23 comments

Contemporary Fiction Inspirational

Justine Chase searches through the online musician listings hoping to strike gold. Against daunting odds, she hopes to find needles in a haystack in the form of instrumentalists who don’t have slacker-artist issues. She fantasizes about being the lead singer for a country-punk band.


Although she's a first-year student in the MFA program at Long Beach State, her performance has thus far been lackluster. Thirty-five years old, Justine had an adventurous four years at UC Berkeley. She graduated from the English department with highest honors. The crown of her academic career was writing a thesis analyzing the science fiction of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. The thesis was published in article form in a student journal, but upon hearing the news, her distant father was unnecessarily harsh, as he frequently is with his daughter. He’s always considered her too brainy and refined to have been born from bona fide blue-collar rough-and-tumble immigrant stock.   


As a result of having spent three nights on a psychiatric ward at Oakland’s Highland Hospital, Justine believed she'd have more to write about than the bulk of students in the creative writing program who are in their early twenties and whose literary discernment she opines isn’t quite as traditional as hers.   


She thinks venturing into music will give her some lived experiences allowing her to overcome her writer’s block. In her wildest dreams, the experience will blossom into an indie music star’s life.


After scrolling down the screen, finding no good leads, but seeing ads soliciting members for chintzy tribute bands, among them No Doubt and The Offspring, she decides to place her own ad. Looking for musical artists with whom to make the youth croon country tunes and dosey-doh in the mosh pit (queer friendly, no substance-use).


Four days after she posts the ad, her phone rings. It’s an unidentified caller from Costa Mesa, a city neighboring the one Justine lives in with Mother Marbles, who is hoping her daughter finds some wholesome friends that’ll bring her out of the shell of depression in which she's ensconced.


“Greetings,” Justine says.


“Did you place an ad on Craigslist?” the caller asks.


“Yeah,” Justine says, hoping she has found a collaborator with whom she can musically enchant youth whose souls have been corrupted by the cookie cutter pop-punk and trap beats that incessantly stream out of phones, computers and tablets.  


“I play lead guitar, love classic country, don’t use drugs or drink booze, and my 12-year-old son is gender questioning,” the caller says.


“I sing, play rhythm and am in a predicament similar to your son's,” Justine says, confident she has found the right person to share her vision of a country-punk reformation of America. Justine hears her dog Nino make a snoring sound in the background, which she interprets to be a confirmation of her optimistic thought.


“Sounds great. We can get together this weekend to try things out. My name’s Jonathan,”


“My name’s Justine.”


“I’ll text you my address,” says Jonathan.


Justine hangs up, elated, tells Marbles about her good fortune, and, addressing her dog says, “The future’s looking up, Nino.”


*


On Sunday afternoon, after trying to immerse herself in a fiction writing exercise that devolves into expository futility, she deletes the untitled document, and has Marbles drive her to Jonathan’s place.


Late model electric vehicles sit in the driveway. As she rings the door bell, Justine hopes she has found someone with whom to share a musical odyssey. She hears dogs bark from within the tastefully designed and meticulously maintained house. 


A trim, bespectacled and handsome man answers the door. He has a tribal tattoo on his right arm. The tattoo is partially concealed by the sleeve of a Johnny Cash t-shirt. He looks to be in his mid-forties, and, after introducing Justine to his son, he guides her into a spare room he has converted into a music practice studio, complete with a voice amplification system and digital recording equipment


Chatting as they tune their guitars, Jonathan tells Justine he has been an accountant for twenty years and would love to have a side gig as a semi-serious musician.


“I know how to play plenty of covers, but do you have any original material?” he says.


“I’ve got a couple of songs I’ve written,” Justine says.


“Let’s hear one.”


“I never play them for anyone besides my mum.”


“Try me,” he says.


Placing her capo on the first fret of her guitar, she begins to play a rhythm pattern on an E chord, alternating between bass notes and the strum of high strings. 


She starts to sing some lyrics she wrote during her second 5150 hold, the one where she got put into restraints after standing up for a boy who had cut on himself and was being mistreated by one of the orderlies.


Abused by the authorities for wanting to be real /


She remembers being introduced to Taoism by one of her college friends, and thinking that there was no religious sign that more compellingly emblemized divinity than the Yin/Yang symbol. After reading Le Guin's translation of the Tao Te Ching she surmised that if there is a divine being, it must also be both masculine and feminine and embody both vice and virtue. She thinks of how most trap music glamorizes life in the inner city and how thankful she is for not being born into circumstances that would make selling drugs, sex trafficking, homicide, or theft possible lifestyle choices.


I thank Great Tao I’ve never been forced to push, pimp, murk, or steal /


She thinks of the disdain she has for militant firearm ownership advocates and for the celebration of ritualized alcohol consumption across so many parts of the world.


No shotgun pick-up parties, no getting crazy drunk /


She thinks of the indulgent lifestyle she had during college, and how it’s partially to blame for many of her present woes.


No coke or meth snorting, cigarette smoking, hits of chronic for country punks /


She strums a B7 chord that creates a tension that calls for resolution, and belts out the one-line chorus to her anthem,


To Great Tao I give thanks, the name’s Pussycat Janks!


Jonathan’s dogs emit howling barks after she plays the twangy outro. Her nerves subside and things seem a little less hostile than they did earlier when her imagination was hampered by the weary weight of the world.

June 07, 2022 18:05

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23 comments

Graham Kinross
06:55 Nov 15, 2022

So this is how they meet. It's cool seeing the interconnectedness of your stories. So her and her son are both obsessed with music, cool. I like the Ursula K Le Guin references. Can't say I've read the books you've mentioned but A Wizard of Earthsea, which Rowling clearly borrowed heavily from, was an early favourite of mine and a book I enjoyed rereading recently. I like your point about the slacker artist thing, there were people who I went to art school with that still seem to think if you live like an artist success will come to you, liv...

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Mike Panasitti
08:11 Nov 15, 2022

The inspiration for the interweaving of my stories has relied primarily on David Mitchell's "ubernovel." He has characters from previous novels make cameos and more extended appearances in later novels. It gratifies a reader's dopamine reward circuit when he connects characters, say, from his historical fiction in one book to plots of science or contemporary fiction in another book. Le Guin's fantasy novels are great, but I enjoy her science fiction even more. I'll be making a point of delving into the complete Xander series to recipr...

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Graham Kinross
10:49 Nov 15, 2022

I have the most boring talking voice in the universe, if you Google tennis player Andy Murray, we have the same voice, except he probably has more intonation. I’ve been trying to work on it but it makes everything sound flat. I’ve been meaning to work my way through your stories for a while. I just worked out an easy way to do it. I get my computer to read them aloud to me. Then I can comment as I go without scrolling up and down. The Xander series was listed as something that described what it was but not what it is now. I just changed it...

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Chris Campbell
06:17 Jun 16, 2022

Mike, a Country-Punk band? I love it! Music is a great healer. I could hear the song through your words. Well done! I know Long Beach and Costa Mesa very well. Used to drink at The Harp Inn, then one night across the intersection at Dennys Restaurant, I got into an altercation with 5 guys that put me in Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach for 6 days. That's a long time ago and a story yet to be written, but thanks for helping me reminisce.

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Mike Panasitti
14:27 Jun 16, 2022

The story of that altercation - and the hospital stay - definitely should be written. I've found that writing about violent episodes definitely has allowed my judgment of aggressivity to change - and change is the aim of culturally-conscious writing.

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Sharon Hancock
01:39 Jun 15, 2022

Excellent! Such detailed characterization…I really enjoyed getting to know Justine. I haven’t read LeGuin, but I have read a book by Philip k dick —through a scanner darkly. I love the bit about slacker artist issues…gave me a clear mental picture of what she wanted to avoid. Great ending, too. I like how she relaxed with Jonathan and let herself feel her music. 😻

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Mike Panasitti
02:05 Jun 15, 2022

Sharon, thanks for the comments. If you decide to give Le Guin a go, I suggest you start with The Lathe of Heaven, a novel in which a psychiatrist tries to influence the troubled main character's dreams - because they become reality.

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Sharon Hancock
01:07 Jun 16, 2022

Oh yeah that sounds right up my alley! Thanks for the rec!

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Kanika G
12:38 Jun 13, 2022

This was a fun story and I really enjoyed reading it. Well done!

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Mike Panasitti
19:09 Jun 13, 2022

Thank you. If you write a follow-up to your latest story, please have the lamp grant the main character a wish so that she can teach the villain a lesson!

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Kanika G
04:20 Jun 17, 2022

:) I will try my best.

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Jim Firth
09:22 Jun 10, 2022

Mike, love the bit about the chintzy tribute bands--that rings really true (trying to play originals in a band can be a ball ache!) I like the very original combination of spirituality/Tao and country punk and how we get behind the scenes of the lyrics when Justine sings them.

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Michał Przywara
21:37 Jun 09, 2022

Another fun story, Mike! I think the whole thing really can be summed up by a line from the ending, "things seem a little less hostile than they did earlier". The whole beginning projects a sense of discomfort. Things are not the way Justine believes they should be, and she's driven to help people and frustrated by how hard that seems to be. Singing her song, possibly for a new band mate, felt like some tense muscle had finally released and things were more at ease. On a meta-story level, I recognize Nino here, from your other stories. I...

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Mike Panasitti
00:01 Jun 10, 2022

Mr. Przywara, you again have made me aware of possibilities I fail to see in stories written by my own hands! I was thinking, of scrapping Justin for Justine or making Justine Justin's twin sister, but you've suggested an altogether much more plausible plot twist. If the saga ever sees publication in paper form, I will acknowledge your insights.

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13:20 Jun 09, 2022

An easy fun read, a bit lighter that most of your stories. The one-line chorus made me laugh, the callback to the story title had perfect timing! 'Expository futility' and the last sentence were both brilliant too. One thing I didn't see it at first but "things seems" might be "things seem".

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Mike Panasitti
15:46 Jun 09, 2022

Yes, definitely lighter fare here. Writing material that doesn't rely on explicit conflict is more of a challenge than creating narrative about quotidian events. Thanks for reading and catching the type-o!

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Daniel R. Hayes
17:42 Jun 08, 2022

Hi Mike!! This was a fantastic read. You did a really great job writing this story and you have a great voice that keeps me coming back for more. A lot of writers struggle to find their voice, but you have this down! I don't always have time to leave comments, but this was truly a great read!! I loved it :)

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Mike Panasitti
17:55 Jun 08, 2022

Daniel, thanks for the encouraging comments. I listened to the RLWL podcast that featured you. Your background and views on writing piqued my interest. I hope your work on the Mr. Macabre novel is moving forward to your satisfaction. Thanks again for making the time to read and comment.

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Daniel R. Hayes
16:05 Jun 09, 2022

Thanks Mike!! I was so nervous about that interview. I had planned to release "Tales from Mr. Macabre" earlier but I had some family emergencies that delayed the release. I'm proud to say the book will be released in July or August on Amazon. I hired some professional people to work on the cover, editing, and typesetting, so when that all gets done, I'll be ready to publish it. :)

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Mike Panasitti
16:22 Jun 09, 2022

Excellent. I look forward to hearing about the finished project.

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Aoi Yamato
03:08 Jun 05, 2023

good story mike. I like it.

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Mike Panasitti
18:06 Jun 05, 2023

Thank you, Aoi. Is your name Japanese? If so, do you live in Japan?

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Aoi Yamato
00:54 Jun 06, 2023

yes. yes.

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