Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) Game #59, Home Game #32: Charlotte 109, Minnesota 89 Season Record: 12-47 1. Getting the Message It is just early March, with more than a fourth of the season’s games still to play, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are counting ping pong balls a lot more … Read more
Long, long ago, in the sweltering twilight of an August night roaring with cicadas and the vacuum hum of a lazy small town in retreat from the heat and the falling darkness, the yards and sidewalks abandoned for living rooms and television sets (the wobbling blue screens of which we could see through the dark, … Read more
Look, I deeply understand that trenchant matters of importance are upon us. Hillary is imploding, the silver haired wren is the latest casualty of climate change (speaking as an amateur orthonologist, it matters), sticky sidewalks in downtown Minneapolis are about to be re-introduced due to the flaccid governance of a weak Mayor system in spite … Read more
"So, who are Porter and Frye?", I asked the hostess last night. "Do they really exist?" She smiled, then said that various legends about Porter and Frye certainly did exist, and then got straight to the point: no, they were not real. The name was invented by a restaurant consultant. She said it’s supposed to … Read more
If astronomers and astrophysicists are correct, we’ve got another 13-16 billion years until the universe collapses under its own mass and hubris in a Big Crunch – making it all the more impressive that it has taken just a few short months for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s world to implode, compacting itself into a fiery mass … Read more
THEATER & PERFORMANCEThe Fortunes of King CroesusWe’ve known it for at least three centuries, apparently: money doesn’t buy happiness. And yet we can’t seem to help ourselves, as we continue to search our shopping cart for the meaning of life, for peace, for the ole H-word — as we continue to work 24/7, searching for … Read more
I’m typically leery of wines with cute, punny, or outrageous names. Goats do Roam. The Unbearable Lightness of Riesling. Fat Bastard. They’re all truly dreadful. So I was expecting little when I uncorked the Rosenblum Cellars Côte du Bone Roan 2005 from Chateau La Paws. Here’s a surprise: I loved it. And that was before … Read more
Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) Game # 58, Home Game #31: Seattle 111, Minnesota 108 Season Record: 12-46 1. An Improving Beast During Kevin Garnett’s dozen years with the Wolves, I wrote a slew of game recaps which included as a stock phrase the caution that people shouldn’t take the … Read more
FILMArranged Here’s an interesting show for you and the kids: Arranged, a tale of two Brooklyn teachers—Rochel, an Orthodox Jew, and Nasira, a Syrian Muslim—both of whom are in the process of being set up in arranged marriages. Somehow they manage to become close friends. By setting the film in a public grade school and … Read more
MUSIC Maceo Parker One of the last things you expect out of Maceo Parker is a new wrinkle, and that’s OK: As the saxophonist for the Godfather of Soul, he’s the man who blew the horn that popped the sweat out of James Brown’s pores. He went on to play with two of Brown’s most … Read more