Supernatural Feat - May 2025
This is my first "new" newsletter. I don't know what that is or what this is but let's go.
It's my "new" newsletter because I had a newsletter via Substack but I decided, you know what, I'm not a part of your system; my dad's not a phone.
So here we are. I'm not going to declare what this is. I'm not going to say here's what to expect.
Here's what to expect:
- A summary of things I've made since the last newsletter
- A mess
Writing
Probably the thing I'm most proud of in April was having a piece published in The Mersey Review called We Will Soon Stop Killing You Immediately in Phases. After a brief 20 year hiatus from sending my writing out into the odd little world of online literary journals, this was my first published piece. It's extra special to me because The Mersey Review is a small journal based in Liverpool, England and 1) Liverpool Football Club is, like, one of my favorite things in the world and 2) I WAS IN LIVERPOOL ON VACATION when this piece came out. Cool stuff.
I also had three other pieces accepted for publication at other journals that will be published at various times this coming summer. Don't worry, I'll bother you about each one in turn.
In April I also wrote a couple of blog posts about doing what I want, how I want and the movie Lost in Translation. Plus, I messed around and self-published pieces about my new black sweatshirt, some free roosters, and a thorough study of AI chatbots and their relationship with art and teamwork.
Other people's writing
These little things were some of my favorite little things written by other people at some of the little lit journals I like:
- Maybe It’s Love by Tracie Adams (Citywide Lunch)
- Appropriate by Andrew P. Heath (X-R-A-Y)
- Pig Flu by Ly Faulk (Epistemic Literary)
- Blue Sharp by Z.H. Gill (HAD)
Speaking of movies
Speaking of movies (remember from above where I spoke about the movie Lost in Translation, that's why this segue is relevant ok?), I just want to mention that in the 1960's there were some cool-ass movies out of France. Literally nobody knows about this. I had the pleasure of watching PlayTime by Jacques Tati and Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda, and each was just such an immense pleasure. A real gift from the respective artists. I should write more about them. I really should. But not here. I don't want to.
1960's French films I watched in April honorable mentions are are Le Samouraï by Jean-Pierre Melville and Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The latter is a 1990's Japanese film not a 1960's French film but it's so fucking good that it belongs on every list ever so c'est la vie.
Important thing I was thinking about
In April I've been off of work and getting lots of rejections from lit mags and ejecting from Substack, so I've been thinking a lot about artistic value and why doing your own thing matters so much. Again, this is a larger topic I should dedicate more space to but: for me: I capital H A V E to have a place where I can do whatever the hell I want. I think all creative people should dedicate time and space in their lives to this concept of freedom. No rules, no expectations, just go. It's why I've decided to self-publish some amount of my own creative writing–whether it's about sweatshirts or roosters or bad poems read to an AI or whatever the hell the next weird and pointless and confusing thing I come up with next happens to be.
I can't live and die by what some editor(s) at some website thinks about what I write. I respect so many of those publications, but I also need to remain true to what my being says and what my being says is ultimately what my artistic voice IS. I cannot compromise that. Otherwise I am a commodity and not a human/artist. Otherwise I am dead.
A really inspirational thing I read related to this was an interview with Neal Agarwal called In the age of slop, craft is rebellion. Read the interview, but Neal, basically, just makes whatever the hell he wants. Mostly what he makes are weird internet games, but they are effectively interactive art pieces. Most of them are subversive in a way or pointless in a way or some combination of both. Hence, why they are art. Some highlights from the interview:
- One of his websites, kamogo.com: just a weird and odd collection of "web apps that nobody wanted, needed or asked for". Like Horizontify: a tool to turn vertical videos into horizontal videos.
- The concept of Ikigai: the Japanese concept roughly translated to "reason for being".
- This awesome talk by Darius Kazemi: about the crazy amount of weird shit he has made and how mostly nobody cares.
The main takeaway is to always preserve space and give yourself permission to JUST MAKE STUFF.
The world needs people to do this and to do it without motivation for profit.
See you when I see you.
DW