rakemag

With the exception of 1990’s Goodfellas, the five films in this set are among the more obscure of Martin Scorsese’s works – though in its day, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore did spark the wildly popular spinoff sitcom that made “kiss my grits” the “shizzle my nizzle” of 1976. But in the case of the … Read more

Using deadpan realism to mask a deep sense of the absurd, Jim Jarmusch has a mindset unmatched by any other American director (though, as we’ve noted, he’s got a spiritual twin in Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki). Indeed, despite his dryness, he’s awfully quick with the razor-sharp left-field gag: the aging gangster who abruptly launches into a … Read more

If you’re ever tempted to think that the banjo is an instrument good only for backwoods pickin’ parties by Deliverance types who make their shoes out of tree bark, remember Bela Fleck, who’s done more than anybody to demonstrate conclusively that his chosen instrument is worthy of a virtuoso’s hands. For the past twenty years, … Read more

Let’s give it up for old-school divas like Janis Hardy, Maria Jette, and Molly Sue McDonald – the ladies who revere Puccini arias rather than pablum pop. But for Sopranorama, they’ll mix the classical with the contemporary – or at least, the comparatively (and tastefully) contemporary: We’re talking Burt Bacharach and Willie Nelson here. Hardy, … Read more

Young, beautiful, and with a silky-smooth delivery, Bebel Gilberto is Brazil’s answer to Diana Krall and Norah Jones. We’re glad somebody asked Brazil the question. Like Jones, she’s the daughter of musical royalty (Joao Gilberto, perhaps the premier bossa nova player in the world), and offers living proof that talent doesn’t always skip a generation. … Read more

Ms. Gilberto isn’t the only musician bringing South American sizzle to the Twin Cities stage this month. This funky bossa nova combo – comprised of local jazz guitarist Pavel Jany and an international cadre, including a French violinist, a bassist from the Ivory Coast, and a vocalist and percussionist both from Brazil – has put … Read more

Local guitar wizard Eason’s been a reliable source of six-string zing for two decades now, both fronting his own projects and backing guys like Chan Poling and Dylan Hicks. Bees Will Bumble, his second disc in less than a year, forms a loose zoological trilogy with last year’s Elephant Garden and the forthcoming The Aching … Read more

You might know A.C. Newman better as Carl Newman, the name he uses as lead songwriter for Canada’s premiere indie-rock power-pop supergroup the New Pornographers. (We’re not sure why the initials, which only served to make us momentarily wonder whether he was one of the many other singing Newmans, perhaps Randy, Colin, or Thunderclap.) His … Read more

When you think of Arthur Miller, you think of Marilyn Monroe and Death of a Salesman – two beautiful, tragic, quintessentially American stories. Both persist as a defining part of our national consciousness. Need we point out the irony that Salesman is about a poor schlub who dies forgotten and unappreciated by almost everyone in … Read more

Barbara Walters has put forth the command with regard to this traveling Broadway musical: “See it!” And who are we to contradict such an esteemed fellow journalist? But we can’t concur without offering a tiny caveat. Babs also called this production – which relates the adventures of an archetypal small-town Kansas girl in New York … Read more