The Wake

One word: rapturous. That’s the word I assign Modest Mouse’s performance at First Avenue on February 28. Rapturous because my innards shook, because my brain resonated with joy and because most everyone had smiles stretched across their faces or danced feverishly. Modest Mouse’s guttural sound easily gets under the skin, and the result is memorable music and also a show worth recalling.But let’s start at the beginning, before Modest Mouse appeared. I arrived late and only caught the last three songs by the opening band Mount Egypt. Admittedly I felt bad, but it was OK because their slow burning rock …

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On February 16 I had the chance to speak with one of my favorite actors of all time. This man is easily the greatest horror actor of his generation (sorry Bruce Campbell fans, it’s a fact that even the “Big Chin” doesn’t come close). He has inspired millions of nightmares; he is Robert Englund, most famously known as Freddy Krueger. I hope you enjoy this discussion with a living legend and afterward check out www.robertenglund.com. The Wake: Can you tell me a bit about 2001 Maniacs (remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ classic Two Thousand Maniacs)?Robert Englund: I’m hoping …

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I would say that Hot Hot Heat are on fire. But that would sound stupid. And cliché.But really, they are.In the sweltering underground of indie rock, the British Colombian band is a few degrees above the rest. Maybe it’s because they haven’t been featured on the soundscape of The O.C. – yet. Maybe it’s because they’re from Canada – as all the “cool” bands are these days. Really though, it’s just because they’re better.They’re not really whimsical. They’re not really dance. They’re not really Death Cab. But they’re really good. And in the grand scheme of sub-altern anti-radio, they’re tops. …

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They make me what I am. A mermaid with wings,
Or the days of the week in colors and patterns
That help to create my interpretation of time.When I sleep I always wake up wondering
If I have the day off, or if I slept through my alarm clock.
It sounds like a train halting at intervals on a blackboard.Months are calendars without numbers that stretch to the horizon;
December is always the farthest away, even when we catch it.
I want to have cereal and coffee for breakfast,
Even though the word breakfast brings toast to mind.You know …

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Conceivably, inevitably, regrettably a notion…
Ambers, lusting, elongation and implosion
I burned the wretched city to ash
Sought lastly and callously a world.
A new earth.
Fell through the sky on my back
Landing and wandering by, by foot to seek for potion.First met a beggar, poorest of tribe
I know who’ll take you to the window in the sky too high to scribe
His legend, he spoke.
To sparrow’s nest, a sit in smoke.
A plan.
The seeds.
Empirically a tree to match the sun.
A watershed vice of onward eyes I spun and climbed the pine.Crusted, darkened, …

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February 21, 2005It’s 1:45 a.m.; the dark cover of night has finally pulled itself past the horizon. The city skyline is filled with esoteric lights that illuminate the blackness. A thick blanket of fog hangs next to the window. The pane is covered with ice that has formed botanical designs, a perfect visual for my scrambled thoughts. Outside, the village lush struggles to find his way home, heading everywhere, anywhere, nowhere. The echo of the shot has finally gone silent.His lips enclosed the cold barrel of the .45 caliber handgun when Hunter S. Thompson pulled …

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character: Paris
young, intellectual, presumptuousplace: a bedroom
dark, desolate
dungeon of conundrums jetlagged from the info highway, hours taut in knotted string theories, young Paris sinks through the conscious mirror
his eyes fire, flickering after-lights become fractals, snowflake silhouettes, and stars on the ocean skyFirst Dream: Creationthe initial explosion
baryonic energy flung in all directions
shards of stars soaring outward from ground zerofirst there was a festering sweat of dark ages, murky wick, infinite
followed by a cosmic fire, intergalactic plasma pyre, first ignitiongravity was gaseous astral clouds
an ardent contrast
bright glistening celestial colors dissipated into pale pastels …

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It’s happened to almost all of us. It’s the week before spring and you’re faced with spending next week in your parents’ basement or bumming around a dead campus. Odds are money is running low, you didn’t have time to come up with a plan, or your idiot friend decided now would be a good time to tell you that he forgot to call and confirm your spot on the plane. At this point the only logical answer seems to be to throw in the towel, crank the thermostat to 90 degrees and rent The Real Cancun. Don’t do it. …

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Editor’s note: Click here to listen to an audio clip of Welti discussing youth and politics.Andy Welti was preoccupied with the American flag this morning. The 24-year-old is a part of the Committee on Government Operations and Veterans’ Affairs, which will vote on a resolution that would urge Congress to “prohibit physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”Welti made frantic calls to veterans in his home district to get a feel for how he should vote. As a first-term legislator at the Minnesota House of Representatives, Welti wants to make sure he accurately represents his …

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Kristin O’Quinn knows what it is like to be stressed out. A senior majoring in human resources and development, O’Quinn tries to maintain a GPA above 3.0 and has made the dean’s list for the last three years every semester except one. O’Quinn is also the parent of a lively 3 -year-old boy. Balancing school with family is a constant struggle for O’Quinn. Days start at 6:00 a.m. and do not wind down until 10 p.m. if O’Quinn can get her son to sleep on time. “Time management is critical,” O’Quinn says. Guilt is a constant factor in O’Quinn’s life, …

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There’s a chance you received a phone call this winter from Minneapolis’s or St. Paul’s new automated snow emergency calling service, but according to a Minneapolis Public Works Department report submitted to Minneapolis City Council on March 22, the chances are slight.The phone service is the latest attempt by Minneapolis and St. Paul to proactively reach citizens thus lowering ticketing, towing and ultimately to clear the streets faster during snow emergencies, says Mike Kennedy, director of Minneapolis Field Services.A new service this winterMinneapolis and St. Paul use many methods of reaching the public in a snow emergency. Both cities post …

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Around this time last year, the Gophers’ women’s basketball team began their historic run to the Final Four. Lead by the U’s former gold-child, Lindsey Whalen, the group of students made basketball exciting again.Names like Humphries and Rickert were replaced with names like Whalen and McCarville. The team moved from the Sports Pavilion down the hall to the larger Williams Arena. The Gopher women were bringing in more fans than the struggling men.Flash forward to this year and the Gophers are poised for another NCAA tournament run. However, one key element from last year’s formula is missing: Lindsey Whalen. Do …

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The Gophers’ men’s basketball team entered the final weekend of February in the upper echelon of the Big Ten and with its sights set on an NCAA tournament bid. Should they be granted a spot in The Big Dance, it would mark Minnesota’s first appearance since 1999.Sure, the Gophers have posted winning records in three of the past four seasons. Sure, Minnesota has earned invitations to three postseason tournaments in that same time frame. And sure, Minnesota has also been able to produce three first or second round NBA draft picks in recent years. But recovering from the scholarship and …

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It was snowing on Friday when I stepped on a plane in MSP. It was snowing in Chicago when I transferred to a connecting flight. But it wasn’t snowing in sunny California, where I was the guitar player for Blues Traveler during spring break. Since this is the first websclusive View From the Bench, I felt it was necessary to make it special, to make it different. So I’m in San Francisco, and I figure now is as good of a time as any to begin bringing the masses an extra column, every fortnight, exclusively on the website.And what better …

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