The Wake

Here’s a shameless plug for a magazine we worked on at the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Comm. In the battle of wine vs. beer, who wins? Head over to Digest Mag to find out.

Sometimes it seems like winos run the world; they even get better movies, à la Sideways. When you see beer in popular culture, it’s a bunch of frat boys doing keg stands or sad saps in sad bars. I don’t want a wine list longer than the Yellow Pages. Hand me a Surly, Fat Cat or Mothership and bring a few friends. …

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The damned, dirty Minnesota grouch Mike Hatch

They’ve done it again: MinnPost is raiding former Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch’s political image as a public servant for the down-trodden, or, to put it another way, reaffirming Hatch’s public reputation as a hot-tempered, hypocritical bastard.

Here are some excerpts from Eric Black’s old-fashioned investigative report that give us an idea of Hatch’s would-be DFL-minded personality:

Hatch took over an office that had been known, under his predecessors, as a national model among AG offices, for striking an …

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Here’s an entertaining video montage of news anchors (and Dan Marino) losing their cool. I jacked it from Steve Perry at Minnesota Monitor, and he jacked it from Gawker. I guess jacking shit is part of the online game.

[Note a young, sleazy Bill O’Reilly at the 1:00 minute mark]

My night out on the town with my Japanese and Polish friends was a smash. We hit the Karaoke bar with full force. Everything from The Rolling Stones to Madonna was performed with mild and expressionless enthusiasm, with the rest of the patrons laughing drunkenly all the while. Karaoke is a very communal experience. It’s a great look into Japanese culture, as its serves as their primary source of recreation, according to my doctor friend.

After the bar closed, we went down to a Shisha Bar (or Hookah bar in the states) and ordered up some Strawberry flavored product. Along …

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http://www.myspace.com/joeylinello. Go there. NOW!

Do Not Enter
Do Not Enter
Do Not Enter
interstates, rail lines and this
river of locks are containment
incarnate.
Do Not Enter! on your own volition.

Corpus:
Where exploring the interior of the battle scared tree
in the park near Franklin Avenue
injects life after the lightning strike.

Where highways do not
lead to my city’s heart.
They pump madness
molasses
leaving soupy trails
of purple and red through the drain pipes
and stick
with the road searing sunlight.

These river flats are not just scenery,
but a landscape where homes used to be
denied
the fertile soil from the Spring
floods to feed the gardens for the Bohemian families
flattened via eminent domain circa
May 24th, 1923.

And every steaming automobile …

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If you remember back to 2004, you might recall that a few photos leaked from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Humiliation, shock and embarrassment were felt nationwide as we looked on in horror, watching our American values destroyed by a few amateur digital photos. While we were busy trying to forget, Errol Morris was just starting to get his hands dirty, investigating and tracking down the elusive soldiers central to the controversy for his new documentary Standard Operating Procedure (which opens Friday May 23 at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema).

Oscar award-winning documentarian Errol Morris sits down with The Wake …

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With the future of healthcare looming ominously over every presidential debate, it is with sheer hopefulness that one mutters the idiom “laughter is the best medicine.” For students graduating this summer and leaving the warm embrace of their insurance policies, laughter and liquor may be the only two medicines available. Luckily, the ACME Comedy Company in Minneapolis serves up plenty of both – and every Monday at open mic night, the laughs come free.

While some open mic nights may be as painful as a trip to the dentist, ACME’s format allows only three minutes to all newcomers. …

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Soap. Shampoo. Toothpaste. Lotion. Foundation. Deodorant. Almost everyone uses at least one, if not all, of these products on a daily basis, but do we ever think about what they are made out of? It is surprising how little we know about these familiar bottles and tubes. According to the Green Guide Web site, which is hosted by the National Geographic Society, the average adult uses nine personal care products a day, with roughly 120 chemicals spread among them, many of which are incompletely tested for toxicity.

The cosmetics industry is possibly one of the most unregulated industries. Major loopholes in …

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There are so many injustices being committed in the world today, so many causes on which to hang one’s hat, that it can be hard for the average Wake-reading, peace-loving hippie to know where to direct his or her compassion and action. If our own country’s war and health-care system aren’t enough to worry about, there’s always the Israeli-Palestine conflict or the genocide in Darfur to get anxious about—not to mention the pressing concerns of worldwide food shortages and global warming. Luckily for those activism-minded individuals looking for a sign to wave, there’s China and its myriad sins, now conveniently …

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In the aftermath of the University of Minnesota workers’ strike, driven, socially-conscious people were left with a bitter taste in their mouths. The U of M chapter of the Experimental College, EXCO, of the Twin Cities has sprouted from this volatile mixture.
EXCO is an organization that helps organize free classes and demonstrates that there is an alternative path to education. The fact that learning can happen outside of an institutionalized context is almost counterintuitive at a time and place where knowledge is power - and that power is going to cost you.

The U of M’s EXCO chapter has …

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Recently, a writer named Eric Stone submitted an article to The Wake titled “Cult of Praise” regarding his experience as a member of People of Praise, an on-campus religious group that Mr. Stone considers to be a cult. The article’s loaded take on the politics of religion and campus life was the impetus for much debate among members of the Wake staff about whether or not the article should be published. In order to illuminate the kind of issues and concerns that go into both publishing a magazine and discussing religion in the modern world, we have decided to post …

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Boycotting the Olympics is not going to solve any of the human rights issues in China. The calls for boycotts have only angered Chinese citizens and put the Chinese government on the defensive. When the government becomes defensive, it does everything in its power to control any type of political outburst, however small. This will lead to even more abuses within Tibet and the Xingjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Chinese government has also used the political unrest in Tibet to create a divide between the Han ethnic group of China- which is the ethnic majority -and the minority groups within …

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Im in an internet cafe in Berlin, with a 25 year old doctor from Japan, who was studying abroad in Poland, and is traveling Europe now. He was in the same room as me, and we saw some sights today. His English is.. .limited.

When I got in last night, I didnt have a place to stay but this Columbian girl who´d just missed her train to Poland was crying on a bench I was sitting at. When she stopped, we chatted about my time in Venezuela, after exchanging pleasantries. We had a really intersting chat about Columbian/Venezuelan relations, as …

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The Good Ol’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright

It’s easy for any white person to call Jeremiah Wright’s recent actions egotistical. For whites, Wright is an easy Black target, as media coverage has proved this past week. Wednesday’s New York Times editorial claimed Wright’s recent statements were full of “racism” and “paranoia.” Both it and a Star Tribune editorial praised Sen. Obama’s moves to distance himself from his former pastor as much as he could. Steve Perry at Minnesota Monitor called Wright’s media tour …

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