Poetic pragmatism, neo-transcendentalism, bikes, burritos, basketball.
New York’s blizzard of 1977 makes a riveting cameo appearance in “El Super,” an indie (before the term was formalized) film about the hard adjustments that immigrants make in coming to New York. The movie is great for many reasons, but the blizzard steals a few scenes as the main character — a Cuban super — walks around town. [...]
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Even though I’m generally a West Coast kind of guy, I devour books about New York — its chaotic beginnings as a lawless, crazy quilt of neighborhoods and gangs; its transformation into a massive modern city; the peculiar dynamics of its organic growth. If New York didn’t destroy me everytime I visit, I think I’d probably live there. [...]
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Baseball great Rickey Henderson recently gave the Hall of Fame induction speech to end all induction speeches. He was a larger-than-life figure in my childhood, and he had a personality to match, often referring to himself in the third person. For example, “There are pieces of this puzzle that Rickey is still working out,” in [...]
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What I know about the inner-workings of politics I learned in The Power Broker, and therefore I don’t claim to know much other than the sausage-making involved in building the Triborough Bridge. Still, I was struck by the following passage from Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker profile of Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of [...]
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Last night I read the New Yorker profile of Matthew and Michael Dickman, poets from Portland, Oregon who happen to be identical twins. (Here’s the abstract). In their work, they have very different voices, but there’s a strange sort of twin telepathy that seems to exist within it. They also edit each other’s work, providing [...]
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I love writing letters, but for some reason the only letter-to-the-editor I’ve ever written went something like this: Dear Mr. Remnick, If you publish one more story by John Updike, so help me God I will cancel my subscription immediately. Sincerely, Doug LeMoine The year was 1999. I had been driven to what I saw as [...]
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(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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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.
