The Wake

I attended a club night north of London last night (Watford area to be exact). It’s a good 50 minutes outside of the city. I took the bakerloo to then end of its line, and was picked up from there in a car for the remaining 20 minute drive. We stopped by a house out in the London burbs. The kids there were watching Superbad, and we’re qute intrigued to meet someone who had actually owned a fake id. We took off from there and hit the main drag of clubs on Watford High Street. The evenings events reminded me …

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Because I’m not that interested in writing today here is a history of why beer is great today and where it came from the New York Times.

Beer used to be easy: You were a Bud guy or Miller guy, maybe even a Schlitz or Ballantine guy. Not that it mattered much, since they tasted virtually the same.

But the days when American beer was all suds are long gone. In a great example of grass-roots renaissance, the American industry has been completely reborn in the last 30 years with the rise of craft beers. A trip to the deli can …

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Illustration by Lucy Michell

Most college students have difficulty trying to balance their checkbooks. The students in Professors Sean and Meg Emery’s class do a bit more than that. They balance themselves on chairs, ropes, and even a trapeze. One student juggles while a partner sits on his shoulders. Another practices forward rolls and leaps on a mat. Yet another student opens a fan fast as lightning with a flick of his wrist. One student dangles her body on the trapeze. This is Circus Performance …

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Illustration by Anders Carlson

Engineering students are trading in their graphing calculators for cordless drills and bandanas. Engineers Without Borders is a nonprofit organization that constructs engineering solutions to humanitarian dilemmas in the developing world. Spearheaded in 2000 by charismatic leader Dr. Bernard Amadei and $14,000, EWB has grown to include over 250 professional and student chapters, including a University of Minnesota chapter that recently completed a project in Ghana.

The roads in the rural Ghanian village of Amponasah Akroase are unpaved and lined with …

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Big Star - #1 Record

The debut LP of the Memphis Tennessee power-poppers Big Star could be one of the greatest records you’ve never heard. In fact, this beautiful album review could easily be filled with paragraph after paragraph of the numerous artists and rock and roll outfits that have been shaped and influenced by the record’s prose. Teenage Fanclub, Elliott Smith and the Replacements are just a few of the more recognizable followers of Big Star’s genius. Released in 1972, Big Star’s …

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Photo by Dante Busquets-Anzenberger

Most of the facts in this article are true.

As you’re all aware, Beijing is hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this thing, they’ve built some cool buildings, and they’re trying to generally spruce up the city in anticipation of the international spotlight that they’ll receive. They’ve been working diligently on this thing for years, putting far more into it than the Greeks did when they half-assed it back in 2004. They know that …

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Illustration by Dixon Bordiano

When you drink a big glass of water from the tap, you probably don’t assume that it’s 100 percent pure H2O; you know there is fluoride in there for healthy teeth and other various chemicals used to kill bacteria and improve taste. What you don’t know is that you are probably also drinking a big, cold glass of the remnants of someone else’s medicine.

On March 9, the Associated Press released a report finding traces of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, …

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Photo by Alex Amend

There is much to lament – and praise - in the fusion of social networking with online social networking. Like a newspaper in a bathroom stall, or a simple handshake, however, the conquest of digital technology has its limits, and small niches considered “ways of the old” remain, at least for now, stubbornly irreplaceable.

Enter Mayday Bookstore. Founded in 1975 on the corner of Selby and Western in St. Paul, Mayday was originally a Maoist collective. Today, many ideological splits and …

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Photo by Ben Lansky

The red and white glow of the Oak Street Cinema marquee has been welcoming cinema stars and audiences for over a decade, but after two years of financial struggle, it seems the beloved movie house is likely to be sold to investors to make way for retail development and housing.

“It is really a financial reality,” said Stephen Zuckerman, president of Minnesota Film Arts (MFA), which owns the Oak. “The theater would need a lot of changes, and we just don’t have …

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Illustration by Jeremy Sengly

Director Darren Lynn Bousman’s first film after Saw III will include everything his fans expect of him. Attractive people will be tortured and their attractive body parts will fly left and right. There is something surprising about the film, however. It’s a musical.

This April sees the release of Repo! The Genetic Opera, the latest addition to the ongoing wave of new movie-musicals. It is still a rarity, but becoming increasingly more common. Since Chicago walked away …

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Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple

Having a song as popular as Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” can be both a boon and a bane for a band. While lots of people might still be talking about “Crazy,” Danger Mouse and Cee-lo have moved on. Their new album The Odd Couple, with tracks like “Going On,” reflect their evolution. Like the song, which is definitely one of my favorites, almost every aspect of the album seems to point towards DJ Danger Mouse and …

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Illustration by Meghan Matteson

“Hello. My name is Abby. I’m twenty-two years old. I live in St. Paul. I’m working toward a degree in English. I’m a Gemini. I enjoy writing, dancing and riding my bike. My favorite books include Lolita and White Noise. I’m an infamous regular at my local coffee shop. I’m into video editing. I smoke like a chimney. I hate cooking. I like puns. I love my family.”

Check it out. This little bio is made up of tidbits gleaned …

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Photo by Ben Alpert

Now I’m as much of a technophile as the next geek. I’ve built computers and bought my fair share of surround systems, HDTVs and the latest, greatest videogame consoles. Most of them have been great, but something has plagued me over the last year and I don’t think I’m alone. It seems that with every technological stride we take, a hundred new problems come to fruition. As we add more and more gadgets to our lives, we need to ask something: …

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For the first installation of our How-To column, here are a few recipes for non-toxic cleaning supplies that will make your home look pretty - and are good for the environment.

Window cleaner

¼ cup white vinegar
½ teaspoon liquid soap or detergent
2 cups water

Combine ingredients in a spray bottle and shake to blend.

Carpet spot remover

Blot the stain immediately. Sprinkle with baking soda, cornstarch or borax and let dry. Wash with club soda and vacuum.

Bathroom Cleaner (tile, bathtub, sink)

½ cup baking soda
Enough liquid dish soap or detergent to make the mixture a frosting-like consistency
5 to 10 drops essential oil (lemon, lavender or …

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Illustration by Ben Alpert

After months of stressing out and working hard, the prospect of staying in Minneapolis and relaxing sounded like the perfect spring break for me. It was going to be completely stress free, nothing but watching some movies, playing a few video games, and doing some reading. Most importantly, my minimalist spring break was going to mean being able to pay rent and eat for the rest of the month. It seemed like a fantastic way to spend a week. Unfortunately, by …

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