Are You Registered?

This here is a friendly reminder from your buds at InDigest: are you registered to vote?

If not you should go here to register. I know that this is an Obama endorsed site, but you can register here if you are voting for McCain, or writing in Ron Paul, if you want to vote for Bart Simpson, or vote Green or Libertarian. It doesn't really matter to us who you want to vote for (though InDigest is certainly endorsing Obama) it's just important that you get registered and that you vote.

It's a cliche, but I'm going to go there, it is important no matter who you vote for. This is said every election in an effort to galvanize American citizens into participating in the democratic process, but, no joke, this is one of the most important elections in decades. Obviously, it's been something of a historic race, and you should be a part of it. For the first time in decades there is no incumbent (or VP) running for president, the country is in a state of crisis, we're in the midst of a protracted war in two countries, our stock market and economy are in one of the worst crashes in decades, among a host of other issues that extremely important and this won't be dealt with by the Bush administration, it's up to whomever we elect (that's not supposed to be a jab at their lack of ability to get anything done, but merely a fact of their limited time left in office).

So, before I ramble on too long, please register to vote. Leave comments on your funny registration story, encourage your friends and family to vote and get involved. It's easy to say that your vote doesn't make a huge impact, but how many anecdotes are there about congressional elections being determined by 500 or less votes? Lots. And that is where the change comes from, having your candidates in control of state or national congress, every election makes a difference and every vote counts for something. Saying that your vote doesn't make a difference is hypocritical, how can we expect our voices to be heard at a national level when most of America isn't using the little say they do have? I'll get off the pedestal now and hope that you are going to click that link and register if you haven't already.

Much love from InDigest.

Poetry Politique

Wave books has just kicked off a brand new site that will post on politics and poetry everyday until the election. PoetryPolitic.com is a pretty fantastic site doing some interesting stuff. Go check out a site that sort of doesn't use as many of those, you know, vagueries, like some literary blogs do, sometimes.

Issue 7 is now up

Issue 7 of InDigest is now up. Thanks for your patience on this one, folks. As some of you may know, Dustin has recently moved to New York, so it's been a new adventure getting this issue together with half a country between us. Among other things this move prompted us to do our first Letter From the Editors.

What else you'll find in this issue:

Crows and the poltical machines of the world are satirized and recontextualized in a series of paintings by Pamela Kirton. HERE>>>

Flash Fiction from Brandon-Scott Gorrell.

The other men in black suits and sunglasses began running around in small circles and shooting at Alex with Uzis. Alex shot them and killed them. Alex said something to Keith about how good he was with the sniper rifle.

The hardest working woman in music, Holly Munoz, sits down with Ellen Frazel to talk about running Draw Fire Records, plotting cross-country bio-diesel tours, and recording a new album with her band Aviette.

Reverend Billy talks to Dustin about consumerism run amok in the U.S. Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir have been singing and screaming the perils of over-spending, global warming, and frivolous globalization for over a decade.

On the heels of the Republican National Convention, I offer my thoughts about rappers Atmosphere, Mos Def, and The Pharcyde not speaking up enough at a concert that took place right next to where the Republicans were congregating. There are fewer than two months until we vote for the next President (and VP) and all opportunities have to be taken advantage of.

Hope you enjoy. Thanks for continuing to support this thing, InDigest.

David Luke Doody & Dustin Luke Nelson

David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

David Foster Wallace, author of the novel Infinite Jest and fantastic collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, passed away Friday, in an apparent suicide. From the NYT:

David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said.

Mr. Wallace, 46, best known for his sprawling 1,079-page novel “Infinite Jest,” was discovered by his wife, Karen Green, who returned home to find that he had hanged himself, a spokesman for the Claremont, Calif., police said Saturday evening.

It's sad every time a literary figure of this stature passes away. The world of letters is better for having him in it.

Call for Submissions

InDigest, a literary magazine that seeks to create a dialogue about and between the arts, is interested in submissions focused on Hurricane Katrina. Why Katrina? Why now? We at InDigest were extremely troubled by the politicizing of events surrounding Hurricane Gustav—the photo ops, the self-serving talk of doing good for others, et al.—while people affected by Katrina are still living in FEMA trailers three years after that hurricane hit. We feel that, unlike our other national tragedy—9/11—Katrina has been dismissed, forgotten. We have our own opinions about why, but we seek artists’ and writers’ response to this national scar. It is our small way of trying to not be a part of the ignoring.

Please refer to indigestmag.com/submit.htm for guidelines to submit poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and music.

New Literary Art Form Discovered! - Forgotten in Abandoned Mine Shaft With Both Bigfoot and the Yeti

Ron Rosenbaum, a scribbler over at Slate has penned an article on, what he assumes, is a new wave of poetic criticism. (The article is actually quite good) Among the critics he quotes are WNBA enthusiast and poet Stephen Burt and previously published at InDigest poet Rebecca Porte. If you haven't read any of Rebecca's poetry I recommend you start at InDigest and then hunt some more down. That's all, Spaceman out.

Arts & Politics

As we gear up for the release of Issue 8 I just thought I'd take a bit of my down time to point something out. If you aren't familiar with Guernica (or maybe it's InDigest that is the missing link for you) you should check it out. InDigest editor David Doody runs the BLOG>>> over there, and over the last few weeks I have been feverishly reading it. It's largely focused on the politics side of the magazines content (arts and politics), and there have been some fantastic essays over there from the guest bloggers. Some great stuff from Frederick Lane (who just ran an excerpt in InDigest's last issue) and Norman Solomon (and David himself) covering the election and the nomination of Sarah Palin. Some fantastic content lately, one of my current favorite blogs.

Interview with Alex Lemon

Read it, it's short.

Who is Sarah Palin?

David has a few good posts on the Sarah Palin fervor over at his blog This Is How I Love You. Go read it.

"Police State" violence in St. Paul?

Our friends over at the The TC Daily Planet are doing a great job covering the recent raid on protesters residing in St. Paul for the upcoming Republican National Convention. In a very mysterious, and slightly enraging, series of events it seems that "police" of some form or another conducted raids on a meeting grounds for many of the protesters converging on the city. It appears that the warrants were shady at best, and that no one was arrested. They were just temporarily detained and photographer for some unknown purpose. The TC Daily Planet began reporting on the event immediately.

Activists, reporters, and attorneys — more than a hundred people in all — milled about on the sidewalk opposite the RNCWelcoming Committee “Convergence Space” at midnight, after police, with guns drawn, used a battering ram to knock down a second floor door and seize the building. St. Paul police blocking the street outside the building could not say what the Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies inside were looking for. “Police state” said activists, who had been ordered to the floor and handcuffed. “This isn’t the way we do things in St. Paul,” said City Council member Dave Thune.

Continue reading at the Twin Cities Daily Planet.