Yesterday, amid news of four ton satellites falling from the heavens and the pending departure of Minnesota’s last sports superstar, a glimmering beacon of hope shone from our nation’s capital. The House of Representatives, in one brief shining moment of accord, today put aside their rancor for a subject not involving burly men injecting illicit … Read more
Today is my birthday. I’m not afraid of coming birthdays, and I don’t intend to stop the count-up. Despite all of its challenges (living with teenagers, IRS tax audit, five year old with pneumonia), through the mud and the stars, life on the whole is pretty good. So today is MY day, the one day … Read more
The small river town where I lived and worked for a time was in a pretty and neglected part of the state. When I first moved down there I used to tell friends that it was as if I’d relocated to a remote little corner of some obscure European country. There were rolling, wooded hills, … Read more
BOOKSAll Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well The history of literature—up to and including the stuff piled on the new arrivals tables at your local bookstore—is crammed with oddballs and anachronisms. That said, it’s still a rare novel that can take such raw materials and … Read more
It’s a slippery, messy business, kissing. Two tongues meetings in one person’s mouth, touching and rolling and wrestling like snakes. The transfer of saliva. The hot, warm breath vaporous with what the kisser has most recently consumed. Not only that, even strangers do it. People who’ve only just met in bars; partygoers on New Year’s … Read more
Not all fashion designers consider themselves artists, but there is certainly a fine art to developing an exciting and cohesive line of clothing, a one-of-a-kind gown, or, for that matter, a sock-monkey bikini. Just five years ago, when home-grown clothing was paraded on First Avenue’s stage at the first Voltage fashion show, resources in the … Read more
We piled off the bus—field trip!— my teacher saying, suggestive and disinterested, “Just look.” The Minneapolis Institute of Arts free and full of kids, Chinese jades, gods and goddesses from everywhere, room after room of very old faces looking back at us. And here this one naked manso tall and alone in his own room, … Read more
I’m greeted at Susan Hensel Design Gallery by the gallery’s namesake, a small, ebullient woman who is a nationally recognized book artist and recent Minnesota transplant. “I’ve had friends here for years, my son was away at college—it was time,” she explains. As for her gallery, “I wanted the opportunity, not only to show my … Read more
It must be something in the water. One hundred years after Saint Paul experimental composer Arthur Farwell dissected Native Indian melodies and piled up unrelated tonalities, a core of dedicated underground Minnesota sound explorers is still sampling, mashing-up, and otherwise taking musical liberties. Although largely unsung in this state of above-ground musical champions, there is … Read more
While a handful of large companies give our city its national reputation, small, independent theater remains the life-blood of the local scene. Audiences are built by smaller theaters with more affordable ticket prices. Great actors have the opportunity to stretch and grow in smaller venues, without the pressures that they may experience later, in larger … Read more