Brad Zellar Come on, give a rat’s ass, would you, you fuckers? Give it the old college try. Take a good look around and tell me what you see. Don’t lie to me. My kingdom is a laughingstock. I’ve let myself go, grown fat on the sautéed kidneys of disc jockeys and dickweeds whose gross ambition offended … Read more
I’d say it’s a decent idea, Thanksgiving, even if it’s one of those old, decent ideas that means almost nothing anymore. Still, it does strike me as a worthwhile thing, the notion of taking time out of your life to give thanks for whatever the hell you have to give thanks for. And surely you … Read more
Would you say? I would say, yes. Say what? That is the question. Yes, that’s the question. No, that is the question. No question mark. What is the question? Say what? I said, "What is the question?" And I said, "Say what?" I heard you the first time, but I still haven’t heard your answer: … Read more
I was born a clown, and in retrospect my parents were incredibly good sports about what must surely have been on a number of levels a shock and a disappointment. They’d been trying for years to have a child, and they accepted me immediately as a blessing and loved me unconditionally for what I was. … Read more
For many months, on her way to and from school each day, Gloria had paused at the pet shop window to gaze with a combination of adoration and desire at the pretty little accordion nestled there in wood shavings and newspaper confetti. Each night at the dinner table she would beg her parents to let … Read more
Every Christmas when I was a child, much of my extended family would gather at my grandparents’ farm outside a small town in Illinois. My own family would usually arrive early in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, and many other relatives who lived nearby would come out to the farm for dinner that night. My … Read more
At this point Bill Holm probably qualifies as a literary lion. He looks the part, certainly (Garrison Keillor has described him as “the tallest radical humorist in the Midwest”), and has a pretty unconventional lifestyle by Minnesota lit standards. Holm is an outsized personality, yet he’s also something of an outstate recluse and a rambler. … Read more
To celebrate the publication of his labor of love/ oral history, The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting, longtime Twin Cities music critic and columnist Jim Walsh will be undertaking his own blitzkrieg, book-tour version of the Mats’ legendary ’85 five-night stand at the Entry. In the course of one week you’ll have a bunch … Read more
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, displaced Big Easy journalist Tisserand, the former editor of the estimable Gambit Weekly, has produced a truly inspiring and moving testament to the power of perseverance in the face of unimaginable exile. Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember is … Read more
Every town and city has its share of genuine characters and eccentrics, but I think you could say that it’s somewhat easier to get a real feel for the personalities of such characters in a smaller town, where there are so few public secrets and mysteries, and where what might be mere sidewalk spectacle in … Read more