rakemag Cool colors and sparse compositions link the two artists exhibiting together at this year-old artists’ collective tucked away in a corner of the quickly gentrifying Old St. Anthony section of northeast Minneapolis. John-Mark Schlink’s work is based around his interest in architectural forms, most obviously in his studies of Minneapolis’ downtown buildings, which reduce the … Read more
Martha Clarke has seldom pursued the linear in her storytelling. Like many of the artists she’s interpreted—Franz Kafka and Hieronymus Bosch, for instance—Clarke has a taste for collaging imagery with such a ravenous appetite that the final product invariably takes on the taste of a three-day acid trip. Vienna Lusthaus (Revisited) is no exception. Capturing … Read more
Finally someone (besides us) has noticed that the expansive area north of the old warehouse district, recently filled with new condos and townhouses, offices and studios, is ready for a restaurant and club appropriate for the crowd that works and lives nearby. Babalu is that, and a certain draw for heat-seeking souls from the entire … Read more
Acrid smoke billows from the open loading doorways as I adjust my face mask and move tentatively into the smelting room. Above, a muscle-powered crane is lifting a small pile of stainless steel scrap over the dirt floor, toward two men standing over the white-orange burn of a smelting furnace. As they reach out for … Read more
Eric Dregni should be congratulated on his new fedora [“Put a Lid on It,” December]. I think he’s right, too, in locating the decline of the fedora (and the homburg) from about the time of JFK’s inauguration. I think lower car headroom played a part. I remember my father always wore a hat, and so … Read more
Just a short note to let you know you failed to write about the amalgams in most of your readers’ teeth [“Grin and Bear It,” December]. Yes, I know that my health is better without the mercury in my body. Jesse Ventura was the first governor to appoint a mercury-free advocate to the Minnesota Dental … Read more
I’m a fan of The Rake, but do you just toss that award-winning attention to detail and critical thinking to the wind when you write about anything concerning animals? In December, you (1) profiled Horst [“The Fine Art of Living Well”] without mentioning a top Aveda selling point—their refusal to test their cosmetics on animals, … Read more
I enjoyed the beautiful pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary [“Something About Mary, Mother of God,” December]. However, the accompanying article is very offensive to me in a few places. Being that I was raised a Catholic, I want to know the source for stating that Mary is a “figure of adoration.” I’ve always been … Read more
It’s silly to suggest that American men stopped wearing their hats just because JFK took his off during his 1960 inaugural address. In fact, he wore a silk top hat that whole day—and tails! Some people claim that he actually revived this tradition; Truman wore a topper for his inaugural, but Eisenhower wore a homburg. … Read more
It was great to discover that I wasn’t the only person who wondered what happened at Supervalu [“Superdeval-ued,” November]. My mother (retired, living on a fixed income) owned 400 shares of Supervalu and she was thinking about selling them. I researched the stock and recommended holding the shares, because the stock had good ratings and … Read more