Bachmann “born in Canada,” and the saga of Silly the cat
Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the weekend. Here are some things to think about as the workweek begins.
• Barack Obama did a super job presidenting this weekend. It’s almost a shame that his White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech from Saturday night has been overshadowed by the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death. (Okay, it’s not really a shame at all.) But now that Obama has come off as a badass avenger and vanquisher of evildoers, let us not forget the skillful skewering of Minnesota politicians that he threw down Saturday. And, oh yeah, let’s do the best job we can at making people believe that Michele Bachmann was born in Canada. Here’s the president making fun of not just one Minnesotan, but two.
• How many developments are undertaken with the idea that they will bring people of all income levels and backgrounds together to live harmoniously, in this case in a hulking, multi-colored mélange of ’70s funk? Minnesota’s most famous failed utopia, the Ralph Rapson-designed towers, currently known as Cedar-Riverside on the West Bank, are getting a second burst of life. Sure, they didn’t turn out as planned, and, as this MinnPost article about the towers points out, they are now frequently referred to as the “slum in the sky.” Now a developer is injecting $132 million into the complex, which is good news, because it apparently takes 30 minutes for warm water to get to some of the units in the complex.
• As readers of The A.V. Club, you’re likely wealthy scenesters/property developers/entrepreneurs on the lookout for a piece of Minnesota music history to call your own. Since Prince is managing to hang on to all of his crap, the best real estate opportunity right now is Pachyderm studio in Cannon Falls, which went up for sale this past weekend. Famed as the studio where Nirvana recorded In Utero and where Soul Asylum recorded the song “Runaway Train,” the foreclosed space can now be yours. (Apologies if “Runaway Train” is now in your head for the next three weeks.) Haley Bonar recorded at the Pachyderm for her 2006 album, and has only good things to say. “It’s just got this beautiful reverb on it without being a concert hall,” Bonar told MPR.
• Brave New Workshop, the Dudley Riggs-founded theater that has long called Uptown its home, will be expanding downtown. On Friday it was announced that the deal to purchase the old Hennepin Stages Theater was successful, after the group originally announced its intention to buy the space back in January. The old digs in Uptown will remain for classes and events, but the shows with puns in the titles will be moving to the expanded space downtown.
• And finally, the tragedy of Silly the cat.
