The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Just a Bunch of Hicks — Beautiful Hicks

    FOOD
    Food and Fun at the Fair

    Don’t let a little rain (or job responsibilities) get in the way of your general well-being and nourishment. (Take a mental health day if you need to.) Join us at the Minnesota State Fair as Minnesota cooks and celebrity chefs create award-winning fare in Carousel Park. Though I don’t see her name on the schedule, I understand our very own Stephanie March will be participating. Come socialize and sample, and mingle amongst the local chefs and farmers. You’ll even get a free Minnesota Cooks calendar.

    10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1561 Snelling Ave N., St. Paul; 651-642-2200; admission of State Fair: $11 (seniors $9, kids $8, children under five free).

    MUSIC
    The Road Goes on Forever… Indeed

    647519_356x237.jpgSure, Fergie is cool — especially if you’re privy to the more than occasional upskirt — and The Goo Goo Dolls will always have a small nook in that 80s heart of mine; but the most fitting and fabulous act to see this year at the Minnesota State Fair is tonight’s, featuring The Allman Brothers. “And when it’s time for leavin’, I hope you’ll understand, that I was born a ramblin’ man.” These men are beautiful. For almost four decades they’ve been concocting their own blend of blues, country, jazz, and even classical music with such an impact that they’ve come to define an entire genre of twanged blues rock today. This is the kind of band you want to see live — even in rain (maybe more so in rain). The greatest thing about The Allman Brothers is their genuine appreciation for music, and their flare for enjoying it, of course. These guys don’t go up on a stage to simply play their set. They go up and create, and they’re always creating. They jam. They pick a starting point, and they let it evolve, let it loose, let it happen — sometimes for even an hour. That’s what a rock show should be.

    7 p.m., Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1561 Snelling Ave N., St. Paul; 651-642-2200; $35.

    ARTS & CRAFTS
    Don’t Let the Farmers Have All the Fun

    bride-scarecrow_9083.jpgThis isn’t about the State Fair, but if you’ve been there before, you might remember the fabulous scarecrows they always have on display — everything from the traditional hobo-type to a goth Madonna. Does this get your synapses snapping? Does it spark any great ideas? If not, this probably isn’t for you. But if you think you can create one hell of a scarecrow, then read on. The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is hosting a Scarecrows on Parade contest and exhibition as part of its Autumn celebration. You have until Friday to register, and the actual scarecrow entries must be delivered to the Arboretum on September 7th and 8th. Register as a design professional, an organization, a family, or an individual. All entries will be on display at the Arboretum from September 15th through November 1st, and you can win prizes, of course.

    Register by Friday, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 3675 Arboretum Dr., Chaska; 952-443-1400.

    ON THE NET
    See It and Weep

    Miss Teen USA 2007 – South Carolina answers a question. There’s nothing more to say. You have to see it for yourself.

  • It's Not Dark Yet, But It's Getting There: 8-3 Drubbing In Cleveland

    I’ve got Little Jimmy Scott crooning from the stereo and that’s never a particularly good sign, at least so far as mood barometers go.

    At this point I’m not fool enough to say that’s it, but I nonetheless can’t deny that I’m mighty tempted to say that’s it, even as I’ve been mighty tempted to say that’s it for several months now.

    Yet every time I’ve been mighty tempted to say that’s it, this weird, baffling, infuriating team has done something to make me regret, at least momentarily, my lack of faith.

    The truth, of course, is that this team really has done very little –at least as a team, and in any kind of a sustained way– to encourage any real investment of faith or hope.

    It kills me that the Twins have now lost four times this season to that goofy slop slinger Paul Byrd. It kills me that Carlos Silva reverted to his spring training form at the worst possible time. Nights like this, in fact, with summer waning and the crickets winding down, it all sort of kills me.

    That triple play, though, that did not kill me. I don’t care what the circumstances, or which team hits into or turns it, I love a triple play. And that one tonight –a picture-perfect 5-4-3, around-the-horn job– looked so easy that it really makes you wonder why you don’t see one of the damn things all the time. Yet somehow the triple play remains almost as rare as a player hitting for the cycle.

  • Make Your Own Seltzer, Save the Planet

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    If you drink a lot of pop or bottled water, then recent news reports have given you one more thing to feel guilty about. You have probably read about how producing all those plastic bottles requires millions of gallons of oil every year and that most of those plastic bottles wind up as landfill.

    And you probably already know that a lot of those best-selling brands of bottled water, like Aquafina and Dasani, are really just glorified tap water, and you also know that Minneapolis tap water has beaten the bottled waters in blind taste tests.

    So giving up plain old bottled water shouldn’t be too hard.
    But if you are hooked on sparkling water, like I am, it’s a little harder to give up that habit. In hot weather, I drag home a six-pack or two of Mendota Springs every week, held together by those plastic carrier thingies that kill turtles and sea birds.

    Or rather, I used to, until I discovered Soda Club, a seltzer and soda pop-making gadget. (Yes, folks, you read this far only to discover that this post is actually an unpaid, unsolicited info-mercial for sodaclubusa.com, which sells these gadgets.) I ordered the Fountain Jet Value Kit ($129 including free shipping) which includes a tabletop soda maker, two cannisters of compressed CO2 that screw into the soda maker, and four reusable one-liter plastic bottles, plus 18 different soda pop flavor bases, regular and diet. (It’s easy to make sparkling water or pop – watch the video on their website for details.)

    The CO2 cannisters each make about 110 liters of sparkling water, so, if you figure that a six-pack of Mendota Springs is equal to three liters, then each cannister is equal to about 36 sixpacks, which run about $2 a piece. So, by the time you use up both cannisters, the kit has more than paid for itself. (You exchange the empty cannisters for full ones for $20).

    I haven’t figured out yet how to make flavored seltzers, like Mendota Springs’ lemon and lime flavored varieties, but otherwise I am pretty satisfied. I don’t drink a lot of pop, but the homemade cola and root beer flavored pops I tried are actually pretty good, and I haven’t bought a six-pack of Mendota Springs since I got my my soda maker.

    I did have a momentary panic when I thought I remembered reading something about cows contributing to greenhouse gases by belching CO2 into the atmosphere. Is my sparkling water habit creating similar harm? I’m still not sure, but it turns out that the real bovine emissions problem is not carbon dioxide but methane. I’ll save the problem of human methane emissions for another column.

  • Fair Index

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    hey, you got some grass?

    Saturday’s Fair Index
    (with apologies to Harpers)

    Number of Lark-bound old ladies that got stuck in the fergaliscious crowd in front of KDWB: 2
    Chances that someone sucking down a shake by the dairy barn would step in dung: 1 in 4
    Ratio of fanny-packs to tube tops at noon: 5:2
    Ratio of fanny-packs to tube tops at 6pm: 2:7
    Chances that a 4-H kid got a fat man to fall for the dollar-on-a-string gag: 9 in 10
    In inches, the average overflow stack on area garbage cans: 15.6
    Percentage of people eating a turkey leg that also carried a pitcher of beer as their beverage: 22%
    Amount of time after horking down a soft pretzel that I was seduced by French crepes: 3 seconds
    Amount of time that I spent looking for a SPAM burger before giving up: 2 hours
    Percentage of my family that wanted to go see the Butter Heads with me: 0%
    Percentage of certainty that I will go again before Labor Day: 100%

    Tuesday is the REAL food day at the fair…Check out Carousel Park tomorrow for all the Minnesota Cooks action: chefs, food personalities, local politicians, and moi. I’ll be on the tasting panel at 11am tomorrow, sampling the work of JP and Tracy Singelton, and clanking forks with the revolutionaries of Axdahl Farms. Then maybe someone will go see the Butter Heads with me.

    Come on down now, ya hear?

  • Kramer Speaks …

    Everyone’s criteria for a valuable on-line news site is different. Mine requires that professional writers are able to produce BETTER copy than they were able or allowed to do within the heavily-mediated institutional voice of daily newspapers. Otherwise, what’s the point? This attitude assumes that dullness and blandness afflicts daily journalism as much as piratical ownership and craigslist.

    Joel Kramer, the former Strib editor and publisher, now launching the non-profit on-line “paper”, MinnPost.com, was fielding a stream of calls this morning. “But you got me now,” he said, “so go ahead.”

    OK. What license are you suggesting to the writers coming on board that’ll make them better than they were in print?

    “Well, I think it is a constant refrain from writers that they’re looking forward to doing better work. We intend to produce stories that are clearly edgier and display more courage and at the same time more informality.”

    And what about the license for language?
    “We won’t be using curse words.” No cussing? Shit.

    Kramer cleared up a few misperceptions — some of them fomented by this site. Among them is the MPR question. The answer there is, “No. We have no equity or business relationship with MPR, or with anyone else. We did approach The Rake, but that was when were looking at a for-profit model. When we decided to go non-profit, those discussions ended.”

    Still, Kramer describes MinnPost.com’s audience, (that’s the official name), as a “news-intense audience deeply steeped in the values of traditional journalism but open to the more free-wheeling aspects of the web. More to the point, they are readers who use multiple news sources every day.” He says whoever told me he foresaw an audience of “100,000 to 200,000” heard wrong. He says he sees the potential audience, “in the hundreds of thousands”.

    “And we are,” he says, “totally focused on that audience.”

    Still, my curiosity was always that this “news-intense” audience more or less mirrors MPR’s radio audience, and the “membership” aspect of Kramer’s financial model — where readers will be encouraged to show their support by writing checks — looked to be trespassing a bit on MPR’s turf.

    “Well, I certainly wouldn’t describe it as trespassing,” he replied. “I mean, you could just as well say we were trespassing on the Star Tribune or the Pioneer Press.”

    Ok, OK, loaded choice of words. But “news intense and … membership”. But no MPR business alliance/partnership?

    No. I guess. What he says he is examining are “content partnerships” where MinnPost.com and a partner might “publish the best work from each other’s site.” He says he sees ways, “Our audience will overlap with other organizations.”

    I asked if the $250,000 coming from the Cowles family accompanies an understanding that additional funds will come with the passing of quarters and fiscal years? The answer was, “No. The donors we’ve listed were asked only for a one-time commitment. The Knight Foundation was particularly pleased that our intention is to be self-sustaining, through sponsorships, advertising and memberships. We might get a national grant from time to time for investigative reporting or something. We will certainly be applying.”

    Rumors of the fee structure for writers he says were also wrong, but $200/week for two blog posts and $600 for stories either cherry-picked from the most intriguing blog-post or assigned by MinnPost.com editors sounds an awful lot like what the rumor mill was spinning.

    Kramer did say that, “Not every name on this morning’s list will be a poster,” and that commentary, beyond the voice of the blogger/poster, will be drawn “from the community”, but, “there won’t be commentary every day.” Writers, he says, will not be under any exclusivity constraints.

    The presence of John Camp, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former PiPresser and best-selling crime novelist gives the site some national marquee weight. And Politics in Minnesota publisher, Sarah Janecek, gives MinnPost at least one contributor to the right of Dennis Kucinich.

    Kramer says he’s open to the higher-tech gew-gaws of audio and video, but suspects that end of MinnPost.com will not be functional when the site debuts later this fall. (That’s a hoped-for start, BTW). He says he is already getting calls from other writers offering their services and is actively looking for younger writers.

    “We hope to do a lot of things,” he says. “I’m just not sure we’ll be able to do them all the first year.”

    I mention an oft-repeated concern around town as he worked toward his announcement. Namely that if he screws this up, if MinnPost.com doesn’t offer something appreciably better than the two dailies and/or doesn’t draw traffic sufficient to sustain itself within three or four years, it could have the effect of discouraging other investors in trying it again. I mean, not to lay on the pressure, but that’s what people are saying.

    “Well, it’s always pretty much the same thing, isn’t it? No risk, no reward. There are a lot of things we have to get right and we’re working pretty hard to see that we do just that.”

    Meanwhile, watching from the balcony is former City Pages editor, Steve Perry. Perry is working toward a for-profit site that would appeal to at least the faction of the “news-intense” audience that wants steady, rolling analysis on news of the day — in the vernacular of sophisticated people — and interaction with each other. Perry’s reputation will draw a different type of writer than those at the top of Kramer’s list.

    Paul Schmelzer at Minnesota Monitor did an interview with Perry last week.

  • Twin Cities Online News Site

    Joel Kramer finally unveils plans for MinnPost.com.

  • Last Kiss

    A funny comic from www.lastkiss.us.

  • A Weekend In Italy

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    The amount of Italian iron in the Twin Cities never ceases to amaze me. I was once again stunned by the annual Wheels Of Italy Show that took place at Lake Calhoun this weekend. Good thing I had my plane to take this aerial photo (so its from two years ago but the picture just keeps improving, trust me.)

    I only wish I had my Alfa buffed in time for the show. Italian cars are usually female and look great in red with the exception of mine–he is black like the night. His name is Fabio. He was named for me before I could put down my Grappa and fight about it.

  • Kramer's Announcement

    In its entirety:

    INTERNET-BASED DAILY NEWS ENTERPRISE TO BE LAUNCHED THIS YEAR

    MINNEAPOLIS, August 27, 2007
    MinnPost.com — an internet-based daily providing news and insight for Twin Cities and Minnesota readers — will launch later this year.

    Joel Kramer, CEO and editor, announced that he has raised $1.1 million in startup funds for the not-for-profit enterprise. Four local families have contributed a combined $850,000, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, announced a donation of $250,000.

    “Communities need news every way they can get it,” said Eric Newton, vice president of Knight Foundation’s journalism program. “What makes this experiment interesting are its non-profit model and the willingness of such a broad spectrum of the community to give money and time to this effort.”

    MinnPost.com will offer exclusive front-page news stories as well as
    “posts,” a new format in which professional journalists engage in an
    informal conversation with readers about what they’re learning and what to make of it. Posts will be a bit like blogs, but unlike many blogs, they will be built around original reporting — not just opinions or links to other people’s work.

    MinnPost.com, which will publish Monday through Friday, also will offer daily roundups providing perspective on metro, state, national and international news, stories from selected content partners (currently under discussion), commentary from community leaders and experts, and comment from and involvement of readers. MinnPost will be nonpartisan, and all opinion pieces will be signed.

    More than 20 Twin Cities journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning
    Pioneer Press reporter and best-selling novelist John Camp and former Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow, have already committed to contributing regularly to MinnPost.com, according to managing editor Roger Buoen, former deputy managing editor of the Star Tribune.

    In addition to Kramer and Buoen, MinnPost editors will web editor Corey Anderson, former online managing editor of City Pages; news editors Don Effenberger and Casey Selix, both former editors at the Pioneer Press; and MinnPost in Print editor Beth Thibodeau, formerly an editor at the Star Tribune.

    “MinnPost.com is all about substantive news for Minnesotans who are
    intensely interested in the world around them and want more insight and analysis than they’re getting from their media choices today,” said Kramer, who served as editor of the Star Tribune in the 1980s and as publisher and president in the 1990s. “It will combine the best of traditional journalism with new forms of newsgathering and storytelling made possible by the Internet. MinnPost.com will emphasize original, high-quality content five days a week, plus carefully chosen work from other sources. You can read it online, or in a printable newspaper format, MinnPost in Print.”

    The 25 journalists who have agreed so far to contribute to MinnPost are:

  • Judy Arginteanu, former editor and reporter for the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune, will report about the arts and other topics.

  • Brady Averill, who has covered the Minnesota congressional delegation for the Star Tribune, will write about a variety of topics.

  • Dave Beal, a former business editor and columnist for the Pioneer Press, will write about business and the economy.

  • Steve Berg, who has worked as a Washington Bureau reporter, national correspondent, and editorial writer for the Star Tribune, will report on urban design, transportation, and national politics.

  • Judith Yates Borger, who has written for The New York Times, Star Tribune, and Pioneer Press, will report on legal affairs, science, and other subjects.

  • Cynthia Boyd, a former reporter and columnist for the Pioneer Press, will write on education, health, social issues, and other topics.

  • David Brauer, Minnesota Public Radio’s media analyst, local magazine writer, former City Pages reporter and Southwest (Mpls.) Journal editor, will cover media, Minneapolis City Hall, and Hennepin County politics.

  • John Camp is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling
    novelist who writes under the pen name John Sandford. He won a Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories in the Pioneer Press — collectively titled Life on the Land: An American Farm Family — about a Minnesota farm family’s struggles during the Midwest farm crisis. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for a series of articles on Native American culture. He is also well known for numerous popular detective novels and thrillers. He will report and write on a variety of topics.

  • Steve Date, a teacher and photographer working on a documentary film about a West Virginia coal mining town, will do video blogs on a variety of topics.

  • Delma Francis, who has worked as an editor or reporter at the Lexington Herald, Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, Hartford Courant, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Star Tribune, will report on education, health care, and other topics.

  • Doug Grow, a former sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star and metro columnist for the Star Tribune, will write about public affairs, state politics, and other topics.

  • Kay Harvey, a former reporter and editor for the Pioneer Press, will report on aging, demographics, gender, and psychology.

  • Beth Hawkins, former reporter and editor for City Pages, will write about criminal justice, schools, and other topics.

  • David Hawley, a former arts critic and reporter at the Pioneer Press and author of a half-dozen plays and two nonfiction books, will write about the arts and other subjects.

  • Chris Ison, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, former editor and reporter at the Star Tribune, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for articles about a string of arsons in St. Paul, will write occasionally on a variety of topics.

  • Sarah Janecek, publisher of Politics In Minnesota, will write about public affairs and politics.

  • Joe Kimball, a former columnist and reporter for the Star Tribune, will report on St. Paul City Hall and Ramsey County politics.

  • Linda Mack, who formerly wrote about architecture for the Star Tribune, will cover architecture.

  • Mike Mosedale, who has written for City Pages and newspapers in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and California, will report on the environment, Indian affairs, and other topics.

  • Greg Patterson, former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Star Tribune, will report on race and diversity and business-related topics.

  • Steve Scott, formerly religion editor and writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a past visiting scholar in religion journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, will cover religion.

  • Casey Selix, former assistant business editor and reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, will write about nonprofits, the arts, women, and other topics.

  • Carla Solberg, who has written for Minneapolis/St. Paul Business, Twin Cities Business, and Upsize Business, will report on local business developments, the health care industry, and other topics.

  • Jay Weiner, who has covered sports and other topics for the Star Tribune, will report on sports and public policy, outdoors and the environment, and religion.

  • Bob Whereatt, former political reporter for the Star Tribune, will write about public affairs and state government.

    • Some of these journalists will do regular posts, some will write front-page stories, and some will do both. Additional contributors are expected to be named later.

    “This is a tough time for newspapers,” Kramer said. “Declining advertising revenue has led to substantial cuts in staff and news space, and serious, ambitious news coverage has suffered. But this creates a real opportunity, too, because so many outstanding journalists have left Twin Cities newspapers, and they and a variety of talented free-lancers are eager to bring their talents and experience to MinnPost.”

    In addition to the website, MinnPost in Print will be a quick-read but thoughtful daily newspaper published Monday through Friday in 8.5 x 11 format, printable on home and office computers and expected to be available in high-traffic locations over the lunch hour.

    MinnPost has raised $850,000 in startup donations so far from four couples — Sage and John Cowles, Vicki and David Cox, Laurie and Joel Kramer, and Terry Saario and Lee Lynch.

    Lee Lynch has been elected first chair of the board of MinnPost. Other board members are John Cowles, David Cox, Joel Kramer, Kathleen Hansen, professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota and director of the Minnesota Journalism Center, John Satorius, an attorney with Frederikson & Byron, and Patrick Irestone, CEO of Meritide, a software firm in Roseville.

    Kramer said he will seek additional foundation support to help finance MinnPost’s early years, but that the plan is to become self-sufficient eventually, based on two main revenue sources: sponsorship/advertising and member donations. “We believe a lot of Minnesotans will support this kind of high-quality journalism,” Kramer said. He invited people to visit the website, www.MinnPost.com, to learn more and keep up with progress toward the launch.

    MinnPost is currently looking to hire a leader for the business side of the organization and a sponsorship/advertising director, Kramer said.

    The MinnPost.com website is being developed by Clockwork, a firm in Northeast Minneapolis. MinnPost’s office will be in Southeast Minneapolis.

    Additional information and reaction to follow.

  • Controversial Opus Comic

    See one of the two Opus comics that 25 of the 200 or so client newspapers might not run due to Muslim references.