Detail from “Brushes With Fame!” by Steve Willis (scroll down link for bio). I once dated the guy who held Schwarzenegger’s cigar on that awful Christmas movie, I forget what it’s called. Man was he proud. Bo that is… I don’t think Arnold cared one way or the other… … Yeh, I worked at this … Read more
Out there in the country where I grew up there was once a pond that was said to be full of wonders. People always referred to the pond as “brackish.” I don’t have a dictionary at hand –I am a refugee now, and am reclining in the backseat of my car at a fogbound rest … Read more
I remember a darkness, real, yet stirred with a thousand fireflies, perhaps my earliest recollected encounter with true wonder. The mosquito trucks crawled through at dusk and left behind a moving cloud embroidered with the bright fragments of skreeing children. Even then two people armed with nothing but sticks could have a good time, could … Read more
Fresh from the wire: Mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 3 and make a date with a curbside in St. Paul, MN: A Prairie Home Companion, the film version of our beloved (or not-so-beloved, depending on your tastes) public radio programme, will be making its “Minnesota Premiere” at the Fitzgerald Theater. What does that mean … Read more
of livestock and mold Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise. French Brin D’Amour The “sprig of love” is a cheese made from Corsican sheep. The rind is encrusted in the aromatic herbs with which it spends three months curing. The juniper berries and rosemary give its pale ivory paste a floral flavor. It’s … Read more
Here’s something that pisses me off. I mean, it’s cool and all to be making monster trucks for the vulnerable soldier sect, but what irks me is how this fellow was originally thinking more along the lines of a pimped-out, rap star-style ride. And now of course, he’s making a killing off the war. Yes, … Read more
IT’S A WONDERFUL MENACE “Slither”, 2006. Written and directed by James Gunn. Starring Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Tania Shaulnier, Brenda James, Don Thompson, and a boatload of b-movie mainstays. Now playing at local theaters and hopefully at every small town screen in America. There’s a reason why space aliens so often … Read more
Tom Friedman was in town this week to speak at Macalester College, which turned out to be his stump speech for his best-seller The World Is Flat. It’s a good speech that nicely summarizes his arguments, and it’s clear that he’s given this lecture quite a lot– which sort of supports Chris Lehmann’s view, expressed … Read more
Be my Venus, baby. On the cultural docket for this weekend: happy hour with my running club (a less-organized variation of the Hash House Harriers, we, too, are a drinking club with a running problem), watching Singing In The Rain with my two best friends (yes), and, with any luck, dragging my mother and my, … Read more
Reuters recently reported that a mysterious woman has perfected the dine-and-dash in many of Rome’s best restaurants. The alleged “gourmet food junkie” has been known to dine fabulously on fine wines and exquisite fare, simply to find when the bill arrives (ooops) her wallet has been left in another purse. Revealed only as DN of … Read more