BOOKS & AUTHORSCharles Baxter’s Soul Thief Those of us who have been to grad school know how difficult it can be, and how easy it can be to slip into breakdown mode. But best-selling author and U of M professor Charles Baxter takes this to a whole new level in his latest novel The Soul … Read more
When it come to computers, I’m a full blown idiot. As a stay-at-home dad, my day usually involves hooting like an orangutan and tending to my son’s poopy pants—not exactly a George Clooney lifestyle. But when my ancient candy colored iMac recently barked and hissed at me when I tried to open a simple email, … Read more
This play, Everywhere Signs Fall, has been around my life in some form or another longer than any other play I’ve written. When I was 24 and still more of a person who said he was a writer than a person who wrote, I remember sitting at a bar somewhere with my girlfriend-at-the-time and the … Read more
Back in the late 1980’s, when I was weaning my oldest child and attending meetings of the breastfeeding network La Leche League, I became convinced that pasteurized milk was the root of all evil. Hey, I was 22 years old. I’d fed my darling infant nothing but 100 percent pure breastmilk for the first 10 … Read more
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BOOKS, AUTHORS & PHOTOGRAPHYSuburban World: The Norling Photos "Where is Brad Zellar?" you might ask, as his hiatus from The Rake has created quite a void. Happily, he’s been busy promoting his new book, Suburban World: The Norling Photos, from Borealis Books. Zellar discovered Irwin Norling in 2002, when he unearthed Norling’s neglected negatives from … Read more
AP photo by Tom Olmscheid Representatives of the local sporting press —of which I am a decidedly derelict member— were packed cheek to jowl in the Herb Carneal Memorial Press Box at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Monday night. It was not, as you might imagine, a pretty picture. If somewhere there exists an International … Read more
I’ve got to remember to bring a camera to rehearsal so I can post some pictures on this blog. Right now, imagine a photograph that is so cool it makes you want to see Everywhere Signs Fall at Gremlin Theatre. I don’t care what you picture as long as you trust your imagination and call … Read more
A couple of talented Mexican-born chefs have opened new restaurants in south Minneapolis that raise the local standards for Mexican cuisine. Hector Ruiz, who trained with Alain Senderens at Lucas Carton in Paris, has added a third Latin restaurant to his collection: first El Meson, which features the flavors of the Latin Caribbean, then last … Read more
For those of you lulled into complacency by auspicious recent events such as Britney’s brief flirtation with lucidity, it’s important to note that, not only is the entertainment industry still pumping out fucking loons at a heretofore unheard of pace, but our politicians are providing ample evidence of a world view so profoundly divorced from … Read more