FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Cash, sass or grass stains, no one writes for free! The new Field Notes Summer shipment is in, and our new “Grass Stain Green” edition are going fast. Get over there and get yer chlorophyll on!

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TOMORROW, AND WE PUSH OFF: Leigh’s heading home for the summer. I’m driving her back to Minneapolis, where I’ll hop a flight back to Portland on the 5th, and she’ll keep going with Gary back to Northern Michigan for some summertime action.

We’re gonna do the route I’ve taken so many times: 1-84 to Boise, Crater of the Moon, Idaho Falls, Yellowstone, Cody, Grey Bull, Devil’s Tower, Box Elder, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands,
Rapid City, Mitchell, Souther Minnesota and then those Twin Cities for day. And then back to Portland to continue my summer onslaught.

Regarding the DDC, and all clients, affiliates and subsidiaries, well, it’s “business as usual” with late shifts in hotel rooms after we hit our 350 miles a day, and a little sightseeing each day. So don’t get all frisky, all you clients…the DDC Mobile Command Unit will be in full effect.

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ORANGE SKIN? NO THANKS: All this retro stuff I wax on has this intoxicating quality. It’s easy to idealize how “things used to be” and all that jazz. I’ve been called a “sentimentalist” and a “nostalgist” and hell, one guy on a New Jersey freeway called me a “jack-off.” I don’t know where I’m going with this, but, if this link is “how things were back in the day,” well, count me out. I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Was it all staged? All that ’50s faux optimism? I love old stuff because there’s this innocence to it. Or, without the pressures of “covering all the bases” you get this honest, stripped down quality to my little fascination with packaging, and, maybe, everything else. But then again, way back 50 years ago, an array of horrific things were going down behind the scenes and on the street corners, so, there’s this weird paradox to it all. Maybe you are getting my drift? Progress is a good thing, but, I think it’s fair to say we can simplify things more and more.

I’ll stop. (Thanks to Mark for sending this one in. Hope I didn’t freak you out with my wandering thoughts.)

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RYNO DUST OFF HIS PAINTBRUSHES: …and creates this pine-tarred masterpiece for the St. Paul Saints. Painted using Menard’s All-Season Latex, leftover tempera paint from 7th grade and blood.

Here’s a Ryno classic, simply titled “Ninja fights a pirate who brawls a cowboy who is scrapping with a ninja.” Or something.

There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be seeing one of these each month, you big prick.

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LUCK OF THE IRISH: Greg Meehan of Cavan, Ireland was diggin’ around on the web and came across one hell of a Frontier Airlines retrospective deal. And about the “design” of that site, the old adage applies: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies. Don’t change a thing, guys! Incredible. Good eye, Greg!

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ON THE PLAYER:

01. Dinosaur Jr - Farm
02. Lambchop - Nixon
03. Replacements - Tim & Pleased To Meet Me