The Wake

Lauren Aurelius, Maggie Boeck and Rachel Willems, seniors at the ‘U,’ have been friends since their freshman year in Territorial Hall. Aurelius, Boeck and Willems live with four more of their close friends in a cozy upstairs complex on 6th Street in Dinkytown. So far, they say it has been a great experience having seven friends under one roof, but that might change.Due to the recent “housing sweep” by the Minneapolis City Inspections Department, the …

Read more →

The ‘U’ campus is full of shady legends: one in five students claims to live in Bob Dylan’s old apartment; a labyrinth of steam tunnels supposedly runs underneath campus; and, of course, rumors of ghosts and haunted houses run through the student body like a streaking frat boy on Thirsty Thursday.Hadley Anderson believes in ghost stories, though. In fact, she lived with a ghost for a semester. And she swears she’s not crazy.Anderson, a …

Read more →

The clerical workers on campus are not striking alone. Across the country, 98,000 workers are involved in labor disputes over health coverage, according to Ken Jacobs at the University of California Los Angeles’ Institute for Labor and Employment. According to a report issued by the nonpartisan Washington-based Center for Studying Health System Change, health insurance premiums have gone up more than 10% each of the past three years. This fact, combined with the cyclical economic …

Read more →

I think I’ve figured out why people drink: there’s a lot to hate about this world.’Hate’ sounds a little bleak. Maybe it’s better to say there’s a lot to hide from. Drinking’s just an acceptable way to escape from the more pressing life issues. And it’s excusable. Think about it: if something doesn’t get done, saying “I was going to mow the lawn, but then we started drinking…” is somehow more excusable than a simple …

Read more →

When night falls, Coffman Memorial Union begins to look like a shopping mall that’s about to close for the evening. The gates come down on all of the storefronts. A vacuum hums along the dining room carpet. Lone security guards make their rounds through the often-empty corridors. Perhaps beer could turn this humdrum vacancy into a 1980’s Budweiser commercial, one of those ads that they don’t make anymore because they were just a little …

Read more →

“Gutter Punk”
Hard Times Cafe
1821 Riverside Ave.
The Hard Times Cafe is the kind of place where you would ask for your drink in a dirty glass…if you were a 1940s gangster, that is. The music’s a little too loud, they smoking is allowed and black coffee is cheap. “It’s a hole in the wall,” said Katie Tharp, a junior at the ‘U.’ She comes to Hard Times because it’s open 22 hours a …

Read more →

A wave of splashes rippled through the pool at the University Aquatic Center Saturday, October 18 as the men’s water polo team took control of the ball early in the first period of the Division Championships 4th place game versus Iowa State. Amidst the splashes, Iowa’s defense couldn’t hold up captain Chris Hasling. He ducked his head in the water, quickly swam around the defense and went for the kill. The ball flew past the …

Read more →

Flash lights popped and fans cheered. The glowing lights of Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium shined on the freshly cut grass still showing mower lines.And as the men’s soccer club posed for pictures at midfield after a 3-1 victory in its last regular season game against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, players tried not to get caught up in the moment. Instead they shifted their focus from the regular season to a much grander stage: the …

Read more →

Those who don’t know the athletic endeavor that is sailing, might at the mention of the sport, conjure up images of smarmy gentry sipping martinis at dockside and occasionally taking the dingy out for a spin.Once you meet the University Sailing Club you will get to see the sport for what it really is: a lot of work and even more fun.“Our practices run three days a week until it basically snows,” senior co-captain Kelly …

Read more →

Viktor Adamcsek is no stranger to winning in national and international soccer competition. The University of Minnesota men’s club soccer team hopes its 24-year-old midfielder’s past experience and success will lead to future wins for the Gophers.Adamcsek, who is originally from Budapest, Hungary, has played in an estimated 27 national and international games. As a teenager, he played for the Hungarian Youth National team. His high school team even won the USA Cup in 1997. …

Read more →

There are no trophies, no medals and no award ceremonies involved. All that’s on the line for the intramural flag-football championship is pride and a t-shirt. It was the Spartans and Juice box battling it out for the championship on the dirt of Bierman fields on a chilly October 26th night. Juice Box lost twice during the regular season, both ending on the last play of the game. So when the A-League Championship came …

Read more →

The Guthrie Theater’s recent production of The Night of the Iguana is a true visual work of art. The play is solid with both strengths and weaknesses in its performance. Written by Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana is an evocative play. This celebrated writer of American Theater is famous for many productions including A Glass Menagerie, A Street Car Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Unlike many of his plays, The …

Read more →

“Everyone wants to be found” is the tagline used in the advertisements for Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola’s follow-up to The Virgin Suicides. The irreverent look at relationships and culture stars Bill Murray (Rushmore) and Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World). Usually, advertisements do not tell the prospective consumer a thing about the film, but in this case it boiled the essence of the film down to a bite-sized morsel. Both of the main characters are very …

Read more →

From stories of one-man bands that play kitchen sink tubas and Game-Boy electronica to the story of a man that has amassed over 35,000 artworks in his home and yard, the Weisman’s new film series, New Films Independent Artists, guarantees an intriguing look into the world of quirky underground artists. Expect unusual stories of musicians, filmmakers and visual artists that possess innovative vision and unchecked passion. Several of the films have been featured at the Sundance …

Read more →

Harry Shearer makes people laugh their asses off. Creeping into your system like some kind of narcotic substance, Shearer’s work slowly unravels your composure, eventually reducing you to a hysterical, laughing shadow of your former sane-self. For over 30 years, from his role as Derek Smalls in This is Spinal Tap, to his tenure as a voice on The Simpsons (Shearer plays Mr. Burns, Flanders, and Smithers, among others), Shearer has been entertaining the masses …

Read more →