It was Day 2 of the Republican National Convention and The Rake was seated proudly in the "minor local media" section. With CityPages at our side, God as our witness and no actual view of the stage, the event was underway. It was quickly apparent that, in solidarity with the folks displaced by Hurricane Gustav, […]
Downtown Militarized Zone
September 2, 2008 by
Photos by India Bell Hard to believe that as recently as Sunday, downtown Saint Paul was a bucolic paradise ringed in chain link, the peace kept by strapping young men with plastic handcuffs. Sadly, the photos below didn’t jibe with the reality of yesterday’s protests. While Minnesota’s, and the nation’s, eyes should’ve been turned to […]
A Pair of Jedi Masters Become One With the Force
August 28, 2008 by
"I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced." Obi-Wan might as well have been talking about last night’s call by Hillary Clinton to nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. Even as cheers rang throughout the assembled DNC crowd, through the MPR broadcast […]
Eight Crazy Nights: A Political Miniseries
August 27, 2008 by
Save for the lack of scheduled appearances by Valerie Bertinelli, Tiffani Thiessen or Jennie Garth, over the course of the next two weeks America will be treated to two of the best-funded Lifetime miniseries of all time. Featuring exotic settings; heroes and villains a-plenty; a family dynasty forever shattered; and production values that would shame […]
A Complex Calculus: Boone's = Booty
August 21, 2008 by
It’s all too rare that college presidents, a group often collectively known as "The Man," are celebrated on college campuses. But today, MPR’s college audience raised bottles of Boone’s and boxes of refreshing Franzia in a toast to the 114 college presidents, including Minnesota’s own Jack Ohle – president of Gustavus Adolphus, who signed on […]
Taking On the Divine Right
August 19, 2008 by
District 6 is a bizarre creature. Stretching in a "C" around the metro area from Stillwater all the way to St. Cloud, the district encompasses a huge range of incomes, lifestyles, political philosophies, albeit a rather narrow range of races – remaining 95 percent white according to census data. One might assume this variety would […]
Securing the Sewers of Saint Paul Against the Crappiest of Villains
August 13, 2008 by
Hordes of Jihadists, radical liberals and ancient clown-shaped abominations with fantasies of disrupting the Republican National Convention by rising from beneath the streets of Saint Paul like so many crap-coated Lovecraftian elder-beings wept bitterly as public works employees welded downtown manhole covers shut during the last week. Thanks to the astute foresight and planning of […]
Political Theater Starring a Convicted Felon
August 8, 2008 by
Fool for a Client, Mark Whitney’s politically-tinged Fringe show, is The Shawshank Redemption meets The Pursuit of Happyness. And not only is the painfully funny show tough to perform, since it chronicles some of the roughest periods of Whitney’s life, but it also attempts to examine many of the odd conflicts inherent in today’s political […]
Getting Propositioned
August 4, 2008 by
While Minnesota has long touted its progressive credentials – enacting policies to help the nation’s huddling masses, deifying a well-intentioned former school teacher, and allowing the irredeemably stupid to perform police work – California has followed the teachings of its favorite son and popped a cap in the state’s aspirations to be the nation’s Leftist […]
The Votes Are In
July 30, 2008 by
For nearly a month you’ve waited to learn who the newly crowned royalty of Minnesota politics might be. Exhibiting saint-like patience and a knack for painting profoundly inappropriate pictures and imagery of your favorite GOP Representatives, your votes have piled up in comments and emails, displaying a passion heretofore unknown for anything but basketball in […]