"Rabbit: An Original Rabbit Tragedy" at Bedlam Theatre East

Photo: Bedlam Theatre

I've never liked theater. I'm turned off by the pretension and the all-too-common tropes (chanting in unison). And I hate audience participation. Please, please, please just let's keep that alienation between the audience and performer intact.

I still kind of feel those things. But I've seen so many revelatory performances at the Bedlam Theatre that now when I complain about theater, I'm aware that my words don't ring exactly true anymore. I do like theater. Just not the vast majority of it. But that's not different than art forms I really care about: music or stories. I still don't like much art (unless you're willing to count comic books).

I saw the show "Rabbit: An Original Rabbit Tragedy" at the Bedlam's new St. Paul space last night. It was written by longtime Bedlam cohorts Jon Mac Cole and Savannah Reich, who also directed it along with Christopher Allen.

The stage is minimal, an arch painted with the image of a bird and propped up by two ladders. The Greek choir shift between roles mostly by changing the ears they wear to represent the different animals. The set and costumes looked nice and didn't get in the way of what I liked best: the story.

It's set in an imaginary world of animals that's both gritty, as in being born in a junk yard, and fantastical, as in rabbits starting bands and reading novels. The main rabbit, Jonathan, is an oddball from the start. He doesn't get along with his brothers and sisters and is out of step with those things that most rabbits seem to know naturally. Eventually, he picks up some magic tricks by spying on a badger, which helps him woo a female rabbit. They shack up in an abandoned car. But one day he gets picked up by a bird, and carried somewhere far away.

The rest of the story is about his struggle to get home and his constant failure. Unknown to Jonathan, one of his daughters that is born while he's away is an oddball too. Her favorite thing in the world is a fantasy novel, she idolizes the author and dreams of working for him. She hates her home, and when her band breaks up, she sets off to meet the author at a sci-fi and fantasy convention. Of course, she and Jonathan meet. But they never find out they're related. Despite the fuzzy ears worn by the actors, the ending, as I think is probably fitting in a tragedy, leaves any shreds of hopefulness on the ground. And I loved it.

Voter fraud investigation leaves out lots of cases in Minnesota

A new investigation by News21, an in-depth reporting project, says that Minnesota has only had 10 alleged election fraud cases since 2000. 

It got big play at a variety of national and regional media venues. The Philly Inquirer's headline read: Investigation: election day fraud 'virtually nonexistent'

But they miss tons of cases in the state that I found with a quick Google search.  

On their website, News21 says they sent out more than 2,000 public record requests to officials across the country. They say reporters then tried to fill in blanks left by uncooperative officials with court documents and media reports. 

News21 came up with 10 cases in Minnesota since 2000. Most of those 10 are footnoted by stories in smaller papers or cite the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Here are some of the results I found:

MPR requested voter fraud conviction data for every county in the state in late 2011: "The data, collected by the Minnesota Supreme Court, shows that 144 people have been convicted of voter fraud since 2009." 

And on the page marked 7 in this document is a breakdown of just Ramsey County, 114 convicted or pleaded guilty in cases that arose between 2006-2011 (just in Ramsey County!). 

I don't expect them to have discovered every incident of voter fraud ever (and they don't either, according to their website). But these are easy pickings. 

Maybe it's a mistake, maybe it's a stray algorithm, or maybe Minnesota officials were just very difficult to get information from. I don't know. So, I wrote an email to News21 asking why more cases weren't documented. I didn't receive a response. I'll update this post if I do. 

Does the fact that the investigation leaves out at least 134 voter fraud cases that the state Supreme Court compiled undermine their thesis, which is that Voter ID laws are a solution in search of a problem? Not necessarily, because a brief glance at these cases show that most of them wouldn't be impacted by voter ID laws anyway. But it makes you question their research. 

Sing another song: Nona and the Anonymous Choir play Leonard Cohen

I got off work a little after 9 p.m. It was supposed to be nine, but a nationwide swine flu outbreak had me waking up county fair managers across the state to ask about precautions they're taking. Turns out that it's not a good idea to pet a sick-looking pig.

Still, I got to the show well before it was supposed to start. I'd been excited since I first heard about it. Leonard Cohen was one of the first non-punk musicians I got really into growing up. Each of his albums holds a different place in my life, for when I discovered it, or when I gave it another chance and found I liked it.

And Nona, of Dark Dark Dark, is one of the most talented musicians around. I still have a couple copies of a CDR I traded them when I was running a short-lived distro in the mid- to late-2000s. They've developed a seriousness that I can now hear in their early stuff, quirky songs about winter in Minnesota performed in matching marching band uniforms. Their brand of minor-keyed yearning is a perfect fit for Leonard Cohen.

The show was at the new Icehouse on Nicollet Avenue. As we rode past the old Vietnamese restaurants and Asian groceries from the Greenway, it's almost like you could literally see Uptown sprawling towards us. It wouldn't surprise me to see all those businesses disappear sometime soon, especially if the city succeeds in its quest to tear down the monstrous K-Mart that blocks off Nicollet Avenue (which I hope they do). When those places are replaced with the next trendy eatery catering only to Uptown folks, it will be a shame, and a loss for the city's culture.

The venue was dark and expensive. There were about 14 women on stage, lined up in front of four microphones. Nona played piano and sang, and it seemed like each song was introduced by piano and voice before the choir joined in. Their voices were pretty, and the orchestration was restrained. Sometimes the chorus rose up behind Nona, only to fall quiet just when you expected it to break into the good sort of cacophony.

Many of the songs are that stark acoustic guitar and two angelic backup singers that characterizes early Leonard Cohen. I would love to hear some of the more crazed "Songs of Love and Hate" tunes done like this. But it was good. With fall coming, it was nice to wear a sweater outside the house. And the music seemed set to the season.

I bought my mom a copy of the tape. I hope she has a cassette player.

Here's the link to the cassette tape and download.

Dan Penn at Treehouse Records

I saw Dan Penn, legendary songwriter of classics like "Dark End of the Street," perform at an in-store at Treehouse Records on Saturday. He played with Bobby Emmons. It was amazing.

Penn grew up in rural Alabama on a "one-mule farm." 

Penn told Rick Mason at the Star Tribune last year: 


"I was a farm boy," he said, "but at night I'd listen to R&B. I listened to my little green radio. I had my own little room. After everybody'd go to sleep, I'd listen to WLAC in Nashville. That was my education."

Here's a rough recording of Penn's performance of "Dark End of the Street." It was recorded on an iPhone in my pocket.

On Tom Rukavina's retirement

I covered the State Capitol for the American Consolidated Newspaper chain in northeast Minnesota for two years. It was fascinating to cover the region, with its unique history and culture.

Rep. Tom Rukavina represented that political culture. His announcement that he's retiring from the State House of Representatives after 26 years had me thinking about his unique political roots. I did a story about his own history when he was running for Minnesota governor in 2010.

Here are some interesting snippets from the pre-published draft.

[SNIP]

Rukavina can trace his Iron Range pedigree back to his grandparents on both sides.  His grandfather on his father's side worked in the mines and his maternal grandfather homesteaded near Orr.  

"I was raised right on the north-side of Virginia, right on the last street in town, right on the edge of one of the mine pits," Rukavina says. "I played in the mine pits as a little kid and I worked in that same mine pit as a college student -- and my father worked in that mine."

His aunt lived next door and his grandmother lived across town. It was, Rukavina says, "a beautiful life" that he wants to preserve as an option for future generations through his candidacy.

[SNIP]

In his youth, it was the still the Iron Range where people of Croatian-descent worked in the mines next to Italians and lived next door to Finns, sometimes in houses owned by mining companies.

"There weren't very many places in other parts of the state where you had all of these different nationalities living next door to each other," Rukavina says. "Up there, it was mostly different ethnic groups living right amongst each other."  

Mines, and challenges to their authority, are central to the Iron Range character, he says.

"Our economy and our culture totally revolves around mining. I'm not ashamed of that, nor are most Iron Range people," he says. "We've produced for this country over a hundred years, we've won a couple of World Wars and we basically built this nation. I'm really proud of that."

It was as a part of this tight-knit community that Rukavina learned the personal approach he'd take into politics, where he's well-liked on both sides of aisle for his sharp wit.

"Where I come from people kind of say what's on their mind, don't pull any punches," he says of Iron Rangers. "They're very nice people, they're honest people, they're honest with you about their feelings."

[SNIP]

Raised in a union family
His father was an organizer for the United Steelworkers of America. His aunts, uncles and mother were also involved in unions.

"I learned early about strikes and standing up for what you believe in, and I've been involved in a number of them myself," he says. "I think it has a lot to do with the whole mentality of the Iron Range even to this day."

Sometimes just a few of the mines went on strike, but once in a while all the unions struck and the Iron Range shut down. It wasn't without hardship.

"I can remember my dad crying when I was a little kid. When I was five years old, I could overhear my dad telling my mother there wasn't going to be a Christmas," Rukavina says. "My ears were always open and my nose was always somewhere it shouldn't have been, even when I was a little kid. But I can remember thinking, 'What the hell is this union about that we're not going to have Santa Claus?'"

Rukavina's a well-known advocate for working people at the Capitol, against both private intrusion through labor violations and public intrusion through opposition to smoking ban and other "police state" measures.

In his calendar, Rukavina carries a letter his father wrote to a newspaper in 1963 challenging the chairman of U.S. Steel to a debate about the mining companies' control of the Iron Range.

"I've been around labor unions all my life and I have labor beliefs," he says. "I've been around relatives that have been involved in their union and never had a problem with speaking up in defense of their fellow workers, so that's why I speak up for the underdog."

The Farmer-Labor wing of DFL
Rukavina's been a milkman, a garbageman and miner. But he's also spent almost a quarter century in the state House of Representatives.

[SNIP]

"I've had a good life, I'm proud of my children, I'm proud of my legislative career," Rukavina says. "I don't need to be doing this for anything other than the fact that I think that I can really contribute to the well-being of a lot of people in this state who are either being left to the side or totally ignored."

The K Street Shuffle: Tool shows how Minnesota companies influence political process

The Sunlight Foundation just launched a new tool called the Influence Explorer that breaks down public data on how companies try to influence the political process.

The data includes campaign donations, PAC donations and lobbyist bundling.

Here are some local examples:

Target Corporation has lobbied against labor, food standards and credit card fees. The corporation gave over $6.3 million in political donations between 1989-2012 (click image to enlarge).

Source: Income Explorer, Sunlight Foundation

3M has given $4.2 million to political campaigns between 1989-2012, most of it, 67 percent to Republicans.

Source: Influence Explorer, Sunlight Foundation

Best Buy has also given $1.8 million between 1989-2012, much of it in later years. That company too has given disproportionately to Republicans, with 65 percent going to the GOP and only 12 to Democrats (the rest are identified as other). The company lobbied on issues like the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 and the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Source: Influence Explorer, Sunlight Foundation

At the current site of Minnehaha Liquor...

I just realized that I'm the sort of person who carries their Historical Society library card at all times.

Minneapolis-Moline, Lake Street and Minnehaha, Minneapolis.

Photograph Collection ca. 1895 (Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)

Do I want to make tea at the BBC? Yes.

(Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)

On Wednesday I received a call from executives at the American Independent News Network, which owned the longrunning news site I briefly ran, the Minnesota Independent.

Following a little media furor in which I played the uncomfortable role of being one of the subjects of a story, I find myself among the ranks of unemployed journalists again.

As I joked to a former boss: It's not that bad, I live very close to a county food stamp office.

I'm not interested in trashing my former employer, although I might not be happy that they chose to close down the sites, or the way they went about it.

But a question from a reporter made me want to articulate why we do this journalism thing. That's the sort of question that gets lost in the day-to-day of trying to rework blocks of words into something that is, at the least, comprehensible. Before someone else points it out, I should: it's naive, I know.

Although the Independent was widely described as lefty, I always thought of it as a throwback to the great American tradition of muckraking (although I realize not all MnIndy writers throughout the years thought of it similarly). Maybe I just feel this way because higher-ups mostly left me alone to work on the projects I was interested in, both as a freelancer and staff writer.

Like all Twin Cities media venues, we posted short pieces on controversial comments from Michele Bachmann. But we also posted in-depth (sometimes so deep it was confusing) stories about organizations or corporations that were trying to influence public policy from the shadows. No one has yet been able to adequately explain to me why the local legacy media, with all their reporters and money, rarely cover stories like that (although there are a few very fine examples to the contrary).

Why did not one "respectable" big local news venue pick up stories about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Minnesota? It wasn't because I reported everything there was on the issue; my access and resources are way more limited than any of the big three media around here. It's not that ALEC doesn't influence the political system, all would agree that it has. It's at least partly because the complex, controversial topic gets lost amidst soap operas about stuff like the new Vikings Stadium.

But if we look at the holy Bible of our profession (according to me), that's the sort of thing we're supposed to report, whether it seems like a left-wing or right-wing issue. Like doctors have an overarching mission, we do too, at least in theory.

"Recognize a special obligation to ensure that the public's business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection," our SPJ Code of Ethics says, distinguishing representing the public's interests from advocacy.

Sure, there were imperfections with MnIndy, and there was the schlock and UV-bait that comes with almost all political and online reporting these days. But what's most upsetting to me (or as much as the loss of a steady paycheck)is the loss of this venue where so many of the local journalists I most respect spent some time and pushed the political dial more towards openness. It's that we have one less news organization shamelessly doing some of that good, solid work that's supposed to be one of the core responsibilities of our profession.

Naive. I know.

City Pages Missed One Well-Manicured House in Powderhorn

I've lived in South Minneapolis for a long time. Reading food writer Rachel Hutton's City Pages piece on the (wonderful) Modern Times, I felt ill (and their food is great).

I'm not a neighborhood booster, but as a journalist, I wish desperately we could cover neighborhoods that don't have money without making that the hook of the story, without using the fact that much of the country is in dire fucking economic straits to elicit sympathy, respect or revulsion.

Here's an example: "The paper is called the Southside Pride, and Powderhorn often feels like it could use a little more of it. Everywhere there are signs that its residents aren't quite keeping up: gutters sag, concrete crumbles, paint flakes, and lawns go to seed. Dead vines and rusty bicycles seem to predominate as home decor."

I lived in Phillips right across Lake Street for seven years. I live in Powderhorn Park now. Everywhere, people are decent, people are irritating (especially my Phillips neighbor who'd play shitty guitar in his living room for all the block to hear). But only in Powderhorn, while working with my sainted mother in my front yard garden, have I had teenagers say politely, "Hello," as they walked by to cause who-knows-what trouble.

Not everything is positive, but the neighborhood routinely makes the best it can of bad situations, 1 ,2. And crime rates here in Powderhorn Park, and most areas of the Powderhorn community, are lower than crime rates in most areas known as Uptown. Seriously.

I'm sure Hutton is a good, decent person. She and her motives and her grammar aren't worth quibbling about. What is worth thinking about is the serious deficit in the journalism world (from the Star Tribune to the City Pages) of people who can represent the experiences of have-nots—the people whose lawns aren't promptly mowed during storm season. Chino Latino is one thing; Mercado Central is another.

The Powderhorn (and overall southside) community is one of the most diverse Minneapolis communities, not in the way that some liberals use "diversity" as code for de-facto segregation, but in the way that whites, American Indians, blacks and Latinos live here, mostly without squabbling. Check the census.

Yes, the Modern Times is awesome. But so is the community it sprouted from: rusty bikers, concrete crumblers, gutter saggers and dirty-hairs.

What does South Minneapolis mean to you? Please leave your comments (or send them to me)!

Chokecherry: In the Wine Press (Human Grapes Sing Not Nor Dance)

I'm trying to figure out the best way to make an oral history project I'm doing on Minnesota journalists available digitally. So I uploaded the final Chokecherry album.

It's called "In the Wine Press (Human Grapes Sing Not Nor Dance)."

The player below has all 16 tracks (although they're not all visible). If you follow the link, you can download the entire album. If you want a hard copy, email me and I'll give you one free (it has artwork that's well worth it).

Dayton intimates funded Emmer DWI ad

The organization that paid for a controversial ad that takes Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer to task for two past DWI arrests was funded mostly by donations from the ex-wife and aunt of Democratic candidate Mark Dayton.

Dayton’s ex-wife, Alida Rockefeller Messinger, donated the $500,000 to Win Minnesota Political Action Committee (PAC) towards the end of May; Mary Lee Dayton, the candidate’s aunt, donated $250,000 to the PAC in April; other Daytons also contributed amounts ranging from $1,000 to $50,000, according to documents filed with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.

The Win Minnesota PAC then funneled $900,000 to the Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund, which put out the controversial Emmer ad this week and made large ad buys in mid-July. The Alliance is also funded by the 2010 Fund, which receives more labor unions like Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Education Minnesota and AFSCME, as well as smaller donations from Messinger.

Here are some of the filings:

Win Minnesota PAC

Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund

2010 Fund

The Republican Party of Minnesota released a statement yesterday about this. Here's the video, which Emmer said is insulting.

Top Secret Minnesota: What Minnesota companies are part of the secret intelligence network?

The Washington Post is midway through a series on the huge network of intelligence operations that sprouted up after 9/11. Like much of the rest of our national security, the network is dominated by private contractors and packed with redundancies -- no one knows how many people are being employed or at what cost. Even top political and intelligence leaders don't know the scope of the operations.

The series is called Top Secret America. It took a dozen reporters two years to dig up all the info, much of it from anonymous sources. The Post reporters managed to find out what companies received contracts, although there's little information about what they do or how much government money they receive.

Minnesota companies according to the reporting's awesome data feature:

Link: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/

Something to remember for media folks: Truth Seeking

The length of this quote prevents me from posting it on dumb, old Twitter. It's so nice though, and I wish political reporters would latch onto this as a mission that distinguishes us in the public mind from political hacks.

"If your job is to make the case, win the negotiations, decide what the community should do, or maintain morale, that is one kind of work. If your job is to tell people what’s going on, and equip them to participate without illusions, that is a very different kind of work. To put it a little more sharply, power-seeking and truth-seeking are different behaviors, and this is what creates the distinction between politics and journalism. The work of the journalist cannot be done without a commitment to the act of reporting, which means gathering information, talking to people who know, trying to verify and clarify what actually happened and to portray the range of views as they emerge from events."

--Jay Rosen

Always tell the voter what the voter wants to hear: Punk Iceland

So a Jello Biafra-sort was elected mayor of Reykjavik (in Iceland). His name is Jon Gnarr and he's a professional comedian known for playing a bald communist; the New York Times calls him Mr. Gnarr.

For a sub-species of attention-seeking punks, political campaigns have always been provocation catnip: Biafra, McLaren, Giuliani.

Biafra, for instance, satirized the way government works by proposing a Board of Bribery. But he also proposed that police be elected by local communities -- a reasonable idea that just isn't politically viable. The tendency is vaguely analogous to Antanas Mockus, the lovable wingnut who was crushed by the mainstream opponent in the Colombian presidential election (but he made a decent showing, considering the vote occurred while the World Cup was happening).

But Gnarr now finds himself in the position of being mayor while Biafra came in fourth place in America's most leftist city. Now Gnarr's got to convert all these satires (like building Disneyland at the airport) into political proposals that can allow him to govern in the wake of Iceland's huge financial catastrophe.

It will be interesting to see if Gnarr (now in charge of a city with one-fourth the population of Minneapolis) will be able to transcend satire and work with the remaining mainstream parties. At least he insists any political partners must watch The Wire first.

In the New York Times piece, which dwelled on eccentric beards and mini-dresses (probably the NY Times expects corsets and handlebar mustaches) Gnarr sounded optimistic, saying: “Of all the projects I’ve been involved with, this one has given me the most satisfaction, the greatest sense of contentment.”

In Minnesota, we've done the Jesse Ventura thing, now maybe we just need Paddy from Dillinger Four to run for governor. Or, that failing, The Strike could always be lured back.

Link: NY Times

Orwell's wartime diaries released

Still tied to the specters of the lost-cause Spanish Civil War, George Orwell kept an extensive wartime diary from England as the Axis swallowed up Europe in World War Two. He meant for the diary to be printed, but publishers were afraid it would offend people in the wake of that conflict.

But the Orwell Trust has released the diary in blog form at orwelldiaries.wordpress.com.

The diary gives some insight into some of Orwell's later work (you know which books I mean). It's important to remember that he was a socialist and unrepentant social critic, both of authoritarian communism and democratic capitalism (although a supporter of the war effort due to his experiences in the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War).

Here's one about censorship: "In the middle of a fearful battle in which, I suppose, thousands of men are being killed every day, one has the impression that there is no news"

Propaganda: "Huge advert on the side of a bus: “FIRST AID IN WARTIME. FOR HEALTH, STRENGTH AND FORTITUDE. WRIGLEY’S CHEWING GUM.”

Gardens: "Still, not warm, overcast but no rain. Sowed kale, savoys, sprouts, lettuce (cos), radishes. (Not broccoli, as the seed I have is of a late kind, to be sowed about May-June). Also leeks, 10-week stocks, foxgloves. Planted out 1 score cos lettuce. (Paid 4^d). Don’t know whether they will survive – probably not if there is a sharp frost. Put awning of sacking over the plants. Applied a little fertiliser (Woolworths, 6^d) to the grass. Ground could now do with a spot of rain."

Link farm for mid-June: bush nuts, moonies and egg-free scones

Pine mouth: This is why people should watch out for Trader Joe's discount "natural foods" line, their pine nuts (made in China with who knows what chemicals) temporarily changed some people's sense of taste, making everything taste metallic. And you thought Chinese products only contained lead and melamine.

Vegan police: This might be of interest to Minneapolitans, a former local co-oper (Disclosure: I know him pretty well) currently in Portland kicked a cop out of the cooperatively-run Red and Black cooperatively-run cafe. It stirred the inevitable shit-storm on the Portland Mercury's website. The worker thought the police presence might intimidate activists and homeless regulars (there have been some high-profile police brutality incidents lately in Portland). Commenters do not agree, to put it lightly. They're calling for a boycott. My guess, remembering the Hard Times Cafe's problems with local authorities, is it might not turn out well for the business.

Mayoral moonings: The Green Party in Colombia is threatening to defeat the ruling party by running the eccentric former Bogota mayor, Antanas Mockus, who gained countrywide fame by mooning an auditorium full of pissed off students in 1993.

WCCO punks: Pat Miles' 1983 report on Minneapolis punk. Who will do a report on this "hip-hop" thing for us?

Big Schtick: Pawlenty on Daily Show

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a showing on the Daily Show Thursday. Jon Stewart didn't press him on government shutdowns, illegal unallotments or cascading budget deficits, but they did talk about how we have the friendliest anarchists. True.



Part One

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Tim Pawlenty Unedited Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Part Two

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Tim Pawlenty Unedited Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Part Three

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Tim Pawlenty Unedited Interview Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

If Lt. Governor doesn't mean anything: Robyne Robinson might be perfect

The position of lieutenant governor in Minnesota is essentially powerless. Apart from a possible advisory role to the all-powerful Minnesota governor, they broaden a candidates appeal during the election, only to serve as a prop at official functions during the administration.

Because of this, the science of choosing a gubernatorial running mate is pretty sketchy, based on assumption and political superstition.

There's the schools of thought that focuses on distributing the ticket across demographic lines: geography and gender (every major ticket DFL and Republican is mixed gender), see Mark Dayton's choice of state Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon of Duluth.

There are also attempts to score points with the base, see: Tom Emmer's choice of Conservative think-tanker Annette Meeks.

Finally, wonkiness. Margaret Anderson Kelliher chose surprisingly witty budget nerd John Gunyou.

Now, what is up with Matt Entenza's choice of professional Fox9 news-reader Robyne Robinson?

She's high-profile in the state. That helps Entenza's campaign, which is struggling to get his name out there -- Republicans pointed this out right away with an onslaught of press releases (all Republican talking points are always echoed at Minnesota Democrats Exposed if you care to see them).

But Robinson is also relatively popular. She's inoffensively progressive and a common sight at community events. She's an easy plus with the general public and casual DFLers who might vote in the August primary, where Entenza is currently focused.

The addition of Robinson is ethically problematic if we consider her a journalist (to describe her as a journalist further confuses the public about what actual journalists do, as MinnPost's Joe Kimball hinted at when Robinson declared she had 20 years experience covering the Capitol).

By choosing Robinson, whose political stances are fuzzy -- rather than someone chosen for geography, ideology or expertise -- Entenza can reap the publicity from someone whose job is to sound and look good. Entenza's choice of Robinson could be looked at as cynical, but he might have hit on the most effective approach for a position that's largely decorative anyway.

David Simon trashes awards mentality at SPJ awards in St. Paul

"No difference to them between selling journalism and selling bran flakes"

David Simon, creator of "The Wire," spoke at the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalism's Page One awards ceremony Friday, May 21. For those of us who couldn't afford the $40-50 tickets, here's the video. Go to the 2:40 mark to skip the introduction by Neal Justin of the Star Tribune and get right to Simon's speech.

(Simon answers questions)

Simon uses the opportunity to trash the awards mentality: "I'm going to believe that all of these were won by people who were doing organic journalism who didn't give a fucking thought to what they were going to submit for a prize."

He makes an argument based on his experience at the Baltimore Sun that beat-based journalism keeps reporters and the journalism industry honest:

"The best reporters were pulled off. In a city where the unions were being devoured, the working class was being destroyed, we ceased to have a labor reporter. In a city where case work was starting to collapse because the police department was in dysfunction, we no longer covered the courthouse where those cases washed up. We no longer had a poverty reporter in one of the most impoverished cities in America, we didn't cover the Clinton cutbacks [to the social service net] in any systemic way. Those beats were all gone."

On careerists:

"They came in from some other city because it was a chain, and they looked upon the city of Baltimore not as a place to be covered, to look upon as your terrain something you need to own and understand as journalists, they looked upon it as the place they were going to spend the next three years and they were going to win enough prizes to get somewhere else."

How to save journalism

Content: "You can't save it by trying to tell people your newspaper is their friend or that you're going to help them with the little problems in life or some better ways of presenting your bullshit... what matters is that you cover the city."

Pay Walls: Should go up to prop up revenue model, starting with New York Times and Washington Post (assuming those two companies aren't part of a conspiracy to kill regional papers, Simon says).

BP Fails Booming School 101 Gulf Oil Spill

This is an amazing video, a la John Goodman's rants on HBO's Treme. I love it. She takes down BP, Obama and the media. There's a lot of profanity in the second half, but it's profanity that's done well, in the service of teaching us about booming, or the method for limiting oil spills. And I for one fucking approve.

Skip to 2:00 minutes to learn about "fucking proper fucking booming," which it seems British Petroleum hasn't been doing well.

Here's a reminder for media folks: "All media contacts, please consult actual booming experts. There are about 100. If you can't find one in time for your show tonight, you're a bad fucking journalist. Now finding one that's not afraid of BP, that might be a challenge, but you're fucking up to it."