Dave and Cathy Burrows, of Green Bay, Wisconsin (frequent Twin Cities visitors), did a three-week tour by a Norwegian nature cruise company that featured Argentina, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Islands, Orkney Islands, and finally (as shown here), the Antarctica Peninsula. The Gentoo penguins, normally comical, weren’t doing much as they stood in the active … Read more
I had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. I relish regularly purging my home of crap. However, I also think it is a special kind of hell to have to arrange crap artfully on card tables in the driveway, assign a value to each item of crap, and look at the neighbors with … Read more
Of all the depressing novels I know, Jude the Obscure takes the prize for sustained doom and gloom. Don’t let the film mislead you; it is far too pretty. All those authentic Victorian sets (not to mention the delightfully authentic Kate Winslet) undermine the exposition of Jude’s law, that Sod and Murphy were incurable optimists, … Read more
The werewolf’s life has never been easy. But the complications of twenty-first-century living often result in even more confusion and frustration. Fortunately, a few sessions with a qualified life coach can help today’s lycanthrope adjust to those inevitable crises of confidence. OWN YOUR ASPIRATIONS. Werewolves often lack a sense of purpose in their lives, personally … Read more
You can’t spit in Lowertown without hitting a plaque denoting one historically significant edifice or another. Warehouses stand shoulder to shoulder, erected in a passel of architectural styles—from Italianate to Richardsonian to Beaux Arts—monuments to a zeal for development that’s matched only by the recent condo craze. Many of these majestic industrial buildings, like the … Read more
Autumn is my favorite time of year. Add the beauty of the harvest to deep-blue skies, brilliant foliage, and crisp, cool mornings, and you have the perfect eating season. Throw open the windows, crank up the oven, throw some cinnamon about, and life is perfect. Except Sundays. On autumnal Sundays, as I focus on the … Read more
The local music scene’s ubiquitous and ridiculously busy hot hand, Erik Appelwick has, remarkably, been living in the Twin Cities only six years. Having grown up in South Dakota and Michigan, and then kicked about South Dakota for a while during his collegiate and postcollegiate years, he made the bold decision in 2000 to move … Read more
Twenty years ago, one could hardly have blamed Chan Poling if he’d walked away from a music career altogether. His band, pioneering Minneapolis punk-poppers The Suburbs, was in its second abortive go-round with a major record label—this time, A&M. The ’Burbs’ primary ally at the label had left the company, often the kiss of death … Read more
Lauper’s latest, The Body Acoustic, pays homage to her own greatest hits in mellow new interpretations. She still has that voice—half Marilyn Monroe, half Minnie Mouse—and she still has that wild, half-Pippi Longstocking, half-Billy Idol hair, but we’re glad that she doesn’t make as big a deal of herself as, say, another icon who dates … Read more
There may be no more telling harbinger of the onslaught of middle age than the stasis that settles over an individual’s music collection, signaling that shift in a passionate fan’s life when he throws in the towel and resigns himself to a soundtrack stalled at a particular point in time. The precise date can usually … Read more