I took a trip down through corn and big sky to the Illinois state capitol, Springfield. Springfield was originally named Calhoun after Secretory of War, John C. Calhoun from South Carolina. About 10 years later, when Calhoun became the 7th Vice President under John Quincy Adams, and then again under Andrew Jackson, and maybe around the time [...]
Archive for the ‘historyish’ Category
Springfield, Illinois.
Posted in historyish, places, tagged Capitol, Civil War, Confederacy, John C. Calhoun, lincoln, Springfield, union on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Paris, Texas
Posted in historyish, tagged bastille day, cowboy, cowboy hat, eiffel tower, paris, sidewalk sale, tennessee, texas on July 23, 2009 | 7 Comments »
In the early nineties, the town of Paris, Texas constructed a 65 foot replica of the Eiffel Tower. The tower attracted road trippers looking for the odd and out-of-place, as well as fit in nicely with the town’s occasional Bastille Day sidewalk sales. After construction was completed, the town of Paris, Tennessee put up their [...]
figures eight.
Posted in historyish, tagged 1960s, audrey hepburn, à boute de souffle, emmanuelle béart, french film, godard, hunter s. thompson, jean seberg, jeremy, paris, summer, texas, toyota on June 15, 2009 | 7 Comments »
i drove a toyota corolla that isn’t mine into the texas state capital and before thirty hours were up I managed to slip in four films with my future roommate, combine that with a shot of guy talk and suddenly you know exactly how a well put together mise-en-scene can make 103 degrees outside seem [...]
Chicago River in 30 seconds.
Posted in historyish, tagged chicago, chicago river, lake michigan, St. Patrick's Day on April 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In March of each year, as dear old St. Patrick has his day, as iron-on t-shirt graphics of shamrocks appear and bros take a half-day off work to start drinking in the early afternoon, the Chicago River is dyed a kelly green so brilliant that people without disposables or digitals take low resolution photos with [...]
Just pull the chord.
Posted in historyish, tagged absinthe, camping, hemingway, injury, rue mouffetard, scars, shotgun, tent on April 2, 2009 | 2 Comments »
When Hemingway was 29 years old, his young life in Paris ended. On a warmer than usual March night, after too much wine and absinthe, Hemmie made his way into the shared bathroom down the hall from his bedroom on the rue Mouffetard, and, not bothering to turn on the light, after relieving himself, confused [...]
Robot Presidents.
Posted in current, historyish, places, tagged Abraham Lincoln, Bush, cotton candy, Disney, No Child Left Behind, obama, orlando, papa's beard, Robots, Springfield on February 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Here in France, the kids are on vacation for the next two weeks because why the hell not? It’s February! Let’s stop going to school! It will be a nice contrast to the three weeks they took off in December and January, and the two weeks they will take off in April. That all being [...]
Happy 200th, Abe.
Posted in historyish on February 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. I think of this man as a God, but more on that tomorrow. But for now, I wanted to talk a little about him and Walt Whitman who adored his commander-in-chief and apparently, if not mythically, Abraham Lincoln adored him too. An anecdote exists where Lincoln, in his Springfield law [...]
Poet Soldier.
Posted in current, historyish, places, tagged chicago, christmas, frankfurt, iraq, poet, soldier, sullivan ballou, the civil war, union, wilfred owen on January 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Not too long ago, I took a flight from Frankfurt to Chicago just before Christmas. Apparently, the U.S. still has left over military bases around Frankfurt, quite a few in fact, just to keep an eye on those dreadful Germans. I got a chance to talk to a couple of America’s finest on the plane [...]
I like tall skinny eloquent Presidents from Illinois.
Posted in historyish, tagged britain, goodwin, lincoln, revolution on January 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Abraham Lincoln once said that a good story for him was better than a drop of whisky. For those of you have not yet joined the Doris Kearns Goodwin fan club, I wanted to share a story of Lincoln’s that she often recounts. Lincoln, of course, was known for his unparalleled story telling ability. He [...]
Hemingway/Fitzgerald
Posted in historyish, people, tagged fitzgerald, hemingway, jeremy, literature on January 19, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I have a misguided friend. He is smart, witty, funny and awfully cute, but tragically misguided. He recently posted on his blog asking the question of who exemplifies more perfectly the “American experience,” F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Miller Hemingway. He argues that Hemingway’s overly simplistic noun-verb structure simply will never be enough to bring [...]
