FILMChicago Restored! Who better to tell ya about all that jazz then the people who were actually living it? At the end of the roaring ’20s, a little film was made that incorporated all the music, gin, and debauchery of the times. While the movie originally met with fear, the premise inspired the hit Bob … Read more
It is a firmly established fact about human beings that we want what we cannot have. Once stores run out of Furbees or fetal Cabbage Patch babies or giggling Elmos, suddenly every mother’s child must have one. When exorbitantly-priced iPhones hit the market already in limited supply, people line up at 2 a.m. I’ve heard … Read more
This "freedom of expression booth" at the MSP airport most likely won’t be looked at in the same way after this year’s Senator Craig escapade. But one of the most important — and one of the most overlooked — aspects our visual culture is fonts, particularly in our instructional messages. Recognize the style in the … Read more
Minneapolis-St.Paul is a Midwestern oasis for the visual arts. In fact, we here in the Twin Cities have visual arts all over the place, damn near everywhere you look… or where you aren’t looking, as is often the case. The visual arts don’t just hang at big name institutions like MIA or le Walker and … Read more
Truth to tell, I’m not a big fan of these end-of-year Top Ten lists. They tend, I think, to be both subjective and showy: meaning listmakers record either what’s obscurely relevant to them or what will demonstrate their great intellect and breadth of knowledge, or both. Two years ago, for instance, every book reviewer in … Read more
MUSIC Gear Daddies Add Boxing Day Show Just for You The English might have Boxing Day, but we have the Gear Daddies. And who needs another commonwealth holiday when we can have good old American country rockers. With their shows on the 28th and 29th already sold out, the band has shown some Austin, Minnesota … Read more
More like a mea maxima culpa. In my very first guest post here, I used the Rachel Bliss show at Cliché as an illustration of art works on display in places other than galleries, something that happens more and more here in Minneapolis. And then I posted the work of the wrong Bliss. The artwork … Read more
I read this the morning of every Christmas Eve. It helps remind me of the essential importance of a humble, shared feast. I gift this to all cooks as they start their ovens. Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a … Read more
It’s strange to me that nobody seems to expect anything in the way of an explanation these days. Nothing in the world surprises anyone anymore, unless, you know, someone decides to go all Jerry Bruckheimer with their rage. I guess I’m not a person who can live without explanations or surprise. Does the ticking of … Read more
I’ve spent only one Christmas alone — and by "alone," I mean myself and three young kids. I was recently divorced. My parents were visiting my sister’s family in Philadelphia. And my ex-husband, a "recovering" Catholic and practicing alcoholic at the time, had slid into his annual holiday slump. This is how I found myself … Read more