The Wake

Unlike the recent regeneration of old-man clout in the music industry (Morrisey! Leonard Cohen! Yes, they’re still alive.), the film industry has been experiencing something a little different. We might call it the Nicolas Cage Phenomenon: a dirty rash of films characterized by disaster, ancient talismans, and men sporting long, formless hairdos that try to combat receding hairlines. That is to say, a bunch of middle-aged actors with …

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Our most recent food field trip was to El Meson, a tiny Spanish-Caribbean place at 35th and Lyndale. The restaurant has been around since the 1980s, but changed ownership in June of 2003. While we arrived hopeful, our nostrils filling with the perfume of well-seasoned grilled meats, our experience turned out to be a rapid descent into a whirlwind of disappointment.

Our server …

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The appeal of Uptown’s Moto-i is that it is actually the first sake brewery outside of Japan. And when you enter, it feels like total coolsville, with stainless-steel-topped tables and little to no art on the walls, letting you focus on the soft light diffused throughout the restaurant. However, what we predict will keep customers coming back is the menu that …

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After an extraordinary lunch at the new(ish) Thai restaurant Sen Yai Sen Lek, in Northeast Minneapolis, we decided to give the place another enthusiastic shot a week later. Our conversation afterwards went as follows:

Maggie: Let’s talk Sen Yai Sen Lek. Bad news first:

Emily: Well, after trying two phenomenal dishes the first time we ate here, we tried two mediocre ones.

Maggie: Mediocre?! I sent mine back. It promised …

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Matthew Miller says that tapes are “very warm feeling.” While he’s referring to the sound and physicality of cassette tapes in general, Miller’s words might actually describe the heart behind his little operation: Room Tapes. This kid is concerned with the unique noises that every person makes, and he wants to make room for them in the world.

After working closely with record labels since age fifteen, Miller grew tired of the digital state of music. …

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Winter makes walking to school more solitary than ever—it’s tough to make conversation when you’re choking on your muffler and sliding involuntarily down the sidewalk past your fellow students. Perhaps it’s best just to keep your head down and your ears stuffed with something nice to listen to. And speaking of Midwestern winters, why not make a week of treacherous local weather into a week of local music exploration? Day by day, here are some sounds …

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There’s a good chance you missed something on Dec. 2. It was a small but important event on campus. There were stickers, coffee and chocolate, eager students and community members, and handcrafted goods from around the world. Yes, you probably missed it—the Fair Trade Bazaar.

It was held surreptitiously in the Mississippi Lounge of Coffman Memorial Union, and was put on by the …

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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 …

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Ian Andersen is doing interviews with Japanese magazines. He and his mates from One for the Team have been trotting the country for several months and, after a quick break in Minneapolis, will continue on to the east coast where they’re already fairly well known. Two of them attend the U of M. They’ve put out two records (Good Boys Don’t Make Noise and Build Up), live in Dinkytown, and drive a fifteen-passenger van to …

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