the ancient past

Business travel is not so bad sometimes

by Doug LeMoine on 29 June 2010

At this point, I have an intimacy with the Marriott Courtyard that is likely registered in my DNA. I could be blindfolded and tossed into the lobby of a Courtyard, and I’d be in my room, ironing my shirts, and drinking a Coors Light from the mini-bar within 5 minutes. Every once in a while [...]

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Hang dai!

by Doug LeMoine on 22 June 2010

I’m one episode from the finale of Deadwood, and I’m feeling prematurely nostalgic for the pantomime conversations between the Cantonese-speaking Wu and English-speaking Al Swearengen. These “conversations” generally involve frantic sketching with charcoal, oaths unprintable in a family blog, and very little English. They tend to conclude with the declaration “hang dai!” (literally: 兄弟) which [...]

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Paul Rand’s business card

by Doug LeMoine on 28 May 2010

Can’t imagine that it could get much better than this. Via amassblog.

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Decadent, degenerate exile

by Doug LeMoine on 18 May 2010

In yet another shallow record-industry ploy to sell the same album twice, the Rolling Stones recently asked producer Don Was to dig through their Exile On Main Street archives and produce a remastered version with a few additional tracks. Thinking about Exile reminds me, of course, of Robert Frank’s documentary with an unprintable name, a [...]

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Ranging to justice

by Doug LeMoine on 16 May 2010

Thinking about the various clustercusses in the world, and reading William James, I came across this optimistic notion: Secret retributions are always restoring the level, when disturbed, of divine justice. It is impossible to tilt the beam. All the tyrants and proprietors and monopolists of the world in vain set their shoulders to heave the [...]

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Learning how not to think

by Doug LeMoine on 31 July 2009

If you haven’t read David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon, you should. It’s humble and real and warm, and truly great. It’s also very difficult to read. After his suicide, it’s impossible not to hear the echoes of Wallace’s internal conversation, the darkness and doubt and obsessive thoughts that he clearly struggled to [...]

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The 90s obviously didn’t totally suck

by Doug LeMoine on 11 July 2009

Karp, playing someone’s apartment/bedroom/closet in Atlanta, 1996. This video makes me regret not rallying to see them at Gilman Street even more. Thanks for the memories, Jacob. PS, you may feel moved to add your own vocal track.

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Disco Demolition Night

by Doug LeMoine on 5 July 2009

Hard to believe that this was 30 years ago, but here’s some excellent local news footage of a notorious moment in baseball history: the White Sox ill-fated “Disco Demolition” promotion. In the end, Comiskey Park descended into a riot after a Chicago DJ exploded a crate full of disco records in the middle of the [...]

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Handmade

by Doug LeMoine on 2 July 2009

This photo is from an excellent 70s photo book called Handmade Houses. I bought it after I read this inspiring little piece on Inhabitat, and it has got me thinking about getting back to basics. In this economy, basics may be all there are. In the winter and spring of 1997, I helped my friend Steve [...]

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So you can’t stop moonwalking

by Doug LeMoine on 30 June 2009

I won’t bore you with my thoughts on Lisa Marie Presley’s MySpace thing about Michael (“I wanted to save him. I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened”), or relate my story of finding out that the rumor was true (upon reading this tweet from Lil’ Jon: “RIP M [...]

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