Huffington Post’s Jamie Court responds to Intel’s new advertising campaign: “Inside Intel Is There A ‘Slave-Ship’ Agenda?“
Year: 2007
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Ride 'Em, Cowboy!
FAIR
Grit, Guts, and Grace
I hate to mention the Minnesota State Fair two days in a row — particularly after having spent the day there yesterday with Owen — but today’s event is the real deal. The online brochure says it all: “Have a kickin’, rearin’, rip-snortin’ time at the first ever Minnesota State Fair Bullriding Show including a special performance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride. It’s grit, guts and grace for one show only.” Woohoo. Bring it on. 7 p.m., Warner Coliseum, Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1561 Snelling Ave N., St. Paul; 651-642-2200; $8.
MUSIC
Winter Makes You Pay
No doubt about it, the two shows to see tonight are the
Velvet Revolver show at the Xcel Center — with Alice in Chains, and Kill Hannah — and the Belinda Underwood show at the Dakota — with Benny Green. But let’s face it, our summer days are numbered. It’s almost over… again. So it’s understandable if you want to get in those last free outdoor concerts before it’s time to hibernate. Here are some of your choices:
That Fat Chance Jug Band is playing tonight as part of the Minnehaha Falls Outdoor Concert Series. This is one genuine, old-school jug band with washboard and all — and by all I mean kazoos, guitars, shakers, a tub bass, a banjo, a mandolin, a fiddle, a muted tuble, a harmonica, and a metalaphone. Good ‘nuf?7 p.m., Minnehaha Park Pavilion, 50th St. and Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis; free.
Those of you who might be offended by my often crass cynicism can find respite tonight at Father Hennepin Bluffs, with a performance by The Brothers Frantzich. I am by no means into Christian music, per se, and I despise holding hands in circles, but good folk is good folk. And a good harmony is a good harmony. These guys sound pretty. What can I say? Their website describes their sound as “acoustic, sacred folk”; but I ask you this — what folk isn’t sacred? And if they claim to be “filling the space between the sensuality of Saturday Night & the sacred spirit of Sunday Morning,” then one has to wonder what they can do with a Wednesday night.7 p.m., Father Hennepin Bluffs, 100 6th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-230-6400; free.
Looking for something a bit… quirky? How about some authentic Bavarian folk? (Perhaps it’s not so rare around these parts.) Die Bavarian Musik Meisters will be whooping it up in traditional Germanic celebratory style — Lederhosen, suspenders, and all. If that’s not enough to entice you, how about a walk around the canal? Centennial Lakes Park is an unusual park. Though it’s actually in an office park, it’s incredibly landscaped, and actually quite beautiful in that special cookie-cutter kind of way. The park features an ample walkway around a canal, a wide variety of seating, mini-golf, paddle boats, and a concession stand. It’s definitely worth checking out at least once.7 p.m., Centennial Lakes Park Amphitheater, 7499 France Ave. S., Edina; free.
Acoustic world folk music ensemble Eclectic Blend is playing tonight at Lake Harriet. 7:30 p.m., Lake Harriet Bandshell, 4135 W. Lake Harriet Pkwy., Minneapolis; 612-661-4785; free.
The Judge Bennett trio will be sharing their acoustic blues folk tonight in St. Louis Park’s Wolf Park. 7 p.m., Wolfe Park Amphitheater, 3700 Monterey Dr., St. Louis Park; free.
And if you prefer a cajun beat, you can head over to Oak Hill Park for the musical offerings of Gottadidat. 7 p.m., Oak Hill Park, 3201 Rhode Island Ave. S., St. Louis Park; free.
FORWARD
Games for When We Are Older1. Sag, you’re It.
2. Hide and go pee.
3. Twenty questions shouted into your good ear.
4. Kick the bucket
5. Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says Bend Over.
6. Musical recliners.
7. Simon says something incoherent.
8. Pin the toupee on the bald guy -
Science Blog
One of my new favorite blogs is Pharyngula. I have to be honest, I can’t remember who turned me on to it, but I love this stuff; and it’s even a local blog — a professor, of course. (I’m such a sucker for the academic.)
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A Top Undiscovered Reading Web Site
My first discovery from PC Magazine’s Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites: Verbotomy challenges you to create a word for a given definition.
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It's All Right Here
Oh, yeah. This one is going to nourish me for quite some time — as well as nourishing my Net Raker posts. Hot Soup in the Eye just posted a link to my former employer’s website — PC Magazine’s Top Web Sites 2007. The best part is the second list, the Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites. Well, phooey, they ain’t undiscovered now, huh?
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Microtrends
Mark J. Penn has an interesting Trendsurfing post today at Forbes.com, “The Critical 1%.”
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Finally, Maybe People Will Listen
New immigrations policies are hurting us all. Now they’re even jacking up wine prices.
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Who Has The "Wide Stance" Beat?
Not that it quite rivals the Wall Street Journal stealing a Pulitzer Prize out from under the local dailies’ nose with Bill McGuire’s United Health back-dating scam, but it’s a little embarrassing to miss a U.S. Senator — Larry Craig, aka “The Militia Senator” and “The Right and Honorable Senator of the Aryan Nation”, not to mention one of the far right’s High Priests of Gun Worship and Family Values — soliciting anonymous gay sex right there in our own airport.
WCCO TV’s Jason DeRusha over on MnSpeak.com offers this explanation why no one in town caught the Craig arrest back June or the court action earlier this month:
“1. Airport Police are a pain in the neck… and extremely secretive. Even yesterday, no one would come back to the office to send us the report or give us the mug shot. “They close at 4 p.m.” is what I was told.
“2. Because airport police is separate from Minneapolis Police, or the Sheriff’s office, media would have to go to the airport to request reports. The arrest information doesn’t leave their property, and as the charge was a minor charge, I don’t think it even went to the county attorney. It was like a ticket.
“3. No one locally would raise an eyebrow about a “disorderly conduct” at the airport for a guy named Larry Craig even if they saw the report’s front page.
“4. The plea deal at the courthouse happened the week after the bridge collapse. So the usual suspects who would have tipped someone off, were too busy with other things to even concentrate on this.
Someone nationally had to tip off Roll Call, the Capitol Hill Newspaper. That’s who broke the story.”
»» Submitted by »»» jderusha at 7:44 AM on August 28.
Earlier today I called the Star Tribune’s dogged Minneapolis reporter Rochelle Olson, surprised that she of all people hadn’t caught that one. “The name alone wouldn’t have meant anything to me,” she said. “Believe me, I wish I had. But I didn’t. Are you going to rip me?”
No. I’ve missed WAY too many good stories to lob stones over this, which as I say, isn’t quite on the same level as a billionaire ripping off shareholders and contributing to the outrageous cost of health care in this country. But since Olson has just about everything else in Minneapolis to cover, thanks to Avista/Par “right-sizing”, it is worth wondering aloud how maybe if the big paper did have more bodies working city government and cop beats, downtown and out with MAC, they might have had a source who would have tipped them to this particular “Larry Craig” flashing the card of a U.S. Senator after getting yanked out of toilet stall. A cop tipster was about the only way a local reporter would have gotten the story last June.
Meanwhile, I gotta ask, what gives with these guys? I mean Republican Congressman Mark Foley and the pages, McCain’s Florida guy Republican Bob Allen soliciting gay sex in a public restroom because he was frightened of black guys in the vicinity, uber-evangelical proselytizer Ted Haggard (wild guess — Republican) buying meth … meth! … and banging a gay body builder, Jeff Gannon credentialed by the White House as a reporter for Talon (virtual) press (wha?) and later revealed to have worked with a gay escort service, the chairman of the Clark County Republican Party out in Vegas fellating some kid while he slept, and now Larry “Wide Stance” Craig tapping feet in Minnesota, as well as Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias and his romps with a D.C. escort service and Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and the –female — hookers. (Do those last two guys get a pass for just nailing women?)
I mean, can we just agree that from this point forward any politician or evangelist who declares themselves pro-family values and makes a huge, vote-getting, money-making scene about ripping gay marriage decrying the slippery slope from gayness to turtle sex is in effect acknowledging both their own closeted homosexuality and an affinity for a little clandestine quick-and-dirty, probably in a noisy john, with meth and without?
It is so far beyond easy satire, Jon Stewart’s gotta be stumped.
By the way, check out these characters reenacting Sen. Wide Stance’s Lindbergh Terminal shtick.
Why didn’t Shelby and Vascellaro do this?
Also, Glenn Greenwald at Salon has a terrific “then and now” with right-wing bloggers and pundits excoriating, Mike Rogers, the guy who blogged about Wide Stance last October … and what they are saying today. His post comes with every imaginable link to all things Wide and Stancey.
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A Tip of the Hat
I just wanted to point out what might be one of the best blog headlines ever over at clothesline blog.
“Gonzales may have resigned — says he can’t recall”
To say anything else would be gilding the lily.
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You're invited: Szechuan Dinner With An Expert
When Jim Harkness, the new executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, dines at Little Szechuan in Saint Paul, he orders in Mandarin, and sometimes he throws in a Szechuan accent, just to mess with the waiters’ head. My Rake co-blogger and I will be having dinner with Jim this Sunday, September 2 at 7 p.m., and we would like to invite some Rake readers to join us. It’ll be a chance to learn more about the cuisine of Szechuan, and the work that Jim is doing with IATP. We’ll split the bill – we’ll try to keep in under $20 per person – – and you have to pay for your own wine and beer. Probably about half the dishes will be vegetarian or seafood. If you would like to join us, please email me at iggers@rakemag.com, no later than this Friday at noon.