The Collectors

  • Caketrain (May 2009)
  • 2008 Caketrain Fiction Chapbook Contest Runner-Up, judged by Brian Evenson
  • Sold out!
How the Broken Lead the Blind

How They Were Found
Subscribe
Currently Reading...
  • Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
    Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
    by Cormac McCarthy
Anthologies
Awards and Recognitions
  • 2009 Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions Selection, for "This Showroom Filled With Fabulous Prizes"
  • 2009 Dzanc Best of the Web Notable Story, for "The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines"
  • 2008 Caketrain Fiction Chapbook Contest Runner-Up, for The Collectors
  • 2008 Keyhole Fiction Chapbook Contest Finalist, for The Collectors
  • 2008 Million Writers Award Winner, for "Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken"
  • 2008 Dzanc Best of the Web Notable Story, for "Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken"
  • 2008 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines"
  • 2008 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "Ken Sent Me: Lost in the Land of the Lounge Lizards"
  • 2007 Storyglossia Fiction Prize Finalist, for "Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken"
  • 2007 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "A Certain Number of Bedrooms, a Certain Number of Baths"
  • 2006 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "The Present"
  • 2006 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "White Lines and Headlights"
  • 2006 Pushcart Prize Nomination for "Rosemary Blooming"
Bio

Matt Bell is the author of two chapbooks, The Collectors and How the Broken Lead the Blind, and a forthcoming fiction collection, How They Were Found, which will be published by Keyhole in the fall of 2010. His fiction has appeared or is upcoming in magazines such as Conjunctions, Meridian, Gulf Coast, Caketrain, Hayden's Ferry Review, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Monkeybicycle, and Keyhole.

He is also the editor of The Collagist and a member of the Dzanc Writer in Residence Program.

He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and can be reached via e-mail at mdbell79@gmail.com.

The Collagist

A new literary magazine coming from Dzanc Books in August 2009, edited by Matt Bell with Poetry Editor Matthew Olzmann. Now open for submissions at www.thecollagist.com.

Upcoming
Published
« 100,000! | Main | Elizabeth Ellen's "Fistful" »
Wednesday
14May

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' "More News From Nowhere"

I've been enjoying Nick Cave's "More News From Nowhere" a lot since the release of Dig, Lazurus, Dig!   It's quickly become one of my favorite tracks on the album, which I'm finding myself frequently listening to as I write.  The band just released the video for the song, and it's as long and weird as the song itself is.  Clocking in at just over eight minutes, the song has a repetition to it that alternates between sex and violence and excitement and boredom, much like expressions on the faces of the patrons of the surreal strip club in the video.  It's a hard song to talk about but a good one to listen to.  Here's the lyrics to an Odyssey-inspired verse from the middle of the song, followed by the video itself:

I turn another corner
I go down a corridor
And I see this guy
He must be about one hundred foot tall
And he only has one eye
He asks me for my autograph
I write nobody and then
I wrap myself up in my woolly coat
And I blind him with my pen
'Cause someone must have stuck something in my drink
Everything's getting strange lookin'
Half the people have turned into squealing pigs
The other half are cooking
Well let me out of here I cried
And I went pushing past
And I saw Miss Polly singing with some girls
I cried struck me to the mast  

Also, Nick Cave's a terrible dancer. Or, possibly, a brilliant one. Even after eight minutes of his moves, I'm not sure which it is.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>