The Wake

The Pogues’ album Rum Sodomy and the Lash perfectly embodies music’s ability to bring us into a different world. Although conceived within London’s booming punk movement, in no way do The Pogues fit into the simplistic energy that defined early U.K. punk rock. One listen to any track on Rum and you will quickly heed what separates this band from all of their contemporaries: Ireland. Hearing the atypical beauty of frontman Shane MacGowan’s growl in “A Pair of Brown Eyes” brings you to the mystic past of the tiny island of his ancestors. Even on an initial listen, Rum’s romantic …

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“This isn’t flag football.”

The bewildered young man took in the scene that played out in front of Carlson. College students clad
in red and blue with flag belts on their waists dodged through the night. There was no ball, nor any goal lines in sight. No player had time to answer, and he was left to walk away in confusion. He had unwittingly stepped into a match of the game called Bucket Wars.

It started out in a study lounge in Middlebrook Hall, fall semester of 2007. Jeff Shockley wasn’t feeling the study vibe, so instead he began thinking about …

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Halloween night is one of the bigger party nights of the year, yet it’s very nature separates itself from the other booze-addled bouts of self-destruction which populate the Twin Cities resident’s party schedules. Halloween demands a certain tone, an atmosphere not just of getting drunk and silly, but doing so in costumes, with attention to fear and spookiness. Standing around with friends playing beer pong is not going to cut it this weekend, oh no: You’re going to have to toss ping-pong balls into open skulls and chug blood and brain juice, or something fiendish like that. …

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As I walked down Washington Avenue, congealed globs of blood streaked the pavement. Any other day
I would have run screaming for the police. But as a man with a terrible gash on his neck approached, he moaned “brains” and I knew everything was all right.

Zombie Pub Crawl IV was by far the highlight of this month. Forget the Halloween celebrations — this was it. Who would have thought so many people would enjoy having “blood” smeared all over their bodies?

The evening started out at Grumpy’s near downtown Minneapolis. Human flesh, brains, and fried potatoes …

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If you’ve been to Berlin, you know the colorful swirling forms a city can take. Germany’s capital is saturated in spray-paint expression, and even remnants of the Berlin Wall reflect the city’s “bombing” culture. Graffiti runs free.

Further west, individuals like Bristol-born Banksy have begun to complicate graffiti’s contested reputation even more. Banksy’s identity remains unclear, but his cheeky stencil art has gained worldwide fame. A snarky, skulking rat is his trademark, along with subversive images like a child fishing for hypodermic needles. While Banksy’s art suggests a message and a desire for anonymity, he has begun to …

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Imagine softly singing a baby to sleep. What song comes to mind? Many people have a favorite childhood hymn they automatically begin to hum, lullabies like “Rock-a-bye Baby.” These songs are so
instilled in American culture that their lyrics are almost completely ignored. The first stanza of “Rocka-
bye Baby,” for instance, is about the wind knocking a baby out of its cradle from the top of a tree! It
is fortunate the baby only needs the soothing harmony to be lulled to sleep; the lyrics would certainly
evoke more nightmares than pleasant dreams.

Rennie Sparks, the wife of Brett Sparks and one of two …

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Fire burns. Chocolate tastes delicious. Cancer kills.

We figure these things out pretty early in life. They’re so obvious that we don’t even think about them. And in the divisive days before a major election, goals that everyone can agree on, like fighting cancer, are easily sidelined.

But for the members of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC), a student group affiliated with the American Cancer Society, the struggle against cancer will still be important long after we know whether the senator from Illinois or from Arizona will be our next president.

“Everyone has some connection to cancer,” says CAC representative Kirsten Lesak-Greenberg. …

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Peacemakers (2003)— As forensic science is becoming a tool in crimefighting in the 1800s, a federal marshal, an ex-Pinkerton agent and a local mortician team up to fight crime in Silver City, Colorado.

Annabelle (2005)— Mortician Henry Spencer falls in love with Annabelle, a corpse in his morgue. Despite the obvious complications, Annabelle is able to teach him that love is not as he thought.

Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers (1989)—Using borrowed money from the mafia, a doctor and a mortician begin a campaign to reanimate corpses. When they can’t pay it back, the mob boss sends a few “babysitters” to keep an eye …

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“[We have funerals] not because it matters to the dead, but because it matters to the living.” – Thomas Lynch

When Levi Hendricks tells people he wants to be a mortician, he usually gets one of two reactions. Younger people generally find his choice of career morbid. Older people often launch off on a description of a wonderful funeral director who helped them, or someone they know, through a difficult time.

The mortuary science junior attributes the difference in reaction to the extent of the person’s experience with death. Younger people only see the dark side of the career — embalming, cremation, …

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Conor Oberst, known best for his work with Bright Eyes and currently touring with the Mystic Valley Band, is doing a free solo performance at the Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown today at 2:30 PM. He is playing in support of the organization Obama Campaign For Change, and tickets are available to anyone who volunteers for at least two “Get Out The Vote” shifts before the upcoming election. Sign up for shifts here and get your tickets to this intimate …

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I knew The Wake knew how to party. In celebration of this fine magazine’s 7th year, a bash was thrown at the Acadia last Friday, featuring a wide range of musical acts, including Military Special, MC Harv, Lucy Michelle, Words, and Zombie Season. Each act was sonically different than the rest, and this made for a really interesting night.

The turnout was impressive, and it was great to see a real open and perceptive audience. The show felt very close-knit in the confined space of the Acadia, and this made for intimate performances from the …

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The other day I was doing laundry at Comstock Hall—the usual: late on a Monday night, with five-or-so loads to process. Now I know it’s my own fault for 1) saving this particular chore for weeks and weeks (until I run out of towels and/or underwear), and 2) generating so much laundry in the first place (if only I could confine it to just one outfit a day, every day: think of what a tremendous savings that would be…) But no, sadly, I am a fashionista, one who is not yet able to part with a clear distinction between evening …

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