Ask the Experts

CONFERENCE
Mondale Speaks on the Vice-Presidency

As we continue to watch what has proven to be a very interesting presidential primary race, one question will become more and more important: who will the candidates choose as their running mates? Now is the time to start the guessing game, so perhaps it’s a good time to learn about the various factors that influence the selection. And who better to hear it from than a former vice-president himself. This morning, Walter F. Mondale will join leading experts from across the country to discuss the selection of vice presidential nominees. What should we look for in the next vice president? You decide.

8:30 a.m. to noon, Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612 625 3421; free.

LECTURE
MPR Presents Bob Garfield

If money is the root of all evil, advertising is the horse manure that ensures its growth. Yeah, that’s silly, but perhaps a fair introduction to a man who has been an ardent advertising critic for over a decade, Bob Garfield. Don’t get me wrong here, a critic is often an industry’s staunchest supporter: the man has done much for the advertising industry, both good and bad. But more than that, he has helped us to understand it. He has enlightened us. And he has entertained us. In addition to serving as co-host of National Public Radio’s On the Media, Garfield writes "Ad Review," a TV-commercial criticism feature for Advertising Age and maintains his own blog, called The Bobosphere. (See, he MUST be important.) He has written for some of the country’s top publications — including big important ones like Sports Illustrate — and he even cowrote a song with Willie Nelson. Whoop. Whoop. (Try as I might, I couldn’t find a video of it for you.) Maybe you can ask him to sing it tonight.

7 p.m., Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel, Macalester, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul; free, but tickets are required and are available at Bibelot Shops.

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
King Lear

While dual-roling was common in Shakespeare’s time, this meant that one actor often played two roles — not that two actors played one role, as in the Minnesota Shakespeare Project’s current production of King Lear. Ok, this is just a little misleading. At first I thought, really? It takes me long enough to figure out who is who and follow the story, and now they’re going to throw multiple actors at me? Interesting. But it’s not that complicated at all. It’s just a double role rotation, so that you can actually see the performance more than once and get a whole new experience — and so that the actors can mix it up and have some fun with different roles, of course. And who doesn’t love a perfect tragedy?

7:30 p.m., Old Arizona, 2821 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-871-0050; $22, student and seniors $20 (tonight is industry night).

MUSIC
One, Two, Three Days Grace

Start your week with a jolt tonight with a triple-whammy alt metal show at the Target Center: Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Seether. Three Days Grace took the rock world by storm five years ago when their self-title album produced two number one hits: "I Hate Everything about You" and "Just Like Her." Then two years ago, in 2006, they struck gold once again when the first three singles off their One-X album topped the charts — all of them! It doesn’t get much better than this. Of course, Breaking Benjamin seems to be on a similar path, with a number one single from their 2007 album, Phobia, which made it to number two on the Billboard 200 last year. And though their success is perhaps a little newer than the others, Seether is still riding high with the release of their last album, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, which debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 last October.

6:30 p.m. (doors 5:30 p.m.), Target Center, 600 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-673-0900; $35.

 

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