Abraham, Abraham

As of this past week, I've got a short chapbook titled Abraham Lincoln out from Mondo Bummer Books. If you bought this (it's only $2), thanks, you're awesome.

Frog & Toad in Poems

Recommendation: Get Ashleigh Lambert's new chapbook Ambivalent Amphibians.

You won't regret it.

3:AM

I've got a few new poems based on Lincoln speeches over at 3:AM

Avi Avital plays some Bach in a bar

We've got a new episode of Geocachers this week with mandolinist Avi Avital playing a Bach Cello Suite on mandola.



I love this guy.

Geocaching with Mandolinist Avi Avital

This week's episode of Geocachers features Grammy-winning mandolinist Avi Avital. Avi was awesome. He played some Bach for us in Red Hook Bait & Tackle. We'll post that video next week.

Geocachers w/ Dave Hill and John & Molly Knefel

We got to do an episode of Geocachers with some of the folks I like the most in New York. Dave Hill, who made a couple appearances on Radio Happy Hour, took Sam to Hamlet's Vintage (next to LPR and has some really cool stuff) and dressed him like a madman. Then we went geocaching with John and Molly Knefel in Washington Square Park. If you don't listen to their show The Radio Dispatch you should. They do it live once a month at The Gallery at LPR too. Ok. That's all.

Geocachers!

Set the Dial to Implode

This was the best photo I could find, without trying very hard, of the world exploding. If you Google "world explodes" all of the images are much more serious than you might expect. In retrospect, of course they are, but I expected Google to have the same point of view I do about the world exploding: what can you do?

Google is very serious about the world exploding.

All that's for nothing because all I really wanted to say is I have two poems up in the new issue of Out of Nothing, one of which is called "Turn the Dial to Implode and Enter the World." I wanted to have a picture of the world exploding because of that poem, but that doesn't really make much sense. If the world explodes then it did the opposite of what would happen if you set the dial to implode. Unless the machine that the dial was attached to was broken and did the opposite of what it was told. And then again I think implode and explode, as it pertains to the world, may only be opposite grammatically or theoretically. In both cases I think the world ends, so maybe the opposite of exploding is "everything stay put." Also, I don't think you can enter the world once it explodes. I'm not even sure you can "enter the world" at all, since you're already in it. Unless you're a spaceman. Then you could. Because you would have exited the world. You have to exit the world before you can enter it, if you're born in it.

Just one man's opinion.

Anyhow, new issue of Out of Nothing is up, and it's very beautifully designed.

Get Behind the Wheel Annie

I've got a new poem over at Pismire Poetry (where I read the poem into an answering machine). It's from a series of poems about the movie Speed that I wrote on a plane, all while watching Speed. It's also about pacing and speed of life, but it's mostly about Speed the movie and this android guy in the picture.

Poem Videos / Video Poems

I've got a couple of video poems or poem videos or pomes or a film video up at SCUD.

SCUD is menacing and terrifying and damn good.

Sophie Madeleine on Geocachers

Geocachers, Geocachers, Geocachers!

It's like Beetlejuice, if you say it three times it becomes real. Or in the case of the movie, it becomes not miniature? I remember Beetlejuice differently than that video tells me is true.

Anyhow, there are two new Geocachers videos up. One is a performance from School of Seven Bells and one is a little geocaching in the East Village with Meghan McCain. Sam and McCain make sweet buns with Jane from Jane's Sweet Buns too. [Insert joke between the buns here.]

Rumors about a movie trailer for an underground classic being remade

I have another poem up in Evergreen Review about movies and rumors and movies and rumors.

Abraham Lincoln

I've got another Abraham Lincoln poem up this week. This one in PROØF Magazine, a magazine from the Prove Gallery in Duluth, MN.

Geocaching with School of Seven Bells

It's been a little while, but we have a new episode of Geocachers up now with Sam and School of Seven Bells going geocaching in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Making It In The Movies

A short deal that I put together using a Lomokino Super 35mm and a poem of mine for the InDigest event the Last Reading on Earth, Ever: a Marathon of Apocalyptic Writing.

"Making It In the Movies" from Dustin Luke Nelson on Vimeo.

Age of Quarrel

I've got a new poem up at the Evergreen Review that shares a title with the Cro-Mags tune "Age of Quarrel."

Court Dogs

I've got a longer poem up over at Tarpaulin Sky called "Court Dogs" that uses Pussy Riot's punk prayer to move between a few different structures.

I love Tarpaulin Sky. They're great.

The Last Reading on Earth, Ever

How many whiskeys would a whiskeychuck whiskey if a whiskeychuck could chuck whiskey? Find out Friday!

New Issue of InDigest Up Now! It's Our Five-Year Anniversary!

Yes, it's been five years since the very first issue of InDigest hit internet shelves worldwide. It seems both longer and shorter than that (that's what she said), and we're endlessly appreciative of everyone who has been reading us, supporting us, listening to podcasts, buying books, coming to readings, and giving us high fives along the way. You're wonderful. Thanks for supporting us.

Two points of interest:
1. We have a new issue.
2. We have a 5-Year Anniversary Celebration happening in New York this Friday.

1. Issue #25 is out now. It includes all the beautiful people listed above. Of particular note: Lech Harris was in issue #1 of InDigest, and is making an appearance in an issue #25, five years later. That's pretty great. There's a nice circularity to that. He's also reading at our anniversary event (more below). We also have an essay by Harry Houdini in this issue. No, it's not a joke. A real, really hilarious, issue by the real Harry Houdini. For real. This issue is also our first issue with our new gallery editor Zan Emerson. We're glad to have her with us. She's got a couple of interviews with some very unique artists in this issue, including the artist behind the painting above of a president (bonus points if you know who that is) with a breast on his head. I'll stop before I write a sentence on every contributor and why they are great, and why we are happy to have them in this issue. They're all great. That's why we're publishing them. We hope you like them as much as we do.

2. On Friday (December 14th) we're having a reading in celebration of our five-year anniversary. There will be readers from all over our fair nation coming to partake in a scotch and some good times. If you come you will see readings from Andrew Durbin, Jennifer H. Fortin, Lech Harris, Anne Cecelia Holmes, Steven Karl, Nate Pritts, Kathleen Rooney, and Wendy Xu. Awesome, right? High five. See you there.

(RSVP on Facebook.) The reading is at 7pm at the Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge.

Again, thanks to everyone who has read the magazine, who has sent us work, who has contributed to the blog, or who has edited with us over the years. I'd (Dustin here, hi) like to offer a special thanks to the folks who have made this possible over the last five years through a ton of time, effort, and love on their part: David Doody, Ashleigh Lambert, Brad Liening, Chris Koza, Kate Casanova, Catherine Orchard, Zan Emerson, Joe Owens, Jess Grover, and Reina Podell. Those are the folks that have made all of this possible. Thanks.

Pauly Shore is Dead

...should have been a great movie. But it wasn't. But I wish it was. It was a good idea.

There's a new poem, titled "Pauly Shore," up at The Bakery. I don't really remember now, but I believe at different points the working title of this poem was both "Pauly Shore is Dead" and "Keynote Speaker: Pauly Shore."

There's an audio version in there too, and the background music to that is the opening music from Encino Man after I played with the audio for a while. Then I had to watch about ten minutes of Encino Man. It's no Tommy Boy. Did you know that Rudy aka Samwise Gamgee is in Encino Man? It's true. I saw him.

Oh, and audio is also up here.

it happens when you remark on the shape of the only cloud in the sky

That's me, maybe, in the picture, and the jellyfish is Jellyfish, and we're just swimming along, taking pictures hanging out...by which I mean I've got a poem in the new issue of Jellyfish, which was just launched and has lots of good poems in it that are not mine.

We are still doing the Live at LPR video series. This week we've got a video about Dana Rossi's The Soundtrack Series.

I like wearing masks

Steve Irwin

I have a poem titled "Steve Irwin." This poem, titled "Steve Irwin," is available as a Greying Ghost Press pamphlet. They have them up on their site right now. If you order one of their books you'll get a few pamphlets for free. Maybe it'll be "Steve Irwin." That's "Steve Irwin" below.

Books worth considering: Treesisters by Joseph Riippi, Sky Poems by Nate Pritts, or Polaroid Parade by Paige Taggert. I'm sure they're all good too. I can't confirm that with certainty, but the folks at Greying Ghost have good taste. I can tell from all of the really good things they've already put out.

Ok.

That's all.

Interview with the 3MB Collective

I interviewed Macaulay Culkin, Toby Goodshank, and Adam Green (the 3MB Collective) for their upcoming Leisure Inferno gallery opening at The Gallery at LPR. Fun times.

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.