Here’s a marriage made in heaven: The very imaginative yet relentlessly unpretentious Frank Theatre company produces a new farce by Sam Shepard. Written on the eve of the 2004 election, the play has been described by Shepard as “a takeoff on Republican fascism.” This story interrupts the quiet lives of two Wisconsin dairy farmers, holdouts … Read more
Apparently, every Icelander who isn’t a musician is a filmmaker or actor, judging by this mini-festival of Icelandic films. Iceland’s filmmaking culture is still young (this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “spring of Icelandic filmmaking”), and its younger filmmakers are less interested in traditional storytelling, and more interested in work that reflects their … Read more
Ann and I would see eye-to-eye more often if I wore six-inch heels First, let me call attention to Steve Perry’s blog over at City Pages. He had the great idea of starting a Katherine Kersten haiku contest and he’s got some hilarious entries. Check it out. And, while we’re on the topic of blithering … Read more
The eyes of Texas…and the brains Two months ago, all us folks at the Rake were asked to name our favorite Texans. One of the knuckleheads who works here answered George W. She admitted she’d done so just to piss me off. I told her, though, that it didn’t bother me at all, but she’d … Read more
You can’t just plop your heart on the table every day, prod it with a fork, and expect it to give up its secrets. It can’t be shoved or bullied, and has never stood for interrogations. It speaks when it’s good and ready, and when it has something to say. There’s no small talk in … Read more
I have no one to blame but myself, I know that. I clearly blew what might have been a career-making opportunity. I’ve been trying all night to take the advice of my boss and look at this whole unfortunate situation as a ‘coachable moment,’ but it’s not easy, and, frankly, it really does make me … Read more
I foment world revolution and all I got was my face on a lousy t-shirt As one commenter on this blog said yesterday, this IS like making fun of the retarded kid. Ok, one more round of cruelty today then I promise I’ll leave them alone for a while…at least until I feel like it … Read more
Style beats substance every time Gee where do I start on the Strib’s redesign/repositioning? First, I guess anyone who’s been paying attention has heard the Strib was undergoing a redesign. It debuted today, and I must say I find the use of the pastel colors in the flag the most striking use of pastels since … Read more
Odd shard, the moon. Last call. He lugs his iron head through the brass-clanging days. The dull trash-can gong of winter, a throbbing that starts in his fillings and swells clear up straining against the black cap of his underskull. Snow swept, dead silence, dead Saturday folding into Sunday morning. What is fog and what … Read more
This one guy, every couple weeks it’s these amazing places you can’t even believe, mountains and him standing in water or strung up on a cliff and hanging from ropes. He’ll bring in ten or twenty rolls of film at a time, and it’s gotten so that I look forward to seeing him come through … Read more