The Rake Magazine

Month: July 2007

  • Summer League Thread

    In a comment on the draft thread, Snyder makes an excellent suggestion of starting a summer league thread for Wolves’ die-hards who want to paw over the results of this week’s five games out in Las Vegas.

    I’ve been tied up on a large project recently, but promise to chime in here soon on this subject. Meanwhile, yes, from this account and also Kent Youngblood’s piece in today’s Strib, it looks as if Smith and Brewer are showing well together. I’d also suggest that Rashad McCants be watched closely. When I was at the Target Center a couple weeks ago, the difference in his movement and quickness was apparent. An upgraded McCants who can combine the explosive athleticism of his rookie year with the emotional maturity of his second season would be significant.

  • Harry's Food & Cocktails

    Poutine will be on the snack menu at Harry’s Food & Cocktails, which opens this Thursday at 500 Washington Ave. S. in Minneapolis. The restaurants of Montreal offer interpretations of poutine made with everything from foie gras to pineapple, but chef Steven Brown will feature the classic version of this Quebec specialty on his snack menu. “People here love cheese curds and they love french fries and they love gravy,” Brown said. “It ought to be a home run.”

    Brown built his reputation creating haute cuisine at the Loring Cafe, Rock Star and Restaurant Levain (all now defunct), but the menu at Harry’s will have a more down-home flavor. “Our motto in the kitchen is, ‘nothing fancy, everything tasty,’ and our alternate motto is ‘good food tastes good.’”

    This time around, Brown promises “great value,” and original renditions of familiar dishes — gourmet burgers like the Espana, topped with smoked paprika and Manchego cheese ($9); and daily specials like meatloaf on Mondays ($12), an all-you-can-eat Wisconsin fish fry on Fridays ($16), and a Sunday supper of martini, pork chop and salad ($18).

    The former Nochee space was completely gutted and redesigned by David Shea of Shea Associates — who seems to be designing every new restaurant in the Twin Cities. “The place is going to have the ethos of a sports bar, a neighborhood place,” says Brown. “If you want to come and watch the game, you can do that.”

  • Scooter Skates, Zheng Hangs


    Zheng Xiaoyu died for our sins

    When one thinks about the rule of law here in the United States, it can only lead to confusion. The Bush Justice (is that an oxymoron?) Department can put innocent people in prison for political reasons, but lets the guilty ones go.

    China, on the other hand, who isn’t exactly known for its sense of justice when it comes to its own people, sure knows where to come down when someone threatens their livelihood. For when Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted of taking bribes to approve medicines that killed people, China hanged him faster than you can say “mentally retarded Texas man.”

    Don’t harbor any illusions that Zheng paid the price because he harmed the people who had taken the phony drugs. He was executed for throwing a wrench into the Chinese economy. If we can’t trust their drugs, we certainly can’t trust them not to use poisonous paint on Thomas the Tank Engine or put poison in our dog food.

    Nevertheless, one has to ask what ought to be the penalty for distributing poisonous drugs in this country. The New York Times has written a few stories lately about Minnesota doctors who have taken money from drug companies to promote the prescription of their medicines for “non-indicated” uses. There is real evidence that these prescriptions have severely damaged people.

    But in this country, bribery for “legitimate” business purposes doesn’t seem to be a crime. In this country, what it leads to is ever increasing profits. Americans would “never, never” do what Chinese officials have done, would they? Well, they have. The difference is that, here, they get away with it.

    Do you remember Lester Crawford? He owned stocks in companies he was regulating while he was head of the FDA. That’s not all. If you want to make yourself sick, read this.

    His penalty? A little fine, and a nice fat job as a lobbyist.

  • One Eye Forward, One Eye Back

    BOOKS by Jennifer Vogel
    Through the Lens of Nancy Crampton

    WritersBook.gifSome people become authors because they are of the exact opposite temperament from a movie star. Putting on a clean shirt can, in itself, be a chore; putting on a pressed one is out of the question. Author photos, then, are the art of making these schlubs and misanthropes look believable, wise, and even a touch mysterious. Nancy Crampton, who for thirty-five years has shot the likes of Norman Mailer, Gabriel García Márquez, Ian McEwan, and Lorrie Moore for New York’s Unterberg Poetry Center, is particularly astute at portraying warmth and piquancy, without making authors look like someone other than themselves. She will discuss her book, Writers: Photographs, a collection of more than one hundred duotones, at the library, where her photos will be on display.

    6:30 p.m., Minneapolis Central Library, Doty Board Room and Cargill Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-630-6000; RSVP required.

    FILM
    Minnesota Sicko

    Bushblur.jpgWith all the hype surrounding Michael Moore’s Sicko, we’re all just a little less ignorant about this country’s evil and unjust health care system. That’s right, as usual, let’s blame it on the system. But, man, we sure put a lot of messed up systems in place. If you haven’t seen Sicko yet, download it here. Once you have that under your belt, or maybe even before, complement it with a local story about sexual education in public schools. That’s right: another system. Evil system meets evil system. Woohoo. Join director Jim Winkle on a quest to determine the best strategy to fight adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in Minnesota. Sex Ed & the State features interviews with Minnesota lawmakers, advocates, opponents, educators, and other stakeholders in the debate. I could give you a YouTube link for a trailor, but watch it here instead.

    7 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; $8 (seniors $6, members/students $5).

    ART
    Split Rock Soirée

    NudeArt.jpgEach year, the Split Rock Workshops offer a select group of artists a chance to explore and hone their writing, visual art, and design skills. While few of us are actually blessed with noteworthy skill in these arenas, and even fewer are privy to this sort of opportunity, we can at least peek in occasionally, touch its underbelly, and drink of its essence. Through readings, artists’ talks, and numerous types of exchanges, Split Rock Soirées allow you to experience the work, creative processes, and always entertaining personalities of Split Rock’s renowned visiting artists and writers. Head over this evening to meet artists Craig Blacklock, Derrick Buisch, Clive King, Erica Spitzer Rasmussen, Scott Stulen, and Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada. Check out their work and meet them in person. You won’t be disappointed.

    7 p.m., The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, 333 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-625-8100; $5 (U of M students free).

    MUSIC
    In with the Old, In with the New

    The Bruce Hornsby concert at the Minnesota Zoo is sold out, so you should probably choose between Roomful of Blues and The Young Immortals.

    Roomful.jpgRoomful of Blues has been around longer than I have, my friends, and that’s a mighty long time for a band. Granted these are the days of the reunion shows for many an ’80s band, but not too many ’60s bands are still playing — and strong after all these years. Give it up to the blues. Truth is, good old bluesy rock-n-roll never goes out of style — not with this kind of energy. At this stage in the game, it’s your call. See them now, or wait another 30-some-odd years to see them again (or anything in between).

    7 p.m. & 9 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $27 & $17.

    Immortals copy.jpgStick with the old, or move on to the new. The Young Immortals, a young and coming band from Oregon, have just released their new album, When History Meets Fiction, and are currently on tour. With simple pop melodies and short, peppy beats, these guys playfully bring ’60s, ’80s, and ’90s rock stylings into the new millennium, carefully avoiding the ’70s and refusing to acknowledge a complete shift in the music scene. Catch them tonight with Akai, Sugoi!, and Deep Pool — all quite interesting in their own right.

    9 p.m., Turf Club, 1601 University Ave., St. Paul; 651-647-0486; $4.

    By the way, tickets go on sale today for the Feldman tribute concert on September 9th at the Fitzgerald Theater. Join Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, and John Gorka in honoring the founder and president of the world-renowned folk/roots label Red House Records.

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    Windy City

    page_chicago.jpgWhat’s the fascination with Chicago? I don’t know if it’s the dancing or the debauchery, perhaps just the style of the time, but people seem to love the show. You got me. Anyhow, for all you lovers out there, the one, the only Chicago is back on stage at Ordway Center. Celebrate celebrity in style (or at least the sexy way).

    8 p.m., Ordway Center for Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul 651-224-4222; $20-$55.

  • License to serve

    My husband, older son, and I spent the weekend in Duluth, helping friends get their new Canal Park restaurant ready to open later this month. After a day of schlepping waffle irons, shelving, and cookware from a third-floor storage space to the kitchen, using a hundred-year-old elevator whose gates you had to close with a strap, we headed to dinner — filthy, exhausted, ready to relax.

    I won’t say where we went. But it was one of those bustling tourist meccas on the North Shore. I ordered a glass of Zinfandel, my husband did the same, our friend Cynthia ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon, and then my son piped up and said, “That sounds good. I believe I’ll have a glass of Cabernet, as well.”

    Now, here’s what you should know about my son. He stands six-foot-three-and-a-half and has a full beard and a weary expression and a way of speaking that makes him sound as if he once wrote speeches for Winston Churchill. He’s also 19. . . .and autistic. So the arbitrary rules of society — like, for instance, you can be shipped off to fight in a senseless war at 18, but you can’t legally buy alcohol until you’re 21 — are lost on him.

    I expected our server to ask for his ID, so I moved toward my son in order to explain and save him the embarrassment he might feel. But before I could say a thing, our server said, “Thanks! I’ll go get your drinks and be right back for your order.” And off she went. . . .

    Later, after he’d drunk his glass of wine (which we felt conflicted about, but allowed rather than making a scene), we pulled our son aside and told him it is illegal for a restaurant to serve him alcohol. The woman who waited on us could have been fired, and the restaurant could have lost its liquor license. [His response: “Oh, is that so? How odd.”] I did not alert the manager, for fear of getting the poor, frazzled server in trouble.

    But I’m warning them now, along with all the other packed, lakeside, summer-season restaurants in town. Have a talk with your staff. Tell them to card even those who appear to be of age. It’s the law — whether or not we agree. And the consequences of ignoring it can be pretty deadly for a hard-working restaurateur.

  • Mick Anselmo Bounced at Clear Channel

    Mick Anselmo, GM of all thing Clear Channel in the Twin Cities — specifically radio stations KFAN, Cities 97, KOOL 108, K102, KTLK, KDWB and 690 The Score was fired today. His departure puts an end to one of the more remarkable success and survival stories in radio management in this market. Anselmo had managed to elude the blade through six or maybe seven previous management/ownership purges/changes.

    Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, is notorious both for being by far the world’s largest radio group — in excess of 1200 stations coast-to-coast — and ruthless about profit delivery to its investors, primary among them being Lowry Mays his family, including son, Mark, Clear Channel’s CEO. The Mays family and other shareholders recently concluded a deal with private equity and hedge fund groups to take Clear Channel back to private, a move that netted them another fast fortune but has saddled the company with significant new debt which in turn has placed even greater pressure on managers like Anselmo to cut costs.

    I’ll add more to this post as I work my three rings of gossip. But it would seem reasonable to expect the new GM, reportedly Mike Crusham a Clear Channel VP from Boston, to take very tough looks at under-performing Twin Cities stations.

  • Santa Dog

    dog1.jpg

    This is my last dispatch from Denver: #1 Thing to Do in Denver When You’re Hungry.

    Find Biker Jim’s hot dog cart on the 16th Street Mall, he’s out in front of Palomino.

    Order a Reindeer Dog.

    He’ll happily give you a bun with a split alaskan caribou sausage. In the split he’ll caulk a thick stream of cream cheese from a gun and crown it with some fried onions. (Yes, you will forever now put cream cheese on a split sausage). Add the jalapenos and hot mustard to your own liking. It’s not gamey at all, it’s spicy and rich. Maybe try the elk cheddar brat or the wild boar brat with chopped apricots and cranberries. Take a moment to breathe in the good Rocky Mountain air in blessed thanks.

    Then go to a Rockies game and watch them POUND the Mets while you suck down some Easy Street Wheat.

    rockies.jpg

  • Star Tribune Guild to Consider "No Confidence" Vote On Par

    It’ll be several more weeks before Ramsey County judge David Higgs hands down a decision in the matter of whether Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder’s actions upon leaving the Pioneer Press are grievous enough to warrant throwing him out of his new office in Minneapolis. One line of thought in the legal community is that Judge Higgs would be thrilled if the combatants in the case, Dean Singleton’s MediaNews and Ridder’s current employers, Avista Capital Partners reached an out-of-court settlement and spared him forcing anyone to do anything.

    But considering the avidity with which Singleton has pursued full, public prosecution of his case against Ridder, it doesn’t seem likely he’ll settle for anything less than young Par’s impeccably groomed head on a pike. With that in mind, along with all the details of the case — not the least of which is Par conceding virtually every point of Singleton’s complaint — the Star Tribune Guild this Wednesday will take up the question of whether to put a “no confidence” vote on Par before its membership.

    Says Strib Guild officer, Chris Serres, “We are definitely going to consider it at our stewards meeting Wednesday.” There are about 20 Guild stewards at the Strib.

    “It has been bandied about quite a bit recently, in the light both of what he’s been accused of and what has he has said. So we’re going to discuss it, and if there’s enough interest among the stewards we’ll bring it before the membership.”

    Serres says he hasn’t “personally decided” which way he’d go. And he says that as much as he and others are “obviously bothered by the stealing of the information, if that’s what he did, Guild members are more focused on the firings of valuable personnel, the loss of one out five newsroom jobs and the elimination of 30 pages of news space per week, 14 out of sports, than we are on [Ridder’s] problems.”

    Serres’ fellow officer, Pat Doyle, confessed to being “a little out of the loop” working at the State Capitol as he does. He hadn’t yet heard of “no confidence” being on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting. But he did remind me that the Guild had asked weeks ago for Chris Harte, Avista’s lone newspaper person (as far as anyone knows), to explain and essentially justify Ridder’s behavior. Predictably, Harte replied that he would have to wait until the legal action had played out.

    “I’m not sure what [a vote of “no confidence”] would accomplish,” said Doyle, “but I don’t have a sense right now that the Guild has much confidence in either Par or ownership.” He added, as many Stribbers do in this context, that the fact they have so little idea who all is represented by Avista, is a handicap when it comes to judging how aggressive to get in the face of a situation as unique as Le Affair Par.

    In normal times a “no confidence” vote against a key manager would be weighed with a cautious eye toward how much it might antagonize ownership, usually in the context of the next contraction negotiation. But at this moment, with the very high likelihood that Avista will seek game-changing Draconian, Dean Singleton-like cuts and concessions in its next contract with the Guild, (due up next summer), does a principled stand against a top manager who is either guilty as charged of serious improprieties … or stunningly incompetent carry as much or any real risk?

    At some point isn’t it like impeachment talk regarding George W. Bush? If the offense is serious enough — and again, the appearance of either A: gross impropriety, or B: gross incompetence would seem to qualify as sufficiently serious — aren’t you required, at some level, to pursue a conclusive public judgment? Or … if you don’t see the current situation as laden with serious
    reflections on your own ethics and/or professional credibility … well then there’s really no point in having a “no confidence” option on the books, is there?

  • Wedding-Industrial Complex

    It was the event of a lifetime for the few locals who got the invitation (Kristin Tillotson, Melodie Bahan, Alison McGhee … ) Now, for the unfashionable Minneapolitans who didn’t attend former Stribber John Habich’s wedding: Here’s a link to the NYTimes’ lowdown on the affair.

    A couple note: The slide show is not to be missed.
    The couple’s wedding site will eventually have video from the wedding.

  • Another Reason to Go to Winona

    MUSIC
    Classic Music over Country Bluffs

    2030959390.jpgIf you didn’t head over to Winona for the FatFest this weekend, then maybe this week is the time to do so. Don’t worry, I’m not sending you over there for raucous music. It’s the inaugural season of the Minnesota Beethoven Festival. For the next week, the beautiful bluff country of southeastern Minnesota will host world-class classical musicians playing everything from Beethoven to John Adams, and chamber music to full symphonic concerts featuring the Minnesota Orchestra. In fact, this very evening the Minnesota Orchestra will be offering a free outdoor pops concert: Beethoven: Overture to Egmont, Op. 84; Strauss: Artist’s Life (Künstler Leben), Waltzes, Op. 316; Heitzeg : Blue Liberty; Rodgers: Selections from Oklahoma!; Ward: America the Beautiful (sing-along); Moncayo: Huapango; Tchaikovsky: 1812, Ouverture solennelle (Solemn Overture), Op. 49.

    7:30 p.m., Lake Park Bandshell, Winona, map here; free.

    Swinging Down to Rio

    3707197092.jpgOf course, if can’t quite make the drive to Winona today, there’s still a good in-town option. Zé Renato, of Boca Livre fame, will be at the Dakota this evening. Go enjoy the Brazilian Samba sound of this 30-year music veteran. You won’t be disappointed, and he’ll put a light bounce in your step.

    7 pm & 10 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant; 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $15 & $10.

    FILM
    The War Profiteers

    3296413938.jpgWhy are we in Iraq? At what cost to us? What kind of damage is done to the average American when corporations decide to wage war? It’s time we were all able to answer these questions. Somewhere between all this information and misinformation exists a truth or two. Help find it. This evening documentary filmmaker, Robert Greenwald’s Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers will be screening at the Liberty Center. Explore the connection between the war in Iraq and the private corporations who profit from the fighting. Whatever your opinion, it doesn’t hurt to have more information. Hell, if nothing else, you should know that the other side is saying.

    8 p.m., Liberty Center, 799 Raymond Ave., St. Paul; 651-646-8980; Optional Donation: $5.

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE by Christy DeSmith
    The Driveway Tour

    87_thedriveway.jpgMaster puppeteer Michael Sommers and his itinerant troupe are spending the summer gigging at local libraries and parks, as well as residential driveways, with two offerings: The Adventures of Katie Tomatie and Little Grandpa’s Big Adventure. They’re traveling light, with entire hand-painted sets and most of their characters — handmade puppets, that is — packed into single suitcases, but they don’t skimp on the best qualities of theater: spirited performances, delightful screwball characters, and live accordion music. Sommers’s sly, dark humor may fly under the radar with kids, but certainly sweetens the pot for older audience members. Best of all, this low-tech gypsy brand of theater becomes all the more magical when viewed under open summer skies.

    6:30 p.m., Across from Como Park, 976 Como Ave., St Paul; 612-823-5162; free.

    FOOD
    We All Scream for Ice Cream

    2028190863.jpgHow much is ice-cream worth to you? We don’t have many months out of the year to enjoy it, so perhaps $60 isn’t too steep. You decide. If you find it’s worth it, head over to the Kitchen Window to cool off as Terry prepares some old favorites, and what are sure to become some new favorites. Learn the ins and outs of ice cream makers designed especially for home use. The meltdown will begin with a smooth and refreshing Lemon Grass Ice Cream, and move on to Vanilla Bean and Ginger Ice Cream. But that’s not all. The ice cream will be accompanied by Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce and Brandy Snaps. And for the calorie conscious, Terry will demonstrate raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry sorbets. Yum!

    6 p.m. – 9 p.m., Kitchen Window, Calhoun Square, 3001 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-824-4417; $60.