In the strange Earrings of Madame de …, a lonely woman, cloistered in an upper-class existence of endless soirées and empty finery, sells the pair of diamond earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day; the unnamed heroine needs spending money to cavort with her long queue of suitors. Oddly enough, the earrings make … Read more
Jantje Fisscher’s breathtaking constructions really are “drawings in light”: She uses certain plastics to construct light-gathering patterns that take her longtime fascination with natural form and rhythm to new heights. Her work has developed over the years from interesting but relatively dry explorations of pattern to increasingly ecstatic immersion in an expanded idea of the … Read more
These two artists (plus Burton Fialk, in the MCP’s Minnesota Projects Gallery) make work about seeing others—in particular, seeing them under duress. Photography lends itself to this, although it’s a use that most of us would not dare undertake. Annabel Clark has documented her mother, Lynn Redgrave, as she endures breast cancer and its treatment … Read more
How sad and impoverished must life be for the anosmiacs among us, those poor wretches who have lost the ability to smell? C’est tragique! as Marcel Proust might say, who also said, “When nothing else remains from the past, friends and things long gone, the odors from their living remain as tiny drops of their … Read more
Margaret Lonergan in Panama Author(s) and Location: Margaret Lonergan, Minneapolis
The attached photo is of me and my wife Christine Homsey sailing a 52 foot Beneteau Oceanis 523 in the Sir Francis Drake Channel just South of the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. We are part of a group that every few years charters sailboats bareboat (we crew the boat ourselves) in … Read more
As we enter the modern age of paperless-ness, there seems to be an increased hue and cry bemoaning the impending loss of the paper newspaper. I’m one of those people. What will I line my bird cage with, wrap my fish in, or spread across my floor as I paint my living room? Will newspapers … Read more
Brian Lambert [“Local News, Global Profits,” June] thinks covering and reporting local news is “easy to do—any writer can read the minutes of a planning commission meeting, or watch a ball game and file a story about it.” Apparently he has never covered local news. Or covered it conscientiously. I won’t bother pointing out how … Read more
Proud as we are to have Medina resident Greg LeMond amongst us, he is just that—a non-native resident, born in California. [“Twin Cities on Two Wheels,” June] Apparently he moved here to pursue Nordic skiing to train in the off-season after being accidentally shot while turkey hunting. Keep up the good work. Karl Herber, Minneapolis … Read more
Where should the civil engineering community send the honorary pocket protector for Michael Nordskog? [“Moving Water and Earth,” June] His description of the St. Anthony Falls Lab’s global importance and local invisibility brought back memories of my university days. Youngsters start playing with slush dams in the winter streets and gravy reservoirs in their mashed … Read more