A few years ago, Gerard Cosloy detailed the reasons why we shouldn’t encourage voting. The founder of Matador Records (and legendary Gen-X curmudgeon) argued convincingly that the last thing this nation needs are legislators put into office by the same people who have made Eminem, Spongebob Squarepants, and Miller Lite what they are today. Is … Read more
My son Matt, who is a freshman at Carleton College, called me early last Friday afternoon to tell me that he’d just heard that Paul Wellstone had been killed in a plane crash. He’d got the news right after getting out of his freshman political science class, the same class I’d taken at Carleton 32 … Read more
Thirty-three years ago, Richard Lack started his atelier for classical realism. The modernists laughed, groaned, and went back to their wine. Decades later, the arts movement that found a happy home in Minneapolis may be the most exciting thing happening in the nation. You walk up a flight of stairs and down the flourescent-lit cinderblock … Read more
The opening of Heartland could not have been timed better. With winter approaching, our primitive souls yearn for the comfort food that will sustain us through the next six months. Lenny Russo, the former executive chef at W.A. Frost, has crafted a North American Midwest cuisine (who knew?) consisting of all locally grown produce, nuts … Read more
When our associate editor’s sister writes a book, we can’t help but think you should buy it. Especially if that book was the successful and superhip result of a Ph.D. dissertation on the unlikely subject of contemporary television programming and viewing. In Viewers Like You?, Laurie Ouellette finally explains why, despite knowing better, we vegged … Read more
Many people don’t understand that “May you live in interesting times” is a curse. It is certainly one that befell Cicero, who was indeed Rome’s greatest politician, in the sense both of statesman and opportunist. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Mark Antony, and Augustus, the figures that did most to … Read more
Since the odds of you being attacked by a shark are about the same as being marooned on a desert island with Jennifer Lopez or Russell Crowe, New York Times writer John Tierney has written The Best Case Scenario Handbook, a parody of those successful worst-case handbooks. If you are going to learn how to … Read more
If anyone has earned the right to use such an inclusive title for a series of records as “American Recordings,” it’s Johnny Cash. He connects with an amazingly broad set of audiences, from collegiate hipsters to presidents Nixon and Reagan, and is equally able to impress pious churchgoers and (as Merle Haggard once observed) “to … Read more
You know, there just aren’t very many pop recording artists these days who are making what we’d call “art” in the high-brow sense of the word. And any time we start making a list (you know how we love lists around here!), the little elfish one from Iceland lands right on top, every time. Her … Read more
In recent years, there’s been a real expansion in our awareness of great rock ’n’ roll coming from non-English speaking countries—and we’re not just talking about all the cool ABBA tribute bands. Maybe it’s just the natural consequence of having successfully overwhelmed the rest of the world with our brand of pop music. Are we … Read more