Poetic pragmatism, neo-transcendentalism, bikes, burritos, basketball.
(The title is from a poet named Tao Lin in a collection called this emotion was a little e-book). The Internet is like a small town, especially when there’s something to disagree about. Recently, some of my favorite Internet citizens got into it over Obama’s decision to have poetry at his inauguration. I’ve always liked [...]
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Ever since Shaquille O’Neal left the Lakers, I’ve been more love than hate. He’s smart and charismatic in ways that are rare for a professional athlete, and of course he’s given out the League’s best nicknames — The Big Aristotle (to himself), The Truth (to Paul Pierce), The Big Fundamental (to Tim Duncan), The Big Ticket (to [...]
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I love reading, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how technology is affecting the way that we read now and in the future. I keep thinking about something Sven Birkerts said in a 1998 interview with Harpers: “If you touch all parts of the globe, you can’t do that and then turn around and [...]
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Last weekend, I had an unlikely opportunity: I was invited to sit on a panel that discussed the future of small literary presses, non-profit publishing, and — in general — books that took place at Coffee House Press in Minneapolis. I love books, reading, and non-corporate media, so I jumped at the chance to talk about this stuff in [...]
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I’ve always loved Haruki Murakami. I share his tastes in music — Miles Davis, the Rolling Stones — and I’m easily taken in by his smoky bars, rainy nights, noir pacing, puzzling plot twists, and spare, reserved prose. His books are filled with cool, crisply imagined situations that are eerily layered with shadows and mystery, and that shift subtly [...]
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Last week I picked up a book called
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Back when the Berkeley Public Library was the hub of my social universe, I spent a lot of time in its video room — in the mid-90’s, it occupied a little corner of the basement — working my way through its extensive collection of foreign VHS movies. I had plenty of time on my hands, (also, no money), and [...]
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things magazine has amassed an incredible index of Pelican book covers from the 1930s through the 80s. The one above is from 1968. Check it.
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Dick Cavett has a blog called Talk Show at the New York Times, and he has recently written two [1, 2] hilarious entries about his friendship with William F. Buckley. The most recent includes an excellent story about Buckley’s love of practical jokes, one of which I’ll paste in its entirety right here: Dick Clurman of [...]
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It’s not a word, but lots of people like to use it as if it were. Over the past few years, I’ve heard it more and more often, but today was the first day I’ve ever seen it in the mainstream media. Hmmm. Is there something deficient about “influential” or “resonant?” What about affecting, authoritative, [...]
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My name is Doug LeMoine. I work both on, and for, the Internet. You can find more about me in the About Me page that I wrote about me.
