Warning: In this post, you’ll have to wade through some sap before arriving at the payoff. This weekend I met my new mentee via the U of M’s school of journalism mentoring program. (I’m also on the school’s alumni board; do the warm-fuzzies never end?) Here’s what I love about mentoring: You give and you … Read more
Whoa. Sarah Janecek’s Politics in Minnesota newsletter sure lobbed one into the Strib newsroom late Friday. In a Weekly Report item entitled “MnDOT Under Seige: The Star Tribune’s Agenda,” Janecek writes that MnDOT personnel are getting pretty fed up with certain pushy, expletive-spewing Strib reporters. According to an email sent by a MnDOT mucky-muck to … Read more
MUSICBen Lee At the very green age of 14, Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee emerged on the music scene with his then-band, Noise Addict, and caused a minor stir, garnering the attention of members of both Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys. Fifteen years later, with albums, movies, and experience under his belt, Lee is in … Read more
We meet weekly for wine. At Alma, Erté, Heartland Wine Bar, Zander, jP American Bistro, and Barbette. Lesser known places, too. Once, when everything else was packed, we went to the Herkimer (this was a mistake) and once we drove an hour and a half for flights of Amarone at a rural wine bar called … Read more
The New York Times had a fascinating story last week, Food 2.0: Chefs as Chemists. Cutting edge chefs like Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 in Manhattan, and Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago are experimenting with ingredients like hydrocolloid gums to create combinations of flavor and texture not found in nature, like a fried mayonnaise, or … Read more
Road Game # 2: Minnesota 93, LA Lakers 107 Road Game # 3: Minnesota 93, Sacramento 100 1. Half Empty The die-hards among us who pledged to ride with the Minnesota Timberwolves throughout the 2007-08 season know that higher levels of tolerance and different parameters of success will be required. Put bluntly, wins and … Read more
Update: An earlier version of this post said that the Suburban World Theater would be serving brunch today (Sunday, November 11). That’s what I was told when I stopped in yesterday, but there was an unannounced change of plans: brunch service is tentatively scheduled to start next weekend, with a limited a la carte menu, … Read more
What would happen if somebody smart decided to reinvent the neighborhood tavern? If they were really smart, they might come up with something like Buster’s on 28th Ave, at 4204 28th Ave. S., in south Minneapolis. Outside of northeast Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s West Side, the old neighborhood bars have largely disappeared, replaced by coffee … Read more
I’ve been puzzling all morning over the logistics of this thing, but I think I’ve finally got it figured out. Seems David Beckham is coming to town with his soccer team, the Los Angeles Galaxy to play OUR soccer team, the Minnesota Thunder (what is it with soccer, by the way, aren’t team names are … Read more
Every town and city has its share of genuine characters and eccentrics, but I think you could say that it’s somewhat easier to get a real feel for the personalities of such characters in a smaller town, where there are so few public secrets and mysteries, and where what might be mere sidewalk spectacle in … Read more