“Edifice complex.” That’s the diagnosis playwright Edward Albee gave to American arts organizations—more specifically, it seemed, to nonprofit regional theaters—when he spoke at the Westminster Town Hall forum in 2005. Though the pun drew laughs, Albee followed with a hard, damning statistic. “Ninety-five percent of the money we give as a country does not go … Read more
A colleague likes to talk about the Ivy League football games he went to as a graduate student at Harvard. Apparently they did not sing the Tom Lehrer Harvard fight song (“Wouldn’t it be peachy if we won the game …”); in fact, the crowd’s invective sounds as though it was scarcely more subtle than … Read more
Nearly every morning but for Shabbos (Saturday, the Sabbath) and religious holidays, Rabbi Avrum Kaufmann walks from his home in St. Louis Park to the Byerly’s store half a mile away, where he serves as mashgiach: supervisor of the kosher deli’s adherence to kashrut laws. The deli cannot open until Kaufmann or one of his … Read more
Inside a booth at the recent Back to the ’50s classic car show at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, Sven Lynch labored in the sweltering heat over a slim stripe on the side of a black ’36 Ford coupe. Various gawkers had gathered, including a pair of corpulent, bearded twins clad in matching Twins shirts, a … Read more
Lips can spit. Eyes can blink. The nose can sneeze. But the ear—that delicate wormhole into the skull—is defenseless. Perhaps this vulnerability explains our horror of earwigs. The earwig is a damp-loving, creepy-crawly creature that looks like a cockroach with a lobster claw on its rear end. If you think you’ve seen more of them … Read more
Fifty twenty-somethings crowded into Two Pines, a dark living room in South Minneapolis, on a sweltering Sunday night, flowing into any space not filled by six musicians and their guitars, mandolins, and banjos. The singer, clad in drooping denim overalls, strummed a few chords of a Mazzy Star song and chuckled. “What does this song … Read more
Contrary to recent media reports, local artist and performer Faith Farrell is not the self-proclaimed Spam Queen. “I don’t know where that came from,” Farrell told me. “My friends were the ones who started calling me the Spam Queen. I would never be presumptuous enough to proclaim myself the queen of anything.” Farrell is technically … Read more
Seasonally, the time is right for hotdish. The weather is turning cooler, the oven has waited patiently while the grill has had its many days of glory. People are coming off their summer buzz and organizing, whether to boost a local sports team or join a church choir. And in this neck of the woods, … Read more
The hardiest breed of Minnesotan can’t get enough snow, even in summer. That’s why Kami Brueshaber and Jason Aide of Minneapolis chased winter all the way to Talkeetna, Alaska, a “teeny town in the shadows of Mount McKinley,” wrote Brueshaber. She added: “Everyone there has a real laid-back attitude. Don’t expect much to be happenin’ … Read more
Reading The Rake in a hand-pulled rickshaw is not recommended for a weak stomach. Tim Leone-Getten and Leslie Olmen visited Calcutta, India with other area teachers on a South Asia teacher exchange program with Hamline University and Relief International. Author(s) and Location: Leslie Olmen