The Rake Magazine

Author: Cristina Córdova

  • Silver Swan Leads a Lush Life of Wizardry

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Raking through Books with Banville

    Join us for Raking Through Books, The Rake’s monthly happy hour
    book club, at Kieran’s Irish Pub. This event offers readers the chance
    to discuss literature with writers and each other in a super-casual
    setting. This month, join John Banville (a.k.a. Benjamin Black). The inimitable Quirke, the irascible and formerly hard-drinking Dublin
    pathologist, returns in another spellbinding crime novel, The Silver Swan. —Jennifer Havrish

    5:30-7:30 p.m., Kieran’s Irish Pub, 330 2nd Ave. S., Minneapolis; free.

    Richard Price

    Bronx born and bred, Richard Price is arguably the country’s grittiest version of a zeitgeist Renaissance man. Following his first two novels The New York Times Book Review
    dubbed him “The Fonzi of Literature,” which may or may not have been
    intended as a compliment. But if early Price seemed like a flyweight
    greaseball with a Mean Streets obsession that verged on the romantic, his 1992 crack masterpiece Clockers
    established him as a writer without peer when it came to breathing life
    into a subject that hadn’t yet become an abstract hip-hop cartoon to
    millions of white kids. These days Price may be better known as a
    screenwriter than a novelist, but his work on HBO’s The Wire has been offered as conclusive evidence that television can possess all the power of great literature. In Lush Life, his first novel in five years, Price returns to his hometown and finds the streets as mean as ever. —Brad Zellar

    7 p.m., William Mitchell College of Law, 875 Summit Ave., St. Paul; 651-225-8989; free. Also tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.

    FILM & VIDEO
    Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema on DVD

    At the turn of the last century, Georges Méliès was literally a stage conjuror, and his eye for the magical led to the creation of some of the most startling silent films ever made. Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema is a thirteen-hour collection of 173—count ’em, 173!—short. —Peter Schilling

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    Blues in the Night

    If you’re up for some bluesy torch songs — and who isn’t? — then you’ll want to check out Blues in the Night. The Sheldon Epps musical is set in a boarding house, but forget about the story; you can’t go wrong with the songs of Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ida Cox, and other great blues legends of the ’20s and ’30s.

    8 p.m., Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St, St Paul, 651-224-4222; $40.50-$50.50.

     

  • Discontinuing Print

    On my weekly trip to the Ridgedale Library this past week, I noticed
    that The Rake stand had been moved from its usual location, then found
    it on the first floor. After conversing with a friendly (yes, your
    readers are very pleasant people) fellow reader, I found out that this
    would be your LAST PUBLICATION! Ouch!! Since television is so
    "polluted" with misinformation and silly, brain-dead entertainment, I do
    not watch it; so this was the first time I heard you were going to end
    this wonderful source of information and amusement. PLEASE reconsider
    and find another option. Although I am online everyday (part of my
    income), my lower back can take only ten hours a day sitting in one
    position, so I enjoy reading your magazine while taking a break or
    just going for a walk and having a relaxing read. Many of
    your readers are not online and never will be — these people will
    be completely cut off. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE consider other options.
    Anyone reading this, I ask you to also voice your option.

    JD Askevold, St. Louis Park
    Letter

  • Gospel, Cars, and Punk

    MUSIC
    The Holmes Brothers

    The Holmes Brothers bring roadhouse rock to god-fearing gospel. In fact, you’ll find a mixture of gospel, soul, blues, R&B, and country — with truly unique three-part vocal harmonies. Sherman Holmes, Wendell Holmes, and Popsy Dixon have played and recorded with some of rock-and-rolls greats, including Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Odetta, and Willie Nelson. Head out tonight for a show that resonates with passion and conviction.

    7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $30 & $22.

    SPECIAL EVENT
    2008 Auto Show

    Cars, cars, cars. We love our cars here in good old Minnesota — a rather amusing fact considering the weather. This is the land — or at least it used to be — of the winter beater. But what lurks in the garage? What lurks under the tarp or the canvas? I’ve seen many a classic car peeking out from under its hibernation dome. I’ve seen chrome. I’ve seen flames. I’ve seen candy apple red. And now, you can see this and more at the 7th largest auto show in the nation. Stop on by, through Sunday, and check out over $30,000,000 in new vehicles.

    10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 2nd Ave S, Minneapolis, 612-335-6000; $9.

     
    MUSIC & BOWLING
    Punk Rock Bowling

    Bowl a few frames, slam a few walls, and see some cool, love music. Be My Emergency is playing at Memory Lanes with History Repeating Herself and Pretty Boy Thorson for Punk Rock Bowling!

    10 p.m., Memory Lanes Bowling Alley, 2520 26th Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-721-6211; $2 per game, $2 shoe rental.

  • St. Paddy, Please

    Pleeeease!!! It’s St. PADDY’S Day, (as in Padraig) not St. PATTY’S Day
    (as in Patricia). Or else, just call it St. Patrick’s Day.

    Martha LeDuc, St. Paul
    Letter

  • Closed Down

    I thought I heard, via MPR, that The Rake is closing it’s doors. Too bad! Thanks for all the great stories and your sense of humor. I’ll be watching for the next venue [which you’re looking at online].

    Mary Jo Schmith, Front Ave. Pottery, St. Paul
    Letter

  • Self-Deprecating Fun

    I really enjoy reading Todd Smith’s article. His self-depricating humor is always fun.

    Mark DeYoung, Minneapolis
    Letter

  • Scot-Free

    NORTH, SOUTH, DOWN & OUT

    Hello everyone,
    I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy
    accruing material for this one by traveling around this fair island. This blog-entry will concentrate on my recent travels outside Edinburgh. First to the capital of the UK and home to those English leeches: the
    monarchs of Britain; and secondly to Scotland’s biggest and most unsettling
    city, Glasgow.

    CHAPTER 1:
    GETTING TO LONDON

    I took a night-bus
    from Edinburgh to London to visit some friends from Macalester who are
    studying there at King’s College for a semester. A nine-hour trip
    in a tiny cramped seat is bad enough without miserable company; but
    I was unfortunate enough to get the full two-fer-one crappy bus-ride
    combo. The guy who sat next to me looked like the kind of guy
    Dilbert would refuse to be seen with in public. At first, I was
    excited because he was immediately talkative. I thought to myself
    that this was going to be fun, that my bus-partner and I were going
    to become friends like in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Then the guy decided to tell me about his job working for an open-source
    version of Google maps, and everything started to turn.

    He blathered
    on about his job in a peppy and cartoonish way that I will refrain from
    here because it would alienate you as it did me. This is
    the gist of the one-sided exchange: He and his friends decided that
    it would be neat to set out on a quest to take pictures of the entire
    world to in order to submit these images to a league of powerful amateur
    cartographers. These other participants scrutinized them and put
    them together to form a map. This noble alliance between the camera-toting
    vagrants and the mapmakers led to what my delusional companion proudly
    hailed as a "more accurate version of Google maps."

    As he gestured
    wildly trying to recreate his madcap bike-rides through the Scottish
    countryside, armed only with a Nikon and a bottle of Powerade, I tried
    to drown out his goofy voice with the power of my own thoughts.
    I started to inwardly question the veracity of his absurd claims. How could a bunch of bored would-be Vespuccis do a better job than Google
    does? Guys who mainly specialize in the field of knowing all the
    lines from Monty Python movies cannot outdo a company that has employed
    its satellites to take pictures of the surfaces of the Moon and Mars.

    Of course,
    that was only one of many questions that popped into my head, along
    with "why didn’t you just take another bus to London?" and "why
    can’t God just disintegrate somebody for me just this once?" Everything got much worse when he decided to point at the street every
    time we came across a patch of land that he and his friends needed to
    "explore more deeply" for the project. This happened very
    often — so often that eventually I forgot all civility and tersely told
    him I had to go to sleep. This was a blatant lie: nobody could
    sleep on a bus-ride as cramped and uncomfortable as this. Except
    for the map-nerd. He slept like an oversized baby, snoring loudly,
    and shuffling his legs in a way that clearly violated my prized personals
    space.

    Eventually
    I did get to London; I parted ways with my nightmare-bus-buddy, and
    we have not crossed paths again.

    CHAPTER 2:
    LONDON

    The famous
    landmarks of London are so familiar to everyone that I will not waste
    time describing the spires of Westminster Abbey or anything as mundane as
    that. Instead, I will tell you about some other stuff that happened
    to me in the UK capital.

    Being in a
    major city, the amount of options available to you can be overwhelming,
    disorientating, even paralyzing. Matt, the friend I was staying
    with in London, was kind enough to tackle this problem before I got
    there by losing his job. Now, we were free to roam the streets
    of the capital unhampered by the responsibility and indecision that
    come with that burden of burdens: money! No tours or fine dining
    for us. Instead, we had plenty of time to witness other more "idiosyncratic"
    attractions.

    One afternoon,
    when we were walking on London’s Strand we noticed some very colorful
    shapes moving about in a small alley near us. We walked towards
    the alley and the shapes came into focus. Before me, I saw what
    seemed to be the gaudy entrance of a nightclub and next to it were several
    individuals fully costumed to look like different animals. A fox
    in a policeman’s uniform cuffed a yellow rabbit in a baseball jersey. A purple wolf with robot-parts stared my friend and me down with his
    laser-eyes. Some other critters completely ignored us and went
    around taking pictures of each other in weirdly suggestive poses. My friend and I exchanged confused looks with a hint of trepidation,
    realizing that we were in the territory of some pretty wild deviance. Like lower mammals responding to a base instinct, we began to take pictures
    of these people who enthusiastically obliged us by strutting around
    in a way that can’t really be called "sexy" but which I can perhaps
    best describe as "uncanny."

    After this
    brush with perversity, I visited many other, more conventional sights. I saw Britain’s largest manmade crack in the Tate Modern and a host
    of pictures of historical luminaries with weak chins at the National
    Portrait Gallery    . I even heard a recording of James Joyce’s
    shrill aunt of a voice at the British Library! Every day was rich
    with activity! However
    stimulated these activities kept my eyes and ears, the call of a grumbling
    tummy inevitably brings me to my next topic: food

    People often
    complain about British cuisine. They say it is unhealthy, unsavory,
    and unsatisfying (and not worth the £5.00 you pay for it). I
    like deep-fried things, though, so Scotland has been good to me. Fish ‘n’ chips, deep-fried pork rib, and analogous dishes are exactly
    what clogs my heart and arteries with joy as well as fat. London,
    on the other hand was not as delightfully greasy a romp as its Scottish
    counterpart, Edinburgh.

    There, I went
    to what may well be the worst Chinese buffet currently in operation.
    It was an awful place where the bits of chicken tasted like crusty soap
    and all the desserts were cubic. Everybody at the restaurant,
    save myself and the friends who were with me, looked absolutely depressed. They ate the food with heir heads hanging in despair, as if somebody
    were making them do it. Frankly, I think that by the end of our
    meal, we also must have looked like we had just endured some especially
    cruel and ancient torture. Nevertheless, we swallowed down several
    plates of this shitty matter, because it was, after all, an all-you-can-eat
    buffet, and we jumped at the chance at finally getting
    the most bang for our quid.

    The moral of
    this story is: when in London, refuse the food. No matter how
    hungry you are, it is not worth the pain and sadness you will feel after
    your stomach is full of toxic bile. This I learned the hard way.
    Soon after my culinary travail, I had to take the bus back to Edinburgh.
    I spent the whole trip looking out the window; trying hard to fight
    back London’s take on the ol’ buffet blues.

    Now, on to
    the next stop on this tour of the Isle:

    GLASGOW

    A few of my
    friends and I decided to travel via train from Edinburgh to Glasgow
    in order to take in this city. I knew little about my destination,
    and God knows I wasn’t going to bother myself with doing research. Thankfully my flatmate, Knut, had some helpful information to provide.
    From him, I found out that Glasgow was the "knife-fight capital"
    of Scotland and that I should "definitely
    avoid needles" at all costs.

    Soon after
    I arrived at Glasgow, things took on a sinister bent. The city
    had many beautiful buildings, but the sight of encroaching urban sprawl
    was something that had become alien to me in tidy Edinburgh. As
    we ambled down the causeways and closes, I noticed cultural artifacts
    like smack-spikes and dirty shoes abandoned in strange, muddy gutters.
    Then I saw a group of chavs shout obscenities at a couple of women. The women screeched back some non-words in self-defense and gave them
    the two-finger "screw you" salute. I made it past this battle
    and came to a plaza. There, a man stood on a ladder, and hysterically
    spat passages from a big book (The
    Bible? Dianetics?    ) at a group of onlookers. Sometimes he took
    breaks to tell us passers-by that we were "Scum!" and "Damned!" This city was obviously no place for the faint of heart.

    For some odd
    reason, we decided to go to the Glasgow Necropolis. Deep in my
    stomach, I felt this was a bad decision as it meant getting closer to
    the tombs of Scots killed in the knife-fights I was told about.
    We went, though, and I saw where John Knox was buried. After that, nothing
    else really happened. Hopefully, next time I go to Glasgow I will
    get bludgeoned by a wino with a bloody dirk and I will get the "real
    Glasgow experience" I was hoping for. Until then, cherished
    memories of rudeness and creepy fanaticism will have to do.

  • Do the Irish Train Their Spouses Like Animals, too?

    SPECIAL EVENT
    Tunes, Tales, and Ale

    Start your St. Paddy’s Day celebration early with an evening of Irish food, drink, and entertainment. I’m not talking hornpipes and polka here (though, by Jove, you seem to love them). I’m talking Van Morrison! Ok. Ok. Not quite, but at least his music. Music will be provided by the St. Dominic’s Trio, the acclaimed Van Morrison tribute band led by local rock veteran Terry Walsh. Enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres from The Local, cocktails and Irish beers from the cash bar, and tales of Ireland and the Irish in Minnesota by Kieran Folliard (owner of Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Local, and The Liffey). Plus, learn how to bake Irish soda bread from Mary Healy of Saint Honore Gluten-Free Bakery.

    6 to 11 p.m., Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612-341-7555; $24 members $20; reservations required.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Using Animal Training on Your Spouse

    A couple years ago, when Amy Sutherland wrote about using animal-training techniques on her husband to improve their marriage, her "Modern Love" column became The New York Times’ most emailed article of the year. And of course, as is the way of the world, she got a book deal out of it, with a movie now in the works. Fresh off an appearance on The Today Show and a feature in the current issue of Newsweek, Sutherland joins us in Minneapolis to share her new book, What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. Don’t miss out on the invaluable life lessons.

    7 p.m., Borders, 800 W. 78th St, Richfield; 612-869-6245; free.

    ART
    Revision, Reiteration, Recombination: Process and the Contemporary Print

    Printmaking has a history as a medium that renowned painters and sculptors turn to when they want to experiment; locally, our own Highpoint Center for Printmaking and the erstwhile Vermillion Editions have hosted artists from around the world as they explored etching, monotyping, and lithography. This show is curated by Leslie Wayne, a New York painter whose work is currently on exhibit at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York; she brings together a motley assortment of noteworthy figures whose work in printmaking we’re excited to see, in particular Polly Apfelbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Nicola López (who just had a show locally at Franklin Art Works), Thomas Nozkowski, Martin Puryear, and James Siena. Fans of the medium will want to attend a roundtable discussion on opening night at 6 p.m., just before the reception. —Julie Caniglia

    6 p.m., College of Visual Arts Gallery, 173 Western Ave., St. Paul; 651-290-9379.

    A "Peace" of War

    War…Huh! What is it good for? At least one thing: art. A new exhibit on war, titled Booby Trap, opens today at the Larson Art Gallery. The war being fought on the walls of the Larson may not, however, be the kind of war you might expect. This group of work concentrates on war during the medieval era, a time when war was considered sport. How much has actually changed since that time? Go to the exhibit and find out. Additionally, if you haven’t paid the Larson a visit recently, you should stop by to see the newly remodeled space. Don’t "fight" the urge; stop on by! —Kate Liebfried

    10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Paul Whitney Larson Art Gallery, 2017 Buford Ave., University of Minnesota, Saint Paul; 612-625-0214; free.

    MUSIC
    Ravi Coltrane and Roy Haynes

    Two substantial (as in deep and dense) jazz bands for the price of one are on the docket when both Ravi Coltrane and Roy Haynes front ensembles at Northrop Auditorium tonight (7:30 p.m.).

  • A Slew of Overachievers

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    The Cult of Perfection

    Is your life ruled by a “to do” list of goals? When you get an idea, do you act upon it immediately, not resting until you have achieved a result? Do you always complete your work before the deadline? Do you often feel overwhelmed? Are you restless even on vacation? Then you’re probably an overachiever. But don’t worry—Cooper Lawrence is here to help. Join the acclaimed psychology expert and media personality tonight as she discusses her new book and gives you the necessary tools to make peace with your inner overachiever. "Packed with practical exercises and real-life stories of overachieving women past and present, The Cult of Perfection helps you harness your incredible energy, focus, and determination, to bring joy and success to your life."

    2 p.m.,     Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.

    MUSIC
    Bob Mould

    "When Bob Mould visits First Avenue, the paint on the walls heats up and starts to become liquid again. Stalactites of tobacco exhalations loosen their grip and drop from the ceiling. And the eardrums of people in the audience begin to ring in a way that will never completely go away, but it won’t hurt until they file out into the street, so they stay put, rapt in the presence of this former local boy and one of punk rock’s living legends." Tonight, he hits his old stomping grounds with a resplendent new disc, District Line, that mixes an occasional electronic dance tune with the molten pop-rock.

    8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Avenue North, Minneapolis; 612-338-8388; $15.

    ART
    Printer’s Pick

    Last year, staffers from the Highpoint Center for Printmaking combed through hundreds of portfolios to put together the invitational Printers’ Picks exhibit, which unfortunately ends today. Don’t miss your last chance to see this collection of diverse and engaging work from 20 North American printmakers: Adriane Atha, Sherry Black, Christopher Cannon, Caitlin Cowger, Maritza Dávila, Angellina Earley, Wanda Ewing, Jenni Freidman, Sharon Heitzenroder, Drew Iwaniw, Lê H. Khánh, Jessica Mills, Jewel Noll, Kristin Powers Nowlin, Laura Pharis, Matthew Rangel, Omar Richardson, Blake Sanders, Ruth Snyder, and Lauren van Wyke.

    10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Highpoint Center for Printmaking, 2638 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-871-1326.

  • Money, War, Schizophrenia, and Genius

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    The Fortunes of King Croesus

    We’ve known it for at least three centuries, apparently: money doesn’t buy happiness. And yet we can’t seem to help ourselves, as we continue to search our shopping cart for the meaning of life, for peace, for the ole H-word — as we continue to work 24/7, searching for the perfect formula, vying for that million-dollar break-through. Composed by Reinhard Keiser, a contemporary of Handel, The Fortunes of King Croesus tells "a bittersweet and twisting tale of love and conquest where all is right in the end." Ah, a happy ending. Definitely not Shakespeare. Definitely not Puccini. But beautiful nonetheless, perhaps moreso if you’re looking for a glimmer of hope in the end, for which we all seem to be desperately grasping these days. The German Baroque opera, performed by The Minnesota Opera — accompanied by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra — will be sung in German with English captions projected above the stage. British tenor Paul Nilon stars as Croesus.

    7:30 p.m., Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St, St Paul, 651-224-4222; $50-$130.

    Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire

    If you’re looking for some interesting theater tonight, you might want to check out Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire, a one-woman play about nine Iraqi women’s lives during war. I’ll be sure to tell you more as soon as I see it on Wednesday, but with director Joel Sass and Kate Eifrig as the lone performer, it’s bound to be worthwhile.

    7:30 p.m.,     Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612-377-2224; $18-$34.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Laura Flynn’s Ocean

    Now that her new novel is out, you’ll be seeing quite a lot of Laura Flynn this month — if you so desire. Catch her this afternoon at the University of Minnesota Bookstore, or catch her next month at Magers & Quinn. She is sure to be at several venues in between. And her latest novel is likely worth the effort. Swallow the Ocean tells the tale of three young girls dealing with their mother’s downward spiral into schizophrenia. Might as well have her sign it and hear what she has to say.

    4 p.m., University of Minnesota Bookstore, Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-626-0559; free.

    BOOKS
    The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger

    Smart as Hitchcock, incisive as Wilder, and independently minded as
    Cassavetes, Otto Preminger remained largely peerless during his career.
    He was one of the first Hollywood auteurs to challenge censorship rules
    and explore his own vision—one populated with honest studies of drug
    addiction, sexual deviance, and corrupt politics. As an establishment
    director, he introduced an anti-cinema subversion that inspired the Cahiers du Cinema
    crew. Unfortunately, many will only remember him for his role as Mr.
    Freeze in the original Batman TV show. Film historian Chris Fujiwara’s
    exceptional biography aims to change that with an analysis that
    achieves the seemingly impossible: It actually manages to inspire the
    reader to take another look at Exodus. —Christopher Hontos

    Available in bookstores nationwide.