The Wake

Contemporary artistic expression is always struggling to reinvent itself. Everybody wants to create something that has never been seen before. The Walker Art Center’s series of films premieres, called First Look, are no exception. March 23rd-25th the Walker showcased an award winning film that is innovative by allowing the story to tell itself. Many great minds have agreed that beauty is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but where there is nothing to take away. The film, Our Daily Bread, directed by Austrian-born Nikolaus Geyrhalter, does just that by dispensing with commentary, music, and superfluous plot. The …

Read more →

When the band coming onstage includes a guy wearing a pointy hat, a floral blouse, black and yellow striped tights and red sneakers, you know you’re in for a good time. If he can play the cello like a fiddle while doing a mild head bang, well … it doesn’t get much better than that. The antics of cellist Rushad Eggleston are just one of the highlights of a live concert by Crooked Still. On March 9th, this bluegrass band from the east coast played a lively and entertaining set to a sold-out crowd at the Cedar Cultural Center. It’s …

Read more →

Who: Leslie Adrienne Miller
What: The author discusses ‘The Resurrection Trade.’
When: Wednesday, March 28th, 7 pm.
Where: The Loft Literary Center (1011 Washington Ave S), FREEWho: Anatoly Liberman
What: Time and Language
When: Thursday, March 29th, 4 pm.
Where: Nolte Center Lounge (U of M), FREEWho: Michael Friedman; Anselm Hollo
What: Writers read from recent works.
When: Thursday, March 29th, 7:30 pm.
Where: Rogue Buddha Art Gallery (357 13th Ave NE, Mpls.), FREEWho: Christopher Moore
What: The author discusses ‘You Suck.’
When: Friday, March 30th, 7 pm.
Where: Coffman Bookstore (U of M), FREEWho: Shelia Bland; Pat Samples; Sandy …

Read more →

I have melancholy tropical storms welling inside my liver.
There is a tidal wave of agony about to pour from my kidneys.
There is a blizzard of regret swirling behind my retinas.
There is a tornado of terrible wrecking my esophagus.
There is corrupt acid rain in my muscles.
The threat of loss is sleeting in my spleen.
Poverty precipitates up and down my spine.
There isn’t place enough to put all the pain in the world.
Within each organ we store our own, …

Read more →

I wish sometimes, just sometimes but still,
that I could erase it all.
Take this scrap piece of paper with
this drawing of a world upon it and crumple it in a ball.
Then start fresh with a new piece of land and a new drawing tool.
Where all our children will be numerous and beautiful,
the faults of the old world never appearing in them.
We will love all of them with all we have
and they will love us and each other.
There won’t be piercing …

Read more →

A little less ambiguous than the “wild beasts” and “true flames” predicted by Nostradamus, the predictions of 1930s-era writer Sinclair Lewis have caught the attention of writer, blogger and radio personality Joe Conason, without even needing to be translated into English and out of metaphor. On Monday Mar. 5, Conason visited Coffman Union’s bookstore to discuss his new book, It Can Happen Here, a current analysis of the Big Brother-like scenario in Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here. Upon unearthing the mostly-forgotten book, Conason noticed a few parallels between the book’s distopian government and our current administration. The president in the …

Read more →

About twenty students gather every Wednesday night on the third floor of Coffman Memorial Union. Starting at 7 p.m. they each pick a partner and begin to dance. They move around the room slowly at first, leaning into each other, spinning counterclockwise occasionally. Every now and again there is a small collision, one couple bumping into another unsuspecting pair of dancers.They begin to move a little closer as the night goes on, their bodies becoming loose and the steps becoming more familiar. Once or twice a toe is crushed or a cue is missed, but they never get frustrated with …

Read more →

What’s one of the major differences between the United States and other industrialized countries? Healthcare. It’s not just that most other first-world countries provide healthcare to their citizens under a universal system. In the United States, healthcare is tied to employment in a way that cripples the unemployed.“The U.S. is unique [because] we have an employer-based system,” says Steve Parente of the U’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute at The Current and Citizens League’s presentation, “Policy and a Pint: Healthcare Handcuffs.” And it’s not as if this issue hasn’t come up before,” adds Chris Farrell, MPR’s chief economics editor on stage …

Read more →

Humans have always found the sea to be a mysterious force. Deep, dark and vast, the ocean has held a fascination for us since we became intelligent enough to build boats. Although the University of Minnesota is far from any ocean, the campus now has the opportunity to experience that same awe-inspiring feeling. Lurking deep within Coffman Memorial Union is the Coffman Art Gallery, which is currently featuring “Aquatic Oddities,” a new exhibition by local artist and recent U of M graduate Martha Iserman.Looking at Iserman’s artwork, it’s apparent the artist treasures a deep fixation for the murky depths of …

Read more →

The University of Minnesota men’s baseball team looks like a solid squad again this year. The team returns 12 seniors and a potent offense that looks to help the Gophers to a Big Ten title and an NCAA bid. This year’s team has loads of talent and experience, but the season may rely upon the emergence of young pitchers.Manager John Anderson has been impressed with the pitching thus far, but the group has some work to do.“You can’t beat quality teams unless you pitch well,” Anderson said.Nearly half the pitching staff is comprised of underclassmen and the staff has …

Read more →

I watch ESPN or any other channels showing sports when I see too many cartoon reruns. In these moments of boredom I wear down the TV, searching for snowboarding events, boxing matches or figure skating competitions. The buttons on the TV remain slightly depressed because of my indecisiveness; I frequently switch back and forth between two different sports. If the TV were alive it would hate me.I was a spectator who viewed all sports as nothing more than games that people play. No matter how much publicity the Super Bowl or any other sporting events received, I thought them no …

Read more →

The Minnesota Student Association will be holding elections to determine a new President and Vice President this coming April. These elections, to our dismay, are usually characterized by disinterest amongst the student population and low voter turnout. Michael Griffin and Vince Patti (running for President and Vice President, respectively) hope to reverse these trends by working to correct pressing issues that affect the student body at the University of Minnesota. In the eyes of these two candidates, nothing has been more misguided and needless than Operation NightCAP, perhaps better known as the “Party Patrol” consisting of police that shut down …

Read more →

As academics and intellectuals, we tend to devote our time and studies to examining the subconscious meanings of our actions. Why does she wear tight jeans and green shoes? Why does he gel his hair into a faux-hawk every morning? What does your Members Only jacket say about your outlook on life? We spend so much time analyzing and getting lost in the maze of the subliminal that we fail to note the obvious. For example, what does wearing a shirt with the Confederate flag on it say about you? Does it mean that you support the confederacy and, thus, …

Read more →

“This next band is Rock … the way it used to be, Rock … the way it SHOULD BE, and ROCK … THE WAY IT ALWAYS WILL BE … WOLF-MUTHAAA!!!” This summer, Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell bestowed the band with this grand introduction on the festival’s second day. The band, feeding off the crowd’s excited roar, took the stage at a run. They picked up their instruments in mid stride and threw the riotous crowd into a time warp frenzy of free loving, eternal rock. This powerhouse trio from Australia has been blowing minds around the globe since their full …

Read more →

Elvis Perkins grew up surrounded by fame and suffering. This 32-year-old singer- songwriter lost his father, Tony Perkins (most famous for his role as Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho), to AIDS in 1992. It was a very public, controversial death due to the homosexual pretenses of his affliction. Elvis’s mother, Berry Berenson, was on American Airlines Flight 11 when it was hijacked and flown in to the one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. His new album, Ash Wednesday, released on its namesake has been in the works since 2002. It’s a mix of songs written before and …

Read more →