Defenestrationism.net

What an awe-inspiring Lengthy Poem Contest

Never one to wait a moment,
the winner of the 2024 Lengthy Poem Contest is:

“The girl with the red stroller“
by Ana Reisens

read all the 2024 Lengthy Poems
meet the judge, Paul-Newell Reaves


With over 90% of the votes, our Fan Favorite is also
“The girl with the red stroller”
View the Fan Voting results

Surf back through next Spring,
we do this every year
only on
Defenestrationism.net

We will return to weekly publication
at the end of June with
the 2024 !Short Story Contest!
(submission is now open)

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— Three days only—
May 3rd – May 5th


Vote for your Favorite Lengthy Poem
without sharing any information at all


in the Fan-Favorite Prize
only on Defenestrationism.net

You may vote as often as you please.

Vote here

Read the Lengthy Poems:

The Song of Ishtar by Blessings Oziama

Reflections of an Ant-stronaut by JL Maikaho

The girl with the red stroller by Ana Reisens

Vote here

What’s New
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by Paul-Newell Reaves

You think you know weird?  You don’t know weird till you’ve heard the albums from Tom Waits’ Island Records period.

Famous for his raspy vocal delivery, Waits was mostly a piano-based lounge act before the 1980s.  His lyrics have always been exceptional– on par with Bob Dylan and Patti Smith– and his 1974 concept album “the Heart of Saturday Night” will be covered in another article of this column.

When he signed a recording deal with Island Records, however, he took his music in a very, very different direction.   “Frank’s Wild Years” is the third of five albums recently remastered and re-released by that company, and it  features obscure instruments– a Mellotron, for example– intense rhythmic patterns, and bizarre harmonies and chords that put the most experimental prog bands to shame.

How weird?  We’re about to find out.
(read more)

Winners of the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest are announced

More Concept Albums Explained,
including The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,
and Bob Dylan’s Highway 61, Revisited

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Never one to waste a moment on Defenestrationism.net ,

the Grand Prize winner is:
“Half-Life Connections“

However, there is a tie for Runner-Up,
so Fan Voting becomes the tie-breaker (see below).
Eking ahead is:
“Three Tales of Rapture“

And the Fan Favorites are:
“Top Hat“
&
“Fragments of My Father“


Here’s How the Judges Voted:
(each Grand Prize vote is worth two Runner-Up votes)

Glenn A. Bruce—
Grand Prize: “Half-Life Connections”
Runner-Up: “Good and Faithful Servant”

Lady Moet Beast—
Grand Prize: “Three Tales of Rapture”
Runner-Up: “Final Stop”

Aditya Gautam—
Grand Prize: “Good and Faithful Servant”
Runner-Up: “Crow”

Allison Floyd—
Grand Prize: “Half-Life Connections”
Runner Up: “Three Tales of Rapture”

Fan Vote (click here for all Voting Percentages)–
Grand Prize: Top Hat (35.38%)
Runner-Up: Fragments of My Father (25.94%)

Tie-Breaker Fan Vote:
“Three Tales of Rapture” (1.65% total)
“Good And Faithful Servant” (0.94% total)

!What a close contest!

Keep surfing through Defenestrationism.net
for more of our Winter publication schedule.

Re-read the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest
Meet the Judges

What’s New
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by Paul-Newell Reaves

Film composer James Sizemore– credited for work on the “Twilight” series and “the Hobbit”– released his Contemporary Classical album Frameworks in 2018.  The tracks are titled after concepts of geometry and mathematics, and his work becomes an elegant statement of meaning in Post-Post-Modernism.

The album insists that, as we consider the album as a text, we examine the tracks backwards, from last to first, in reverse of the arranged listening order.  Why?  There is no why in math!  It will all add up under analysis.

No graph paper will be necessary for our musical calculations.  But your mind will expand exponentially by the time we arrive at the beginning.
(read more)



More Concept Albums Explained

FAN VOTING for the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest continues until January 13th!
!Vote early and vote often!

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only on Defenestrationism.net
[if you take pride in writing, skip this section]

You can try out A.I. for our contests, if you truly worry your writing skills are too flimsy. But you should probably trust your own abilities more.

I trained LLMs in creative writing, so not only will I probably recognize their work, I’ll even give you some hints:
A.I. doesn’t generate original ideas– that’s the fundamental premise of the software, it rips off stuff that’s already been published– so you’d definitely better come up with your basic conceit by hand. As to the work itself, in order to make A.I.’s writing remotely interesting, stylistically, you must be very specific about which authors’ style you want the software to write in. Pick two or three writers you enjoy reading, and put their names in the box along with your concept. Most importantly, revise the automaton’s work– and I’m not talking about typos.

That’s almost the entirety of the writing process, really– creating your concept, reading your favorite authors for inspiration, then the extensive revision– if a bot will get you over your initial writing block, I guess that’s a good use for the tool.  Just don’t be satisfied with mediocrity. Your readers certainly won’t be. (And with that fun, little worm in your brain– the bit about mediocrity, you know, that the work could always be just a little bit better if you only change one thing more…– A.I. won’t save you all that much time, percentage wise.)

Writing is a joy– an outlet, a passion– and if you’re using A.I. on Defenestrationism.net contests only for our meager prizes, good luck with your life and the state of your soul…

FAN VOTING for the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest continues until January 13th!
!Vote early and vote often!

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!Thank you to everyone who has already submitted!

Finalists will be announced on-site sometime in March.
Contest will publish in April,
with winners announced on May Day, which is May 1st.

FAN VOTING for the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest continues until January 13th!
!Vote early and vote often!

What’s New
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You still have time to submit to the 2024 Lengthy Poem Contest.

We will accept submissions till it is no longer January 1st anywhere on Earth.
(That would be Kiribati time!)

Guidelines for the Lengthy Poem Contest

FAN VOTING for the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest continues until January 13th!
!Vote early and vote often!

What’s New
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Vote often.
Your favorites will need it.

Click here to vote.

Back to the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest.
What’s New at Defenestrationism.net
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by Shannon Brady
[this is the third in the three part series–
read Final Stop from the beginning, here]

“It really is so lovely here.”

Was it the hundredth time she’d said so? Jack never minded. With the endless arrivals and departures around them, he liked being reminded it wasn’t wrong of him to enjoy this place. It wasn’t the Grand Central Station of his boyhood memories, but still…

“When I was young and it was bright out like this, I wished for it to last forever. It was always so beautiful.” Jack laughed in slight embarrassment. “I sound like a grandmother.”

“It’s nice.” Alice smiled. This was not unusual, but Jack sensed something new about it. “It’s good that you remember something so clear.”

“Come on now, I’m not a day over thirty.”

“I wonder a lot whether I ended up having grandchildren. I’d have liked some to talk to like that. I barely had any time with my daughter to — “

“Say!” Jack blurted, pointing to several people who had gathered together and were now bolting for one of the gates. Its time was set for twelve. “Where d’you suppose they’re going?”

“Maybe back into the city. The real one.”

“What, all of them?”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Exactly. Who says they’ll end up in the same place, even if they do leave by the same train?”

“Scattered all over the world. Like dandelion puffs.”

“Doesn’t that scare you?”

“Yes. But I want it all the same. When it’s been sunny for so long, you start wishing for some rain.” She sighed. “It’s been fun, Jack. But I think now it’s time to go find some.”

If Jack still had a heartbeat, that would have stopped it. After all the time they’d only had each other here, she was just going to…!

“Come with me?”

His legs wouldn’t move. “I..I can’t. Please, wait a bit longer.”

“I don’t think I can anymore. But I hope to see you then anyway. Maybe we’ll be siblings.”

“Or maybe I’ll be your grandchild.”

That got a rare laugh out of her. “Oh, Jack. Don’t wait that long, for your own sake.”

Jack stared as she disappeared into the gate too. He imagined her boarding the train, settling down into a comfortable seat, being carried away into the dark. Part of him yearned to race after her.

The rest of him looked around at the bright gold station interior that never wore down, the endless sunlight streaming from the windows, his own body that would never be hurt again, so long as he stayed here, and couldn’t. Not yet.

“Be safe, Alice,” he murmured.

The clock struck twelve.

More of the 2024 FLASH SUITE Contest
What’s New at Defenestrationism.net
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