Ephemera Newsletter Iss August.2

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, riendsfray! (Pig Latin for “friends”).

We swoon for summer sun despite disliking so much heat. Snow is beautiful, but the cold is biting, deadly. Death-defying film sequences alarm our nerves but we love the crunch of popped corn, the exhilaration of imagining ourselves daring, bad, evil for a sec. Spiraling around the idea of liking things we might otherwise say were unlikeable—we could go on—we’ll humbly admit that unlikeability compels us and the reasons why, the how to, can be opaque. This week we’re exploring disliked characters via our music selection (see: Johnny Cash’s sympathetic scoundrelism) and artist (see: Tala Madani’s compelling disgusts) as well as opening the door to further exploration with a few articles, essays, and books about the unreliable, unlikeable protagonists, how we might opt for a voice, a narrator, several lines that sting and irk. Ireful bad-behaving beings. Mouthy & grotesque lines. The sting, delivered well, couched with empathy, a strong narrative, beautiful words, or so starkly we’re shocked can compel, become wonderful work to our readers. While we act sweet with 3 zines/awards/jobs, lookout for the sharp nudge of the selected song and some testy images (they could be much worse!). Another sweet dip, we tease our next residency: The Write In.

So look, likedness can be limp, lose us with timidity; too too tempered thoughts rarely reach brilliance—those heights requiring a temerity that puts us riskily close to the sun, the scalding noggin shaking of critics and censors. Yowch! Yet the lines are blurry, and the blur can be a great place to play for risk-takers. The persistence of the unreliable, disliked, and hurtful, in literature, in poetry, in memoir, lets us know our shadows need expression. There’s something in psychology begs unsavory questions. But, couch away, beautify the dreck and grime, addict us to plot or slant rhyme, curry favor vis-a-vis subconscious confession! Adorn. Genrefy. Deliver treat before trick. Where else if not letters? Where else but with us, wouldst thou spend a Thursday respite? Consider anti-socially sharing! Art needs to explore badness (penance for your thoughts?), all of the heat and dreck of humanity, of existence, at times; but remember the sugar, the reader’s uptake must be earned. Be reliably readable and dare dark, unreliable lit-beings.

We recoil at ugly generosity (wink): Tea or Books!

Atitudegray (Gratitude)

---

duende

/duːˈɛndeɪ/

noun: A quality of passion and inspiration

---

Coming Soon: The Write-In Residency

Launch date is now August 18. Folks will be able to apply directly via Submittable or become a paid yearly subscriber to Ephemera and then apply for free. Subscriptions soft launch August 18 with the residency. Thanks for your focus & presence.

---

~We’re so happy you’re here!~

---

Featured Music: Jacques Greene

Jacques Greene (another notable Canadian Dj/producer) employs filled out, sonically encompassing electronic music to fanfare, dancy, and mesmerizing effect, with R&B rhythms and patina while brightly mixed with contemporary house, and UK dub/bass influences. The range leaves for a wide audience, though sometimes songs miss with certain listeners. Out of Montreal, he’s worked with Disclosure and top voices like Ciara and has earned a name with mixes of Radiohead and others. We’re thinking about using voice loops in music—“you got me feelin’ like a”—how repetition creates a type of narrative when enjoined with the title (poetry apropos), how the space of “Another Girl” feels full all through the middle portion of the song, the words and synth high-and-low lights, the quick-witted snares, mezzo soprano second voice sample spurring the pace and delivering a type of lament. The whole thing works, spins and spins, feels like you could move to it, bop, or let it entrench you in your spot (something we opt for while writing). The fast pace, ups and downs, crescendos and upwelling makes us think of it as a type of outpouring, a climax of inspiration, a la this week’s artist, de la Haba and his Duende series (see below). Whatever your interpretation, it feels like the height of a feeling, a state to be in for writing motivation, an aid to finding an emotive space. Dance ode to a once was. Pop lament.

---

Writers Submit: Three Magazines