The Rake Magazine

Month: October 2007

  • The Lonely Heavy Metal Publicist Tries His Hand At Poetry

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    No birds.

    No flowers.

    No bees.

    No moon.

    No water,

    moving or still.

    Nothing growing.

    Nothing stirring

    in the shadows.

    No history.

    No satisfying toil

    or contemplation of love.

    No memories.

    For no one.

    Dreams of leaving,

    I suppose. And the cold

    shoulder, sure.

    Or if interest,

    so fervent as to

    be suspect,

    if not frightening.

    Foul language,

    prurience, impossible

    demands, and ingratitude

    from the B-Squad louts with

    the ridiculous hair and

    the mascara and the

    leather pants, etc.

    Mostly, though,

    no thank you,

    and worse.

    Or no response,

    no answer at all.

    And all these photos

    I cannot look at,

    and these discs I

    can’t listen to.

    Every evening I

    crawl from the

    office through

    the dog door,

    a ruined man.

  • Guild Looks at Age Discrimination Action

    Ex-Stribber wanted to know why, if there are now two of us blogging, why there aren’t daily posts. As mentioned previously, my colleague Mr. Lambert is off kayaking in the wilds of Utah and is blameless. I was first out of town and am now deluged with out-of-town guests who want to see every piece of art the TC have to offer. So….haven’t been making a lot of calls. Fortunately, one of our correspondents had his ear to the ground and sent in this tidbit. I have no reason to doubt this post, as I was one of the folks who was told of her “reassignment” within days of the buyout deadline. Course, then they denied my buyout, but that’s a whole different story.

    Read and discuss….

    The Star Tribune Guild convened a 10:30 meeting this morning to look at a pattern of age discrimination in the reassignments cooked up by editors for the paper’s owner, Avista Capital Partners. Speaking on background, one Guild officer said that by their count “only three or four” of the [30-40] reporters told they are being reassigned, “are under the age of 35”.

    It is generally considered “paranoid” or “cynical” to read individualized, strategic intent in these reassignment frenzies. But when, as the same Guild source points out, the percentage of reassignees is so heavily skewed to older writers AND they are notified of their reassignment only days/hours before they have to decide to accept a buy-out and leave the paper, you really aren’t left with many credible explanations other than that this is the latest exercise in the tried-and-true corporate “right-sizing” template of — let’s describe it the way it smells — — insulting/threatening a veteran reporter with a switch to a beat usually covered by a summer intern, if at all.

    There are specific examples all over the place, but when you get to Neal Gendler, a 60-something with 40 years at the paper being reassigned to overnights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., you’re not even getting points for subtlety. In other words, police chase and flaming wreck with shoot out at 3 AM … Gendler’s your man.)

    The Guild also has a problem with the peculiar sequencing of the reassignment/buy-out deadline process devised by the Star Tribune. As I asked/wrote yesterday, how else can you explain managing editors spending so much time re-mapping their employee universe BEFORE knowing for certain who they would have to work with, other than as a not too subtle and yes, fairly cynical process for “encouraging” those they most want out of the building to pack up and go?

    It may be technically legal, but it runs contrary to the spirit of journalism, where your agendas, if you have them, are supposed to be plainly disclosed.

    Whether the Guild alone can get any traction on the age discrimination issue remains to be seen. I happen to believe they should pursue aggressive outside counsel if only to squeeze Avista for a fatter, longer-term health benefits package. But that’s me and it wouldn’t be my money.

  • Minstrel Show or the Lynching of William Brown

    Variety reviews a play by our very own Max Sparber. (OK. That’s a bit overly possessive perhaps.)

  • Breast Awareness, Part 2

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    I was — perhaps rightfully — taken to task by a reader (see comment on the entry below) for downplaying the risks of wine by posing questions about whether the most recent study to find a link between breast cancer and alcohol consumption also controlled for things such as smoking, high-fat diets, misreporting, etc. Mr. Johnson’s comment was well articulated and I took it to heart.

    I also became curious about what the nation’s medical news experts are saying. So I looked at articles by a few of the big ones, including a blog by Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s CNN health team. (If you click on the link, scroll down to the October 1 entry.) And it turns out even the widely-revered Dr. Gupta and his associates were criticized for their handling of the Kaiser Permanente study which found red wine is as prone to enhance breast tumors as beer or hard liquor.

    Several readers — including a few medical professionals — wrote to CNN hawking a paper from 2005 that was authored by a team of Melbourne-based researchers and claimed high levels of folate (a B vitamin necessary for the production of red blood cells and the synthesis of DNA) may mitigate the effects of alcohol when it comes to breast cancer. It’s worth noting, however, that at least one of the people responding to Gupta was a doctor (of what kind, I cannot say) with the American Roots Winery in Napa Valley.

    For the record, I’m not recommending that women swallow handfuls of B-complex capsules before slugging down liters of wine. . . .I’m only putting out all the information I can find so careful readers and cautious drinkers can make informed choices of their own.

  • Apologies

    In my comment of yesterday, I accused the Strib of sending a photographer to illustrate the top of the front page story on the news that the airport was going to lower the dividers in some of the men’s room stalls.

    As many astute readers pointed out, it was an AP photo. I don’t recall seeing the AP photo credit on yesterday’s Strib web version of the story, but it’s there today.

    So, they only sent a reporter to cover the bathroom, not a photographer, too. So, they aren’t quite as lame as I thought. Almost, but not quite.

    Is no one willing to jump to their defense for putting the story at the top of the front page? How about for editorializing about it (and running the photo yet again, although not on the website) today? Any takers?

  • Tam-Tam's African Restaurant

    You don’t really have to be a gastronomic adventurer to enjoy the cuisine at Tam-Tam’s African Restaurant in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, but if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, the option is there. The menu really covers most of the continent, ranging from Ugandan Hunter’s Ribs ($11.99), an enormous portion of grilled marinated beef ribs, served on the bone, to West African palm butter stew, served with your choice of chicken beef or goat ($11.99), and Ethiopian Injera n’ Wot, a dish of spicy chicken and vegetables served over flat bread ($9.99). I stopped in recently and had the lunch special of beef stew ($7.99 / $11.99 for dinner), tender chunks of beef in a rich gravy, accompanied by a couple of sides.I chose the collard greens, and the ugali, a steamed corn meal dumpling that’s perfect for sopping up gravy. Ugandan-born owner Steven Kaggwa is a genial and engaging host, happy to answer questions about the menu.
    Tam-Tam’s now also offers wine and beer, including South African and Ethiopian vintages, as well as Tusker beer from Kenya – and highly rated Bell’s beer from Uganda is expected to arrive soon.
    Tam-Tam’s African Restaurant, 605 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis,.

  • Pre-Season

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    October is the kick-off for eating season. As the weather gets chillier and damper, our bodies crave that extra layer or warmth … and that means baking.

    One of my favorite October things is when all my windows are open and the house is freezing, except for the kitchen which is ablaze with baked goods.

    My poor family never seems to know what has hit them. During summer I am all about simple fruit desserts or ice cream, then WHAM October arrives and the once dusty cookie jar is jammed with treats.

    Firstly, I am obsessed with quick-breads: a dense and spiced pumpkin bread, an earthy banana bread, even Nigella’s chocolate loaf laced with something new … like sage or cayenne.

    Cakes can not be traditional (we have enough of those for all the summer birthdays in my house) so they have to be different or made with a new technique.

    Cookies of course reign supreme. It is the warm up to the Holiday Cookie onslaught. But October cookies can be darker and less joyful, they have permission to be edgy or sly without all the pretty pretty of holiday bites.

  • Nintendo Rehab

    Did you see this WCCO story on therapists using Nintendo Wii for rehabilitation? Minneapolis made it into Gearlog this month.

  • Speaking of Harper's . . .

    Here’s the result of the recent case against them, as per them.

  • To the Bat Closet

    Harper’s has this very cool list of homosexual comic-book characters and their fates. The list was compiled by Perry Moore, author of Hero, a young-adult novel about a gay teenage superhero.