The other day, a man called the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to ask why the crickets weren’t chirping in the city this summer. “That’s strange,” said Dr. John Luhman, a research scientist, taxonomist, and longtime cricket enthusiast. “I heard them while riding my bike just yesterday. The crickets haven’t gone anywhere—you’d better take another listen.” … Read more
A hand-lettered, unprofessionally illustrated sign appeared in midsummer outside the university area’s Santana grocery. It said, “We Rent Hookahs.” Now, there are actually two small bodegas that bear the proud Santana name, and they are located within blocks of each other, where Interstate 35W crosses University Avenue and Fourth Street Southeast. But only one Santana … Read more
Jon Steinhorst was on break from Columbia College’s film program, and he was looking to make a few bucks. Back when he was in design school, Jon spent his summers painting houses, so repairing stucco on his mother-in-law’s home wasn’t out of the question. But stucco proved to be an insurmountable challenge. So Jon whipped … Read more
Don Nelson’s white minivan looked pretty much like every other vehicle in the parking lot behind the Green Mill restaurant on Hennepin Avenue. But the moment Nelson opened the rear door, out of the dark interior came frantic grunting. When he opened the gate to a portable dog kennel sitting on the floor, the grunts … Read more
At 120 years old, the Grand Army of the Republic Hall over in Litchfield is one of the last-standing halls of its kind in the nation. It’s an inconspicuous building: narrow, pallid, sunk between two ugly, newer structures in the middle of a residential block. It hardly looks deserving of all the festoons Litchfield will … Read more
When Bob Mould visits First Avenue, the paint on the walls heats up and starts to become liquid again. Stalactites of tobacco exhalations loosen their grip and drop from the ceiling. And the eardrums of people in the audience begin to ring in a way that will never completely go away, but it won’t hurt … Read more
I am the queen of recurring dreams. But lately, I’m often disappointed by the obvious symbols and lack of mystery they seem to hold. It’s been so long since I’ve had one of those “What in the world do you think that means?” dreams. Also sadly lacking are the “Please don’t wake me–I’m loving this … Read more
Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, but it seems a goodly number of our acquaintances get their thrills by slapping around wet lumps of clay. In any of the Twin Cities’ plentiful venues for making pottery, you can find small crowds of dusty people hugging their misshapen pots and discovering their reverence for Warren … Read more
There’s art that perfectly reflects a particular era or discipline, and then there’s art that is a direct and unvarnished reflection of an individual’s mind. When viewing the strange and gorgeous prints of Donovan Durham, you are staring point blank at the workings of this man’s complex insides: his loves, his fantasies, his fears. Dubbed … Read more
No, it’s not all about him–really. Still, we were intrigued by the contrast between the monumental paintings anchoring each end of this decades-spanning exhibit. In ’69, a portrait of the artist as a young scrapper looking to shake things up is rendered with stark black and white precision (this is the masterwork purchased by the … Read more