Real Life – and other things that go along with it

FILM
Real Life Has No Big Budget

Once again, the Twin Cities proves its cutting edge quality — this time in film. Tonight the Heights Theater offers a screening of RealLive, a unique combination of documentary, action, adventure, comedy and drama. Follow local director, videographer, editor, producer, musician and biker (and Columbia Heights High School graduate), Cory Parkos, on his quest to experience freedom in America. That’s right; it’s a contemporary Easy Rider. Come see what a local filmmaker can do with no script, no sets, and no big production budget.

7 p.m., Heights Theater, 3951 Central Ave. NE, 763-788-9079.

It’s been a good 15 years since I’ve done any dumpster diving with artist friends, but I still have a weak spot for recycled art. It’s not that I go for the whole green, environmentally-correct thing; my dumpster-diving friends never did it as a political statement. It’s just that everything seems to have that much more context, that much more history. Tonight, at Altered Esthetics, more than 65 local and international artists will display their efforts at transforming clutter and waste into a thing of beauty. Art Reincarnated “is stuffed with everything from candy-wrapper ball gowns to more traditional scrap-steel sculptures — more than a hundred works in all. There’s a lot of range; some pieces might have been better left in the trash, but others intrigue with their wit and resourcefulness.”

Get a sneak peak tonight, or stop in tomorrow from 7-9 p.m. for the opening reception, featuring a Reincarnated Clothing fashion show as well as sound collages made from appropriated music and recycled recordings by Jon Nelson from Radio K’s Some Assembly Required.

1-7 p.m., Altered Esthetics, 1224 Quincy St. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-378-8888.

THEATER AND PERFORMANCE
Too Bad You Can’t Just TiVo It

There are actually a couple worthy performances opening tonight. What are you in the mood for? A saucy opera, or a meandering metaphor?

“Of all the theater companies in town, none has better taste in classic literature than Ten Thousand Things. Now, the troupe takes on Federico Garcia Lorca’s saucy Blood Wedding. Deeply poetic yet also accessible, this play sets up a gut-punching war between the heart’s passion and the human brain’s limited capacity for reason. Armed with nothing but their wits and a bucketful of puppets, the five standup cast members (including local favorites Sha Cage and, again, Barbra Berlovitz) capture a Spanish countryside full of characters. Audience members will get to sit up close at the lo-fi venues to which this show is touring. Performed in the style of street theater, with no set or theatrical lighting, these acts of infidelity, murder, and betrayal are infused with the appropriate stark, emotional rawness.”

8 p.m., The Minnesota Opera Center, 620 North First St., Minneapolis, 612-333-2700, 612-203-9502; $20.

“Always up for an experiment, Flaneur Productions distributed a top-secret passage from an obscure work of literature to a group of six local performers earlier this year. Each was instructed to use the text, along with the show’s creepy venue (a former coffin factory), as inspiration for the beginning of a twenty-minute situationist stroll, or derive in French — the result being that the collected works will share a point of origin but drift from there on. The iconoclastic imaginations tapped for this showcase include a veritable who’s-who of the local experimental-theater scene: John Bueche of the Bedlam Theatre company, Charles Campbell from the site-specific performance troupe Skewed Visions, and Kristin Van Loon, one-half of the renegade dance duo Hijack.”

7 p.m. (through April 14th), The Northwestern Casket Company building, 1707 Jefferson Street NE, Minneapolis, 612-203-9560; $14.

MUSIC
Simple Emotions

Do you know what emo is yet? (If you don’t, you should probably follow that link and get with the times.) Basically, it’s teenage angst music. I don’t see why we needed a new name for it. But I’m straying here, and being a bit unfair. Tonight, Seattle-based acoustic folk-rocker Rocky Votolato is playing at the Varsity Theatre, and while he’ll probably look pretty cool up there holding his guitar with a harmonica strapped around his neck, I can’t resist the emo jab. But growing up in a family of musicians did Votolato well. His simple compositions are beautifully executed and charged with raw emotion.

6 p.m., Varsity Theatre and Cafe des Artistes, 1308 4th St. SE, Minneapolis, 612-604-0222; $10, $12 (all ages).

Listen to Rocky Votolato.

Not up for emo music? Here are a couple other options:

Smart pop rocker and folk singer/songwriter Mara Levi will play selections from her new CD, What Are You? at 7:30 p.m. tonight, at the Ginkgo Coffeehouse, 721 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul; $8 advance, $10 door.
Download and listen to Mari Levi songs.

Big band master and accomplished musician, Harry Connick, Jr. plays tonight at 8 p.m., at the Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, 612-373-5600; $76.50 – $43.50.
Listen to Harry Connick, Jr.