April 27, 2008 - May 3, 2008

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That south Minneapolis dirt

Filed under: Environment

If you live in south Minneapolis, you've probably given some thought to arsenic. I have. Like the other day--you know, the one that was warm--when I turned my back on my two-year old just long enough for him to shove some of that south Minneapolis dirt into his mouth. Given all the attention the EPA has given our dirt in recent years (high arsenic levels have put parts of Corcoran, Longfellow, Midtown Phillips, Powderhorn, Seward, Ventura Village, and all of East Phillips on the list of contenders for federal Superfund money).

Got a dirt-loving kid in one of these neighborhoods? The Minnesota Department of Health is looking for 100 of them, between the ages of 3 and 10, to test for any possible effect arsenic contamination might have on those of us who live in the contaminated areas.

According to 9th Ward City Council representative Gary Schiff, all eligible households will receive a letter in the mail from the Minnesota Department of Health.

The prime suspect for the arsenic contamination is the Heartland Lite Yard Site, where arsenic-containing pesticides were manufactured and stored between 1938 and 1963.

The EPA, with a soil testing and cleanup program well under way, will be testing 130 more residential properties and cleaning up 34 this year.

For more information on EPA’s cleanup standard and cleanup process, or to find out how to obtain the soil sample results from your yard, email Tim Prendiville or call 800-621-8431 ext. 65122.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at May 2, 2008 2:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/2: We're Famous

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Like El-P said, we're famous. David Brauer's long evaluation of City Pages for MinnPost is out, and it's quite fair and, dare I say, thoughtful.

There's a lot I could talk about here, from the praise for staff writers (which is wholly accurate) to the criticisms, most of which I agree with (we are too chock-full of testosterone sometimes, and it's my fault as much as it is anyone's; we should go after more hard-hitting political stories, and we're trying). But because this is the web, and because that's a recurring theme in the MinnPost story, I want to say a few things about what we're trying to do online.

We're trying to bring you great exclusive-to-the-web journalism, for one thing. We also always try to enhance the print content. Sometimes that means giving the writer an opportunity to say more about the story through a Reporter's Notebook blog post, or create some multimedia content that you just can't do in the paper.

Because Brauer's piece reports a lot of data on our web traffic, I feel like I have to utter this truism: Good journalism does not always equate to tons of web hits, and vice versa. Often we can make those lines intersect, with a story like Jonathan Kaminsky's "Slumlord of South Minneapolis" or Jeff Severns Guntzel's "Wedding Crashers," to name just a few.

Take this week's feature on Martin Dosh, for example. Me and Guntzel had a bet about whether it would crack 1,000 views. (Note to all would-be proposition gamblers: don't play cards against someone named after a city, and don't bet against the web editor on predicting hits, sir). But this story, and the insanely detailed expanded content, ranks up there with my favorite CP story packages we've done.

It's never going to compete, pageview wise, with some of the other stories we do. But so what? Jeff Severns Guntzel offered a window into the life of a fascinating local artist, writing an in-depth profile you can't find anywhere else. That's valuable, whether 1,000 people read it or 100,000.

I truly believe that over the long-term, quality material draws people in. We try to strike a balance. Not every story you read here is going to be an investigative piece, or a narrative travelogue, or a fun feature. We try to make all of it interesting, engaging and evocative, and we try to keep you guessing about what to expect.

If I could ask you to expect one thing from City Pages online, it would be this: more. This town deserves a superlative alt-weekly, and we're doing our best to come through.

In related news, maybe you scrolled to the bottom of that MinnPost piece to see what the most popular online stories were. Since this is something of an anniversary for me (I started Nov. 1), it seems appropriate to celebrate the past six months by looking back at the most popular items during that tenure. There's been one or two small changes since I shipped David Brauer the data a few weeks back.

Features
1. Real-life superheroes
2. Boy, Interrupted (male anorexia)
3. The Full MOA (Mall of America)
4. Wedding Crashers (gay marriage)
5. Diablo Cody
6. The Slumlord of South Minneapolis
7. Skinheads at 40
8. High Bridge jumpers
9. Jesus Weekend
10. Soldier suicides

Slide shows:
1. Naked Sushi
2. Superheroes
3. Boy, Interrupted
4. Fine art nudes
5. Hair metal history
6. ARENA dance bikini show
7. Diablo Cody
8. Polar Bear Plunge
9. Skinheads at 40
10. First Ave Fetish Bash
11. Powderhorn Art Sled Rally (yeah, it's No. 11, but that's a great event)

Blog posts:
1. Naked Sushi
2. Ms. Pac-Man Poses For Hustler
3. Minnesota conjoined twins
4. Gene Simmons sex tape
5. Bill O'Reilly lynching
6. McCain mistress
7. Boy, Interrupted expanded content
8. Real-life superheroes expanded content
9. Philosopher or Warrior
10. Peter S. Scholtes' top 20 music videos

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

With the rapid-fire posting on Culture to Go lately, ranging from music to dance, I don't want you to miss this interview with erotica writer (and cupcake blogger) Rachel Kramer Bussel. She's giving a reading and teaching an Erotica 101 workshop at Smitten Kitten this weekend.

Nate Patrin's 24-UP video game project concludes. Read the preview, part one and part two, and part three. For the denouement, peep the video from the final installment:

The Pawlenty-o-Meter takes a dip in the VP race, with insiders saying the nod may go to Mitt Romney.

To go along with yesterday's photo slideshow, Andrea Myers offers a review of Wilco's performance in Rochester.

Atmosphere is about to blow up, like the ionosphere in response to HAARP.

When I covered an Obama rally at O'Gara's several months back, someone asked me if I was with the Uptake. Apparently, the GOP asks the same question, but if you answer incorrectly, they throw you out.

For the latest Drink of the Week, Matt Snyders offers one of the Town Talk Diner's boozy milkshakes. It's called the "Silly Rabbit," and sadly the post is absent any Flavor Flav jokes.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 2, 2008 6:16 AM | Comments (2)

 

VP Pawlenty Meter: insiders picking Romney as Gov. criticizes McCain's bridge blame

Filed under: VP Pawlenty Watch

Will Governor Tim Pawlenty become our nation's next vice president? It's hard to keep track of all the many factors at play. Each week, the VP Pawlenty Meter (TM) provides an odds sheet to ensure you make your best bet.

Last week, we took the unprecedented step of raising the VP Pawlenty Meter to Orange Alert. T-Paw was listed by several pundits among the top tier, with 5-to-1 odds, and had none of the baggage of the other frontrunners.

But like a confident young hare, Pawlenty may have fallen asleep on the side of the road and allowed a turtle to sneak up on his rear. In this case, that turtle is Mitt Romney.

Yesterday brought word that insiders are now picking Mittens as the frontrunner in the veepstakes:

The latest Evans-Novak Political Report says that "a rumor running through the political community" now puts former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) in the lead to be Sen. John McCain's vice presidential candidate. "But Romney has many critics in the McCain inner circle, and we don't think the decision has been made."

There is also speculation McCain could name his veep early "to step up fund-raising before the national convention."

Meanwhile, today T-Paw is biting the hand that feeds, gently sidestepping John McCain's recent claim that the 35W bridge collapse could be blamed on pork barrel spending:

In Pennsylvania on Wednesday, McCain told reporters: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Asked if McCain's comments were appropriate or should be corrected, Pawlenty said, "I don't know what he's basing that on other than the general premise that projects got misprioritized throughout time."

He said he called the McCain campaign to remind them of the upcoming NTSB report.

But Pawlenty struck a much different tone than he took when reacting to political foes who previously questioned the role of deferred maintenance in the collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145. After the NTSB issued its preliminary findings in January, Pawlenty admonished critics to "quit using the bridge, quit exploiting the bridge tragedy to advance their political agenda."

After a brief and unprecedented raise to Orange Alert, we're dialing down the VP Pawlenty Meter to Yellow this week:

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at May 1, 2008 11:44 AM | Comments (13)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/1: Return of the sleep-deprived angel

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

The idea was simple. To prepare himself for constant Grand Theft Auto play, Nate Patrin would play 24 separate games, once an hour, over the course of a day. Late in the game, I would come over with a video camera to monitor him during the most manual dexterity challenging of his games. We called it the 24-UP project, and he liveblogged the whole thing for Joystick Division.

Final tally: 24 hours. Six YouTube videos posted (so far). Roughly 17,000 words. Epic by any metric.

Read part one, part two and part three for the extended Love Magic Remix.

I'm editing the video of Nate's 20th hour encounter with Rock Band right now. A summation of his final lessons (plus all the day's fresh content) after the jump.

Quoth our (guitar) hero:

WED, 7PM: What I've Learned

-Putting stupid amounts of horsepower into a car with little regard for weight distribution or overall lightness is a perfectly viable way of making it better than any other car
-Ninjas die pretty easily, surprisingly enough
-War eventually turns entropic sooner or later
-JRPGs are not automatically horseshit
-There is zero shame in selecting "EASY" difficulty
-If a game involves black backgrounds, flashing colors and really intense music, it is automatically fun
-Zombies are churchgoin' folk
-A society built on puzzles often winds up with an undercurrent of solipsistic paranoia
-Sagat is the fucking bomb
-Bubble Bobble is good in five minute bursts and somewhat less good the longer you go past that
-Throwing things and/or people from great heights is your best entertainment value
-I still can't judge a breaking ball to save my life
-If Yakuza members were meant to be sneaky they'd be ninjas, which they're not; besides which they're apparently a lot harder to kill than ninjas
-Tim Schaefer + surrealism = quality
-The whole point to being a spy is to eavesdrop on implausible and/or ridiculous conversations.
-The early '90s were, in many, many ways, either cruel or stupid
-Do not put a goddamned jetpack on an end boss
-Interrupting a sidescrolling shooter to pit the player in some kind of weird boss-rush dice game only confuses them
-Buck Dharma is not easy to emulate
-Konami hates you very, very much
-Stomping on turtles is a lot cooler when it's on one of those The Little Prince planets
-Dragon Feet do not an invincible fighter make
-I can go some 34 consecutive hours without sleeping
-I can't go 35
-Good night

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Ward Rubrecht interviews Jonathan Coulton. The "Thing A Week" singer-songwriter already thinks Minneapolis makes an amazing audience, so let's not disappoint during tomorrow night's show at the Varsity.

Elsewhere in music, Andrea Myers photographed Wilco's show with the Retribution Gospel Choir last night in Rochester. A review is forthcoming, as is much more Culture to Go content.

In an update of the St. Thomas web exclusive, Jonathan Kaminsky has reaction from conservative law students.

A new CEO takes over at Target. Former employee Ben Palosaari assesses three top challenges he faces.

James Norton uses Rainbow Foods to make a point about social inclusivity in modern America. Meanwhile, Rachel Hutton celebrates one damn good cookie.

Matt Snyders has moved on from Salvia to a more illegal, if not more intense, brand of intoxicant. Moved on from writing about it, I mean.

As usual on Thursdays, I'll be doing a radio segment with Stephanie & Meredith on FM 107.1 at 2 p.m., talking about what to do over the weekend.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 1, 2008 6:02 AM | Comments (0)

 

Target's New CEO Faces Immediate Challenges

Filed under: Business

There's a new man on top of the bull's-eye. After more than 40 years with Target, including 14 as chairman and CEO, Bob Ulrich is handing the reins of the nation's second-largest retailer to his longtime sidekick Gregg Steinhafel.

Bob Ulrich

Target changed dramatically under Ulrich's reign, and his rise to the corner office boasts tinges of old-fashioned business clichés of climbing the corporate ladder. That's not to say spent decades working himself up from stock boy to head honcho, but he was faithful to Target and it paid off. Starting out as a merchandiser for Dayton's Stores (a branch he later jettisoned from the Target family) in 1967, Ulrich saw his role grow to president of Target in 1984, which only had 80 stores at the time, and CEO a decade later. Steinhafel, an Ulrich recruit, joined the Target team in 1979, and when Ulrich landed the top job in 1994, Steinhafel, 52, was promoted to Target's executive vice president, and last year was granted a seat on the board of directors.

Gregg Steinhafel

During his time at the helm he bought up the naming rights to the Target Center, the store expanded rapidly into 47 states, he helped usher in a squadron of celebrity product lines, saw the concept of SuperTarget flourish, and sales quadrupled. I'm sure the company is kicking themselves for having a mandatory retirement age of 65.

As someone who used to work at Target -- for most of high school and breaks during college I could be found decked out in a red polo shirt and khaki pants, stocking shelves, wrangling carts in the parking lot, and demonstrating how to use digital cameras for the ignorant masses plaguing the electronics department -- I suppose I owe Ulrich some debt of gratitude for running the company so well.

Looking out for employees currently in the position I used to fill will be a challenge. Steinhafel is taking his mentor's job at a tricky economic time. With a recession either upon us or soon to be arriving, there are plenty of troubles waiting to happen. Here, in no particular order, are three.

Credit. Every day on the news we learn of new segments of the economy that are being thrashed by the shortage or credit and defaulting borrowers, and Target is no different. Turns out, Target was a little too lose with standards when choosing who could get a shiny red Target Card or Target Visa. I spent many an afternoon offering store guests premiums including two-liter bottles of orange soda to Target bulldog umbrellas to convince them to apply for credit cards. For this task, I was given a dollar for every credit application I got -- occasionally netting more than 40 a day. Turns out that the deal was better for me than the company or some cardholders. I wasn't left with a mangled credit score or billions of millions of dollars of write-offs.

A living wage. Of course a living wage runs counter to any big box store with thousands of employees. It's a simple fact that paying higher wages will mean lower profits. Still, it's probably actually in Target's best interest to pay their employees a little more. During the recession, slightly higher wages will keep internal morale high, make the company appear to be enlightened in the eyes of the media, and get labor unions off their back for a while. But most importantly to the hourly employees during times when the economy is in the tank, a living wage would help secure their finances when the inevitable cut back on work schedule hours arrives. Chicago tried to pass a living wage ordinance in 2006 for big stores, and target broke out the hyperbole pen and released a statement calling it part of an "extreme agenda." Just a bit over the top. There is nothing extreme about paying inner city employees, or retail workers anywhere for that matter, a slightly higher wage.

In defense of my idea, here's an anecdote from my time at Target: On breaks, I would read Red: The Team Member Magazine. As far as work-related publications go, it was pretty good. On these glossy pages was my only contact with Ulrich. Every month in the front of the magazine was a letter to me thousands of employees working in the 1,613 Target stores. Ulrich, whose mug shot showed his perfect graphite colored hair, and his controlled smile, told of some supposedly interesting tidbit of corporate information, which ended with Ulrich's phony signature scrawled across the bottom. One day, during a particularly hard shift, with my knees aching, I decided to calculate how long it would take for me to earn what Ulrich made. Warning: Math in ensuing paragraph.

I will recreate here with his 2007 compensation. In 2007, Ulrich made $12.2 million, during most of my time at Target, I made around $7.85 per hour, and the store was open 14 hours most days. Here was my figuring: $12.2 million/$7.85= 1,554,140.12 hours of work. Divide that by 14 possible work hours in a day and I get 111,010 days. Divide that by 365 days in a year, left me with 304.13 years of working every possible hour to make what Ulrich made in a year. And I'm not saying he didn't deserve a big ol' hunk of cash -- his work probably kept me employed -- but if corporate salaries and compensation were shaved ever so slightly, even half a percent, and added to the salaries of hourly employees, they would benefit profoundly.

Rising food prices, especially organic food.
Target is still relatively new to the grocery game, and it's about to get rough to maintain discount prices. News outlets have been pushing stories pointing out that ethanol's popularity is causing farmers to grow more corn, leaving wheat prices going up. And it's true. Target's organic brand Archer Farms will struggle to hold onto its affordable organic appeal, if it becomes prohibitively expensive for the thrifty organic consumer.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 30, 2008 6:07 PM | Comments (2)

 

Herbal Remedy

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

The Marijuana Policy Project is airing two television ads imploring Governor Tim Pawlenty to back down from his vow to veto a bill legalizing medical marijuana.

The first spot began running earlier in the month on cable channels. The second one--featuring a Ely resident whose neck surgery and resulting nerve pain have rendered him nearly bedridden--began running yesterday.

"I'm a registered Republican and born-again Christian," he says. "This doesn't have anything to do with culture wars. It's all about people in pain... please don't veto the medical marijuana bill, Governor Pawlenty."

Critics of the bill have framed it as a Trojan horse, maintaining that if we stop fining and jailing sick people who inhale cannabis smoke, we might one day cease fining and jailing healthy people who do the same. This "sends the wrong message," to quote an oft-repeated talking point.

Regardless of the bill's fate, medical morphine will remain legal.

[Peep the ads after the jump.]

(first one)

(second one)

Posted by Matt Snyders at April 30, 2008 2:38 PM | Comments (1)

 

Conservative St. Thomas law students back dean in Planned Parenthood flap

Filed under: Religion

Yesterday, we reported that Thomas Mengler, dean of St. Thomas' law school, barred students from volunteering at Planned Parenthood for school credit. His actions prompted 80 St. Thomas law students to sign an open letter to him decrying the decision.

In response, a rival faction of students is circulating a pro-dean letter through the school's Christian Legal Society. Among other things, these students encourage their classmates to support the dean "in order to demonstrate that, even though we might respectfully disagree with his decisions from time to time, we support him nonetheless, since he knows, better than anyone else, what is in UST Law’s best interests."

Read the full letter after the jump.

Dear Fellow Classmates at UST Law,

By now you are all probably aware of the controversy that has surrounded the recent decision of the Public Service Board (PSB) in approving service hours at Planned Parenthood and Dean Mengler’s decision to overturn this action of the PSB. It is not the purpose of this letter to rebut each of the arguments that the “Open Letter to Dean Mengler Regarding the Recent Public Service Board Decision” (“Open Letter”) sets forward. Dean Mengler has made his decision and that decision is final—it is not our place to fly to his defense.

Contrary to the premise of the “Open Letter,” the issue at stake is not our “due process rights,” the limits of the Dean’s authority, the autonomy of student organizations, or any past precedent that has been set by the University of St. Thomas. Indeed, this controversy is about more than counting service hours at Planned Parenthood—the real issue at stake here is this: What does the University of St. Thomas School of Law mean when it calls itself “a Catholic law school” —more pointedly, what does Catholic Identity mean for UST Law?

It is obvious that this is a very important question, and worthy of discussion. It is equally obvious that this is the wrong time to have that discussion, since we are all in the throes of our final exams and papers. We simply don’t have the time to hold a fair and extended dialog right now.

The purpose of this letter is to make it known to the entire law school community – students, faculty, and staff – that there are many students at the law school who have voiced concerned about the integrity of UST Law’s “Catholic identity.” We believe there are many more students who agree with the Dean’s decision, and we hope they will join their voices with ours.

Two weeks ago, Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States for the first time since his papacy began in 2005. During his time in Washington, D.C., he spoke to the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. Our very own Father Dease was present at this event and highly recommends that we read the Pope’s address. Pope Benedict discussed the issue of Catholic Identity:

A university or school’s Catholic identity is not simply a question of the number of Catholic students. It is a question of conviction – do we really believe that only in the mystery of the Word made flesh does the mystery of man truly become clear (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22)? Are we ready to commit our entire self – intellect and will, mind and heart – to God? Do we accept the truth Christ reveals? Is the faith tangible in our universities and schools? Is it given fervent expression liturgically, sacramentally, through prayer, acts of charity, a concern for justice, and respect for God’s creation? Only in this way do we really bear witness to the meaning of who we are and what we uphold.

The Pope raised a number of issues that are worth thinking about in this discussion of our identity as a Catholic law school. Unfortunately, the Open Letter (whether its authors realized it or not) is asking the student body to take a premature and uninformed stance about UST Law’s identity without taking into adequate consideration the viewpoints and interests held by students on all sides of this issue.

THEREFORE, we ask those who oppose Dean Mengler’s decision – both those who wrote the Open Letter and those who signed it – to wait with us to discuss these issues until after finals are over. There is simply not enough time to give this issue the attention that it deserves at the busiest time in the semester. We propose that it is best to wait until the beginning of next semester, when we will all have time (at least, more time) to have an open, honest, and informed dialogue—a forum where all of our interests can be voiced and defended.

If you wish to support the idea that we all wait until next semester to resolve this vital issue of UST Law’s Catholic Identity, then please send an email to [address removed] with the word “yes” at your earliest convenience. Please show your support for the Dean in order to demonstrate that, even though we might respectfully disagree with his decisions from time to time, we support him nonetheless, since he knows, better than anyone else, what is in UST Law’s best interests.

Best wishes and God bless with all of your final exams. Consider these last words, taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s address to Catholic Educators:

“Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church's Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.”

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[3 students]

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at April 30, 2008 10:58 AM | Comments (17)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/30: Embarrassment of riches

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

When Nate Patrin heard Grand Theft Auto IV was coming out, he knew he'd spend every waking hour playing the hell out of it. Hence, the plan.

Nate would spend 24 hours getting every other game he'd wanted to play out of his system. He'd play 24 different games overnight, with no sleep at all. This would leave him free to play GTA free of regret. It would lead to bizarre experiences like playing Resident Evil at 2 a.m. and Professor Layton and the Curious Village at 3 a.m. All the while, he'd liveblog it.

Which he's in the process of right now at Joystick Division.

Part game review orgy, part psychedelic travelogue, the posts are jaw-droppingly entertaining. Nate's writing more words than anyone has a right to expect, and his reviews of each game are extensive -- though that might change as his brain melts into quivering Jell-o. The liveblog is broken down into three posts, one for each eight-hour period, and every post is updated constantly during the process. Don't miss the crazy videos for Audiosurf down at the bottom of part one. I watched the Stereolab one and feel like I stayed up all night. Trust me, read the first one all the way through.

Here's the preview, part one and part two, with part three to be posted soon.

I'm heading over to Nate's place with a video camera to document his crack at Rock Band in hour 20 or so. Hopefully, his fingers still work at that time. Whether they do or they don't, the video's ending up here.

(In between all the lunacy, Gary Hodges found time to post some GTA IV special edition photos.)

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Besides all that, we have a new issue (which showcases a fascinating local artist), a Web exclusive news story (which we're going to do more often) and the heroic return of a few members of the old guard.

To accompany the feature on Dosh, Jeff Severns Guntzel offers a Reporter's Notebook that is more like an online museum of Martin Dosh, complete with more than a dozen MP3 files -- some of which aren't available digitally anywhere else. Also videos, pedal porn or music gear aficionados, and a musical family tree that will leave you boggling. If this post doesn't
make you have a holy shit moment, you have no holy shit in you.

Unavailable in the print paper is Jonathan Kaminsky's reportage about the latest controversy at St. Thomas. Law school students are required to spend 50 hours volunteering, but Dean Thomas Mengler vetoed one student's choice to work at Planned Parenthood. In the coming weeks, we'll be doing more of these Web-only features on breaking news, local arts and more.

In other surprising news, country blogger Jack Sparks pops up to preview the Kentucky Derby and lambaste Paul Demko. Hillbilly One has opinions, let me tell you, about the Derby crowd as well.

Matt Snyders has a message for you. Please, please, do not smoke Salvia at the Roger Waters show. Presumably this applies to any Laser Pink Floyd experience as well.

Local photographers are hosting a fine art nudes show at the Minneapolis Photo Co-op. We have 12 preview images available.

Atmosphere's latest finds Slug and Ant undertaking musical explorations, and Peter S. Scholtes returns to tell you all about it.

At least there's no lawn to keep off.

Was sending Francisco Liriano to Rochester the right move? Judd Spicer says no.

A new flyer from All the Way Rider heralds their record release show Friday at the Triple Rock. Also, Prince covered Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella? Even Thom Yorke hates that song.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 30, 2008 5:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

Salvia: The More You Know...

Filed under: Drugs

Ever since our story on the legal psychedelic Salvia divinorum went to print three weeks ago, my inbox has been inundated with emails asking where I bought the stuff, what situations to do it in, etc.

“I was wondering where I can get the Purple Sticky or maybe just buy what is left of yours,” reads the most recent one. “Roger Waters is in Dallas next week and I am flying home for the show, might just be the thing for the show… With gas the price it is I cannot afford to drive to every head shop around and some are not even on the net."

Instead of replying to these emails individually, I’ll just come out with it: 1) no, you cannot buy what's left of mine, and 2) I got it at Maharaja’s near downtown St. Paul. A little birdie tells me they hawk it at Hideaway in Dinkytown, as well. (Note: neither Hideaway nor Maharaja’s paid me to plug them. Not because I possess any journalistic integrity, but because they are cheap, cheap bastards.) So have at ‘er.

Which brings us to 3)...

Salvia is not “just the thing” for a Roger Waters show in Dallas. For one thing, no primate should ingest hallucinogens of any sort within a 30-mile radius of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas is to bad vibes as Los Angeles is to superficiality. Refuse my warning, and you’ll find this out the hard way when the rotting corpse of John F. Kennedy explains it to you in lurid, existentially gut-wrenching detail.

Then there’s the activity itself to consider. Roger Waters shows, I assume, attract sizable crowds. And crowds are usually comprised almost entirely of strangers. Like pot or shrooms, Salvia can elicit nauseating social unease, even ferocious anxiety. But unlike pot or shrooms, Salvia does little to enhance external stimuli. It’s not worth doing in concert settings. There’s no trade-off to be made. You’re not going to swim in the music or ponder his giant pig balloon on a more visceral level. Rather, you will fall to the ground and clasp your temples, trying in vain to remember your name while stoners laugh at you.

Say it with me: Salvia is to be smoked in a quiet, private setting.

But what do I know? My experience with Salvia is rather limited. Sound off in the comments below about your own experience with Salvia (or whatever else). Ask advice. Provide advice. Just don’t smoke Salvia at a Roger Waters show in Dallas.

Safe travels.

Posted by Matt Snyders at April 29, 2008 6:02 PM | Comments (7)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/29: That was the month that was

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It was a dark day.

I was broke. Desperate to make bills so my roommates wouldn't kick me out of our shared house, I turned to my regular capital-generating strategy -- donating plasma. But Alpha Plasma Services turned me away because I'd already hit up the vampires earlier that week, and you're only allowed to donate once every seven days.

The day before I'd been kicked out of a newly-formed punk band because my pal Gabe had found Pink Floyd records in my collection. And that's not punk rock, now, is it?

No band? No money? Only one item of value in my possession? There was only one choice: I had to sell my Epiphone Jack Casady model bass. So this sad panda accepted a ride from his roomie Jackie (being too busted to own a car, but not too proud for charity) and headed downtown to the pawn shop.

Jackie parked. I hopped out of the car, eyes downcast -- and caught a glimpse of a bumper sticker on the Chrysler Cordoba next to us. It bore a venomous anti-abortion message. Next to the message, as if in endorsement, was the image of a smiling, waving two-year-old.

The precise wording of the sticker has long been lost to the dark backward and abysm of time, though the image of the happy moppet has long stuck with me. On one side, the anti-choice message; on the other side, an adorable grinning toddler.

Now, there's not much I hate more than the anti-abortion movement. If being raised the lone son of a single mom doesn't make a feminist out of you, well, I don't know what to tell you. So it should be unsurprising that my bass's case bore the following sticker:

The juxtaposition between our two adhesive placards was clear. The same size and shape, they nevertheless had opposite messages. But the fonts were similar. They might even be the same, now that I looked twice. If you were to replace one with the other, the only difference the casual observer would notice was the moppet's photo. And hey, the stickers were even the same color ...

Being a shy and retiring type with little aptitude for graphic design, I'm not given to random acts of art-sabotage. But for the second time that day, my course was clear.

The dimpled surface of the bass case made it easy to peel my sticker off. There was still well enough adhesive to affix it atop the other sticker, and the divide between the text side and photo side of their sticker made the permutation easy. The finished product looked seamless.

The resulting image was a happy two-year-old waving, seeming to shout: "AGAINST ABORTION? HAVE A VASECTOMY!"

On the vandalism scale of 1-10, where 1 is the Graffiti Research Lab and Dan Savage licking Gary Bauer's doorknobs clocks in at about 7, I'd say this was roughly a 3. But the tiny act of art-sabotage made it a lot easier to get through to my next plasma donation.

I liked to think of the driving around town for weeks, months maybe, drawing puzzled stares from strangers too polite to ask. Who is this toddler? They might be thinking. Why does this toddler want me to have invasive contraceptive surgery?

Not all stories need a moral. But if I had to pick one, it would be simply this: if you get a fake ID, they'll let you donate plasma twice a week.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

I tell you this tale in reference to Ben Palosaari's new post about graphic images used by an anti-choice group during an uninvited barnstorming tour of South Dakota. When your allies in political repression over womens' bodies want you turn it down a notch, you might want to switch to decaf.

For images that are more fun, try our April in Photos slideshow. And speaking of April and photos, it's April 29: why does my windshield look like this?

Turns out Roger Waters is a fan of Obama. Takes the sting out of getting kicked out of that band lo those years ago.

This pizza knife reminds me of a Star Trek medical instrument, or possibly a medeival torture device. But James Norton says it works like a charm (if a spendy charm), and he would know.

Heidi's is hot, quoth Conde Nast Traveler. Rachel Hutton has the details.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 29, 2008 7:43 AM | Comments (1)

 

Web Extras: Best Of the Twin Cities interactive map

Filed under: City Pages

Our biggest Best Of the Twin Cities issue yet is live online, and will be making its way around town in perfect-bound format all day.

But why wait to see where the hottest spots in Minneapolis and St. Paul are, when you can check out an interactive map?

You can view our Google Map of the Best Of the Twin Cities below.

View Larger Map

Every entry we could map, we did. For the other, non-geographically tied entries, you'll have to pick up the Dead Tree edition. We were afraid to Google Map the houses of every private citizen we lauded. Also, we didn't want to give C.J. even more to write about.

Also see: the photo slideshow and the top ten reasons we were late getting this issue online.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 29, 2008 5:54 AM | Comments (8)

 

Anti-Abortion Group, Planned Parenthood Agree: Leave Abortion Images at Home

Filed under: Health Care

In 2006, anti-abortion group Vote Yes For Life attempted to essentially ban abortion in South Dakota. They put the ban to the voters, who rejected the measure 55 percent to 44 percent. Vote Yes remained undeterred and has accrued enough signatures to return the issue to the voting booth again this year. And in a strange political and ideological marriage, Vote Yes and Planned Parenthood agree on one thing for this year's showdown: Activists should leave their dead baby pictures at home.

'Those images are offensive, that we can agree on for sure,' says Kathi DiNicola, director of media

relations for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. 'Those don't help start the real conversation about preventing unintended pregnancy and reducing the need for abortion.'

'In South Dakota, that doesn't work,' Leslee Unruh, executive director of Vote Yes argues. 'Certainly people have a right to do what they want. But as leader of this campaign, I'm asking people to not come to South Dakota with pictures of dead babies.'

Unruh says that last time around, graphic images of aborted fetuses that appeared on the sides of trucks and being flown behind airplanes offended and upset many South Dakotans, which she suspects might have turned the tide away from the anti-abortion movement. In 2006, she says Vote Yes conducted polls that showed people convincingly didn't want to be subjected to the photos, and that many people, even voters willing to vote for the ban, voted the other way out of rage. In addition to turning voters off, Unruh says that pictures of tiny aborted fetuses are harsh on post-abortive women like herself that support the abortion ban.

Leslee Unruh with Vote Yes for Life petitions and South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson.

'It's very difficult to have to look at those pictures for women who've had abortions,' Unruh says. 'I feel that they cause a lot of us to have serious backlashes. It brings us back to that experience. A lot of us have gotten to a point of healing, where we don't see the child that way. When I think of my aborted child, that's not what I want to think of.'

And although Unruh requested anti-abortion activist organizations not to blanket the state with grisly images, it happened anyway. 'I pleaded with them not to come, and they still came,' she says.

Troy Newman of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, which operates a fleet of ten 'truth trucks' plastered with images of dismembered and bloody aborted fetuses, says his rigs will probably not show up in South Dakota during the campaign. Operation Rescue was one of the groups Unruh was targeting with her request to leave graphic images out of South Dakota. Newman endorses Vote Yes on their Web site, and says this year the vote is more about uniting anti-abortion activists behind one cause, rather than trying to win voters' hearts with gore.

'I think the polls show that South Dakota already is pro-life. And they have a strategic vision for how to overturn Roe,' Newman says. 'I don't think the people of South Dakota need to be convinced to be pro-life. So I'm going to focus our resources elsewhere.' Newman also initially denied that his trucks were in South Dakota in 2006. 'Mine weren't, no. I'm not aware of that,' he says. But he later softened that response, ' I can't say that (they definitely weren't in South Dakota), I do not believe they were. We've got ten trucks, we traverse the country. I suppose it could be, but I don't see the relevance.'

'Not everybody is going to agree with every tactic, but as a movement, we agree on the ultimate goal. Obviously we believe that those trucks are incredibly powerful in changing a person's heart and mind. But again, in South Dakota, the polls are pretty clear that the overwhelming majority of people are pro-life,' Newman says.

DiNicola, of Planned Parenthood, says Vote Yes is playing with fire, and that by putting the near ban up to another vote, South Dakota might be too irresistible for anti-abortion supporters to not use upsetting images. 'By filing another initiative, when the people have already spoken, she's inviting them.'

Meanwhile, Unruh is holding her breath and hoping that demonstrators heed her request for a soft-sell approach as the campaign inches closer to the national media spotlight. She says that unlike in 2006 when Vote Yes had less funding, less experience and didn't know how to handle extremist demonstrators, this time they will be ready. 'There were some situations last time in which I asked some of them to leave,' she says. 'But I've come a long way since then. Hopefully this time, they'll know I mean business.'

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 28, 2008 4:08 PM | Comments (5)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/28: Dress you up

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It's not that every day is Halloween for the Twin Cities Costumers' Guild. It's that every day might be a stroll through Victorian England, or a jaunt through futuristic spacescapes, or -- you name it.

The nascent group (they've been around about six months) includes 15-20 avid costumers from around the Twin Cities, and this weekend they held their first big event, a costumed dance, at the Oddfellows Hall in St. Paul.

See the slideshow with more photos by James Tran.

Tons more, including pictorial remembrance of Paul Demko, after the jump.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Andrea Myers' latest includes reviews of weekend shows by Cloud Cult, Haley Bonar and the Afternoon Records gang, the Deaths and many more. The photo slideshow features all of the Afternoon Records bands.

Learn to make Jessica Armbruster's Thai green curry, complete with step-by-step photo instructions that for some reason include a bottle of tequila. As any good meal-production experience should.

Our own James Norton is giving a food writing seminar. I'm thinking of asking him for two dozen complimentary press tickets and scalping them at $100 a pop, so get 'em while they last, before I implement this nefarious plan.

Vikings blogger Eric Refsland returns with a full draft day recap.

Get well soon, Chris Ward's grandpa.

SPECIAL PAUL DEMKO PICTORIAL (INCLUDES NO ACTUAL PICTURES OF PAUL DEMKO)

As many of you know, Friday was Paul Demko's last day with us. If you've ever been a journalist, you know that we get tons of odd items shipped to us, and many wind up staying in our offices for years. I still have some dried fruit Michael Tortorello bought in 2004. I am serious.

Demko leaves behind a legacy of great stories, and some really weird shit. Exhibit A:

This is from Harper's Magazine and was affixed to the entry wall of Paul's office. True story: when I found out he was leaving, I laid claim to the item immediately. It's a statement by Bushwick Bill, formerly of the Geto Boys, announcing the change of his name to Dr. Wolfgang Vincent Gobin Bushwickin the Barbarian Mother Funky Stay High Dollar Billstir.

"I've had this for years," Demko reported as he offloaded this thing on me, "but this is the first time I've read what it says." Feast your eyes. I am bringing this into staff meetings from here on in to express which ideas I think are number one.

Word is, Demko actually wore this pink baby-doll tee as a gag once. I figure if he's okay being naked on the Internet, he won't mind me sharing this detail with you.

Finally, this has almost nothing to do with Paul Demko, except he made me promise that I'd include a picture of "that watch [I] won off of Colonel Sanders" in this morning's post. He did not, however, require that I tell the story. Which is a doozy. But it'll keep for another day.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 28, 2008 7:21 AM | Comments (0)

 

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