[Note a young, sleazy Bill O’Reilly at the 1:00 minute mark]

After the bar closed, we went down to a Shisha Bar (or Hookah bar in the states) and ordered up some Strawberry flavored product. Along with that, we ordered 4 cherry and banana juices. Delicious enough on their own, they became even tastier upon Radek suggesting I empty the rest of our large carton of screwdriver into the each glass, forming an orange/cherry/banana juice and vodka hybrid. I call it The Berlin Experience, and I highly recommend trying it.

The bar was filled with mostly Turks according to Lukosh and Radek. They spoke in hushed voices, “In case any of them speak English,” he explained. They were wholly distrustful of all the other customers there.

We parted ways around 3.30am, and exchanged emails, “Incase I ever make it out to Poland,” and I told them to consider visiting the United States. They found this notion comical.

The Japanese doctor and I woke up early the next morning for breakfast. We sat down at a table with an old Australian man . His name was Aurthur. He was an avid traveler. He’d been just about everywhere, “Everywhere but China and Antarctica” he explained. He hailed from Sydney, and had been to the United States thirteen times, his first in 1971. After breakfast, we parted ways. I bumped into him again later, and asked if he’d be interested in hitting up a free tour of Berlin with me. He was, and so we reconvened later on at the Brandenburg Gate. The tour was beyond fascinating. Our lively tour guide, an American no less, relayed the complex and controversial histories of WWII and the Berlin Wall. We hit numerous landmarks along the way. My favorite stop was Humboldt College, where Lenin had attended University, and Einstein had taught. They had a book sale going on outside, and I purchased a few centuries’ old books for cheap.

After the tour, Aurthur and I headed back towards the hostel. He was great to have on the tour, because he talked to literally everyone else in the group, so we made several friends. We walked back with the tour guide, a 28 year old American from Maine. He’d been a successful advertising exec in NYC for 5 years, but he left it behind to pursue painting and photography in Berlin, giving daily tours to keep financially afloat.

Aurthur and I then hit up a pastry and coffee joint spot near Potsdamer Platz. I meant to stay for only an hour, as I had a train to catch, but we ended up chatting for over 3 hours, well hyped on caffeine by the end of it. He taught me a great deal about Australia I hadn’t known. He informed me of how voting is compulsory in Australia. I found this most impressive. He also told me about how Australia switched all their road signs to the metric system, across the entire country, on just one day. The U.S. could learn a lot from these guys. I also learned how their former Prime Minister had held office for 12 years before their current one. His approval rating was always low just before elections, but he twice found a means to scare voters into reelecting him. The first time, he’d used to fear of Muslim immigrants following the rape and murder of an Australian girl in a park by a few Muslim men. It all sounded very similar to GW using 9/11 and the threat of “organized” terrorism to get us into Iraq, pass the Patriot Act, and get himself reelected. We discussed these maters al length. He was an Obama supporter, as am I. He told me about his time in US during the race riots, and about his brother’s work with MLK. Aurthur was a cancer survivor; he’d had a tumor removed from the front of his brain just 4 years ago. I learned a great deal from him, and he told me to visit whenever.

Corpus:
Where exploring the interior of the battle scared tree
in the park near Franklin Avenue
injects life after the lightning strike.

Where highways do not
lead to my city’s heart.
They pump madness
molasses
leaving soupy trails
of purple and red through the drain pipes
and stick
with the road searing sunlight.

These river flats are not just scenery,
but a landscape where homes used to be
denied
the fertile soil from the Spring
floods to feed the gardens for the Bohemian families
flattened via eminent domain circa
May 24th, 1923.

And every steaming automobile and crane
rolls over our front yard—
the buried tricycle
once a sandbox now a barge landing.
What arteries and veins could carry the nourishment
of a stomach
when each pathway slices
a little more of the heart?

Palimpsest:
How many lie here
[There rest in the sleep of the ages 46
soldiers of the grand army of the Republic]
tangled within the roots of the octopus trees
just feet from the wading pool in
Beltrami
[Maple Hill
Cemetery]

Park?

The children
make their way to the baseball diamond
dusted in red. How many hearts lie over here?
beneath the sun-quenched concrete
inches from the busy blacktop side streets.
If I could dig my toes into the top soil
and sink down into the warm loam
would I find smooth white shutters
with faces behind coffin text and
window panes I cannot open?
How long will they remain
in these caskets without markers?

I hope I’m not in the way

Sink! Sink!
Your sacred skin is hidden now
And banished to below.
Let the land layer away
with the tombs of history.

And above these steppes brings you nowhere.
Climb with me.
The view from here
is perfect.

No Exit
No Exit
No Exit
Do not try to cross here
The entrance ramp
No Exit.

Oscar award-winning documentarian Errol Morris sits down with The Wake to discuss his new documentary on the photos from Abu Ghraib.

WAKE: You must be pretty passionate about the events at Abu Ghraib to have made a documentary like “Standard Operating Procedure.”

Errol Morris: Well, I think these people have been scapegoated…I can’t begin to tell you how many people have asked me questions: How come he doesn’t say he’s sorry, how come he doesn’t express remorse…I don’t think they express remorse because they’re really angry. They feel that they have been blamed for everything, that they have been framed, that they have been blamed for everything inappropriately and that their story is unknown. They’re angry.

WAKE: What was it about the Abu Ghraib photos that made you think, “This will make a great documentary,” or “I need to do something about this?”

EM: There’s the realization that these are the most famous war photographs of all time. It’s an amazing thing to say, but it’s true. [These are] photographs that everyone had seen, but very few people really understood or knew anything about. I don’t know why I thought it would make a good movie, I think it is a good movie - but I must be crazy.

WAKE: We all saw the photos plastered across our TVs, but what was your initial reaction to them?

EM: What in God’s name is this? They were so bizarre and perverse, but I didn’t have the thoughts that I have now… I wasn’t understanding the picture correctly…I didn’t really know what was going on. But I just remember everybody had opinions: left, right and center, about all of this with very little evidence to back it up.

WAKE: It seemed that there was a bipartisan taking the pictures as face value, whereas the right saw it as a few bad apples as it was portrayed in the media, and the left saw it as the fault of the higher-ups.

EM: And of course the common denominator, they’re both evil. There’s someone to blame in the story. One of the biggest and most unappetizing stories of this war is that …it becomes this war that is tolerated…I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do about it. It’s not like I have some magic answer, but I do know that it’s not a good thing just to pretend its not happening. Because it is happening, and it does involve young people, most of these people you see in the movie were destroyed by this…and I think the whole country has been damaged by it. We’ve gone mad, the things that supposedly are our deepest values have been put by the way side. I don’t remember this in Vietnam, and that was the war when I was coming of age. This will be your war…Endless posturing, lies, recycling one political opinion after another, very little research, very little journalism…I think that the White House created policies and pressures that made things like Abu Ghraib inevitable…I do believe that Bush should be impeached, that’s what we have impeachment for.

WAKE: Your son is 21 years old, and so also being around that age, I was wondering what his view on the film was?

EM: Well a lot of young people are just plain bored by all of it. I don’t know how better to describe it. Most people go to their news source- The Colbert Report, John Stewart. Because that is news, actually, it’s people saying something, and taking a position and thinking about stuff. There’s more there, more than I believe is ingenuous…than in any of the standard news shows, which I’ve stopped watching. I think it’s weird to be a young person in this country at the moment, I think it really is…I think young people might like this movie. I don’t know, what do I know?

While some open mic nights may be as painful as a trip to the dentist, ACME’s format allows only three minutes to all newcomers. This means more comedians, more laughs, and less awkward silences. The lineup is also organized so that first-timers perform at the beginning, leaving the more experienced comedians for the end. With a never-ending supply of wannabe comics and a lengthy list of reoccurring acts, the night is filled with both unexpected laughs and the well-rehearsed performances of more experienced comedians.

Though there are dozens of comedians who perform on a given Monday night, stage time at ACME is still difficult to obtain.

“It’s really competitive,” said Andy Erikson. Erikson is a junior at the University of Minnesota, and first performed at open mic night on August 27th, 2007. Like all first timers, she was guaranteed a spot on stage the moment she signed up. Unlike most, however, her act was good enough to land her a spot in the following week’s show.

“I was so nervous,” she said. “Everyone said I was really awkward, but they all thought it was a character.”

Erikson’s done the open mic night at ACME every week since. Over the last nine months, Erikson says her comedy has turned into “a part time job,” filling 6 nights of her week. She performs at many different venues across the Twin Cities area, including Grumpy’s Bar and Grill, Brave New Workshop, and at the Melrose apartment complex on campus every Thursday.

While Erikson is now an expected act at open mic night, she is also one of the youngest comics performing. Comedians with more experience take the stage later in the evening, and are given a timeslot longer than three minutes.

Steffen Steffen started at ACME’s open mic night five and a half years ago. Before ever setting foot on stage as a comic, he had already been involved in other forms of show business - acting and doing radio in the 80s. After seeing some of his fellow cast members perform comedy, Steffen thought that it was something he should try. Like Erikson, Steffen impressed the crowd enough to perform again.

“I’ve always been a writer, and I’ve always been a performer,” he said. “The reason I love stand-up is because it allows me to do both.”
Though he hasn’t yet quit his day job, by networking and gaining experience with other comedians through ACME, Steffen was able to take his routine on the road.

“It’s fun going to new places, it’s fun going to different venues. I’m having a blast,” he said. “Unforuntately, the comedy scene here just isn’t big enough to make a living off of.”

Steffen adds that he’s planning to move to New York City next year.

“It’s not that I think I’m going to make it big or anything, I just want to live there before I’m too old to enjoy it,” he said. “And in a new city it’s like starting over. New open mic nights, new people to impress. It’s very exciting.”

With Steffen’s career looking ahead, and Erikson’s just beginning, it may be hard to believe that all this started from a little club in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. Erikson and Steffen aren’t ACME’s the only success stories – it seems that all it takes is a little guts and creativity to get started as a comic.

When separately asked what advice they’d give to any aspiring comedian, both Erikson and Steffen said the exact same thing: “Write, write, write. Stage time, stage time, stage time.” Erikson said she recommends carrying a notebook and pen everywhere, and Steffen said the greatest way to get a feel for comedy is to attend open mic nights.

So how does one become involved in an ACME open mic night? It is as easy as arriving a couple of hours before the show starts and signing up. People completely new to ACME are ensured a spot, but returning comics are only allowed on stage based upon prior performances, so it is important to come prepared.

“You just gotta do it,” said Erikson. “You gotta go up there and and get your first set done. After that, you’ll be addicted.”

The cosmetics industry is possibly one of the most unregulated industries. Major loopholes in federal law allows chemicals to be put into personal care products without any monitoring of health effects, almost no labeling requirements and no required testing.

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, “the regulatory requirements governing the sale of cosmetics are not as stringent as those that apply to other FDA-regulated products… manufacturers may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, to market a product without a government review or approval.”

It then becomes the responsibility of the manufacturers to voluntarily validate the safety of their
products. Unfortunately, the decision between safety and profit doesn’t seem to register for many manufacturers, leaving many personal care product ingredients completely untested.

A report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental watchdog agency, revealed that 89 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products had not been evaluated for safety by the FDA. Furthermore, the FDA does not enforce recalls of products found to be hazardous or defective, leaving it in the hands of manufacturers to take dangerous products off of the market.

The chemicals in any one product alone are unlikely to cause harm, but daily exposure to the industrial chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products can take its toll. According to the Good Housekeeping Institute, 60 percent of what you put on your skin is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some of these products’ chemicals are linked to birth defects, cancer and other health problems that are increasing in the human population.

Health risks posed by cosmetics can include anything from allergic reactions to cancer, and the lack of safety standards allows manufacturers to use some very harmful ingredients, including coal tar and paraben preservatives.

Parabens are common preservatives that appear in a wide array of toiletries. Parabens break down in the body into p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which has estrogenic activity in human breast-cancer cell cultures. Nine out of ten liquid foundations sold at Target contain parabens, including most name brands and several claiming to be “natural” products. Revlon, Cover Girl, Mineral Wear, and Botanics all contain parabens.

You can also find carcinogenic coal tar, used in artificial dyes such as FD&C Blue 1 and FD&C Green 3, in your everyday moisturizers. “Fragrance,” which is usually a conglomeration of chemicals, is another common ingredient in moisturizers and personal care products. Fragrance masks chemical smells, but may also mask phthalates. Scientists have shown that phthalates can damage the female reproductive system, but it is the male reproductive system that appears to be more sensitive.

Phthalate exposure damages the testes, prostate gland, epididymus, penis, and seminal vesicles in laboratory animals, according to a report done by EWG in 2002. A study conducted by the University of Minnesota, published in the May 2005 Environmental Health Perspectives, found a connection between phthalates and genital abnormalities in baby boys.

Neurotoxic lead may appear in personal care products as a naturally occurring contaminant of hydrated silica, one of the ingredients in toothpaste. Every brand of toothpaste sold at Target that The Wake examined, including Aquafresh, Colgate, and Crest, had hydrated silica listed as an ingredient.

Possible human carcinogens, petroleum distillates, (often labeled as “liquid paraffin”) are prohibited or restricted for use in cosmetics in Europe but are found in several U.S. brands of mascara. Five out of eight mascara labels read “liquid paraffin” at Target, including Rimmel and Cover Girl.

Many conventional bath and shower products contain the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and propylene glycol - ingredients also found in anti-freeze, engine degreasers and solvents. According to the American College of Toxicology, SLS is a “potent class of carcinogen.” About 60 percent of soaps sold at Target contained SLS, including name brands Aveno, Dial, Pure and Natural, and Old Spice.

With so many harmful chemicals being used in personal care products today, it comes as no surprise that there has been increasing interest in organic alternatives. Sales of organic personal care products in the U.S. increased by 15 percent annually to almost $9 billion in 2007, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.

“If it falls under the organic umbrella it must be certified by the organic certification organization,” said Kathryn Lawrence, the manager of personal care products at the Seward Co-op, an organic grocery and deli located on 2111 East Franklin Avenue. Certech Registration Inc. is the independent accredited certifying body that has developed North America’s first system certification standard for organic and natural cosmetics.

In order to be certified as “natural” under the IOS Cosmetics Standard, a minimum of 95 percent of the product must be of natural origin and must also use certified organic ingredients which have been grown, cultivated, and stored without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fumigants or other toxins, according to the Certech Registration Web site.

Yet many of the self-proclaimed “pure” products lining the Target shelves, such as Tom’s, Pure and Natural, Botanics and Mineral Wear, all contain chemicals such as hydrated silica, parabens, and sodium lauryl sulfate.

While newfound standards allow personal care products to be certified organic, they have not set any regulations against the use of the word “organic” on product labels. Many manufacturers still use the term in the product’s name or on the labeling. Products with at least one organic ingredient can be deemed “organic,” in spite of the other ingredients used.

“Regulation is just starting to filter into the cosmetics and personal care industry, but Europe has been doing it for years,” Lawrence said. “I think the FDA is going to jump on the band wagon and realize that organics is a big money making industry.”

Lawrence said she hopes for a future of organic personal care products that “keep true to their course,” and are not falsely labeled.

But organic products also pose a conundrum. What exactly are “organic” cosmetics? Do they work as well as their chemical laden counterparts? And why do they cost so much more?

Organic products are made exclusively from organically grown plant material without industrial chemicals, pesticides, or genetic manipulation. They replace chemical substances with natural equivalents, for example preservatives such as rose extract for parabens, or jojoba oil for liquid paraffin. These natural ingredients are much more expensive, hence the high cost of organic products.

But scientific purists claim that natural products aren’t necessarily safer. Some organic products can become toxic when they degrade “Products that contain natural preservatives have much shorter shelve lives,” said Lawrence. “Just like with food, you can usually tell they have molded by the smell.”

“If you are someone who likes to keep a tube of mascara for two years, which is bad anyway, organic products may not be the best for you,” she said.

But do they work? Research on the efficacy and safety of organic products has been minimal. Small studies have been conducted into the effects of certain ingredients. Pine bark and blueberry, for example, have shown that they may combat skin ageing, and chamomile and aloe vera have been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects. But the combination of these ingredients in a product is seldom tested.

However, Lawrence says that organic products are the way to go. “They are so much better in so many ways,” she said. “You use these products so close to your mouth, eyes, and on your skin, and organic personal care products are not going to have chemicals like parabens, which are known to cause cancer.”

Awareness is the key. The Safe Cosmetics Act, passed in California in 2005, and companies like Certech are some of the first steps being taken in the U.S. against poor regulation and safety evaluation in the beauty industry. But consumers can take the issue into their own hands as well.

“Lately there are so many different Web sites that tell you how clean a certain product is,” Lawrence said. “Consumers are becoming educated and more aware of what they are putting on their skin.”

With Web sites like National Geographic’s Green Guide and the campaign for safe cosmetics, consumers can have lists of hazardous chemicals, scientific studies and shopping tips right at their fingertips. Some sites even give recipes for consumers to create their own personal care products, chemical-free. As the FDA sits on the decision on whether or not to regulate the cosmetics industry, our health is at risk, and it is up to consumers to make the choice between a cheap chemical bath and their well being.

All glibness aside, the Chinese government’s human-rights violations aren’t just a cause célèbre to activists like those who gathered in front of Coffman Union on April 16. The rally, staged by local politicians, professors, students and other activists, was part of the Human Rights Torch Relay, an international movement designed to raise awareness about China’s abuses in light of the upcoming Olympics. The day began with a relay of groups and individuals traveling from the Capitol to Coffman, continued with speeches from representatives of various organizations and causes, and culminated in a march across the Washington Avenue bridge with flags and banners.

The charges against the Chinese Communist Party center around three major issues. Most prominent at the rally and in news coverage is China’s control of Tibet, whose people desire independence. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has been in exile since 1959, when the putdown of a rebellion forced him and other leaders to flee to Tibet. The situation flared earlier this year when protests by Buddhist monks in Tibet prompted the Chinese government to crack down harshly on supporters of Tibet independence.

China has also come under fire for its ties to Sudan. Most of Sudan’s oil goes to China, so the Chinese government plays a large role in financing the Sudanese government. That government, in turn, finances the Janjaweed militia responsible for carrying out atrocities against the people of Darfur. As Sudan’s biggest investor, China is funding the genocide when it could be using its leverage to help the situation, University of St. Thomas student Ben Nebo said. Instead, the Chinese government has not acknowledged the situation in Darfur as genocide.
Nebo, who studied six months in China, noted that the slogan of this year’s Olympics is “One World, One Dream,” which he calls ironic. “People in Darfur are not having their dream of accomplishment, they’re having a nightmare,” he said. “Whose dream are we pursuing?”

Perhaps less well known than the situations in Tibet and Darfur is the persecution by the Chinese government of practitioners of Falun Gong. The spiritual meditation practice, which became popular in China during the 1990s, follows the three principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in 1999 and has since imprisoned and tortured many of its followers. A 2006 investigative report by Canadian politicians and activists David Matas and David Kilgour published an investigative report which told of the Chinese government illegally harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong was one of the major organizers of the April 16 rally.
A counter-protest led by supporters of China, mostly Chinese students, was just as visible and vocal during the event as the anti-China demonstrators. While representatives of local government and various human rights groups spoke, many of the pro-China demonstrators cried “Lies, lies,” and at one point the group broke out in singing the Chinese national anthem.

Most of the Chinese students said they support the Chinese government and do not want protests to disrupt China’s chance to shine this summer.

“Being Chinese, I have the responsibility to support my country,” medical school researcher Nan Zhang said. “China should be united. We cannot tolerate any separation.” Zhang agreed that China needs to improve its human rights record, but said, “Without a peaceful, united China, we cannot achieve that. If you look at the history, our government is better than in the past. I know it’s not perfect, but we still need to support it.”

Most of the pro-China protestors wore shirts and carried signs with the slogan “Go Olympics—No Olympolitics.” The Olympics are about sports, not political issues, said Yan Zhang, a university staff member and Chinese immigrant to the United States who held a sign reading, “Stop playing the human rights card.”
Many of the speakers, however, said that protesting China’s violations is not political or intended to dishonor the Olympics, but a simple call for human rights to be respected.

“We want to send the message that we’re sympathetic to the athletes who have trained for years to get to this one special moment,” Mei Ling Lee, the Minnesota representative for the Human Rights Torch Relay, said. “But we can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that the Communist regime in China has broken its promise of improving human rights.”

The International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the honor of hosting the Olympics in 2001 in the hope that the attention of the world would prompt the Chinese government to improve its policies, Lee said. Since then, however, the Chinese government has increased surveillance and clamped down on Internet use, she said. Persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, human rights advocates, and other groups has also increased.

The Chinese Communist Party is using the Olympics as “a public display of its own legitimacy,” to validate its regime—just as the Nazis did when Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympics, said Ben Grinberg, an American student and Falun Gong practitioner.

After the formal part of the rally, the protesters both supporting and criticizing China clustered in front of Coffman, crossing the lines between the two groups to discuss the issues at hand. Circles of people knotted around those who argued with raised voices and jabbing fingers, but many people spoke quietly and respectfully, urgent with the fervor of their causes but open to other opinions.

Several of the pro-China protestors questioned the validity of the claims against the Chinese government, saying that the supporters of Tibet and Falun Gong have not seen firsthand the violence of which they speak. Actually living in China shows a different story, they said.

Yajin Wang, a student whose father is a teacher in China, said that her own experience has shown that the Chinese system protects rather than persecutes minorities. Tibetans, for example, are exempt from the one-child policy to which most Chinese citizens must adhere, Wang said.

Those protesting China’s human-rights violations, however, said that they don’t have to see crimes against humanity being committed to know that they happen.

“How can you deny the killing of your own people?” asked one pro-Tibet protestor, who asked that his name be withheld. “You were alive when Tiananmen Square happened. You saw it, your parents saw it, the whole world saw it.”

Ben Grinberg said that students from China who are able to study here tend to be from the upper and middle class. But millions in China live in poverty, and there is “an enormous amount of discontent and resentment of the Communist government,” he said.

Westerners tend to focus on China’s economic success at the expense of criticizing its human-rights violations, Grinberg said. But the Chinese government, he said, is less powerful and stable than people might think. He said that the Soviet Union crumbled quickly despite being seen by the rest of the world as very powerful, and that the same upheaval is inevitable for the Communist government in China.

“As more pressure is put on the Chinese Communist Party to give people freedom, they will be less able to stifle dissent,” Grinberg said.

Student Nan Zhang is hopeful that reform and openness can happen in China. He said that China can use the United States as a model for improvement, pointing out that many people from China come here to study. “The current politicians [in China] learned from the former USSR. The next generation will learn from the U.S.,” he said. “That’s a good trend.”

The U of M’s EXCO chapter has “a principal of offering free education to the Twin Cities community,” according to Amy Pason, a U of M grad student who helps organize the U of M EXCO chapter. Anyone can take a class through EXCO and there are no tuition costs.

Experimental colleges are nothing new. EXCO is retro in its origins, which lie in the people power of the 60s. Oberlin College, which is generally considered to be the model for experimental colleges, began offering experimental classes in 1968. Oberlin is a highly selective private school in a smallish suburb just outside of Cleveland, OH. There, students started the experimental college as a vehicle for civic engagement within the community. The idea was to grant residents of the town more access to the happenings in the college. Eventually the experimental college was integrated into Oberlin’s regular curriculum.

At the time, EXCOs started popping up around the country. Unfortunately, within ten years, most had shut down their experiments.
In 2006, however, there was marked new growth in the movement as an experimental college sprouted out of a student group at Macalester. It all started after a significant raise in the cost of tuition. According to the EXCO Web site, the students started the organization “as an alternative to the inequalities and injustices of higher education…to offer the Twin Cities community the opportunity to teach or learn in a space open to alternative education.”

Currently, all chapters of EXCO in the Twin Cities are associated with a college or university. The U of M chapter is a bonafide student group, which means they have a bit of money and the ability to hold classes in campus buildings. Students who take and teach classes through EXCO may be able to get credits for their efforts.

However, there is a discussion among present EXCO organizers over how involved EXCO should be with the institutionalized university. “One of the reasons that we started EXCO is to recognize that the University of Minnesota as a state-public institution, it’s not necessarily that public,” Pason said.

What happens at the U of M, and most public universities, often stays there. The research rarely makes it into the public sphere. Every now and then a newspaper headline may grab hold of a charismatic research finding, but more often, benefits of academic endeavor remain largely inside the academic community.

Much of the U of M campus is designed so a student would never need to leave. Many people attending the U of M, especially undergraduates, never make it outside of campus and its surrounding student housing areas (think Dinkytown). Opening up the U of M would open resources to many community members, and open the real world to those stuck on campus.

“Even if we are a university-based official student organization and most of the people that take the classes are students, that’s not necessarily our long-term political goal,” said Arnoldas Blumberg, a U of M undergrad who also helps organize the U of M’s EXCO chapter. “We really want to sort of bridge the gaps between various communities around the Twin Cities.”

In the future, Twin Cities’ EXCOs have the potential to exist much more outside of institutions like the U of M.
Imagine an entire educational system organized by people in communities. Say you want to learn Spanish - rather than paying a grand to attend a university you could sign up for the EXCO Spanish class where you would meet other members from your community who speak the language. “We also are really working now on expanding the sort of community base,” Blumberg said, “seeing how EXCO can serve different community centers or grassroots organizations.”

Ali Jaafar

The word “publication” has the word “public” embedded in it for a reason: publishing is a statement to the general population about what sorts of issues are important and relevant. It is precisely that concept, relevancy, which has led me take a very strong stand against Mr. Stone’s article. To put it bluntly, I do not believe that publishing an article as self-involved as “Cult of Praise” would benefit the Wake’s readership.

True, it is only natural for people to write about their lives and experiences, but there has to be a point. For example, Deniz Rudin’s article “An Elegy for ‘Art Porn’” started as a funny anecdote but blossomed into an article about guilty pleasures and ironic detachment, issues that resonate with the self-hating hipsters who write/read the Wake.

I was looking for something similar in “Cult of Praise” but found nothing. The point of the article is, “I got suckered into joining a cult.” It contains no real moral or message for the wider, non-cult-joining population. People of Praise may be weird, but they pose no threat to 99.99% of the population. They do not engage in prostitution, the production of meth, illegal gambling rings, slave labor cartels, etc. They don’t even have a funny sign.

Furthermore, joining a religious group is such an incredibly personal thing that one article really won’t dissuade anyone from joining. You either possess the specific combination of belief and naiveté to find the idea appealing or you don’t.

In this light, Mr. Stone’s article reads as the airing of one man’s personal grievances. This is where social responsibility comes into play. In the wake of another recent article on religion (“Religion and the U” by Carl Carpenter) whose false accusations angered many, it would be insensitive and misguided to publish another article that denounces religion without any clear or noble purpose.

This is the difference between a magazine and a personal blog: we are representative of a wide variety of people and opinions and must carefully consider the statements we make. I’m all for publishing controversial articles, but if they lack relevancy and purpose, they can only serve to spread hatred and division rather than peace and knowledge.

Alice Vislova

I believe that Eric Stone’s article, “Cult of Praise,” should be published in an upcoming issue of The Wake.

Stone’s article is a first hand account of his experience with People of Praise: a religious group that operates out of a house on frat row. Stone shamelessly tells his story – from his initial encounter to, well, I don’t want to spoil all the surprises. The important thing is that his story is worth telling.

Firstly, the article is well written. In my opinion, editorial writing, by nature, often lacks color. Stone’s article is full of concrete anecdotes, as opposed to the floating abstractions that often comprise editorial pages (see: this column).

Stone’s article is also interesting because it tells a story you don’t hear everyday, in a heartfelt manner. One of the missions of The Wake is to provide a forum for students to express their ideas. As a magazine by students, for students, we do not have the right to stand in the way of somebody’s story.

In addition to not having the right to stand in the way of stories, I feel that - in a way - we are obligated to publish some of them. The quality of the writing may be a boundary to publication – but a boundary that can be overcome. The opinion held by the writer should never be a boundary.

I had never heard of the People of Praise before reading Stone’s article and I couldn’t believe what I read. I think that people have a right to know about wacky religious cults operating in their neighborhood. I realize that Stone’s article is an opinion piece and therefore may or may not be an accurate description of the People of Praise, but, as usual, I encourage people with dissenting opinions about the subject matter to write an article as well.

We must continue to give voice to those who wish to speak regardless of whether or not we agree with their opinion. We must remember that The Wake would be nothing without people like Stone who take the initiative to tell their stories. Keep the dream alive!

Alex Amend

First off, three cheers for Mr. Stone’s own personal-spiritual liberation, and his effort to put into words the machinations of a local bed-bunking religious co-op otherwise known as People of Praise (POP). His story should be told, if only to avoid shying away from controversy, and for purposes of giving this collective the attention it deserves–which is very little.

I am of the opinion that the actions of such fantastic student groups with utopian and/or religious-derived goals and criticisms are of little consequence within the broader student community. The demonstration last week outside of Coffman was such an instance where a group made explicit their irrelevance by showcasing a unique perversity of historical perspective. That these people offered gleeful smiles from in front of their useless statement only condemned them further in their own ignorance.

A concern must be raised if a group like POP conducted unlawful or abusive behavior within its collective, akin in some shape to the pending case involving a Mormon compound in Texas. However, to assume that POP’s silly practices call for alarm or a singular account of the group by an ex-member facilitated by a college magazine would be granting them too much legitimacy. To my mind, this is simply a collective of unimaginative and harmless human beings in a modern and cultureless college town.

While it is unfortunate, fundamental religious movements are part of our country’s DNA. In short, it’s not such a surprise.

Though Mr. Stone’s account could be considered necessary by those who like to analyze and re-analyze religion’s role on campus, I’m rather unmoved. An interesting read? Slightly. Revelatory insight? I think not. Instead, I believe it is morally imperative that we turn our investigative lens on a rampant and much more horrifying phenomenon around campus: that fucking bean bag game.

Introducing the People of Praise

I never thought I could fall victim to a religious cult on the campus of the University of Minnesota. I like to think of myself as intelligent, knowledgeable and critically minded. These traits echo the values of our campus. Some have called the U of M the dustbowl of empiricism because of its heavy reliance on the scientific method and evidence based practices. So how is it that one can fall into the traps of superstition and dogmatism in such a seemingly enlightened environment? About two years ago, shortly after moving to Minneapolis to attend the U of M, I fell right into a trap.

There are many Christian groups and fellowships on campus. The major ones that we all have heard of include: Campus Crusade for Christ, or CRU for short; Maranatha, with their sign proclaiming “Jesus Christ is Lord of the University of Minnesota” and Mars Hill. But my guess is that very few of you have heard of the People of Praise. Because the group is actively engaged in evangelizing and recruiting members of the U of M community, I think it is important to inform people about the side of the POP that they probably will not share with you upfront. Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back I wish I would have had the resources available to help me make an informed decision concerning the group I was about to commit most of my time and energy to.

The POP is an “ecumenical charismatic Christian community” that was founded in 1971 in South Bend, IN. The formation of the group followed the Catholic Church renewal of the early 60’s known as Vatican II. The POP is ecumenical in the sense that they accept members from all Christian faiths; although over 90% of the current members attend Roman Catholic Church’s. They are charismatic in the sense that they believe in, and employ, such things as speaking in tongues, prophecy and faith healing. The POP has had some trouble with growth – while being in existence for over thirty years they currently only have approximately 2,900 adult members. Some of you may be familiar with Trinity Schools. The POP owns and administers three private Christian High Schools, one of which is located in Eagan, MN. A few years ago, the POP received word from God to set-up shop in Dinkytown and create there own city here.

Life in the People of Praise

I first heard of the POP while working as a parking attendant for the wicked witch of Dinkytown. Anyone who has ever tried to park momentarily in, by or near the parking lot behind the Dinkydome – without paying or having correct change has encountered the explosive rage of this seemingly innocent and lovely old women. I once saw her demand a quarter from some poor student who accidentally made a wrong turn into the parking lot. There are no free u-turns at this lot. It was here I met T.J., who told me about the revolutionary life he was living with Jesus Christ and the POP. He invited me over to one of the POP houses on frat row for a Lord’s Day supper.

I soon found out that the Lord’s Day supper was a weekly dinner gathering of about twenty to fifty POP members and guests that takes place every Saturday night in Dinkytown. The dinner begins with everyone gathering in a circle while the leader prays and passes some bread and juice – representing the body and blood of Christ. After this is finished, the group begins praying. Most pray in plain everyday sensical English, but some pray by making weird noises and strange utterances. For the first time, I heard someone speak in tongues – which are recognized by Pentecostal Christians as a secret prayer language. I remember thinking this was different from the way I learned how to pray and I made a point to talk with T.J. about this experience after dinner. He graciously showed me in the Bible where the apostles spoke in the same tongues the POP members spoke in. If it’s in the Bible, it must be ok, I thought.

That Lord’s Day night I met a young guy named Mike. He was the leader of what the POP calls the campus division. Mike is an intelligent Notre Dame Alumnus in his late 20’s who teaches math and scripture at Trinity High School in Eagan, MN. Mike shook my hand and we shared casual conversation throughout the social gathering that followed the dinner. During this time I inquired to find out as much as I could about the campus division. One member shared with me that sexual temptation was rather easy to deny because no women were allowed on the second and third floors where their study area and sleeping room was located. Yes, that’s right – sleeping room. All sixteen male members of the campus division slept in one room containing six or seven triple bunk beds hand crafted by members of the community. This seemed odd to me at first. A few hours later I noticed the women were all starting to leave. I found out that all the female members lived in a separate house just down the street. Before I left, Mike asked if I would be willing to meet for coffee sometime. I said sure. We agreed to meet the next day and talk more about the POP.

At this time in my spiritual journey I was a young and very naïve Christian – I had just recently undergone a ‘born-again’ experience shortly after moving to Minneapolis. The next day I met Mike at a coffee house in Dinkytown. I ordered my favorite espresso, but Mike curiously sat down without ordering anything. I soon found out that some members of the POP had made a commitment to only spend forty dollars a month on personal expenses, and being that it was towards the end of the month Mike was getting close to his cutoff. I shared with Mike my personal story and how I had just recently moved to Minneapolis to attend the U of M. After exchanging some small talk Mike leaned over to me and stated matter-of-factly, “You are having a conversation with Christ right now.” At first I was taken back. Obviously he couldn’t be implying that he was Christ. That is ridiculous! I didn’t say anything about the comment, I assumed he was referring to the Holy Spirit that dwells within each Christian and figured he was referring to the Spirit within himself. Upon reflection, I wonder if Mike really does believe he is Christ. Is it possible that the second coming of Christ has taken human form and is hanging out at the U?

Over the next couple weeks Mike and I met up for coffee and spent time walking around campus talking about life and all the wonder it contains. I was really curious about the POP and the more I talked to Mike the more interested I became. One time, when Mike and I met up, I remarked to him that he probably has an agenda with me. Mike replied that he just wanted friendship, just friendship. He told me that the POP was all about living out the call in chapter two of the Book of Acts, which proclaims that the early Christians lived in common – sharing everything and owning nothing for themselves. Further, he spoke about revolution, city building and prophecy. He said that a few years ago the POP received a prophecy from God that they were to build 200 cities and recruit 200,000 members within 40 years. I told him that this seemed outrageous and he replied adamantly that they would succeed. He went on to tell me they had begun their city building work and that the U of M is one of the sights that God recently sent them to. Here, they will build a city of one people, united under Christ. Mike spoke passionately, eloquently and fervently about the revolution that God had called the members of the POP to undergo. At the time, this all seemed really exciting to me. I was looking to be part of something greater than myself and to do something radical and charitable with my life. It seemed the POP offered me just this opportunity to make a difference and fulfill my calling.

For whatever reason, maybe it was my intrinsic zeal for leading a Christian life or my curiosity about living on frat row, I joined the POP, went ‘underway’ and moved into the old Zeta Psi fraternity house with my fellow revolutionaries in Christ. The POP is what is called a covenant community, in which members make a decision, similar to a wedding vow, to remain with the community forever. When members first join they undergo a five to seven year period called ‘underway’, in which the young member prays and attempts to discern their path in life. At the end of this period, members make a commitment, either to join the community permanently – in what is called ‘making the covenant’ or leave. Once this covenant is made within the POP, one cannot decide to leave on their own – they ultimately have to be released by the community leaders.

Some of you reading this, who may have been familiar to campus in 2006, might recall the old Zeta Psi fraternity house located at the East end of frat row. There were no fraternity brothers in the house at this time, the Zeta Psi boys had been kicked out long ago for partying too hard and attempting to burn the house down – which they almost succeeded at. During the fall and spring semesters of 2006 the POP moved in and placed two big off-green signs in front of the house, proclaiming: “The World’s a Mess, Join the Solution. A People, A Place, A Revolution”. Meet the campus division of the POP. It was in this house that I lived and prayed, worshiped and sang as an ‘underway’ member of the POP.

After some time in the POP I started to realize that the revolution of Jesus Christ that was prophesied by the group was actually a revolution of oppression and control. The POP is comprised almost entirely of white upper-middle class Americans. Of the hundreds of members I met during my time with the POP, I met only one that was black. I later found out that he was merely a guest at one of the community meetings and not affiliated with the POP. Furthermore, no active homosexuals are allowed, and if they ‘come out’ they are encouraged to undergo conversion therapy or are forced to leave. Thankfully conversion therapy is currently outlawed by the American Psychological Association, although this doesn’t keep faith-based programs from practicing this therapy. Women are restricted from carrying any leadership position. The decision to elect community leaders is not based on qualifications or prior experience; when the decision concerns women, it is based entirely on gender and you’re out of luck if God happened to create you with an extra X chromosome.

Once I joined the POP everything started to change. Before moving in to the house I was given a sheet of paper that listed eight or nine commitments I had to make before joining. I have since lost the list and cannot recall all of the commitments I made. I tried to contact some current members, but was denied access to the sheet of paper. The commitments included: give a monthly 10% tithe, attend all community meetings and lectures, refrain from dating for two years, do not engage in gossip, share all money and possessions and maintain a headship relationship. All new members are assigned what is called a ‘head’. A head is a spiritual advisor/life coach who helps guide you in your journey. Members typically meet one-on-one with their head once a week. Members are not allowed to choose their heads; they are assigned by the community leaders. Upon entering the POP, Mike was assigned to be my head. Once I began headship with Mike he loosened his empathetic and caring attitude and started to become more controlling and directive. I remember during one of our headship meetings he told me that I shouldn’t tell him what I was going to do with my life; rather, I should ask for his permission.

Maybe it was the hammer and sickle poster that hung above our chore list or the strong Russian heritage of one of the leaders, but I began to realize I was a part of what some have called Christian communism – a form of Christianity that seeks a possession-less, separatist and selfless form of community and worship. In the POP, personal possessions were owned and shared by everyone and the money that each member makes is placed in a common community fund to help support the group.

After a few weeks in the POP, Mike became more and more interested in my financial situation. During one of our headship meetings Mike told me that the POP deals with money differently than other people normally do. He then asked if he could view my bank account records. I remember sitting down with him and logging in to my online bank account, feeling nervous and unsure – the consequences of a relationship marked by power differential. I didn’t know how to express my concern about him viewing my bank account, this man was my spiritual advisor – my head, and he was also my landlord – giving me a place to live. I was afraid that if I expressed myself all my connections could be lost. I had nowhere else to go; I was new to Minneapolis and in the middle of a semester of college. I remember thinking that if I voiced my opinion he might kick me out and leave me without a place to stay. I was also under a spiritual spell or ‘spiritual covering’ as some critics have called it. I believed the POP represented my connection with the Almighty. What would happen to me if I was kicked out? Would I be damned forever? What if I chose to leave on my own, would they come after me or just ignore me?

After just one semester in the POP it all became too much for me and I fostered the courage to tell Mike how I was feeling. The semester with the POP represents my lowest GPA and productivity while studying at the U of M. My life had become filled with meetings, lectures, dinners and other social gatherings that demanded my time. My schedule was flooded with the POP, I no longer had time for old friends and hobbies and many of my prior relationships and community services suffered due to my involvement in the group. I slowly realized I was no longer me, but merely a by-product of the POP. I approached Mike one day and told him that I no longer felt free. He cringed at hearing this because he had always taught in lectures of the freeing life in Christ that members experience. A freeing life was far from what I experienced in the POP. I was repeatedly controlled and manipulated in the name of Christ.

Mike advised me to pray more and put some more time and effort into my involvement with the community. I had had enough and wanted out. One day, I mustered the nerve to tell Mike that I had decided to leave the POP. He grabbed his Bible and read from the Book of Acts 2:44-47. He then asked me assertively, “Do you want this?” I replied that I did, but not here in the POP. Mike closed his Bible and saying nothing walked away. I was allowed to move into my own room in the house and was told not to attend any of the community functions or dinners. I felt alone, scared, confused and unsure of what to do next. I committed my life and everything I know to this group and now I was banished. What I didn’t realize at this time was that this was the beginning of my true freedom.

How could my loving God lead me astray?

After leaving the POP I found myself in a crisis of Faith. How could my loving God lead me to such a controlling and manipulative group? I came to the conclusion that I needed to study the foundations of Christianity in order to protect myself from being mislead again. At this point, I made a critically important decision in my life and I decided to be open-minded. I committed to reading both sides of the argument – pro-Christian and anti-Christian. Very few Christians agree to do this because it would involve reading the ‘Devil’s’ works. I enrolled in a New Testament course and planned to read twelve books the following summer in an attempt to settle the battle raging within me concerning the claims of Christianity. I’m not sure why I decided on the number twelve, but I committed to reading six books by well known Christian apologists and six books by well known skeptics. I believe this is one of the best methods of settling ones personal views on religious matters, or any other matter – read both sides and make an informed educated decision. Since the summer of 06’, which I like to refer to as my summer of isolation and study, I have read well over twenty books related to Christianity. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in Christianity take world renowned biblical scholar Calvin Roetzel’s course on the New Testament, which is offered here at the U of M. Roetzel offers his students a rare opportunity to study the documents of Christianity free from the evangelical fundamentalism found in many Churchs. In the end, the very thing that led me to Christianity – the search for Truth, ultimately motivated me to leave Christianity and all its cultic sects, dogmas and superstitions.

Since leaving the POP I have banded with other former members from around the country and started an on-line support community called, “The Freedom Forum”. We are available to offer support and guidance for those seeking freedom from religious cults. We currently have over fifty members and are open to anyone who has had negative experiences with religious groups. My personal experience shows that leaving a religious cult can be as difficult and life-altering as breaking the cycle of addiction. Both phenomena contain elements of a battle with the mind.

I would like to thank Christian philosopher, Dr. Adrian Reimers, for his support in helping me leave the group I recognize today as The Cult of Praise. Dr. Reimers and his family were removed from the community, along with many others in the mid 80’s. Reimers was told by the community when he left that his “life would bear no fruit” if he did not submit himself to the POP. Upon leaving he published articles in The Cultic Studies Journal, started a foundation called, “Free Again in Christ” – which helps support individuals leaving covenant communities who have maintained their Faith, and authored an unpublished book that philosophically and theologically dissects the POP’s various ideologies and workings. Dr. Reimers life has since ‘bore much fruit’; he currently teaches philosophy at Notre Dame.

Recently, the POP began a “missionary school” and started training members in various evangelism techniques. On the weekends, members go out in groups of two and hit the streets of Dinkytown and other areas around campus seeking new recruits. The POP currently resides in various homes in the neighborhood of University AVE and 11th ST. If unorthodox Christianity – bound with grandiose claims and prophecies, narrow minded and shallow ideologies and restricted living are your thing, I encourage you to check them out. Maybe stop by for one of their Lord’s Day celebrations that occur every Saturday night in Dinkytown. I’m sure they would be overjoyed to have you in attendance, and submission.

Millions have been killed in the name of specific religious and political dogmas. The Middle East, which represents the foundational geography of the world’s three major monotheistic religions, has been the sight of the bloodiest and most ravage wars in human history. As far as I am aware, no death or killing has ever been caused by anyone’s lack of belief in something. Yet, a recent study conducted at the University of Minnesota found that atheists were the least trusted minority in the US – more so than homosexuals and Hispanics. It is time for a new Enlightenment. One of the biggest dangers facing society today is religious certainty. If there is one message I could send out to the world, it would be this: There is no God, there is no consciousness after death – all we have is each other, our families, our communities and this one life here on Earth. So let’s embrace one another, strive to do the next right thing and endeavor to make the world a better place for those lives that will follow. Can I get a amen from the congregation?

I am not trying to dismiss China’s serious human rights issues. Indeed, China has many problems besides Tibet that it needs to resolve. But China has only recently become a world power. If you looked at the United States in a comparable time, say the 1940’s, we were committing our own human rights abuses; segregation and internment camps to name a few. If we go back further, there’s slavery and the slaughter and oppression of Native Americans, two issue that were never adequately resolved. Even now, we can’t forget about the “War on Terror” that has cost the lives of thousands of Americans and even more Iraqis. So by this standard, shouldn’t the United States be barred from holding the Olympics? Or Germany? Or Russia? Or almost every other country in the world?

And let’s not forget about the athletes that are set to compete in the events. They have been training for a sizeable portion of their lives to be able to compete in such a prestigious event. If an entire country is to boycott the Olympics, they are also boycotting their own athletes, many of whom don’t support China’s actions. They are there only to support the true meaning of the Olympic Games.

The Olympics are about physical competition, plain and simple. True, they can be used by countries to promote a more positive image, but promoting a more positive image is not the same as convincing everyone of a better image. You do not have to be ok with the things that China is doing to be ok with the Olympics. Supporting the Olympics is not the same as supporting China.

But in the big picture, the Olympic Games are a relatively small part of China’s PR campaign, a gargantuan effort that will not be affected by an Olympic boycott. In 2007, China imported $321.5 billion dollars worth of goods to the United States. With the value of the dollar dropping so quickly and the value of the Yuan kept artificially low, China is going to be the only country left with which the United States can afford to trade. This means that the amount of goods China imports to the United States will at least stay the same if not grow. This money from the United States is a big part of what supports China. If people were to boycott Chinese goods (i.e., everything), this could possibly send a message to China. The only problem with that idea is that the United State’s number one import from China is electrical equipment and machinery and since most private citizens don’t normally buy machinery by the ton, it would be nearly impossible to create a mass boycott.

If people want to bring politics into the Olympics, fine, but it cannot be done selectively. We cannot condemn one country while ignoring countless others. If China is going to be condemned for its actions, then the United States, in turn, should be boycotted for its involvement in and provocation of the Iraq war. France should not be allowed to host the Olympics for its treatment of Muslim immigrants.

The best way to get China to turn its record of human rights abuses around: help them, don’t antagonize them. Give them time to get their country of one billion people under control in the wake of massive economic growth. Other international governments need to give them some time but also offer to share some of their past experience. With an economy growing at such a fast rate, it is impossible for a country to be stable in all aspects.

When I got in last night, I didnt have a place to stay but this Columbian girl who´d just missed her train to Poland was crying on a bench I was sitting at. When she stopped, we chatted about my time in Venezuela, after exchanging pleasantries. We had a really intersting chat about Columbian/Venezuelan relations, as I am pro Chavez, and she´s out spoken about her disdain for his stance on Columbia´s violations in Ecuador. Venezuela has no military deployments in Columbia, rather it has only defended, verbally, the sovereignty
of Ecuador. On the other hand the US has all its fingers inside Columbia, with military bases, illegal soldiers, and billions in string-attached funding. I´ll just say we really got into it, but we both came out with a good understanding of each others views. It left quite the impression on me.

After that long chat, it had gone from 9 pm to midnight. She was able to get us both in to a hostel by charming the owners of this New Zealand run hostel she´d stayed in the night previous. We hung out in the common area, and I started playing Table Tennis with two Polish guys named Radek and Loukosh (Sp?). They were very serious about their playing, and both had the professional style of serving where you throw it really high. I felt badly, as I beat them both severly. We chatted for a long time about Polish/American relations, and how we beat them in the 2002 World Cup, and about how there are no famous Polish people. Funny guys. They mentioned that Polish people are well known for their drinking capacity. They had a little bit of the Borat accent going on. Fun guys to hang out with essentially. I checked out of that hostel the next day as there were no vacancies. I asked around the next day until I found another one.

When I checked in, there was this Japanese fellow hanging out in my room. “Bathroom is slippery. Im sorry. Be careful.” We chatted for a good while, and then went down to Pankow, a cool alternative neighborhood in the North Berlin I´d been reccommended. We wandered around, and found some cool shops, hit some fruit stands. After hearing later on in a conversation with someone at the hostel that my last name was Carpenter, he remarked, “Ahh yes, like the group.” He sang portions of several of their songs. I then called up Loukosh and Radek and we´re headed to a Karoke bar this evening. Should be an interesting night. more details to come.

It’s easy for any white person to call Jeremiah Wright’s recent actions egotistical. For whites, Wright is an easy Black target, as media coverage has proved this past week. Wednesday’s New York Times editorial claimed Wright’s recent statements were full of “racism” and “paranoia.” Both it and a Star Tribune editorial praised Sen. Obama’s moves to distance himself from his former pastor as much as he could. Steve Perry at Minnesota Monitor called Wright’s media tour a “selfish move.” In fact, I’ve only seen one positive commentary of Wright, which was published in Insight News, the Black community newspaper of the Twin Cities. Something’s not right with this picture.

While most of the press continues to play the Jesse Jackson card against Wright, I’ll offer yet another critique of the situation. Most mainstream commentary has put Wright’s statements on a political level, noting that it’s negatively affecting Obama’s campaign – which is true. But let’s not forget that Wright is a pastor and that his reason for stepping back into the spotlight was to defend the Black Church, which goes beyond traditional politics. After Wright saw his 30-plus years of preaching summed up in 30-second sound bites, who could blame him for re-addressing the issue publicly? More importantly, how many Americans were under the impression that these 30-second sound bites summed up the Black Church?

Whether he was being selfish or not, Wright’s decision to come back into the public sphere was motivated by the still-fractured race relations that exist within the U.S. We all know it’s an issue that’s going to outlast Obama’s campaign and potential presidency. And while the media moguls have repeatedly underlined Wright’s recent statements concerning AIDS, Farrakhan and U.S. terrorism, if you watch his appearances at the National Press Club or on the Bill Moyers show, you’ll see that these pseudo-controversial comments are buried underneath his main concern, which is clearing the name of the Black Church. The fact that the press focused only on these statements proves they have overtly sensational, and yes, sometimes racist tendencies.

I’d argue that Wright’s recent actions are wrongly justified not by his political views, but by his unconditional faith in God. In a Q & A at the National Press Club, Wright said (at the 3 minute mark of the video):

“If God intends for Mr. Obama to be the President, then no white racist, no political pundit, no speech can get in the way, because God will do what God wants to do.”

This type of justification assumes that God is guiding this election rather than the delegates, the superdelegates and (to a much smaller extent) the voters. Although I’m not qualified to make psychological assumptions, this is where I think Wright is blindsided. He assumes that no matter what is done or said, God will decide the overall outcome of the election. It’s not that Wright should care about Obama’s campaign, but he should at least be aware of the repercussions of his statements. But perhaps they couldn’t wait.

Part I

Part II

Here are some of the best gigs I hit:
The first show I saw in London was The Lionheart Brothers at The Social in Soho, I saw then later on in the spring at the Hoxton Square Bar in the Shoreditch area. Everyone needs to give this tune a listen. Norwegian Psych pop at its finest, “50 Souls and a Disco Bowl”

The second show I saw in London was Texan quartet, Explosions in the Sky. The show was at the Astoria, which has just been controversially shut down to make way for public transportation, read news story here.

The other band I saw at the Astoria while in London was Brooklyn´s Les Savy Fav. They´re known by many for opening part of the North American LCD Soundsystem/ Arcade Fire tour in the Fall of ´07, and also for the wild antics of their chubby frontman.

Sam Sparro is a sort of dance, lounge music singer. His song, “Black and Gold” got the crowd going pretty wild at the Electric Ballroom in Camden:

Alex Turner and Miles Kane, frontmen of the british bands Arctic Monkey and The Rascals respectively, played a surprise gig on the second night of the Camden Crawl, at the tiny Dublin Castle. This is the lead single of that album, The Age of the Understatement.

I saw an artist named Kenna, who was opening for an Australian band, called the Panics. It was at the Kings Cross area venue, Water Rats. Kenna is from Virginia and his new album has tracks produced by the Neptunes.

London band Metronomy, originally from Brighton, has been closely associated with last summer´s scene stealers, Klaxons. They play a similar style of freaked out, bass heavy synth rock, often categorized as “New Rave.” During live shows, each of the three members stands before a keyboard. They each also play either bass, guitar, or sax. They wear white, circular push lights on their chests that can be purchased for a mere pound at any Sainsburys, but add a unique element to their live shows.

I saw Bjork at the Hammersmith Apollo on April 14th. She had just recently made headlines for making pro-Tibetan rights comments at a concert in China.
Here she is performing “Earth Intruders” off her most recent release, 2007´s Volta

I saw Swedish popstar Robyn at the ultra popular Club, Koko. You might recognizer her for this tune, “Show Me Love”

I saw Chicago based rapper Lupe Fiasco at the same venue.

Brixton based reggae artist Natty put on one of the better shows I attended while in London. This is his song “Cold Town.”
I saw him at a venue in Shepards Bush called the Ginglik, which is a converted public convenience under ground that was turned into a bar.

Two shows I caught in Brixton were a Futureheads and Black Kids gig, and also a Hives concert.

I attended a rave in Norwich, where I caught DJ sets from members of Kraftwerk. Over my time here in London hitting club nights at hot spots like Turnmills and Fabric, I caught DJ sets from members of Hot Chip, DJ Yoda, and Cut Chemist.

I saw a couple of classic shows at the Jazz Café in Camden. One was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Another was Tony Allen, the original drummer in Fela Kuti´s band, who most recently was featured on the Good, the Bad, and the Queen album.

Another absolutely classic artist I was able to see, Dionne Warwick in the swank London Palladium.

I saw Portland´s Menoma play in a university

theater

Method Man and Redman played the Sheperds Bush Theater just before I left. Great crowd. Brits love any member of the WU.

Initially, I was quite disappointed with the proclaimed hot new bands of the moment in London. Bands like: New Young Pony Club, Does This Offend You Yeah?, Scouting For Girls, The Hoosiers, Guillemots, Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy, Ipso Facto. They’re all either boring electro groups trying to ride that long past new wave revival, sad Libertines rip offs, weak piano soft rock, or just plain shit.

The next level is bands that are a good listen and pleasant enough, but are incredibly over blown given the quality of their tunes. Within this I would include The Wombats, The Young Knives, These New Puritans, Foals, and The Envelopes.

This is all natural, as there is of course a need for new bands to be discovered and enjoyed. It’s just that in our haste to find them, a lot of these bands get bigger than would seem appropriate, but that’s no new or passing trend.

One band who’s capitalized on the hipster dance music movement is Canada’s Crystal Castles. I saw them towards the end of April at the Camden Crawl festival. They’re one of the bands who’ve found that by merely name dropping the perfectly obscure, yet super trendy old dance group, you can vault yourself into indie stardom. The band has welcomed and reiterated any comparisons to fellow Toronto duo, Death from Above 1979. This same strategy worked wonders for Brazilian faux-band CSS, with their indie hit “Lets make love and listen to Death from Above.” I’ve seen this in many other recent success cases, like the Wombats and their song, “Let´s dance to Joy Division,” with Joy Division being a hot band to associate with at the moment.

At the forefront of the over hyped movement is an American group, from Florida, called Black Kids. They’ve been playing all the big venues, getting loads of Internet hype, and hitting all the major t.v. and radio shows over here. Their big single, “I’m not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you,” has failed to sweep me off my feet into the flowing river of press love they’ve been floating on recently. Here’s my review of it.

Another group who I´d classify as over blown is Vampire Weekend. I saw them perform earlier this winter at Rough Trade Records in East London. They’re currently the biggest name in indie music. Appearances on SNL and the cover of Rolling Stone have solidified this notion. I enjoy the African influences hear in their tunes, but their lyrics are under developed and unimpressive. Two other groups I saw at Rough Trade Records, just off Brick Lane, were Pete and the Pirates and Sebastian Tellier, both of whom are garnering loads of support as of late.

There’s a group out called White Lies who are garnering loads of interest. They’re perfect for any Interpol/ Editors fans out there.

Adam Green, good friend of the Strokes, has recently put out a new album, Sixes and Sevens. Green formed the group the Moldy Peaches in 1998 with Kimya Dawson. Green is very popular in Germany, and I´ve seen a great deal of promotion for him in Madrid.
The Moldy Peaches have benefited from their inclusion in the Minnesota based movie, Juno, which was written by Diablo Cody, a former stripper and writer for City Pages in Minneapolis.
Here´s a hilarious song Green wrote about Jessica Simpson, entitled “Jessica”

Another NYC singer song writer/ vagabond is Jeffery Lewis. He travels Europe with his brother and band mates, and crashes on couches of his fans every night. He also is a comic book writer.

The Swedish Invasion has continued on. Last year it was big releases from Jens Lekman, The Knife, The Hives, and José González.
The next in this line will likely be I Was A King, Pirate Love, Maribel and Blackstrap, but most surely will be, Pacific Who come across like a goofy electronic European version of the Beach Boys

Another big group is the collaboration between Super Fury Animal’s front man Gruff Rhys, and producer Boom Bip. Their debut album, Stainless Style, is a synth heavy pop record, sure to crack college radio charts across the globe. The group is called Neon Neon

One of the best bands and acts I’ve heard here in London is Mystery Jets. They´re as famous for their music as they are for the fact that they all live on an Island on the Thames river, and have thrown some wild parties there, with sets played by many area bands such as the Noisettes, Lady Larkin, and Acoustic Ladyland among many others.

The big news over here has been of course, Amy Winehouse. She was featured on a cover of the Zutons, “Valerie” on Mark Ronson´s album, Versions, which has been played at all the clubs here in London throughout the spring.
Winehouse is covered as frequently as David Beckham and Pete Doherty here in the papers. She was a graduate of the Brit School in London. The Brit School also unfortunately produced Lily Allen, Kate Nash, and Adele, all of whom are terribly annoying.

A British female singer songwriter who I do like is Holly Golightly
, who performed on the White Stripes album closing number, “It´s True That We Love One Another” off of 2003´s Elephant.

And while we’re on the country pairings topic, M.Ward has a new album out with Zooey Deschanel (the older sister from Almost Famous). It´s called She and Him . Enjoyable stuff. It´s also been rumored that M.Ward is in the studio with Conor Oberst and Jim James of My Morning Jacket.

The Kanye produced, and featured, tune, “American Boy” by Estelle was the biggest club hit of the Spring in London

After a week of speculation, the rumors are true: according to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Vikings have acquired defensive end and human wrecking ball Jared Allen. As this YouTube clip of the now-former Kansas City defender knocking the shit out of Jaguars QB David Gerrard illustrates, this sonofabitch Allen means business.

But the drunk-drivin’, mullet-sportin’, No. 69-wearin’ mammoth comes with a price: the Vikes’ first-round draft pick and two of their third-round picks. That’s too much, if you ask me. Allen, best known for leading the NFL in sacks last season, will also become the highest-paid defender in NFL history, racking up around $74 million in a six-year contract. It’s certainly a calculated risk for the Vikes, one that’s pretty damn big.

But hell, at least all their offseason holes are now filled (assuming the old, antiquated and unreliable Gus Frerotte is acceptable as a backup QB). What excites me most is how Allen will be a pass rusher playing for last year’s worst passing defense in the NFL. Still, I predict that Madieu Williams, a new Vikings safety who used to play for Cincinnati, will play the biggest role in turning this one-dimensional rush defense into a more well-rounded threat on both the run and pass. We’ll see how things develop.

While next Fall will be a dramatic election season, its football season will probably show more favorable results. And for the record, U.S. politics are as testosterone-induced and barbaric (if not more so) as American football. I get the same unhealthy satisfaction from downing a six-pack and watching football as I do from following the political process.

But what really puts the aches in my back is how Hillary recently denounced the “activist base” of the Democratic Party at a closed-door (meaning uber-wealthy guests only) fundraiser right after Super Tuesday. She said, and I will quote:

“We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn’t even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it’s primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don’t agree with them. They know I don’t agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me.”

Listen to an audio version of her statements here.

As my first post on this blog made clear, I am no Obama fan; the fact is, he’s probably talking shit about Democratic activists to superdelegates as you’re reading this. I understand; it’s the nature of the system. But Hillary, it’s clear you’ve fallen off the wagon and will do anything, including alienating the last and dying democratic core of the Democratic Party, to get elected. I just can’t take it anymore.

Word to the wise: stop wasting your time following this unhealthy, blasphemous circus of an election.

Students shuffle into a classroom as the bell rings, slumping into desks and tossing backpacks to the floor. They regard their teacher with mild interest as he begins the lesson. Two boys and a girl trade whispered banter that’s half-teasing and half-flirting. A few seats away, a girl holds a cell phone under her desk and text-messages.

Only the papers hanging on the wall to the students’ left betray this as anything but a typical high school classroom. The words are scratched simply on notebook paper, framed by magazine photos of men with guns and the sorrowful faces of children. “11 years I have not seen Somalia. I want to go to Somalia,” one reads. “My country doesn’t have school and medical…1990 up to now my country civil war,” says another. A third is even more direct: “Many of my family are dead in my homeland… I wish I wish for peaceful country.”

At the Minnesota Internship Center’s English Language Academy, most of the students are from Somalia and Ethiopia, and none speak English as their first language. The internship center, a charter school aimed at helping low-income, at-risk youth graduate from high school, has five sites around Minneapolis. Four are for American youth; the English Language Academy caters to immigrants and refugees.

In the small school’s uncrowded hallways, clusters of students chatter in a mix of English and their native languages, smiling and waving to staff members who call them by name. Many poke their heads in classroom doors, looking for friends. Fliers dot the walls, encouraging students to take advantage of after-school homework help or to explore college and career options.

Most of the students are slightly older than American high-school students, between 17 and 20. They must complete the necessary credits before they turn 21 and can no longer finish high school, according to Heidi Skallet, coordinator for access to college and careers. The school offers classes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to help the students accomplish this goal. Students are divided not by grade but by their English skills, taking classes with other students who can speak and read at about the same level.

Besides the language barrier, the recently immigrated students face a cultural divide. Most of the students are Muslim, particularly those who are Somali or Oromo, an ethnic group found in Ethiopia and Kenya. All of the Muslim girls at the academy wear full robes and head coverings with only hands and face exposed, leaving them vulnerable to scrutiny from distrustful Americans. There’s also the fact that most refugees arrive in the United States with nothing. With no independent income and no renting history, Skallet said, many immigrants have trouble even finding places to live.

Some of the students have a hard time adjusting to parts of daily life that Americans take for granted. Student Makia Abbadulla complained about the hot and cold extremes of Minnesota weather, saying, “At home, the weather is perfect. No snow.” She also said she didn’t like the food when she first arrived in the United States. “I didn’t eat American food for a year—no, pizza, no milk,” she said. “Now, I can eat anything.”

Both Skallet and teacher Erica Twietmeyer note a separation between recently arrived immigrants and those who have been here longer and become more Americanized. Skallet said that new arrivals are very serious about their studies, while the kids who have been here longer might joke around with their teachers or skip class.

Twietmeyer added that students tend to lose some interest in school once they have become reasonably skilled in English. “They’re surviving socially,” she said. “They might have a car, a job. They feel like they don’t need to learn anymore.”

Those who had jobs in the United States before coming to the school, though, do take school seriously. Many of the students at the school worked at a Tyson chicken factory that didn’t require them to speak English, Skallet said. Their experience with meatpacking has taught them the value of an education in America.

After improving their English and earning high school credits, the center’s students are able to consider higher education. Through a program called The Power of YOU, graduates of Twin Cities high schools can attend Minneapolis Community and Technical College, St. Paul College or Metropolitan State University tuition-free. The program gives many of the academy’s students a chance to get a college degree and work towards a profession. These immigrants can look beyond their menial jobs to careers in computer science, journalism and engineering—dreams made possible by the English Language Academy.

April 19 is not a day to celebrate a historical figure or a particular religion. April 19, ladies and gentlemen, is a day devoted to the appreciation of independent record stores. It is the day known as Record Store Day. We all know the great saga of the rise and fall of 45’s, 78’s, records, cassette tapes, and CDs. Like many music fans, I find that these tangible musical resources have much more to offer than impersonal and detached mp3s and digital music files. It is hard to believe that some day we may not be able to peruse the shelves at the Electric Fetus, enjoying the sound of CD cases clicking up against one another as we shuffle through our favorite genre, looking for the perfect small party dance music. Many people in the music and recording industry have noticed the ominous artistic and economic pit created by digital music, so they decided to create a day where the “culture and unique place” record stores have in our communities can be fully celebrated and appreciated.

An endeavor that involves naming and labeling an ordinary day with a theme can be a difficult task. There is no doubt that a large amount of physical, economical, and ideological support is necessary. Fortunately for record stores, they make all their money from musicians who usually care about their music more than most other things. Musicians from all around the world recognize this day as a pledge to their passion and the significance of local record stores as a counterpart to their success. From composers to producers, words have been spoken in defense and praise of Record Store Day. One of the largest testimonials comes from Metallica, who have gone so far as to make a special appearance and in-store signing at Rasputin Music in San Francisco, California. Metallica’s in-store facade is the first of this type