Boots provided courtesy of Mall of America. Left to right: spike-heeled boots by Jessica Simpson, $128.95, at Nordstrom, thigh-high boots by Aldo, $169.99, at Aldo, lace-up boots by BP. Shoes, $109.95, at Nordstrom. Anyone who likes watching women (which is pretty much everyone, including women) doesn’t like summer to end, for all the obvious reasons, … Read more
I used to be an overdressed runner. For example, at my first marathon, Grandma’s in 2002, I sported a pair of cropped cotton pants despite the steamy weather that day along the North Shore. The reason for this is that I, like many runners, was born bearing an extra-heavy burden, so to speak. But it’s … Read more
The antique barber’s chair in Rocco Altobelli’s office—brick-red leather, brass studs, beautifully carved wood—stands as a reminder of his roots. Having just graduated from high school in Dilworth, Minnesota, the young Altobelli dreamed of becoming a photographer. But he opted for a safer bet: attending his uncle’s beauty school, Josef’s School of Hair Design, just … Read more
The ancient Romans had an annual religious celebration called the Terminalia. It consisted of neighboring landowners coming together at the marker that divided their land to give thanks to Terminus, the god of boundaries. At the end of the Roman year, an altar was built, a sacrifice of a lamb or suckling pig was made, … Read more
Shopping is supposed to be about getting stuff and the resultant happy glow of ownership. Yet how did it come to be that retail, as we know it today, is based around wanting but not necessarily getting? While it’s counterintuitive, it does explain the stacks of miserable, desperate-looking people at the mall. Jeans, perfume, boobs—there … Read more
At the former St. Croix Hilltop Drive-In Theater, on Sunday mornings from Memorial Day through Labor Day, the Cougar lies down peacefully with the Mustang, the Falcon with the Sunbird, and the Cobra with the Impala. These worship services, held by Trinity Lutheran in Stillwater, are the longest-running show at the Hilltop, which is about … Read more
Somewhere in the archives at the Richard M. Nixon museum in Yorba Linda, California, is a photograph of Nixon playing the piano in the White House with his wife, Pat, sitting in the foreground, clapping and singing along to some popular show tune. I was reminded of this scene recently while sitting stage right at … Read more
Barely two hours after the first round of American Idol auditions began, the sidewalk outside Target Center is abuzz with distressed-looking people on cell phones, seeking, no doubt, some form of satellite consolation. Some of them are tearful. Some are stone-faced. These folks are among the many who sang their hearts out for thirty seconds, … Read more
It was a good dog-weather day. Several hundred onlookers, kids clad in hooded sweatshirts and parents in Patagonia zip-ups, crowded around a roped-off rectangular strip; a painted finish line glowed white against the still-green grass at Wayzata West Middle School. More than one of the contestants was shivering under its cape, though it wasn’t clear … Read more
I first encountered an Uta Barth photograph six years ago, wandering through a group exhibition of eleven artists at the prestigious Getty Center in Los Angeles. The works were high-concept, low-execution, clearly the product of expensive art school educations, and, like pretentious dinner guests, unjustifiably boring. Then, turning a corner, I stopped dead in front … Read more