Month: June 2004

Fresh off his box-office success with School of Rock, director Richard Link-later’s returned to his low-key, high-concept indie roots. Sunset picks up on his 1995 romance Before Sunrise, catching up with the characters played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy nine years later. The two of them wander around Paris, talk, visit a coffeeshop, talk, go for a boat ride, talk, and talk, and talk, dancing around the question of whether they’re still in love. You needn’t have seen the earlier film to appreciate what Sunset offers. If you were taken with both My Dinner with Andre and Wings of Desire, this one’s for you. (612) 825-6006; www.landmarktheatres.com

They’ll be murdering, stealing, and backstabbing all month down at the Oak Street, which sounds like fun to us. July’s repertory slate is a good mix of the titles long recognized as noir royalty (Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Chinatown) and enough lesser-known beauties to pique the interest of hardened criminophiles. Good bets include Burt Lancaster’s debut The Killers, the labyrinthine The Big Clock, and the Independence Day weekend’s trio of undeservedly overlooked Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake films. Rounding things out are a fistful of well-known 1990-era noirs all worth a second or even third look, among them David Lynch’s bizarre Blue Velvet, the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing, and The Grifters, the twistedly Freudian adaptation of Jim Thompson’s novel starring John Cusack. (612) 331-3134; www.mnfilmarts.org

With seminars on everything from poetry to quilting, along with teachers from such faraway places as Korea, the Split Rock Arts Program’s summer workshops at the University of Minnesota make for a tasty arts buffet. Each Tuesday brings a fresh set of writers reading and visual artists showing slides. This year’s teachers include local stars like poet Ray Gonzalez, painter Cheng Khee Chee, and novelist Sheila O’Connor, and visitors like Oregonian poet Dorianne Laux, Korean textile artist Chunghie Lee, and Californian children’s author/illustrator Gerald McDermott. An open reception follows each soiree, since we all know that tasty vittles and fine conversation make any arts event that much better. 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; (612) 625-6000; www.bookstore.umn.edu

Rock criticism has never mattered less, probably because it has never really evolved beyond the canon of its best, exhausted practitioners—Christgau, Marcus, and Meltzer. Whereas those old duffers should have grown up a long time ago, into broader social, political, even pop-cultural criticism—hell, how about a novel, guys?—they keep churning out increasingly remote ruminations and mostly just come off like cranks who have spent too much time in smoky bars with loud music and loose women and oversized mirrors. Which brings us to Klosterman, who deserves the attention he’s gotten for writing pop criticism that’s actually fun to read. His last book, just out in paperback, is Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. It’s a wild romp from Pam Anderson’s sex tapes to the decline of American newspapers, and shows just how free-wheeling and funny the male mind can be. Mary Lucia loves this guy, and so do we. (651) 699-0587; www.ruminator.com

Meticulous detail, natural poses, and—most startling—life-sized renderings made John James Audubon’s Birds of America a groundbreaking work in the formerly staid world of nineteenth-century ornithology. Today, William Souder’s biography of Audubon, Under a Wild Sky, paints the larger-than-life portrait of the man behind the famous illustrations, who was far more interesting than his role as the über-birdwatcher implies. Souder follows his subject, a “self-taught painter and self-anointed aristocrat,” as he travels from an illegitimate childhood in Haiti to the wilderness of Kentucky and elite scientific circles on the East Coast and in Europe. Souder peppers his rich prose with tangents on American history, natural history, and environmentalism, which should be no surprise coming from an author whose last book, A Plague of Frogs, chronicled Minnesota’s outbreak of frog deformities in the late nineties. Bound To Be Read, 870 Grand Ave., St. Paul; (651) 646-2665; www.boundtoberead.com. Valley Bookseller, 217 N. Main St., Stillwater; (651) 430-3385

Sex. Drugs. Corruption. Misunderstanding. In her debut novel, Lindsay Ahl explores these themes through the eyes of 35-year-old Elena Monroe, a confused individual who has occasional cravings for grape juice. Elena stumbles through a web of the past and present, trying to work out her relationship with her mother. Ahl’s vague and ethereal writing style helps tremendously in creating Elena, who is so unreliable as a narrator that we don’t even trust the story to be over just because when we’ve run out of pages to read. Local imprint Coffee House Press published Desire, but that’s not the only Minnesotan connection. At one point, Elena drives through Minneapolis just in time to catch a Bob Dylan concert. (Available now)

We’re pleased as punch that local mystery novelist and poet Mary Logue is back between boards with a bona-fide Claire Watkins mystery. This one is an ambitious suspense tale set in the familiar area around Pepin, Wisconsin. A fifty-year-old murder mystery and a modern terrorist are somehow linked, and Logue’s most beloved detective takes the case. What we love about Logue is the importance of place, and how her
real-life summer home in the Wisconsin bluff country is the secret muse of this particular work. There may be local novelists who score higher on the New York Times bestseller lists, but we consider Logue and her partner Pete Hautman the reigning royalty of Minnesota murder mysteries. (Available now)

Although the wildly prolific P.G. Wodehouse turned out almost a hundred novels in his lifetime, the world can always make room for another story in his marvelously droll, light-as-a-feather comic voice. Ames’ latest novel is a loving parody of Wodehouse’s most famous creations, Jeeves and Wooster, seen through the eyes of Alan Blair, a would-be writer and heavy drinker who has somehow acquired an imaginary valet named (of course) Jeeves. Their relationship is like a benign version of Jack Nicholson and his butler in The Shining—no murders, but lots of witty repartee. Blair’s Jewish self-identity and deep-set neuroses make him as akin to Woody Allen as Bertie Wooster, and his hapless distension from reality gives Wake Up a vibe that’s akin to A Confederacy of Dunces, as well as any of Wodehouse’s artfully constructed farces. Ask your valet to pick up a copy for you. (Available July 13)

Even at her worst, Louise Erdrich still produces some of the best stuff in print. The rambling, poorly edited The Master Butcher’s Singing Club was a great read despite its flaws. And now one of our favorite locals is back and playing to her strengths with another short, near-perfect book the likes of which put her on the map nearly twenty years ago. The thread of her lead character, Fleur Pillager, can be traced to the 1986 Love Medicine sequel The Beet Queen, where she appears from nowhere to salvage the wayward Karl Adare. Erdrich follows her thread backward now, with her usual set of startlingly different narrative voices. (Available July 1)

In the past two years the Minnesota Orchestra’s once-moribund Sommerfest series has surged back to life, thanks in part to the guidance of artistic director Andrew Litton (who also wields a baton as the Dallas Symphony’s music director). This year’s program is satisfyingly broadminded, anchored by traditional classical works by composers like Brahms and Dvorak, but also includes a crowd-pleasing night of movie music from films like Lord of the Rings. Jazz is covered by the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the great hard-bop ivory man Oscar Peterson, and there’s even a nod to experimental rock with pianist Christopher O’Riley’s Radiohead reinterpretations. Litton will lead the orchestra in a selection of Gershwin tunes (one of his specialties) and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and close out this year’s fest with Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. When we asked Litton what he’d bring to entertain him if stranded on a deserted isle, his list was appropriately heavy on aural delights—but he also knows there’s more to life than just music.

1) “First would be my piano, with the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, and the score to Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto because I’ve always wanted to learn that and I’ve never had the time. Those thirty-two sonatas have everything. It would never be boring to have that treasure trove of music to look through.

2) “My complete Oscar Peterson collection, which is about 114 CDs. He’s my hero. I’m so excited that he’s coming to Sommerfest this year that I can hardly stand it. He represents all that I think is great about music. Maybe I’m being selfish by asking for all 114, but even a selection of ten would do! For me, his approach to the piano is as educational as listening to any of the great classical pianists—plus the fact that he can just sit down and play, and make up stuff on the spot.

3) “Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. It would be wonderful to have that, and I’d dream that if I ever get off the island I’ll get to conduct it. It would always give me hope.

4) “I’d like to cheat a little bit and take my kids along. They’re the most entertaining thing I know. They’re five and eight, so they’re at a very funny, very entertaining age.

5) “A case of 1982 Bourdeaux that’s kept in the shade. That is one of my passions, I confess, so why not put it here on my list for the world to judge? (laughs) That sounds like a pretty nice island now. I’m very happy. When do I leave?”
Sommerfest runs July 9-31. For a complete schedule, visit www.minnesotaorchestra.org.