The Rake Magazine

Author: Cristina Córdova

  • It's the Bomb!

    SPECIAL EVENT
    Gallery Grooves

    Join us tonight for Gallery Grooves, The Rake’s monthly art, jazz, and
    wine event. Socialize and discuss the latest jazz with Kevin Barnes
    from KBEM, peruse the art, and enjoy the wine samplings. This
    month, view a collection of artworks based on the techniques of Pablo
    Picasso — all by adolescents between ages 11 and 17. Artists Like Me was
    done in partnership between the Walker Art Center and Free Arts Minnesota,
    a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the healing arts into
    the lives of abused, neglected, and at-risk children. —Jennifer Havrish

    7-9 p.m., Whole Foods Market, 3060 Excelsior Blvd., Minneapolis; 612-927-8141; free.

    STYLE
    Hottie Patrol

    The DIVA MN
    organization, which produces the big, annual

    DIVA MN
    fashion show and fundraiser to
    benefit research on HIV/AIDS (in
    March), is hosting a well-intentioned auction and MCTC student runway show this evening. But
    the event’s real draw, no doubt, will be an appearance by Jack Mackenroth, that ridiculously beefcake-y (but
    gay – wah!) contestant from Project Runway Season
    4    . Mackenroth is kindly lending his
    services to judge the students’ designs. And now, here’s a
    tangential time-killer: We
    just visited Mackenroth’s personal website and discovered
    the reason for his Herculean build: He’s a former All-American
    swimmer with, in fact, his own world record! —Christy DeSmith

    6-9 p.m., Epic Nightclub,
    110 N. Fifth St.,
    Minneapolis; $50.

    FILM & DISCUSSION
    Face to Face with Dr. Strangelove

    Stanley Kubrick’s satirical, sinister Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to
    Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
    somehow made comedy from "accidental" nuclear attacks and all the
    apocalypses that inevitably followed. Released into the Cold War
    intrigue and Communist paranoia of 1964, it was meant to mock all
    participating, power-hungry military leadership; forty-four years
    later, it feels perhaps more eerily relevant than ever. Part of the
    Weisman Museum’s film discussion program, this free screening—broken
    down into the best clips—invites viewers to contemplate over pizza (free pizza) our
    current state of affairs and how they parallel Kubrick’s time period
    turned upside down. Led by University of Minnesota anthropology
    professor Michael Wilson, the dialog appropriately runs alongside the
    museum’s current Paul Shambroom exhibition Picturing Power, a series
    of color photographs depicting manifestations of community, industrial
    and military control. —Haily Gostas

    4-6 p.m., Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (in the WAM/Shepherd Room), 333 East River Rd., Minneapolis; 612-625-9494.

    ART
    Robyn Horn & Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin

    Downtown Minneapolis’ Nina Bliese Gallery represents a horde of
    international artists in the fields of contemporary (painting,
    sculpture, monotype, photography) and wood arts, so it makes sense that
    each exhibition highlights the best of their, well, categorical
    best. Fascinated by wood’s initial resistance to and eventual
    materialization into stone-like shapes, Arkansas artist Robyn Horn adds
    her immaculate, highly acclaimed wood art into the mix (the gallery’s
    current collection is apparently the most prominent in the Upper
    Midwest); while the infrared photographs of Minneapolis’ own Ann
    Ginsburgh Hofkin     have been featured in the prestigious CameraArts
    magazine and Israel-based solo shows. Both women use the aspects of
    life most out of our control as fuel for artistic fire, and tonight’s reception celebrates their contrasting-yet-harmonious
    results. —Haily Gostas

    5-8 p.m., The Nina Bliese Gallery (exhibition runs until Friday, March 28th), 225 South Sixth St., Minneapolis; 612-332-2978.

     

  • The Short Side of the Oscars

    At this year’s Academy Awards, there will be films that — believe it
    or not — are actually judged on their artistic merit. No one will
    remember them a year from now, or probably even a month from now, but
    these reels contain imaginative innovations and emotional depths that
    surpass those evoked by any nominee for Best Feature-Length Film. I’m
    speaking of course (of course!) about the nominees for short films.

    As every year, ten movies — five animated and five live-action — have been selected from around the world to vie for the golden
    trophies in a lesser-known, lesser-cared-about subset of the Oscars.
    None of these films was ever widely distributed; none took any sort of
    cut from the box office; none will fetch big DVD sales. For the most
    part they bounced around festival circuits, garnering praise and niche
    attention. Still, they range from dreamy to lifelike, uplifting to
    devastating — all of them (except one) mini-masterpieces.

    By and large, the animated shorts were more creative than the
    live action vignettes. This isn’t so strange — cartoons are inherently
    more imaginative than life; one might say a photograph is a fact, a
    painting an interpretation. And while all the animated shorts take
    pains to tell a story, some of them seem more preoccupied with their
    medium, and feel like odes to animation itself. Which is totally okay.
    One of the great joys of these films is their cinematic lawlessness. There is
    no obligation to plot, and no actors to placate. As such, the directors
    and animators enjoy a freedom to do as they please. Not incidentally,
    this is stuff that makes Persepolis and Ratatouille look like fare for Saturday morning television.

    My Love, a Russian film by Alexandre Petrov, is
    literally a breathing Impressionist painting. An October palette of
    watercolors smears the screen as we watch a sixteen-year-old boy,
    Anton, fall in love variously with his maid and his neighbor. "She
    stepped out of the novel as if from a dream," Anton says of his current
    infatuation, and indeed, the entire film seems to have sprung from
    Petrov’s subconscious (and completely in tact). The story — a
    straightforward tale of peasant courtship – runs too long, but this
    seems deliberate, as if Petrov wanted to extend the movie just so he
    could keep painting it.

    The likely winner (or at least the most buzzed-about), Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf,
    is another labor of love. A thirty-minute exhibition of stop-motion
    animation, it allegedly took 100 artists, sculptors, and animators five
    years to make. Can you imagine someone spending five years on Alien vs. Predator?
    Clearly this is not art for the sake of entertainment. It’s a realm
    where attention to detail is revered above all-every eyelash is molded
    anew for each frame of the film. Set in modern-day Russia, (and thus
    giving the story a fresh twist, as the scenery includes a heavily
    graffiti’d urban center), we watch Peter as he tries to escape from his
    grandfather’s backyard into the wilderness beyond. The interplay
    between boy/duck/cat/wolf is as tense and intricate and heartfelt as
    anything in No Country for Old Men.

    Rounding out the animated nominees, Madame Tutli-Putli and Even Pigeons Go To Heaven
    are exhibitions of computer effects. The figures look so human that at
    times it’s easy to forget one is watching something animated. Which is
    why, in the Canadian Tutli-Putli, one is so viscerally scared as we watch some beast of the night cut out a person’s kidney. I Met The Walrus,
    a recorded interview between then-fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan and
    John Lennon finishes off the group. In it, every single word Lennon
    speaks is turned into drawing, so the dialogue becomes this sort of
    visual representation of itself.

    Between each film, much whispering ensued amongst the
    audience, as if there was a need for instant discussion and digestion.
    And there’s a lot to be talked about. When one leaves the theater, the
    emotional and intellectual impact really is the same as if having sat
    through five features. The way a good short story is said to contain
    the same elements and even the same depth as a novel, so these short
    films imprint themselves upon the faculties.

    What they lacked in visual imagination, the live action films
    made up for in storytelling. Though the narratives were fairly linear,
    they all worked to expose their characters’ emotions, stripping them
    barer and barer until, in each short (save one) there was no more
    sentiment to be squeezed. In these films, it’s as if the narrative is a
    predator, its prey being emotion, and the narrative will not stop
    hunting until it’s sure it has tracked down and strung up and tortured
    and exposed its target.

    At Night,
    a Danish film, because apparently Danes make films now, is more morally
    complex than all the feature-length nominees combined. Three young
    women are in the oncology ward of a hospital, awaiting their imminent
    deaths. There is Mette, who at this point can barely move anymore;
    Sara, who is to undergo an operation that could either cure her or kill
    her; and Stephanie, whose illness has made her suicidal. It is December
    30th,
    and together they celebrate the New Year because they are unsure
    whether Sara will survive her surgery the next day. Here in the U.S.,
    we take a sort of Mary Poppins approach to our dramas, wherein, for the
    past few decades at least, the genre of ‘tragicomedy’ has emerged and
    taken precedent. We temper our heartbreak with humor, and tell
    ourselves it’s because the absurdity of pain is funny at times. Really,
    though, it’s because we simply can’t stomach anguish without a sugar
    coating.

    Director Christian Christiansen (love that name) has done away with the patina. At Night
    is kind of like a bruise you keep poking and it just gets bigger and
    bigger and bigger, more painful, and finally you just know it’s going
    to bust. Its very lack of levity may prevent it from taking the Oscar,
    though in terms of affecting filmmaking, it certainly deserves to win.

    All the other shorts, though, are just a tad too cute. Tanghi Argentini
    is about a guy who meets a woman online and ostensibly wants to learn
    the tango to impress her, but really he’s trying to hook up his lonely,
    tango-savvy co-worker. Il Supplente presents us with a man who
    poses for a few minutes as a substitute teacher and wreaks havoc on a
    high school class, only to be belittled like a child when he goes into
    his own office. Actually, these two in particular, though clever and
    charming, feel a bit like extrapolated Super Bowl commercials.

    The Mozart of Pickpockets is similarly cute, and goes
    maybe a little deeper than the two films mentioned above. In it, a pair
    of bumbling miscreants accidentally adopt a deaf-mute boy, who turns
    out to be a master thief. He, the boy, scrambles under the seats at
    movie theaters and steals purses from women caught in a cinematic daze.
    The two men are apparently gay, which is artsy, and they really seem to
    care for each other and the boy, which is also artsy. But at the end of
    the film, I just don’t know what the message is, whereas after At Night, there is a haunting sensation that pervades for days.

    Finally there’s The Tonto Woman.
    For the life of me I can’t figure out how it picked up a nomination. It
    is the only film with breasts in it — unnecessary breasts, I would
    argue, which turns them into gimmicky breasts, which may have then been
    enough for the nod. Or maybe there were only five short films made all
    year, so they had to let it in the running.

    Here’s how it goes: A woman was enslaved by a group of Mojave
    Indians and they tattooed her chin, so that when she returned to
    ‘regular’ society she was an outcast. In comes Ruben Vega, who
    immediately falls for her. One wonders what sort of psychological
    condition Vega has that he should instantly become infatuated with the
    town’s exile. Clearly he’s a sadist, too, as he parades her around town
    to her obvious embarrassment. In the end nothing is really solved,
    except for that the credits role and the next film comes on, which is a
    good thing.

    Remarkably, The Tonto Woman
    was the only American output in the live action category. The others
    hail from Denmark, Belgium, France, and Italy. If you include the
    animated shorts, the country list includes Russia, Canada, and England,
    too. Considering the heavy bias toward American films in the ‘regular’
    categories, it’s kind of amazing how international this particular
    group is. Especially if you’re of the mindset, as I am, that these are
    the best films being judged in the entire ceremony. It shows, I think,
    that cinematic artistry, and cinematic mastery, transcends the U.S.
    border — is even rare within the U.S. border, the evidence would suggest.

    In short (no pun intended…okay, yes it was), these films
    function as the true artistic center of Academy Awards. Their very
    existence lends Oscar night the legitimacy it needs to keep from
    devolving into the mere popularity contest it so badly wants to be.

    Written for realbuzz.com, by former Rake intern Max Ross.

  • Of Pubs and Parliament

    Hello, my name is Hector E. Ramos-Ramos, and I intend here to share with you my observations, opinions, and concerns while I am abroad (primarily in Scotland), courtesy of the study abroad program at St. Paul’s own Macalester College.

    Although I am not originally from Minnesota, the home of Bunyan and Babe has grown on me in a way I could not have predicted that first winter in 2005. Back then I constantly asked myself why I had forsaken the perpetual balminess of my hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, for this. Eventually though, just like the videos at the Light Rail stations tell you, even the harshest winter becomes tolerable after you’ve understood how charming Minnesota really is.

    In any case, I’m in Scotland now, at the University of Edinburgh, and I’m behind blogging schedule, so now I have to make up for my laziness with some earnest storytelling.

    I left San Juan around noon, was briefly stationed in New York City, flew from there to London (our in-flight movie was Tootsie), and then, it was just a brisk hour-long hop to Edinburgh. It had taken more than a day, but when I arrived at the airport I received my hard-earned prize: torrents of hard, cold sleet. Welcome to Scotland.

    I followed a trail of visiting university students. We all piled into a bus. None of us spoke to one another, and everyone seemed exhausted and eager to get some sleep. When I was dropped off at my university flat, the absence of bedding in my room gave me a reason to go out into the Scottish capital and explore.

    Highlights from Week One:

    The next day, orientation was held at a large lecture hall. I sat next to my flatmate, Vilhelm, from Sweden. He is one of four guys who live in our apartment (from now on, "flat"). We patiently watched some very nice Scottish university employees talk to us about the beauties of their country and the ins and outs of opening a bank account. Their accents were impenetrable, and the only way I sort-of understood what they were saying was by looking at a massive PowerPoint projection.

    Pubs happened soon after and would continue throughout the otherwise commitment-free week. Discovering a new pub is like finding a new home away from home away from home. It was during one of these introductions into the world of pubs (accompanied by my new friends, all of them from continental Europe), that I got my first lesson in local drink-culture. I went to order a pint of lager (beer) at the counter, and one of the brands, Tennent’s, caught my eye. I told the man what I wanted, and some young Scotsmen behind me in the queue reacted by chortling. One of them made the reason for my risibility very clear, "Tennent’s is for poofs." Since I have seen a number of British sitcoms, I know that poofs = limp-wristed weenies. Not wanting to be the source of Scottish mirth, I turned to the man behind the counter and said, "Erm, excuse me, could I get a Caledonian instead." No laugh track accompanied my change of drink.

    Highlights from Week Two:

    Already a week into classes, things had started to get slightly less fancy-free. My friends and I did a fair amount of touristing though. The school provided us the option of paying a few pounds for a daylong trip to the much sung-about Loch Lomond. We decided to bite the bait and hopped on the bus to the Loch. After three hours of cramped travel, we were there — Loch Lomond: 80% mist and 20 % shopping mall. After the fog cleared up and I saw the ducks doing their thing in the vast expanse of grey water, I turned to look at the awful strip mall opposite the Loch and thought to myself "What kind of schmo let this happen?" The Loch is so large that I was told by a park ranger that it would take several days on foot to go around the whole thing; I only had a few hours, so I proceeded to feed most of the ducks in my immediate surroundings. At Loch Lomond, I also found out that my flatmate, Vilhelm, has a mild case of cynophobia. This emerged after I saw him get stiff as a lamppost when two beautiful German Shepherds decided to nuzzle playfully at his feet. Later, he told me with the severity
    of a character from a Bergman movie that "dogs get more attention
    than they ought to…they don’t deserve it, not one." 

    I got to know my other flatmates, Knut and Mathieu, better this week. Knut is from Norway, but he speaks in perfect British "received pronunciation," sometimes sounding like a youthful Richard Attenborough. Mathieu is from France and he is soccer-mad, seemingly planning his life around television matches and trips to see some of his favorite teams play. The first is rather fond of dry humor, and it is comforting to know that we both share a love of classic British comedies like Yes, Minister. Mathieu
    is more happy-go-lucky, but he has a marvelously good attitude to everything. 
    He makes Marcel Marceau look like an undertaker. 

    This week, my friends and I also went to Calton Hill, where many Scottish luminaries are buried. I got a special kick out of seeing the mausoleum David Hume commissioned for himself. I am a big fan of Hume, and I appreciate praise Edinburgh heaps on him, in the form of big buildings named after him and big statues portraying him. On the hill, we also saw the National Monument, a half-finished (yet, indeed, monumental) thing in the style of the Parthenon. Begun in 1822 to commemorate the Scottish soldiers who died for Britain at Waterloo, plans to finally finish construction are tentative. I like it the way it is — aren’t most of those old Greek things in ruins anyway?

  • A Casual Classic: Dinner and a Show

    WINE & DINE
    Metropolitan Delicatessen

    Enjoy a multiple course tasting menu with our favorite wine pairings tonight at The Rake’s World Flavors Tour. This month, join us at Be’wiched Deli for Metropolitan Delicatessen. Be’wiched
    Deli uses the freshest ingredients to create healthy food from scratch — featuring house cured and smoked meats and fresh bakery items. The meat they cure and smoke is raised by farmers who do not believe in using
    hormones or antibiotics. Space is limited and reservations are
    required. —Jennifer Havrish

    6:30 p.m., Be’wiched Deli, 800 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-767-4330; $30.

    MUSIC
    Boy Toys or Toys Boy

    If you’ve found yourself missing New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys lately, you should probably go check out the Jonas Brothers at the Target Center tonight (and then unsubscribe from this email, because I probably will never really write about anything you like — kidding, of course). But for a far more interesting show — with a fair degree of boyhood wonder and sap involved — you’re better off catching Say Hi to Your Mom at the Triple Rock. Sure, it’s emo. Sure, it’s computer generated. Sure, it’s vaguely pretentious and perhaps tries just a little too hard to be weird (just check out the bio on their website — talk about saying it all without saying a thing). But they—or rather, he, since it’s primarily Eric Elbogen—sings songs about toys with brains and the like. That’s pretty cool, right? And darn if they don’t sound nice. Listen to them here or here.

    9 p.m., Triple Rock Social Club, 629 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612- 333-7399; $10.

    Or… you can get a little jiggy with it…

    Galactic Grooves

    Warm up with an evening of hot grooves from Galactic, a New Orleans based ensemble that may just be the rightful heirs to the godfather of soul’s funk throne. The band combines the neo-jazz sensibility of Medeski, Martin and Wood with the classic grooves of The Meters and then filters it all through a modern hip-hop prism. From The Corner to the Block is the band’s latest and perhaps greatest offering, a street-smart party record that will please lovers of the old and new schools of funk and fusion. And don’t worry, there’s no doubt that Galactic’s tight breaks will provide ample opportunity to get on down. Plus their live show is evidently quite a party. Opening is acclaimed neo-soul-hopper Ohmega Watts. —Christopher Hontos

    8 p.m., The Cabooze, 917 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; 612-338-6425; $22.

    FILM
    Cinema Lounge Sells Out

    It’s time for another Cinema Lounge, and as usual, this one promised to be quite interesting – that is, if you like mocking commercial work — and who doesn’t? Tonight’s films are primarily spoofs, which ought to be quite amusing; but a few real pieces are tossed in just to frighten us a bit (actually, this will include entries from the Grain Belt Beer commercial competition, which should also be quite amusing). Stop by. Have a beer (or the tuna tataki). Have a laugh. Watch shorts by Idiot Box, Ryan Strandjorn, Jon Springer, Dave Ash, Dreamworld Studios, and Todd Cobery. And then meet the artists in person, ask them questions, and hear them talk about their work. You know the drill.

    7 p.m., Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 West Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-825-8949; free (but I’m guessing donations are more than welcome.

     

  • All the News That Fits—and Then Some

    There’s an awful lot of talk about the news lately, but not, unfortunately, the sort of constructive conversation that promotes critical thinking and engages people with their neighborhoods, their country, or their world. No, what people are talking about is the media, or, more specifically, and more onerously, the business of media. The Star Tribune is losing readers, pages, and staff. (Did that venture-capital firm buy it just for its prime downtown real estate?) The Pioneer Press is facing the same challenges, and rumors have been circulating for over a year that it will cease to exist altogether. The corporate hijacking of local “alt weekly” City Pages seems finally to have succeeded, at least in a manner of speaking. (New Times indeed—just who the hell is this Hoffman character, anyway?) And it’s not just with these outlets. Almost everywhere you turn the quality of news is being questioned as resources and profits continue to dwindle. It’s just too expensive, it seems, to chase meaningful stories these days, and the competition has never been fiercer for advertising dollars.

    Enter the internet, the longtime boogeyman and sworn enemy of print media everywhere. As it turns out, it just might be the best tool any news reporter, storyteller, or publisher ever dreamed of. With more than half the U.S. now online—and two-thirds of them getting their news online—the web is suddenly a sexy proposition for all sorts of formerly hidebound print junkies. The venture capitalists are intrigued as well—you’d have to suppose that in a recessive industry, not having to pay for ink, paper, press operators, and distribution would bode well for the bottom line.

    And so, with (undoubtedly) noble thoughts and high aspirations, many Twin Cities newsies have been turning to the web as a panacea for a host of the ailments currently bedeviling the news media. Former Strib publisher and editor Joel Kramer got the attention of media insiders across the country when he launched MinnPost, his long-anticipated online news site, in November. At about the same time, erstwhile City Pages editor Steve Perry debuted his own site, The Daily Mole, which he mothballed last month after a frustrating three-month run; now he is taking the reins at the Minnesota Monitor. Perry’s new employer, like a number of other local sites (including Twin Cities Daily Planet, the Minnesota Monitor, Cursor, and MNSpeak), had been up and running on the web long before that pair of high-profile upstarts made their splash at the tail end of 2007.

    It turns out that the web, with its atmosphere of almost unbridled democracy (a sort of anarchic egalitarian free-for-all, if such a thing is possible), has breathed new life into the moribund American Dream. Freedom of speech. Free exchange of ideas. Anybody can play. People with a little bit (or a lot) of hubris can barge their way online and plant their flags. Every citizen (or non-) can put his (or her) voice out there. And anyone can hit the jackpot, which is, of course, measured in mouse clicks. (You can be sure even the gal blogging about what she had for breakfast is watching her numbers.) In the online world, clicks mean dollars.

    The trouble, of course, comes in setting up a new online economy. How many clicks for how many dollars? What’s the rate of exchange? In a world where Britney has been the top search term for six of the past seven years, and where information is expected to be free, how can anyone make news financially viable?


    Making a play with traditional journalism

    Determined to uphold professional distinction above all else (presumed translation: no Britney stories), Joel Kramer latched on to a stable of reporters cast off in the recent newsroom purges on both sides of the river and set out to create a quality local news source. With the exception of a few videos and slideshows, MinnPost’s editorial model is little more than traditional newspaper journalism distributed online (in fact, until a few weeks ago, Kramer insisted on distributing fifteen-hundred Xeroxed printouts for those committed to words on paper).

    While web-based businesses across the globe save on rent by having staff work from home, Kramer resists this as well. He is proud of MinnPost’s old-school newsroom, which features open space to encourage dialogue, an office for the business staff, and conference rooms and workstations around the perimeter. Just as newspaper reporters rush to meet an evening deadline, MinnPost contributors—drawn from a pool of fifty-six freelancers—submit stories each morning so that web editor Corey Anderson can post them online at 11 a.m. This also runs counter to standard web protocol, where news is live twenty-four-hours and reporters bypass editors by posting their stories directly on the website. “Our goal is not to exploit the web,” explained Kramer, “but to provide quality journalism.”

    Can MinnPost make profitable use of an online medium without fully engaging its resources? Nora Paul, Director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the U of M, says no. “[Kramer] hasn’t embraced what’s interesting about online,” she argued, “which is the ability to create packages with a shelf-life, and that will have utility for a long time.” According to Paul, online news organizations need to find new and compelling ways to tell stories, and develop creative ways to pull together data. While most local online news sources have not availed themselves of Paul’s expertise, newspapers across the country are turning to her for the winning formula. Last month, eleven top newspapers, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, met with Paul (and five graduate students) to formulate questions they want answered about offering news on the web. What’s the best way to display video? Do news crawlers attract more clicks than breaking news digests? What’s the most engaging way to tell a story?

    Above all, the web offers flexibility. “Online, the walls should be much more porous,” explained Paul, “so that you have an evolving story-telling space.” In other words, there’s no excuse for anything static. Online news is more a process than a product; it’s created through interaction and various points of view, so stories build up almost organically, with varied perspectives, in varied forms, from varied arenas. Ideally, the end result is a much broader picture, and arguably a more compelling story than we’ve been reading on paper for centuries.

  • Across the Globe — on land and in water

    In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve had a few great guest bloggers lately in our Just Passing Through blog. Steve Hendrickson — an actor in Ten Thousand Things‘ latest play, Eurydice — will be finishing his week-and-a-half stint with with an opening night post tomorrow. And before that, local playwright Aditi Kapil shared her behind-the-scenes experience with two current productions — one of which starts today! According to Kapil, Beneath the Surface is a circus about water; but I’ll write more about it later, after the evening performances begin. (Today’s is a daytime performance.)

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    The Syringa Tree

    In the meantime, go check out The Jungle Theater’s latest production: The Syringa Tree, by Pamela Gien. Sarah Agnew takes on 24 different roles in this one-woman show about an interracial family — or rather, two families (one black, one white) struggling for a point of convergence — in 1960s South Africa. The tale begins through the eyes of six-year-old Elizabeth Grace as she attempts to understand her chaotic surroundings, and continues to unfurl the world of Africa through multiple characters who cut across gender, age, race, tribe, and faith.

    7:30 p.m., The Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave S. Minneapolis, 612-822-7063; $26.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    One Day, One Venue, Two Great Authors

    Today might be the perfect day to hang out by the University. Cut out of work early, avoid traffic, and get yourself settled into a nice, cheap parking spot somewhere between the bookstore and The Loring Pasta Bar, so you can stop in for some artichoke ramekin or a spicy tuna roll between presentations. Mmmm.

    At 4 p.m., join author and former Associated Press reporter Giovanna Dell’Orto for a discussion of her book, The Hidden Power of the American Dream. I don’t know how hidden it is, frankly, but I’m guessing Dell’Orto has much more to offer beyond the usual American Dream rhetoric. Exploring the different events that have shaped how Europeans — and the rest of the world — view Americans, she sets out to prove that the future of our country lies in a global belief of the American Dream. Makes sense to me.

    This, of course, is followed by the artichoke ramekin at the Loring. Or perhaps you prefer a burger and a malt at Annie’s Parlour.

    After a bite to eat, head back to the bookstore to meet open-water swimmer and best-selling author Lynne Cox. Best known for her first novel, Swimming to Antarctica, Cox will be discussing her latest work, Grayson, another beautiful and personal tale, this time about a baby whale. At the age of 17, Cox was training for another long-distance swim (if you read her previous book, you already know about how she crossed the English Channel — twice!), when she discovered a baby gray whale following her. Here’s the catch: if she were to return to shore, the baby whale would follow her to its death; but if she were to swim out to sea, she would be putting her own life at risk. Find out how Cox reunited the baby whale with its mother and likely saved its life. Is there anything this woman can’t do?!

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

  • Happy President's Day

    LECTURE
    Jen Bekman

    American Photo‘s 2007 Innovator of the Year and famed New
    York gallery owner Jen Bekman packs up some photos and her affable
    lecturing style to pay the Minnesota Center for Photography a
    visit. The acclaimed artist, who makes frequent public appearances at
    portfolio reviews and seminars, charmingly refers to herself in the
    third person so as not to seem swell-headed when asked to rattle off
    her accomplishments. But, really, there’s quite a bit to be proud of:
    her Jen Bekman gallery sheds light on budding artists and affords them
    the inventive group shows they deserve. Hey, Hot Shot!, Bekman’s
    quarterly photography competition, follows suit, calling for a handful
    of talented young shutterbugs to line the walls. In the online realm,
    her Personism blog covers a healthy mix of fabulous design and
    noteworthy current events; and the Bekman-founded 20×200 site offers
    hard-to-find prints on the cheap. Those feats alone should fuel a
    couple questions. —Haily Joy Gostas

    7 p.m., Minnesota Center for Photography, 165 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis, 612-824-5500.

    ART
    Cold Blooded, Warm Hearted

    First Amendment Arts, the Northeast Minneapolis basement space
    devoted to eye-popping prints and guerilla graphic design, has just the
    remedy for that notorious Hallmark holiday (hint: for many of us, it
    came and went with chocolate wrappers in its wake) with Cold Blooded, Warm Hearted. This
    group exhibition of prints brings together five established, eclectic
    artists (Christa Dalien, Bill Fick, Mark Hosford, Michael Krueger, and
    Jenny Schmid, each from a different place around the country) with some
    key concepts in common-past and present politics, personal and physical
    landscape, and cultural critique among them. Oh, a great sense of humor
    to boot, hence the title: one part cold-blooded irony; one part
    warm-hearted embrace of their bold subject matter; all parts
    fascinating. —Haily Joy Gostas

    1-5 p.m., First Amendment Arts, 1101 Stinson Blvd., Basement Rooms A & B, Minneapolis, 612-379-4151.

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    Joseph Scrimshaw’s Adventures In Mating,

    Taking to the Bryant-Lake Bowl stage tonight (and running every Monday until someone makes ‘em stop), Adventures In Mating
    sees its triumphant return to the Twin Cities with new scenes, new
    choices, and a new leading lady (that’d be Mo Perry, most recently seen
    in the Minneapolis Theater Garage’s production of Looking For Normal). Of
    course, Joseph Scrimshaw’s now-international hit wouldn’t entail the
    same madcap rom-com hijinks without plenty of audience interaction, so
    feel free to abuse your role as the swift hand of destiny in this
    couple’s hit-or-miss first date. Red or white wine? Soup or salad? Kiss
    or slap? It’ll rarely be the same show twice-kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure, but for the blackest of hearts. —Haily Joy Gostas

    8 p.m., Bryant-Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-825-8949; $12.

    Also tonight:

    The Randy Weston African Rhythms Trio will perform at the Dakota. And Michael Oren, author of Power, Faith, and Fantasy, will discuss his book at Lyndale Congregational United Church of Christ (7:30 p.m.)

  • From Ghana to the Suburbs

    DANCE
    Ghana in Motion

    Every year, dance students from the Twin Cities travel to the Dagara Music Center, in Ghana, to study traditional Ghanaian music and dance on the home turf of the Saakumu Dance Troupe. This year, the tables have turned, as the Saakumu Dance Troupe kicks off its first U.S. tour right here, in the Twin Cities. Enjoy a vibrant West African performance that includes local artists the New Primitives and Ibé.

    Friday at 8 p.m., Suburban World Theatre, 3022 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, 612-822-9000; $12.

    ART
    Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes

    Just
    as the Ash Can School turned to burgeoning cities for subject matter in the
    early twentieth century, suburbia has proven captivating to artists over the
    past few decades. But while many of them have tended to look outside city
    limits with a skeptical, ironic, or even condemning eye, this exhibit,
    organized around homes, stores, and roads, aims to go beyond stereotypical
    views. Among the works from some thirty architects, photographers, sculptors,
    and videographers, one favorite is Stefanie Nagorka, a sculptor who visits Home
    Depot stores, plucks materials for her pieces from the shelves, and assembles
    them right in the aisles or parking lot. Other artists look at the
    people-besides mom, dad, and 2.5 kids-living in all those tract houses (some of
    them are porn stars); propose revamping dead malls and big-box stores; and
    steal shots of suburbanites as they zoom around behind their steering wheels. —Julie Caniglia

    Preview Party Friday at 9 p.m., Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7622; $35, members $25.

    PERFORMANCE
    Exercise Your Creative Demons, Exorcise Your Winter Ennui

    Lamb Lays with Lion
    has organized a six-part series to help stave off the winter blues and
    keep the creative juices from freezing. Tonight is already the second
    week, but you have four Fridays left. Enjoy a host of great
    performances this evening as part of ExerciseEXORCISE. This week’s performers include the Mustache Rangers (comedy
    duo), Mad King Thomas (dance/theater), El Guante (solo word), the Nancy
    Drew Crew (feminist hiphop), Sally Rousse (avant-dance), Alex Cordoneau
    (Dracula lecture), and Meg Ashling (mariopaint performance).

    Friday at 9:30 p.m., The Bottling House Theater, 79 13th Ave. N.E., 212, Minneapolis.

    FILM
    Academy Award Nominated Short Films

    Starting tonight, you have a rare opportunity to see all five of the 2007 Academy Award nominated animated short films, and all five of the 2007 Academy Award nominated live action short films. Sounds like a party to me. I’d opt for the animated shorts, of course: "I
    Met the Walrus     (Canada), an animated documentary about 14-year-old Jerry
    Levitan, who snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in 1969 and persuaded him
    to do an interview; Madame Tutli-Putli (Canada), in which a timid woman
    boards a mysterious night train and has a series of frightening experiences;
    Meme Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven) (France),
    about a priest who tries to sell an old man a machine that he promises will
    transport him to heaven; Moya Lyubov (My Love) (Russia), in which
    a teenage boy in search of love in 19th century Russia is drawn to two very
    different women; and Peter & The Wolf (UK & Poland), Prokofiev’s
    classical music drama of a young boy and his animal friends who face a hungry
    wolf."

    Opens Friday, Animated Shorts at 2:15 & 7:30, Live Action Shorts at 4:20 & 9:30 p.m., Lagoon Cinema, 1320 Lagoon Ave., Minneapolis; 612-825-6006; $8.25 ($5.75 seniors and children).

    Also this weekend:

    Romeo Castellucci’s theater of the subconscious — Hey Girl, at the Walker (Friday through Sunday).

    VocalEssence: Witness’s The Duke Ellington Effect at the Ordway (Sunday).

     

  • Love Is All Around (but it may be hiding)

    DANCE
    No Tiaras, No Tutus — Ballet of the 21st Century

    Minneapolitans beware: The Chamber Ballet of Saint Paul is vying for the spot of "Minnesota’s premiere professional ballet company." Artistic Director Phillip Carman has crafted a Debut performance — featuring eight of the Twin Cities’ top dancers — that brings classical ballet into the 21st century by adding elements of contemporary dance in innovative ways. The Debut program, which begins this evening, consists of four pieces — two of which are world premieres. "The hypnotic performance of Andrew Lester, in L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune will leave you breathless, while the passion and longing of Coeur d’Amour made our Italian audience in Ascoli Piceno weep with its sensitivity in August 2006." Also on the slate — and making a world premiere — Nightmusic offers an exploration of Mozart’s music, while In the Moment offers cutting edge choreography. Sure, you can catch performances on Friday and Saturday, as well, but this evening’s performance includes the option of a black-tie reception at the St. Paul Hotel. If you really want to make a night of it, you’ll just book one of their romantic packages and spend the night in joyful bliss — with a loved one, of course.

    8 p.m., Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; 651-290-1221; $37.50-$47.50, black tie dinner & show $145.

    FILM
    La Bohème

    What better way to spend your Valentine’s Day than
    taking in La Bohème, a silent, melodramatic classic at the beautiful and, dare
    we say, sexy Heights Theater. This 1926 film, based on the Puccini standard,
    has all the usual suspects: the tragic
    Mimi, a consumptive, and her jealous lover, the Bohemian poet Rodolfo. Their
    love affair and eventual separation unfolds in all its emotive glory to the
    luscious sound of the Wurlitzer organ. Lillian Gish, then one of the cinema’s
    brightest stars, personally chose the great King Vidor to direct, and the
    result is a beautiful and touching movie that will send you and your beau home
    in each other’s arms. —Peter Schilling

    7:30 p.m., Heights Theater, 3951 Central Ave. N.E., Columbia Heights; 763-788-9079; $8.

    MUSIC
    Who Says Sweet Has to Be Soft?

    If heartbreakingly sweet vocals are more your style for the big V-day, then head over to the Triple Rock for The Redwalls show. The Chicago quartet offers an evening of "rambunctious ass-shaking stomp, raucous energy, and meticulous R&B pop and rock."

    9 p.m., Triple Rock Social Club, 629 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612- 333-7399; $12.

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    Teatro del Pueblo’s Political Theater Festival

    If you ask me, the best way to spend V-day is exploring Latin American social political issues. That’s right; you heard me. What reasons can I give you? Well, first off, we’re the hot-blooded lovers, right? (That’s what they say, anyhow.) Reason number two: we’re very (and I mean very) passionate about our politics — and passion is certainly what the day calls for, in one form or another. And finally, Valentine’s Day is actually named after two Christian martyr’s — both named Valentine — and certainly that’s somehow more in keeping with "theater of the people" (the literal translation of Teatro del Pueblo, the group putting on tonight’s show) than spending a bunch of money on a fancy dinner. The Seventh Annual Political Theater Festival includes a number of plays, all by Latino playwrights: Hurricane in a Glass, by Kimberly del Busto; The Great All-Dominican Championship Playoff Game, by Rubin Rice Lichtig; Out of Cordoba, by Hector Roberts; Variation on Mixed Generations, by Eric Silva Brenneman; and For Mi ChiChi, by Tere Martinez. The show also includes two premiere interactive plays by Dominic Orlando and Papers of Antigone, a dance/performance piece by the Columbian group NAME. New this year will be a world premiere retrospective art exhibit of the political paintings of Spanish painter Santiago Zarzosa.

    8 p.m., Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-871-4444; $15, students, seniors, fringe $13.

    For more Valentine’s day ideas, see Jeremy’s Iggers blog post, "Dinner and a Show? — Valentine’s Day." And while you’re at it, check out some of our other great online stories.

  • Music of Love (and Hate) on Valentine's Eve

    MUSIC
    New Orleans Piano Master Allen Toussaint

    If you know New Orleans R&B, you know this man. Allen Toussaint has been producing hits for half a century, teaming up with some of the country’s best musicians, and inspiring others to record his songs with great success. Bonnie Raitt recorded "What is Success," Warren Zevon recorded "A Certain Girl," the Jerry Garcia Band recorded "Get Out of My Life Woman," The Band recorded "You See Me," The Who recorded "Fortune Teller" — all Toussaint songs. And tonight, you can have the pleasure of hearing him for yourself.

    7 and 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $50, $40.

    Break the Habit

    Ok, I love New Orleans R&B, and certainly I can appreciate a master piano player, but I have to confess (embarrassing as it may be) it’s not Toussaint I listen to — much too loud — in my car when things are not quite right. Shhh. "Here we go for the hundredth time. Hand grenade pins in every line. Throw ’em up and let something shine. Going out of my f**king mind." That’s right, baby: it’s Linkin Park. Tonight. No need to hide any longer. (Though I’ll probably go in disguise.)

    7 p.m., Xcel Energy Center, 175 W Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; 651-989-5151; $39.50-$56.

    Valentine’s Eve Glam/Fetish Bash

    Celebrate Valentine’s Eve with glam, fetishism, and All the Pretty Horses. Let frontman Venus redefine rebellion and sexuality for you on this special day. "My neighbor Venus is the front person for a band called All the Pretty
    Horses," wrote Emily Carter for us in 2002. "He or she sports a lovely pair of partridge-sized breasts that
    peek out over a leather bustier, a talent for fearsome guitar licks,
    and a vocal apparatus that effortlessly blends the power of Diamanda
    Galas with the decadence of David Bowie… It’s one thing
    to be a transsexual glam-goddess in Manhattan’s seen-it-all Meat
    Packing district, where trannies strut their stuff as a matter of
    course. It’s quite another to walk into Mill’s Fleet Farm in Oakdale at
    eight in the morning, wearing a lace-up midriff and standing six feet
    tall in platform boots." You don’t have to go to Fleet Farm to catch Venus this evening.

    8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8388; $8.

    Also tonight, Dan "Daddy Squeeze" Newton brings his fox trottin’ ways to the Varsity. And you can bring your own music to the stage at the Cedar as part of Bill Cagley’s open mic.