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Vikings stadium bill: the good, the bad, the ugly -- a close look at its details

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 08:36 — Dave Culver

Here's what's in SF 1164. Here's what's not. And here's what we wonder about.

Jay Weiner, MinnPost

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Ellerbe Becket

The Vikings have been talking off and on about paying one-third of an open-air stadium.

Amid the more important budget-focused conference committees set to kick off this week at the Capitol, Senate File 1164 will take center stage. It's the Vikings stadium bill — one that Gov. Mark Dayton and others are calling a "good start." 

We beg to differ.

If you call a flawed proposal after nearly 10 years of discussion and lobbying at the Legislature and at county boards and city councils from Blaine to Minneapolis, from St. Paul to Arden Hills, a "start," OK, we'll permit that. 

But "good"? No. Workable? Passable? Not close.

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Related:

A Country the NFL Can Be Proud Of, Mark Heisler, TruthDig

  • We may not have bullet trains or energy independence but, barring a major assault on its underpinnings by Judge Che Guevara and his Merry Men and Women, we’ll always have the NFL.
  • Stadiums, Professional Sports, and Economic Development: Assessing the Reality
  • Happy days are here again: Stadium No. 3 is on the horizon
  • Today's American sports culture is out of bounds


Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

The Kennedy films you should actually see

Sat, 04/09/2011 - 15:48 — Dave Culver

Slide show: As a new miniseries riles critics, we look at the Camelot stories that are worth your time

Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon

The premiere of the new miniseries "The Kennedys" on the ReelzChannel marks a milestone: It is the one zillionth film about America's most durable political dynasty. OK, not "officially" -- as is sometimes the case, we exaggerate for effect. But it sure feels like another snowflake in an endless blizzard, doesn't it? Not a month goes by that you don't stumble across a new feature film, TV series, documentary, play, book or other bit of pop culture that's obsessed with the Kennedy clan: a prestige project or a cynical cash-in, a valentine or a smear job. You can't get away from them even if you want to -- and a lot of people don't want to, otherwise there wouldn't be so many Kennedy projects.

This slide show collects 15 of the most essential, fascinating and bizarre Kennedy-related films from a half-century's worth of cinema and television. Our list includes documentaries, docudramas, an action film, a satirical thriller, and a few movies in which JFK and RFK aren't so much characters as ghostly spirits haunting the imaginations of the living. The most important title on the list is the shortest.

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View the slide show

Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

Don Wright | No picture, improved programming / content.cartoonbox.slate.com

Thu, 04/07/2011 - 12:34 — Dave Culver

Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

Fight the power: Great movies about resistance

Thu, 04/07/2011 - 12:23 — Dave Culver
  • From "Amistad" to "Ali," the movies that bring political resistance to passionate life
  • How the '80s programmed us for war

Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Resistance takes all kinds of forms. It could be as mundane as sneaking out of school without teachers finding out, or a more dramatic gesture: a factory worker organizing a union, prisoners fighting back against the brutality of their jailers. There are nonviolent demonstrations and explosions of righteous bloodshed, intimate rebellions that took place outside of the public eye and spectacular protests that riveted the attention of the world.

We originally assembled this slide show -- about oppressed people standing up to their oppressors -- in honor of Black History Month, but given the events in Egypt over the past week, it's become about much more than that.

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Related:

How the '80s programmed us for war, David Sirota, Salon
Reagan's "morning in America" created "Red Dawn," and a Pentagon-fueled pop culture that trained the masses

Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

A Country the NFL Can Be Proud Of

Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:07 — Dave Culver
  • We may not have bullet trains or energy independence but, barring a major assault on its underpinnings by Judge Che Guevara and his Merry Men and Women, we’ll always have the NFL.
  • Stadiums, Professional Sports, and Economic Development: Assessing the Reality
  • Happy days are here again: Stadium No. 3 is on the horizon
  • Today's American sports culture is out of bounds

Mark Heisler, TruthDig

At a time when corporations are buying up elections – not to mention the 24-hour-news cycle – help ensure that a source for truly independent journalism lives on. Support Evergreene Digest  today by using the donation button in the above right-hand corner.

AP / David J. Phillip

A funny thing happened on our way to becoming a country the NFL could be proud of. …

Happily, in these troubled times, Americans still have an ongoing engine of progress, now in the process of further revitalizing downtown Los Angeles with a new football stadium.

Issues remain to be worked out in the year or two it will take to get past the Current Unpleasantness (i.e. labor situation) ... with no team there ... and the NFL not about to manufacture one.

More...

Related:

Stadiums, Professional Sports, and Economic Development: Assessing the Reality, Robert A. Baade, Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest (IL) College
After a thorough examination of an unprecedented quantity of data related to professional sports and host area per capita personal income, the author finds no factual basis for the conventional argument that professional sports stadiums and teams have a significant impact on a region's economic growth.

Happy days are here again: Stadium No. 3 is on the horizon, Nick Coleman, Minneapois Star Tribune | MN
Minneapolis is getting spiffier! The view from the soup lines will be brighter as the hungry and the homeless scan the skyline and see shiny harbingers of good times to come.

Today's American sports culture is out of bounds, Bill Gallo, New York Daily News | NY
It's not enough to simply say that today's American sports culture is out of bounds. Somebody has to do something about it before it goes clear out of the arena.

Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

How the '80s programmed us for war

Mon, 04/04/2011 - 21:14 — Dave Culver

Reagan's "morning in America" created "Red Dawn," and a Pentagon-fueled pop culture that trained the masses

David Sirota, Salon

Flanking Uncle Sam: Charlie Sheen in "Red Dawn," left, and Tom Cruise in "Top Gun"

The following is excerpted from Salon columnist David Sirota's "Back to Our Future" (Ballantine).

Let's be completely clear: I did not consciously know I was a devout militarist in 1988 at the young, impressionable age of 12. When I ordered my G.I. Joe Snowcat tank to indiscriminately fire one of its six missiles at the Cobra soldiers who so often held my LEGO city hostage, I didn't think that if this were real, it would probably leave a smoldering pile of blood and limbs and innocent victims. All I thought was: Awesome!

When I rented Hollywood's first PG-13 rated production, 1984's "Red Dawn," and I saw the teen heartthrobs protect America by racking up execution after execution, I didn't know the movie would also become the Guinness world-record holder for violent acts depicted per minute in a film. All I did was cheer.

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Section(s): 
Arts & Culture

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