Film Gluttony

The Montreal World Film Festival began yesterday with an opening gala - we didn't go - but tonight we'll start on our annual movie-binge, which should clear our heads from all lingering dust remaining from the summer of cleaning and moving, and replace it with the excitement and drama of a world tour. Tonight we plan to see two films, a French movie by Tony Gatlif ("Latcho Drom") about a Roma family during the Second World War, and an American art film called "Redland" about a family's desperate wilderness frontier life in the 1930s. Sounds like a grueling and interesting evening; will report.

After the heat of last week, the days have been progressively cooler, and riding my bike up to the studio this morning, it actually felt like fall. It always happens, right around September 1 - that first day when autumn unmistakably arrives, and then there's no going back, in spite of the hot days we'll probably have in September. Apples will soon supplant the peaches, and chrysanthemums the late roses and lilies, and I'd better get ready for it. But damn, that's going to be hard!

--

While we're speaking of upcoming events, I want to mention that there are only a few more days left for submissions to qarrtsiluni's "Words of Power" issue, which Dave Bonta and I are editing. The submission period closes at the end of this month, and the theme description is quoted below. We'd especially like a few more visual interpretations of the theme to consider - photography, artwork, multimedia - but your poetry, prose, flash fiction and other writings are more than welcome. Thanks!

Call for Submissions: Words of Power

29 07 2009

In magic, to have said is to have done.
—Eliphas Levi

Again this fall we’re taking the helm ourselves, not for want of volunteer guest editors, but because we had such a blast with last fall’s Journaling the Apocalypse issue that we resolved to do it every year if possible. The submissions period is from August 1 to August 31, and publication will begin around September 15.

This time we’re looking for words of power: curses, spells, charms, prayers, incantations, mantras, sacred scriptures, explicit performative utterances, oaths, or legal instruments. Submissions may consist entirely of such super-charged language, or may riff upon or explore such language. Submissions of visual art may of course take a more figurative approach to the topic; images of amulets and other power-objects, for example, would be welcome. But otherwise we urge contributors not to interpret the theme too broadly. Please don’t just send us a piece of writing that you think is powerful according to some subjective evaluation. We’re looking quite specifically for language freighted with mana and/or executive force, or writing about that kind of language. If you’re not sure whether something qualifies, feel free to query.

Please limit written material to no more than five items per submission, with individual pieces not exceeding 3,000 words. Please refer to the general guidelines before submitting, and note especially the recommendation to query us if we don’t acknowledge receipt within two days — occasional server hiccups and email glitches are a fact of life on the internet.

We look forward to reading your words of power with an unusual admixture of excitement and trepidation. This issue could be a real test of our editorial juju!

—Dave and Beth

Comments

[Peter]

There was only about a week of non-bike-riding heat down in Virginia this month. Bethany and I did thirty miles Saturday on a paved-over railroad line and loved it. Our highs are in the 70's all week, so I hope we can get out some afternoons before the kids go back to school Tuesday.