This Omnibus is brought to you by The Soaring Twenties Social Club. Everything you want to know about our community and why you should join is contained within this post ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Letter From The Founder
Poetry! Essays! Bed making in Spanish! Intellectual discussion of literary detectives and one man discussing how he will become a writer of such fiction! A largely misguided discussion of why Craig dislikes the beach!
I mean, what more could an Omnibus reader ask for? How about the full trio of weekly podcasts, essays on progress, astrology, dinners in Manhattan and Vita’s exploits in the big city of Prague.
We spoil you really.
And whether a long time reader or new to the fold we hope you enjoy our latest weekly offering. Who else gives you the goods so frequently and to such a standard?
Until next week,
Live well,
Tom.
Essays
looks like COVID has finally caught up with me... by MaryAnn
An annoucement rather than a post, but I’ll take this opportunity to say ‘Get well soon’ to MaryAnn. Hopefully she’ll be fighting fit and reviewing movies again very soon.
Depression [1/?] by !?
Apparently ‘!?’ Is pronounced ‘What Bang’ but in any case this a deep meditation on depression and zero from one of our newest voices here.
The Myth of Progress by Pr0ph3t
I generally operate under the heuristic that any online article that comprises of a list of numbered subsections is rubbish. But this is a notable, notable exception that rule and a other extraordinary piece from the prescient optimist Mr Pr0ph3t.
Beaches by Craig Burgess
Given it’s generally anti-beach sentiment I should hate this piece but I must concede that it is very good and extremely well done. (And I’m not just saying that because it pays me a (backhanded?) compliment). I was impressed by how well this piece shows Craig passing the writing challenge we set in our last podcast together.
Tender La Cama by Trilety
To quote Betsy in the comments: ‘This is a much better way to convince me to "tender la cama", than a more well known fellow's obsessive directive.’
Indeed. Rather than begrudgingly following the ‘clean your room’ idea, read this instead and discover a new and better way of approaching everyday tasks.
The Makings of a Modern Day Pulp Writer by Frank
Frank plants his flag and discusses his plans and observations for becoming a (I suspect great) pulp writer in the 21st century. Let’s go Frank!
Demolition Day by Paul
If you know you know. Paul delivers another great, great piece on our current situation when viewed from the perspective of the stars and planets. Excellent as always.
Anti-Mimetic Salon #2 with Demetri Kofinas: "Mimetic Attention" by Luke Burgis 🔒
Luke presents the recording of his second Zoom call Salon for his premium subscribers (Of which I am one and I highly recommend you become one too). An excellent Girard tinged hour long chat filled with genuine insight.
Scenes from our last dinner in Manhattan by Yuelian
Yuelian has a lovely unadorned writing style and a true eye for the telling detail of everyday moments. Great stuff as always.
A Detective's Expertise by Charles Schifano
I always struggle a little to write these introductory sentences for Charles weekly essays as I am running out of superlatives at this point. Simply put Charles has never written a weak piece, never phoned it in and these literary discussion are fir my money some of the very best contemporary writing around, STSC or otherwise.
bookmark #455 by Deepansh
‘when you meet someone, and they tell you about their dreams, you hear with an understanding unlike any other. but then, you meet a thousand people, and they tell you about their dreams, and slowly, you start to notice how everyone wants only one thing: something different.’
As always with Deepansh he cuts through so much nonsense and achieves genuine depth and insight in a mere handful of paragraphs. Remarkable.
Serendipity of the city by Vita
Our man in Prague embraces the serendipity and wonder of life in the new city. And if more pieces as good as this are the result then I say go forth!
The Addictive Personality by Victor Casler
As someone who has ‘the addictive personality’ I can say that this was a fascinating and illuminating read. Really love the depth that Victor goes into and how he makes this stuff accessible without dumbing it down. And I’m always a sucker for a good diagram. I wonder if we will see more of these in depth practical applied psychology pieces in the future?
Poetry
The Nest by Adam Kozak
The girl did look so wistful at the nest,
Still dead and bare among new leaves and green,
And hoped that soon some bird would come to rest,
A home to make where tender chicks might preen.
Eschewing old for new a robin came
Bearing mere bits of grass and twig and cord
And jumbled them together as a frame
Til warp and weft at last came to accord.
The girl the bird then watched so steadfast, still,
As days did pass to bring two eggs so blue.
On silent watch never the bird did trill,
To keep a vigil and guard life so new.
Now she is gone; the nest empty save hoar.
She spreads her wings and hopes not, evermore.
"The Stars are a Farce!" by David
(David has blessed us with 5 poems this week. Below is ‘The Stars are a Farce!’ For the orher 4 click the link above.)
Says he who looks down
Curses glory with his gaze
And foully hawks at the ground
It’s all a gaudy lightshow
Which he feels he is beneath
Knowing the arbiter of his fate
Wishing to smash the mirror in peace
Galaxies wheel through the heavens
Supernovae are bright in bloom
Beneath them is no one
Save he who laments of his tomb
Lowercase words be damned
For all the verity they twist and skew
We are best and equal when looking up
Into universal awe and what to pursue
Podcasts
Episode #11- Writing and The Thing That Can’t Be Named- Thomas J. Bevan & Craig Burgess
By the skin of our teeth we passed the ‘do not mention twitter’ challenge. And because creativity comes from limitations this turned out to be a particularly goos episode. Give it a listen.
Straw Sun Hat Glory by Madspace
He’s back and on rare form. And Papa might not have a new (crypto) bag but he's certainly got a brand new summer hat.
Freemium Podcasting (The Wednesday Audio #61) by Craig Burgess
‘Mr Authenticity’ himself sells out in gratuitous and spectacular style. (Well, in truth he has provided a premium option on his substack to fund a new level of podcasting madness, but that’s not quite as catchy a hook as calling him a sell put shill is it?)
TJB Film Recommendation
Night On Earth (1991)
D. Jim Jarmusch
W. Jim Jarmusch
S. Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Giancarlo Esposito
Anthology films can be hit or miss.
Fortunately this one is a hit, artistically speaking I mean (I don’t think any Jarmusch film had really been a commercial hit). You have five stories that all centre on taxi journeys in different countries on the same night. They all work as self contained shorts and the restriction of the scenes being (mostly) confined to a taxi somehow never becomes boring or repetitive, which speaks to the quality of the writing and acting as well as the direction.
The Helsinki scene is my personal favourite (as it led me down the Aki Kaurismäki/ Matti Pellonpää plus is the most memorable story in its own right) but all five stories have their moments.
The anthology format suits Jarmusch (see also Coffee and Cigarettes) and I personally would rather him do this rather than not-as-clever-as-they-think-they-are genre pieces such as Only Lovers Left Alive and The Dead Don’t Die. But that’s just me.
Anyway, this one is well worth your time. Enjoy.
Thanks as always for reading/listening and thanks in advance for pressing all of those various buttons at the bottom which help the Omnibus spread further.
Sadly, the Tragedies of Modernity podcast will not be recorded tonight as Craig is selfishly away for the weekend having a little holiday. Direct all abuse at him and not me.
But anyway, if you want to join us live for future episodes once he’s back, you can listen in and post questions/comments/heckles in the podcast channel chat by simply have to sign up to the community first.
I look forward to seeing you over at the Social Club.
Cheers!