The Rake Magazine

Month: June 2006

  • Internationalism threatens America

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    Julie Quist wants to save your children from the horrors of knowledge about other countries.

    A story in the Strib today mentioned growing opposition in some quarters (such as the sixth district Republican ones that nominated Michele Bachmann for Congress) to the growing trend in Minnesota school districts to adopt the International Baccalaureate method of teaching.

    According to the opponents cited in the Strib, the IB is “un-American” because it “teaches global citizenship as a priority over American citizenship,” according to Julie Quist, VP of EdWatch, a conservative advocacy group.

    You may remember Julie as the wife of Allen Quist, the leader of the radical conservative attempt to take over the Minnesota Republican Party, and the Republican endorsed governor candidate who, thank God, lost the primary to Arne Carlson in 1994. (If you want to remember what that was about, look here.)

    If you want our state to be the international subject of ridicule, like the cretins in Kansas who wanted to teach creationism, look no further than the cretins at EdWatch. They are out there and want inform all education by the jingoist and radical Christian agenda they’re pushing. Now didn’t we just get all upset when the Saudis were doing the same thing?

  • Sit down for this

    I don’t go out nearly as often as these posts might have you believe. And as I grow older, I find myself becoming more and more of a “coach potato,” sprawled out leg-long, eating chili-cheese chips, and watching second-rate DVDs some nights, when I’m not out trolling for stories or reviewing theater productions. So, while the Goldstein Museum’s just-opened 125 Years of Sitting exhibition isn’t exactly exciting to the movers and shakers of the world, pursuers of the art of sitting, such as myself, should find it interesting–situated as it is in the city that houses famous chair-designer Bill Stumpf.

    Yaaaawn.

  • Social rank demerits

    Man do I want tickets to Saturday night’s Symphony Ball! Mostly because it’s the closest thing Minneapolis has to the Costume Institute Gala, and the Strib folks always end-up doing some sort of fashion run-down after the fact. I wonder which over-embellished, designer dresses have been plucked off the Oval Room eighty percent-off rack in anticipation? But alas, I am not young-n-pretty or old-n-rich enough to afford tickets. I’m stuck at that strange, in-between phase–no longer an ingenue, not yet a dame. Sigh.

    I’ll make do with these other goings-on: Petrified Forest at Gremlin Theatre (another freelance stint) (also, sorry not to link, but the Gremlin website appears to be down), Pine Eyes at the Walker, and, hopefully, drinking copious quantities of grand margarita in my friend’s backyard.

    The wish list: West Bank Story at Bedlam Theatre–I’ll see it some other weekend, and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys at the Cedar.

  • Of Witches and Ice Cream

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    It’s hard enough to find a good Ice Cream Social anymore, let alone an Ice Cream Social associated with a beautifully enigmatic water tower.

    The familiar icon of the Prospect Park/East River Road neighborhood is locally referred to as The Witch’s Hat and Friday is its day of days.

    One day a year the tower opens and admits the curious. We get just one chance to see the blooming cities from under the black peak. And in celebration there’s ice cream! And brats, and popcorn, and more ice cream! Don’t even get me started on the good luck of finding a Cupcake Walk among the games and festivities.

    Once you’ve climbed the tower and milled around with neighborhood residents, seek out another gem of the area, Signature Cafe, and hold down a perfect patio table while plotting your own neighborhood Ice Cream Social.

  • pockets of the city

    One of my favorite scenic runs is along the stone arch bridge/west bank/mill ruins corridor–mostly because I so love seeing the Mill City Museum from this vantage. Same goes for the new Guthrie. But it’s truer of Mill City, or at least it has been for the past several years. The building is especially beautiful!

    Today there are two opportunities to give mad love to Mill City–other than running. First, the, ahem, Hopefuls are throwing a concert in the ruins courtyard… again. (Nevermind my cynicism. These concerts have been quite lovely.) Two, for the more wonky types, Thomas Meyer, the architectural mastermind of MS&R, the firm responsible for the Mill City Museum development, will be in-conversation with another architecture Tom–Thomas Fischer, dean of U of M college of architecture, at the Walker Art Center.

  • Tasty Reads

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    By the way, that’s not me, that’s my Tummy-Double.

    Yes, I read cookbooks from cover to cover, like a novel. Truly, I snuggle down into the couch with a big glass of wine and read them, skimming the recipes while conjuring events and parties that might support my new creations.

    Now that June is upon us, I can justify purchasing a large quantity of books: It’s my summer reading/entertaining stockpile. Clearly I’ll be too busy poolside with my Pimm’s Cup to make it to the bookstore before people just start showing up and demanding food. So I hunt and gather.

    It helps that the New York Times Sunday Book Review last week was their food issue. Tra la la!

    I’ve pretty much read this one already while standing in Barnes & Noble. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats is magnetic. With pictures of global families surrounded by the food they eat, it draws you in and hooks your stomach to someone else’s half-way around the world.

    I’ve also paged through The New American Cooking. I love how it shows the beautiful diversity of our culinary landscape.

    I am so excited to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I truly think one of the most vexing questions in the universe is “What should we have for dinner?” This looks to be an insightful and interesting discussion of what we eat and why we eat it.

    The Nasty Bits by Bourdain promises to be good. I like his writing more often than his television, but appreciate the raw attitude always.

    The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen. Filling out his chef-trilogy (Making of a Chef, Soul of a Chef) Ruhlman always manages to nail the fish to the table.

    I Love Crab Cakes! because I love Tom Douglas!

    I met this firecracker of a Japanese woman this past winter and now I can’t wait to swim through her book, Harumi’s Japanese Cooking.

    I can’t take my eyes off it, I’m a complete rubber-necker for the world of competitive eating. So is Ryan Nerz as displayed with Eat This Book (not the Tyler “tough-chef-walking” Florence book).

    A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Because everyone needs a signature drink, dahling.

    The Brewmasters Table is on my list because sometimes there’s nothing that will cure a summer day like a Trappist Ale. But what to eat? Some may bemoan the lack of recipes, but I’m keen on taking his food/beer pairings and creating my own dishes.