Author: Cristina Córdova

BENEFIT
A Toast to the Cedar

For 18 years, the Cedar Cultural Center has been bringing us great music and dance from across the globe. And while our fair city isn’t lacking in venues, this one certainly contributes immensely to our rich cultural terrain. Sure, the best way to show your support and ensure they stick around for another 18 years, is to simply go to their shows. But tonight there’s a little more you can do as well. Zipp’s Liquor and The Seward Co-op bring you their bi-annual Wine Show and Tasting benefit for the Cedar. Sample over 150 wines, unique spirits, and beer, while you do our city some good.

6:30 p.m., The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; $25.

MUSIC
Music for Everyone

It’s a great night to go out and enjoy a live music show — no matter what your taste.

Rock
Better late than never. Each Thursday this month The Plagiarists have been playing at The Nomad, and tonight is their final show. If you’re a Band of Horses fan — and maybe even if you’re not — you’ll enjoy The Plagiarist’s catchy synth pop.

9 p.m., The Nomad World Pub, 501 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-6424.

Folk
Hailing from Texas and New York, Ana Egge brings her lulling vocal stylings to the Twin Cities this evening. You’ll enjoy the perfect simplicity of her songs delivered by her beautifully haunting voice. Hell, even Lucinda Williams was impressed by her song-writing skills. Opening for Egge this evening is Mother Banjo (Ellen Stanley on banjo and vocals) and Gabe Barnett (with the spirit of Dylan inside).

8 p.m., 400 Bar, 400 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-2903; $8.

Soul & Funk
Average White Band is no doubt among the best soul and funk bands in the history of music. And frankly, at this point — after more than 35 years in the music industry — they pretty much embody the history of soul and funk. I mean, they were number one on the Billboard Pop and R&B Album Charts all the way back in 1975. “Pick up the pieces, uh, huh. Pick up the pieces, alright. Pick up the pieces, uh, huh. Pick up the pieces, whoo!” It must have been the lyrics. “Pick up the Pieces” was a worldwide hit, receiving a a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. This was just the beginning, as many albums, hits, and Grammy nominations followed through the years. Sure, they disbanded for five years in the ’80s, but this was short lived, and they certainly made up for the lost time with six albums and a concert DVD since then. This is a must-see show for soul & funk lovers. And you’re in luck, as they’ll be playing through Saturday.

8 & 10:30 p.m., Rossi’s Blue Star Room, 80 9th St. S., Minneapolis; 612-312-2828; $45 dinner show, $20.

Jazz
With thirteen solid albums under her belt, Claudia Schmidt has indeed achieved national success. We tend to overlook what’s right in our backyard at times, but tonight just count your blessings as you make your way to the show. Sure, you could sit at home and listen to one of her many albums, but you’ll miss out on her fabulous energy, which is best experienced live.

7 & 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $30 & $20.

Classical
World-reknown Russian violist and principal conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of New Russia Yuri Bashmet will be performing works by Shostakovich, Raykhelson, Skrowaczewski, Takemitsu, and Schnittke this evening with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The Schnittke piece, Larghetto for Viola and Strings from Concerto for Three, was in fact written specifically for Bashmet, with violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Enjoy the show this evening at Temple Israel, tomorrow evening at Wooddale Church, or on Sunday at the Ordway Center.

8 p.m., Temple Israel, 2324 Emerson Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-377-8680; SPCO 651-291-1144; $10-$25.

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Le Chat Noir: A French Cabaret

Minneapolis takes on shades of Paris this evening, courtesy of Ballet of the Dolls. The company has been working its inventive and often wacky brand of dance theater for twenty-one years now, most recently with a take on the outer-space sex odyssey Barbarella. Artistic director and former Parisian Myron Johnson choreographed this latest show as a series of vignettes set to music both classic and funky — think along the lines of Erik Satie remixes. In true cabaret form, patrons are invited to hiss, boo, and imbibe freely during the performance — and no two performances will be alike. –Danielle Kurtzleben, photo by Desiree Olson

8 p.m., Ritz Theater, 345 Thirteenth Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-436-1129; $25.

SPECIAL EVENT
In The Loop Story Slam

Enough of this passive observation. It’s time to dive right in and get involved. Get out those great ideas and “guts” this evening, so you can share a story with the world. In The Loop is hosting a Story Slam. You bring your best story; they’ll supply the microphone, the audience, and five minutes. Sign-up before 7:30 pm, and be ready if your name gets pulled from the hat. Tonight’s theme is “disguise.” And if you tell a good tale, you might just end up on the radio. Jeff Horwich is hosting, and he’ll be joined by In The Loop’s house band, The Smarts.

7:30 p.m. (doors 6:30), Suburban World Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 952-471-9500; $6-10 (pay what you can).

ART
Jade Townsend: Born Between Piss and Shit; Kristina Estell: Cover

Despite limited hours, Art of This is becoming an important place to visit; these two very different installations show the range of the gallery. Jade Townsend is an Iowan who passed through Minneapolis at one point and now works in New York, where his crisp and often funny-though-harrowing building installations have gotten good reviews. Razor wire, all-white interiors, holes in the wall, some contradictory emotional play between humor and horror: familiar stuff but interesting in person. Kristina Estell, by contrast, produces emotionally distant but evocative and sensual installations based on the overwhelming presence of water and rock in her current home, Duluth. –Ann Klefstad, artwork: “Hey Hey Woody Guthrie I Wrote You A Song” by Jade Townsend

5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Art of This, 3506 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, 612-721-4105.

BOOKS
Jeffrey Harrison

It’s always a good thing when poetry offers surprises. (It’s rarer than you might think — if in fact you think about poetry at all.) It’s also a good thing when poetry offers lucidity, music, and mystery in something like equal measure (also rarer than you might think). Jeffrey Harrison’s poetry offers all of those things with impressive regularity. The Singing Underneath was selected by James Merrill for the National Poetry Series in 1987. And since then, Harrison has had a very nice career, at least as far as careers in poetry go, with scads of prizes, fellowships, and teaching gigs, and the publication of his poems in such esteemed periodicals as The New Yorker and The Paris Review. His fourth book, The Names of Things: New and Selected Poems, was released last year, and we’re assuming that, like many poets of his stature, Harrison has a small but ardent cult of admirers. We’ll also assume that the rest of you have never heard of the fellow, which seems like a shame. –Brad Zellar

7:30 p.m., University of Minnesota’s Walter Library, the Upson Room, 117 Pleasant St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-624-0224.

MUSIC
George Avaloz

George Avaloz may have grown up in St. Paul’s West Side, but his drumming has toured the world. He has played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, and Quincy Jones (which pretty much tells you all you need to know), and he even pulled a ten-year tour of duty with Billy Eckstine. Avaloz is among the best timekeepers and musical interpreters of the glory years of bebop and ballad jazz. Don’t miss out.

9 p.m., Artists’ Quarter, 408 St Peter St., St.Paul; 651-292-1359; $5.

TV
Chef Fogarty Behind the Scenes

When the Food Network came to town to shoot an episode of Dinner Impossible, they turned to new Napa Valley Grille Executive Chef Matthew Fogarty for support. Fogarty helped Robert Irvine find food and supplies for a Mall of America dinner for 250 people who had worked there for 15 years. The episode is called “Mall Madness“, and you can see it tonight (9 p.m. and midnight) on Food Network TV.

MUSIC
Zap Mama Puts the Zap on You

She’s beautiful. She’s sexy. She’ll make you feel sexy, too. What more can you ask from a woman? The voice of an angel? A backbone? Wisdom? A maternal instinct? This woman has it all. Marie Daulne. Marie Daulne. The woman left Europe at the age of 20 to travel throughout Africa and study pygmy onomatopoeic vocal techniques. Now, as frontwoman of the Belgian band Zap Mama, Daulne melds her European and African heritages in a most unique and harmonious way. You’ll hear the pygmy vocals tossed in with some jazzy soul, a touch of gospel, and some seemingly Caribbean beats. The music will take you places, if you let it; and I understand they put on quite a show. Oh, and Desdemona will be opening the show. How about that!

7 p.m., FineLine Music Cafe, 318 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8100; $26.

Rogue Waves

I understand Zach Rogue used to work as a website developer. Oy! Fortunate for him, and for our listening pleasure, he made a break for New York and decided to try his luck in the music industry. Truth be told, he didn’t need a whole lot of luck. The man is talented. In no time at all he returned with almost a whole album recorded. Now, just five years later, with three albums under their belts, Rogue Wave brings their contemporary folk pop sound to the Twin Cities. With noticeable traces of R.E.M., an overwhelmingly similar sound to The Shins, and a mesmerizing vocal/instrumental relationship reminiscent of Radiohead, Rogue Wave serves up ultrapop of the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel variety.

8 p.m., 400 Bar, 400 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-2903; $14.

ART
Artists Talk of Double Entendre

I, for one, am always curious about the faces behind creations. Who is the man behind the work? The woman? I create a narrative between the two — between the man and the work. So, when the opportunity arises to meet the artists, to hear from them, live and in person — to interact, engage — I have to call it out. While IFP Minnesota’s new photography exhibit, Double Entendre, opened over a week ago, tonight is the night to go. IFP will host an Artists Talk with photographers Bryce Marback and Jared Watsabaugh. Stop by and view their compelling black and white portraits, and hear them talk about their work. “Double Entendre exemplifies how attention to process and detail can result in boldly captivating narratives which may be read as double entendre.” You know — that other narrative between the subject and the work.

7 p.m., IFP Minnesota Center for Media Arts, 2446 University Ave. W., St. Paul; free.

FILM
Enemies of Happiness

As we all sit around ceding all accountability to feelings of powerlessness, it does us well to be reminded, from time to time, of what individuals across the globe have managed to achieve — sometimes on their own, other times simply lending their voices or their leadership. But, in the end, what never fails to amaze is not the achievements at all, but the struggle. How is it that others, in the face of horror, have the courage to stand and fight, while in all our luxury we consistently fail to make the most basic demands? (So spoiled are we. So inured.) Give yourself a well-deserved and triumphant slap in the face tonight with the story of a 27-year-old Afghani woman who actually had the tenacity to speak out against corrupt warlords. Enemies of Happiness, a documentary by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem, shows how one woman’s determination can inspire those around her to fight for reform. I hate to focus on the fact that she’s a woman, because her courage surpasses gender, but as a candidate in Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections in 35 years, Malalai Joya also made big strides for Aghani women. Learn more about her tonight as part of the Women’s Human Rights Film Series.

7 p.m., St. Anthony Park Branch Library, 2245 Como Ave., St. Paul; 651-642-0411.

A Force More Powerful

Another great empowerment film is showing this evening at Hamline. Narrated by none other than Ben Kingsley, A Force More Powerful explores how nonviolent power has overcome oppression and authoritarian rule all over the world. The three-hour Steve York documentary focuses on the power of solidarity, determination, nonviolence resistance, and popular movements. History says it all. See it for yourself.

7 p.m., Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt Ave., St. Paul; 651-523-2426; free.

ART
Win, Place, Show

A prosthetic arm covered with gilt and pink Swarovski crystals. A photograph of a suburban treehouse whose tree is being dismantled. A line — nothing more, nothing less — that runs across the gallery floor, busts through a floor-to-ceiling window and, thus liberated, continues through the city to … well, you go follow it and find out (note – you’ll be walking for upwards of an hour). These works, by Ernest Arthur Bryant III, Brian Lesteberg, and Marcus Young, respectively, are part of the annual MCAD/Jerome Artists Exhibition, which brings together new work from five Jerome Foundation fellows. It’s always an interesting mix of up-and-coming artists; this time it’s weighted toward conceptual and/or relational art and rounded out by Cherith Lundin’s captivating but minimal paintings of interior domestic spaces, and Monica Sheets’ subversive exhibit-within-an-exhibit, bringing together some of her fellow artists who applied for but were not awarded the fellowship. –Julie Caniglia

Through November 25, MCAD Gallery, 2501 Steven Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-874-3667.

BOOKS & AUTHORS
Feminist Waves, Feminist Generations

Finally, a book about feminism that doesn’t resort to the counter-productive tradition of pitting generations against each other, rather than exploring a cohesive development. Feminist Waves, Feminist Generations examines the life stories of contemporary feminist scholars, illustrating how feminism develops unevenly over time and across institutions. This afternoon, join contributing editors Jennifer Pierce, from the University of Minnesota, and Karla Erickson, from Grinnell College, for a discussion of their new book. They’ll be signing copies following the discussion.

2 p.m., University of Minnesota Bookstores, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Coffman Memorial Union, Minneapolis; 612-625-6564; free.

LECTURE
The Meaning of Equal Protection

Whenever the question of journalistic objectivity emerges, Linda Greenhouse’s name is never far behind. While her reports, per se, have not been called into question, Greenhouse has been both scolded and lauded for her political views, her civic participation, and for simply voicing her opinion. God forbid! As a long-time U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, Greenhouse has taken a stand on some of the most controversial issues, including abortion. Today, the University of Minnesota is honored to have Greenhouse here for the law school’s Horatio Ellsworth Kellar Distinguished Visitors Lecture. Greenhouse’s lecture, “What Would Justice Powell Do? The ‘Alien Children’ Case and the Meaning of Equal Protection,” will explore the current debate over the rights of non-citizens in this country to receive a free public education. Basing her research on the 1982 Plyer v. Doe case, Greenhouse will examine Justice Powell’s decision and what it means for us today.

3:30 p.m., Willey Hall, 225 19th Ave. S., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; 612-624-6338; free.

Glass Carpenter

The Madision Square Garden renovation in New York. The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station in New York. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Smithsonian National Portrait Museum expansion in Washington, D.C. The Gucci Ginza building in Tokyo, Japan. The Luminous Pier in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The American University of Beirut in Lebanon. The Reflective Clerestory Sculpture in our very own General Mills Atrium. These are all designs by James Carpenter. You’ll notice one consistent feature across all of his work, and that’s the overwhelming presence of glass. A glass artist at heart, Carpenter is also partly responsible for the design of the new 7 World Trade Center building, across from the ground zero site of the original World Trade Center. Come hear him speak this evening as part of the International Artist Series.

7 p.m., Minnesota History Center Auditorium, Minnesota History Center, 345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul; free.

FILM
Kiss Me Deadly

The Parkway’s Monday night film noir series continues this evening with one of my all-time favorites, Kiss Me Deadly. “Blood-Red Kisses. White-Hot Thrills! Mickey Spillane’s Latest H-Bomb!” From the opening credits, which run backwards, this Robert Aldrich film continues to surprise. His is no ordinary hero, not even for film noir. No, the typical film noir hero is rough around the edges, but seldom as perverse as Aldrich’s Mike Hammer. At the core, this guy is nothing more than a thug, a dumb brute. It’s film noir sans Hollywood glam, no beautiful-timed Zippos and witty quips — just a raw film that makes for a great anti-nuclear parable.

8 p.m., Parkway Theatre, 4814 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-3030; $6.

Nothing but the Truth

When Nike does something, they go all out. That we know well enough. For the past six years, they’ve been actively engaged in the skateboarding scene with Nike SB. A now, of course, they’ve stepped it up with a groundbreaking film: Nothing but the Truth. See it tonight.

8 p.m., Varsity Theater, 1308 4th St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-604-0222; free.