Gwen opened the middle drawer of her desk and saw box after box of tea jammed one next to the other. Some were decorated in pastels, others in bright reds and yellows; some featured drawings of animals or pastoral scenes, and all were frightening. Like a banner strung from the tail of an airplane, the … Read more
One hundred and fifty years ago, when a Methodist pastor stumbled into what became Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, he thought he’d found the Garden of Eden. Dotted with apple trees and surrounded by lush green bluffs, no other place, he argued, conformed so closely to the biblical description of Eden. Even now, despite upstream polluters that … Read more
Your mission this coming Saturday afternoon: without upstaging the happy couple. It behooves you to be both fashionable and appropriate, because the mother of the bride might cast you a disapproving glance if you are anything less. So grab your pastel neckties, dust off some chic but not overly sexy footwear, and wiggle into those strapless gowns. Provided … Read more
Lowriding isn’t about how close your Impala sits to the concrete. It’s about flexing your muscles, gritting your teeth, and shining your wheel covers. At least that’s what we came away thinking after the “Hydraulic Showdown” event, which was part of last month’s Cinco de Mayo festival in St. Paul. But the art of lowriding … Read more
In the photo, he’s twenty-five or so. Quite obviously, the picture was taken in the early 1970s. He is wearing loud plaid pants, a shiny pink shirt with ruffles down the front and at the cuffs, and a huge bowtie and vest. His afro is cropped, but not too close, and he’s smiling, one of … Read more
Last summer, the “Space T.U. Embrace” project performed for the first time at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Space to embrace? Space tee-you embrace? Why so cryptic? There was definitely buzz around Toni Pierce-Sands (“T”) and Uri Sands (“U”). They had launched their experimental project the year before, at the University of Minnesota, and the … Read more
Not much has changed in the hoarse conversation about pro sports stadiums here in the Twin Cities, at least not in the last five years. Public antipathy and skepticism remain about the same, which is to say very high. If decision-makers have learned anything, it is that one does not speak about a new stadium … Read more
Everybody seems to have a blog these days. Your angry libertarian neighbor probably has one, not to mention the cat hoarder across the street, and the tortured teenage poet up the block. In the public mind, unfortunately, the excitable political bloggers tend to be regarded as representative—or perhaps symptomatic—of the whole phenomenon, and they certainly … Read more
Just the other day, tickets for the next Cirque du Soleil show in Minneapolis went on sale. Cirque du Soleil has a lot to answer for in these parts. Five years ago, Charlie and Julie Zelle took their children, Charlotte and Nick, on a family trip to see the trampoline queens and contortionists at a … Read more
The Michael Jackson trial in Santa Maria, California, is actually an autopsy. Anyone with a pocketful of perspective understands that the King of Pop has already died a slow public death, remembered less and less for his musical gifts, recognized more for his eccentricities. The best that can be said about this is that it … Read more