Written in the Wind

by Cristina Córdova This Douglas Sirk movie, playing in Loring Park on Monday evening, is easily the original Lifetime movie; yet it manages not to make my life feel insignificant simply by my watching it. It’s the original. How can that be bad? This is old school, baby. It’s the love triangle, the deep dark … Read more

Top Truffle

ssssssssssssssassy First of all, does it seem that Rocco has had some work done? Or was that just a really creepy makeup job? This last week, the Top Chef kids had to compete in a food test for the quick-fire challenge. What was with the gimme ingredients? Oatmeal? Bow-tie pasta? Come on, Casey should have … Read more

Art, Fairs, and Fringe

ART I’m sure you all ready know about the Uptown Art Fair this weekend. It’ll be the same usual chaos with endless booths of art — paintings, sculptures, mobiles, textiles, pottery, glasswork, wirework, jewelry, photographs, wood carvings, toys, you name it — and food, plenty of food. You’ll find everything from wild rice and bison … Read more

You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody

Tonight I have a cold. While this may be true, it is equally true that far too many blogs begin with precisely such banalities. Fortunately, while I do have a cold, I also spent half the evening talking to people who subscribe, yes subscribe, to The Rake. So while I still have a cold (just … Read more

Light at the end of a long tunnel

Ever since the big Garnett trade went through I’ve been debating whether to throw up a KG appreciation, an assessment of the post-KG Wolves, or both. For the past 24 hours, any Garnett piece would have been a big, mushy valentine–it may still be, when I take a crack at it tomorrow or Friday. A … Read more

Damn Right, Nick.

When he’s right he’s right, and Nick Coleman makes a spot-on point in this morning’s column. Minnesota, like much of the rest of the country, is digging itself deeper and deeper into a very serious infra-structure repair deficit, in no small part due to fear of so-called “taxpayer advocacy” groups who force/blackmail cowardly and cynical … Read more

Bad News Travels Fast

My ingestion of Hurricane Charleys (vodka, mint leaves, some blue stuff, some green stuff) was rudely interrupted around 7:30 EDT last night by the first phone calls from home bringing news of the 35W bridge collapse. Within the first hour of coverage the familiar patterns of tragedy-reporting, both good and bad, were playing … incessantly. … Read more

Obento-ya

Obento-ya may be small — tiny, in fact — but the little Japanese storefront at 15th and Como Ave. S.E. offers the biggest selection of bento box meals I’ve seen locally. The 18 different varieties range from tempura shrimp to grilled mackerel, served in a lacquered box with accompaniments of white rice, green salad, Japanese … Read more