Blog Post

Out of Tragedy, Something Good Must Come

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It’s September 11th, folks. And while you might want to take a moment to reflect — and perhaps contemplate what that has meant within the larger context of our lives and those around us, near and far — this is certainly no time for inertia. Do something! Anything. Raise your voice. Better yourself somehow. Nurture … Read more

Steven Brown to Ivy? "No Comment"

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The rumor is floating around restaurant kitchens – or at least one restaurant kitchen – that the talented Steven Brown is leaving Harry’s Food and Cocktails to become executive chef for the new upscale restaurant at the Ivy Hotel, a Starwood Hotels luxury property scheduled to open later this year at 1115 2nd Ave. S. … Read more

Petraeus & Crocker: We Waited for This?

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Even with my “Expectation Meter” set to zero, the opening statements from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker at today’s House hearings left me wondering how two reports advertised as “balanced” could be so nakedly compromised? I listened — via NPR and the stammering Neal Conan — on the drive down from Duluth and … Read more

Bergman Tribute: All Is Not Lost

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Few filmmakers can be said to have had as tremendous an impact on film as Ingmar Bergman. With 62 films under his belt before his death this past July, Bergman influenced some of the greatest filmmakers today — Woody Allen, Robert Altman, David Lynch — and ultimately set a standard for film students across the … Read more

Dinner and a Movie, or Dinner and Song

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MUSIC Along the Banks of the Mississippi A great voice is a wondrous thing. A great voice singing the music is was clearly meant to sing, is downright spiritual. Such is the story of William Elliot Whitmore. This man can sing! But his is not just another pretty voice; it’s a vocal representation of the … Read more

Once, full of light

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Oddly, the last two movies I’ve seen have had more or less the same storyline: impoverished street musician suddenly finds success but suffers many personal losses along the way. The first was La Vie en Rose, a biopic about the French singer Edith Piaf. It was long — 140 minutes — and as violent a … Read more

White on a whim

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Perversely, after a summer of drinking meaty, dry red wines, when the cool weather set in this week, I suddenly got a hankering for white. A woman’s body is fickle, as I tell my husband often. One day, you slip into your size-7 jeans and run around the world bending every which way like an … Read more

For news junkies with spatial skills

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Lists bore you? Don’t bother. You can get breaking news in a colorful, jagged puzzle format at newsmap. Even if you don’t find anything interesting, it’s a great screen to stare at. Kind of like an Escher.