Smooth jazz killed my brother Randy. He was coming into the S curves on I-5 just south of Seattle, listening to radio KYEZ, “Mellow Sounds of the Spheres,” when the music transported him into a trance-like state and he crashed into the side of a sixteen-wheeler bringing engine parts into Boeing. I called Randy on … Read more
Peter Bruce is a slight, sandy-haired, serious man who moves and speaks quickly and with purpose. Bruce loves the skyways, how when it’s raining or too hot or too cold they convey people between offices and restaurants and stores. While most people have never heard of him, anyone who’s connected with the skyways—whether in retail … Read more
Once upon a time, high school seniors all had their yearbook pictures taken against a blue marbleized background, just like everybody else on picture day. Maybe they posed with chin in hand or had a halo of backlighting, but their portraits were all pretty much the same. One day, an ambitious but anonymous photographer saw … Read more
I’d just been dumped by a guy when I first heard about the Bakken Museum’s vibrator collection. Minneapolis’s Bakken, for the record, bills itself as “The Museum of Electricity in Life,” and since my bulb had just gone out, I thought looking into the long history of self-satisfaction might be a pleasant diversion. I learned … Read more
Ghoulish white faces with dark eyes lurked beneath the chandeliers and timber beams. They whispered in Slavic-sounding accents. A man with pointy ears and a deformed face shuffled under the candelabrum shaped like a dragon, muttering to himself. This was a particularly strange evening at the historic James J. Hill House, because everyone present was … Read more
A few weeks ago, William Shatner stopped by Riverside, Iowa, to audition locals for Invasion Iowa, a sci-fi screenplay he supposedly co-wrote with Leonard Nimoy. It turned out to be a put-on. There will be no Invasion Iowa, only a reality-TV show making fun of Riversiders. Why did Shatner, an unapologetic Canadian, decide to pick … Read more
American solipsism is a funny thing. Each of us tends to believe two contradictory destinies await us: On the one hand, incredible luck and wealth will eventually be ours. On the other hand, violent tragedy is one terrorist strike away. This is the American Dream gone to seed and become a psychosis. We each believe … Read more
After Richard Avedon, the famous portraitist and New Yorker staff photographer, died on October 1, the owners of the Black Forest Inn in South Minneapolis draped their notorious Avedon print in black chiffon. The colossal photograph—a black and white portrait of eleven members of the Daughters of the American Revolution—covers a wall in their backroom … Read more
• Shared bathroom with Bill O’Reilly • “Mission Accomplished” branded into flesh • Kidneys pecked out by Lee Atwater • Daily brunch with Dick Cheney • What’s left of hair pulled out by mixed-race love children • Steady audio feed from the Hillary Clinton Presidential Library
For many years, country music was one of the shibboleths of the alternative nation: If you were born after 1950, lived in a city, and considered yourself smart and hip, you’d say you liked “all kinds of music”—pause—“except country.” There were almost as many “Country and Western” jokes as knock-knock jokes. And the folk revolution … Read more