The Wake

Photo courtesy First Run/Icarus Films

Children growing up in the United States trust their parents to make the right decisions. As citizens, we are supposed to trust that the decisions made by the government will be right for the country.  For Cuban children in the mid-1970’s and the 1980’s, confidence was placed in both entities. Dependence upon government quickly disintegrated in the decline of the Cuban Revolution as the quality of life of the Caribbean island faced an intense downward spiral. In her …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

When discussing Minneapolis’s music scene, its eclectic makeup is never in doubt. Within the scene, however, demarcated by genre or style, there exist real strengths and real weaknesses. It is perhaps Minneapolis’s lonely location between coastal music capitals that accounts for the lack of a unified style, opening the field for artists with a wide array of influences. However, it is the city’s courtship with folk music in the broadest and best sense of the term, combined with an ability to generate young and talented bands that …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

The Cedar-Riverside intersection has tons of authentic ethnic restaurants to offer, so what makes K Wok stand above and beyond the others? Well, nothing in particular, except for maybe its towering blue sign that makes it an easy spot to target.

The Vietnamese/Chinese eatery is a family-owned joint that, in the spirit of its Hard Times and Wienery neighbors, dimly resembles a do-it-yourself diner. The décor is a muddled mish-mash of Chinese regalia and out-of-place pieces like a painting …

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I’m thinking of a number between one and ten. Okay, bear with me. I’m just going to ask you some questions. So: I’m thinking of a number between one and ten. What is it? Now, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say “dog?” Now, quick, what neighborhood do you live in?

Strangely enough, that last question is a difficult one for a lot of students. While college is often viewed as this big, communal vision quest through the forest of knowledge, (or something like that) it has, ironically, caused our generation to become more isolated from the …

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Society perceives scientists and artists as mutually exclusive, polar opposites. Artists are right brained, left leaning,free spirits while scientists are logical, analytical, left brainers.. Conventional wisdom says that scientists do not make art and artists do not do science. In However, one only has to look at Bohr’s model of the atom, inspired by Cubism, or the highly controversial Body Worlds exhibit to realize that art and science have more in common than meets the eye.

“There has been a trend recently of a lot of art which responds to current science,” says Chanai Matteson, the organizer of the Bell …

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Illustration by Ben Alpert

“No black man will ever be president.”

This phrase has been uttered countless times by blacks, but with Senator Barack Obama on the cusp of the Democratic presidential nomination, one would think that such rhetoric would dissipate. Unfortunately, though, it has only increased.

Why are we so set on the notion that a black man will never call 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home? Was Tupac Shakur right in the song where he professed it to be a white-man’s world? Or was …

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If you’ve ever taken a high school psychology class, you probably have a vague recollection of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow probably thought that he was designing this hierarchy in order to direct humanity down the road to happiness. It is my contention that his actual achievement was to demonstrate to humanity how totally fucked we are. To illustrate this point, I will run through each of Maslow’s needs and discuss how it indicates fucked-ness.

1. Physiological Needs. This includes food, water, and, more provocatively, sex and excretion. Well, like a billion people plus on this planet don’t have clean drinking …

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Do you ever find yourself longing for the old days, a time when music was dipped in a vat of sweat-soaked plaid button-ups, distorted anguish, and raw power? Perhaps your nostalgia runs deeper – back to a time when psychedelic guitar solos reigned supreme. If this be the case, you may find comfort in the reminiscent stylings of Retribution Gospel Choir’s self-titled debut.

Retribution Gospel Choir, a three man band out of Duluth, Minnesota, features front man Alan Sparhawk, drummer Eric Pollard and bassist Matthew Livingstone. Sparhawk and Livingstone are originally members of Low, a band dubbed one of the pioneers …

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As the calendar rolled from February to March a year ago, things looked awfully glum for the Gopher men’s basketball team. Holding a 9-21 record, the Gophers were still adjusting from a mid-season coaching change, and looking towards a very uncertain future.

What a difference a year makes. With new head coach Tubby Smith at the helm, the Gophers have returned to respectability. His Gophers entered this March with a 17-10 record (7-8 in the Big Ten) and as outside contenders for a spot in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

The effect …

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Illustration by Srijon Chowdhury

Columbine. Rocori. Red Lake. Virginia Tech. University of Texas. When we think of these words, we think of the tragedies they represent. We think of the sadness and despair caused by individuals who spread their pain and fear across our country in a vast media blitz of bullets. Since 1999, high school and college students haven’t worried about exams so much as they’ve worried about the lone wolf in the student population climbing up the bell tower and shooting up their …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

This is the second installment in a two part article on religion. It was originally going to involve just one student group, Campus Crusade for Christ. However, a trail of misinformation left me with a second to consider. Last issue, I wrote about a Dinkytown house that proclaimed, “Jesus Christ is the Lord of the University of Minnesota.” I also told of a candy-filled table in Coffman Union which led me to the owners of the house. They defended their offensive …

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Photo by Joey Peters

As part of a speech at the Coffman Union Theater, Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale called for a broader and more profound progressive movement. In the voice of a veteran revolutionary, he brought up a wide range of issues, many of them on the current national radar.

On Iraq: “We need to end this damn war.” On global warming: “It’s interconnected to every civil rights issue.” On the upcoming Presidential election: “Obama is a very progressive brother. I like …

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The race for top songs of the summer is going to be a heated battle. With mammoth releases set to drop in every genre, it’s hard to tell which albums will make the splash. There are a few certainties though, particularly in terms of what the club and bar DJ’s will be playing to get patrons off their feet and dancing.

Firstly, Dr. Dre’s third full lenth LP, Detox, is scheduled to flood the airwaves this June. He’ll be releasing each of the 12 or 13 tracks as singles. There won’t be a city block safe in the country safe from …

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I yearn for a time when we didn’t have computers or instant communication. I look back at a simpler time, while I look forward to a relaxing summer breeze. Damn Windows Vista and Final Cut Pro. I’m not sure what this has to do with beer, but I sure could use one. The past year has been full of great experiences (ie London, Summer in Minneapolis, New York, etc), but some kind of technological voodoo has been following me. First my brand new digital camera broke when I was in England, TWICE! Then I spilt tea on my six month …

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My days of running the point for the Imperial College Medical Basketball Team may be numbered. Team captain, Xu Wang, has grown weary of my months worth of excuses for not yet paying my dues. A hefty forty pounds, which I’ve been able to avoid through an intricate web of stories. However, he’s finally layed down the law, “pay at the game or you’re out.” We’ll see what a few carefully worded emails can’t do, but here’s a summary of our season so far.

We’ve lost four of the five games we’ve played since I’ve joined, but this is not to …

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