FILM
Spring Passions
Back in 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused riots at its premiere. Almost a century later, directors Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch use Stravinsky’s masterpiece as the catalyst for an educational project involving 250 Berlin children representing 25 nations. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, under Sir Simon Rattle, ventured out of its ivory tower in order to transform these 250 youngsters — none of whom had ever anything to do with classical music or dance — into a ballet troupe. Tasked with motivating the youth and developing their artistic skills, British choreographer Royston Muldoon helped the disenfranchised teens find their creative centers and unleash a potential they never knew they had. Meanwhile, veteran filmmakers, Grube and Sanchez Lansch got it all on film. Rhythm Is It! provides a thrilling mix of coming-of-age tale, performance film, and music video, culminating with their final performance in an old bus depot before 3,000 spectators. It’s not often we get to see something like this, so don’t miss it.
7:15 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis, $8 (seniors $6, students & members $5).
FILM
A Hollywood Musical Favorite
If you’re big on old-fashioned Broadway musicals, you really can’t pass this one up. With lively musical scores and witty dialogue, The Band Wagon, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is one of Hollywood’s finest musicals. British musical star Jack Buchanan plays a flamboyant, self-absorbed producer/director, Jeffrey Cordova (great name choice!), who transforms a lighthearted pop musical into a serious play about a modern Faust. The film is dominated by musical numbers, scored by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, including: Dancing in the Dark, That’s Entertainment, By Myself, and I guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans. The climax — a jazz-dance, film noir, dream sequence features Cyd Charisse as a femme fatale in a smoky barroom and Fred Astaire as the noirlike detective dancing a sexually choreographed number. While it does seem a little out of place within the context of the film, it’s certainly worth a watch.
7:10 p.m., Heights Theater, 3951 Central Ave. NE, Columbia Heights, 763-788-9079, $8 (seniors $5, student $7).
MUSIC
Post Apocalyptic Vaudeville with a Socio-Political Tongue
When it comes to putting on a full show, Humanwine has it down to a science of sorts. More than just musicians, they set up a whole scenario in a fictional land called Vinland. Each song is then presented as a sort of mini-movie-soundtrack with plot twists, conflict, and resolution. While this band is typically classified as alternative punk rock, don’t let that dissuade you from enjoying their show. Yes, they certainly have the anger and wit of classic punk rock bands, but their vaudevillian presence, haunting melodies and diverse instrumentation — including layers of glock, accordion, trumpet, mandolin and piano — come together to create a sound more typical of gypsy music, with a modern punk twist. While some of their angry lyrics are a bit on the weak side, singer Holly Brewer has a fascinating voice. And the general story of mindless cogs working under a totalitarian ruler, is certainly something to which many of us can somehow relate. Humanwine was voted Best New Act at the 2006 Boston Music Awards and in the Boston Phoenix/WFNX Best Music Poll 2006.
9.30 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.), 7th Street Entry, 29 N. 7th St., Minneapolis, 612-332-1775$9.50.
LECTURE
Cesar Vallejo Translated
This evening, author and poet Clayton Eshleman will be discussing his new book, Complete Poems of Cesar Vallejo — a true representation of his life’s work in translation. The bilingual volume features Vallejo’s complete works, as well as Eshleman’s long relationship with Vallejo’s poetry, extensive notes on the translation, and a foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa. Vargas Llosa writes in his foreword: “Only the dauntless perseverance and the love with which the translator has dedicated so many years of his life to this task can explain why the English version conveys, in all its boldness and vigor, the unmistakable voice of Cesar Vallejo.” Eshleman is a National Book Award winner for a previous translation of Vallejo’s poetry, and was a finalist for the 2006 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for the collection Conductors of the Pit (translations of Neruda, Vallejo, Artaud, Cesaire, Holan, Breton, Radnoti and others). At this evening’s event, Eshleman will also read from his latest collections of poetry: An Alchemist with One Eye on Fire, and Reciprocal Distillations.
7 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave S., 612-822-4611, Free.
THEATER
Banned Book Theater
With all the recent talk about removing Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from local high school reading lists, perhaps it’s time for us to show some support for the ageless classic by going to see the Children’s Theater production of Huck Finn this week, before its Saturday close date. For those of you concerned with the racial slurs in the original text, don’t let that stop you; the stage adaptation focuses in the action rather than on the full social context of Twain’s work. One might call that lacking in substance — counterproductive to its parody of racism — but after all, it’s still a great story.
Facts: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was banned from the Concord Public Library in 1885, the year of its publication. It ranks number five in the American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. Mark Twain was heavily involved in politics and culture, and even served as vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League.
7 p.m., Children’s Theater Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-874-0400, $24-$31.
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