Autumn Harvest: A Bumper Crop of Views and Reviews
MMAA + MPIRG = MMVIII by Melissa Slachetka, TC Daily Planet • Last Saturday night, music filtered into the evening air through the front doors of the Minnesota Museum of American Art. The Get Out the Vote concert was set to be held on the museum’s popular patio, but due to the rainy conditions, the bands were moved indoors. The main floor gallery was cleared of its normal artwork and instead was filled with patriotic voices. Poster art was projected onto a screen as the bands played.
VOICES | When First Ave was an underage hipster farm club by Almostred, Rift Magazine • The “Hard Rock Bad / First Avenue Good” mantra seems tired but resonates loudly in a downtown eagerly re-developed with little sense of community or connection between venues and the people they serve. The closest I can find today is maybe the Triple Rock or the ubiquitous NE drunk bars that have replaced their meat raffles with punk karaoke. Franchising is anti-community. It’s about uniformity, about removing the mystery and apprehension from encountering new places. First Avenue makes Minneapolis unique. The Hard Rock makes Minneapolis Pittsburgh.
GOING GREEN | Xcel Energy to disclose emissions details by Maria Surma Manka, Maria Energia • In an agreement with New York’s attorney general, Xcel Energy – one of the nation’s largest electric utilities and my own – will now give investors details about how global warming could effect business. (Full disclosure: I’m an Xcel shareholder)
FROM THE SOAPBOX | The business of America is not business by Ronald P. Salzberger • A decent life requires that our social institutions be run on the basis of care for others, not just self- and corporate-interest.
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