The Wake

In the same spirit as the Oak Street cinema on campus, Parkway Theatre in South Minneapolis seeks to preserve the independent atmosphere and culture of the one screen cinema. In fact many of the patrons and employees from the Oak St. cinema have moved to the Parkway across town.

Barry Kryshka, a former Oak Street employee, commented on the Oak’s financial plunge as he ripped up my ticket stub behind a card table box-office saying, “We’re just trying to bring some of that spirit back.” Kryshka is the coordinator of the Monday Night Movie Series at the Parkway, a …

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Illustration by Ben Alpert

Building 14 of 2010 East Hennepin Ave SE looks abandoned. Like the other buildings on the large cement lot, its cracked foundation is made of dark brown bricks and features unlit, grimy windows. The collection of some 15 buildings was once owned by General Mills, but now play host to a variety of businesses, artists and artisans. The only evidence of life is the few hand made signs posted on the exterior walls: “Zelle Glass Studio,” “Deco Catering,” and “Yeowww! Brand …

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Illustration by Sarah Morean

Artificial sweeteners have been a boon to the diet foods industry, allowing companies to market foods to a weight obsessed populace with an insatiable sweet tooth. In the U.S. artificial sweeteners are a $1.5 billion market. “Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper,” the TV tells us. “Zero calories!” the bottle of Coke Zero screams at us from the shelf. “Drink as many as you want!” But should we?

Most of the concern over artificial sweeteners stems from their possible …

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Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, ’tis right.
- Thomas Paine

Change does not occur in your living room
with popcorn
and a united vision of dialectic
dishonesty from t a l k i
…

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Despite Minnesota Film Arts’ financial and institutional problems, the 2008 Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival will continue as planned. Running April 17 through May 3, the festival promises local citizens a wide selection of cinema’s finest films, from acclaimed international films to award-winning American independent films. More than 150 films will be screened during the festival, and below are just a few that you might want to look out for. For more information on tickets and showtimes, and for a complete list of the films, visit http://www.mspfilmfest.org.

Beauty In Trouble
This is a new Czech drama …

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Illustration by Srijon Chowdhury

I. INVOCATION

Dearest Senior Class of 2008,

As you are already well aware, May is rapidly approaching and much of the anxiety regarding post-college life that was safely stewing at the recesses of our minds is about to manifest itself, plump and ugly, in our newly re-christened adulthood.

The age we are entering headfirst is certainly an exciting one — despite, or perhaps as a result of, current economic forecasts, a seemingly endless war, and end-of-times weather patterns… But alas! It’s at least …

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“Well I just think that it is so shocking that after all this time we thought we’d seen it all with Marilyn Monroe, and… here we go,” says Lara Spencer on CBS’s The Early Show.

The Marilyn Monroe sex tape has finally surfaced, thank God. The media was almost running out of living celebrity faux news fodder.

It is still a mystery why Spencer thinks this “news” is “so shocking.” In her lifetime Monroe made a name for herself as one of the most sensual and seductive stars on the planet, in addition to having rumored affairs with a number of …

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Schlitz is Back!

Milwaukee beers get a bad rap, but heck don’t most of the Ameircan mega-brews. Schlitz was once at the heart of Milwaukee’s brewing powerhouse. But don’t be worried, there’s plenty of brews still being brewed in my hometown and a lot of them aren’t half bad.

The “Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous” is back and I just happened to have seen a few sightings and tasted the original recipe not to long ago. No, they’re not returning to the 1849 recipe, which would …

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U.S. Senate candidate Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

While most Minnesotans have stuck comedian Al Franken in their minds as the next Minnesota DFL Senate candidate, St. Thomas peace studies professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is still vying for the party’s upcoming June nomination. Despite barely being mentioned in the local media, Nelson-Pallmeyer surpassed Mike Ceresi in the race and is slowly but surely winning over the most liberal sectors of the DFL. After looking into his campaign, I found out that Nelson-Pallmeyer is a more progressive, less elite …

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The biggest key to winning an election is projecting a public image. It surpasses where candidates stand on the issues, how they work with others, what their personalities are like, and just about every other necessary factor needed to run a successful campaign. Remember when then-Minnesota Attorney General and 2006 DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch called a reporter a “Republican whore” one week before the election? Hatch’s loss to Gov. Pawlenty shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to in retrospect. The sad thing is, Hatch made best election performance by a DFL …

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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and how his name and reputation in the Black Community was being undermined and exploited by a media circus centered on a few YouTube clips of him criticizing the U.S. government. Now that the circus is over and labeled as old news, it might be an opportune time to present Rev. Wright in his own words, words that were certainly suppressed in the coverage of his past sermons. What follows is a letter to the editor intended for, …

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For the few weeks before the looped YouTube videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright shifted half of the Democratic Presidential coverage to racial matters (the other half of the coverage being focused on the sinking economy), the topic of the talk was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The trade agreement, which was put into law by President Clinton in 1993, restricts obstacles that corporations used to face when they moved their goods between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. It essentially made free trade easier, prompting many U.S. corporations like General Electric to relocate across the border …

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It’s best to begin this post by noting that 81 percent of the United States believe this country is headed toward a bleak future. Only a third of people believe that the next generation will be better off than the current generation. Fewer than half of parents — 46 percent — expect their children to enjoy a better standard of living than they themselves do. The other day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose job requires a basic sixth grade knowledge of stubbornness, finally acknowledged the possibility of a recession.

And it looks like some …

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Two of my professors here at school are surely to be some of the most memorable you could ever hope for.

One teaches my International Marketing course. He spends most of the time in class telling stories of his foreign excursions, which serve to illustrate his points. He’s been all across the world and knows a great deal about the nature of foreign relations. One Particular story of note involved his attempt to broker a deal with some businessmen in Nigeria. He explained that the only way to accomplish such a thing was to arrive with a brief case full …

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