Culture

Confuse the Powers that Be!
A troupe of Minneapolis agit-prop artists go to Giuliani's Gotham and face their toughest adversary yet -- indifference
City Pages, May 19, 1999

Most of this was written on a nearly worthless laptop, sitting on the roof of a warehouse loft in the South Bronx. If you read carefully, you can see the love in the City seeping into my prose even then ...

Enter the Poet
Thien-Bao Phi brings his cultural grievances and personal lamentations to the arena of competitive poetry
City Pages, March 24, 1999

Heartbreak and outrage, in three-minute poems.

Let Them Praise His Name in the Dance
Local Christian ravers embrace God's house
City Pages, December 23, 1998

Yes, I have partied with Christian ravers. We didn't get to roll together, though.

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves
With the Gay 90's breeding discontentment among its namesake patrons, what is queer in clubland?
City Pages, March 25, 1998

This piece had the secondary effect of further confusing my acquaintances as to my sexual orientation. It's hardly my fault that gay men do the sassiest writing.

Chairwoman Chin
City Pages, November 19, 1997

Model minority successful entrepreneur? Fuck that noise.

Outsider Night
Goths at the mall, poets at Penumbra, and Christians on the dance floor
City Pages, May 19, 1999

Verve vs. Voyeurism
City Pages, November 26, 1997

Destroy All Irony
A&E, June 5, 1997

Public Displays of Rejection
A&E, May 15, 1997

Ellen and Anne, Sitting in a Tree ...
A&E, May 1, 1997

Mickey Penishands and Machado About Nothingness
A&E, March 13, 1997

Through Asian Eyes
Josephine Lee analyzes how Asian-America dramatizes itself
A&E, March 13, 1997

David Bowie and the Accountants from Mars/Man an Asshole
A&E, March 6, 1997

The Artist Formerly Known as Spock/Show Us Your George!
A&E, January 9, 1997

The not-so-Gay 90's
Straights are coming to party at Minneapolis' biggest gay bar -- but is that a good thing?
A&E, October 3, 1996

Indie is as Indie Does?/Just Chew It
A&E, September 26, 1996

Rene Russo: Breasts and Babboons/Donny and the Apologetic Technicolor Dogsuit/They Pay People for That?
A&E, August 2, 1996

Gutterball/Go Out There and Promote Like a Champ
A&E, July 19, 1996

Rocky Mountain Buzz/If You Can Build It, They Might Come
A&E, July 12, 1996

I Can't Drive With Van Halen/Jurassic Mall
A&E, July 5, 1996

Royale with Cheez
A&E, May 23, 1996

Notes on the Two-Wheeled Life
A&E, April 18, 1996

Ambiguity & Possibility
On one narrative form's reliance on improvisation and participation
The Idolum Quarterly, Winter 1995