the Unblog

Yes, alongside too many awesome literary publications, Untoward will be putting our vocal splendor on display. In this event, we will be represented by resident intern-in-training Mason Todd Johnson Ochocinco. I’ll be there, too, though, cheering him on and hopefully being decidedly untoward in the process. It ought to be something to see, and even in the event we don’t win, people will know our name, because we’ll be asked to stop eventually and repeatedly.

Yes, yes, a thousand times! I’ve said it already, but I’d like to confirm here directly, mincing so few words, well, no, mincing a lot, per custom, my custom, but still, that we will definitely be hosting — in association with Love Symbol Press, Pangur Ban Party, and Let People Poems — a reading.

I’m excited. I say excited and that I am excited often, but that’s because I am excited often! I see good things for Untoward in the New Year. Really. Really good things. I’d like to start off, though, by thanking heartily and thoroughly all of the past year’s contributors.

I’d go into a long and desparate appeal regarding your attending Untoward’s one-year anniversary, but that doesn’t seem like the RIGHT thing to do. I don’t want to “used car salesman” you over to the Beauty Bar tonight. All I can say is, with the readers we have lined up, this will be awesome.

We’ve felt pretty fortunate here in the last year to publish stuff we really like. Stuff we REALLY like. What does Artifice Magazine say about it? They say about their stuff “The things we like, we like more than we can stand.” Rather than go ahead and be “original” I’m gonna just piggyback on that sentiment, just in terms of the untoward things we editors at Untoward have enjoyed.

Wow, let me start off by clearly stating, W-O-W, wow-we. And let me next say, thanks, thanks to each and every contributor to Untoward. And every reader, too. All of you readers, contributors and contributor-readers, thanks for making this what it has been so far: a lot of fun to put together, among other things. I’d love to elaborate further on exactly what this has been so far (see especially “among other things”), but I think that belies the point somewhat.

I want you to know, friends of Untoward, that Bartleby Snopes is hosting a pretty great dialogue fiction contest, which you too could be a part of.

There’s a lot of fun stuff this week to know about and to do. Technically, the culmination of the events listed for this week is an event that is happening next week, Sunday the 14th of August — not to blow your mind chronologically. It’s P. Fanatics: Circle Jerk.

You should go to this because it’s in Chicago, the greatest city in the world, and because what else is it you’re so dead set on doing? Monday night? Really? You can’t even watch the Bulls lose because that isn’t happening till tomorrow? The Bulls losing? (Can anyone tell how depressed I am about that? i.e., re: Bulls losses?) Whaaa

Body-themed cocktails and mock-tails will be served beginning at 3:00pm sharp standard time, followed by a magical performance by Trevor Palmer, the mayor’s honorable brother and solo-synth-orchestrist, using many new and exciting instruments of his own discovery.