The Wake

You love them but sometimes they make you so irritated that you could literally scream: they are your roommates. October is typically the month when people get the first inkling that sometimes the people they live with (who are often close friends) are less than perfect. So, to make things a little easier, I offer a roommate etiquette guide to follow, in order to maintain better inter-housing relationships. Before we get started, “roommate” has a few different definitions. When students say “roommate,” we’re often talking about someone we share a house or apartment with, someone who helps pay part of …

Read more →

U.S. Supreme Court justices are, in former Justice Robert H. Jackson’s words, “infallible only because we [the justices] are final.” Although Harriet Miers, the recent Bush nominated successor of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, could prove to be fallible. Her resume is lacking any judicial experience. In 1972, Miers entered into private law with the Dallas firm of Locke, Liddell & Sapp. Since 1972, Miers has never made a single ruling as a judge because she has been a practicing lawyer for the past 39 years. In her years as an attorney, Miers has not once argued a case before the …

Read more →

Government has an obligation not to inhibit the collection and dissemination of news…. I’m convinced that if reporters should ever lose the right to protect the confidentiality of their sources then serious investigative reporting will simply dry up. The kind of resourceful, probing journalism that first exposed most of the serious scandals, corruption and injustice in our nation’s history would simply disappear…. And let me tell you, reading about one’s failings in the daily papers is one of the privileges of high office in this free country of ours.” -Nelson Rockefeller, 1972.“Hogwash.” -James MagnusonJournalists are outraged. The bellowing of ink-stained …

Read more →

Re: Tom Meyer, who wrote: “When I looked up the definition of marriage on dictionary.com, it read 1. a. “The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.” The key here is that it is between and man and woman. Not a man and man, or woman and woman.”Using a version of logic in which controversial issues can be solved by consulting dictionary.com creates a conundrum of downright royal proportions. If he had bothered to read the entire dictionary entry for “marriage,” rather than choosing the definition that best fit his existing beliefs, he would have …

Read more →

Atmosphere: You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re HavingSince the first HeadShots tape hit the South Minneapolis pavement in 1993, Atmosphere has been representing Twin Cities hip-hop with fellow underground heavyweights Rhymesayers Entertainment. In recent years, their appeal has spread beyond the frigid winterland of “Minnesnowta,” developing into a nationally-recognized act. As the face and voice of Atmosphere, Slug’s popularity has soared, largely due to his ability to provide gut-wrenchingly emotional accounts of his experiences and personal relationships. Not surprisingly, many of Slug’s fans are female, summed up best on “Bam”: “We land up in your table like dinnertime/ …

Read more →

Capote, a new Truman Capote biopic, is a complex film about a complex and contradictory man in literary history. Many people will find Philip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote to be completely convincing. I found it to be distracting. Though, to be fair, I probably would have found in real life that Capote’s flamboyance would be distracting, but not so distracting that I couldn’t appreciate the interesting story underneath.The film concentrates on the approximate six years Capote spent researching the murder of a Kansas family of four, which was the topic of his book, In Cold Blood. While a significant …

Read more →

The lights dim, the PA system begins playing an interlude, and live action suddenly takes to the once-empty stage. This is the theatre, a form of entertainment that many of us have forgotten based on our predispositions to plays such as King Lear and Julius Caesar. People assume that the theatre is too expensive for the average person to frequent. Mixed Blood Theatre is one venue that strays from the contemporary and provides a modern perspective. In the theatre’s words, “A world on stage not as it is, but as we’d like it to be.“Mixed Blood Theatre presents a …

Read more →

Anyone who has been to a freak show, or looked guiltily at a deformed person walking down the street knows the feeling, the strange sensation of looking at something that is usually out of sight, something on the fringes of society. Chris Mars’ paintings evoke this same feeling. They are repulsive, frightening, unsettling, yet impossible to ignore. “I think there is more beauty in those eccentricities,” says Mars, 44, at a recent artist-led tour of his paintings. Mars, a local legend for his involvement in the seminal punk rock band The Replacements, has traded in his drumsticks for paintbrushes full …

Read more →

Cultures meet. Sometimes they clash, sometimes they find common ground, and sometimes they form hybrids. House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective has elements of each of these potential encounters. This exhibit, the latest at the Walker Art Center, occupies three galleries and speaks volumes to the simultaneous universality and cultural specificity of art. Huang Yong Ping was born in the city of Xiamen, China, and studied at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts before moving to Paris in 1989. When I toured the galleries, Huang was present. I watched him stand apart from myself and the others, …

Read more →

Leslie Feist took the stage July 8 at Dinkytown’s Varsity Theater armed with her guitar, two microphones, and a few tricks up her sleeve. The singer was on a solo tour in support of her new album, Let It Die. An incredible vocalist and captivating performer, she assuredly has the capability for a one-woman show and, on Oct. 29, she’ll prove her worth as a collaborator with Broken Social Scene at First Avenue. Her show this summer started with an a capella number involving one of Feist’s tricks — the loop effect. This foot-activated pedal records a singer’s voice and …

Read more →

“You know what I do? I connect. I get people off. I look for the one guy who isn’t getting off, and I make him get off” - Jason Lee in Almost FamousTo this end, I would like to personally thank Ben Gibbard (vocals) on behalf of the four couples in front of me for getting them off. They looked to really be enjoying sucking each others faces. In regards to this, I congratulate Death Cab for Cutie on a job well done. I admit that on Oct. 10, I went to see Ben Gibbard. But by the end of …

Read more →

Open Poetry Night
Monday Nights
Artists’ Quarter
408 Salut Peter St., St. Paul
(651) 292-1359Ever wanted to read your own work? Then check out the Artists’ Quarter open poetry night, where anyone can read and enjoy jazz music until the wee hours of the morning.Chicano and Latin Writers Festival
Oct. 25th - Nov. 15th
Various LocationsThe festival, sponsored by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, offers an opportunity to see and hear from both local and national Chicano and Latin writers. Events and topics include a celebration of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (The …

Read more →

I watched it grow through the years
Like his temper and shame.
I thought maybe his pride was there
Hiding beneath the bulging waist.It began youthfully slender;
He smiled a lot.The accumulation of beer and failure
Began slowly to push at his belt,
At me.
I considered it was possibly my fault:
Before birth
My mother carried the burden
Of an enlarged belly.
Now maybe it is his turn.He goes to the gym now,
Gradually trimming back my childhood.
Secretly
I hope my father’s gut
Never
Disappears.

Green and slimy,
Contently croaked he,
Sitting near the well.Flying fast past,
Beyond her grasp,
A ball of gold down fell.Weepfully cried she
An open inquiry,
“Help me get my ball!”Suddenly sprung he,
Rather righteously,
Over the well wall.Victorious returned he!
So ecstatic was she;
“I shall give thee a kiss!”Smooched she and dwell
Now two croakers near the well -
A frog and his princess.

After much thought
Much weight on each side
A life decision was madeI would not drink coffee anymoreInstead of percolating
I would be bound to a life of steeping
Loose leaves were my bean
And the spirit had gained precedence
The body was freeAnd I would caffeinate my bloodstream
With much more potent solutionsVodka
Coffee liqueur
Milk
And a splash of CokeI was on my way to the spiritual and bodily freedom that Siddhartha
had only dreamed of
I was on my way to the whole farm co-op
Viva consumptive revolution!