What Am I Doing?

Well, I'm not sure. I finished packaging a lot of Abraham Lincoln centos that are being mailed to people who supported our InDigest Kickstarter project. That's the return address in the picture below. Lincoln did that. He's personally signing each envelope, and each poem that goes in each envelope. Pretty cool, huh? Bet you wish you had a special personalized poem written by Abraham Lincoln, that's probably autographed by him, in an envelope that definitely autographed by him.

What am I doing on here? I'm not sure. I keep posting random stuff on Tumblr and I'm not entirely sure why I have a Tumblr and a blogspot page. It just means that neither of them really get updated very often.

Live at LPR: Macaulay Culkin's iPod

I've been helping produce a series of podcasts for LPR and this is the first episode.

InDigest presents An Evening of Flash Fiction

Calling something "an evening" of something makes it sound so damn fancy. This won't be that fancy. Though I might wear a tie. I'm going to be drinking whiskey, but not fancy whisky, cheap whiskey. I think there will be some laughs, not belly laughs, but subtle laughs that are really funnier when you think about it. Maybe some super serious people will, instead of laughing, just smile and nod knowingly. That happens at readings sometimes. I also think there will be at least one person there who teaches in some capacity. So if you're coming to learn and I fall short of your expectations (I most certainly will) you can always go talk to that person. So this will also be educational, probably, if you put out some effort. You can't expect to learn unless you put out some effort.

Look, I know you're not supposed to say it, but I like flash fiction, and you do too. It'll be our secret, we don't have to tell anyone that this reading was the best thing you've ever been to afterward, when people ask. People will say, "Who's at this reading right now? It's not as high brow as this super boring Joanthan Franzen reading I'm going to tonight." And I'll say, "[quietly] Everyone...shh...[then louder] No one in here but us chickens." And we'll all have a drink and laugh at the people who don't know how to have any fun.

Also, don't you think it's not really fair that I listed the readers in alphabetical order? Robb is always last then. You should clap extra hard for him if you come. I hope you come. I'll clap extra hard.

This is going to be super fun. All these readers are great, and fun, and there will be drinks and laughing and high fives and low fives and side fives and Five Alives. Come hang out and see some stuff.

InDigest presents an Evening of Flash Fiction
w/ Ann Dewitt, John Jodzio, Robert Lopez, Lincoln Michel, Shya Scanlon, and Robb Todd
7pm | FREE
at The Gallery at (Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St, NYC

And thanks to Zan Emerson for the flier design that I think is pretty great.

Geocachers Season 2 Trailer

We're almost ready to release season 2 of Geocachers. I'm pretty excited. We've got some really great guests for the second series, and some other surprises in store.

We've got a brand new look and a brand new issue over at InDigest.

The new issue features work from Justin Alt, Joseph Bates, Andrew Booth, Allen Edwin Butt, Lindsay D'Andrea, Molly Dorozenski, Sally Grossart (who made the TS Eliot paper person above), Matthew Guenette, Anne Cecelia Holmes, Gregory Lawless, Rebecca Porte, Sampson Starkweather, Amber Tamblyn, and Matt Wilkinson.

We're pretty happy with the new design and the new issue. What do you think? Let us know how it looks, how it reads, and how you've been.

And thanks if you supported our new site project on Kickstarter. It means a lot. You made it possible for us to get this new thing going.

InDigest Issue #24 Launch Party Tonight!

Tonight is the InDigest Issue #24 Launch Party. We'll have drinks and then readings from Dave Hill, Sampson Starkweather, Mitchell S. Jackson, Joseph Riippi, Lindsay D'Andrea, Molly Dorozenski, Allen Edwin Butt and Andrew Booth. It'll be better than an ear wig.

HOWL Festival Today

Today is the HOWL Festival in Tompkins Square Park from 1-4pm. I'm reading at 2:30pm. I'll be having beers at 2:40pm. Join me, please.

There are also lots of other great writers reading like Christie Ann Reynolds, Leah Umansky, T.M. De Vos, and others. Full schedule below.

1:00pm: Rachel Boyadjis
1:10pm: Lisa Marie Basile
1:20pm: T.M. De Vos
1:30pm: Liz Axelrod
1:40pm: Jennifer Williamson
1:50pm: Emily Linstrom
2:00pm: Erin Lynn
2:10pm: Meghann Plunkett
2:20pm: Carina Finn
2:30pm: Dustin Luke Nelson
2:40pm: TBA
2:50pm: Leah Umansky
3:00pm: Justin Sherwood
3:10pm: Michael Lala
3:20pm: Christie Ann Reynolds
3:30pm: Rachel Herman-Gross
3:40pm: Robert Cunningham
3:50pm: Lauren Hunter

Today I Will Be a Compensated Spokesperson

I've got a new poem up at Opium today called "Today I Will Be a Compensated Spokesperson." Which, I've discovered, will take you about two minutes to read.

Update: These kind of posts are most useful when I provide a link.

Last Day of Our Kickstarter Campaign

Today is the final day of our Kickstarter campaign for InDigest.

Dapper Abe

Hell Yes Press' "21 Love Poems"

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

Tonight a couple of my Abraham Lincoln poems will be read by actors for Emotive Fruition at the Bowery Poetry Club at 8pm. It's $5. Should be good times. Poems by Jen Knox, Monica Wendel, and Martin Rock will also be read.

Also, in Minneapolis tonight, Hell Yes Press is releasing the cassette anthology 21 Love Poems with a little shindig at Boneshaker Books. I'll be there in spirit, and they're playing a short video I made of the Abraham Lincoln poem on the cassette.

Thank You, Mr. Postman

I like my postman because he brought my this cassette poetry anthology:

And he brought me the new issue of Twin Cities Metro...

...and that's good, even though he bent it a little, because I have a poem in this issue!

And then he also brought me this, which I'm excited to read.

New Poem at METRO

Got a new poem up at Twin Cities METRO. The poem is titled "The Argument is as to Whether or Not These Pages End," and it's from the manuscript I'm finishing up at the moment.

InDigest and Kickstarter

Geocachers: Chris Koza and Rogue Valley

Check out the newest episode of Geocachers where Sam interviews Chris Koza and Rogue Valley.

A Man, A Penguin, A Plan, Panama

I interview Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov about his life in Ukraine and his novels, which are great. (You should read both Death and the Penguin and The Case of the General's Thumb...which we can get because Melville House is bringing his work to America.) I did the interview for John & Molly Knefel's Radio Dispatch podcast. You can get the episode here.

Things googled, which may have accidentally led you here

According to Google Analytics, some of you who are reading this blog may have searched any of the following terms:
fonz jump the shark
abe lincoln awesome
pregnant guy with gun taint
jeremy messersmith brand glasses
godzilla guitar

Those are real things people searched, and somehow wound up at this blog. Thank you for your awesome searching anonymous people.

Happy Presidents Day

I do this sometimes

I forget to post when new poems are up. I just added some poems to the list on the right though. I thought I'd add some stuff from a couple of series I've been working on over the last year. Ok. If you click a link, thanks.

Draw Me a Map of the World

I'm trying to get a maps project off the ground and I need a little help. I'm hoping that you'll take five minutes and draw me a map. The hope of this project is to create a sort of personal geography. I hope the juxtaposition of these maps will tell a story about how we live in the world and create a collective biography about how we experience the world.

If you do this your name will never appear with the map, and the goal is definitely not to make fun of anyone's lack of geographical knowledge.

Here's what I'm hoping you can do:

1. DRAW and LABEL a map of the world without any aides, visual or otherwise. The last part is important. Please, no prior research or studying, and no looking at a map, list of countries, or anything that could help make your map more complete. Just use what you already know. This is the key to this project. Maximum of two drafts. Let it be messy if it's messy; get creative if you want to get creative. If your process shows through, all the better.

2. On a SEPARATE piece of paper write your initials, a list of cities you have lived in (even if it was just for a few months), and a list of countries you've visited.

3. You can mail your map to me at this address, c/o Dustin Nelson. (Sorry for the run around, thought maybe it's weird to just throw my address on the blog for the spam-bot-o-tronics.) I will gladly reimburse postage, as I want to have the original copy of your map and not a copy or an e-mailed image.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me at dlukenelson [at] gmail [dot] com.

I hope you'll participate, and if you have friends who'd like to participate please pass this along. I'm hoping to get people from all over the world involved, and to see a wide spectrum of demographics (though I won't know who are, as I'm throwing away any identifying information).

Geocachers: Langhorne Slim

We've just posted the final episode of the first series of Geocachers. This one is an interview with Langhorne Slim and the Law. Take a look below.

Abraham Lincoln

I've got another "Abraham Lincoln" poem up, this one was just published thanks to Ezekiel Black and Pismire. The text of the poem is up on the site, and it features audio of me reading the poem over an answering machine.

Oh, and if you're a big fan of poetry aurally then you should check out Christopher Salerno on the InDigest Poem of the Day Podcast today.

Awesome day...

Yes! At the Drive-In AND The Refused are getting back together? Amazing. The Shape of Punk to Come and Relationship of Command might be the first two records I ever completely wore out.

PEN Discussion with Lev Grossman

Group Activity Poems

I've got some new Group Activity Poems in Scud Magazine.

The Soundtrack Series

I was on The Soundtrack Series podcast a couple of weeks back. Their podcast is great. I recommend subscribing. Or, if you live in New York, you should go soon. It's hosted by Dana Rossi, who is a contributor to InDigest, and Sam Osterhout has been on the podcast as well. In my story, I talk about Liars' "Plaster Casts of Everything," which is a bad ass song.

Bruce MacHart

We posted a new episode of the InDefinite Podcast today. This one features novelist Bruce MacHart reading a short story about poker, kind of.

We also launched a poem of the day podcast at InDigest this week. I think it's worth checking out. I think that because I picked the poets / poems, and think I have superior taste in poetry. You may not agree. That's ok. We can still be friends.

I'm Reading Tonight

I'll be reading tonight at Bar 82 for the Next Chapter Reading Series. I'll be doing a piece about the life and times of Godzilla. I am excited. It will be fun. I'll buy you a beer if you come. Really.

Helen Phillips

Helen Phillips read from And Yet They Were Happy at a recent InDigest reading. It was great. We even read an excerpt from this book at our wedding.

The Blackest

How Much InDigest? So Much InDigest.

InDigest Issue #22 is out now! To quote Brad, Spoiler Alert: it's really good.

InDefinite Podcast w/ B.J. Hollars and "Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America"

Listen to it here.

More Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Also, I guess Bill O'Reilly's new book on Abraham Lincoln is full of lies.

Unemployment Among Nation's Cats At All Time Low

Poof. It's gone.

Some Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Awesome

Some Thoughts on Perfume

More Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Geocachers: Langhorne Slim & the Law

Langhorne Slim and the Law hung out at Bait & Tackle in Red Hook with us before we went out into the neighborhood to do a little geocaching. The bar, with it's taxidermy animals lining the room, somehow matched the song they played perfectly.

And as a side note, Bait & Tackle, not only a great place to have a band give you a private concert, but the bartenders here geocache as well. Geocachers definitely welcome there.

Part 2 of Geocachers with Smoke Fairies

Here's our second part of the Geocachers episode with Smoke Fairies.

The final episode of Radio Happy Hour

It only took us a few months, but we finally got up the podcast of the very last episode of Radio Happy Hour. We had a ton of our best friends forever like John & Molly Knefel, Arthur Phillips, Matt Pond, Franz Nicolay, Mike Doughty, Twin Sister, Max Silvestri, Gabe Liedman, Jessi Klein, Murray Hill, Dave Hill, William Ocean, and some other folk. I even made a very short appearance along with Mass, the other producer on the show. You can get the full episode here.

Geocachers: Smoke Fairies

We posted a new episode of Geocachers yesterday. This one has Sam going to Park Slope, which is full of rabid....families....and cafes, maybe a feral stroller or two....anyway, he goes there with the British duo Smoke Fairies, and they meet a tree that reminds me of Falcor. You won't agree with that, but I'm not concerned. It reminds me of Falcor.

Abraham Lincoln

This is me reading another "Abraham Lincoln" poem at the KGB Bar (where I read with teh awesome MC Hyland, Krystal Languell, and Rob Ostrom). This was published over at I Thought I Was New Here, in a slightly different form, back in June.

Speaking of I Thought I Was New Here, Brad Liening has four poems that just went up over there, and they are all quite excellent.

Selective Shampoo

I've got a couple poems in the new issue of Shampoo. They have little to do with shampoo or cleaning oneself's stink. However, my cat does smell at the moment. So, there's that.

This issue has some other good stuff worth reading too. There are poems from Ron Silliman, Paul Siegell, and a ton of other poets.

Ashleigh is the Feature Poet at Anti-Poetry

New InDefinite Podcast Episode w/ William Torgerson

We've got a new episode of the InDefinite Podcast up today with novelist William Torgerson. Take a listen here.

Part two of Total Babes on Geocachers

Occupy Madrid

Dan Rather on the perils of ownership in the new corporate media landscape.

awesome.

Geocachers: Total Babes

We've got a new episode of Geocachers up now with Sam geocaching in Central Park with Total Babes (feat. members of Cloud Nothings).

Some Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Group Activity Poems

I've just recently had a bunch of my Group Activity series of poems published in a few places. "15." is up at Right Hand Pointing, interrupture just published "19." and "22.", and the Minnetonka Review (who sadly just announced their final issue) just posted the poems from the issue I was in a little while back, which includes "14.", "10.0", and "5.".

I've been calling this series of poems Group Activity Poems, but they're part of a MS-in-progress I'm calling Activity, Group. But I only mention that because I found a great quote from Nabokov about group activities.

By nature I am no dramatist; I am not even a hack scenarist; but if I had given as much of myself to the stage or the screen as I have to the kind of writing which serves a triumphant life sentence between the covers of a book, I would have advocated and applied a system of total tyranny, directing the play or picture myself, choosing settings and costumes, terrorizing the actors, pervading the entire show with the will and art of one individual--for there is nothing in the world that I loathe more than group activity, that communal bath where the hairy and slippery mix in a multiplication of mediocrity.

InDefinite Podcast

We've got a new episode of the InDefinite Podcast up today. This one features poet Nick Demske.

Get Some Poemage

I've got a new poem up at Right Hand Pointing. It's called "#15," and it's another poem in the Group Activity series.

Geocachers Episode #4 w/ Thousands

Episode #3 of Geocachers w/ Nick Diamonds

Frequent InDigest Contributer Franz Nicolay Kickstarting New Album

Part two of the Ólöf Arnalds Episode

Part two of the Ólöf Arnalds episode of Geocachers.

Ólöf Arnalds does Geocachers

Here's the next episode of Geocachers. This one is with Ólöf Arnalds in Prospect Park Brooklyn.

Paul Dempsey on Geocachers: Part 2

Here's part two of the Paul Dempsey episode of Geocachers. Here he plays "Out of the Airlock" in Sty Co Park.

Our new show Geocachers: Episode #1

Here's the first video from Geocachers, a new online show I'm producing with Sam Osterhout from Radio Happy Hour. It's an interview series and a travel show that takes guest stars geocaching around New York City. The first episode is with Australian rock star Paul Dempsey.

Dear Indie Rock...

Dear Indie Rock,

Please stop making pointless music videos with people running through the woods. They don't make sense, and it doesn't give me tense sensation to watch someone run from an unknown assailant.

Also, please stop making music videos full of pagan imagery. It doesn't make sense. You don't understand the origin*, and it has nothing to do with the song. Also, I don't find it creepy. (This applies to witches, owls, full moons, people with fangs^, glowing orbs, or ancient symbols of Native American, Egyptian, Greek, or Buddhist traditions.)

Thanks,
Dustin

P.S. Enclosed are some examples of videos in the woods. I cut the pagan imagery videos, because it's getting out of hand. But you get the idea, right?

* Probably.
^ Yeah, I know it makes you look like a vampire.

WOODS:

Get More: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Music, More Music Videos

The Way Scientists Are Regarded

"I dress better than him...I'm not quite so keen on beer as he is."

"I should welcome the chance someday, saying some harsh things about scientists and the way scientists are regarded."

NOPE

On Post-Structuralism

ART THOUGHTZ: Post-Structuralism from Hennessy Youngman on Vimeo.

Saw this after reading a poem by Krystal Languell in the new issue of Diagram.

Other Dustin Nelsons

Evie Romero's Testimonial from Dustin Nelson, DDS on Vimeo.

Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

Photos from Radio Happy Hour

Time Out New York just posted a photo gallery featuring photos from the final episode of Radio Happy Hour.

Sidi Touré with Jambala Maïga - "Taray Kongo" from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Sidi Touré with Douma Maïga from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Gang Violence Is Getting Out of Hand

Woo.

Only a few days until our final episode of Radio Happy Hour. Pretty happy that a bunch of cool places are picking up on the show and think it was a worthwhile thing we were doing. Hope you can be at the show.

Time Out New York made us a pick of the week.
The Rumpus made us a pick of the week. (The Rumpus also has this Sunday's InDigest 1207 Reading as an event of the week.)
Unveiled Arts made us a pick of the week, and had some really nice things to say about the show.

AND The New Yorker talks about the show in the Above and Beyond section of this week's issue. (see below)
Yes! Finally cool enough for the New Yorker. I'll never go to the bathroom the same again.

Person of the Day: Sean Bean

When he invited me over
I thought I was going to be
surprised by how normal
he was. You know? Like
How Steve Buscemi is super
weird, but probably not really.
but he answered the door in nothing
but a bear skin and great
sword. I said, I brought
My swimming trunks.
His hair was long, uneven,
and super greasy, and I thought,
you know, it’s fine, I’ve been there,
but he’s rich. Inside the walls
were totally bare and stone, and every
window was situated to let dual columns
of light strike the room gothically,
dramatically, with a cross in the middle,
falling on something ironic, or not ironic,
at exactly noon. You’ve arrived
at the humble, I pray, home of the artisté
Sean Bean, he said swooshing his cloak
to the left with a slight bow. Dude, what the hell?
I threw my tote bad on throne-like chair
near the door in case I don’t stay over.
the chair has eagle claws at the end
of the arm rests. Eagle claws. You never
act like this in public. Why are you
freaking out the first time you invite
me over? Ease into a bit! He pointed
the great sword toward me. T’is
because I only act in public.
I could see the pool and the teal
diving board through the patio
windows. It was so hot out today,
and he didn’t have A/C. The living
room, where we stood staring at each other,
radiated heat from the stone walls
to the point where you couldn’t touch them.
What say you?! I grabbed my bag.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
He sheathed his sword, Don’t
go. We haven’t even gone swimming yet.

Jim Balance's Testimonial from Dustin Nelson, DDS on Vimeo.

Mark Brown's Testimonial from Dustin Nelson, DDS on Vimeo.

InDigest Issue #21 on Magazine Racks Nowhere

We slaved long and hard over this one. InDigest issue #21 is on the streets. Though don't look in stores. It's not there. It's literally in the streets. And on digital devices like the one you're looking at right now.

In the new issue you'll find poems from folks like Greg Lawless, Wendy Xu, Paul Siegell, Monica McClure, Charlotte Seley, and others....then there's new fiction from Amy Bergen, Michelle Cheever, and Eli Hager....a gallery from Maura Kelly Doyle, with an interview by Kate Casanova....plus a whole new series in the music section called The Lyric Sheet which presents lyrics to unreleased songs with no music....the first contributors to The Lyric Sheet are Zach Condon of Beirut and Richard Buckner....

Thanks for reading. Hope you like the new issue.

Try

There's a brief glimpse of Ashleigh dancing about in there. I like this song.

You should listen to The Lisps.

First Annual New York Poetry Festival / Stain of Poetry

I'm reading Saturday around 2pm on Governor's Island for the First Annual New York Poetry Festival. There are so many readers, and it's going to be good times. I'm reading for Stain of Poetry at the fest along with Niina Pollari and Jillian Brall. Find me. I think I'm going to scat. Maybe not. But maybe not not.

Get so much information here.

Coldfront.

I wrote something about music for Coldfront.

Thoughts on Abraham Lincoln

I'm not positive this makes sense.

You Don't Know Me

For instance, you probably didn't know that my dad was a Bollywood actor before we moved to Wisconsin. That's where I get my sick dance moves from.

yes.

Thanks Brad. This is the best thing about today.

Persons of the Day: Four Tops

uh uh
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uhuhuh
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uhuh uh
uhuhuh
uhuhuh
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uh uh
uhuhuhuh
uhuh
uh
uhuhuh
uhuhuh
uhuh
uh uh
uhuhuh
uhuhuh
uhuhuh
uh
uhuhuhuhuh
uh
uh uh uh
uhuhuh

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.

Person of the Day: Elizabeth Clare Prophet

(1) Dedication to the tackling of the beast and the dragon - the momentum of rock-n-roll
(2) Call for Protection
(4) Preamble - Great Divine Rectors call


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.

Person of the Day: Juliana Barwick and Ikue Mori

A bob
and wheel for Ikue and
Juliana, though the
nouns are weird and I've lost
count and this whole thing is fucked

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.

Person of the Day: Jacob Nelson

[there was a poem here once]

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.

Awesome Headline

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.