The Wake

Two CD releases and two Minneapolis shows that had the campus talking this spring were Nebraska-bred Bright Eyes, and England’s own Arctic Monkeys. Both shows left their attendees satisfied and energized, while both disks led to much appreciating and contemplating. Given the themes of these two albums, a spring release was perfect for college students and high school seniors around the globe. Each represent universally confronted questions which arise every spring. High School seniors must …

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On May 7th, the Arctic Monkeys sailed into First Avenue on a wave of hype and high expectations. They didn’t disappoint. The venue was swelling with British pride and swagger. The Monkey’s crew of roadies were some of the most overtly British creatures seen outside of a Guy Ritchie movie. They bantered amongst themselves, none too shy of vulgarities, or to the same obscure slang heard in Arctic Monkeys’ songs, recognizable only to born-and-raised Brits. …

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Just because you’re not good at something doesn’t mean you can’t do it anyway.The preceding sentence isn’t the slogan for the intramurals program run by the University Department of Recreational Sports, but perhaps it would be fitting. Just because you weren’t putting up 40 points per game on your high school basketball team or breaking historical rushing records on the football field your senior year doesn’t mean you can’t take part in such sports recreationally …

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I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t been to campus in about two weeks, at least not since classes had ended. Would it be a desolate wasteland? Would it be a sort of after-school yuppie wonderland? A hipster sidewalk sale? I had no way of knowing. The one thing I wasn’t expecting, though, was exactly what I saw. As I gazed down 14th avenue, it hit me: Dinkytown was breathing. After months of classes, …

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Freshman year is a time of confusion; a time when even the brightest of young America lose their way. These days, people tend to equate intelligence with street smLiterary. This is an incorrect assumption! Our more “seasoned” collegians know this to be an “all-to” common mistake. They remember the days fondly and laugh. Fortunately, it is at this tender age that one often turns a misdirection into an opportunity for exploration - taking in a …

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Overworked, underappreciated and now under attack. In the past few months, European honeybees, responsible for pollinating many crucial crops as well as producing honey and wax have been rapidly disappearing, oftentimes vacating entire hives.Unbeknownst to most, many aspects of our day-to-day lives are dependent on the work of these bees. Anyone familiar with the food pyramid knows the importance of foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables, of which many require honeybees for pollination. European honeybees also …

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Looking for some new avenues to take in your reading selection? Check out these titles at your local library or book store.

Fiction:

Scott Bradfield, The History of Luminous Motion
Paul Auster, City of Glass
Jose Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Non-Fiction

John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places
Carlos Castaneda, The Teaching of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of …

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I’ve been smoked like a cig. I’ve been treated like a pig. I’ve been Newtoned like a fig, oh Lord. Oh, Lordy Lord, oh Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
Feels like I’m gonna snap like a twig.

I’ve been brought up way too high. And dragged down far too low. I guess that’s just the way things go. Oh, Lordy Lord, oh Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
But mere man shouldn’t try to …

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I sit on the roof, outside my window
on the second floor of my house
smoking hookah and watching the Bunge
plunge into the sunset.The smoke ring sits gently with the parked
letters
of the spray can’s spark,
flutter me an antidote“A T T A K T H E G L O B E” Why not take the globe and push it a little
down a hill, maybe give it a kiss with a few toe…

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It’s an everything!
And for that many people don’t reside well within it
for that many people reside well in certain tides
of mildew, others soft linen, and others the whip of the
arid cries of locusts to the stalk
the locust to the stalk
the locust to the stalk is not a certain anything
it is an everything
that’s what makes the stalk rot.What’s wrong with gutting the children for their mother’s milk?
What’s …

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“War is the health of the state”
- Randolph BourneRemember sitting in AP Government
Remember the New York Times
Remember the cover
of the
cover of the
cover of the New York Times
splayed with ideas
on 1% doctrines
where it’s ok when one feels the slightest bit threatenedto plow homes with sweet
depleted uranium?Unaccounted—does a child scream
when nothing is around to listen
except for the dust settling under
the once-terrace, now splayed heap…

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What scares them most is
That NOTHING HAPPENS!
They are ready
For DISTURBANCES.
They have machine guns
And soldiers,
But this SMILING SILENCE
Is uncanny.
- AniseI want to talk against this police state
a little bit
while the onslaught by the L.A.P.D.
on immigrant rights protestors
are still swollen
and red from the welts
of the rubber bullets flying in crowds of women
and children
and the elderly
and reporters
in …

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Minn. — If you’re from the Midwest and it doesn’t matter where, say shh. Say shh. If you can drink tap water and breath the air, say shh. Say shh …Roam if you must, but come home when you’ve seen enough. Holla Minnesnowtans. That salutation took a while; please forgive me. Oh, and you probably wanna go on a month-long walk with me to D.C. With this whole war going on, it’s surely a month …

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While as far as I can tell there is no shortage of shortages (I’m here all night, folks) in this country, I am much more concerned with the qualities we seem to lack as a society than how much oil we’ve sucked out of the corpses of so much endangered Alaskan wildlife.There’s a shortage on truth out there, my fine-feathered friends. No one is honest with anyone else anymore. Not just bad lies like, “I’m …

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I’ve seen games of hopscotch that were manlier than football. God, with those constant interruptions of play, coaches, apparently having seen Seinfeld, covering their faces while barking out orders–and pause now for station identification. It’s amazing to me how anyone has ever watched, played in, or admired an entire game of football. Seriously, why is it that, in our boring country, football is held as the shining pinnacle of masculinity? The players are draped head …

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