The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Victory Forgives Dishonesty

    The last of the Walker’s Out There shows opens tonight. I don’t know much about this weekend’s featured artists, The Riot Group, who are apparently an absurdist creator of political satire, but I did pick up on this snazzy bit from the Walker’s press release about ’em: these guys are apparently “riffing on influences as disparate as Moby Dick and the Marine Corps manual” in this show, Pugilist Specialist. So, I guess this will be something of a meditation on the U.S.’s eerily misguided searches for evil in foreign lands–replete with spooky music and a barren stage. Don’t miss it.

    Coming tomorrow: Cheap, outdoor theater from one of the least known but most physically inventive theater troupes in town. Oh, and my favorite visual artist David Rathman. And maybe a dash more of Kramer’s Ergot.

  • Minnesota Poll. We Hardly Know Ye.

    This past Monday the Star Tribune staff received the following memo from editors Nancy Barnes and Scott Gillespie.

    “Rob Daves has agreed to take on the role of project manager of buzz.mn through the end of March. In this role, Rob will be in charge of working with everyone in the newsroom to make the buzz.mn website a success and lay out a plan for its future, including developing marketing plans. To make this a success, we’ll need everyone’s help. Buzz.mn will succeed on the combined efforts of the newsroom, and contributors from the community.

    “Only a handful of staffers currently contribute to the site on a regular basis. We’d like for all staff members who live in the communities where we are now developing buzz.mn to contribute items each week. We’re not talking about devoting large chunks of your day, but to file two or three short items off your beat or from your community. You don’t have to be a reporter. In fact, any member of the staff can participate. If you have any questions or need help learning how to contribute, please see Rob or your team leader.

    Nancy and Scott

    What is noteworthy here is the fact that no mention is made of Daves’ role as head of the paper’s Minnesota Poll, an iconic piece of enterprise reporting that is operating on a much diminished schedule compared to several years ago. By the estimate of one person with knowledge of such things, the current, McClatchy-operated, Star Tribune is devoting something in the range of 15% of what used to be budgeted for polling.

    With Daves making this temporary move to goose growth in buzz.mn, one of a half dozen special/web-related productions the Strib has going, suspicions rise that cuurent managers may be quietly shutting the door on the Minnesota Poll in advance of their new, more likely than not budget-cutting owners, the Avista private equity group.

    I called Daves for his comment and he made a convincing show of enthusiasm for the buzz.mn work he has been asked to do, but defered any speculation on the vitality of the Minnesota Poll to Scott Gillespie.

    So … I sent Gillespie the following e-mail …

    Scott:

    I’m doing a media blog for The Rake. I’m told Rob Daves is temporarily moving over to handle one of your websites. I called him and he seems enthusiastic about the assignment, but defers any questions about the future of the Minnesota Poll to you.

    Frankly, I’m getting expressions of concern from your newsroom that the Star Tribune is planning fewer polls rather than more, and/or that this move portends the demise of the Poll entirely. Can you comment on that?

    I’m told the paper is budgeting roughly 15% of what it budgeted for the polls in their glory days. Is that number reasonably accurate?

    Can you say how many polls you have planned for ’07? ’08?

    Once Daves finishes his work with Buzz.Mn. will he be returning to his same role with the Minnesota Poll at the same or increased budget?

    Thanks.

    In an entirely timely fashion Gillespie replied as follows …

    Thanks for asking, Brian, and I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you.

    The Minnesota Poll will live on. Rob’s a really versatile editor who’s handled many temporary projects for us over the years while also running the poll. I’m not going to get into internal budget figures or frequency issues with you because we have competitors who would love to know what we’re doing and when. But I can assure you that the Minnesota Poll will continue to be an important part of our news report.

    Hope you’re doing well.

    –Scott

    I think its safe to say that a few questions were left unanswered there. One I hadn’t thought of is, “Who really poses any serious competition to the Minnesota Poll”?

    I’ll take Gillespie at his word, I guess, that the Minnesota Poll, which I regard as a valuable contribution to Minnesota discourse, will continue to be, “an important part” of the Strib’s news report”. But one truism of modern news “reporting” is that the public rarely complains about what is NOT in the paper, and pricey, labor-intensive endeavors like long-term investigative reporting and polling are therefore easily, uh, “down-sized”, occasionally to oblivion.

    Finally, as someone who marvels at the dramatic increases in productivity of American workers … in a time when the real value of their wages has barely kept up with the rate of inflation … I have to be amused at Barnes’ and Gillespie’s call for “all staff members”, reporters and otherwise, to “file two or three short items off your beat …”, each week. You know, when they’re not doing anything else … and with no hint of financial incentive, other than of course keeping their jobs through the next round of “down-sizing.”

  • As if we needed further proof that Bachmann's seriously unhinged.


    I grope Merkel, Bachmann gropes me.

    In case you missed it last night, Michele Bachman put on quite a show of pawing President Bush after he finished the State of the Union address. KSTP got it on tape. (Click play on the tv-shaped window on the right to view the video.)

    According to a former Congressional staffer I know, Bachmann would have had to have arrived about 12 hours early in the House chamber to get the seat on the aisle that gave her the opportunity to grope W for the cameras.

    As much as I dislike the guy, he is the President of the United States, and he doesn’t look any more presidential by having this idiot-school-girl-who-is-pretending-to-be-a-member-of-Congress fawning on him.

    Is she really that lame? Don’t forget she’s the same one who hid behind the bushes or in the bathroom when confronted by opponents. So, I’d have to say, yes she is.

    I was just reminded of another possible explanation, though. Perhaps Bachmann was channeling German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was groped by Bush last year.

  • She leaped over somethin'

    Katherine Lanpher reads from her new memoir Leap Days this evening at Magers and Quinn. I just finished up the book last week. This one I devoured, mostly on account of its provincial delights. I used to work at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, for one. And Lanpher spends much time unpacking her failed marriage to former Jeune Lune artistic director Vincent Gracieux. There were a few references to local media types too, and I picked up on at least one Strib ex-pat. (John Habich? Was that you?) But I kept waiting for her to mention, oh, I don’t know, perhaps that much-publicized DWI. Or maybe the other man she fell in love with while still married to Gracieux–she only grazes the surface of this one. But I’d be similarly guilty of omission if I didn’t say that Lanhper has a knack for a conversational writing style that rather sucks you in. What’s more, I enjoyed wading through her feminist musings.

  • Another in the Wind

    empty wine.JPG

    So … now Auriga has announced that it will close this weekend after ten years.

    I really like the food at Auriga. I think it’s fresh, exciting and I think they believe in the perfect bite. One of my favorite meals was during a late night stop-in during a snow storm. We ordered some stuff, a couple of plates we were going to share, and the kitchen mistakenly sent out the wrong dishes. The mistake was a blessing, the plates set upon our table were the ones the chef had made himself, for his own dinner. No way were we giving them back, they were better than what we ordered, simpler yet spicier.

    So now they’re done and I have to wonder why? Isn’t that area a gold mine? Aren’t there large houses with rich, hungry people stowed inside, just waiting for someone to pamper and feed them? Isn’t there a continual influx of freshly graduated twenty-somethings hoping to expand their minds and palates?

    Did they do everything they could? Did they cultivate their local regulars? Did they create new regulars by recognizing and winning over first-time guests? Did they explore the natural allliance with the Walker? Did they advertise? Did they let people outside their neighborhood know where they were?

    Or were they just done?

  • Late Breaking

    From the department of good news: I just found out about this rock show at the Hexagon tonight. Check it! It’s called the 8 Ball Unplugged. Twenty-three acts each do eight-minute sets. Here’s the lineup, roughly:

    Faux Jean

    Bill Caperton

    Bethany Larson

    Danny Sigelman (MPR night dj guy)

    Brian Just (Beight)

    Brad Senne (Beight)

    Travis and Jonny

    Anthony Newes

    Johnny (Friends Like These)

    Jacob Grun (It From Bit)

    The Nightinghales

    Bernie King

    Abisha & Jessie (Sick Of Sarah)

    Andy Elwell

    Fit To Burn

    Chris Dorn (from the Beatifics, a personal fave)

    First Communion Afterparty

    Luke Redfield

    Jennifer Markey

    Orion Treon (Plastic Chord)

  • What to look forward to

    Tomorrow is the “worst day of the year,” according to the BBC. This explains a lot. Brace yourselves, friends, and know that the next few days offer little in the way of mirthful distraction. However, for five bucks you can attend this evening’s staged reading of Shawn Lawrence Otto’s newest screenplay, Dreams of a Dying Heart. Otto is the dude who wrote The House of Sand and Fog. This new one’s about a female fighter pilot getting shot down over Iraq. It’s not exactly the thing that’ll stave off the blues. And you won’t wake feeling any better on Wednesday either.

    Speaking of Iraq and the blues, last week I saw a preview of a heart wrenching and dangerous flick that’s coming soon to the Bell: Iraq in Fragments. I watched it while all alone in my dark apartment and even got a little misty during the first and third fragments.

    So says the BBC: one of the reasons folks find themselves depressed is that there’s little to look forward to during this time of year. For me however, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel–and that’s the coming weekend, packed as it is with enticements. For one, there’s another installment of the Electric Arc Radio Show on Saturday. Or make that two installments. Turns out, the eight p.m. performance sold out so quickly that the Lit 6 and Creative Electric folks added a “preview” at five. This works out quite well for me, as I’m dying to get over the St. Paul for the Kramer’s Ergot reception at seven. I’ll write more about the coming weekend on Friday, I suppose. Until then, I’ll be the one biting my cuticles and biding the time.

  • Once Again, Much Ado About Nothing

    Step right up, everybody: it’s Oscar time once again. Early this morning, probably far too early for an actor or actress with late-night tendencies, the Academy’s stuffed shirts (and Selma Hayek) made their announcements to a quivering world. I’m sure that Baghdad is quiet now, if only to reflect on Dreamgirls getting the shaft. I haven’t seen Dreamgirls, but know this: the Academy doesn’t typically bestow Best Picture status on just anything, especially well-made musicals (or conventional films, for that matter) about African-Americans. Especially when they can give the nod to a white family on a road trip, the brilliantly marketed Little Miss Sunshine.

    Surely the blogs and airwaves and television entertainment shows are all agog with the news: no Dreamgirls Best Picture, certainly this will be Scorsese’s year, who’s going to win it all, will Eddie Murphy win an Oscar, and so on. Will the Academy give Borat Best Original Screenplay (intriguing, as it was mostly improvised) just to see what that saucy Brit would say?

    Do not ever forget that the Oscars are marketing. They are the Super Bowl advertisements, Valentines and Sweetest Day, only with arrogant celebrities.

    Which leads one to wonder what all the fuss is about: the greatest movies never get nominated (this year, see Children of Men), the best performances ignored. Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren are incredible actors. But their performances were hardly even their best–and they were mimicry (Whitaker’s was a bit better). Clive Owen, Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth), Ray Winstone (The Proposition), Charlotte Gainsbourgh (The Science of Sleep), and Toby Jones incredible performance in Infamous… all ignored in favor of Will Smith and Meryl Streep.

    And this question: Martin Scorsese, having seen his great pictures snubbed so that awards could go to John G. Avildsen (for Rocky, when he made Taxi Driver), Robert Redford (for Ordinary People, in the year of Raging Bull), and Kevin Costner (for Dances With Wolves when GoodFellas was begging for the nod), is likely going to steal his statuette from Paul Greengrass for the superior United 93. And I wonder if it bothers his cinematic soul to see politics reward him and take the prize from a young, edgier artist… just as it happened to Scorsese years ago?

    This list of great actors and actresses and directors denied their Oscar glory only gets longer, while the mediocre fill the Academy’s coffers, as usual. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who really believes that Babel and Little Miss Sunshine are better pictures than Children of Men or Borat or even Talladega Nights. But they’re better marketed. And that’s all that counts.

  • Perry Exits City Pages

    Steve Perry, the talented and reliably caustic editor of City Pages handed in his resignation Monday, ending 13 years, in two separate shifts, as the alternative weekly’s ruddering hand.

    Perry cited more or less predictable philosophical differences with City Pages’ new(ish) corporate management, a recognition that journalism is moving on-line and that now was his time to bust a move in that direction. He offered praise to City Pages’ current publisher, Mark Bartel, (brother of Rake publisher, Tom Bartel).

    The stories of writers and subjects getting bleeding rashes from Perry’s not-exactly warm and maternal personality are legendary, and pretty damned funny. But after making the obligatory rip on Perry’s prickly ‘tude, even the most offended conceded he was an unusually talented editor. Moreover, to political progressives so often dismayed at the compromised reporting/thinking of the mainstream media, Perry’s indignation was both timely and articulate. I’d like to think we’ll see his kind again soon. But I doubt it.

  • Come on! We're Talking Sid Hartman!

    The mice were snickering Monday. Within the Star Tribune there was much chatter about Kate Parry v. Sid Hartman, Round Two. Or is it three? Or four? Maybe you caught Parry’s ombudsman column Sunday criticizing Hartman — Sid Friggin’ Hartman! — for appearing in an ad for Sun Country airlines, (with Ex-KSTP sports anchor, Joe Schmit). As I read it, I detected Parry’s displeasure both with Hartman’s appearance in the ad AND the fact he did not notify his, uh, superiors and ask for permission.

    Parry frets that Hartman’s appearance might lead readers/viewers to perceive a conflict of interest, as in, I guess … “I saw Sid do an ad for Sun Country. So how do I know the Strib isn’t lying the next time they say Sun Country had a lousy third quarter?” Do you know anyone who thinks like that?

    If you haven’t seen the spot, Sid appears from behind a copy of the Star Tribune and tells Schmit, who is yammering about Sun Country, to pipe down, because he’s reading, “the greatest newspaper in the world”. (Sid may be the only person capable of making that claim with a straight face. But to his credit as the ultimate homer, he said it). Hartman says nothing one way or another about Sun Country. But obviously his appearance is a tacit endorsement. (Hartman tells Parry he’s donating the free plane tickets he received as compensation, and I’m inclined to believe him. Believe me, Sid himself could take the Strib private. He does NOT need two Sun Country Super Savers to Cancun.)

    But it was the other worldly loftiness of Parry’s concern that set off the snickering. The gist of the joke being … WHO, i.e. what possible reader, would ever connect Sid Hartman doing his patented Sid shtick in an ad with the grand ethics of the Star Tribune as a whole? In the interests of further full disclosure let me be among those who urge Parry to print the mail she gets on the topic, in particular the best case any outraged reader/ethics expert makes for how Sid on a Plane undermines the integrity of the work of hundreds of others.

    I’m sorry, newspapers have a longstanding problem with the double standard that grants all sorts of latitude, in terms of outside compensation, to sports writers while keeping a very tight rein on most everybody else. Anybody in newspapers sees that all over the place. But lets not pretend anyone outside a 10′ radius of some pedantic editor’s office gives a damn. This kind of hand-wringing just doesn’t register with the general public. Nor should it. It just doesn’t matter.

    As far as I can tell, the slice of the public that is hip enough to big media’s myriad failings is a hell of a lot more upset about a major newspaper’s errors of omission — like keeping their heads down and voices low as a President with killer poll numbers gins up a fraudulent war — than whether some sports columnist plugs a local airline.

    As for 85 year-old Sid Hartman getting permission from his superiors … don’t make me laugh.