May 2013
4 tags
“They use teenage boys for ushers [in Stratford] and I think that this is a far...”
– Oliver Rea, co-founder of the Guthrie Theater, making a recommendation to the company’s board of directors in 1962.
4 tags
1 tag
4 tags
"The Great Gatsby" and the Great Pumpkin: Writers...
It was my friend Eric Bennett who drew my attention to a reference made by Bob Dylan to his fellow Minnesota escapee, F. Scott Fitzgerald. In Dylan’s song “Summer Days,” from 2001’s Love and Theft, a woman looking into the narrator’s eyes and holding his hand tells him he can’t repeat the past. “You can’t?” he replies. “What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can.”
It’s a sentiment expressed...
1 tag
1 tag
3 tags
2 tags
1 tag
"Iron Man 3" punches the clock
You can see what they were thinking with Iron Man 3. After the escalating robotic carnage of the first two films in the franchise, followed by the grand fracas of The Avengers—in which Iron Man went through a wormhole to another part of the universe, then plopped back down to the pavement just in time for happy hour at Guy Fieri’s—it must have seemed like it was time for a relatively low-key...
1 tag
1 tag
April 2013
2 tags
5 tags
4 tags
1 tag
1 tag
What to say (and not to say) on social media when...
Like many people across the country, I was at work on Monday when the Boston Marathon was hit by a deadly attack. The nation’s attention was riveted on the tragic scene unfolding in Copley Square. There was nothing we could do except watch, hope that the worst was over, and…talk. Talk on Twitter, talk on Facebook, talk on Tumblr.
Many expressed condolences. Others voiced anger. News...
3 tags
6 tags
4 tags
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
March 2013
3 tags
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
Mug shot magazines: Why are they legal? Should...
In Minnesota, as in most states, booking photos—a.k.a. mug shots—are part of public record. Recently, private organizations have been making the most unflattering of these available online or in printed tabloids, sold mostly in convenience stores for a small profit. Some of these will remove photos for a payment.
Should these mug shots be released to the public before a conviction? If these...
1 tag
Is an artist's life thankless? Not if you count...
When I was growing up my mother would always remind me to say “thank you” whenever someone complimented me. Actually, it wasn’t so much reminding as it was public nagging—as though it would never occur to me to show gratitude on my own. If I told her of praise I had gotten during the day she would respond with, “Did you remember to say thank you?” and I would always make sure to tell her that I...
3 tags
1 tag
4 tags
1 tag
Best posts in University of Minnesota Secret...
As has happened at other colleges and universities, a Facebook page has cropped up for “University of Minnesota Secret Admirers.” The way it works: U of M students (or whomever) submit “admirations” anonymously via a Google form, and an administrator of the Facebook page posts them for all to see. Here are some of the best posted recently.
“To the guy who looks...
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
How to market yourself on social media: 11 tips...
Social networking is a tool: it will give you nothing more than you put into it, and how you use it will determine your results. If social networks weren’t so great for promoting my artwork I wouldn’t partake in them, but since so many great opportunities have come to me via social media I’d be crazy not to use them to the best of my abilities. Here are some tips to getting the most out of...
February 2013
1 tag
2 tags
