On Justin Bieber’s sixth album, his ready-for-the-retail-department soundtrack of bubblegum pop reminds listeners that he loves his wife, and that’s pretty much it.

At its core, “Justice” is an ode to Hailey Bieber with some unsubstantial collaborations, save for a Daniel Caesar feature, and an album title that would be kosher any other year. But titling an album “Justice” following a year of racial reckoning and police killings and then only singing about how much you love your wife feels inappropriate at best and tone-deaf at worst.

The album begins with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and then oddly transitions into Bieber singing about his devotion to his wife and not being able to leave her side for two seconds. The guy who gave us the early 2020 earworm, “Yummy,” about the pleasure of going down on his wife, is back to tell you more about his relationship with his supermodel boo.

“Justice,” with its out-of-nowhere MLK quotes and interludes, is the musical equivalent of posting a black square on Instagram and thinking you did your part for the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Justice” is reminiscent of Chance the Rapper’s “The Big Day” in that they were both mediocre albums about loving your spouse. So, it only makes sense that the Christian rapper would join Bieber on “Holy” to rap about loving God and women — Chance’s line describing life as “short with a temper, like Joe Pesci” is clever enough to get a pass, though. “Holy” is a song you would hear while shopping for $8 candles at T.J. Maxx.

Whether it’s “As I Am” featuring Khalid or “Ghost,” many songs on the album give 2016 The Chainsmokers vibes with electronic rhythms and a dance-pop mood. If we weren’t in a pandemic, it’s easy to imagine high schoolers at prom eating this music up.

Even with collaborators like Chance the Rapper, Dominic Fike, Khalid and more, “Justice” relies upon tired cliches — loving a woman differently than the way she was previously loved and walking through fire for a woman, as if Harry Styles didn’t write that same line only a year-and-a-half ago — that leave the listeners in an auditory stalemate. What is clear to the listener, however, is that Bieber is finally happy and married.

On the final track of the album, “Lonely,” we hear Bieber’s bona fide account of fame and its repercussions on his life, specifically his perception of himself. We see glimpses of humanity through sincere lyricism. For years, Bieber was another cog in the pop music machine, and to listen to a song where he reflects upon this alienating time in his life is humbling.

The best track on the album, “Peaches” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, sonically sticks out among the other tired pop/R&B ballads. The song is intoxicatingly smooth, groovy and offers up some of the best lyrics of the album. The track serves as an emblem of what the album could have been were Bieber only a smidgen more intentional about his collaborators and overall sound.

Though the lyricism and production lack nuance, Bieber’s falsetto will forever remain strong in “Off My Face,” and his voice throughout the album holds depth, even when some songs lack such a thing.

In November when the Grammy nominations came out, Bieber wrote on Instagram that he felt weird his album “Changes” was nominated in the pop category of the Grammy’s instead of the R&B category, as he had intended to create an R&B album. For years, he’s eschewed the pop music title that brought him his first glimpse of fame 12 years ago, yet “Justice,” being more pop than R&B, is Bieber’s acceptance of a genre he has been running from.

Grade: C

There are some new bike racks in town, but they aren’t your average silver-colored, wave-shaped racks conventional to local riders.

An anthropomorphic hotdog outside the Wienery, a hissing black cat hiding behind the fence near the Hard Times Cafe, a life-sized metal man representing Palmer Bar’s key character — these sculptures and more are scattered around Cedar Avenue. The five new bike-racks-turned-public-art-pieces all over the West Bank offer locals creative street-side sculptures that operate as functional art.

Allen Christian, the sculptor and proprietor of House of Balls on the West Bank, is the man behind these zany new bike racks. Christian, known to some as Mr. Lucky, created five new racks for neighborhood businesses, including Keefer Court, Hard Times Cafe, the Wienery, the Cedar Cultural Center and Palmer’s Bar.

“Pretty much everything I work with is waste,” Christian explained. “So it’s really trying to take the detritus of our lives out of the waste treatment and create something out of it that, at least in my mind, has more value.”

Upon first glance, it’s hard to tell that the racks are composed of found electrical conduits, scrapyard pieces like steel, doorknobs and old tools. Now, after months of building, powder coating and waiting for the Minnesota snow to melt, the racks are on display and ready to use.

“I’d rather not call it functional art, but art that functions,” Christian said.

The endeavor to create artistic bike racks is a few years in the making. When Jamie Schumacher served as the executive director for the West Bank Business Association (WBBA), she applied for a grant with the University of Minnesota Good Neighbor Fund to begin this project. The grant enabled the WBBA to put artist-designed bike racks around the neighborhood, Schumacher said.

The idea was to create racks that were functional while also creating “a sense of place” for the West Bank neighborhood, she said. One major objective for this project, Schumacher added, was to bring in a local artist to create these racks. Christian, whose public art studio has been in the West Bank for six-and-a-half years, was the perfect person for the project.

Michelle Kwan, baker and manager of Keefer Court, grew up above the West Bank bakery. According to Kwan, the businesses that now are represented through Christian’s bike racks were neighborhood mainstays when she was growing up. The nearly 40-year-old bakery received its own custom-made bright yellow bike rack with lotus flowers and “Keefer Court” written in traditional Chinese characters.

“It’s cool to see that Keefer Court is part of the history of these [West Bank] businesses,” Kwan said.

The WBBA could have easily chosen to buy conventional bike racks for the community, but the decision to go beyond convention and function, creating interesting and quirky bike racks reflects the character of the historic neighborhood.

The West Bank and Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has a rich bike history. The Black Label Bike Club, a troupe of bikers that ride tall bikes around the city, was founded in the West Bank in the early ’90s. Christian said he sought to acknowledge the heavy presence of this unique method of transportation around the West Bank with the tall bike racks.

“The funky bike racks reflect our funky neighborhood,” KJ Starr, interim director of the West Bank Business Association and rider of high bikes, said. “Why waste an opportunity to put up public art that really is an identifier for our place?”

According to Starr, there’s been excitement brewing among the tall bike community about the installation of these racks. On her social media pages, she’s witnessed a friendly race among the bikers to be the first to lock up their tall bikes to one of the tall bike racks.

Schumacher said that the bike rack project is a prime example of catering public art to the community it serves.

“You could have things that are just purely functional,” Schumacher said, “It could just be the standard bike racks to get the job done. But when you have something that really takes into consideration the user, public art that connects with the community and connects with the folks that are using it, I think that to me is a successful example of what public art could be and what it should be.”

A lamp post near the University Avenue and 12th Street bus stop is stamped with a circular blue and red sticker with a white “F” in the center. Students, staff and locals walk past this unassuming light post, sometimes not thinking much of it — maybe not even noticing the sticker’s existence — but those who have taken note are curious.

Is it a cult’s symbol? Is it the product of a design student’s final project? Drew Kinkade, founder of Flavor World, is the answer.

The stickers are just one of Kinkade’s many machinations for his brand. With a YouTube channel with over 40,000 subscribers, a clothing brand that sells hand-printed tees with the Flavor World logo on them and a studio full of his art, Kinkade is a college dropout turned modern creative.

Switching gears

In the fall of 2016, Kinkade enrolled as a student at the University of Minnesota. Two years into his engineering degree, he decided to drop out.

He didn’t want to do hours of engineering homework. He didn’t want to go to job fairs. For Kinkade, his degree was something he wanted to get over with.

“I was at a point where engineering was kind of like the bland side of life where I didn’t want to do it,” Kinkade said. “But this other stuff — drawing and putting it on T-shirts and selling it to my friends — that was, like, super interesting, and I really, really wanted to do that.”

Thus, Flavor World was born. He got to work on his company, beginning collection releases of custom-designed hats, shirts and other merchandise.

Kinkade was always a doodler. On his notes at school, on his college engineering homework, on his friend’s basement walls or on his family’s cement basement floors, words and scribbles of his always made their way onto whatever drawable surface he could touch. His Flavor World stickers found all over the city are another extension of this artistic footprint.

“If we’re hanging out, walking around the city, he just has [the stickers] in his pocket always,” his friend and fellow artist Mary Moonbeam said. “He’ll just put them in random places.” And he’ll encourage his friends to do the same.

You can find the stickers all around the Twin Cities but travel outside of the state of Minnesota, and you still might happen upon a sticker elsewhere. With friends and fans of the brand in Wisconsin, you may just find yourself seeking out the stickers on other college campuses like the University of Wisconsin-Madison or Eau Claire.

Kinkade’s mom, Kathy Young, remembers putting the stickers in random places during a family vacation to Hawaii.

“It started with putting stickers on stop signs at the U or a bus shelter downtown or something like that. And then there’d be strangers that would be like, ‘Oh yeah, I saw your sticker,’ and we thought it was so cool that this guy just said he saw our sticker. And now it’s like 4 million people are watching his videos. … We used to think it was really cool when someone mentioned they saw a sticker,” she said.

After Kinkade got into rug tufting in November of 2020, the Flavor World YouTube channel began to take off. His most viewed video on the channel, a rug tufting ASMR — autonomous sensory meridian response — video that’s 58 seconds long and shows himself tracing and tufting a rainbow- and cloud-outlined mirror, garnered over 5.5 million views to date.

He’s also a religious journaler. On an average day, he dedicates a few hours to writing down his thoughts. “A lot of my time each day is spent just sitting down with a blank piece of paper in front of me,” he said.

Kinkade began journaling around a year and a half before the idea for the brand came into his head. His collection of journals spans years, and within the many journals and pages are the first ideations and hopes for his brand.

“It’s all on paper. Just, like, everything that has to do with anything,” Kinkade said

It’s been a year since he dropped a new apparel collection, but Kinkade is working on a collection slated to drop in late March or early April that will feature new shirts, hoodies and a few new rugs.

“It’s gonna be amazing,” CJ Springett, his friend who’s helped with the new collection’s website development, said. According to Springett, Kinkade has always held collaboration as a core identity. “He loves working with other creators, and I don’t see that changing ever,” he said.

“I hope to do a lot more than just clothing, too,” Kinkade said. “I want to try and touch as many creative art forms as I possibly can.” A magazine, a record label, a movie theater, a restaurant; to Kinkade, nothing is out of the question for Flavor World.

“It’s been super awesome to have the YouTube channel take off just a couple months ago. It’s still very new and still in progress. I’m just trying to keep that in motion,” he said.

‘Mistakes don’t exist’

David Smith, a self-described digital nomad, met Kinkade one summer night in Chicago after their friends decided to Uber home. Smith, a staunch opponent of Uber, decided to walk home instead. Kinkade joined Smith and on their hour-long walk, they immediately became friends, divulging into conversations on art and philosophy.

In Kinkade’s studio, there’s a note-to-self on his mirror to call his friends more.

Smith and Kinkade have only met each other in person twice, but they call each other frequently and talk about creative motivation, brand ideation and anything else that happens to be on their minds that day. But normally, “Motivation and art are the two things that fit into every single phone call,” Smith said. Flavor World is usually at the center of the conversation.

“His motivation to create something so that other people can create more is just like the best motivation for building a brand that I have heard,” Smith said.

Behind Flavor World is a guy who doesn’t take his art too seriously and exists to create things or inspire others to create, whether in the form of clothing, paintings or rugs.

“The thing is I get so much, like, not just satisfaction but, like, personal development and growth just from creating things and making art and stuff, so I really try to make that a big part of the brand,” Kinkade said. “Inspiring others and trying to show people it’s, you know, it’s okay to make things. I think more people should be chasing the arts; I think there’s a way to make it work.”

In one of his Youtube videos, titled “Mistakes Dont Exist,” Kinkade greets the viewers with a “Yoooo what’s up” and then walks viewers through his process of painting a piece.

“Going through the process I kept making mistakes, and I was getting really frustrated, but I used it as a lesson for myself and hopefully a lesson for you as well that mistakes don’t exist,” he said to the camera.

Lo-fi music plays in the background as Kinkade covers a canvas with an assortment of colors. White skeletons and skulls begin to populate the canvas and then he covers them with black and blue paint. “I roll with the mistakes; I roll with the layers. … I never woulda had this group of skele-dudes on top if I never woulda messed up the layering on the bottom,” Kinkade said in the video.

The final product is a funeral after-party with skeletons in colorful hats and crowns crowding around a dead skeleton’s grave. “When you die and everyone’s all sad at your funeral and then everybody leaves, that night all the fellow skeletons there all turn up. You all have a party; they’re all happy that you’re there. … It’s the funeral after-party,” Kinkade said in the video.

“His brand integrity is everything,” Sage Young, a local artist and fan of the brand, said. Kinkade helped Young with his music video for free, imploring Young to put all of the money into the video instead of paying Kinkade for his video services.

The magic trick

In Flavor World’s studio on Como Avenue in St. Paul, pastel-colored rugs lie on the ground near his artwork corner. Kinkade’s color palette relies on a pleasing assortment of light blues, light pinks and yellows.

One painting he made hangs on his wall and stands out from the rest. The bubblegum pink canvas displays the words “99,999 more to go” above a skeleton smoking a cigarette as its skull explodes. Kinkade painted this to remind himself of how much art you have to make to get to where you want to be.

“I’ll never sell my paintings. … It’s just weird to put a price on them. A shirt has a function, and the price of shirts is an established number,” he said. But with art, one painting could go for any given price, depending on what the buyer values it for. “It’s entirely subjective, and it doesn’t matter at all.”

For someone with little technical art experience, Kinkade views his artwork as more conceptual — like putting stickers around a city — rather than technical and rigorous works.

Kinkade describes his style as a combination of Andy Warhol’s and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s. Warhol’s art opened up the idea that art can exist as an idea rather than a technically impressive piece.

“Someone could easily reproduce my work — it’s not that impressive of a work. It’s just the idea that’s impressive,” he said.

And what about those stickers? How did they end up all over the Twin Cities? According to Kinkade, the operation was “completely calculated.” To Kinkade, the idea of putting nondescript stickers around a city feels like a magic trick. “The fun part of a magic trick is not knowing how it’s done” — or who’s behind it.

He could have added a website link to the sticker and generated more web traffic and merchandise sales, but that’s not as fun, Kinkade said.

“He could actually probably make decent money, but his pricing of his stuff is just so low,” friend and photographer Sawyer Brice said. “He’s sold paintings that are probably worth $200 for $10, and I can’t get him to make them more expensive.”

This past fall, Brice, an Eau Claire-based photographer and director, orchestrated an art pop-up and invited Kinkade to sell some pieces. At the pop-up, Kinkade wouldn’t sell his paintings for more than $20, according to Brice.

“I would always look over at him like ‘you’re crazy,’ but I respect it,” Brice said. Kinkade sold Brice one of his paintings for cheap. Whenever friends visit, they’ll compliment Kinkade’s artwork.

The painting hangs in the corner of Brice’s room. On the canvas, dull skyscrapers hover in front of a magenta sky. In the center of the painting, “Welcome to Bland Land” is painted in bold cursive. In response to the compliment, Brice will tell them, “Yeah, I got it for ten dollars.”

As the weather slowly warms up and COVID-19 cases across the state go down, we are hopping into spring with optimism and lots of places to visit, restaurants to eat at or things to do that maybe we haven’t gotten around to since the pandemic began.

This week we’re focusing on a perfect day in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Cafe Alma: Every good day begins with a good cup of coffee, so to start your perfect day, head on over to Alma on University Avenue. Alma is currently offering a flavorful juniper latte — order it iced and thank me later. The impressive collection of pastries is also worth mentioning, with a special shout-out to the fruit galette and savory danishes.

While you sip on your iced latte or munch on your pastry, make your way to Father Hennepin Bluff Park, where you can enjoy a beautiful view of Minneapolis and a wonderful opportunity for some socially distanced people-watching.

The next item on the agenda is window shopping — or shopping if you feel so inclined. Walk a few blocks and find yourself at the intersection of Central Avenue Southeast and East Hennepin Avenue.

Three shops to check out, depending on your mood:

The Golden Pearl Vintage: This vintage shop specializes in clothing from the 1920s to the 1990s. Sift through the carefully curated boutique collection and find a wardrobe staple.

Findfurnish: There’s something quite romantic about hapless perusing. If you find yourself on the west side of Marcy-Holmes, be sure to head on over to Findfurnish, a vintage furniture store with an “ever-evolving collection.” With reclaimed furniture and a record collection hiding in the back, the store’s sleek and ambient atmosphere is worth visiting.

I like you: If you’re anything like me, you’re always buying your best friends their birthday presents two weeks or two months too late. To curb that habit, check out I like you, a gift shop specializing in a wide array of local gifts and quirky greeting cards.

After all that walking and shopping, it’s time for lunch.

Three lunch spots, depending on your mood:

PinKU: PinKU is a Japanese street food joint with many fresh fish menu items to satisfy the seafood lover in your life. Try the spicy tuna crispy rice or the spicy crab onigiri, or dive into the specialty rolls, like the Yuzu tempura.

Rusty Taco: These delicious and cheap tacos are worth a mention. Try anything from the menu of over 20 different tacos, and don’t forget to order a margarita “made with fresh lime juice and cheap tequila” while you’re at it.

The Herbivorous Butcher: Whether you’re practicing or entertaining the idea of veganism, this vegan butcher spot may be your reason for conversion. The shop offers all plant-based everything, including satisfying sandwiches like the turkey dill Havarti sandwich or the hot brat with chips.

Before you make your way home, check out Surdyk’s Liquor & Cheese Shop for a careful assortment of wines and liquors and a savory selection of fine cheeses sure to spice up your evening.

Ever wondered why your baking projects fail or how you can amp up your kitchen game? A&E messaged Sarah Kieffer of the Vanilla Bean Blog for the latest tips and tricks on cookies, her cookbook and advice for young bakers.

Your cookbook “100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen, with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars, and More” recently was a finalist for the general nonfiction of the Minnesota Book Awards. What was the process of creating this cookbook like?

Shaping a cookbook just around cookies was a new experience for me. My first cookbook, “The Vanilla Bean Baking Book,” had several genres of baked goods (morning baking, pies, cakes, etc) whereas “100 Cookies” is, well, 100 cookie recipes. I had to plan the book much differently. I also knew I wanted a mix of both classic and “modern” recipes; I tried to include a little something for everyone.

You went viral in 2017 after you shared your unconventional cookie tip of taking cookies out of the oven mid-bake, banging them on a flat surface to create crispy and soft crinkles within the cookie. Are there other cookie tips and tricks readers don’t know about?

I don’t know so much about “tricks,” but I would say that knowing how your oven works and spending a lot of time getting to know a recipe and your ingredients will help you make great cookies.

What, in your opinion, is the main cause of baking mishaps in a college student’s or novice baker’s kitchen?

Your oven! All ovens are different and fickle, and getting to know how your oven works — how long it takes to preheat, where its hot spots are if its temperature is correct — are all so important to baking. This takes time, but it is time worth spending. Also, making sure your dough is completely combined and all ingredients are incorporated will ensure even baking results.

What are some staple ingredients you use for your cookies? Specific butter choice, extracts, etc?

Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, salt and chocolate are ingredients I always use. I prefer pure vanilla extract over imitation but it is really expensive right now! And I like to use a mix of chocolates when I bake cookies — Ghirardelli, Valhrona, and Guittard all have delicious baking chocolates.

What’s your favorite recipe in the book?

I like to say that whatever recipe I’m currently making is my favorite. It’s hard to pick, but I would say after all these years, I’m still partial to the Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies. I do also love Brown Sugar Cookies.

When you aren’t baking cookies, what other baking/cooking endeavors are you working on?

I just finished work on my third book that will come out this fall, “Baking for the Holidays” (Chronicle Books).

Any other comments about your book, or advice for young bakers?

Baking can often be intimidating, and it’s frustrating when what you’re making doesn’t turn out as pictured. Practice and patience is key. Getting to know a recipe, how it works, and how your equipment and ingredients work within it takes time to master and perfect. But, even if something doesn’t turn out “perfectly,” it often still is delicious. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes in the kitchen, and have fun with the process.

Way back in 1885, a group of East Coast newspaper correspondents visited Minnesota and declared the state and its chilly temperatures uninhabitable — another Siberia. After getting word of these disparaging remarks, a group of Minnesota business owners retaliated by creating the winter carnival in 1886 that Minnesotans near and far know and love today.

For 135 years, the St. Paul Winter Carnival has been a staple celebration of winter within the Twin Cities and proof that Minnesota is very much inhabitable. And neither cold nor COVID-19 stopped this year’s festivities.

Running Jan. 28 – Feb. 7, the festival offered a plethora of events, many virtual and some in person, that families and friends could take advantage of. From a scavenger hunt that taught participants about local landmarks to the “Fire and Ice: Winter Carnival Art Show” that displayed Minnesota artwork, there were many opportunities for Minneapolitans and St. Paulites alike to explore the historic city of St. Paul.

Throughout February, visitors can still shop around St. Paul and earn points through the carnival’s “Crafted” drink experience or visit the AZ Gallery, which is hosting the “Fire and Ice: Winter Carnival Art Show.”

“We kept saying it was a tradition with a twist, but it was really, really cool to see us all kind of getting together safely and putting on a great event,” Kirstin Knutson, this year’s Queen of Snows, said.

This hallmark of this year’s festival was the drive-thru Ice and Snow Sculpture Park at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The drive-thru was so popular that it sold out within the first few days of being open, according to Alyssa Olson, marketing manager for the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

Erica Holmstrom, an attendee of the ice sculpture drive-thru, has gone to the winter carnival six times before, and this year she was surprised the events weren’t canceled due to the pandemic. Holmstrom enjoyed her time throughout the drive-thru, seeing the impressive ice and snow sculptures and spending some time with her mother.

“I was really impressed with how much work went into it, and you could definitely tell that [the sculptors] were proud of this stuff that they had created,” Holmstrom said. “I have no idea how those people make those things. They’re awesome.”

The drive-thru boasted sculptures of the state of Minnesota carved into ice, a cheeseburger with a bite taken out of it, a snow moon inquisitively glancing at a rocket and an iced steampunk octopus.

Deneena Hughes, artist and sculptor of the aforementioned octopus, has been participating in the festival since 1996 — she’s only skipped out on participation once, and that was because she was giving birth. On her sculpture this year, her octopus holds a clock. The time on the clock, 9:54 a.m., is no random time etched onto a piece of ice. Twenty-one years ago, her daughter was born at that time. “[Playing] a part in helping others enjoy winter and see its beauty is really fun for me,” Hughes said.

For Hughes, the festival isn’t about showcasing her own art — it’s about celebrating the beauty of a Minnesotan winter.

“Winter is remarkably beautiful, and I love living where it’s celebrated rather than merely tolerated and endured,” Hughes said.

Ever since March, we’ve been stuck at home, alone and uninspired. But this solitude has invited us to turn inward and examine what we enjoy and how we want to spend our time.

Students and recent grads have taken the free time the pandemic has provided them to dive deeper into what they’re interested in, exploring new hobbies and developing new skills that will keep them busy during the pandemic and once it ends.

Computer science graduate student Tyler Wendland was hanging out with his pod in May when they suggested picking up a game of chess.

Wendland knew the rules, but had little experience. Yet, at the end of the game, it was his rook holding his opponent’s king hostage. Instantly Wendland was filled with a rush of satisfaction.

“It felt like I had picked up a guitar for the first time and played ‘Smoke on the Water’ without knowing any chords — an achievement from something I knew almost nothing about.”

After that, Wendland’s affinity for chess only increased. He dedicates most of his free time to the game, playing games online and perusing Twin Cities’ indie bookstores to find old chess books, reading them to learn about different openings and ways to win the game.

When asked how many hours he dedicates a day to the game, Wendland responded, “Too many.” Some days it’s only an hour, but other days he will play up to eight hours — dedicating more time to the game than to sleep.

“[Chess] is sort of an art. That might sound kind of hoity-toity, but I do think it gives me a form of expression,” Wendland said.

Wendland confessed to frequently doomscrolling since the pandemic began, but through chess, he has been able to distract himself from the anxiety of the news.

Wendland isn’t the only one to feel overwhelmed by the stress of the year, turning to their interests for distractions.

Sarah Copeland, a third-year student studying biochemistry, purchased a pyrography tool in February, before the pandemic began.

Pyrography, meaning “writing with fire,” is the art of burning wood to create artwork. The pyrographer uses the heated tool to create pictures.

Copeland, an avid drawer from a young age, taught herself how to woodburn at the beginning of lockdown.

“When I was in some of my more stressful classes, I would fire up my little wood burning iron and get to work while I was listening to the lecture material,” Copeland explained. “I was able to listen and then also work on something that I was actively enjoying and kind of pair that with each other to remember the material a little better.”

For Christmas, she gifted her sister woodburned earrings and made her mom a woodburned plaque. Back at her apartment, her art hangs from her wall.

Jake Moe, a third-year aerospace engineering major, developed a collection of his own. A self-described music junkie, he’s grown his record collection from nothing to over 30 records during the span of the pandemic. His new music collection includes artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Clairo.

“In the start of the pandemic I kind of set a goal for myself that I wanted to become more of an open-minded music listener. And I really wanted to like, understand the music more,” Moe said. “So, [records] just give me another thing to learn about and appreciate in my day to day life.”

Hobbies can provide a momentary distraction, but also give people something to look forward to once we no longer have to social distance. Recent graduate Sungho Sohn has been studying Japanese in hopes of traveling there once the pandemic ends.

Sohn was planning on visiting family in Korea and then exploring Japan on the way back, but that got canceled. During quarantine, he thought that if he was going to visit Japan in the future, he might as well learn the language.

“I think there’s something really satisfying about being able to communicate with someone else, and not making them feel uncomfortable,” Sohn said. “It’s almost borderline arrogant, going around and only speaking English.”

Concerning all of the “negative current events” that occurred within the past year, Sohn said, “From time to time, we all need a break.” Teaching himself Japanese everyday provided that..

“It’s a way for me to think back and remember what things were like before the pandemic and work towards a goal for when the chance [to travel to Japan] arises again,” Sohn said.

As an Illinoisan, there’s one thing I know: We don’t love casseroles nearly as much as Minnesotans love hot dish.

Hot dishes always intrigued me. I’ve often wondered what all of the hype is about. So today, we’re getting to the bottom of the hot topic that is hot dish.

Where did this dish get its humble beginnings? In the 1930s at Grace Lutheran Church in Mankato, Minnesota, the women of the church’s ladies aid group recorded the first-ever hot dish recipe in the Grace Lutheran Ladies Aid Cookbook.

According to Joan Hertel, the office specialist at Grace Lutheran Church, the 90-year-old recipe was submitted by Mrs. C.W. Anderson.

As far as why the dish is now referred to as “hot dish,” Hertel has some conjectures: “My personal opinion is that, in those days, they just didn’t worry about naming stuff.”

In the cookbook, many other recipe names lack the flare and verbosity of recipe names today. Reviewing the cookbook, Hertel saw recipe names like “full meal” and “hot luncheon dish,” along with recipes for chop suey and stuffed cabbage.

Hot dishes usually include a protein, a canned vegetable, a starch and a liquid or binding agent, like mayo or a creamy soup, according to MPR News.

The original recipe includes hamburger meat, onions, Creamette pasta, celery, a can of peas, tomato soup and tomatoes. The instructions in the 1930 cookbook were vague, not specifying the quantities of seasoning nor providing an exact time to bake the dish.

It wasn’t until Ore-Ida introduced the tater tot in 1953 that tater tot hot dish gained its footing as a staple in Midwestern cuisine, according to a timeline provided by Food & Wine .

Pam Vulcan, a longtime member of the Grace Lutheran church, has been eating hot dish her whole life. Vulcan said her family would make hot dish to make the meat go farther in a meal.

“Years ago, they didn’t have much for meat and stuff, so they had to, you know, make it go farther, especially poor families,” Vulcan said.

Many of the household items used in hot dishes in the past don’t necessarily match up to twenty-first century cooking, so here’s an updated recipe for hot dish:

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 white onion, diced

A bunch of a leafy green of choice, spinach or kale

1 cup mixed vegetables of your choice, staples in the hot dish include chopped carrots, celery, peas and corn, but choose whichever veggie you love best

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

½ cup milk

1 package tater tots

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheese

Instructions:

In a pot on medium heat, brown meat and season with salt and pepper. Remove beef from the pot and place in an oven-safe dish. Keep some of the fat that has pooled at the bottom of the pot, and use it to sauté your onion. Once the onion turns translucent, add your leafy greens, and cook them down for 1-2 minutes. Add these to the dish and mix to incorporate each ingredient.
In a bowl, mix together the mixed vegetables, cream of mushroom soup and milk, seasoning to your liking. Pour the mixture on top of the beef and onion mix.
Layer the tater tots on top and cover with shredded cheese.
Cook in the oven at 350 F for 30 minutes or until the mixture is cooked through and the tater tots are lightly browned and crisp.
Serve with some extra cheese on top or some ketchup, if that’s your thing.
Enjoy!

To chef Yia Vang, it’s never about the food; it’s about the cultivated community that happens through food.

As Vang begins his residency for Union Hmong Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant that aims to tell stories of Hmong culture and ritual through food, and seeks to open his own brick-and-mortar shop in 2021, he keeps coming back to the question of, “What is food?”

“Food is a universal language that speaks into the souls and hearts of people. And that’s when we came up with this mantra: Every dish has a narrative,” Vang explained. “And if you follow that narrative long enough and close enough, it’s actually not about the food. It’s about people. The food is a catalyst to cultivating great relationships.”

Working in the industry since his early 20s (Vang is 36 now), Vang’s own relationship with the restaurant industry was on-again-off-again. He compared it to a flickering romantic relationship: some days you never want to do it again, other days you’re feeling kinda lonely so you check in, then one day, you realize you love them, so you might as well put a ring on it. Nine years ago, he came back from an off period and decided that, if he’s going to commit to this industry, he better know his “why” before getting too serious.

He found it by coming back to his mother and father’s table. His brick-and-mortar shop, Vinai, set to open in 2021, is a love letter — and a redemption letter — to them, naming the shop after the Thailand refugee camp he was born in.

“Now [Hmong food] becomes this platform where I get to tell the story of two of the most amazing people I know,” Vang said.

And the stories, while heartwarming, are also impressively delicious. His menu and his philosophy of cooking, as one of his line cooks, T.J. Lauth said, is simple but flavorful.

Beginning its residency in Republic on Oct. 23, Union Hmong Kitchen currently offers its menu through takeout and curbside delivery. Some customer favorites include the taro chips, the purple sticky rice, the Hilltribe Fried Chicken Sandwich and Nam Khao, the crispy rice salad.

To add a little kick to each dish, Justin Horsch, a good friend of Vang’s recommended the Tiger Bite sauce to balance off the flavors of each dish. In 2017, when Horsch and his wife Christa were about to get married, they asked Vang to cater their wedding. When asked how the food was, Horsch responded, “People still talk about it. It was incredible wedding food.”

In 2013, Vang was hired as the kitchen coordinator for the Bethlehem Baptist church in Minneapolis. There he met his now friend of seven years, Ming-Jinn Tong, a pastor for the church. Vang would explain to Tong over plates of food at Hmong Village what Hmong food means to him. It’s food without boundaries, not attaching to one certain style of cuisine.

“He’s able to adapt to new ingredients and new techniques that he encounters wherever he goes,” said Tong. “And I think that’s beautiful.”

Tong helped Vang to create the initial website for the restaurant. Reviewing the original copy of the website, Tong expressed how the main mission was always to bring people together.

“Equality is created when we sit down to eat together. So when we sit together and eat together, we walk away as friends. Food plus people equals community.”

As soon as winter comes, some of us give up on any attempt to look cute or try out new pieces from our wardrobe, reverting to sweatpants and hoodies until spring re-enters the chat. But even as the temperature drops, there are many ways to look stylish, stay warm and sustainably ball on a budget.

A&E talked with the girls of @a88.thrifts on Instagram and the president of the University of Minnesota’s Business of Fashion club to learn some tips and tricks for rocking a sustainable, stylish and warm winter wardrobe.

There’s nothing more upsetting than wearing a cool outfit and having it covered up by a bulky and bland winter coat. Nicole Grabowski, president and founder of the Business of Fashion club here at the University, said that whenever she’s wearing a more bland jacket, she will wear a bold-printed patterned pant or pull out her favorite accessories, like chunky belts or gold hoops.

And don’t forget about the shoes! Platforms are back and better than ever, and as someone who’s on the shorter side, Grabowski said, “A couple extra inches on the platform doesn’t hurt.”

Finding statement coats at vintage shops isn’t too hard to do either. Audra Frizzell, the owner of the Golden Pearl Vintage in Northeast backs vintage fur coats as one of the best vintage items for beginner thrifters. “The selection of styles and colors available allows you to let your style shine rather than cover it up in a generic puffy coat that everyone else has,” Frizzell said. Frizzell also recommended wool trousers — “a solid choice” — or wool skirts, perfectly paired with leggings and boots.

If you’re stuck with the same coat, Claire Slocum from @a88.thrifts said that accessories can be your best friend in the winter. Chunky necklaces, cool rings and bold belts are your saving grace.

@a88thrifts is an Instagram thrift shop run by Slocum, a third-year retail merchandising major, and Waverly Ann McCollum, a third-year theater major. After two years of thrifting and selling their clothes on their Instagram shop, Slocum and McCollum know a thing or two about trends and the best places to thrift.

McCollum has been keeping an eye out for specific colors that are on trend, like sage green, bright orange and browns. Grabowski also added that colors that were popular in the 70s, like bright reds, oranges, and browns, are coming back.

In the winter, layering is key, Grabowski said. Luckily layering a turtleneck over a sweater, or a sweater vest over another shirt is in style. Keep an eye out for argyle sweater vests; they’re all the rage, according to McCollum.

“Right now it’s actually really trendy for your clothes to look more thrifted and vintage … It’s almost like brands like American Eagle and H&M are starting to make argyle sweater vests and things that your dad bought at Kohl’s at one point,” McCollum said.

From low-end to high-end, there’s an endless amount of sustainable shopping options in the Twin Cities. @a88.thrifts recommends the Goodwill Outlet in St. Paul, Rewind in Northeast, Unique in New Hope, and Everyday People Clothing Exchange in St. Paul.

If you’re still all about designer items but don’t want to directly contribute to those industries, Grabowski recommended ThredUp and The Annex by Opitz, a store that obtains designer goods that have some imperfections, but they’re nothing you can’t fix. Other higher-end, sustainable shops include Everlane, Reformation and House of Sunny.

Wherever you choose to go, you will find trendy, warm and sustainable options, as long as you make a conscious effort to do so.

“I think it’s decently easy, you know, if you make a little bit of an effort,” Grabowski said. “You don’t have to spend hours and hours searching for things, but I think you definitely can do it if [sustainability] is meaningful to you.”