"There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer." —RWE

ART & PERFORMANCE
Performance
(career ender)

Claude
Wampler hates the word "performance." She believes in muddling the
line between audience and "performer" as much as possible, and testing
the boundaries of the stage. She is known for giving the visual
arts a theatrical twist, and often treats her audience like actors. For instance, in her show Bucket, Wampler hired attractive people
to sit in the audience and walk out in a huff during the show to test the audience’s
commitment. Her show at the Walker is entitled Performance
(career ender), because she is fascinated with the concept of "going
out with a bang." She invented the show with the thought, "if
I had to make a final piece, what would it be?" What will it
be? There’s only one way to find out… —Kate Leibfried

8 p.m., Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7600; $20.

SPECIAL EVENT
Chinese New Year Spectacular

A
feast for the senses, the Chinese New Year Spectacular is in full gear this evening
at Northrup Auditorium. Over one-hundred artists will come together
to create one firecracker of an event. Come, not only for the skilled
dancers and musicians, but also for the beautifully crafted, dazzling
costumes. The Chinese New Year Spectacular is put on by the Divine
Performing Arts of New York, an exciting new company receiving rave
reviews in New York City. We are lucky to be hosting them in Minneapolis,
but make haste! The Chinese New Year Spectacular is playing for
one night only, and tickets are bound to go fast. —Kate Leibfried

7 p.m., Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis;

652-393-2837; $38-$120.

MUSIC
Vampires, Beasts, and Deacons

Check out First Ave for a solid triple bill, starting with Minneapolis newcomers Vampire Hands. This quartet of longhairs delivers a visceral wallop of noise-boogie intensity, heavily steeped in ’70s Stooges-esque proto punk. Gay Beast’s jagged rhythms, complicated interplay and deadpan panic approximates a sort of diseased musical articulation, and their crazy dynamics should sound great in the main room. Baltimore’s Dan Deacon headlines along with some weird audio/visual deal called Ultimate Reality. It’s described as a collaborative DVD, performance, and "Dominant Pansexual Ubermyth." Not sure what that means, but it sounds like it’s gonna be pretty cool. —Christopher Hontos

6 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775; $10.

BOOKS & AUTHORS
Hari Kunzru: My Revolutions

Having adopted an alias, Michael Frame, the character at the center of My Revolutions
is living a carefully constructed life of suburban mediocrity, hiding
his radical history from a capitalist career wife and a stepchild who
dreams of nothing more romantic than a gig as a corporate lawyer. As
always seems to happen in such stories—whether in real life or
fiction—ghosts come calling and Frame is dragged back into the past.
That’s admittedly a tired premise, but Kunzru—one of Granta’s “Twenty
Best Fiction Writers Under Forty”—has a pretty good track record at
making something stylish and memorable out of unpromising material. His
previous novels, The Impressionist and Transmission, seemed like cool, logical outgrowths from his work at Mute Magazine, a nifty British rag that focuses on the exploration of globalization and “network societies.” From the sound of things, My Revolutions is a sort of ambitious departure, and a meditation on the fluidity of time, identity, ideology, and necessity. —Danielle Cabot

Available today in bookstores nationwide.

ART
The Best Local Illustrators

This evening is the official opening of the latest CVA Gallery exhibit, described by Rake illustrator Hugh Bennewitz as "the first serious illustrator show in the twin towns in some time." Illo.Minn features work by more than 25 Minnesota illustrators — along with some fabulous boxed wine and other great things, I hear.

6-8 p.m., The CVA Gallery, 173 Western Ave., at the corner of Western and Selby avenues, St. Paul.