Nancy Drew had it all. A car, a boyfriend, two loyal best friends, a housekeeper who made excellent baked goods and a father who allowed his little girl to pursue dangerous criminals. Oh, and modesty,...

WE hide in dark crevices, waiting for the chance to strike. WE do not go after the enemy, but rather, entice the enemy to come to US, come to OUR turf. WE know that here, WE control the rules and no matter...

>"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different than you and me" - F. Scott Fitzgerald The Twin Cities have neither the old money of the East nor the new glitz of the West, but St. Paul did...

Each year the Sound Unseen film festival offers a look into music beyond just the sounds. Whether the films focus on a single artist or explore an entire genre and movement, they unveil hidden stories...

Our politically correct times have rid fairs and carnivals of one of their most defining traditions - freak shows. The sideshows satisfied the exploitative and voyeuristic compulsions in American culture...

VH1 Classics cares more about the birth of MTV 25 years ago than MTV does. In fact, it seems everyone else and their mother cares more about MTV's historic beginnings than the cable channel. While VH1...

Throughout CSS' debut album, the group, especially lead singer Lovefoxxx, keeps a cool, jaded disposition. The Brazilian band whose initials stand for "cansei de ser sexy," (Portuguese for "tired of being...

Punk rock never has sounded more radiant or catchy than when in the hands of The Buzzcocks. The band - which formed in 1975 in Manchester, England - was one of the most influential outfits in punk's beginnings....

If we don't absorb every drop of sunshine now, all of us in Minnesota will have serious vitamin D deficiencies in the winter. Before the snowflakes begin to fall again (all too soon, always all too soon)...

Perhaps all our parents' and teachers' encouragements of "do what you love" has a consequence. While some college students pick careers based on projected income, there is a cultural attitude that we should...

When Desdamona takes the stage and rocks the mic, she's not always accepted as a true artist. "There's the assumption that I'm somebody's girlfriend," said the local rapper. "Even as a performer you get...

Our memories are defined by photographs. When we think back to childhood, what we looked like, what are parents and friends looked like, usually we see images from photos. With cameras now digitized and...

For a Jackson Pollock painting, the visual impact has much to do with the physical process of the painting. Pollock did not daintily paint from an easel; rather, he danced around his work splayed on the...

Robert Altman films typically focus on theme over plot. He allows scenes to linger and characters to stumble and overlap, which might not advance the plot, but it lets viewers get to know a place and its...

Last summer Chris Pennington was issued a cease and desist letter for his first Ten-Second Film Festival. Pennington, a volunteer for the Soap Factory art gallery, collected videos shot on digital cameras...

Rapper Boots Riley and partner DJ Pam "The Funkstress" have made The Coup one of rap's most politically charged groups. Taking their cues from the Black Panthers, Marx and hip hoppers Public Enemy, The...

Augusten Burroughs' memoirs manage to be both hilarious and horrifying. His accounts of growing up with his mentally ill mother under the roof of her therapist and his dependency on alcohol are haunting...

Maybe it's her brightly dyed hair combined with a loud, rebellious attitude that makes Pink seem smarter and more acceptable to listen to than her pop princess contemporaries. But really, Pink is not smarter....

If you're a post-college graduate who temps, hooks up and rents, then consider yourself a delayed adult and a twixter. These terms - meant to insult - describe a now Census-acknowledged group of 20- to...

Aric McKeown subjects himself to torture on a nightly basis. He watches television. Although most people watch TV, they usually admit it reluctantly and disguise it as a guilty pleasure. TV is the lowest...

Local hip-hop group Heiruspecs performed with Atmosphere and toured the country with the likes of Lyrics Born, Ja Rule and Cake. So why would bassist Sean McPherson want to give up the life of a rap star...

Instead of an army of giant pink robots, The Flaming Lips have focused their neo-flower-power forces onto something those of us not dropping acid can fear as well. On the group's last record, "Yoshimi...

Brokeback Mountain" should have won the Best Picture Oscar. This is not a testament to the film's cinematic quality or storyline or director or actors, etc. And "Crash" might be a really good film - I...

A person can tolerate only so much noise and only so much pop. When taken in doses too large, both styles become mind-numbing. Although Sonic Youth gets credit for pioneering the artsy, post-punk avant-garde...

Unless you're 10, you probably didn't recognize the top three selling records on Billboard in the first week of March. "High School Musical," "Kidz Bop 9" and "Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious...

She is twee, he is grunge. She used to play in Belle & Sebastian, he used to play in Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age. She has a fairy charm with blond hair and big eyes, he looks rather...

Prince invites us all to a party at 3121 - his rented Los Angeles mansion decked out in a Playboy-approved decor of plush, suede couches, scented candles and hot tubs strewn with rose petals. If 2004's...

W#include td {font-size:85%; border-TOP:1px solid; border-left:1px solid;} henever Americans are worried over the state of rock, or generally just bored with ourselves, we look toward the British for salvation....

Vodka shots, cue balls and beats - every Saturday night the Dinkytowner guarantees drunkenness, pool and best of all, hip-hop. This Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of the weekly hip-hop show The...

Fighting for a cause often seems frivolous these days. Those who protest the war, fur or Angelina stealing Brad only recall the temporary idealism of 1960s hippies. It's hard not to envision youthful,...

Throughout Beth Orton's solo career, she has seemed to be stuck in a paradox. Her work with acid-tinged electronica artists Red Snapper and the Chemical Brothers has given her underground cred, and she...

College has the reputation of being a phase. We go to school, learn some trade and party hard. And then comes the time when we outgrow the shenanigans and graduate. The security blanket of higher education...

In the 1980 film "Fame," Bruno Martelli stands apart from his fellow musician classmates. The others play traditional orchestral instruments such as violins, cellos, trumpets, clarinets and pianos. But...

Dem Franchize Boyz use very little to make a big sound. A hollowed bass and finger snaps are the backbone of all their songs. They occasionally throw in a couple of catchy synthesizer loops and some horns....

Scene 1: Set in the Brady girlsí bedroom. Marcia and Cindy sit on their beds listening to Marciaís Davy Jones record. Suddenly, Jan runs into the room. JAN: Sisters, you have to hear this record I just...

It seemed improbable from the beginning. Would Minnesota girls really go wild? Sure, Joe Francis is able to coax drunken college girls at Mardi Gras, Daytona and Cancún to lift their shirts...

Mary J. Blige has been the reigning soul and hip-hop queen for more than a decade. Despite her throne, part of what makes Blige fascinating are the times she's almost fallen from it. Every album since...

I wore Elvis' ring," Wanda Jackson declares on her newest record, "I Remember Elvis." It's a claim not many can make, to have dated the King of Rock 'n' Roll. "My husband had this idea to do a tribute...

From Nico to Liz Phair to PJ Harvey, indie rock has a long-running love affair with the femme fatale frontwoman. She is not only beautiful, but also tragic and untamable; she boldly sings of her Aphrodite...

Thomas Glave wonders, What if Monica Lewinsky had been black? And what if instead of a woman, Lewinsky was a man? In his collection of essays, mostly written after 2000, Glave questions what it means to...

.The Plastic Constellations' new album, "Crusades," is closer to the myth and fantasy of "Lord of the Rings" than to CNN, but the album's artwork and lyrics capture the sense that we're in the midst of...

The most common criticism of the new Ashlee Simpson album, "I Am Me," is that Jessica's lil' sis' ain't keepin' it real. Ashlee is phony, unconvincing, artificial, polished and sipping on some major Fakerade,...

She's stuck off in this little room / With nothing left to hold on to / Her life is in a little box / She's wondering will it ever stop / The life of a stripper" " Ying Yang Twins, "Live Again" Fake tans,...

It's Jamaican dancehall at Trinidad Soca speeds underneath hip-hop from the United States. It is reggaeton and it will soon, if it hasn't already, take over your dance floor. With reggaeton hyped as the...

The holiday season is always full of cheer " maybe because everyone gets blitzed. Whether you need alcohol to put the "happy" in "holidays" or simply to survive your family, you might as well drink in...

They sing of secret crushes, school dances, breakups and anything else involving boys. They wear matching dresses or sweaters and flip their hair. They have names like The Butterflys, The Honey Bees, The...

With dark eyes, black hair slicked back like James Dean's and arms covered with sleeves of tattoos, he looks like a bad-boy punk rocker. But with an acoustic guitar and lyrics such as "This is where I...

Walk the Line" is as much about Johnny Cash's marriage as it is about his music. But the film gives June Carter Cash more credit for being Cash's savior than being a musician in her own right. And she's...

Jacqueline Kennedy smiles sweetly in a prim jacket and looks like the all-American girl. Marilyn Monroe lowers her gaze, parts her lips and looks utterly desirable. "They shared a man and now they share...

The love story between Johnny Cash and June Carter could not have been written any better if it were fiction. Theirs is not a straightforward boy-meets-girl, boy-saves-girl story; instead, their love is...