In this approximation of a true story, Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, the failed writer who conjured up the scam of … if not of the century, at least of the 1970s. Irving claimed to have interviewed Howard Hughes, co-written the recluse’s autobiography, and then walked off with a mint—until the aviator called him on … Read more
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez team up to give us this two-and-a-half-hour pulp festival featuring two, count ’em, two turgid films shown back to back with faux-vintage trailers in between. The first is Rodriguez’s zombie flick Planet Terror, in which biological weapons are unleashed, sending scores of the undead to face … why, a one-legged … Read more
OMAB: Oh, my achin’ back BIMD: Back in my day NIMH: Not in my house WTD: What the devil? LOL: Lots of luck PTIYPASI: Put that in your pipe and smoke it TMWP: Take my wife, please. SAN: Stuff and nonsense IMHO: I may have over-imbibed TDTIR: Turn down that infernal racket! PMF: Pardon my … Read more
When I was a little girl with prairie-skirted ambitions to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, I once licked a tree. The darkening, wet stain on the bark of my backyard maple was too interesting to pass up. I knew that the sap wasn’t syrup, but I expected some sort of sensory recognition, some hint of taste … Read more
Being brought up in a family with three doctors gives one an odd outlook on life. It was not just the anatomy textbooks, with their foggy monochrome photographs, that rubbed shoulders with the wildflower guides and J.B. Priestley novels in the family library. Nor was it only the medical advertisements that came in triplicate by … Read more
“Men are recognizing that they have been forced to conform to a very narrow and rather two-dimensional picture of maleness and manhood that they have never had the freedom to question,” author and relationship guru Andrew Cohen said in a 1996 interview. Another American writer, Sam Martin, would update Cohen’s quote by tacking on an … Read more
In ancient Rome, handwritten copies of a daily gazette called the Acta Diurna were posted in prominent public locations to keep citizens informed on everything from military developments to the latest divorces—and you can bet which part was read most avidly. In colonial America, the New World’s first newspaper, published in 1690, made a splash … Read more
This month, the Minnesota History Center hosts its debut RetroRama event, whereat America’s mid-century lifestyle will be celebrated, relived, and perhaps even a little bit appropriated. The series kicks off April 26 with a post-war-themed fashion show. (A vintage furniture event is planned for November.) Five local fashion designers, including Anna Lee (see page 90), … Read more
“There are hidden energies in a home. And you can’t predict them; you’ve just got to find them.” Two years ago, Anna Lee was settling in to a new apartment in Northeast Minneapolis. The now-thirty-year-old milliner and producer of local fashion shows attempted to set up the spare bedroom as her studio, lugging her desk, … Read more
This is about boats, so of course it’s about desire. The beautiful forms of boats arouse the longing to have one, and to go places you couldn’t without it. My father had this bad as a kid. In the summer of 1932 in Duluth, he talked his friends into building the next best thing to … Read more