Kate DiCamillo has some writing habits that we truly envy. She writes every day at the same time, and produces at least a page or two of usable material. She continues to get together regularly with the same group of writers who’ve been meeting for years now to critique one another’s work. And she “hangs … Read more
We have to confess we’re not familiar with Mosley’s signature series, the Easy Rawlins line of detective stories, but it’s been a sin of omission. Truth is, we’ve been putting off acquainting ourselves with those books because Mosley had ventured into more high-brow territory with a few intriguing side projects in the 90s. In 1996, … Read more
This is the guy who wrote Fight Club, which of course made him an instant millionaire because it was made into a crap movie starring Brad Pitt. But don’t let a major motion picture stand between you and a delightful new author. Palahniuk is one of those hip celebrity writers who deserves the attention, if … Read more
It’s hard to compress Gary Hallman’s fruitful three-decade career into a single gallery show. Though he’s honored here with a one-person show spanning both floors—the sum of all the PARTs, as it were, and only the fourth time they’ve done this—we found ourselves wanting to see more. The show begins circa 1971, with Hallman’s outdoor … Read more
People sometimes say that if a meteor struck Uptown, the Twin Cities would lose half its artistic community. While we’re still waiting for NASA to get back to us on the scientific accuracy of that metaphor, it’s certainly true that Intermedia Arts’ annual celebration of the Hennepin & Lake ZIP code’s creative set has no … Read more
We set out on our expedition to scale Everest in a rusty Toyota loaded with five famished explorers and a trunkful of climbing rope. I could not help but feel underequipped, since weeks of fruitless searching had turned up no Sherpa guides anywhere in the metro area, not even in the yellow pages. St. Paul … Read more
If you’ve never felt safe going to one of those imposing stand-alone sushi shops downtown, here’s a place to finally try it with the training wheels of a mall surrounding you. Despite its location on Calhoun Square’s second floor, the Bermuda Triangle of Hennepin & Lake, Sushi Tango is constantly full of the kind of … Read more
The great polar explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen go where they’ve never gone before—your backyard. So this is the Next Frontier: the web, schoolkids, and Lake Superior I’m shivering uncontrollably and I think I might puke. Gray waves roll and swell on Lake Superior, a stiff cold wind blows from the east, it looks … Read more
On the shelf in my fourth grade classroom—north wall, near the front—there sat the obligatory set of junior encyclopedias. Now and again during lulls in study time, either Brenda S. or I would go and retrieve the R volume. Then, hunched conspiratorially near the back of the room, we would inspect at length the cross-sectioned … Read more
In our ongoing survey of bars that serve good food at odd hours, we’re pleased to report that Grumpy’s features an exhaustive—though occasionally sticky—menu of sandwiches, burgers, and delightful comfort foods, all of which we’d stand right up against the menus of any other bar anywhere in the city. We recently worked through a bad … Read more