Author: rakemag

Thank you, and Brian Lambert, for pointing out the inadequacies of our local newspapers. [See Lambert’s blog Lambert to the Slaughter, at www.rakemag.com.] Many of us have given up on the mainstream and instead look to your magazine and other free venues for intelligent, comprehensive, and well-written journalism, telling us what is going on in our world. Of course, with a regime in the White House incapable of concise communication we can understand the dumbing down—generally—of too much of today’s media. The bar is at its lowest.

I have had the pleasure of working with Dave St. Peter [“Marathon Man,” April] in the world of media with the Minnesota Twins. We are fortunate to have a man like Dave running the Twins. He is the consummate professional who always presented a positive outlook, even when the Twins were not world champions. He sees the team’s value to the community no matter what the win/loss record. It was a great article and I think it captured that essence.

So what your article [“No. 1 Hard,” February 2006] tells me is that your intent is to steal North Dakota’s oil reserves. Has it occurred to you that we like it here? I’ve lived in California, Florida, Connecticut, Ohio, Washington, and Pennsylvania. After seeing these crime-filled, dirty places it was always my pleasure to come home. So much so that I chose to raise my children here, where they had more freedom and safety. If you don’t like it here, leave and leave us alone.

I pick up your magazine every month. The March cover [“Murder by Numbers”] seemed too much for me to bear. But then a friend told me there was an accounting of every murder that took place in Minneapolis last year. I went directly to victim number thirty-six, my son. His name was Pestelence V.D. El-Shabazz, aka Valentine Alexander Durray Riley. We all know—including the homicide detectives working on this case—that he had a criminal record. But despite being incarcerated, he was a very good son to his mother. He was always concerned about me, always called me on the phone, always encouraged me about my goals in life, and loved and respected me. These qualities should be reason enough to solve his and these other unsolved murder cases. I love and miss my child, my son, my friend. He wrote me a rap symphony called “My Mama.” He was very intelligent and full of good advice. He had the most handsome smile. He is surely missed by all who knew him.

It would be nice if your March issue could be circulated all over the North Side of Minneapolis. I have always been concerned about my community. I hope that the next elected officials will care about it, too, and that the people who live there will care even more. Form more block clubs, watch out for your neighbors, call the police more often, and report the drug and gun dealers. I always did. There has to be a change. We have to do a better job of taking care of each other.

Hello – I have always enjoyed the red-handed pictures and blurb. We took two pictures and couldn’t decide which one you would like better: the classic Alamo or the Air Force Reserve Jet Car which goes 400 mph and runs on biodiesel.

While the rest of us toiled away in below zero temps in early February, Kelly Marczak and Lisa Thurstin of the American Lung Association were enjoying 70 degrees at the Alamo and basking in the warmth of the National Biodiesel Conference in San Antonio, TX. Conference attendance was 3,500 with representatives from the U.S. and 15 countries. Celebrity biodiesel-supporters spotted at the meeting included Larry Hagman of Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie fame; country icon Merle Haggard; actress Daryl Hannah and political-hybrid/husband-wife team, Mary Matalin & James Carville. Our region is looked to as the national leader in production and use of biodiesel — all Minnesota diesel fuel sold at retail contains 2% biodiesel. The American Lung Association works to educate consumers, truckers and service station owners about the benefits of biodiesel as a “Clean Air Choice.” Learn more at: www.CleanAirChoice.org .

My friend Thomas and I were in Dubrovnik, Croatia, for two-weeks this past December. The town was getting ready for St. Nicholas Day–when the children receive chocolate in their stockings–and part of the celebration is a parade of the Dubrovnik Region Old-Timers Car Club. Well, it was quite a surprise for us as we sat sipping mocciatos at a cafe on Stradun, the pedestrian-only main street of Dubrovnik.

Thank you for the moving and chilling story about Fozia Mussa [“Country Girl,” April]. I am glad she, unlike so many others, is getting the opportunity to explore her potential and is doing so much with it. There certainly is more than enough racism and xenophobia in the world. However, many if not most of us stare, peer, and yes, even “gawk” at things that are unusual that we are trying to understand. To describe looks as “sneers” and impute racism and xenophobia to scrutiny or long glances seems unfair and excessive; political correctness runs amok. Seeing is believing but believing is seeing as well. It is our attitudes that primarily divide us. I am glad Mussa “paid little attention to the apparent xenophobia,” perhaps she didn’t see it, and chose hope over fear in accepting help and the hand of friendship from a rival clan. Hopefully revealing hers will not “lead to trouble” with her clients.

Psychiatrist Kevin Turnquist gave an excellent response, conservative and correct, to important questions about “depression” and related issues [“The Doctor is In,” April].
I find that the word “depression” nowadays is loosely used and over-used by the general public. Where once we were “unhappy” or “down” or “moody” or “low,” now we are “depressed.” This buzzword too often gets us directed—unnecessarily—to a mental-health practitioner for treatment.

Life is not a bowl of cherries; it has its pits. When we feel “low” or “down,” by no means does this mean that we need professional treatment for depression. Talk with a friend. A relative or religious leader can help us when we feel “low.” So will a vacation, change of scene, another activity, or merely time itself. If our happiness interferes not with our work, social life, or our physical well-being, then (in my view) we are only “unhappy”; we are not mentally “depressed” such as to need treatment.

Unfortunately, in these times there is a pervasive attitude that no discomfort, mental or physical, is allowed—and an immediate treatment or a pill is called for. And we forget that sometimes the “treatment” is worse than the “disease.”

In the April Rake [“Cuddly Kierkegaardians”], Dan Sinykin mused that “Søren Kierkegaard … wrote more than thirty books during his life (1813-1855) on topics ranging from faith to seduction. That’s a lot of ink for a man whose favorite thinkers, Socrates and Jesus, never penned a word.”

I’d agree that Socrates and Jesus never saw a Bic or a Biro, but assuming that “penned” here is just meant as a variant on “wrote,” this is seemingly not true of Jesus (though perhaps so of Socrates). See John, chapter 8, verses 6-8:

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

I am writing in reference to the “Dance Dance Competition” article in the April issue. Although I appreciate any visibility that dance receives in this community, I do not feel this article speaks to the comprehensive nature of dance education available to my students at Summit School of Dance nor to the positive benefits gleaned from the competition experience. Let’s face it, why in this community where education and the arts in general are so valued, would so many students and their parents spend so much time, sweat, and money if the value of the experience was as limited as the article implies?
At Summit School of Dance our students train in a conservatory-level ballet program alongside their competition classes. They are exposed to creative movement, improvisation, and modern dance from a very early age. Instead of participating in “nationals” our students travel during the summer months to study at many prestigious conservatory programs. Last year, four out of the forty-four students attending the Juilliard summer program were Summit students. This year, we have three students heading to Juilliard with an additional student accepted into the freshman class.

Just as in any conservatory program, not all Summit students pursue a career in dance, but they do build skills that translate into valuable assets in the corporate world. The competition dancers incrementally learn how to audition as it is a process they are required to go through each year to make their danceline. They learn to be prepared and thorough, presenting themselves as a complete package, confident and put together in spite of the “butterflies.” The rehearsal process builds team skills and students learn about their strengths/weaknesses, what they bring to the group and how to value what others bring. The ability to perform on unknown stages and having to immediately adjust without a spacing rehearsal is an invaluable skill for a professional dancer, but it also breeds flexibility and confidence in all competition participants.

My students are encouraged to pursue excellence regardless of venue and idiom. Competition dance is a much-beloved venue and something my students share with other dancers. It does serve a social purpose, but it is also an entrée to dance as an art form. By dismissing something so stimulating, and culturally invested, one misses the chance to create openings and bridges between the diverse dance worlds … and we all lose.

Finally, I resent the term “penis points.” I have never heard that reference prior to this article and find it infinitely demeaning and derogatory. I value the fact that I have young men to teach and that those young men enjoy and pursue their ballet training with gusto. They expand the training possibilities for our young ladies and offer me many choreographic options and opportunities. Outside of a competition studio, I have had very little opportunity to instruct male dancers. Thus, my association with Summit has expanded and nurtured my own professional artistic experience.