Rake Against the Machine
Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union, has the rugged good looks of a guy who’s been in his fair share of scraps. With his bawdy East Coast accent and bulging nose,...
View ArticleDowntown Militarized Zone
Photos by India Bell Hard to believe that as recently as Sunday, downtown Saint Paul was a bucolic paradise ringed in chain link, the peace kept by strapping young men with plastic handcuffs. Sadly,...
View ArticleLogging Those Frequent Diner Miles
What’s next, green stamps? With the cost of food and dining going up, and the economy going down, restaurants are scrambling to find new ways of keeping diners coming in the doors. Both Parasole, Inc....
View ArticleA Sventabulous Time!
What is it about Sven Sundgaard? All the other news anchors are just news anchors; chipper, vaguely good looking, with the ability to pull off a solid color pantsuit. But Sven, there’s just something...
View ArticleThere's More Than One Bristol
So, one of my fellow bloggers called my keen political insights "garbage" and asked me to go back to writing about cars. I will gladly fulfill your wish. In fact, how about if I write about both? I...
View ArticleWhy Party Like a Rock Star When You Can Party Like a Delegate?
Not yet near the doors of the Minneapolis Convention Center Sunday night and I am already handed Republican swag, in the form of a DVD. This DVD "as seen on CNN and FOX News" depicts on its cover the...
View ArticlePolitics Lite: Inside the Xcel
After popping into PetSmart for a new dog tag and Home Depot for some new levelers, I head right next door to the Doubletree Park Place in St. Louis Park. How convenient! My plan is to catch a ride to...
View ArticleProtest Music for the New Millenium
(Todd Smith already wrote this article) On stage, Steve Earle led the crowd in a sing-a-long of "Steve’s Hammer (for Pete)" – a song that picks up on that parenthetical Pete (Seeger)’s "If I Had a...
View ArticleMayhem at Mickey's Diner
Let me start off by saying, I’m not a particularly political person. I care, don’t get me wrong, but I just prefer to do what I do best, staying in the pretty bubble of art, music and what-have-you. I...
View ArticleCountry, and Republicans, First
It was Day 2 of the Republican National Convention and The Rake was seated proudly in the "minor local media" section. With CityPages at our side, God as our witness and no actual view of the stage,...
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