Ravi Mangla's Blog, page 41

Maps & Atlases - Fever

"But Enough About Me" @ FRiGG Magazine

I have a short piece (“But Enough About Me”) in FRiGG Magazine’s Twitter issue. The issue also features work from Crispin Best, Sara Crowley, Erin Fitzgerald, Scott Garson, Roxane Gay, Katrina Gray, Brad Green, John Minichillo, Salvatore Pane, xTx, and a bunch of other Twitter phenoms. 

If you want to find me on Twitter, here’s my handle: @ravi_mangla.

Deep Space Reading

In celebration of the rover landing, here are a few of my absolute favorite space-related short short stories:

“Life on the Moon” by Douglas Watson (from Tin House)

“The Education of the President’s Dog Quincy” by Anthony Luebbert (from fwriction : review)

“My Girlfriend Leaves the Atmosphere” by Angi Becker Stevens (from SmokeLong Quarterly)

“Dead Astronaut” by Sarah Rose Etter (from Storyglossia)

“Voyage Back Into Space” by Ethan Bernard (from Eclectica)

Lit Tweets Vol. 1

- Writing is long periods of nothing followed by long periods of longing followed by periods. - D.A. Powell (@Powell_DA)

- Today I saw 2 of my old professors they were like “We saw your essay on the Paris Review website” I was like “Are you guys ready to order?” - Alice Bolin (@alicebolin)

- I’m going to write a whodunit in which every character but the detective is a butler. Keep ‘em guessing. - Steve Himmer (@SteveHimmer)

- Is that a poem in your pocket, or are you just sad to see me? - Aaron Belz (@aaronbelz)

- Just got some great news, folks! My grandmother is going to publish one of my stories in next year’s holiday newsletter.#keepthefaith - Ryan Ridge ‏(@ryan_ridge)

- Why don’t more writers list that they’ve been nominated for a pushcart prize in their cover letters? - Lincoln Michel (‏@TheLincoln)

- would be good too i think if some giant omnipotent find/replace turned every instance of ‘experimental’ to ‘shut the fuck up’ - Kristen Iskandrian ‏(@KristenIsk)

- All that driving and Humbert Humbert never makes Lolita wear a seat belt. Guys, I’m starting to think he’s not a good dad. - Adam Peterson ‏(@AdamWPeterson)

- Do not respond to a rejection letter like this: “Did I submit to you guys? My mistake!” - FRiGG (‏@FRiGGmagazine)

- First-person problems. - Benjamin Kunkel ‏(@benjamin_kunkel)

Lit Tweets #1

- Writing is long periods of nothing followed by long periods of longing followed by periods. - D.A. Powell (@Powell_DA)

- Today I saw 2 of my old professors they were like “We saw your essay on the Paris Review website” I was like “Are you guys ready to order?” - Alice Bolin (@alicebolin)

- I’m going to write a whodunit in which every character but the detective is a butler. Keep ‘em guessing. - Steve Himmer (@SteveHimmer)

- Is that a poem in your pocket, or are you just sad to see me? - Aaron Belz (@aaronbelz)

- Just got some great news, folks! My grandmother is going to publish one of my stories in next year’s holiday newsletter.#keepthefaith - Ryan Ridge ‏(@ryan_ridge)

- Why don’t more writers list that they’ve been nominated for a pushcart prize in their cover letters? - Lincoln Michel (‏@TheLincoln)

- would be good too i think if some giant omnipotent find/replace turned every instance of ‘experimental’ to ‘shut the fuck up’ - Kristen Iskandrian ‏(@KristenIsk)

- All that driving and Humbert Humbert never makes Lolita wear a seat belt. Guys, I’m starting to think he’s not a good dad. - Adam Peterson ‏(@AdamWPeterson)

- Do not respond to a rejection letter like this: “Did I submit to you guys? My mistake!” - FRiGG (‏@FRiGGmagazine)

- First-person problems. - Benjamin Kunkel ‏(@benjamin_kunkel)

Larson & Shindelman

Using a publicly available embedded geotag information in Twitter updates, we track the locations of users through their GPS coordinates and make a photograph to mark the location in the real world. Each of these photographs is taken on the site of the update and paired with the originating text.

We think of these photographs as historical monuments to small lived moments, selecting texts that reveal something about the personal nature of the users’ lives or the national climate. It is also grounds the virtual reality of social networking data streams in their originating locations in the physical world while examining how the nature of one’s physical space may influence online presence.

- Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman

From the Archives: "A Guy From Michael Phelps's Guppy Swim Class Makes a Drunk Dial"

“Hello, Michael? Hey, these guys here don’t believe I know you. Tell them I know you, Michael. Tell them how I know you. We go so far back. Like centuries back. Remember that time I beat you in a race. That was crazy, Michael. We were doggy-paddling to that inflatable raft and I beat you. I beat Michael Phelps. We were the best in that class. No one was better at swimming with the giant noodles than me and you. Everyone else was like a guppy, but me and you, we were like sharks. Sharks, Michael. Sharks. Michael—are you there? Mike?”

- “A Guy From Michael Phelps’s Guppy Swim Class Makes a Drunk Dial” from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (8/08)

Non-Olympic Events That Should Be Olympic Events

- Hot Dog Eating

- Cup Stacking

- Three-Legged Hurdles

- Chess Boxing

- Cherry Pit Spitting

- Roller Disco

- Cow Tipping

- Blindfolded Archery

- Racketeering

- Marco Polo

- Sack Racing

- Sand Racing

- Pod Racing

- Synchronized Judo

- Drunk Table Tennis

- Jazzercise

- Water Treading

- Lumberjacking

- Stratego

Blurb

Blurb, a collection of short humor pieces, is available as a free download through Artistically Declined Press. Some of the pieces have appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, FRiGG, and elimae.

(Add the collection on Goodreads)

Big Other

I wrote a short post for Big Other concerning the recent dismissal of a Ploughshares blogger.