The Rake Magazine

Author: rakemag

  • À Tout de Suite

    Maybe the Fishing Hat Bandit could have picked up a dame if he hadn’t had such a dumpy fashion instinct. Because, according to the movies, girls go for bank robbers in a big way (see Bonnie and Clyde, above). French director Benoit Jacquot does an erotic thriller take on this attraction with the story of Lili, a Parisian art student (the very intense Islid De Besco), who follows her on-the-lam bank robber across Spain, Morocco, and Greece. Set in the 1970s, shot in black and white, and mostly wordless, this homage to the French New Wave explores the thrill of crime and the complexity of an attraction that defies common sense and even the instinct for self-preservation. 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; www.mnfilmarts.org

  • Suzanne Marrs

    Even on her deathbed, Eudora Welty was a classic Southern lady. When her doctor asked if he could do anything for her, she replied, “No, but thank you so much for inviting me to the party.” As genteel as she was in life, however, in her short stories Welty created some of the strangest and most perverse characters in American fiction, and her work goes a long way toward defining Southern writing as a realm of the weird. It explores unhappy families, solitary oddballs, religion run amok, and smothering small towns–all with an eye that is affectionate and humorous, but as unforgiving as a photograph. This biography, by Welty scholar Suzanne Marrs, tries to explain how such a nice Southern lady could write such very peculiar things.

  • Plastics and the Cool Factor

    Bakelite was invented in 1907, cellophane in 1913. Thus emerged the age of plastic, a substance that has since thoroughly invaded our kitchens, cars, and body tissues. But utilitarian doesn’t have to mean ugly. The best designers have used this medium, in its seemingly endless variety of forms, to create sleek, colorful gadgets that bring a little thrill to our everyday lives. On view here are some of the best examples of that stuff, from household appliances and toys to an iPod, which, frankly, looks silly labeled behind glass, even though its design sense is sublime. 612-870-3131; www.artsmia.org

  • My-T-Fine Bakery and Café

    This is what you get when the kitchen chemistry works out just so. Three women who once worked at the Loring have opened a jewel of a bakery/café that achieves a sweet balance between contemporary and cozy. Its apple-green walls and substantial chairs invite you to sit down, relax, and get to know one of the most delicate and beautiful chocolate birthday cakes imaginable, or some lemon-blueberry bread, or a dish of tart homemade applesauce. Try an in-house roasted turkey sandwich or wild-mushroom-goat cheese roulade if you’re over your sweet tooth. 4300 Bryant Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-825-6308

  • Afton House Inn and Catfish Café

    Pining for a lazy river day? Since 1867, people who want to spend time with the languid St. Croix have headed to the Afton House Inn. The casual Catfish Saloon and Café serves hearty burgers and pizzas to fuel an impromptu stroll along the river. Also on the premises is the Wheel Room, a white-tablecloth affair whose servers make a show of tableside preparation, bringing out expertly done standards like Caesar salad, Steak Diane, and flaming Bananas Foster. The wine dinners often sell out, but it’s worth asking; items like roasted chayote and green apple soup, or grilled shrimp with tamarind couscous, paired with the right grapes and vintages, make this an inspired destination. 3291 S. St. Croix Trail, Afton; 651-436-8883; www.aftonhouseinn.com

  • Janis Hardy

    It’s awfully tempting to be a diva when you’re born with such a sweet soprano. But the Twin Citizen Janis Hardy has managed to become a key opera export with minimal incidence of temper tantrums. She regularly takes her pipes on the road, performing with the Houston Grand Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Boston Opera, and, at home, the Minnesota Opera (she was part of its resident ensemble for ten years). Recently, she appeared in productions with Frank Theater and Theatre Latte Da, and is a semi-regular on Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion. We caught up with this busy woman as she was preparing for the fourth incarnation of Sopranorama, the annual feast of songs written for–or stolen by–the soprano voice. Hardy and her singer friends were busy tinkering with a series of catchy fifties pop tunes for the event, and she said she was having such fun that if she were stranded on a desert isle, that’s just how she’d like to pass her tropical days. With a passion for live music that runs deep, she turns out to be one of our rare castaways who leaves behind her iPod and its Beach Boys MP3s. She wants her singing buddies instead–and a few other necessities.

    1.A giant bag filled with books, music, and writing paper and pens. I wouldn’t need to worry about reading the same books over and over, since I can never remember anything for longer than a few months anyway. And I can’t imagine being anywhere without music to sing or paper to write on.

    2.My singer pals, to sing the music with me, and to entertain me once my voice is too far gone to croak anything out.Plus, nobody knows better dirty jokes than singers.

    3.Several large dogs. Nobody should be without a big dog, ever!

    4.My photo albums. I’d like to be reminded of where I’ve been, who I’ve loved, of the adventures and misadventures that make life worth living. Without the past, the present and future are meaningless.

    5.I wouldn’t survive long enough without my family to enjoy the other four things.

    Janis Hardy, Maria Jette, and Molly Sue MacDonald, accompanied by Broadway conductor and pianist Andrew Cooke, perform in Sopranorama IV at the Southern Theater, August 26 to 28. 1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-340-1725; www.southerntheater.org

  • C'Est La Vie

    I agree that it is ironique to unveil an establishment eighteenth-century period room at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on Bastille Day; a day on which the establishment was overthrown [Broken Clock, July]. But that was 216 years ago. Sure, the MIA can use that day to celebrate all things French, but most of the details in your notice were cheap shots by a disgruntled anti-establishment mind. Beauty should be praised wherever it appears. Your notice was stupide.
    George Soule
    Minneapolis

  • Poet Prejudice

    Perverse it is to deny the post of the poet laureate [Good Intentions, July], which began in England with the bard. Queen Victoria appointed William Wordsworth as poet laureate after he had retired to his garden. He refused. She then sent out the prime minister to persuade him, and during one of her galas, Wordsworth busted the seams of the borrowed attire he was ordered to wear. Lord Alfred Tennyson is known to have equally held the hearts of both the aristocracy and rising middle class. Soldiers requested copies of “Charge of the Light Brigade” in droves; Tennyson is buried with the British flag over his chest. His bust is within the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Our national poets have been savvy in decimating their ideologies to the public. Robert Pinsky made a cameo on The Simpsons and CNN interviewed Billy Collins, which stunned me to see a poet on national TV.

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s verse-novel Aurora Leigh accounts for the social exclusion of women to the post. Aurora’s husband Romney is at first disgusted at her will to be a poet. He catches her unaware playing in a garden as she crowns herself with ivy. She pretends she’s a caryatid elevating the role of the poet. The figuration of Aurora crowning herself on her birthday is a literary gesture to Madame de Stäell’s Corinne, or Italy as Corrine crowns herself at the capital. E.B. Browning was one of Tennyson’s competitors for the post. Aurora Leigh had to design her own laurel and post. Is this the only option for Minnesotan poets?

    Toni Holland
    Minneapolis

  • Tommy Do-Good

    T.D. Mischke’s description of selfless acts, as described in his 9/11 comments [“Old-Fashioned Cutting-Edge Radio,” July], might also describe him on most days. When I was at a very low point in my life and had trouble coming up with the money to pay the rent (a story I shared on the air with Tommy), Mischke called upon his radio audience to donate what they could to help me out. His listeners contributed about three hundred dollars, Mischke called me at home and the money arrived shortly thereafter. Mischke is more than a radio host, he’s a good man, a selfless and kind man.

    Rod Metzger
    Minneapolis

  • Caller Pick Up

    Recently, I had rather a serendipitous experience with the Mischke Broadcast. While driving home at 10 p.m., on roads hazardous as a result of a particularly brutal March snowstorm, I tuned to the Mischke Broadcast and heard silence. Tommy finally spoke, however, from a pay phone at the intersection of Lexington and Grand. His car had broken down, and he warned his producer that if someone didn’t pick him up soon, there would be no show. Not wanting to fall prey to a Mischke radio stunt, I called his producer and asked, “Is he serious?” He assured me he was. “I’m on my way,” I promised, and sped to the intersection, where Tommy stood huddled over a pay phone, enduring brutal winter winds. I waved him into my truck and the magic began.

    Tommy took an experience that would have derailed a typical host and turned it into an hour of unparalleled radio entertainment. It wasn’t enough that we drive straight to the station so he could resume the show from more hospitable environs; rather, the opportunity to broadcast an hour of his show from a careworn 1997 Ford Ranger was not a gift he was willing (or able) to take for granted. A regular young caller, Luke, sang songs to Mischke as we drove. We stopped at a McDonald’s drive-through window where Tommy peppered the staff with questions about the meaning of life. An over-the-road trucker, hearing our location, rendezvoused with us near the restaurant, and Tommy gleefully entered the cab of his tractor-trailer, playing with the CB radio like a bedazzled child. Finally, we arrived at the station. At the end of the ride Tommy thanked me, offered reimbursement (which I declined), then bounded happily into the studio. It was just business as usual on the Mischke Broadcast. Tommy Mischke may be an acquired taste, but like most of the finer things in life he’s well worth it. In a radio world teeming with pabulum, anger, or just plain banality, the Mischke Broadcast is a sorely needed oasis of originality.

    Thomas Bonnett
    Woodbury