Author: rakemag

Some Girls was the last good Stones record. It was 1979, Mick and Keith were still under forty, Charlie hadn’t had cancer yet, and they didn’t let Ron Wood play out loud so he couldn’t remind everyone what was lost when Mick Taylor quit the band. Maybe it was us, maybe it was them, but all that banty rooster stuff just didn’t play well as the band passed into genuine middle age. So, twenty-six years later, what do they do? Put out a kick-ass rock and blues CD. At their St. Paul show last month, they seemed supremely at ease with themselves–even Mick struts with a sense that things are somehow different now. On A Bigger Bang, that quality plays out in flat-out rockers like “Rough Justice” and ‘Oh No Not You Again,” and also blues gems like “Let Me Down Slow” and “It WonÕt Take Long.” Is this the same band that sang “Under My Thumb” so long ago? Yes, but it seems the women are on top now–and we’re all okay with that.

Have you packed up your cool city life to move the fam to the suburbs? Does it still sting a little? One way to keep both your giant foyer and your urban cred is to patronize 318. This one-time Excelsior coffee shop has morphed into a cozy live-music cafe under the ownership of two veteran Minneapolis music heads. The food–pear and chevre pizza, a hot roasted El Camino sandwich with veggies and Gruyre–is fresh and simple. Better still, you can order up a nicely priced bottle of wine and settle in for an intimate performance by the kind of singers and musicians who play bigger venues inside the 494 loop–all while sticking close to home. 318 Water St., Excelsior; 952-401-7902

The free spirit of ownership is wonderfully obvious at Emma’s Restaurant & Lounge. After putting in time at A Rebours and Bakery on Grand, Emma Streeter took over the former Three Muses space and made it her own. Like a first-time homeowner, she’s repainted and redecorated the interior to her liking. Her menus are quite personal as well, playing to her skills in French cooking, with forays into new and exciting territories. Short-rib ravioli are tender and oh-so-rich, scallops are paired with a creamy gratin of taro root, and a beautifully delicate sweet pea flan evokes garden party memories. Afterward, wind your way back to the hidden lounge and indulge in a lovely cognac to go with your caramelized apple tart. 2817 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-879-5800

Why aren’t there more truly excellent Southern Italian restaurants around here? Haven’t we gotten over the white- vs. red-sauce snobbery? Can’t we see past Chef Boyardee and lowbrow Lotsa di Pasta chain fare? In such a climate, Al Vento stands out all the more. Chef Jonathan Hunt sees the jewels in the land and uses them at every turn, serving humble foods with an exhilarating flair, from tomato bread soup to a red-potato pizza with spinach and Gorgonzola. The menu changes daily, so there’s always something new to explore. 5001 34th Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-724-3009

From identity theft to digital surveillance, we are increasingly the sum of our recorded information. What power does that gives us? What does it take away? And how might we hang onto our humanity? Super Vision is the kind of high-tech performance that the Walker’s new theater, fortified with futuristic AV muscle, was designed to showcase. For this, its most robust theater-meets-video project to date, the Walker commissioned the Builders Association, a New York-based troupe known for making live theater with recorded images and produced sound. With the aid of Dbox, a visual arts studio specializing in 3D wizardry, the Builders will make zeros and ones sparkle, while pondering how data imprints might be manipulated in this post-Patriot Act world. 612-375-7600; www.walkerart.org

Caleb and Katy McEwan, the local reigning first family of fun, let fly with their quick wit and gutsy humor in this wicked satire. There are plenty of laughs to be had at your average Brave New Workshop production, but this one is especially rip-roaring and fearless. The McEwans, the finest jokesters in the Workshop, are not afraid to take down anyone, including Catholics, Laura Schlessinger, and Thomas Jefferson, in their mission to skewer the politically and religiously self-righteous. There’s even a song taking off on that instant-classic bumper sticker, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?” 2605 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-6620; www.bravenewworkshop.org

Buffalo Soldiers focuses on the lives of the Robe family, who are descended from an American Indian and an African-American “buffalo soldier” who was stationed on the bloody Montana frontier–and indeed, doing much of the dirty work–during this country’s Westward expansion. Now living on a Montana reservation, the grandchildren of this couple, who appear “too black to be Native,” wrestle with the haunting legacy of their grandfather. American Indian playwright William Yellow Robe Jr. and Trinity Repertory Company (a regional, Guthrie-like company out of Providence, Rhode Island) teamed up with Penumbra for this new traveling production. 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul; 651-224-8130; www.penumbratheatre.org

Burgeoning talent Julie Marie Myatt is obsessed with sex. Seldom lewd and always complex, the stories from this playwright favor feminine perspectives on this basic human need. That preoccupation has benefited all lovers of contemporary theater, as evidenced by last year’s Guthrie production of Myatt’s The Sex Habits of American Women. In Boats on a River, she explores Southeast Asia’s sex-tourism industry and the Western aid workers who feel compelled to challenge it. This bare-bones production is part of the Guthrie’s “Construction Zone” new play program, but Myatt’s script is likely to be as compelling as anything on the theater’s main stage. 2301 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis; 612-377-2224; www.guthrietheater.org

Two years ago, a bevy of Eastern European dancers and musicians performed at the Southern as part of its Mississippi/Volga Dance Exchange with Link Vostok. With nary a tutu in sight, these flexy innovators impressed us with their postmodern, experimental, and jazz dance techniques. The Russians are back this year, joined by dancers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, all of whom will offer a vivid picture of the creative renaissance flowering in their parts of the world. 612-340-1725; www.southerntheater.org