The Wake

D4

If you like your punk rock pure, raucous, drunk, loud, energetic, acerbic and fun to sing along with, The Entry is the place to be on Thursday. Be sure to do stretches and drink plenty of water before attending this monster of a bill, which will probably not drop in energy at any point during the five-band set. Dillinger 4, Scared of Chaka (from Albuquerque), Off With Their Heads, Birthday Suits and The Dynamiters is a truly powerful lineup, and most of these bands …

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“Obama, McCain are dead even [in Minnesota],” reads today’s top Star Tribune story. Perhaps this is because the Republicans have a natural poll advantage by setting their convention one week after the Democrats, as many pollsters have argued. They attribute the recent McCain/Palin surge to something akin to the natural guide of the poll’s invisible hand. Judging from my personal account of events of last week at the RNC, an explanation of John McCain’s poll surge makes more sense in terms of artificial mechanisms rather than sheer, tested logic.

Flash back to Thursday, Sept. 5. I’m inside the Xcel Energy …

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As you probably know by now the Washington Avenue Bridge is not being so kind to the bicyclists of our fair campus. Now you will be ticketed $80 if you try to ride through the enclosed walkway. Here’s what I sent Vice President O’Brien and President Bruininks:

To whom it may concern,

You claim to be caring for the safety of your students, yet you have the entire lower deck open for traffic. If all was fair, there would be further restrictions on the car deck in order to accommodate bicyclists. Your stopgap approach to the situation denies our rights as bicyclists …

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City on the Make at 400 Bar

Local band City on the Make has put out the following press release (I love when someone else does my work for me):

“City on the Make will be headlining a show on Friday, September 12th at the 400 Bar. This night will be the culmination of a long summer full of fun and mischief, packed shows, not so packed shows, sweat soaked parties, a new EP, a first tour, new joints that …

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“I joined the army after 9/11 – to kill people,” said Hart Viges of Austin, Texas. Hart’s a 32-year old member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He served in Kuwait in February of 2003, only to be deployed to Iraq 13 months later. It actually wasn’t until April 2004 — three months after returning home — that Viges started to morally reject the U.S.-led occupation. He was at a peace rally in Fayteville, North Carolina, when he found his “new unit.”

“I must tell the people of Iraq that I’m sorry for participating in the …

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MN State Fair

Yesterday I attended the Minnesota State Fair, the famous annual festival full of deep-fried Twinkies, chocolate-covered bacon, and alligator on a stick, among many other strange foods. It had been ten years since my last visit, and I nearly forgot how Minnesota politicians of all kinds use the Fair to their advantage during election seasons. The first stands I saw on entrance (after buying an $8 ticket from a scalper — the regular price is $11) were for the Minnesota Farmers Union and …

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The Wake’s blogosphere has recently gained a new cyberspace prophet. Jack Spencer, aka H.A.R.V.E., will be the mack daddy of the new Sounds and Vision blog, which can be found right here. His blog is currently separated from the rest of the web site, but hopefully one of the Wake’s staffers will be able to transfer the posts to this site soon and give Jack his own account. I am not up to the game. Anybody wanna help him out?

So far, the S & V blog features an extended interview with Cecil Otter from …

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As you may recall, the Minneapolis City Council just passed an ordinance concerning protesters’ rights at the upcoming Republican National Convention. The new ordinance replaced already existing laws that banned police use of rubber bullets, barred confiscation of cameras and recording devices and prohibited police targeting of activist groups.

When the new law left all these clauses out, Green Party council member Cam Gordon tried to add them back in amendments, and finally succeeded — at least partially — to pass them Friday. Now rubber bullets are again banned and all camera confiscation must hold up to the …

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Council Member Cam Gordon

Right before an important vote concerning protest protection at the upcoming Republican National Convention, an early morning attempt to speak out at a Minneapolis City Council meeting against the resolution led to the forced removal of an activist from the council room Friday.

Jude Ortiz, a member of Coldsnap Legal Collective, stood in front of City Council members and read a “Reprobation for the City of Minneapolis” criticizing last week’s committee passing of a resolution promising to ban police use …

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Police use rubber bullets at 1999 WTO protests in Seattle

A handful of activists and future Republican National Convention protesters attended a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting Wednesday to support Green Party council member Cam Gordon’s June 20 proposal banning police use of rubber bullets at upcoming RNC protests this fall. Unfortunately for those planning to protest in St. Paul this September, Gordon’s reformed motion was vastly different from what he proposed …

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Ah, Cedar-Riverside. The mere mention of that hyphenated name is enough to get a rise out of most Minneapolitans, not to mention the ones who actually live there. It is a divisive area, a place that has been characterized as both a colorful ethnic melting pot and a miniature gangland; the last “real” corridor of the city and a bullet-riddled death trap.

This long-running debate is even more pertinent to students at our fair university, whose daily travels often take them within a stones’ throw of Riverside. For many U students, the area has long been a source of confusion and …

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Since George Carlin recently died, I figured it’d be best to post some clips of him discussing issues relevant to this blog. In the first clip he talks about the absurdity of the American Dream. In the second, he chimes about why he doesn’t vote. (”If you vote, you have no right to complain!”)

I’ll preface my writing with a little about the basis of my traveling. I’ve developed a travel philosophy. The gist of it is, be as social as possible when you’re out living or traveling through new places. People are far more receptive than you’d ever imagine. Obviously, there’ll be encounters with non-responsive parties, but you can never let that deter you. They could be behaving in that matter for any number of reasons, and to allow such a response to lower your confidence is asinine. By starting casual conversations with the occasional stranger, or furthering your familiarity with a mere …

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Monday night I flipped on CSPAN and saw Ohio Rep. and former Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich presenting a 35-count impeachment bill against President George W. Bush. As you can note from the various times Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to bring the House under order during Kucinch’s reading of his bill (Kucinich: “The House is not under order!” Pelosi: grueling sigh followed by annoyed taps “Please proceed”), the rest of the House doesn’t seem to give two shits about “the Gentleman from Ohio’s” plans.

So what’s the point …

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The day’s finally come. Hillary’s out. Obama’s in. And he’s made Black History before Hillary could make Feminine History (actually Hillary’s made plenty of Feminine History with her campaign – but, truth be told, both have also made straight-up general history). The Democrats are officially unified, even if I’m reading New York Times stories that say some former Clinton supporters are now donating money to the McCain campaign. While pundits may argue that the Obama vs. Hillary fiasco officially came to a close Tuesday when the Illinois Senator finally got the magic number of …

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