Earlier this year I was so moved by a piece of fiction in your magazine, “Thin Ice” [March] by Chris Waddington, that I tore the story out to keep. You’ve done it once again. October’s Rake fiction selection, “Party Doll” by Margaret Benbow, contains everything a reader could want, and so very much more.
All one really expects from a local publication are reviews on current happenings, interviews with local celebs, and the occasional scandal story. Your magazine is so far superior to anything else being done out there that I can’t believe it’s free! What did we do before you arrived?
As a board member of Mizna, I appreciated the fine article in the September issue by Leah Fabel on our recent literary gathering and journal release event (“Common Ground: Syria, Somalia and Soccer: The Arab world, as seen from the East Bank”)[Rakish Angle].
I would like to point out that there was more cultural diversity amongst the audience than the article indicated (Arab-Americans, African-Americans/Somalis, European-Americans).
My husband and I and a few others present may have been assumed to be of Arab background but we are not; we are of South Asian or other Asian backgrounds.
There also were people of other Middle Eastern backgrounds present: Iranians and Armenians, who are not Arabs either. There also were people of North African background present, who identify more as Berber than Arab.
We were all there as supporters of Mizna’s mission to explore Arab-American culture, with which we feel a certain strong affinity based on some common experience as members of culturally related American minority ethnic groups.
That does not make us Arabs, however, and we should not be assumed to be Arab just because we appear to fit a broad image (dare I say stereotype?) of what an Arab or Arab-American might look like.
Paul Bartlett’s letter [Letters, October] regarding Peter Hutchinson, Independence Party candidate for governor, stinks of antidemocratic hypocrisy. I gather from the tone of the letter that votes not assigned to Republicans are automatically a bourgeois entitlement of Democrats.
Ralph Nader and Hutchinson are great Americans who are brave enough to wage uphill battles with conviction, which is something so-called progressives would understand were they not jaded by zero-sum politics.
I will be voting for Democrats in November, but I’m troubled by those of us who have neither the character nor the values to appreciate an open electoral process. Associating the worst motives with worthy third-party candidates who run with passion and integrity is exactly the type of imperiousness that sends voters out our left door.
If our values and positions are strong, as we believe they are, we can prevail without the censorious yelping against the right of citizens to exercise their constitutional rights in any way they see fit. Any member of a party called “Democratic” should need no primer on the rights of individuals in a participatory system of government.
I loved Brad Zellar’s article “Local Music: We grow old, we grow old” [October]. Indeed, I’ve felt totally behind on the current music scene. It takes so much time and money to keep up, to keep acquiring new tunes, to keep scouting for new music, that we become geezers before we want to. (Writing the word “geezers” reminds me that I’d like to start a movement to have stadiums offer Geezer Seating during rock concerts. I go to see the band, not listen to the under-30 set scream around me.)
I thought MPR’s the Current would help me keep up, however, the station’s broadcast range is such that we can’t get it out in the sticks (central Minnesota) via traditional radio. I listen to MPR’s news station exclusively at work, but I’d definitely tune in to the Current if it were available. (Before you suggest that I listen on the Internet, our connection at work is via phone.)
As for Mr. Zellar’s article, what warmed my heart was his couching the local music scene in terms of an aging Gen Xer. I was beginning to despair of Xers EVER getting any media attention. It was all Boomer, Millennial, Boomer, Millennial, as though we simply didn’t exist in between. Glad to see we still matter.
I’ve been a Rake reader since my dad first introduced me to the magazine about two years ago. As a lifelong metro area resident (I’m from Anoka) and a current student at the U, I appreciate the stories, commentary, reviews and info every month. I am studying abroad in Amsterdam, the Netherlands this semester and I was very excited to see the April copy of the Rake in a care-package sent from home. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to be “red-handed” abroad with one of my favorite hometown reads. The picture attached was taken at Keukenhof (www.keukenhof.nl), one of the largest (if not the largest) flower gardens in the world located in Lisse, the Netherlands. It is full of thousands of flowers, mostly tulips, which is what the Netherlands is famous for. This sunny spot was the perfect place to enjoy a bit of home on a beautiful spring day amid the flowers of the Netherlands.
We took the Rake on our Builder’s Club trip to Argentina in January. These photos were taken at Iguazu Falls located on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Our guidebook stated that “Even the most hardened of waterfall yawners will be taken aback by the Iguazu Falls.” They were right! Pictures do not do justice to its magnitude. Our magazine got soaked from the spray at this portion of the falls known as the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat).
Dear Rake Staff, Attached is a photo of myself and a fellow soldier in Iraq holding the current issue of the Rake magazine. “Here we are standing next to our Hummer located near the Ziggeratte of ancient Ur. We’re currently stationed at Camp Adder, Iraq with the Minnesota Army National Guard. We were so thrilled to see an issue of the Rake! It brought a touch of green to this hot, dry and very dusty land. By the way, it’s 120 degrees today.”
Thanks Rake!! from the troops
Master Sergeant Pederson and Staff Sergeant Horgan
I’m 45 years old, teach remedial Reading in an elementary school, and am a voracious reader. I turn to your mag for the kind of writing I crave and can’t find in any other Minneapolis mag. Never before have I written to a publication, but also, never before have I felt such a craving. I was riveted by Jeannine Ouellette’s story, “Daughter of God” [September]. I want, need, and strongly hope this was just a taste of the full book that is to come on Grace’s life. Extraordinary. Please tell me there’s more.
Editor’s note: Indeed, Grace Kolenda Deters and Jeannine Ouellette are working on Grace’s story, and “Daughter of God” is actually just a taste of what is to come.