If you’ve always thought of jazz dance as a bit too, shall we say, jazzily mainstream, then you haven’t seen Danny Buraczeski. Steeped in dance history, he has been called “the thinking man’s jazzman.” His desire to share that history and his many years as a teacher bring a distinctive character to his choreography and his performances. This time out, his troupe performs “Blue on the Moon,” set to music by Sidney Bechet (now casting his own shadow instead of standing in Louis Armstrong’s); and “Ezekiel’s Wheel,” a signature tribute to James Baldwin. And while last year’s “Swing Concerto” contrasted “Old World” Yiddish folk with new-fangled swing, here Buraczeski unveils a new work exploring Swing’s late period and its transition into bebop, with a score by Mal Waldron and Thelonious Monk. College of St. Catherine campus, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul; 651-690-6700
Author: rakemag
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Santaland Diaries
The 1992 telling of this anti-holiday tale on National Public Radio launched the career of author and commentator David Sedaris. His look at Christmas from the perspective of a verbally abused adult, one wearing the curly-toed shoes and green tights of a Macy’s Christmas Elf in New York City, is hilarious and uniquely Sedaris. Bryant-Lake Bowl’s version of his modern classic will make you think twice before you stand in line to sit your kids on the lap of a strange fat man. 810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-825-8949; www.bryantlakebowl.com
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What Awaits Karl Rove in the Afterlife?
• Shared bathroom with
Bill O’Reilly• “Mission Accomplished”
branded into flesh• Kidneys pecked out
by Lee Atwater• Daily brunch with Dick Cheney
• What’s left of hair pulled out
by mixed-race love children• Steady audio feed from the
Hillary Clinton Presidential Library -
To the Editor
THE CASE AGAINST BIRTH CONTROL
It’s 5:30 a.m. Husband snoring away. Dog in my lap. Nice quiet time for reading The Rake. I howled at your column [Sex & the Married Man, October]. At fifty-plus years old, I identified with every word. This liberally raised, nontraditional Catholic encourages couples who do not want children, not to do so. Have sex, though. Children do bring significant change to a marriage. For those ready and willing to accept the responsibility, it is fabulous. We enjoyed every stage of our children’s lives. They are wonderful beings—raised with solid values and an excitement to test life, take risks, and maintain solid ethics. My eldest son teaches special ed in the Bronx. While in college at Carleton, his favorite T-shirt read: “You are not required to reproduce.” My younger son, a literary student at a high school devoted to the arts, was manhandled by a Republican patrol guard at the Bush rally (recently held in St. Cloud, for obvious reasons) for wearing a “Kerry for President” button. They have great spirit for living, are engaged in what’s happening around them, are fierce protectors of human rights and social justice, and the result of “oops, we’re pregnant” happenings early in their parents’ sex-filled marriage. You will be great parents. Thanks for the laugh. I must go make coffee now…I hear the other side rising. It’s garbage day and coffee helps him get the mess to the curb.Sue Mackert
St. CloudTO HAVE KIDS OR NOT?
Why do you feel that couples who elect not to have children in the near future or even at all are “self-centered and looking out for number one”? Sure people have their reasons for having or not having kids, but to call them self-centered? I just don’t understand. Is staying single being self-centered? Do the friends of a single man say, “Gee, Bill, you’re an attractive, virile young man with a great job. Why don’t you get married?” Can a single man enjoy thesingle life of dating, or the simple pleasures of returning home from a hard day’s work just to veg out on the couch and read a book or go out to a coffee house or movie? Regarding the friend “Steve” who complains about his higher healthcare premiums subsidizing coworkers with family coverage: That’s really no different than a nonsmoker complaining about the same situation with smokers running up premiums. They’re both something that we’ll probably never be able to change, and, true, it is a fact of life. But to call Steve or others like him self-centered because of those two reasons is rather ignorant. You should know; you were once “not expecting.”
Brian Jonas
MinneapolisRUN FOR YOUR LIFE
Regarding “Foot in Mouth” [Good Intentions, October]: Americans not only don’t win major American marathons, much less foreign, but we frequently don’t place in the top ten or even top twenty. While not as pronounced, we are not particularly competitive at anything longer than four hundred meters. The long-term decline in American fitness and grotesque increase in obesity is tragic and must be reversed. The Olympic marathon in Athens provides a glimmer of hope with “Americans” Mebrahtom Keflezighi and Deena Kastor finishing second and third, respectively. Marathon competitions, of course, recognize differences based upon gender, age, and being confined to a wheelchair, and they categorize results for more equitable competition. It would be sad indeed if we felt the need to segregate “Americans” as well.
John Newman
MinneapolisHU’S ON FIRST?
I exchanged several emails with Sari Gordon over a period of a few weeks while she was putting together this article [“Hu Are You?,” October]. I was therefore quite surprised when I read the article and saw so many glaring inaccuracies. She wrote that “the basic teachings of Eckankar are virtually identical to Hinduism.” This and the whole paragraph that follows is almost entirely wrong. She included a lot of information from a few apostates who have been shown to be wildly biased, and she included nothing of the answers I or other members gave her. She also included none of the actual teachings of Eckankar. I thought that a bit strange. I guess it’s really just more about her, under the guise of being about Eckankar. Suffice to say that having an opinion is one thing, but getting so many facts incorrect is beyond the pale of decent journalism.
Rich Smith
Honolulu, HIGOT RAW MILK?
Eliot Coleman is prescient when he notes, “I buy milk from a very successful local raw-milk dairy where the cows eat grass outdoors (as they were designed to do) and produce milk that studies have shown is far richer in many important nutrients due to the grass diet alone” [“Can Organics Save the Family Farm?,” September]. Grass-fed milk from cows and goats has higher levels of CLA, butterfat, Vitamin D, and a host of other nutrients. Unprocessed (unpasteurized) milk has a whole host of beneficial bacteria, such as acidophilus and lactobacillus, as well as antibacterial agents, or pathogenic inhibitors, including Nisin, Lactoferrin, and Lactoperoxidase. Pasteurization destroys those benefits and actually makes the milk more susceptible to pathogenic bacteria. The reason the large dairy industry constantly promotes pasteurized milk is because it covers their tracks when using sick cows in confinement settings. For a detailed look, see Dr. Ron Schmid’s book, The Untold Story of Milk, at www.drrons.com/untoldstoryofmilk.html. I applaud the way you open the door to fresh insights and would appreciate the opportunity to educate your readers further on ways to acquire healthy, nutrient-dense foods.
John Langlois
Foggy Bottom Farms
Estillfork, ALPOLICE BUSINESS
I just wanted to express my thanks for “Cover Letters I’d Like to Send” [And Now This, October 2004], notably the section about the Minneapolis police and their “lack of compliance” with basic traffic laws. It also drives me nuts that some people can get pulled over for being, say, in the wrong kind of car or some other driving infraction, but the police can misuse their privileges (not to mention being bad role models to the young people of the city). The part about endorsing a guitar would be great, too.
Christopher Audette
St. Paul -
Chris Mars: Severed Stream
Mars’s newest paintings address the demons of mental illness, yet they dig through the ugliness to find something beautiful within. That is, they achieve the feat of being simultaneously repellent and alluring: His depictions of monsters are horrific on the surface, but rendered in such rich detail and glowing colors that their humanity cannot be denied. Each painting is tied intimately to Mars’s relationship with his brother, who struggles with schizophrenia, and the artist’s words about his intentions are as eloquent as the paintings themselves, which have titles like A Pledge of Empathy Before Judgment. “There is free will and there is circumstance,” he writes. “I exercise the former so that we consider the latter, and thus may come to know both beauty and mercy.” 400 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-339-1094; www.theissgallery.com
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The Art of Democracy
Artists of all stripes have turned the MIA’s gallery devoted to Minnesota artists into a ground zero for political propaganda. Sweeping, populist, and endearingly shaggy, the exhibit has more in common with the bulletin boards on college campuses or at community centers than with the remote atmosphere of your average art gallery. Through an ongoing open call, artists are continually submitting election-themed posters, T-shirts, flyers, pins, and commercials. As expected, the walls were quickly covered. Curators have begun stapling pieces atop one another, creating a layered account of our political moods leading up to the election—and, since the exhibit runs all month, its aftermath. 612-870-3131; www.artsmia.org
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FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION—Franklin Art Works
Hard to believe it’s been five years since Franklin Art Works, the little art gallery that could, added a new chapter to the life of a vaudeville theater-turned-porn multiplex. Now, of course, it’s a sleek yet simple space exhibiting work from both local and national artists, many of whom probably wouldn’t otherwise be shown in these parts. FAW celebrates this anniversary with an innovative take on a ‘best of’ show, featuring exquisite corpse drawings made by artists—including David Rathman and Mary Esch—whose work the art center has exhibited in previous years. Also on view will be Pictures of What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow, drawings by Zak Smith whose title indicates the extensive and sprawling nature of the series (pictured at left). A Yale MFA who strikes a punk pose, Smith is a fan of freneticism, psychedelia, and excess, and was one of the standouts at last spring’s Whitney Biennial. Rounding out the exhibit is a video by conceptual artist Jan Estep. 1021 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis; 612-872-7494; www.franklinartworks.org
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Artists’ Books: No Reading Required
Our good friend Webster defines the book primarily as “a set of written sheets of skin or paper, bound together in a volume” or “a long written or printed literary composition.” Its secondary (and, we feel, more progressive) definition is “something that yields knowledge or understanding.” The selections from Walker Art Center’s library on display at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts illustrate this broader definition—and how. You’ll find a variety of Bubba-Gump proportions—there are scrapbooks, pop-up books, boxed books, checkbooks, books-on-tape—as well as featured books of art and books as art from Marcel Duchamp, Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono. 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-215-2520; mcba@mnbookarts.org
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Lan Samantha Chang
Chang acquired quite an illustrious reputation with Hunger, her first collection of stories. Now she’s exceeded the expectations generated by that book with her first novel, Inheritance, a multi-generational saga that follows the Wang family through the twentieth century, from imperial China to modern America. At one point, Chanyi, “old” at thirty-four and part of the last generation whose women had bound feet, takes her daughters Junan and Yinan to a fortune teller to find out if she might still bear her husband a son. Chang’s style is spare, her prose unassuming but deceptively powerful. In just a few pages she constructs the kind of psychological atmosphere that allows the reader to feel deeply, in an almost eery way, this woman’s quiet devastation. AI Johnson Great Room, McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, UM East Bank; Minneapolis; 612-625-6366
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Dagoberto Gilb
In a world without Paul Wellstone, Gilb is that much more of a treasure. Having written two acclaimed story collections and a novel, he is back with a potent series of thirty-six essays, Gritos. A quote from one, a brief tribute titled Steinbeck, tells you where he’s coming from: “The literary world is a powerful suit-and-tie business, and the well-dressed stories that editors look for are too much by writers whose game is played as professionally as Harvard MBAs, whose marketing goals are not meant to cause a reader to step outside the privileged cubicle to see who’s sweeping the floor in the hours after they’ve gone home.” Forceful, often funny, and always one hundred percent BS-free, Gilb is a construction worker-turned-university professor who stands up for the millions among us who know “hard work” all too well, but who (unlike our commander in chief) do not whine about it. He reads as part of the Chicano & Latino Writers Festival.
Dayton’s Bluff Branch/Metropolitan State University Library, Ecolab Room, 645 E. 7th St., St. Paul; 651-222-3242; http://www.thefriends.org/calendar.htm