Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Person of the Day: Jean-Luc Picard

[there used to be a poem here...]

I'm going to try and write a poem, dumb or not, each day on a random person. A person of the day. These are unedited and posted right after being written.

It's Getting Closer

information super highway

Person of the Day: Milly Dowler

[there used to be a poem here...]

I'm going to try and write a poem, dumb or not, each day on a random person. A person of the day. These are unedited and posted right after being written.

Other Dustin Nelsons

Person of the Day: John Quincy Adams

I met him when he was 49 or 9
and he wasn’t yet a father,
but he was working on it. The way
he fought and attempted breeding
was impudent. JQA and I
sitting around in powdered
wigs, muskets, oak
tables, and mead. So yes, thank
you very much, I do get it. I was there.


I'm going to try and write a poem, dumb or not, each day on a random person. A person of the day. These are unedited and posted right after being written. Oh, and I'm going to try to not be mean to the subject in any of them, because that would make this easier.

Pete and Pete

...is way more Lynchian than I remember.

Person of the Day: Dany Heatley

Ten years later and time still folds in on itself
Like one of those paper fortune-telling toys from elementary
School that I never learned the name of. It folds in to echo
His father, flap flap losses, flap flap strongheadedness,
flap flap you'll marry someone from math class, a sense of blame
From so many angles that I'm
Not sure what any of it means. I'm not sure there is blame
That you can pinpoint and not sure that there isn't.
It's a reminder of my bias towards moral oversights
That change my own fortunes for the better. We can be blindfolded
Willingly and still know the truth, everything folding into itself
Like warm cake batter in a pan that shows the folds, then, eventually,
Just becomes an amorphous blob that you'll consume with friends or whoever is around.

I'm going to try and write a poem, dumb or not, each day on a random person. A person of the day. These are unedited and posted right after being written. Oh, and I'm not trying to be mean to anyone either, because that would make this easier.

Messages to Another Dustin Nelson

The Nostalgia Machine

is listening to Beta Band all morning.

The End of Radio Happy Hour

From the RHH site:

Friends, it's been fun, but the final episode of Radio Happy Hour is upon us. We will have more information soon, but for now you have this short post. The final episode will be on August 12th at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tickets are only $5. Get them now, we're pretty sure this will sell out quick. The guests include Twin Sister, Mike Doughty, Franz Nicolay, Arthur Phillips, Molly Knefel, William Ocean and many other friends of the show. Get your tickets here.

Dali's Dream Sequence from Hitchcock's Spellbound

Nabokov and Self Interviews

from the Paris Review, "Nabokov and the Art of the Self Interview"

This Maybe Could Have Been Phrased Better....

But I'll take the high road and not make jokes about pederast guest bloggers...

New Poems at I Thought I Was New Here

I've got two new poems up on Gregory Lawless' I Thought I Was New Here blog. They are called "We’ll know we’ve hit the big time when we’ve got a set of equipment for smut and then another for non-smut" and "Wednesday June 11th, 2010." The first one was started after Brad Liening actually said that to me in an e-mail. We both wrote a poem with that title.

The whole thing makes me so happy I want to do the Batdance:

Congotronics vs Rockers

Congotronics vs. Rockers is touring Europe and features Konono no. 1, Juana Molina, Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Skeletons, Kasai Allstars and others. Pretty awesome.

Video Mash-Up of "Paranoid Android"

something dark will happen to them anyway...

No, Dear and a poem about William Powell

I have a poem in the new issue of No, Dear called "Reasons to Like William Powell (as Nick Charles)." You can purchase an issue here.

This is great. A friend made this. His name is Marcus Grundahl. Yes.

Some live Radio Happy Houring

On June 18th we're doing the new episode of Radio Happy Hour at City Winery. Our guests will be Sun Airway, Hank & Cupcakes, Jared Logan, and John & Molly Knefel.

If you get tickets here you can get them for $7 since you're reading this blog. That's 30% off. Best deal I've ever had on this site that never posts deals. That's not what's happening here. Except for this one time.

A bio written for me by Brad Leining

"Born in the heart of America, Dustin Luke Nelson is an American-born American who is also of several other ethnicities but not nationalities and is a writer, producer, poet, philosopher, man, astro-man, and human being. The grandson of some people who are real but who you don't know, words run through his veins like blood which is also in there, and his cranial fluid is likewise full of words put together with experience to make wisdom, just as the water of the Nile and other bodies of water flows through his veins because a significant fraction of his body is made of water."

Is it still a secret?

RADIO DISPATCHES FROM THE FUTURE

I forgot to post this last week, but Brad Liening, Jess Grover, and I all appeared on John & Molly Knefel's Radio Dispatch podcast and talked about InDigest Editions, Brad's new book - We Are Doomed: Dispatches From the City of the Future, and literariness at large. It was a good time. You can hear it here.

And if you happen to be reading this immediately and are able to run out the door right now then you might be able to head down to (Le) Poisson Rouge for the InDigest Issue 20 Launch Reading which starts at 7. Julia Bartz, Matthew Daddona, Dana Rossi, Monica Wendel, Matthew Savoca, Seth Fried, Natalie Eilbert, and Matthew Pennock will all be reading and it's going to be a good time. A real good time.

DLN + "1." = MB8

I was interviewed about my poem "1." from the new issue of Monkeybicycle by J.A. Tyler at the Monkeybicycle Blog.

i have this on my wall now

Thanks Ashleigh.

this show was awesome

our band could be your life tribute. awesome. read michael azerrad's favorite moments.

annie clark covering big black's "kerosene"


titus andronicus and craig finn doing the replacement's "kids don't follow"


tune-yards, wye oak, and dirty projects do nirvana's "lithium"


ted leo does minor threat's "filler" to a pre-recorded reel to reel

i grabbed this for you

This was in my basement last weekend.

i'm pretty excited about this

It wasn't easy to get in NYC.

Taxidermy Kittens

I think this should, some day, come to be synonymous with my name. I won't have a phone number. You will just project this image into the sky and I will just think, Oh, Adam's calling. (Because I'll know who projected it by telepathy. I mean, think about it, if my name is basically a picture I'm pretty sure I'd know who was calling. If I say your name do you have any problems deciding who is saying your name? I didn't think so.)

i like this, i think i can do this

Dear Electronics Companies

InDigest Editions!!!

We just launched InDigest Editions with the release of our first collection of poetry, Brad Liening's We Are Doomed: Dispatches From the City of the Future. It's pretty exciting. You can already get a copy on the internet. Or you can get one on the non-internet by coming to our launch reading Sunday night at LPR (158 Bleecker St.). Brad will be in town and reading along with Lily Ladewig, Gregory Lawless, and Kim Gek Lin Short. It's free. It will be fun. Drinks will be served. I heard a rumor that a certain InDigest editor is even going to be making cupcakes. No promises. Just a rumor I heard.

you heard it here first

I concede that these kids are cooler than me

I interview John Reed and Arthur Phillips

for InDigest

Remember this?

Will Ferrell as George Bush - watch more funny videos

Lots of conflicted emotions happening over here. Nostalgia. Regret.

Episode #18 of Radio Happy Hour is up

It's up and it's a hilarious episode. Guest stars this time around were Franz Nicolay and Arden Myrin. You can listen to the episode at the Radio Happy Hour site.

for some reason this appeals to me

Also, check out this new song by Dorian Wood. It's good.

I'm reading a poem based on "No.13 Baby" tonight

I'm reading at the Polestar Poetry series at the Cake Shop tonight. It starts a 5pm. The reading is a tribute to The Pixies' Doolittle. There is a different poet assigned to each song of the album and they're reading a poem based on that song. I'm reading a poem based on "No.13 Baby," which is an awesome song. So is "Hey." I really underrated that song previously. I'm making up for my errors by way of a public proclamation of my love right now. I love that song. There. That's over with. Anyhow. Reading. 5pm. Polestar. Pixies. Other stuff. more.

Here's a list of the readers and their songs.
Debaser // Lily Ladewig
Tame // Tess Patalano
Wave of Mutilation // Tyler Flynn Dorholt
I Bleed // Erika Moya
Here Comes Your Man // Luke Bloomfield
Dead // Mike Lala
Monkey Gone to Heaven // David Olimpio
Mr. Grieves // Tommy Pico
Crackity Jones // Sasha Fletcher
La La Love You // Rebecca Keith
La La Love You (remix) // Hannah Miet
No. 13 Baby // Jon Cotner
No. 13 Baby (remix) // Dustin Luke Nelson
There Goes My Gun // M.G. Martin
Hey // Austin Rory Hackett
Silver // Kimberly Kaye
Gouge Away // John Dermot Woods

"Everything Oz"

The new issue of H_ngm_n came out yesterday and I've got a poem in it called "Everything Oz."

Franz Nicolay performed a new song while hanging out with Radio Happy Hour

Franz Nicolay played a new song in the green room before we taped the new episode of Radio Happy Hour.

Franz Nicolay performs "Did Your Broken Heart Make You Who You Are?" from Radio Happy Hour on Vimeo.

A true life film about the life of my grandfather....

story arcs

I've been thinking about story arcs.

Radio Dispatch

I was on the new episode of John & Molly Knefel's Radio Dispatch podcast. I talk about a few books and poetry. you can hear it here. I um.

John and Molly. They're funny.

So is Breadbucket, but there isn't much there. It's new.

There is a photo of me I like on their site as well. Jacqui Ouanes took it.

Who was the creator of that again? I can't seem to remember....oh that's right...

Thanks Flavorpill an innocent and hilarious typo.

(If you can't find it look in the second paragraph.)

Episode #17 of Radio Happy Hour is up now! Featuring Elizabeth & the Catapult, Dave Hill, and Arthur Phillips

Radio Happy Hour has just released Episode #17 featuring Elizabeth & the Catapult, Dave Hill, and Arthur Phillips. Listen to the podcast here. A little from Radio Happy Hour on the show:

In Episode #17 of Radio Happy Hour Sam moves to Montana to ref the Montana Three Way, a three way professional wrestling bout between Rusty Trombone, The Shakespearean Punisher (Arthur Phillips) with his inept manager Dave Hill, and Osama bin Droppin’ Elbows. But when Osama’s manager, Elizabeth Ziman of Elizabeth & the Catapult, comes out to tell everyone that Osama is missing the crowd gets pissed and the mystery gets hot ‘n heavy. And by “crowd” I mean Steve, the one guy who comes to the Montana Three Way every year.

Franz Nicolay is joining Radio Happy Hour

From Radio Happy Hour:

We're pretty thrilled to tell you about our next live taping. (It's not a banana.) On April 16th (that's only about two weeks from now!) we'll be back in the dark basement of (Le) Poisson Rouge drinking in the middle of the afternoon. This time we'll be serenaded by the serene tunes of Franz Nicolay. Franz is the brilliantly mustachioed man you've seen doing solo work, out on tour with our friend David Dondero, doing keys with The Hold Steady, and generally rocking in World Inferno Friendship Society. (A lot, I know, and that's not everything.)

Come celebrate spring, mustaches, and murder with us on April 16. The most fun you'll have in a dark basement on what should be a beautiful spring afternoon.

Oh, and if you're around on April 15th join us as the RHH crew go watch Franz play a show with our good friend David Dondero (remember episode #11, "The Don, The Delicious, and The Doom"?) at the Cake Shop in New York.

New episode of InDefinite Podcast

We've got a new episode of InDefinite Podcast up at InDigest featuring the author Jim Hanas, author of Why They Cried. He reads a story from that collection as well as some ad copy from the legendary Ned Jordan. Dig it.

If you don't know who Ned Jordan is check out some of his awesome ad copy below.

New episode of Radio Happy Hour up Today!!!

We've got a new episode of Radio Happy Hour up right now. Episode #16 "The House That Ted Built" features special guests Abe Vigoda, Marcellus Hall, and comedian Ted Alexandro.

work

Brad Reads at Literary Death Match

LDM Twin Cities, Ep. 3: Brad Liening from Opium Magazine on Vimeo.

Do.

Me as Randy Newman

Thank you Zan.

Monkeybicycle Lightning Round

I'll be reading at the Monkeybicycle Lightning Round on March 16th at the Cake Shop. It's the launch party for their eighth print issue as well (I'm in there). It will be fun. These people are reading too: Vince Czyz, Scott Geiger, Suzanne Marie Hopcroft, Blake Kimzey, Lincoln Michel, David Moscovich, Dustin Luke Nelson, Steve Peacock, Kathleen A. Ryan, and Katie Wude.

More info

Also, they just started selling copies of issue 8 here. These people are in it: Summer Block, Matt Briggs, Aaron Burch, E. Michael Desilets, Ori Fienberg, Jesús Ángel García, Scott Geiger, Michael Hickins, Steve Himmer, Blake Kimzey, Ben Loory, Annam Manthiram, Laura McCullough, Michael Mlekoday, Dustin Luke Nelson, Ben Nickol, Steve Peacock, Jonathan Redhorse, Vincent Scarpa, Curtis Smith, Rosalynn Stovall, and Andrew Weatherhead.

I read it. It's good.

things entertaining me (though maybe that's not the best title for this...)

excited

Low - Trailer for New Record, C'mon from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

herbach's stupid fast trailer

Hilarious. More Herbach.

Paul Krugman on the standoff in Wisconsin (which is spreading to Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere):

The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.

you'll roo the day

Says:

bam

got my contributor copies of minnetonka review today

there isn't enough poetry that does this to your head

get out your eyebrow prowess

if a tree falls in the forest....

things i bought at AWP

InDigest 1207 Tonight

I'm hosting another InDigest 1207 reading tonight. I'm writing this late at night and I'm tired. I think it's going to be our best one ever. Don't miss it. Readers will be Darin Strauss, John Reed, and Jim Hanas. It's going to be funny. It's going to be sad. It's going to be at 7pm at LPR.

more here

2.0

On Valentine's Day

We're doing a Radio Happy Hour episode on Valentine's Day, and you should come if you're in NYC. It's going to feature Abe Vigoda, Marcellus Hall, and Ted Alexandro. It's going to be great.

New InDigestions

We've a new a issue of InDigest up right now. It includes an e-chapbook of our WikiLeaks Centos. Read it all here: indigestmag.com.

at the auditions for the lion king

I've got a new poem up at Sink Review called "At the Auditions For the Lion King."

My InDigest cohorts Brad Liening and Jess Grover have poems in there as well. Both poems melt faces.

Also, Ashleigh has a poem in the Two Weeks anthology. Her poem is awesome, and the whole project is worth taking a look at.

This cat and I are working on a collaborative chapbook

i am a natural wonder

I've got a new poem up at Lily Ladewig and Anne Cecilia Holmes I Am A Natural Wonder blog. The poem is called "I am a Natural Wonder" (as all poems on the blog are).

EXPLOSIONS

This is pretty:

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care from Explosions in the Sky on Vimeo.

Timbre Timbre

They put out a pretty cool trailer for their new album:

I love Marnie Stern

SoundCloud of some cassette only demos:
Marnie Stern - Demo by dog daze tapes

Reasons to like John Darnielle

Pitchfork: How did you end up working with veteran metal dude Erik Rutan on this album?

JD: This is a long story. First, did you see the Cannibal Corpse documentary Centuries of Torment?

Pitchfork: No.

JD: Tom, come on. You have to get this thing tonight because it's the greatest. It's like four hours long but it's seriously one of the best rock docs ever made. Cannibal Corpse are a bunch of dudes from Buffalo who've been doing it forever. They are amazing musicians and characters-- just amazing dudes to listen to. I brought this documentary out on tour, and there was a DVD player in the back of the bus, so the documentary was playing 24 hours a day. Any time you wanted to see Cannibal Corpse you could just go to the back lounge and they were there.

read

Trish Keenan....

One of the best live shows I've ever seen:

Ghost and Natural Wonders

Brad Liening was just interviewed about his new collection Ghosts and Doppelgängers.

The other poetry editor at InDigest, Jess Grover, just had a poem put up in Lily Ladewig's I Am A Natural Wonder blog, which spins off of her collaborative chapbook of the same name. Every poet on here has been asked to write a poem titled "I Am A Natural Wonder." Read these.

New episode of Radio Happy Hour w/ Suckers, Tim Kasher, Arden Myrin, and Joe Mande

We've got a new episode of Radio Happy Hour up here. From the RHH site:

In episode #15 of Radio Happy Hour, “The Christmas Gayle,” Brain Aiken of Suckers, Tim Kasher, and comedians Joe Mande and Arden Myrin join the Radio Happy Hour crew as they mysteriously wind up at a holiday party of New York dentist. But it seems as though the person they’ve come with might be ghost.

El Jeffe

I added my two cents on the best cultural moments of 2010 for Flavorpill. (i.e. was given an excuse to talk about the Jeff Mangum show again....)

Favorite shows of 2010

A bunch of the LPR staff posted their favorite shows of 2010 at Art & Revelry. Mine are on there.

Wikileaks Centos

My poem "President Zapatero is highly unlikely to in the near term" is up at the InDigest blog for the Wikileaks Centos project. Read it here, and there is still time to submit one if you want to submit one....

Xmas Wishes

I just got famous

Ghosts and Doppelgangers

From InDigest HQ:



InDigest poetry editor Brad Liening's first full length collection of poetry was released yesterday through Low Brow Press. The collection is called Ghosts and Doppelgängers and you currently get it over at Amazon. That's the killer cover there to the right. I (in a lovingly biased way, I know) recommend you drop everything you're doing and e-mail your loved ones to let them know that this is at the top of your Christmas list.

InDigest Wants You to Write a Cento Based on a Wikileak Cable

Friends, whistle-blowers, readers, bloggers, drunkards, past contributors to InDigest,

Whether or not you think Wikileaks has further endangered fragile U.S. diplomatic relations around the world, whether or not you believe Julian Assange sexually assaulted two women in Sweden, whether or not you think Amazon’s refusal to continuing hosting wikileaks is gutless and cowardly, whether or not you think Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal blocking funding to Wikileaks is similarly gutless and cowardly: let’s write some centos!

That’s right, centos! InDigest wants you to write centos based on the Wikileaks cables to be included at the InDigest blog and a broadside anthology that will appear in the next issue of InDigest (and maybe elsewhere for a future project from InDigest as well). We’ve already got a bunch of these and they are going so well that we wanted to open this up to anyone.

Check out the already massive load of leaked diplomatic cables here, write a cento and send it over. (Wikileaks has been having to bounce around different servers, let us know if you’re having trouble tracking them down.) If you have friends whose writing you enjoy, tell them about it. The more the merrier, there’s certainly enough material. We’ll be posting them on the blog as they come in, publishing broadsides in the next issue and throwing reading parties in both New York and Minneapolis in January.

To submit:
Send them here: indigestsubmit@gmail.com
Subject line: wiki centos
Deadline: rolling, but we’re wrapping it all up by December 30.

Happy writing.

Something Magical is Happening Here

And then there is the guitar in a baby carriage:

Part 3 of Radio Happy Hour's The Fall of Keith

Radio Happy Hour presents The Fall of Keith: Part 3 from Radio Happy Hour on Vimeo.

Glenn Branca Vinyls

We're doing a Kickstarter project to record and release the world premiere of Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 15 at Le Poisson Rouge. I'm pretty excited about this:

Village Voice says nice things...

Radio Happy Hour is the wry little nephew of A Prairie Home Companion—both serve up quaint, vaudevillian radio comedy, but only one of these will have raw riotess Thao Nguyen (of San Francisco Thao & the Get Down Stay Down) on deck tonight. Also, only one of these ends with a virtual river of Pabst on the floor. Quick-witted Nguyen should do well on "Radio Happy Hour"—as with all episodes, the guest will be tasked with helping the gang solve a short, spastic mystery by interviewing suspects, collecting evidence, and performing (because art is the greatest discovery of all, or something). Wear your Encyclopedia Brown best for a truly irreverent evening. With Jessi Klein, Ali Wong, and John & Molly Knefel.

Time Out also made us a pick of the week! Hey! There are still tickets for the show. (and you can get $5 off with the code RHHFRIEND)

The Fall of Keith act 2

Radio Happy Hour presents The Fall of Keith: Part 2 from Radio Happy Hour on Vimeo.

New InDigest, New Radio Happy Hour

Oh, busy day. This morning we put out Issue #18 of InDigest! Yeah. It's great. Poetry from Bart Schneider, Autumn Giles, Jackie Clark, Tony Leuzzi, new fiction from Lech Harris, Caren Beilen, and J. Bradley (who is reading at InDigest 1207 on Nov. 17 in NYC). New columns, recording journals, interviews, podcasts, and more.

READ IT NOW.

Then, Radio Happy Hour put out the first video of a new series called Radio Happy Hour presents The Fall of Keith. It stars the Radio Happy Hour kids (and me) and comedians Sean Patton, John Knefel, Molly Knefel, and Brett Tabisel. I like it. See it:

The Fall of Keith: Act I from Radio Happy Hour on Vimeo.