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Author Archives: Doug Merlino
New story for Fightland: Working the MMA grassroots circuit with Olympic wrestler-turned-fighter Steve Mocco
Samuel Jackson had just finished his Pulp Fiction recitation of Ezekiel 25:17, thundering on about great vengeance and furious anger, when the clock ticked past 6pm. “Let’s go to work, boys,” said Ricardo Liborio, the head coach of American Top Team. Steve Mocco, one … Continue reading
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Tagged American Top Team, Bettendorf, Iowa, MMA, Ricardo Liborio, Steve Mocco
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New story: Shooting a commercial in Russia with Jeff Monson
The first of many MMA stories in the works, coming out of the research process for the book I’m working on. Jeff Monson waited beside Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s grand avenue, promenade of czars and revolutionaries, in a wet April … Continue reading
Joe Walsh, “Turn to Stone”
Love this song. Some pretty heroic guitar-face going on, too.
Hudson Taylor on Ending Homophobia in Sports [repost]
[Note: I originally published this interview in March 2011. Since then, events have caught up with us, with gay marriage in the Supreme Court and a NFL player supposedly mulling coming out of the closet. Hudson Taylor is a visionary. … Continue reading
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Tagged Athlete Ally, Homophobia in sports, Hudson Taylor, Scott Fujita, Steve Nash, Wrestling
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“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” — Rosa Parks
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Blind Willie McTell, “You Was Born to Die”
Quite possibly the bleakest break-up song ever written.
Reading Bruce Lee on Sunday Afternoon
From The Tao of Jeet Kune Do: “Punches and kicks are tools to kill the ego. The tools represent the force of intuitive or instinctive directness which, unlike the intellect or complicated ego, does not divide itself, blocking its own … Continue reading
Hemingway on Mysticism vs. Plain Bad Writing
From Death in the Afternoon: “If a man writes clearly enough anyone can see if he fakes. If he mystifies to avoid a straight statement, which is very different from breaking so-called rules of syntax or grammar to make an … Continue reading
Charles Bukowski, “The Laughing Heart”
your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the … Continue reading
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Henry Rollins on Van Halen
“The arena air smells like vomit, marijuana, food, beer and sadness…”
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“Empires crumble, republics founder, but fools go on.”
Looks like Criterion has cracked down on clips going on YouTube, so this Italian subtitled version will have to do. If you haven’t seen Band of Outsiders, it’s great.
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Damian Joseph speaks to City Year
This is the coolest photo I’ve gotten in a long time. It’s Damian Joseph of The Hustle after a talk he gave to members of City Year, an organization started in 1988 that recruits young people between the ages of … Continue reading
Springsteen on creativity and self-repair
Interesting quote from the mammoth New Yorker profile: The past, though, is anything but past. “My parents’ struggles, it’s the subject of my life,” Springsteen told me at rehearsal. “It’s the thing that eats at me and always will. My … Continue reading
Patton Oswalt on a tough gig and getting started in comedy (or just about anything else)
Love this story.
A Sonics Fan Faces the Day of Reckoning
Just published a new piece on the Bleacher Report Website trying to explain the feelings of the average Seattle SuperSonics fan as we watch what was once our team advance into the NBA Finals. An excerpt: At the moment, being … Continue reading
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Tagged Clay Bennett, NBA Finals, Oklahoma Thunder, Seattle Sonics, Seattle SuperSonics fans
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Gordon Lightfoot, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
My dad loved this song. In the summer of 1987, when I was fifteen and he was forty, we rode our bicycles across the country, Seattle to Maine. When we got to Duluth, it was a cold, overcast, windy day, … Continue reading
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Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, “Kill Your Television”
Had forgotten this one. Still like it.
Michelle Alexander on Colbert
Well said: “It is, ‘Just Be Fair.’ Treat people of color as human beings worthy of dignity and respect and the same chances in life as people growing up in middle class white neighborhoods who make the same kinds of … Continue reading
Gary Clarke Jr., “When My Train Pulls In”
This guy just keeps getting better and better.