Radio Happy Hour This Weekend, Podcast on iTunes now

Hey all - you can now download the new Radio Happy Hour podcast over at iTunes. This is a really funny old time radio show (which is done live) and has lots of guests such as Norah Jones. Awesome. The show features former InDigest contributor Sam Osterhout and Geoff Herbach, who read from Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg at the last installment of InDigest 1207.

If you happen to be in New York this week come down to LPR and see the second installment of Radio Happy Hour which will be featuring Michael Showalter. You can get your tickets here.

Thanks for Coming, So Nice to Meet You

Thanks to everyone who came down to (Le) Poisson Rouge on Wednesday for our July 1207 reading. It was a great time, and we liked hanging out with you.

In case you really hate fun, and didn't come, but now wish you did here's what you missed:

Paul Gregory Himmelein read from a novel in progress that only utilizes language found in two different 18th century dictionaries. He read from, as his influential text, one of these dictionaries titled The Vulgar Tongue.

Geoff Herbach read from his hysterical and tragic novel The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg.He also read a couple of poems by John Berryman which made me immediately go home and start reading The Dream Songsagain.

If you missed all the fun join us on August 5th for 1207 w/ John Wray, Marlon James, and Ronaldo V. Wilson.

MN Year in Review at mnartists.org

The folks over at mnartists.org have collected quite a comprehensive list of artistic endeavors taken on and/or accomplished by artists, musicians, and writers from Minnesota in 2008. And they were nice enough to include a couple of my scribbles on the matter (including a shameless plug for InDigest). First is my review of my good friend Chris Koza's latest disc, which I was lucky enough to hear in its making in a small apartment in Brooklyn a couple of summers ago:

Chris Koza's Dark, Delirious Morning: This album holds some highlights in the impressive canon of Koza albums. "Straight to Video" shows a talented artist refusing to be boxed into what we might expect. This album makes me excited to see what Koza will do next, while leaving me something to work through while I'm waiting.

And then some great books by Dave Schwartz and Geoff Herbach...and a nice little magazine:

Dave Schwartz's Superpowers is an amazing novel by a local author in 2008 that is all the more so because, in less careful hands, the book could have been awful. His handling of the events of 9/11 is heartbreaking and understated and beautiful. Also released last year was Geoff Herbach's The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg (read a great review from Ashleigh Lambert at InDigest here), an unapologetically uplifting book and, as always with Herbach, hilarious. And, lastly, my shameless plug for InDigest Magazine. Although we technically launched in 2007, InDigest came into its own in 2008. From the beginning we've offered a unique home for Minnesota writers and artists to be showcased on a national and international stage, and in our anniversary issue we published many of our favorite Minnesota writers and artists again.

Check out all the lists here>>>

Lastly, if you are reading this today and you are in New York and you don't come to Chris Koza's show at Piano's tonight (see post below), then we are no longer friends.

New Issue!!

Things have been a little crazy in the InDigest offices and we're feeling a little scattered. With the Anniversary Reading in St. Paul, and the kick off of InDigest 1207 But it's nice when you find a few pieces and start getting your shit back together. So, in an effort to get all caught up I thought I would post this, since we have completely forgotten.

We have a new issue!

Here is what is happening in the InDigest One Year Anniversary Issue:

Here is the scoop on the issue:


InPoetics:
New poetry from Stephen Burt, Ada Limon, Brad Liening, Meggie Elder, Jess Grover, and Erica Wright

InNarratives:
"The Town Secrets," an excerpt from a novel-in-progress, Kings of the Wild Frontier by Meakin Armstrong.

"Interior Illusions," an excerpt from a novella in progress of the same title by Lech Harris.

"Hunting Bambi," a new short story from J. Albin Larson.

InErratica:
In Blunt Force Trauma, a new column about underrepresented books and authors, columnist Joe Finck tackles the legacy of Jim Thompson, the classic pulp novelist.

In Bedside Stacks, Ashleigh A. Lambert takes on The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg by Geoff Herbach and Vacation by Deb Olin Unferth.

InMusic:
InDigest editor Dustin Luke Nelson interviews composer Ted Hearne, and John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

InGallery:
Paintings from Kara Hendershot.

Thanks, once again and always, for reading. We can't overstate how pleased we are to have the opportunity to publish new, interesting, and compelling work for just over a year now. And a special thanks to all who have lent a hand to make this past year possible. First, Dustin and I would like to thank Jesse Sawyer and Chris Koza, two of the founding editors of InDigest. This magazine would not exist without their presence in the beginning. And thanks to all who have given their time in some way or another over the year: Jeremy Smith, Reina Podell, Jay Peterson, Alex Lemon, Charles Greene, Ashleigh Lambert, Jess Grover, Ryan Thompson, Chris Thompson, Dan Wieken, and Neil Reiter - there are a probably a lot of people we are missing here, and we're sorry if we missed you. Suffice to say that David and Dustin are not InDigest by themselves, it takes a whole lot of people to keep this running. Thank you all. And thank you for reading.

David and Dustin
Editors, InDigest Magazine

Friends, oh, friends

Well, here we are, on the eve of the new look for InDigest, and I would like to share some cool things that people, who rate much higher than either David or I on the coolometer (above a 4), are up to.

Jess Grover has some poems in the new issue of Forklift, Ohio. I think you have to buy to see them, so buy it, Forklift is cool. (at least a 7.5).

As we have said previously, Alex Lemon has a new collection of poetry out called Hallelujah, Blackout. His been spotted all over the nation recently reading poems from said book. Maybe you will spot him. Maybe not. I don't know how to find out where he can been seen, but he can be seen. As can David on Alex's blog under the photos from the book release.

Chris Koza has a new disc coming out in June and is currently out on tour all over our fair nation (this is at least an 8, probably a 9). You can find tour dateson his myspace page. Go see him, tell him InDigest sent you.

Sam Osterhout. is out traveling the nation and reading to the kids. he is traveling with our friend Geoff Herbach for the release of his new novel The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg. (yet another 8 or 9)

Also David has a new article up at Guernica, read Guernica, it's good.

There is much more to tell, but then that would spoil the fun of the news section on the stie, which will be updated shortly when the new issue goes up (aww, awesome, a 10).