The Wake

When I moved to Minneapolis a few years ago, something struck me as odd: there was no Ikea. Trying to furnish my fifth college apartment, it really hit me. There was no Ikea. Speaking to friends back in Los Angeles, I finally came to grips. There was no Ikea! Since my undergrad, I’d grown to know and rely on Ikea like a particle-board crutch –-keeping my place looking good and my pocket book alive. Somehow with more Scandinavians, Volvos and lutefisk than you can shake a stick at, the Twin Cities had missed out the biggest thing to come out …

Read more →

On Saturday, our pigskin squad will try to best the reviled Hawkeyes in the final game of the 2004 campaign. Although a valiant effort, Minnesota has once again failed to achieve the prospect of a reputable bowl game. After a dismal loss to the Hoosiers –-one of the worst football teams in the country –- the Golden Gophers will attempt to conclude their season with dignity. I will be in attendance on Saturday, along with the usual throng of football enthusiasts, doing my best to cheer our boys to victory. In addition to spirited choruses of the “Rouser,” I will …

Read more →

Most would agree that college forces us to step outside our boundaries and experience new things. However, it seems that some students have sidestepped this process by joining fraternities and sororities.That’s right. If you want to opt out of experiences that tend to make peoples’ life better, go Greek! Even better, maybe you can get back what you left behind in high school.Start with something that most college students find enjoyable: making friends. Granted it takes some initiative to go out and talk to people about joining a Greek organization, but that time could also be spent making friends on …

Read more →

Anti-corporate was SO last year™. Zealous American cultural colonization? Please. Global market domination? Are you kidding? Foreign outsourcing? More like foreign love-sourcing, commie. This isn’t your acid-mamma’s America, man. We’re living in a different world now. And socialism will only spoil the fun for everyone. Why criticize the capitalist status quo upon which this fine continent rests? You don’t want to poop on everyone’s parade, do you, token young activist? You’re a smart person. In fact, at this point, you’re probably asking yourself, “Gee Mister, you’re right. Nobody likes getting poop on themselves. But what can I do to stop …

Read more →

After The Shut-Ins played at the Dinkytowner Café’s In the Garage, a very well attended, all-ages show on Sunday, October 10, 2004, I really wanted to find out more about them.
Martha Weir and Neil Weir met with me and the following transpired Q. How long have you been playing together?
Martha: We started off about a year and a half ago, just sort of messing around and seeing what might come out of it. I was playing drums at that point and Neil guitar. After a couple of months, I got a bass and we started playing …

Read more →

Romano Scavolini directed one of horror’s greatest and most disturbing films: Nightmare. I recently spoke with Mr. Scavolini, and gained some insight on the film.The Wake: First, I would love to say that “Nightmares in a Damaged Brain” is a favorite film of mine, one of few films capable of actually being frightening and disturbing. My first question is what motivated to write and direct a film such as “Nightmare?”
Romano: I didn’t really think in terms of writing and directing a horror movie . . . the plot came from an article I read in the paper regarding some …

Read more →

Lamb of God, from Richmond, Virginia is tearing the metal world to shreds. They play extreme thrash with elements of death metal, hardcore, with a slight Pantera touch. They recently released their fifth full-length album (and first on Epic Records), Ashes of the Wake. It is quite simply a great thrash record that you need to hear. Recently I was able to discuss the record and the band with guitarist Willie Adler.Brant: Well, I would first like to congratulate you on your release “Ashes of the Wake,” it’s even better than “As the Palaces Burn.” It is possibly the best …

Read more →

Ecopolitan, a completely organic, vegan and raw restaurant, boasts that a raw vegan diet will give people fewer colds and allergies, more energy, slimmer bodies, sharper minds, clearer skin, and will decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, gallstones, infections and premature death. Which is weird, because most people equate raw with wretchedness. Ecopolitan is trying to change this.Their entire menu is 100% raw and vegan. They don’t use animal products of any kind. And no cooking, period. Their produce is washed with purified water. All cleaning, laundry and dishwashing is done with non-toxic, earth-friendly materials. …

Read more →

Mark Desrosiers, a library assistant for the University of Minnesota, also joined in the picketing at Coffman. Desrosiers says he is “sick and tired of getting screwed by the ”U.” [The University] expects things out of us that we can’t afford anymore.” Almost exactly a year after a two-week strike by the University’s clerical and technical workers, certain issues surrounding the walkout remain unresolved.University workers’ unions have chosen to focus on issues surrounding their new health care plan, or U Plan. University Unions United organized informational pickets outside of employee health and benefits fairs, which occurred Oct. 26 at …

Read more →

It’s noon on a Friday and Coffman Union is its usual hub of activity: activists debate abortion on the front steps, students in sweatpants study in the first-floor lounge, a handful of bowlers strut their stuff in Goldy’s Gameroom. But, walking into the fourth-floor Campus Club at lunchtime, I enter a different realm, one in which university faculty, staff and their guests schmooze and dine in an ambient, country-club-like dining room. Floor-to-ceiling windows line the dining room’s walls, boasting spectacular views of the Mississippi.As I grab a table near some suits who can’t be anything other than math professors, I …

Read more →

If keeping a diary seems a little too second grade, and writing in a journal is just too old-fashioned for you, a blog may be the right fit. Blogs, short for Web logs, are essentially online journals that give tech-savvy tell-alls the ability to share their inner thoughts, rants and rages with the world.Last spring the University of Minnesota got in on the action with the creation of UThink, a system that gives university students, staff and faculty all the necessary tools to create their own blogs, as well as a centralized place to house them. Shane Nackerud is the …

Read more →

Peter McCormick celebrated Halloween dressed in a red velvet robe with feathers glued down both sleeves and a platinum blond wig. Channeling the spirit of 16-time-World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, McCormick looked at ease pretending to be the legendary wrestling veteran.Dressing as Flair wasn’t a stretch for the 21-year-old kinesiology major from the “U.” That’s because he has spent the last year and a half working on his own presence in the ring.Every Sunday McCormick makes the 40-minute drive to Elk River, Minn., to the renovated warehouse where the Midwest Professional Wrestling School holds their weekly matches.For these few hours …

Read more →

It was twenty weeks ago today, Sgt. Garnett lead the Minnesota Timberwolves out of its first-round playoffs jinx only to be eliminated by the Los Angeles Lakers one game short of the NBA Finals. During a chaotic NBA off-season that saw more player movement than a life-or-death game of musical chairs, the mighty Wolves hid under a rock, and begin the 2004-2005 season with the same team that came so close to a championship ring.It has always been my observation that a healthy Timberwolves roster would have beaten the Lakers and ultimately the Detroit Pistons, so I can only applaud …

Read more →

On a cold Sunday evening in October, a group of friends –- teammates –- gather to defend their title as intramural softball champs. Although they’ve never captured the championship at the Autumn Classic, the Shotcallers, a group of mostly fifth-year seniors, are the reigning back-to-back spring softball champions.This group of athletes came together their freshman year in 2001. The team captain for eight seasons, Bryan Walters, walked down his hallway in Frontier Hall looking for players to fill a team roster. Each year since then, a few players have come and gone but four originals remain: Bryan Walters, Brady Bussler, …

Read more →

Hark! Hark to the wind! ‘Tis the night, they say,
When all souls come back from the far away-
The dead, forgotten this many a day!
Virna Sheard
“Hallowe’en,” 1913
Devils, demons, ghosts, the dead, the undead, and death: these are familiar characters on Halloween. Where did this fascination with death come from?As a pagan, I’m faced with mistaken impressions about my beliefs every day, but never more than at Halloween. Militant Christians regularly hand out fliers on the corner. One, to my amusement and frustration, had well-known “Satanic” images: an inverted pentagram and a goat-human hybrid. “Satanic …

Read more →