#2. Entrance to the Rodeo where we begin to transform (Taylor's Version)
#2. Entrance to the Rodeo where we begin to transform (Taylor's Version)
Your weekly Osmanthus Rodeo featuring a speculative piece about Taylor Swift's route to the Super Bowl, a short story by K. Ming Chang, recordings from Tom Raworth, and many more.
Everyone is welcome at the Rodeo
The gas station’s bathroom was tiled in earthen pewter. Mold collected in a corner beneath the sink. The mirror grew a permafrost that began to creep over the standard worker hygiene guarantee and general 24/7 hotline stickers. Stan paused his fist-clenched hand on the door. His eyes attracted to the fliers, something about trafficking bulls and another in codified tones that read like a poem.
Brad hollered from a stall god bless this mess. First I gotta shower off here. Eight straight hours on the road and feeling very dank.
Stan was half-way out the door. He wanted to say something back, but only offered cool. Stan was out by the pay phone when he heard Brad laughing to himself.
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Weekly Link Rodeo
Every Friday, Osmanthus will post a handful of links that resonated with the editors. The weekly link rodeo is concluded with a writing prompt. It is our hope that whether you are a fiction writer, poet, or multi-disciplinary artist that you can take the links and use them as inspiration.
“My Mother’s Stalker” | K. Ming Chang at Guernica
A story of cultural and mythic folklores that at some points are drawn to a cosmic scale that harnesses the language of creation and destruction. Familial drama, warriors/weavers, sutures as if identity can be easily stitched up in a way determined by the body in which you reside, yet this story becomes one of internal and external struggle as seen here when the mother and daughter are in the stalkers house, where the narrator observes the stalker’s duplex is almost a mirror of their own. He the narrator muses on that and her creation:
When we reach his bedroom, my mother brushes aside the shadow that curtains his doorway and enters. She kicks off her slippers, bits of glass flickering in her path, like she’s wading out of a mirror. I imagine that’s how all of us are born: We enter the world through our own reflections, shattering our images to replace them with something smaller.
“The Wide Angle: Understanding TESCREAL — Silicon Valley’s Rightward Turn" | Washington Spectator
Dr. Timnit Gebru, a prominent AI researcher fired from Google in 2020 for speaking up against what she perceived as the company’s lack of proper ethical guardrails, has partnered with other researchers and philosophers to coin the (somewhat unwieldy) acronym “TESCREAL” to describe the overlapping emergent belief systems that characterize the contrarian, AI-centric worldviews challenging progressivism. It stands for: Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism.
“How could Taylor Swift get to the Super Bowl from the Eras Tour? Here are the possible routes” | The Athletic, a New York Times company, discusses whether or not Taylor Swift will make it from Japan to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. A crazy article about airports, logistics and getting somewhere on time - the article is basically a remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Billionaires amass power privilege, so much that they cannot fathom the mundane things affecting everyday humans. The article attempts to rationalize the mundane tardiness that affects everyone. The article makes a preposterous claim that Taylor Swift might not be able to make it on time. Swift has the power privilege that most can only dream about.
Everyday people but they’re not everyday people. At times the Kelce-Swift relationship is in-service of political operators. Swift’s recent campaign for voting registration, and Kelce promoting vaccinations on his Instagram feed. Politics aside there is a much more innocent read of the situation.As someone who grew up in Kansas City, seeing Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce together is fun. It’s a relatable thing on levels that I never fathomed getting interested in. It’s difficult to turn away - whether it’s re-watching Swift cheering on the box seats or standing off-center while she watches brothers Jason and Travis Kelce embrace after winning the AFC championship. There’s something everyday there.
Recordings from Rockdrill 5: Writing, Tom Raworth. | Original recordings at Pennsound.
“a record of attractions”
‘in a haze of nerve gas’
“Errory”
“Dark Senses”
“Caller”
Take a moment to leave a comment. Share your thoughts about the Osmanthus rodeo links or anything else on your mind. We’d love to hear from you.
The Motherwell Sonnets | a chapbook by Zach Savich, The Economy Press
Writing Prompt
My cutting and pasting is an acknowledgment of this. I’m dead serious that this is writing now. You may not want to hear that or think of it as writing, but I’m telling you that the moving of information is a literary act in and of itself. Even when people aren’t reading it.
-Kenneth Goldsmith
Acquire by any means necessary a sewing kit from Wal-Mart
Visit your relative’s house.
Sew their bed sheets together.
Create embroideries in their wallpaper or walls in general.
Write down their reactions.
Call for Submissions
We are still mapping things out an our website, but it’s live at OsmanthusTV. Please have a look through our submission guidelines. We are reading year-round for all genres, with a keen interest in poetry and multimedia works.
We would love to consider your work for inclusion in one of Osmanthus’ Quarterly Reports, a quarterly digital edition of the literary arts.
Submission information and guidelines can be found on Osmanthus’ submission page.
May you be forever on your way.