North By Nordeast

via heavytable.com

Little diddy we did about Dusty's. WACSO.

Posted via email from The Gut Manifesto

Drink Local

via heavytable.com

Pints and Jameson and nooks and crannies. Another piece WACSO and I worked on for Heavy Table.

Jackie Gleason

via cinematical.com

Why don't you see interviews like this anymore? Watch all three parts.

Ode to Sausage Gravy

via heavytable.com

WACSO and I did another piece for Heavy Table. We covered Bonnie's Cafe in St. Paul. I'm still digesting.

Went to The Gopher Bar. Got Cussed at. Wrote about it.

via heavytable.com

A while back WACSO and I went to The Gopher Bar and documented what happened. The result is posted at Heavy Table. Warning: This article is not for the faint of heart, but neither is The Gopher Bar. If you're at all offended by cussin', don't even think about clicking this link. And remember, I wasn't the one who said these things. I just documented it. Don't kill the messenger.

Could Central Park happen today?

Recently, my wife and I spent an afternoon cross country skiing with our kids at a little nature preserve smack dab in the middle of the city. Coincidentally, I spent that night feeling like I'd been beaten about the arms and legs with a sap. But as I lay there wishing for sweet, sweet ibruprophren-induced relief, I couldn't help thinking again how fantastic it is that we live in a city that values open spaces.

In an environment where city leaders are forced to dig under every couch cushion in their metro area for spare change to keep the lights on, it can't be easy for them to withstand the pressure to sell-off every spec of green to the highest bidder.

So I guess this is a just me handing out props to those leaders past and present (sadly, mostly past) with enough vision to see that a city isn't just defined by the corporations headquartered there, or the housing density, or the number of shopping centers and restaurants. A city is also defined by the space between these things.

I wonder if a huge, free, public green space like Central Park could happen in a major metropolitan area today. I wonder if there are any visionaries with the fortitude to fight for something like that.

Are You A Writer Or A Talker?

First, check this out. It's Roger Ebert writing about the virtues of real movie audiences versus industry types...

There is also the matter of how people laugh: Are they responding, or informing? At the Music Box, the audience seemed to respond as an organic whole. At most festivals and all industry screenings, they seem made more of individual voices essentially saying: "I'm instructing you that that was funny."

via blogs.suntimes.com

Sometimes a writer just nails it, distilling an idea into a simple, perfect passage. Ebert does this time and again.

Like almost everyone I know, I grew up knowing Roger Ebert as one half of the two thumbs. The fat one. A talker, not a writer.

Then somehow I ended up reading this incredible post on his blog. Then recently I read this Esquire piece about him. Then his perfect response to that piece. Then an article Ebert himself linked to written by a journalist imploring other journalists to take the Esquire piece as a call to arms. Then I began following him on Twitter. Basically, I'm stalking Roger Ebert. Call the cops.

Now I know Ebert as he really is. A writer, not a talker.

If I could reverse time and change the events that lead to his current condition, I would. But I'd do it with the bittersweet knowledge that the world may never get a chance to met this side of him. And that would suck.

You don't have to love movies, to love his blog.

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