Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions 5/9: Up the wolves

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

From the department of "late notice, but you don't want to miss this," comes an incredibly rare chance to see baby wolves. This afternoon, you can see 12- to 14-day-old wolf pups.

Today, Friday, May 9, the pups will meet the public at an event from 3:30-5:30 pm at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake. It's $5 for adults and $4 for children, which is plenty cheap, and all the money goes to help support educational programs at the WSC. Later that evening, the pups will move to the center's flagship educational facility in Ely.

The International Wolf Center staff will care for the young gray wolves, who will join eight-year-old arctic wolves Malik and Shadow and four-year-old great plains wolves Maya and Grizzer, at the Ely interpretive facility.

There's going to be a party when the wolf comes home. I'll be there with a camera, and you should be, too. Suggested listening:

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Filling your punk rock quotient was a Triple Rock show that featured Kitten Forever. Erin Roof reviewed; Tony Nelson photographed four of the six bands.

Three new posts on the food blog, two of them about tasty things. Okonomiyaki is among the best stuff on earth, and James Norton tells you where to get it on Sundays. We've got a refreshing drink suggestion for spring. Finally, Chino Latino's latest billboard is in poor taste, writes Rachel Hutton. Maybe someone will call them a fratboy snark sheet. Maybe not. Either way, I'm not eating there.

Will Amy Klobuchar have a shot a the vice presidency? She's the second Minnesotan to be mentioned in the VP race.

We pick on Katherine Kersten a lot here. That's because she deserves it. But we've never photoshopped her into Mortal Kombat before. Ward Rubrecht fixes this oversight.

Gary Hodges hides video game material from his girlfriend. Not everything. Just a few things. Here are the top five.

Books: is there anything they can't do? Revitalizing the warehouse district is on that can-do list, says the New York Times.

I fix potholes. Not for the money. Not even for the love. Just for you. You, the reader.

With all the media attention focused around Hillary Clinton and the Democratic race, it's remarkable that these race-baiting comments haven't gotten more attention.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 9, 2008 5:03 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/8: Reasoned Dialogue in the Polis

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Often during meeting at City Pages Global HQ, we talk about how we'd like to get more comments on the blogs. Discussion is fun! It's the lifeblood of the polis! It exemplifies Aristotle's maxim of rational actors reasoning together!

Except it's the Internet. We always forget that part.

We're getting more comments on the blogs lately, which is great. Bring 'em on, especially the critical ones. Constructive criticism is healthy and necessary, and vicious criticism is often hilarious. Take, for example, the latest comment on an old Ron Paul post:

---
Name: ART DEKKO

ANYONE WITH BRAINS (UN-WASHED BY THE MEDIA) STILL INTACT....HAVING HEARD OF
RON PAUL....MUST CERTAINLY VOTE FOR HIM.

IMAGINE....GETTING ALL THOSE VOTES THUS FAR, WITH A TOTAL NEW YORK MEDIA
BLACKOUT.
YOU BOYS ARE SCARED SHITLESS.

RON PAUL GETS MY FAMILIES VOTES IN NOVEMBER."
---

Nothing says sanity like caps lock. He gets points for the name, though. Unless it's not a pun, but his actual name, in which case I award his parents the points.

I don't mean to pick on this particular commenter, or even the swarm of Paulbot commentators whose name is (and numbers are) legion. I say this in all sincerity -- we appreciate every reader, including those that give us a hard time. Besides, that whole thread is made of 100% pure weapons-grade comment win, and whenever I'm having a bad day, I go back and read it. It is like mirth in pixel form. If the threads start picking up, I'd love to start a "Comment of the Day" or "Comment of the Week" feature.

Okay, back to work. Those brains aren't going to wash themselves.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Three new Culture to Go posts highlight the morning's offerings. Caroline Palmer, who writes on dance for print, is going to be doing more line for us as well. Today she gives you a preview of the new ARENA dance performance, which begins today and draws on the imagery of Gustav Klimt.

The Grammy-winning Swell Season came to the Orpheum, and Andrea Myers was there. Desiree Weber's review of Tokyo Police Club at the Varsity also includes notes on opening band Smoosh, who I saw play at the Columbia River Gorge when they were pre-teens. No, really. I remember songs about whales and unicorns. OK, I've said too much.

Matt Snyders likes the smoking ban in bars, but finds it against his principles. True, his principles are the wrong principles, but they are better than no principles at all.

Hey, another cool band flyer.

The latest on the Strib bankruptcy story is here. More possibly coming later today, depending on if I can run it down or not.

It's intriguing to see the press' differing reactions to the Democratic race here and overseas. Kevin Hoffman notes that Obama has effectively won already, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from mainstream American press coverage. Elsewhere in the world, it's being taken almost as a given. Check out this article from the German news source Der Spiegel entitled "The End of the Clinton Era." Pretty succinct.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 8, 2008 8:12 AM | Comments (9)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/7: Storm clouds

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

News, like spring, is busting out all over. Also like spring, this can lead to turbulent patterns, like the thunderstorm yesterday or fresh information about the Star Tribune's woes popping up.

Enough with the extended metaphors. Let's get to the news. First, the expanded web content packages for two of our stories:

Buried Treasure: the feature about mining in northeastern Minnesota, the Reporter's Notebook post, the first slideshow and the second slideshow.

The Campus Con Man: Andy Mannix's news story, his update and the slideshow of party images.

Strib Watch: Star Tribune news continues to break. We started here in the morning with a Q+A about the Strib's financial status, citing Dun & Bradstreet reports. This gave way to an afternoon Web-only feature about how low the Strib's debt is trading.

When previously unknown facts are coming to light all the time (and MinnPost's David Brauer has new details this morning on how the financial turbulence will affect the newsroom), you're going to wind up publishing certain facts that seem in tension with each other. In this case, the D&B report has some positive data for the Strib, while the debt market makes the situation look pretty bleak. Three reasons I can reconcile writing these two stories on the same day:

1. I'm a Libra
2. Elephant, blind guy, smoke flares thrown by Geist
3. When the facts change, etc. etc.

You can also check out the latest from the New York Post on the story and Kevin Hoffman's post about the Strib purging their website of critical comments.

Hey, hold onto your seats! Katherine Kersten wrenched a quote of context, and used it for her own -- oh, you've heard this one before? Okay, my bad. So, this guy walks into a bar ...

Kersten's missive is actually about Grand Theft Auto IV, which I am sure she has played as much or more than Nate Patrin has. Nate found some stuff to dislike about it, too.

Rachel Hutton reports from the Specialty Coffee Association's annual conference.

Rush Limbaugh dreams of riots in Denver. Riots led by drug-addicted felons, no doubt.

The world is made of math, and I'm fond of numerical quantification. But, like Gary Hodges, I'm not so fond of hierarchical scoring.

Judd Spicer checks in twice in one day, first to report on the Twins heating up ... and then to report on them nearly getting no-hit by Gavin Floyd. At least I'm not the only one backpedaling.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 7, 2008 5:54 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/6: Financial wrap-up

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

New information continues to roll in about the Star Tribune's reported financial woes. We'll keep following the story, with at least one more large post planned this morning. Meanwhile, the new issue will be out this afternoon, with significant expanded web content for both the feature story and a fascinating news piece.

Your guide to all the fresh content:

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE (STRIB DIVISION)

Kevin Hoffman's comprehensive post, which includes background information, interviews, statements and nine updates, is here. The most recent information, which contains analysis of the Star-Tribune's own story this morning, is here.

Also see the initial reaction to the New York Post story and Strib publisher Chris Harte's response. Jonathan Kaminsky spoke with the Minnesota Vikings, who continue to believe that the downtown land owned by the Strib "will be part of an eventual stadium development package" no matter who owns it.

We'll have more updates for you on the Blotter blog throughout the day.

NON-STRIB DIVISION

Jeff Severns Guntzel has noticed a problem with the international media's coverage of Iraq. He calls it "the burqa effect." A thoughtful post about a local site with a thoughtful approach.

If the world were fair, Mildred Loving would be a household name, and the case she and her husband lent their name to -- Loving v. Virginia -- would be as famous as Brown v. Board of Education. Until that Supreme Court decision, miscegenation statutes (laws banning interracial coupling) were legal, and more than a dozen U.S. states had them.

Please join me in chanting: two, four, six, eight, let's all go miscegenate. Then read my remembrance of Mildred Loving.

The Replacements once used our pages as lyrical inspiration. We found those pages and scanned them for your amusement, and for posterity.

The Bent Festival celebrates circuit-bending and the experimental music it creates. See Nick Vlcek's photos of the event at Intermedia Arts.

John Hagee is an unhinged lunatic. John McCain actively solicited his endorsement, and despite loopy anti-Catholic and anti-gay statements from the rotund orator, McCain's still glad to have his support. So why does Barack Obama have to run away from Jeremiah Wright when McCain gets a free pass?

It must be spring, authentically so: the Midtown Farmers' Market is open for business.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 6, 2008 5:35 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 5/5: Cinco de Mayo Veritas

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

The big news over the weekend was media-related.

The New York Post published a story this weekend alleging that the Star-Tribune is on the cusp of bankruptcy. Kevin Hoffman is following the story, and has a response from the Strib's publisher as well as a breakdown of the Blackstone Group, the private equity firm hired to restructure the paper's balance sheet.

That arsenic-laden dirt in South Minneapolis? Jeff Severns Guntzel has a public service announcement about it.

The Blind Shake, Kate Nash, the Cops, and Dosh are among the bands whose shows are reviewed in Over the Weekend. A new slideshow from the Kate Nash concert goes along with the review, and there are also pictures from this weekend's May Day parade and Cinco de Mayo celebration on Cesar Chavez.

From Chris Ward:

As video game reviewer guys, a ton of free games show up on our doorsteps from Public Relations firms hoping we'll review them all, complete with typically awful and hyperbolic press release. With only 52 print reviews allotted per year in the Village Voice, a lot of shit doesn't get reviewed by Gary and I. And I do mean shit...with a wealth of games to consider for review, some games don't even get the shrink wrapping taken off. Some games my cats chew on. Some games get given away to people we dislike immensely.

At Joystick Division, he reports on one such game.

Judd Spicer has baseball book recommendations, and checks in on the Santana trade.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 5, 2008 1:48 AM | 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)

 

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)

 

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)

 

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)

 

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)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/25: Weekly drinking

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Today's Friday, and though it's early in the morning, I can already tell that I'm gonna need a drink later on. Thus, we launch a new "Drink of the Week" feature on the food blog. Every Friday we'll alert you to a new off-beat drink, a beverage deal that can't be beat, or whatever strikes our libation fancy.

I'm glad Paul Demko posted this promo of the White Iron Band's show, and not just because of the free MP3 of the band's new single. Mostly, it's because Demko's feature on the band from 5 years back is a great rock n' roll travelogue that I was planning on posting myself if he didn't.

Among modern philosophers, there's the late and lamented John Rawls, there's Jurgen Habermas, and ... there's Dude Weather. The latest encapsulates my sentiments perfectly.

Dan Israel is given a rave review by a respected music magazine.

Judd Spicer looks at Twins ticket sales.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 25, 2008 7:12 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/24: Housed

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

I do a lot of housing market posts. Some have called me an alarmist because I think this economy has yet to hit bottom.

If I'm the pessimist, though, Credit Suisse is the doom-and-gloom prophet. Not only does the company thing that it'll take another two years for the market to rebound, they think that before it's over, roughly 13 percent of borrowers will face foreclosure.

Think about that. One out of every eight. Depending on how big the blocks are where you live, that's about a home per block.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Blowjobs? Fun. Lawsuits? Not fun. Potential lawsuits about blowjobs? ... makes brain hurt.

There's discussion in the comments about whether a smoking ban in bars increases the rate of drunk driving. An American Lung Association guy takes us on.

The thing is, he's absolutely right that that study is horseshit. Aside from pretty specious methodology, it doesn't point out that the public health benefits of the smoking ban certainly outweigh the consequences, even if their findings are the gospel truth. But he's absolutely wrong to suggest that editorial policy is influenced by advertising.

Checked out the Best Of the Twin Cities interactive map yet? No? What are you waiting for?

How often do you get a chance to read an interview with a dude named Dead Eye?

Paul Demko's Minnesota Thunder season preview offers all you wanted to know and more about the local soccer franchise.

It's raining now, and it might snow Friday, but Rachel Hutton anticipates better weather ahead and offers must-have foods and beverages for spring. James Norton's lunch at TropicWorld may give Lake Street locals other ideas.

Cool band flyer.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 24, 2008 7:09 AM | Comments (2)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/23: Please stand by

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

As you may notice, our annual Best Of issue isn't up yet. We're having some server problems that are delaying the upload -- a Rev. Horton Heat slideshow I made Monday morning is just now appearing -- and it's affecting the issue as well.

This is a purely technical difficulty. The issue content's ready to go, and I'm assured it'll be online by this morning.

You can choose to believe me. Or you can choose to believe one of these alternate explanations, which make me want to laugh instead of punch a kitten in the face.

THE TOP 10 REASONS OUR "BEST OF THE TWIN CITIES" CONTENT IS NOT ONLINE RIGHT NOW

10. A Salvia-bedazzled Matt Snyders tripped over the server, unplugging it; proceeded to dismantle the server so it could become "one with its Buddha nature"

9. The Internet has become bourgeois and outmoded. We choose to go old-school, using only wax and rollers to paste up the issue. Somehow this means it is not accessible from the World Wide Web

8. Turns out Hoffman is Amish

7. Pawlenty budget cuts affecting even the mighty Village Voice Media

6. Douglas Feith seemed down on his luck, in need of work; we asked him to install a web server. Turns out he's not any better at that

5. Demko on his way out decided to take up a new hobby -- walking into random offices, pulling wires at random. Hey, a red one!

4. Our tech people ate something that didn't agree with them, and now the tubes are clogged

3. It was a sophisticated denial-of-service attack from Ron Paul supporters

2. Tom Bartel forgot to pay our credit card bill

1. It's actually online RIGHT NOW, but only the pure of heart can see it.

I can see it. What the hell is wrong with you people?

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Elvis Costello's new album release this week provides Jeff Severns Guntzel an excuse to Unearth some 1981 Elvis material from these pages.

Andrea Myers breaks down national coverage received by local bands with new releases, including Tapes 'n Tapes, Cloud Cult, Atmosophere and more.

This Ron Paul CGI animation thread has rapidly become my second-favorite comment thread in my limited tenure at Citypages.com. It is funny on so many levels. I sincerely thank every person for being a part of it.

My favorite comment thread -- of the day at least -- is the pothole haiku thread. Although there's some consternation in the latest Tim Pawlenty VP-o-Meter post's comments as well.

Gary Hodges discusses the latest release from indie game manufacturer Atlus.

Judd Spicer asks: should the Twins' top farm team be closer to the cities?

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 23, 2008 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/22: Simply the Best

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Tons of effort by scads of people comes to fruition in the next 36 as our annual Best Of issue comes online and then makes its way in perfect-bound format throughout the cities. Don't miss it -- how could you -- and know that a few Web-only surprises will be popping up during the day.

Apropos of nothing: I may be the only person who saw this comic by Dan Piraro and thought: "wait, Rorschach never knew his father. I don't get it." But I will admit that this was my first reaction.

My second reaction: what's up with the stick of dynamite behind Mr. Rorschach the elder?

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Temple Restaurant is no more. Nevertheless, we'll always have memories of the naked sushi event and James Tran's photographs of same.

James Norton, using a new WaPo piece as a foil, poses an interesting question: where is your "third place," that place besides home and work that you feel most comfortable, even out in public?

Tom Sorel is your new transportation chief, and early reaction is encouraging.

Minneapolis schools pass new restrictions on military recruiters. Jeff Severns Guntzel speaks with the policy's architect.

Always wonder what that window in Power Girl's costume was for? It's apparently related to the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game.

Just when you thought it couldn't get creepier than Ron Paul, we get a Ron Paul simalcrum. Which is actually preferable to the real thing.

Demko is writing about soccer again, the UEFA Champions League's final four. Steven Gerrard's been injured, but I still think this is an opportune time to link to this amazing video of Gerrard's top 10 goals from two years ago. Even if you aren't a football fan, this is pretty amazing.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 22, 2008 7:39 AM | Comments (3)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/21: Bales of Cocaine

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Spring is here. I know, because I saw a couple making out in the park for about an hour yesterday evening. Blanket-free. Indeed, free of many articles of clothing. I surreptitiously snapped this bit of evidence: yep, those are sweatpants bottoms.

At least the lack of a blanket isn't necessarily going to mean grass stains. Ah, young love.

Speaking of clothing and love, Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman's Eluded Love show went off Saturday, and we have a slideshow full of images. For great justice, here's a one-minute video of the show's finale. A model leaves wearing less than she entered with (and no, it's not what you think, at least I hope not):

Much more from a busy weekend after the jump.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Andrea Myers makes her debut on Over the Weekend, wrapping the past 72 hours in music. This includes capsule reviews of several concerts, including the Reverend Horton Heat show last night at First Avenue, where he played the song that gives this post its name.

Also don't miss our review of Kraftwerk's first MSP tour in decades and recap of the Plastic Constellations' last show. Coming later: images and text from the latest Current Fakebook series, featuring Chuck D and Slug.

The Chefs for Change fundraiser sounds like a good time for a good cause.

The Wild and the Timberwolves are forced to utter that mantra of the also-ran: just wait 'til next year.

Paul Demko has the latest on Lee Edwards, the Minneapolis cop who is under federal investigation.

Can House of the Dead be fun? Our Game On columnists go point, counterpoint.

Play Gran Turismo? Maybe you'll agree with Nate Patrin about these 5 cars that ought to be in the game.

From Friday afternoon, images of college students using molten metal to make art.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 21, 2008 8:25 AM | Comments (2)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/18: Poems for Breakfast

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It was twelve days
before we realized
before each one could hear
the same story from Arthur
and Bertie and William
Three days for the storm to stop blowing
Another two to dig one’s way
to the hog pen and the barn
to throw hay to the starving mare
Another week before
the wagons could make their way to town ...

So begins "Hearing the News," a poem by Jana Bouma. Bouma's poem, about an 1873 snowstorm, contains vivid imagery and raises historical details you might find interesting.

It's this week's winner in the What Light: This Week's Poem series sponsored by mnartists.org. The program celebrates Minnesota writers, but it's also an admirable initiative to help get poetry back into our daily lives.

Poetry's like breakfast. It's better when you have it every day.

The submission deadline for the weekly poem series is tomorrow, so ship 'em some poems if you're registered on mnartists.org. It's still National Poetry Month out there, after all. Onward ...

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Music editor Andrea Myers makes her debut with two posts, including breaking the news that the B-Girl Be summit for women in hip-hop is taking a year off. Also see her review of the Voltage fashion show and the bands that played there, supported with an extensive photo slideshow.

Three new gaming posts at Joystick Division. First, Nate Patrin reviews the stylus-powered Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. Chris Ward reports on Rob Zombie (that's Mr. Zombie to you, pal) and Rivers Cuomo from Weezer having an aversion to Guitar Hero. Finally. what do console sales tell us about video games? Is the Wii making your grandmother a Halo addict? These and other numbers questions are answered by Gary Hodges.

It all depends on the criteria, you see. A company can see a mysterious illness emerge from its plant, but still win a workplace safety award.

Slowly but surely, Minneapolis heads for Instant Runoff Voting.

Akon, the R+B singer who told wild tales of a Gone in 60 Seconds style youth with significant prison time, turns out to have been full of shit.

Judd Spicer advises young Carlos Gomez (and other national pastime practitioners) in the art of the sacrifice bunt. I would have slightly different advice: don't sacrifice bunt. Ever. In this era of supercharged offense, giving up an out is almost never a good play, especially in the American League where the pitcher doesn't bat. If you're going to bunt -- especially if you can fly like Gomez -- bunt for a base hit.

Outs are the precious sand of baseball's hourglass, and giving them up for free just doesn't make sense like it did in the dead ball era. When you play for one run, you only get one run, and one run's not often enough these days.

On a somber note, the Wild game did not turn out the way either Kevin Hoffman or Ben Palosaari had hoped, but each one has a take.

Nipa Bhatt of Chanhassen will compete on the fourth season of "The Next Food Network Star." Bhatt, former owner of the Gypsy Curry House, will compete against foes as yet unknown, but will be judged by unfortunately named celebrity chef Bobby Flay. Johnny Maim and Nicky Thumbscrews are waiting for Paula Abdul to go to rehab so they can judge American Idol.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 18, 2008 5:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/17:

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Don't miss Jeff Severns Guntzel's post from yesterday about the first ever Minneapolis Film Festival, which we covered when we were still called "Sweet Potato."

The latest in a series of posts we're calling Unearthed, Guntzel goes through the City Pages archive and finds out what coverage of that 1981 event looked like, in words and pictures. He's got video from some of the films, too, but what I think will most whet your appetite is this cover image:

More contemporary images are coming later this morning, when we'll have multiple slideshows from last night's Voltage fashion show and music event.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE
Lots new on the Culture to Go blog, from anti-folk to Anti-Flag.

Kimya Dawson played at the Cedar. Andy Mannix reviewed. A completely different style of music was in evidence two nights ago at First Ave, when Anti-Flag railed against the evils of everything.

Full coverage of Voltage momentarily.

Uptown will miss you, too, James Norton. But at least you've left us a list of eateries to remember you by. Also, you can come back, if you aren't killed by a pothole or food poisoning.

With a Democrat in office, the chances of the NWA-Delta merger being regulated increase. Hence, Rep. Jim Oberstar threatens to "run out the clock" on the event.

Remember yesterday, when Lean Dean Singleton referred to one of the Democratic presidential candidates as "Obama" bin Laden? Demko has the video.

Award-winning author Maya Hornbacher has struggled with a host of mental maladies, and not only lived to tell the tale, went on to win awards for her writing. Jessica Armbruster interviews the confessional author.

Mark Kiszla is to hockey what Ben Stein's movie is to biology. Fortunately, a host of hilarious Wild fans told him so.

Why are girls playing sports more than ever but still on the whole behind in exercise? Jonathan Kaminsky breaks it down.

That debate last night was like a rehab meeting in Utah: substance-free. But I'm going to call the Clinton campaign today and ask a frivolous question about her gambling predilections, so I'm guilty too.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 17, 2008 7:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/16: Poo-tee-weet?

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Spoiler alert: the onomatopoeia in the headline to this post ends Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. It's the transliteration of a bird sound heard by Billy Pilgrim, the title character.

If you didn't know, the book covers the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. The bird sound is meant to symbolize the absence of anything intelligent to say about war. Instead of human pontifications about strategy, the final sound you hear is an animal's. And the sound "poo-tee-weet" is offered as a bird's way of saying, is it over yet? Is it safe to come out?

Not that I'm comparing winter to the firebombing of Dresden, but that's what this week's weather has me thinking. The literal birds are out twittering, and the figurative ones inside me are saying, "hey, is it over yet?"

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Paul Demko wants to ensure that we get lots of Web hits on his way out the door, so he headlined this post about clean water regulations "Water Sports." His next post about corporate malfeasance will be called "Barely Legal," and I expect any missive about stupid politicos to be entitled "Big Boobs."

Augmenting the review from yesterday, today offers a new slideshow from the KRS-ONE show, with several images of local artists and breakdancers as well.

The Pi Press's parent company CEO has a problem distinguishing "Osama" from "Obama." Is anyone else tempted to start a "John McVeigh" meme in response?

When I interviewed him for the music feature, I asked RJD2 to tell me which beat was his favorite from all the tracks he'd ever produced. He thought for a long time before coming up with the track "Big Game" from Diverse's solo LP. It didn't seem like anything super-special, he said, until he played it in a club with a booming sound system. Turn up the bass and check out this 30-second sample clip.

Another free MP3 download, this one full-length: try out the best song ever written about being in love with a dental hygienist.

Critical Mass cyclist gets off. Matt Snyders uses phrase "maggot-ridden pigshit." Everybody wins!

Anonymous sourcing is a tricky issue, because you don't want to cut off reporters' access to gather and distribute information, but you also don't want to give people free rein to attack others without fear of repercussions. Kevin Hoffman identifies a specific example of this pertaining to Barack Obama.

There are also accountability issues with anonymous sources. One reason I always comment under my own name on blogs rather than pseudonymously is I want to be accountable for the things I say. Also, I think the Web would be a more decorous place if everybody used their real name. I'm a firm believer in the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

The Village Voice lines up some fish, puts them in a barrel, and shoots them. Tom Tomorrow draws the results. It's our sister paper's take on right-wing bloggers, many of them local, and my only beef is that there is no "robot sex" joke about Glenn Reynolds.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 16, 2008 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/15: Bye, Demko

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It's tax day today, and yesterday was pretty taxing. We learned Paul Demko is moving on after eight years.

We'll miss the political reporting that once got him called the Twin Cities' own Carl Kolchak, his writing and his presence in the office. Thankfully, Paul will still occasionally serve as our soccer correspondent on Balls!, the sports blog.

Here's a regret you won't hear every day. We're working on a partnership with an independent video game manufacturer -- they may be producing small amusements for our site -- and I was going to ask them to produce a Zelda-themed game entitled "The Legend of Demko."¹

Sadly, that will now never happen. Bet you won't get your own video game at Minnesota Monitor, huh, Paul? But I'll still always remember Paul's first words of sage advice to me after I heard the news of his departure: "Man," he said, laughing, "that pothole post was the weirdest thing I've ever read."

Here are three examples of the terrific work Demko has done for us over the years.

There's this award-winner, co-authored with G.R. Anderson. Before my time here, but equally incisive, was this cover piece from 2006 on homeless Hmong refugees. Personally, I'm partial to this one, a thoughtful treatment of jumpers from St. Paul's High Bridge, though that may be because I worked on it a bit with him.

There are so many more. Find some of your own favorite stories in his author archive, or feel free to leave your favorite Demko memories in the comments.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Anti-Scientology protesters, many masked, demonstrated in front of the Church of Scientology downtown yesterday. Matt Snyders reports. Tom Cruise shows up to defend L. Ron's wacky money-making scheme in the comments.²

Patterned after the popular blog Stuff White People Like, Rachel Hutton offers up Stuff White People Like to Eat. What, no fondue mentioned yet?

James Norton offers an early introduction to an improvised restaurant.

Joystick Division gets letters. We get letters every day.

¹ Note: this is absolutely true.
² Note: this is not, in fact, true.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 15, 2008 7:46 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/14: Rappers, pirate and otherwise

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Yesterday I searched eMusic for a copy of Motorhead's song "Ace of Spades." If you have to ask why, you have likely never a) played poker or b) heard Motorhead.

The quest was in vain. Rather than the chord-crunching, card-table-vibrating original, there was merely an array of covers. One of them was a rap-metal hybrid featuring an artist called Sea Dog. Sea Dog? A pirate-themed rapper?

Curiosity piqued by the idea of hip-hop Sea chanties, I clicked the link. More specifically, it was "Sea Dog of Cypress Hill" -- raising the specter of pirate ditties about marijuana, even though it was now obviously a typo for Sen Dog.

But this concept of "Sea Dog" the rapper intrigues. Save two references I came up with off the top of my head (both from the Beastie Boys), there are few references to piracy in hip-hop. Which is a huge missed opportunity. Just look at what the Shao-lin martial arts theme did for the Wu.

This is a genre that has gone yet unexplored, possibly because not much rhymes with "matey" or "avast". Aside from adding another to the list of "absurd Google searches I had to do for my job" ("pirate rapper"), I found this 20 second sack of awesome that explains why webcams were invented:

Aspiring MCs take note. My cut is 10 percent of your pieces of eight.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

During the battle for DFL imprimatur this weekend, Ashwin Madia won, which engendered a discussion about the democratic process in the comments.

This may be the classiest thing ever done. C.J., I have an acronym for you. DIAGF.

On a happier note, Gary Hodges' latest post about his Top 5 Video Game Enemies features original art to go along with the original alien penis images from the game. No, that's not made up. Also, apparently the latest Star Wars game is brutal

Any time a headline starts with the words "alleged public masturbator," you know it's a tale worth reading.

Like Guinness? Like cupcakes? You'll love Jessica Armbruster's Guinness cupcakes. If you like neither of those things, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your priorities.

Gear up for tonight's Wild game by revisiting our liveblogging of the last two games. I especially like Ben Palosaari's images of Wild fans from game two. Ben's also got an interview with a guy who gets paid to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters

An early "concert of the year" candidate came out of Trocaderos on Saturday night, when KRS-ONE came to town and was backed by a host of eminent luminary MCs from this locality.

We are making a difference. More potholes to come on the blog, fewer on the roads.

Has McCain made up his mind to pick Tim Pawlenty as veep?

Francisco Liriano is back, and Judd Spicer says mechanical signs point to "go." Mostly.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 13, 2008 8:50 PM | Comments (1)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/11

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

During the limited onstage banter coming from Tapes 'n Tapes last night, there were references to -- what? Sports? Singer Josh Grier inquired about the state of the Minnesota Wild, declaring to the all-ages crows that "we need a championship in this town."

Then, he dedicated a song to the single best hope for that to come true in the immediate future. The band sent "Demon Apple" from their latest release Walk it Off out to Adrian Peterson. Which is funny, because "Walk it Off" was what everyone was thinking when the running back out of Oklahoma went down clutching his knee last year.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Portland alt-folkies Blitzen Trapper and Fleet Foxes came through. Reviews were generally positive, even if the guy from Fleet Foxes hadn't paid much attention to personal grooming. Word is singer Robin Pecknold hadn't removed his hat for three days until just prior to the show. He said this, not me. God, how I miss the West Coast.

At Joystick Division, one thing we're trying to do is offer "Director's Cut" versions of the Game On columns, with added material that is only available online. Here's Gary Hodges' extended remix on a new Viking game.

Tap water, as Aesop Rock once put it, builds character. Local restaurants and Rachel Hutton seem to agree. Give it a try -- it's got to stop smelling like fish soon.

Kerfluffle! I call kerfluffle! There's a gossip columnist in a flap with a MinnMon reporter. Beth Walton and Jonathan Kaminsky (in the comments) have the breakdown. I think Kaminsky's scoreboard contains a sentence of devastating summation ("Writing about this makes me sad and makes a little bit of my brain rot off and drain out through my nose"), even if I don't agree with him that Paul Schmelzer comes off poorly.

All you need to know about the Wolves is contained in this e-mail exchange. I am serious.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 11, 2008 6:45 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/10: That's the breaks

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Talking to Marc Bamuthi Joseph, you can feel his sincere passion for art, community engagement and micro-politics. When I say "micro-politics," I mean it in the sense of personal empowerment and liberation.

That can take place on an individual level, with art feeding the soul. It can take place between individuals, as when an accomplished artist like Joseph works with young people. And it can take place on a whole community level, in what Brazilian educator and Joseph influence Paolo Freire calls liberatory pedagogy.

All of which are fine words, but just words. Joseph's work is about action, about combining multiple disciplines into a mixtape for the stage. I spoke with him this week about his show, the break/s. It blends hip-hop music with poetry, dance, film and theater.

His performance premieres tonight at the Walker and runs through Saturday. Don't miss it.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

If you're not too depressed over the Wild loss yesterday, check out the various liveblog posts from the game by Ben Palosaari (live at the game) and Kevin Hoffman (from home).

My favorite Alex P. Keaton moment had to be either the time he lip-synched to the Doors, or when he admitted to having a picture of Pat Nixon in his locker. Jeff Severns Guntzel brings back the quintessential Young Republican in a post that adds ... a third candidate for "favorite Family Ties plotline of all time": Alex gets jacked up on amphetamines.

More news from the housing market, with graphical representation.

Hey, that's a nice cheese knife.

If you're the type that listens to the radio, I've got my "what to do over the weekend" spot on 107.1 today at 2 p.m.

Another winter storm watch offers up the following:

"Issued at: 12:46 PM CDT 4/9/08, expires at: 9:00 PM CDT 4/9/08

Winter storm watch in effect from Thursday a