Year: 2006

Theater companies, like most of us, are driven to find a permanent place to call home (see Ballet of the Dolls to the right). But the Skewed Visions performance troupe is at home as a nomadic concept; previous productions have been designed to suit such makeshift “stages” as a parked car and a private home. Now they bring their highly stylized aesthetic to an office building–a pretty good-looking one. The Grain Belt Office Building, housed in the nineteenth-century Grain Belt Brewery complex, hosts Skewed Visions’ Days and Nights, an evening-length, interactive, and labyrinthine event that mixes live performance with video feeds, puppetry, and doll actors. Three distinct pieces–A Quiet Ambition, The Hidden Room, and Time for Bed–take place in their own respective corridors and board rooms, linked together by the roaming audience. 1215 Marshall St. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-201-5727; www.skewedvisions.org

Live! Onstage! Tonight at the synagogue! OK, this Minnetonka temple is an unusual venue, perhaps, forone of the world’s finest violinists, but lucky are the few who take advantage of a rare opportunity to see such spectacular musicianship in an elegant and intimate milieu. Israel-born Perlman plays “the Devil’s instrument” ferociously, as if he were indeed possessed, and his devotion to the bow has recently led not just to inspired collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and Jessye Norman, but to ventures into jazz and klezmer as well. Then there are the movie scores for John Williams and that gig conducting the Detroit Symphony. A couple months ago, we even spotted him wandering about the red carpet before the Academy Awards, looking a bit dazed amid all the silliness, but clearly having a well-deserved good time. 10500 Hillside La. W., Minnetonka; 952-545-2424; www.adathjeshurun.org

Another Texan songbird, Tish Hinojosa, retains the love of her home state by performing in both Spanish and English. She’s equally at home within the Latino music community, or with folkies like Lucinda Williams and Nancy Griffith, or touring internationally with her fellow “Global Divas,” Peru’s Susana Baca and Zimbabwe’s Stella Chiweshe. Her vision of Latina beauty and talent is fresh and simple (Jennifer Lopez and Shakira would look like drag queens beside her); she puts the focus on songwriting that draws on contemporary folk and roots rock, while honoring her Mexican heritage. And Hinojosa’s voice, crystalline and sweet as spring bluebonnets, can stop anyone in his tracks. 900 Mount Curve Ave., Minneapolis; 651-293-9021

What to make of this latest Springsteen recording? On the one hand, it means he’s so hugely successful that he can make whatever kind of music he pleases. On the other, it shows that he’s cemented his star so far in the past that his latest endeavors can slip by unremarked upon, even by many of his fans. Songs like “Froggie Went a-Courtin’” and “Buffalo Gals” won’t garner the Boss much radio play (much less undies thrown onstage during the upcoming tour), but this album is more than just a novelty set. It’s an homage to an American original, one to whom Springsteen feels he owes a debt of inspiration. Like Wilco’s Woody Guthrie sessions, it’s a fascinating exploration of songwriting history and an unusual gift to Springsteen’s most dedicated fans.

What does it mean that Amazon.com paired the Dixie Chicks’ new album with Al Franken’s new book for a special discount deal? It means some people can’t let go of the past. So the Chicks shocked some fans a few years back by making clear their opposition to the invasion of Iraq; they’ve had a good, long maternity leave to mull over their outspoken ways. And guess what–things haven’t changed. The album’s first single, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” conveys their current state of mind pretty clearly. Plus, they’ve inched ever closer to the black heart of rock -n- roll by working with producer Rick Rubin, who turned legions of country-music-haters into Johnny Cash fans, and by tapping local talents Gary Louris and Dan Wilson for songwriting contributions. Come to think of it, since Texas probably still hates the Chicks, we’re more than happy to consider them honorary Minnesotans.

Blame the gentrification of bluegrass nation on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, NPR, or handsome young bands like Nickel Creek, whose ability to cross over to an open-minded rock audience must chafe home-pickin’ traditionalists to the calloused bottoms of their clogging toes. Of course, bluegrass has been through this all before, when college folkies discovered Bill Monroe and his brethren; since then, it’s never been a purely hick endeavor. And someone like Darol Anger makes us grateful for that. This fiddle and violin virtuoso approaches bluegrass with musicianship so precise, intelligent, and classically ground that the rustic vernacular gets lost in his own searching and all-inclusive approach to the music. The Turtle Island Quartet, Anger’s jazz-oriented acoustic band, gave him the opportunity to perfect complex playing styles of his own invention; indeed, no one plays quite like him, although folks like Stephane Grappelli, Mark O’Connor, and Bela Fleck line up to accompany him. On this tour, lucky young Nickel Creek singer Sara Watkins joins Anger for an evening of bluegrass that is really much bigger than a genre usually gets. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet fashioned the now-classic Delicatessen as a black-humored farce that is a cautionary tale buried within an expansively freaky fairy tale. At a popular French eatery, a series of handymen become the special of the day, until a former clown takes the doomed job and woos the butcher’s daughter. She rallies a band of vegetarian activists to save her lover as he clambers his way to escape, encountering a hilarious series of (mostly) sweet local oddballs of the same breed that populate Jeunet’s more recent film, Amelie.

In this Scottish film, sacked shipbuilder Frank Redmond pulls out of his doldrums when he decides to swim the English Channel. Training, planning, and sneaking around his wife in order to do so give him a new lease on life. As with many a classic British buddy movie, he’s supported by a posse of slouchy guys whose hands are permanently curled around pints, and much humor derives from the sight of an aging male body in saggy underpants. But the get-off-yer-butt message is undeniably inspirational and Redmond’s adventure is filmed with such chilly, dizzying clarity that one is reminded of how swimming the Channel is a marvelous and humbling (or ridiculous and incomprehensible) feat. 3911 50th St. W., Edina; 612-825-6006; www.landmarktheatres.com

Next time you have the opportunity to make a bargain with a genie, just say no. And yet, you’ll probably say yes, no matter how many fairy tales you’ve read, because those spell ladies are just so darn persuasive. In this stylized Chinese romance, a poor orphan girl negotiates with a sorceress to become a beautiful princess with whom men fall crazy-stupid in love, but should she ever love them back, they are doomed. Nice deal, kid. Said to be the most expensive Chinese film ever made, this feverish tale from director Chen Kaige (Farewell, My Concubine) presents three different men who fall for the girl’s killer charms as she fights to throw off the curse and live happily ever after–looks and princess status intact. Expect the kind of flashy martial arts, exquisitely choreographed battlefield scenes, and gorgeous sets and landscapes that made films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers so wildly popular on this side of the Pacific. 612-825-6006; www.landmarktheatres.com

Seven years in the making, Water has finally landed on our shores, and it was worth the wait. Shelved after its sets were destroyed by fundamentalist Hindis and the director Deepa Mehta’s life threatened, the production resumed years later in Sri Lanka with a new cast. Water is the story of Chuyia, a precocious eight-year-old who has just been widowed from a man she barely remembers marrying. Forced by ancient laws to mourn eternally in an ashram, the young girl rebels, bringing both hope and turmoil to a group of destitute widows.