The Wake

At first it was hard for me to figure out what it was I found appealing about Apparently Nothing’s new album Sprawl as I listened to it in my car. The lyrics are serious, the hooks are catchy and the production is clean, but something beyond that was motivating me from one song to the next. At last, the answer arrived to me somewhere around track four. As I glanced down at the back of the CD case—while trying my best to stay on the right side of the road—I noticed that I was listening to a song called “Reason …

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Not unlike Ron Burgundy, the new Woody Allen movie Match Point is apparently kind of a big deal. While at the time of this article it’s only playing in a handful of theaters around the metro area, the matinee showing I attended was packed to nearly the last seat. I was forced to take a second row seat after spending at least ten minutes trying to find a parking spot. I never imagined myself being so uncomfortably close to Scarlett Johansson.In a very convoluted nutshell, Irish lad Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a former tennis pro who ends up courting …

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It is remarkable that history and hype did not completely smother as delicate an album as Vashti Bunyan’s Lookaftering (Fat Cat/DiChristina). A sophomore release 35 years in the making, it follows her 1970 debut Just Another Diamond Day. Her first album’s inability to be pigeonholed led to its initial rejection, though it earned Bunyan a cult following. Fast forward to the current folk revolution, where we have this humble, nurturing earth mama rubbing elbows with emulators Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, all while being hailed as one of the finest artists of 2005.Even more surprising is that Lookaftering …

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Issac Gale opened the doors to the Oak Street Cinema on Jan. 20, 2006. He also started making popcorn in the broken machine, sold tickets in the box office, and ran the movie projector. Gale was the only one working at the early show that night. Usually there are two or three volunteers helping him out. Some of the volunteers have been with the Oak Street since it opened, about ten years ago.“Since I started here, I’ve had to deal with a situation where people constantly think you’re going under,” said Gale, who has worked at the Oak Street for …

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Ice fishing: the sport of catching fish with hooks and lines through an opening in the ice. To some, yes. To others “ice fishing” means gathering on a frozen lake in January to participate in the annual Art Shanty Projects. Over 30 artists and artist teams helped create this unique public art exhibition on Medicine Lake this winter. The Art Shanty Projects, presented by the Soap Factory and funded in part by the McKnight Foundation, is an eclectic collection of works described as “part art gallery, part residency, and part sculpture park.” It’s hard to believe that what began in …

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History can be drab, but not when it’s in the hands of Robert Alexander, author of The Kitchen Boy. Through the eyes of a servant, Alexander paints the final days of the Romanov family before their secret murders that lead to the Russian revolution. Alexander humanizes the facts to create an enthralling book that addresses the mysterious nature of Nicholas and Alexandra’s fall from power. As a local writer, Alexander lives in Minneapolis and has spent nearly 30 years traveling and studying in Russia. He will be reading and discussing The Kitchen Boy as well as his other book, Rasputin’s …

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The mark of a virgin
Blush
Downward glance
Men would look greedily
Fingernails
Deep in palm A former priest, John J. Geoghan, went on trial in Middlesex Superior Court this week on charges of molesting a 10-year-old boy in 1991. He has been accused of molesting more than 130 boys during the three decades he served in Boston-area parishes.Love: noun
1. an intense feeling of tender affection and compassion
2. a passionate feeling of romantic desire and sexual attraction
verb
1. vti to feel tender affection for somebody, for example, a close relative or friend, or for something such as …

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Move-in weekend. After a few semi-awkward calls to new roommates, plenty of shopping, a whole summer spent thinking about college, and long drives in stuffed cars, thousands of energetic freshmen arrive on campus, eager to fill their tiny rooms and meet everyone on the floor. But what happens when, instead of a permanent space in a residential hall, you are granted a “temporary housing space” in the expanded housing program? For a number of University students, this meant that they experienced their own “extra” move-in weekends just a couple of weeks ago. As much of a hassle as it …

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Imagine you are a student in the very near future. You wake up one morning, log on to your computer and make a reservation. You then walk several blocks, bypassing the congested traffic on Washington Avenue, the hordes of students, some carrying large grocery bags or towing heavy backpacks, waiting for any of the number of buses that serve the area, and even some bicyclists who plow through the snow banks wrapped in scarves and coats. You come to a car parked at the Washington Avenue ramp at Union Street, wave a keycard over the windshield to unlock it, start …

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For many, heading to the West Bank is not the most exciting part of the day - whether we bike, walk or hastily thrust ourselves onto overcrowded Campus Connectors to make it over the river. But while we press on through the slush or in a bus packed tight with fellow students, do we appreciate where we are headed? How many of us really know the West Bank, its neighbors or their cultures?For the past month a tribute to the West Bank community has been housed in the Elmer L. Andersen Library: “Community/University: Students Explore West Bank History.” The exhibit, …

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The Super Bowl turns forty this year and what better way to celebrate, than with a halftime show featuring The Rolling Stones, a band that’s been rockin’ for over forty years. In terms of on the field action, The Wake will show trends from the past and apply them to this year’s match up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks. The HistoryTo understand what will likely happen in this year’s game, it is necessary to look at the past. Historically, the NFC has had a slight edge over the AFC, winning 21 of the 39 Super Bowls. However, …

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Zach Puchtel will probably not be making headlines for the University of Minnesota’s men’s basketball team anytime soon; but that doesn’t bother him.For Puchtel, simply being part of the team as a walk-on is a dream come true. A 2001 Hopkins High School graduate, Puchtel’s route to playing Division-I basketball has been a counterintuitive one. As a high school star basketball and football player, Puchtel received multiple offers to play at the Division-I level, including offers from Wisconsin and Nebraska to play football.Puchtel, also an outstanding student at Hopkins, was then approached by Harvard. The question that …

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The days of Gopher Women’s basketball All-American Lindsey Whalen are long gone. After last season, there’s no more Baby Shaq manning the paint either, (a.k.a. Janel McCarville, Minnesota’s two-time All-American center). As these players have taken their talents to the WNBA, the 2005-06 Gophers have continued to thrive among the heavyweights in one of the nation’s toughest conferences.Minnesota began its new season with a home tournament sweep at the Barn (Minnesota’s home court—Williams Arena) that included a championship victory over 15th-ranked Stanford. From there, the team traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands and earned two more victories while winning …

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