Sometime in 2023, I read an open call on Submittable from Taco Bell Quarterly. They were soliciting art and writing somehow connected to the fast food chain after which they’re named. I hate Taco Bell but I thought it was perverse and funny enough to kill a couple hours on, so I Google Streetviewed the restaurant that replaced the shitty Mexican joint across Western Avenue from where I used to live.

The Taco Bell replaced the building with the arched windows in the middle-right of the old painting above. It was demolished sometime after I moved away in 2012. It would be years until the Bell rose from in that empty lot.

I painted the painting, scanned it, and sent a digital file to the magazine. Then nothing happened and it kept not happening for over a year. Then the form rejection came. This is how it mostly goes. I lose count of the contests, open calls, et al I go for and don’t get. I long ago stopped getting upset or stewing about it (present case excluded).

What I wonder about is why I keep bothering. I look at sites like Submittable and Chill Subs less and less. But some late nights a bug gets up my ass and I start scrolling through the “opportunities”. These things are mostly for beginners and I’m definitely not a beginner. Yet, who wouldn’t want a little acceptance now and then?

The funny thing is that in the rare instance that a picture or piece of writing is taken I forget about it almost as quickly as the myriad rejections. Perhaps the only reason the Taco Bell failure stays with me is the ludicrousness of the proposition and the fact I made a painting especially for their call.

It’s buried somewhere in my flatfile. I don’t know if I could even find it.

A kid bought a copy of Soviet Stamps at Tangible and talked about it for fifteen minutes into a camera.