Category: Other Writing

My funny, glamorous, gracious Aunt Lola died last night. She was enslaved in Auschwitz at 16. Z”L

I just learned that my Aunt Lola died last night–great aunt, technically, the wife of one of my father’s uncles. Although we’ve lived in the same town for twenty years, Lola and I, I had only seen her a small handful of times during those decades; there’s been bad blood in our family. Not with Lola and me, but elsewhere, and we wound up on different sides. That’s just how it goes.

I loved her very much when I was small. She was small–putting her at my level, as a tall dweeb in a clip-on tie and penny loafers–and glamorous and funny. She glowed. Her rich, thick Czech accent always reminded me of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, which is a not-super-insane association for a boy who watched a ton of TV in the ’80s. I remember one time, at a summer party at my Aunt Denise’s house, at the end of the party, she slipped off her shoes–fancy gold, sharp-toed, high heels. Her toes were twisted and calloused, almost as though her feet had been bound–which I guess they had, although by American women’s fashion, not some out-modded and backward cultural obsession with ideals of beauty (ha! Joke!)

I remember her gingerly stepping from foot to foot on the thick shag in her hose, “Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!” as though it was hot as coals–and she wasn’t play acting; her feet were aching from the shoes and the standing and the heat of the day. She looked up to see me sitting on the sofa across from her, looking on in dismay.

“Oh David,” she smiled, “Sometimes you need to suffer to be beautiful.”

I didn’t know then that, at 16, she been shipped to Auschwitz like a crate of shoes–a slow three-day train ride, because of the congestion on the tracks created by shipping so many other folks to camps, like cattle or shoes or some other commodity. There she’d been disgorged onto a ramp, and at the bottom stood Dr. Mengele. He was making a selection. Some were sent right, other left. Her folks went one way, she the other. She became my aunt, they became ash. She was stripped and shaved and tattooed and beaten, and sent walking to her new life.

She ended up in the barracks closest to the crematory ovens, and so her job was to sort the belongings of the dead–the clothes, the luggage–searching for jewelry and food and blankets and meds and anything of use. To sort it, to box it up for storage, or to be redistributed to widows and orphans.

There’s more, there’s lots more–heck, there’s a second run-in with Dr. Mengele. You can read and listen to her testimony here.

But I didn’t know any of that when I was small–I mean, I knew all of that, because such stories were not rare where I grew up, nor such survivors. But I did not know her story until I was much older–older than she was when she was enslaved–and I’m still learning bits and pieces, because I never heard it from her.

Which I don’t take personally; there was never a good time to share it with me, and there was no bad blood between us. When I last saw her, even though the folks around her were shooting me and my sisters daggers–gosh, even though one of my cousins later sought me out to hassle me about that chance encounter–Aunt Lola was still as charming and gracious as ever.

And I still loved her very much. Let her name be a blessing.

Her name is Lola Taubman; she sorted the laundry in Hell for a time as a teen, and then lived 72 years more, largely here, largely in good health.

It’s that Time of Year Again: *Happy Xmanukah!!!*

(NOTE: If you’re feeling deja vu, don’t sweat it; I post this every year, because I love you)

I’m a mixed Jew who’s lived in the American Midwest for his entire life. I think these songs, more than anything else I’ve ever written, are honest about that experience.

  • Another Dark Xmastime (FUN FACT: I wrote this during my first year as a fundamentally unemployable stay-at-home dad; my son believes it is an accepted part of the general Xmas Music Canon.)
  • Dreidel Bells (FUN FACT: The beat here is an original GameBoy running an early German Nanoloop cartridge. Both voices are obviously me, but the filters for the robot voice badly overburdened my iBook, causing significant lag–which is why Mr. Roboto struggles so badly to hit his marks.)
  • DreidelDreidelDreidel (FUN FACT: The beat here is a vintage analog Boss DR-55 once owned by POE, crammed through a heavy-metal distortion stompbox.)

Kevin Smith vs. Prince’s Vault (and BONUS: Prince covers “Creep”!!!)

There’s sort of a lot here in this anecdote, both about Prince and Smith as people, and also about fame, and how fame (and different intensities of fame) play out in different folk’s heads. But, finally, it’s about craft, and what good craftspeople do with the works that just don’t pan out.

But, most importantly, it’s a fun story and worth your time.

Continue reading “Kevin Smith vs. Prince’s Vault (and BONUS: Prince covers “Creep”!!!)”

Jews of America: Do a Solid for Syrian Refugees *UPDATED*

[UPDATE Dec 2, 2015: I heard back from the governor and, in a fit of pique, replied honestly; scroll to the bottom for details. ]

Hey All,

Gentiles, of course, are welcome to join in, but I’m especially talking to my Semitic brothers and sisters here, since this is very much a “because of what He did for me when I was a slave in Egypt” situation.

Many of our governors are being the proverbial “sack of dicks” about taking in Syrian refugees fleeing the violence of ISIS. It’s time for us to write letters—as Jews—urging them to reconsider.

Why us? To my mind, it’s especially important for Jews to voice our support of Syrian refugees because the exact same “national security” justifications (and concern trolling) being used to halt their entry were used to sharply curtail Jewish immigration in the 1930s and ’40s (example). Today, I think it is safe to say that basically everyone finds the idea of Jewish refugees operating as Nazi agents and saboteurs absolutely laughable, nonetheless this very “concern” kept tens of thousands of Jews locked up in Europe, and effectively ushered them to the gas (Anne Frank among them).

It’d be awful nice if we could limit ourselves to making tragic mistakes just once.

So, here’s a draft of the letter I just sent to my governor. Please feel free to borrow from it as you will, and share it as broadly as you like.

November 20, 2013
Governor Rick Snyder
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Dear Governor Snyder,

I’m writing as a Michigan Jew urging you to reconsider your position: Please welcome Syrian refugees to our state. I know that many of my co-religionists are sending you notes very similar to this one. We want to show our children that our state and nation can live up to the ideals taught in our schools, that this continues to be a nation defined by diversity, acceptance, and opportunity—one that arrises out of many to be unified as one. As Jews, we acutely feel for our Syrian brothers and sisters, fleeing circumstances as dire and world changing as those our own relatives fled so recently. As Jews and Americans, we want to set a better example than that of previous generations, whose fearful inaction lead to the deaths of the many thousand Jewish asylum seekers that our nation turned away.

The diversity of Michigan is exceptional, rich with agrarian traditions, vibrant and diverse Jewish and immigrant communities, a storied hotbed of African-American creativity and American industry. Michigan is home to America’s largest population of people of Middle Eastern descent—Muslim and Christian alike. Many were persecuted in their homelands, came here fleeing violence, and have formed the cornerstones of our state.

As Jews, we are especially aware of what it means to be a minority that is both persecuted and feared. Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents owe their lives to America’s open doors. Many of our families lost members who were not able to find sanctuary here when those doors slammed shut. When we see Syrian parents taking their children on dangerous journeys in unsafe conditions, sure that anything is better than what they are leaving behind, we see our own story—an emphatically American story.

This week, for a homework assignment, my nine-year-old son asked me about how and why our family came to the United States. It’s not an especially pleasant story: My Ukrainian grandfather was orphaned when his mother died of consumption and his father, a miller, was murdered during a pogrom. Relatives pinned a note to his jacket with a Detroit address, and sent him to be raised by his sister. But while I was telling him all this, it suddenly dawned on me: My son is the first member of my family not to experience anti-Semitism at first hand. I was six the first time that I was bullied by children and singled out by adults for being a Jew. By the time I was nine I knew about the Holocaust not just from textbooks, but from the stories of my aunt, my friends’ grandparents, my teachers at Sunday school, and from anonymous vandalism, my peers’ mocking jeers, and the vitriol of White Supremacists on TV and in public office.

We live in a truly remarkable time, and I’m often stunned by our progress. Now it’s time for us to progress further.

As humans, we have a moral duty to help the helpless. As Americans, we are honor bond to make good on the promises inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. As Jews, we are obliged to work to mend what’s broken.
Please reconsider your statements and positions. We urge you to be strong in bending the arc of Michigan’s history toward justice; keep our home ever a place of opportunity, growth, and acceptance.

All Best,
David Erik Nelson . . .

 

UPDATE 12-02-2015:

On the day after Thanksgiving I heard back from the governor’s office:

Continue reading “Jews of America: Do a Solid for Syrian Refugees *UPDATED*”

JUNKYARD JAM BAND IS HERE!!!


Gott in Himmel, it’s finally happened: Copies of Junkyard Jam Band are shipping and in stores! It’s 400 pages of awesome, covering 16 projects with 300+ pics, diagrams, schematics, and illustrations. Each project includes mods and expansion, plus there’s a dozen extra circuits, and appendices that will get the total newbie soldering and give the total neophyte a leg up with music theory. It took me almost four years to write the damn thing, and it was almost 30 months late.

There’s so much of my blood, sweat, and tears invested in this damn book that each copy of the book is technically as closely related to me as either of my children.

Folks have been asking me what the “best” way to buy the book is. Short answer: Any damn way you want! Long answer:

  • In terms of cash in my pocket: Buying the book from me at an event puts the most money in my piggy bank. In those situations I’m selling books that I personally purchased wholesale from the publisher, and I see ~10x as much money as I do when you buy from a store or Amazon or the publisher. BONUS: You can get your copy personalized! DOWNSIDE: I don’t do a ton of events, and they are almost all pretty damn local.  That said. if you really want a signed copy, they have a few left at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor, MI. You can also order a copy through my website or catch me in downtown Ann Arbor (I’m reliably in my Main Street office about once per week. Contact me to make arrangements.)
  • In terms of my career: Frankly, every other option is about the same, although for different reasons. No matter what you pay, I’ll see the same amount of cash (my royalty is a percentage of the wholesale price, where-as discounts generally come out of the retailer’s margins). But buying through a store makes my Bookscan numbers better, which in turn impacts how willing places are to carry the book and the kinds of events I get invited to, so it’s not a terrible trade-off.
  • In terms of your wallet: You’ll probably get the book cheapest from Amazon, and Amazon sales make me look good, as those sales numbers and author rankings are a common metric of “success.” Other online stores offer similar deals, and it’s about the same to me (here’s B&N and O’Reilly.) Incidentally, I see about the same money and karma boost from selling ebooks as print copies, but I’m going to level with you: While I love the PDF versions of my books (they’re actually the exact same files that the printer uses to make the paperback copies), I’m less enthusiastic about the .mobi and .epub versions (with the proviso that I have an old eInk Kindle; it might look more rad on a newer eReader, especially something that’s more of a full-blown tablet).
  • In terms of the “industry”:  My publisher is happier if you buy direct from them (naturally). The upside for you is that they throw in the PDF and other ebook formats for free, and the PDF is fantastic. Also, they’ll basically match Amazon’s price if you use the coupon code included in the Jam Pack PDF. (Sign up for the newsletter, download the PDF, and you’ll find the code on the first or second page of the PDF. BONUS: That coupon code works for both my books; easy Non-Denominational Gift-Giving Holiday shopping right there.)
  • In terms of your local economy: It is perfectly rad to get the book at any physical bookstore you dig; lots of shops stock it (including many U.S. B&Ns), and anyone can easily special order it.
  • In terms of culture at large: Finally, of course, lots of libraries are getting it, because craft books are an easy sell to libraries, and in much demand by patrons. If your library doesn’t have it, they will almost certainly be thrilled to order a copy; fulfilling patron requests is part of their mission (hell, my library—the Ann Arbor Public Library—started loaning digital oscilloscopes and analog synths because that’s what patrons wanted. They are awesome!)

Guess Who’s Featured in the New York Times (full-page ad)!!!

Check out who’s in this past Sunday’s New York Times (advertising section):


Yep. I made it there, kids; I can make it *anywhere!*
More specifically, I’m going to make it to the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble on Washtenaw Ave next weekend, to talk about making and DIY music and boomerangs and whatever. Details:

  • WHERE: Barnes & Noble, 3235 Washtenaw Ave
  • WHEN: Saturday, November 7, 1–2pm.
  • WHAT: Chit-chat, Q&A, a story about a chimpanzee, etc.; I’ll have copies of both my books on hand to sell and sign.

Finally, we’re closing in on the last day to win a copy of that newest book, Junkyard Jam Band. Don’t miss out!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Junkyard Jam Band by David Erik Nelson

Junkyard Jam Band

by David Erik Nelson

Giveaway ends November 04, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Enter to win a copy of “Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers”!!! #DIY #books @nostarch

Goodreads | Book giveaway for Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers by David Erik Nelson Oct 14-Nov 04, 2015

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Junkyard Jam Band by David Erik Nelson

Junkyard Jam Band

by David Erik Nelson

Giveaway ends November 04, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway


My latest DIY book is out later this month, and those sweethearts at No Starch Press is giving away 10 copies(!!!). Click through now, and enter to win! And please help spread the word—Thanks!
Never used Goodreads before? No sweat: You can create an account (which is maybe a drag for you) or sign in with your existing Facebook/Twitter account (which is actually sorta nice if you’re a book lover connected to a lot of book lovers, since then you see your friends who are also on Goodreads, and can share raves, gripes, recommendations, etc.)
Oh dag! Just learned that No Starch has posted the first sample project from Junkyard Jam Band! Check out the Droid Voicebox Here’s a sample of what it can sound like:

Squidtastic Steampunkery: Free Fiction this Thursday! #steampunk #kindle #scifi

ATTENTION: My steampunk short “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond” will be free for Kindle tomorrow and Friday. Here’s the official link:
http://amzn.to/1Q7iPcU
Please do me a solid and help spread the love far and wide; thanks! If you read the story, please hit it with a review–even if you don’t like it. Bad reviews help readers just as much as good reviews and, let’s be real, you ain’t gonna hurt my feelings (scroll down for details).

ADDED BONUS: My celebrated steampunk novella set in the same universe, Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate, will be steeply discounted next week.
FUN FACT: The most negative review I’ve ever received was in response to “The Bold Explorer”–which was also my first big break in publishing. That review begins:

“The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond” by David Erik Nelson, reads like a sick joke. …

and ends

… It’s a dark day in the history of science fiction when such an offensive and ridiculous story appears in one of the pillars of the genre.

It is, to date, my absolute favorite review of one of my works. This guy may not *like* me, but he certainly *gets* me.
(If you wanna stay on top of things, and get advance notice of freebies, giveaways, and my ongoing lapses in judgement, sign up for my basically-only-monthly newsletter. Thanks again!)