by l’etoile magazine staff • August 27, 2008 •

As Republican delegates from all over the country breeze into town in preparation for next week’s RNC melee, the city is literally ablaze with more art, entertainment, and political buzz than you can shake a stick at (no State Fair pun intended).

Visitors flying into the Twin Cities for the Republican National Convention were, up until last Friday, to be greeted by the gigantic face of a U.S. soldier as they departed the airport. New York–based artist Suzanne Opton photographed active-duty military personnel and arranged to have their faces appear on five billboards in Minneapolis and St. Paul. One, a 48-footer on Highway 5, was to be positioned at the intersection of Post Road just outside the international airport. But CBS Outdoor cancelled the contract, citing that they feared drivers might misinterpret their message. MORE »

The Nancy Drew Crew are not your typical hip-hop group, even for a community like the Twin Cities that’s not exactly your typical hip-hop scene. Coming from a queer-feminist activist background, the group’s two MCs—MC Smells and MC Mayhem—rap about, among other things, deodorant, DIY arts and crafts, and the inequities of college education on their debut EP, The Case is Closed. I sat down at Hard Times with the two MCs, along with their DJ and producer Skullbuster, fresh off their first West Coast tour, hoping to find out a little more about the group that City Pages recently called, endearingly, “the Shaggs of hip-hop.” MORE »

In this city, a pick-up truck creeping down the alley loaded with washers, bike frames, and other metal scrap is not an uncommon sight. All kinds of people collect—as this is being written, a woman, babe strapped to her back, is picking through the recycling in the alley, placing aluminum cans in the bottom of a stroller that carries another child. But Scrapper Joe, as he’s known in Minneapolis’s West Bank, only patrols the alleys when he’s broke. MORE »

Minnesota is around the ninth windiest state in the country. While there is more to wind power than just the wind, our state can boast a number of favorable conditions. MORE »