Mall of America strives to accommodate Muslim community during Eid by Mohamed Hassan, Mshale • On Monday, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid Al-Adha, a religious holiday to commemorate Ibrahim’s (Abraham) sacrifice and the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid commemorates the day Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God.MUSIC | The Cities’ best indie labels by Ian Power, Minnesota Daily • Whether you regard yourself as the next big thing, or simply want to understand the diverse network that makes up the Twin Cities’ independent music scene, a grasping of the labels is a step in the right direction. What follows is an encyclopedic listing of some of our favorite labels. You can thank us later, when you’re famous.Feminist lens on adoption by Katie Leo, Minnesota Women’s Press • Two years ago my husband and I decided, after four years of unsuccessful pregnancy attempts, to consider adopting a child from Korea. In doing so we joined the thousands of couples struggling with infertility who consider this option each year, in addition to fertile couples who choose to adopt, and the hundreds of thousands of couples who have done so since the practice of international adoption began. Continue Reading
FRONT ROW SEAT | Little Joey Peterson may be only 10, but let me tell you: his acting stinks. by Jay Gabler • We wouldn’t actually call out a little angel (or shepherd, or sheep) for forgetting his lines, would we? Of course we wouldn’t…but when does a young actor cross that line and ask to have his or her work taken seriously? Tatum O’Neal won an Oscar for her performance in Paper Moon when she was only 10. Should she not have been nominated, to have spared her the risk of being disappointed at losing?Minnesota’s unemployment fund: trouble ahead? Continue Reading
Todo sobre mi bicicletaby James Sanna and Cass Sanford, TC Daily PlanetThis summer, it seemed like everyone was riding a bike. Whether people were commuting, running errands, or just cruising on a sunny day, Minneapolitans and St Paulites were putting the fun between their legs and going for a ride. It felt like The Twin Cities, Land of the Bicycle, where Thor cruises on his Schwinn World Tour.Advise and Dissent: Noel Nixby Emily Bright, TC Daily PlanetWhat would you like to tell president-elect Barack Obama? Advise and Dissent features Minnesota opinions on what the new president should be thinking and doing.Mr. President, this country needs you to truly govern in a bipartisan way–even when it gets hard and everyone from the left or from the right is attacking you–in order to bring about a change in the tone of politics.THEATER | Soap opera star returns home to Osseo to pull off a Christmas Miracleby Jean Gabler, TC Daily PlanetYellow Tree Theatre is a professional theater created in a space vacated by an Osseo furniture store. Two months ago, with rehearsals set to begin, they suddenly lost the rights to their holiday show: Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. Continue Reading
A systems addiction: Sixth Chamber Used Books by Hae Ryun Kang, TC Daily Planet • “Too many people think this place is a satanic bookstore.” 46-year-old owner, James Williams said. He added, laughing, “I would rethink the name if I started over.” Opened in 1995, Sixth Chamber is named for poet William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”THEATER | White Sheep of the Family, a sharp farce at Theatre in the Round by Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet • You’re not going to find a stronger theater company in the Twin Cities than the Theatre in the Round Players, and they’ve done it again, mounting yet anotther first-rate production. The White Sheep of the Family, by L. du Garde Peach and Ian Hay, is a splendidly written, sharply directed, beautifully acted farce you’re going to rush home and tell family, friends—pretty much anyone who’ll listen—all about.BOOKS | Poet Margaret Hasse lasts long like a Popsicle by Connie Wanek, mnartists.org • If poets write (as I believe they very often do) to explore and make sense of their own lives—and, by extension, all of life—then St. Continue Reading
A painting, a garden, a documentary and 120,313 paper cranes – tributes to Japanese Americans by Dean S. Potter, Asian Pages • The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) recently received a triptych portrait of the late Japanese American activist Ruth Tanbara by Virginia artist Hiro. Mrs. Tanbara’s nephew Tom Kurihara commissioned Hiro to do the portrait showing the many accomplishments of his aunt on the three-panel painting and presented it to MHS as a gift.THEATER | Guthrie’s Christmas Carol plays to the peanut gallery by Jean Gabler, TC Daily Planet • I’m a huge fan of Christmas. I start secretly playing Christmas music as soon as I blow out the candles in the jack-o-lanterns. I pull out my stack of holiday books and supplement those with more from the library. I have my list of must-see holiday shows, and the Guthrie’s Christmas Carol is always included. Continue Reading
by Rich Broderick • In a notebook he kept as a student, Napoleon Bonaparte, future Emperor of France, wrote, “St. Helena, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic.”
Why he made this entry is unknown. The words appear alone, on a page by themselves, apparently unrelated to anything else he was studying, writing, or thinking about at the time.
Whatever his motives, some 30 years later, after his escape from Elba and final defeat at Waterloo, St. Helena is precisely where Napoleon would live out his last years in exile. Continue Reading
by Andy Birkey • 11/25/08 • OutFront Minnesota and Marriage Equality Minnesota differ on tactics, if not on goals.
Doug Grow looks at the fight for marriage equality in what he calls “a state long known for being one of the most gay- and lesbian-friendly states in the country.”
The lost children of Laos: Advocating for liberation of detained Hmong youth by Michael Solis, Hmong Today • Worn fabrics and remnants of personal belongings hang from the ceiling bars, impeding the flow of sunshine through tiny windows. The mixed, stagnating stench of food, urine, human waste, and unwashed bodies permeates the air of the cramped living space where people have to eat, toilet, and sleep. Small and fragile silhouettes peer through the light wondering what lies beyond the bars, guards, and locks.Xcel plans substation, high power lines in Phillips by Lauretta Dawolo Towns, TC Daily Planet • Xcel Energy plans to build two substations in South Minneapolis, connecting them with high power transmission lines. Xcel says the new substations are essential to meet increased demand for electricity in the community and to replace an outdated distribution system. Residents in the Phillips neighborhood and advocates for the Midway Greenway want more answers before Xcel gets a green light from regulators.Has there been any decent architecture in St. Continue Reading
by Steve Suppan • 11/25/08 • In U.S. political vernacular, the legislative period following an election but before the victorious take office is called a “lame duck” session—defeated members being the “ducks.” Often, little legislative progress is made during the “lame duck” interim. Continue Reading
