Month: March 2006

  • A (Wo)man's Corner Store is (her) his Castle

    Our April issue hit newsstands today. Check out the new Rake Appeal section for a piece about the curious folks who live in storefronts. If you’re interested in joining their likes, check out this storefront–for sale in West St. Paul.

  • Same As It Ever Was: Do I Repeat Myself? Very Well Then, I Repeat Myself

    So ain’t we all inanimate, George? –Jim Thompson, Pop. 1280 ‘Je’ est un autre. (‘I’ is someone else.) –Arthur Rimbaud You might, you’re perhaps fond of saying, occasionally like something concrete from me, something in the way of true disclosure, painful confession, political opinion, or merely, now and again, a bit of honest biographical kibble.…

  • You Call This The Real World?

    The most that anyone of us can seem to do is to fashion something –an object, or ourselves– and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force. –Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death It may be that when we no longer know what to do we…

  • The Wurlitzer Descends, The Curtain Rises, The Lights Dim…

    …but what about the soul that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images… –Frank O’Hara, “Ave Maria” When I first saw Citizen Kane, at the glorious Temple Theatre in old downtown Saginaw, Michigan, I didn’t quite get the thing. I was twelve years old and not aware that it was the greatest film ever made,…

  • So Much Water So Close To Home

    He had this hackneyed phrase in his head –“adrift in a sea of confusion”– that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. Was this really the best he could do in describing how he felt? Yes, at least for the time being, he was forced to admit that it was. He wouldn’t be able to…

  • A Man of His Times

    There is a consensus in the trade, I am sorry to report, that Thomas L. Friedman cannot win another Pulitzer Prize. This is not due to any dissipation of his talents. It is because, having already won three of journalism’s highest awards, he has been asked to join the Pulitzer board. Instead of receiving Pulitzers,…