Head to Luverne tonight for your copy of The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945.
Year: 2007
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Sup like a steelworker
The latest Parasole restaurant opened for dinner last night in Maple Grove. It’s called Pittsburgh Blue, named for the way he-men in the Rust Belt eat their steak: charred on the exterior, cold and bloody inside.
Why, you may ask, is a restaurant geared toward steelworkers located in the pink collar capital of the Midwest? Will the mega-cineplex and Olive Garden set suddenly grow incisors? All I know is, Phil Roberts (the man behind the curtain at Parasole) measures the market and gets things right. He brought Salut to Edina, Oceanaire to the downtown Hyatt, and Buca di Beppo to the world. If he says northwest metro residents are ready for viscera, I believe him.
Also, the menu is vast. Oysters Rockefeller, Spinach and Applewood Bacon Salad, Corn-Crusted Halibut, Spinach and Mushroom Gratin. That and lots and lots of beef. Prices are at the tipping point: $27.95 for that halibut, $17.95 for a dry-aged sirloin steak sandwich. Sides are shared, as at Oceanaire and Manny’s: monster portions of onion rings and asparagus with hollandaise. A root beer float goes for eight bucks.
But if in this era of sustain-the-earth speak the mighty Roberts predicts Twin Citians will get into their cars and drive miles on I-94 to a stylish supper club with a “very, very mean-looking bust of a bull” (according to the restaurant’s ad hoc press release) hanging over the hearth, in order to eat as carnivorously as the men who do back-breaking work in fiery foundries, 12 hours at a shift, pouring molten pig iron into ingots. . . .they will. Bank on it.
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The Daily Mole
Minnesota Monitor gives us the dirt on Steve Perry’s new website. Check out the great teaser.
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Cue, Once Again, Barber's Adagio for Strings
We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.
–Chekhov, Uncle Vanya
It’s all just history now, that still incomprehensible day six years ago, history buried under history, with more awful history heaped on top of it. It gets buried deeper all the time. Rubble and ruin the central metaphor of the years since.
How, you wonder, could such a day possibly be eclipsed by something so inconsequential as the passing of time? And yet it has been eclipsed, reduced now to token, knee-jerk political justification for virtually any new outrage, and reduced as well to fodder for entertainment –sensationalized films and television movies and books. A real, jarring leviathan of a memory collectively transformed into something sordid, a lurid, almost mythological spectacle from recent history, something that happened to other people and continues to be used to explain away terrible things that continue to be visited upon other other people in elsewheres near and far.
All over the world the horrors of that day live on in brutal abstract and concrete concussion, a cruel cycle of visitations and revisitations and recrimination. But not, for the most part, here.
Americans are accomplished at nothing so much as rolling with the punches that are thrown at other people, at slowing down briefly to gawk and tsk-tsk at the wreckage before moving on. We move swiftly out from under things and right back under our own things.
Other people: the great shadow abstraction and peripheral nag of modern psychology.
We all, certainly, can find reasons to feel ashamed of ourselves. All sorts of reasons. There is really no end to our shame, and no end in sight.
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Minnesota at Forefront of Magnetoencephalography
The Economist’s recent article “Magnetic Personalities” reveals University of Minnesota scientist Apostolos Georgopoulos’s studies on the brain’s magnetic impulses.
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Keep Your Baby Safe from Flying Bullets
Bullet Proof baby is actually a promotional site for the new movie Shoot’Em Up, but, man, if you don’t know that it can pretty startling.
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Escape Telemarketers
You have just a few more days, until September 15th, to register your phone number(s) with the National Do Not Call Registry. Do it now.
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Out of Tragedy, Something Good Must Come
It’s September 11th, folks. And while you might want to take a moment to reflect — and perhaps contemplate what that has meant within the larger context of our lives and those around us, near and far — this is certainly no time for inertia. Do something! Anything. Raise your voice. Better yourself somehow. Nurture the mind, the body, the soul, whatever you desire. Just do something.
There are a number of events centered around the infamous date — The Apocalypse Theatre show at Pi (9:30 p.m.); the (9-11) Don’t forget show at the Uptown Bar and Cafe, with Mommy S3z No, Wounded Minds, and The Rock n Roll Whores (9:30 p.m.). But if you’re determined to make a night out of a tragedy, I suggest one of the following two options:
FILM
Untold Stories of 9/11 Widows
If you’ve seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, then you’ll likely not be learning anything new at tonight’s free screening of 9/11 Press for Truth. But the film is a wonderful introduction to the “issues” and discrepancies surrounding the events of 9/11. Paul Thompson’s “stitched together” documentary follows grieving family members on their quest for truth and their demand for accountability — how they compelled an investigation, and how they got no answers. What better way to honor a loss, than to learn from it.5:20 p.m., Riverview Theater, 3800 42nd Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-729-7369;free.
MUSIC
Uplifting, Patriotic Music
One of the commonalities among most religious practices is the use of song and music to reach spiritual heights. This is really of little surprise, given the prolific use of music in ceremony and celebration. Music moves us. Music touches us. Music allows us to express ourselves, and to simply feel. Perhaps that’s what the day is for today: to simply feel. And there are 135 people ready to express themselves. That’s right; an all volunteer 65-piece orchestra and 70-voice chorus will perform this evening at Lake Harriet as part of the 6th Annual 9-11 Tribute: Our Community Remembers. Just go, sit back, receive, and feel… a most beautiful outpouring of uplifting, patriotic music. It may be one of the few remaining ways to arouse patriotism in some of us.7 p.m., Lake Harriet Band Shell, 43rd St. W. and E. Lake Harriet Pkwy., Minneapolis; 612 230-6475; free.
Rather not take 9-11 on so directly? Don’t worry; in the middle of so much insanity, it’s quite fitting to nurture the intellect — and a great means of escape as well.
BOOKS
Tales of Journeys
Join us this evening for an escapist literary discussion with writers and aficionados alike. This month’s Raking through Books celebrates traveling the blue roads with authors from The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate, featuring James Lenfestey, Freya Manfred, Bruce Benidt, Nick Healy, Ann Rosenquist-Fee, and Rachael Hanel. Tales of plane and automobile travel, walks, and journeys through time fill The Blueroad Reader with poetry, prose, and illustrations. It’s a celebration of memory and of journeys to come. Come to tonight’s event and get a 20 percent discount on the book from the University of Minnesota Bookstore.5:30 to 7 p.m., Kieran’s Irish Pub, 330 2nd Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-339-4499; free.
Happy 10th Anniversary, Akashic Press
Join writers Joe Meno and Mickey Hess this evening for the anniversary celebration of Akashic Books. According to their website, Akashic is “a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers.” In other words, we love them. In fact, if Meno and Hess are any indication of the quality of work, we plain old adore Akashic. Best known for his hit novels Hairstyles of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails, Meno has a knack for finding beauty in imperfections. (Yeah, I know; it sounds like a bad personal ad. But it’s still true.) Hess, meanwhile, is best known for his hip hop work, Is Hip Hop Dead?; his memoir, Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory; and his vast collection of stories.7:30 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.
Of course, you could always go to the Bryant Lake Bowl for tonight’s Books and Bars book discussion on Peter Carey’s Theft: A Love Story(7 p.m.). The guy really is a most adept writer.
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Steven Brown to Ivy? "No Comment"
The rumor is floating around restaurant kitchens – or at least one restaurant kitchen – that the talented Steven Brown is leaving Harry’s Food and Cocktails to become executive chef for the new upscale restaurant at the Ivy Hotel, a Starwood Hotels luxury property scheduled to open later this year at 1115 2nd Ave. S. in downtown Minneapolis. Harry’s opened in early July in the former Nochee’s site at 500 S. Washington. Contacted for a response, Brown offered a succinct “no comment,” but he did volunteer that the long-awaited poutine will be on Harry’s menu by Wednesday. “It features amongst other things, pickles and green peppercorns and it is, imho of course, better than sex…even for those under 30!”