THINGS PEOPLE SAY | Teens talk about voting by Monica, Karen and Aracelli • Monica, Karen and Aracelli have been working to register voters with Minnesota SOL (Strengthening Our Lives).
Monica is 19 years old • I always thought politics was for old nerds. But, since I joined this group, I realize that we can make a difference.
Views and Reviews: Special Monday Bonus Section
Movie note: Ridin’ nerdy by Emily Byers-Ferrian, TC Daily Planet • In her documentary Nerdcore Rising, director Negin Farsad trails the journey of Damian (a.k.a. MC Frontalot), Brandon, Sturgis and Gaby—four guys who got together and started producing a new kind of music that they decided to term Nerdcore. It’s rap that addresses subjects like computers, math, science, Magic the Gathering (if you have to ask, you’ll never know), Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica.
Theater note: Salo saves a tedious Plague of Angels by Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet • Mark St. Germain’s A Plague of Angels at Theatre in the Round, one of the Twin Cities’ best companies, is a good production that could’ve been better written and should’ve been better directed. Here’s the good news: Jean Salo is splendid, playing Mary with steely grit.
Movie note: Exuberant, cheerful Happy-Go-Lucky by Jim Brunzell III, TC Daily Planet • Poppy, the elementary schoolteacher in Mike Leigh’s exuberant new film Happy-Go-Lucky, might be the cheeriest character to grace the screen this year. The film is a complete contrast to Leigh’s usual bleak, isolated, and tension-filled dramas (Naked, Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake).
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SAINT PAUL ALMANAC | Choosing St. Paul by James McKenzie, Saint Paul Almanac • Moving to Saint Paul during my sixty-fifth year represents the first time I have had the joy of selecting the community I live in, rather than following the dictates of circumstance. Famously a nation of immigrants, we are also nomads. Born and raised in western Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley steel towns, I’ve also lived around the American South and Hawaii (the army), Indiana, and North Dakota, before getting to choose Saint Paul.
GOING GREEN | Big Stone II by Staff, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Fresh Energy. • The Big Stone II proponents underestimated their costs at every turn and overestimated the costs of alternatives, a new analysis done for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission stated Wednesday.
CABBAGES AND KINGS | Broken promises by Charley Underwood • One year later, it’s time to compare the reality of the RNC with the pledges made by Assistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom on October 23, 2007.
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