Month: December 2003

  • Symphony in Black and White: 100 Etchings and Lithographs by James McNeill Whistler

    One can hardly recall the name James McNeill Whistler without thinking that he was a bit of a mama’s boy. In a fate similar to that of Norman Bates, Whistler the Artist has almost been overshadowed by Whistler the Painting, popularly known as “Whistler’s Mother” but officially titled “Arrangement in Grey and Black.” Whistler rarely…

  • Refugees at Home

    I swear to heaven that it sounded like a good idea at the time. Hypnotized by HGTV, we took a perfectly good kitchen (if not our aesthetic ideal), ripped it out by the seams, and have for the last four months given a painful, bloody Lamaze-style birth to the placement of each pantry cupboard, each…

  • The View From Here: Pictures from Central Europe and the American Midwest

    If the Midwestern inferiority complex has a lot to do with our location in flyover country, imagine what it must be like to live in Poland, traditional butt of the “dumb” jokes of nations thousands of miles away. But there are other similiarities, too—the wide expanses of plains, for instance, or the starkly utilitarian architecture…

  • Diane Schuur

    We’re very excited to have Schuur back in Minneapolis. Through her decorated singing career, we’ve come to expect her to trot out the jazz and pop standards—from big-band arrangements to intimate nightclub combos. But her third record came out last summer, and it was a wonderful departure, pairing her with the one and only Barry…

  • Ani DiFranco

    Perpetually touring Ani DiFranco hits the stage with a few of her favorite f-words—“folk,” “feminism,” and undoubtedly one more—as she continues her winter tour after a much-deserved monthlong hiatus. Intimate venues have always been DiFranco’s preference, and the Northrop will be a fitting platform from which to unveil tracks from her latest album, Endangered Species,…

  • Campaign Season

    Maybe Governor Pawlenty’s idea of reinstating the death penalty in Minnesota will spur young people into some political interest, if not action. My stepdaughter was certainly disturbed when her research on the issue turned up the facts of the last Minnesotan execution in 1906, which didn’t go well. The hangman miscalculated the necessary calibration between…