NEWS YOU CAN USE | Bikes on a bus!by James Sanna, TC Daily PlanetYou rode your bike to work and now it’s raining cats and dogs. How can you get home without getting soaked? Put your bike on the bus! Our new video shows you how.Film note: First-time director Chokesby Jim Brunzell III, TC Daily PlanetIt’s been nearly ten years since director David Fincher boldly brought cult writer Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club to the big screen. Fincher’s film will still be the Palahniuk film to top, which is bad news for Choke, the first directorial effort by character actor Clark Gregg. Continue Reading
THINGS PEOPLE SAY | The great bailout heist: What will $1 trillion buy?by Steve Perry, Minnesota IndependentAs if $700 billion weren’t an incomprehensible enough sum on its own, that widely repeated figure only represents Henry Paulson’s personal stash of get-out-of-debt-free cards. The total tab on the array of taxpayer-financed Wall Street bailouts presently contemplated is likely to be closer to $1.8 trillion by the reckoning of CNBC, whose highly recommended estimate includes a rundown of the additional bailout billions.A little (foreclosed) house on the (stolen) prairieby Sheila Regan, TC Daily PlanetThursday, September 18 was not a typical lunch hour at Edina Realty. On that day, a group of real estate agents gathered in a conference room with members of zAmya Theater Project and participated in a theater workshop aimed at finding solutions to the housing crisis.Views and Reviews: Music to Our EarsMusic note: Babushka, babushka…Rusalka?by Jay Gabler, TC Daily PlanetIt took a few days of driving around the Twin Cities listening to Jenny Dalton’s new album Rusalka’s Umbrella, but it finally got under my skin. It’s a concept album, and the concept is water.Cedar Cultural Center goes back to Nordic Roots one last timeby Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily PlanetIf you haven’t been to the annual Nordic Roots Festival, don’t put it off any longer! This year’s go-round, its tenth, will be the last. Continue Reading
by Colette Davidson • 9/23/08 • It ain’t easy being a world traveler these days. First came the “no liquids” rule, where expensive perfume and body lotion got dumped into the garbage by the gallons. Then, passports with magnetic strips became obligatory for all non-American travelers. And before we knew what had hit us, children were getting stopped at security for sharing their names with a terrorist, praying Imams were causing planes to ground, and if you just happened to be Asian, African or, God forbid, Middle Eastern, you could consider yourself effectively strip-searched.
by Joe Nathan • 9/20/08 • In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Governor Al Quie and Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe battled constantly. Last week, they hugged. Moe and Quie now regard each other as “one of my best friends.” This was one of many stories told as Quie’s new book, Riding into the Sunrise, was presented to the public on his 85th birthday.
Theater note: Park Square’s painfully awkward Sisters by Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet • “Don’t make me into a cliché,” Gorgeous Teitelbaum says in her first scene in The Sisters Rosensweig. “I’m much more than that.” Gorgeous may not just be talking to her sisters—she may be speaking to the playwright who wrote the line.Franken criticizes Coleman for failing to investigate Iraq fraud by Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent • Al Franken sharply criticized Sen. Norm Coleman today for failing to hold any hearings on contractor fraud in Iraq during his time as chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Students across Minnesota try to get voters by Josef Nelson, Minnesota Daily • Although the idea of a new U.S. president has interested a young demographic, getting those young people to actually go out and vote is still proving to be a challenge.NEW IN BLOGSSINGLE WHITE FRINGE GEEK | Intimacy onstage is a slippery thing by Matthew A. Everett • “Gay men don’t worry about bumping pelvises. They’re not looking to avoid it. It’s kind of the point of most physical contact. Continue Reading
NEWS YOU CAN USE | City Hall forum on RNCby Mary Turck, TC Daily PlanetOn Wednesday evening, September 24, St. Paul city council member Dave Thune hopes to bring together five groups of people to talk about what happened at the RNC. The forum will include discussion of police action, Thune says, but will go beyond that to discuss the impact of the RNC on business, residents, and observers, as well as demonstrators, peacekeepers and medics.ALANA Summitby Rachel Dykoski, TC Daily PlanetMore than 150 people particiapated in the first ALANA Green Summit on September 15 at Concordia University in St. Paul. Speakers, community leaders, educators, policy and labor leaders met to explore how ALANA communities (African, Latino, Asian and Native Americans) can help build and join a burgeoning green economy.U researchers hope to revitalize the honey beeby Tiffany Smith, Minnesota DailyEntomology Professor Marla Spivak is trying to change the 20-year decline in honey bee populations.Second Annual Afrifest: Enlightenment, Diversity and Unityby Swallehe Msuya , MshaleAfrifest, the summer’s second Pan African festival in the twin cities, continued its second annual festival celebrating African arts and culture.NEW IN BLOGSKOLET INK | Are you feeling good-on-paper?by Colette DavidsonThanks to Demi and Ashton, and Madonna and Guy, the world is just a little bit more ready to accept older woman/younger man scenarios. Continue Reading
by Mark Muller • 9/16/08 • Thanks to Business Week, I finally have a name to put on a topic that has been rattling around in my brain over the past several months – innovation economics. The September 11 issue of Business Week has a cover story called “Can America Invent Its Way Back.”
THINGS PEOPLE SAY | Voices from the streets during the RNCby Kathlyn Stone, TC Daily PlanetThe week of September 1-5 brought many passionate activists from near and far to St. Paul to speak about the policy issues they care deeply about. Here are some of their messages.Ellison speaks on immigration police at Midtownby Katie Mocol, TC Daily PlanetAmid the atmosphere of bustling market stalls and the scent of tamales and moo shu pork, 50 people, many of them first generation immigrants, listened to and participated in a forum on immigration on Saturday, September 13. Representative Keith Ellison gave his constituents a taste of his policy at his campaign-sponsored forum at Minneapolis’s Midtown Global Market.Colombian ambassador to the United States visits Twin Citiesby Alberto Monserrate, La PrensaColombian Ambassador to the United States, Carolina Barco, met with local reporters and with leaders of the Minnesota Colombian community on September 3rd in Minneapolis restaurant Maria’s Café. Ambassador Barco was in the Twin Cities as a guest to the Republican National Convention in St Paul.NEW IN BLOGSRANTS AND RUMINATIONS | Bailout: Contact your reps in Congress nowby Jim FullerThere are at least three urgent reasons to contact your senators and representatives in Congress now. Continue Reading
by Colette Davidson • 9/21/08 • Picture the scene: you’re sitting at an outdoor cafe, gabbing with your girls, when the inevitable question comes up – “So, when are you going to start dating someone?” You pick up your coffee up with a sly smile and mutter, “I am.” Immediately, questions start flying: What’s his name? What does he do? Where’s he from? And the old stand-by, “How old is he?”
by Colette Davidson • 9/16/08 • Ever been stuck on a plane next a Chatty Cathy who couldn’t be hushed, not even after blatantly stuffing your iPod headphones in your ears? Or how about that talker on the end of the phone line—otherwise known as your best friend—who won’t stop going on about her new boyfriend? Now there are a wealth of Web sites and products available not to help deal with uncomfortable conversations, but to avoid them altogether.