Coffee & Canvas: The non-alcoholic experience of Corks & Canvas

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Samantha Rachuy

OPINION

Samantha Rachuy, MSUM Public Relations

Businesses that partook in the Corks & Canvas event displayed their participation in creative ways. c.lizzy’s chose a simple yet elegant arrangement.

Fargo, N.D. — In order to truly experience a Corks & Canvas event, you must set out on your adventure with a glass of wine in hand. The account that follows is based on my experience of the event with a friend who is under 21, hence the title Coffee & Canvas rather than Corks & Canvas.

A classy alternative to the Farg0-Moorhead nightlife

Although it is perfectly legal for me to spend my weekends gallivanting downtown Fargo, spilling drinks on my friends, and waking up the next morning wondering about the night before, I choose, for the most part, to stay away from downtown’s “nightlife.”

For those in F-M area who are looking for a night with a little more class, the Corks & Canvas event offers a downtown experience filled with art, music and wine. Attendees immerse themselves in a stylish atmosphere in order to socialize with artists, musicians, business owners and other art enthusiasts.

“Art is the main focus of the Corks & Canvas event,” said Susanne Williams, Willi Nilli owner and featured artist, “people come out to connect about similar interests over a glass of wine.”

Unfortunately, there is one catch. In order to play a part in the stylish lifestyle, participants must be over 21. You can’t truly experience Corks & Canvas without the popping the cork, right?

Wrong. For those under 21, coffee is a perfectly acceptable substitution for the alcoholic beverage featured at this event.

How to look like you belong

For those of you who have decided to substitute coffee for wine, consider the following information to ensure you fit into your new lifestyle.

Dress to impress

So the F-M area may not exactly be the red caret; however, in order to fit in with the Corks & Canvas crowd, you must be willing to put in some effort in advance. Gentlemen, office attire will do. You’re good to go in a simple pair of black dress pants and a button up shirt. Ladies, prepare as if you had a personal fashion consultant. TLC’s “What Not to Wear” needs to be taken into consideration for this event.

Looking like you can afford this kind of lifestyle is crucial in order to fit in with those who can.

“I may have had to work for at least an hour to buy this simple cup of coffee, but with this outfit nobody is ever going to know,” said Julianna Baartman as we prepared for our new downtown adventure.

Associate with the talent

The key to fitting in during a Corks & Canvas event is being on a first-name basis with the talent. This is definitely more simple in the F-M area than it sounds. All you have to do is ask questions about his/her art; this includes asking about inspirations, prices and where this would fit in your home.

Note: If you are under the age of 21 the last question may need to be a little more creative.

Jacob Douglas Larson and Megan Larson, Minnesota State University Moorhead art students, displayed their artistic talents at Boerth’s Gallery during the Corks & Canvas event.

One of the best ways to get to know the talent is to tip the artist. Who doesn’t want to know the name of the person who just placed money into his/her hands?

WARNING: Do not try to match tips with the person who just purchased a $5,000 painting minutes before.

Stand close to the serving line

Even though you know you won’t be consuming any alcohol, one of the best ways to look like you belong with the over -21 crowd is to stand close to the serving line. Don’t mingle around the area for too long, just a few minutes or so. This way it looks as though you were going to retrieve your glass, but decided to move on to another location instead. If knowledgeable enough in the wine area, a bold move is to comment on the selection.

WARNING: Be careful about who you comment to. You could end up ruining your chances to fit in when an off-duty police officer calls in backup to perform a Breathalyzer test.

Kevin Lau served wine at Unglued during the Corks & Canvas event.

Take time to experience

While it’s important to look like you belong at the Corks & Canvas event, you want to take in the experience as well. Once you have prepared for the event, take the time to relax and enjoy it. Take in this leisurely lifestyle, appreciate the art and by all means enjoy the coffee you paid for. Enjoying the event now will only enhance the experience once you are able to legally participate.

Create the experience from home

So you’re inspired by the thought of art, music and wine (or coffee in this instance), but weren’t able to experience it firsthand? No worries. Turn the music and lights down low, grab your favorite beverage, and browse this Pinterest board filled with art that you could have experienced downtown.

Does Pintrest have a gender bias?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Kevin Gutmann

Story by Kevin Gutman

The website Pinterest combines social networking and hobbies, like baking, cooking, dream weddings and fashion. Some have said Pinterest caters mostly to women because the content is female oriented.

As a man the search results can be baffling. Search the word “bars” and an endless supply of lemon bar recipes appear. The third result for “football” is little green cup cakes with footballs decorations on top. Search “Ultimate Fighting” and only nine results show up of which only one picture has to do with UFC.

Some people will charge sexism, saying the search results stereotype all men as sports loving drinkers while excluding women from such activities. Women can love sports like football and UFC while men can plan their dream weddings without being judged. However it’s still a reasonable assumption that men, generally speaking, prefer watching violent sports and women prefer planning dream weddings more so than males.

Anyone who would dispute these claims can go to a local sports bar during a UFC fight and see how the men outnumber the women. Conversely, ask anyone who has planned an actual wedding who had more input the bride or the groom.

Men’s and women’s opinion of Pinterest stays along gender lines in downtown Fargo.

What do the people of Fargo think of Pinterest? With a camera in tow, a random sampling of men and women in downtown were asked if they use, like, or even heard of Pinterest.

The results confirmed a perceived gender bias. All the women said they loved and used Pinterest. The men weren’t too wild about the site. Two of men had never heard Pinterest; one guy thought it wasn’t for him, while two other men could see why women like it but where indifferent about joining Pinterest.

Pinterest evolution requires more male users.

Should the men of America rise up and accuse Pinterest of sexism? Of course not, Pinterest gathers its contents from its users, if most of the users are women it figures the content will be female dominated. The only way to make Pinterest a more complete website is for men to join and post stuff about their interest and hobbies.

Facebook in its infancy was limited to college students and since evolved into the most popular social network in the world. Facebook is worth an estimated 8 billion dollars and counting. Pinterest was started only a few years ago and has plenty of room to grow.

Although not all evolutions are good for social networking sites, just ask Rupert Murdoch who bought MySpace for 580 million dollars in 2005 and recently sold the site for 35 million dollars, totaling a 545 million dollar loss in seven years.

It will be interesting to see if more men take to Pinterest it the future. Judging by one man reaction in the video the site already has a stigma attached to it. Oddly enough Pinterest was created by two men and the site is popular among males in the United Kingdom as they post about soccer.

The future of Pinterest remains undecided for now. It could be an internet sensation among all people or it could fade away like MySpace. Finding fresh content might be difficult in the long term. How many lemon bar recipes does one person need? If men want Pinterest to suit their hobbies then they must join and pin and content.

Why limit the results to downtown? Here is a quick poll about Pinterest and gender. It’s only two questions long and you only have to answer one.

Eating Healthier with Tochi Foods Store

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Nishesh Sharma

A unique store

The Tochi Foods Store offers natural, health, organic and specialty gourmet foods and products. The store is located at 2^nd Ave in Fargo and carries bulk grains, flours, fruits, nuts, rice, beans lentils and herbs. Tochi products store has been in business for the last 38 years.

Long history in Fargo

The store first opened in September 7^th1971 with a mission to cater to people who are looking to eat a little healthier and those interested in whole green diets. The store was started in a small scale but today it deals with retail and wholesale operations in the region. The store supplies to local restaurants and sets up bulk orders for area businesses.

Family owned business

Will Hoglund who is the owner of the store was originally born in Fargo and went to school in Grand Forks. His two sons Gabe Hoglund and Joe Hoglund actively help him with the stores operations and management.

Joe Hoglund attended M State Tech College for Accounting and Business Management and works at the store full time. He has worked here for about 15 years. His parents Will Hoglund and Naomi Nagamoto initially started the Tochi Foods Store.

“ I have been involved with the store since I was very young and its nice to have a family owned business that contributes to society. This is enough to keep us busy and content with what we are doing here, just supplying the local community” says Hoglund.

There has been a trend among people to eat healthy and whole foods. More and more people are looking at alternatives and options to eat and buy health foods and whole foods. This is due to higher level of awareness of the harmful effects of Junk food and scientifically altered food products that we see in grocery stores today.

Debbie Carico, who has worked at the store for the last 11 years says, “The clients seem to grow day by day, in the beginning we had a lot of ethnically diverse clients who came for specific foods but now days there are a lot more people who want to eat healthier. I have also noticed that the younger generation now compared to a decade ago is more eager to eat healthy and also the folks from the baby boomer generation who are looking to get healthier.”

Eating Healthy

Recently there has been an increase in the trends to eat healthier and buy foods from local whole food stores and these choices are available to the people in the Fargo Moorhead area because of Tochi Foods Store.

Joe further said, “Eat what is grown in the ground, all this food out there is not raised from the earth but raised from what is put on it, organic is grown from mother earth and that’s the way it was meant but yeah we got to be happy with what you eat. I am glad that the general public is realizing that something has got to change and I am hoping that we can provide that for them and continue to do it and I am glad that there are a lot of options out there for people.”

Strong Customer Base

Matthew Hulsether, a student who was at the store said, “ This store has been around for a long time now and provides alternative means to eat healthier. I buy my groceries here just cause I know that things I buy here are a lot more healthier and will contain no additives or chemicals that are harmful to my body.”

The store is nothing but good news for people looking to buy organic and whole food products in the region. With the wholesomeness of the service that this family operated business provides and the uniqueness of the building it is undoubtedly a very prominent part of the downtown community in the area.

Picture Gallery from the store.