Justin doesn’t cut it. Every high school football and soccer team in America has a half dozen Justins on its roster, and the name reeks of suburban privilege. It’s a boy-band name, and I’d love to see Justin Morneau go in a different direction. Granted, the big Canuck seems to be doing just fine right … Read more
Since I don’t often plug charity events, and am starting to feel as though I’ve got a hardened, black heart, I thought I’d pass along this info about an event happening tonight at the grandest she-palace in all the Twin Cities, Alfred’s Grand Petit Magasin. Before I get into the event: This magnificent store, in … Read more
When he came up through the tunnel, the darkness had not yet lifted and the cicada were still in full damp rattle. The heat had broken in the night, and the coolness was stirring up an apparational moving fog, heavy, moist. The street lights were dropping fuzzed cones of grainy and ineffectual light straight down … Read more
Like many food tourists, I’m driven to seek out local markets—public, farmers, indoor, outdoor—everywhere I travel. Invariably, I end up wandering the aisles awash with both wonder and jealousy. In Vancouver, the booths and stands crowded into the Granville Island Public Market nearly bring me to tears with their spectacular selection of fresh fish and … Read more
When we were all younger and firmer, my husband was a competitive runner and our daughters were Dad groupies. Upon returning from the crusades, battle scarred and sweaty, the girls would surround him, hopping around with Barbies in their fists and shrieking, “Did you win Dad, did you win?” The situation was such that sometimes … Read more
Jon Stewart’s smart satire makes watching The Daily Show one of our favorite things to do in bed. But it’s a little-known fact that the show owes much of its sassy vibe to Minnesota-born humorist Lizz Winstead, who, with Madeleine Smithberg, co-created the show. Winstead still works the comedy circuit, performing one-woman shows such as … Read more
So to summarize your story [“No Way Home,” June]: Cambodia is hot. Cambodia sucks. Boy comes to the U.S. with his parents. Boy joins a gang, and never bothers to get citizenship, despite living here fifteen years. Finally, after being in fairly regular criminal trouble as a juvenile, he’s eighteen when charged with a felony … Read more
The only positive thing about the very creepy Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Museum [The Rake’s Progress, June] is that it’s dead humans and not the usual dead animals that are being violated, disrespected, and exploited in the name of art. Author(s) and Location: Frank Erickson, Minneapolis
Clinton Collins, Jr., clearly defines the problem of the Star Tribune’s reader’s representative [Free the Jackson Five, June] when he concludes that “complaining to the Star Tribune is OK—if it is the right complaint, on the right issue … ” The irony here is that the Star Tribune did have a reader’s representative who was … Read more
Diane Arbus, whose retrospective is now on view at Walker Art Center, used her exceptional technical skill as a fashion photographer to create a world inhabited by circus freaks, the mentally handicapped, nudists, giants and midgets, and, even more disturbing, “regular” people made up to go out on the town. Taken as a whole, this … Read more