“Give me the child at seven and I will give you the man.” With that Jesuit maxim in mind, Michael Apted and his crew set out to interview fourteen seven-year-old British children from different class strata and return every seven years to gauge their progress. Throughout the resulting Up series—Seven Up, Seven Plus Seven, 21 … Read more
Flags of Our Fathers could be a warmonger’s dream: the true story of the heroic men who posed for the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph that, it is claimed, helped end the war in the Pacific and made us all proud to be American. But director Clint Eastwood, though a known conservative, is not interested … Read more
Perfect for Jane Austenites eager to savor a Pemberly moment with their not-so-patient spouses, the 1940 Pride and Prejudice is easily the most charming—and approachable—of the many adaptations. While Greer Garson is a bit too old to play Elizabeth Bennet, her dandy sparring with Laurence Olivier’s ice-cold Mr. Darcy keeps this film light on its … Read more
As the years ticked by without a follow-up to Charles Frazier’s surprising (and fantastic) National Book Award-winning 1997 novel, Cold Mountain, the obvious conclusion was that Frazier was feeling daunted by both the wild success of his debut and the expectations created by the whopping advance he received for a second manuscript. Thirteen Moons doesn’t … Read more
There may be no more telling harbinger of the onslaught of middle age than the stasis that settles over an individual’s music collection, signaling that shift in a passionate fan’s life when he throws in the towel and resigns himself to a soundtrack stalled at a particular point in time. The precise date can usually … Read more
Lauper’s latest, The Body Acoustic, pays homage to her own greatest hits in mellow new interpretations. She still has that voice—half Marilyn Monroe, half Minnie Mouse—and she still has that wild, half-Pippi Longstocking, half-Billy Idol hair, but we’re glad that she doesn’t make as big a deal of herself as, say, another icon who dates … Read more
Twenty years ago, one could hardly have blamed Chan Poling if he’d walked away from a music career altogether. His band, pioneering Minneapolis punk-poppers The Suburbs, was in its second abortive go-round with a major record label—this time, A&M. The ’Burbs’ primary ally at the label had left the company, often the kiss of death … Read more
The local music scene’s ubiquitous and ridiculously busy hot hand, Erik Appelwick has, remarkably, been living in the Twin Cities only six years. Having grown up in South Dakota and Michigan, and then kicked about South Dakota for a while during his collegiate and postcollegiate years, he made the bold decision in 2000 to move … Read more
Autumn is my favorite time of year. Add the beauty of the harvest to deep-blue skies, brilliant foliage, and crisp, cool mornings, and you have the perfect eating season. Throw open the windows, crank up the oven, throw some cinnamon about, and life is perfect. Except Sundays. On autumnal Sundays, as I focus on the … Read more
You can’t spit in Lowertown without hitting a plaque denoting one historically significant edifice or another. Warehouses stand shoulder to shoulder, erected in a passel of architectural styles—from Italianate to Richardsonian to Beaux Arts—monuments to a zeal for development that’s matched only by the recent condo craze. Many of these majestic industrial buildings, like the … Read more