed a little more. I mean, what do we really know about him other than that he was a husbandmen? And what the hell is a “husbandmen,” anyway?
Jason: It’s a farmer.
Rina: Why not just say that then?
Alexa: I thought the whole book was gratuitously violent, like The Author was hoping HBO would pick it up.
Jason: That’ll do it. Great discussion. Ya, I hope it was helpful. Do you have questions? Thoughts? Comments?
A bolt of lightning takes out the workshop.
God, on Their throne, talking to angels: Maybe I should try poetry.
New September Brevity issue
Our September Issue
Our newest issue features powerful essays from Daisy Hernandez, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Julie Marie Wade, Shaindel Beers, Angela Morales, Jennifer Battisti, Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Kristin M. Distel, Anna Vodicka, Mika Sutherland, Meg Senuta, Ralph Savarese, Heidi Fettig Parton, Tyler Mills, and Lori Jakiela. With the exquisite photography of Amy Selwyn.
