Author: rakemag

When the Polyphonic Spree named its latest disc Together We’re Heavy, they weren’t kidding—there are twenty-nine people in the band. Risen from the ashes of Dallas psychedelic-grunge group Tripping Daisy, the greatly expanded ensemble now takes the stage decked out in robes like they’re headed for a river baptism, whipping up a heady cross between the Flaming Lips, Abbey Road-era Beatles, and Godspell. As with PS’s previous work, Heavy—especially “Hold Me Now” and “Two Thousand Places”—is stunningly and unironically uplifting—though if you’re not in the right mood it’ll feel like being trapped in an elevator with Up With People. They’re co-headlining this tour with British combo Gomez, who unfortunately don’t bedazzle us the way their blues and retro-pop influences ought to.

Just when we’re realizing that our knowledge of the Middle East has grown far too reliant on CNN—thankfully, along comes Jawaahir’s summer show, devoted to the Arab world’s most popular diva, Um Kalthoum. We’ll take a stab at explaining her significance by saying that during the fifties and sixties, she was to Egypt and indigenous Arab culture what U2’s Bono now is to Africa and international debt. The Midwest’s only professional Middle Eastern dance company has imported the San Francisco-based Georges Lammam Ensemble to perform Kalthoum’s music; and they’re also hosting lectures on Egyptian culture and screenings of a documentary on Kalthoum, all the better to expand our horizons. 1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; (612) 340-1725; www.southerntheater.org

Don’t you wonder some-ti-i-i-imes… ’bout sound and vision? Sure, David Bowie goes to fashion shows and produces Modern Painters magazine, but Christian Marclay has based much of his career on the deeper connections and intersections between the aural and the visual. He’s been working in residency at the Walker for the past few months, resurrecting artworks from the Fluxus art collection for Shake Rattle and Roll (fluxmix), a multimonitor installation in which he criss-crosses media by placing the visual objects in aural contexts. The exhibit also includes some of Marclay’s older work, such as Graffiti Composition, in which he took the public scrawlings on posters he’d put up all over Berlin and translated them into sound. Look for Marclay on stage in August, when he performs with the Fog’s Andrew Broder (August 21 at the Triple Rock Social Club), and at the Walker’s Loring Park movies and music series (August 23, before a screening of The Magnificent Seven). 1021 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 872-7494; www.walkerart.org

If American history makes your mouth water and the James J. Hill House turns you on, then prepare for still more fantasies fulfilled at the MIA’s latest exhibit. Currents showcases about a hundred and fifty objets d’art, from paintings and photographs to furniture and silver, all hailing from Mississippi River regions in the 1850s. That was when the river was cresting in terms of productivity, with the milling industry clinging to its banks and river steamboats shouting their final hurrahs before railroad companies reoriented the nation east-to-west instead of north-to-south. The exhibit’s centerpiece is a 340-foot panorama of the Mississippi, an enormous moving theatrical display presented in the same way folks gazed upon it in the days when Longfellow was still working on his first draft of “Song of Hiawatha.” (612) 870-3131; www.artsmia.org

One of our favorite local galleries, MCP is moving from Uptown to a Northeast Minneapolis space that should be open by the end of August. But that hasn’t stopped it from mounting exhibitions—its latest is on view in guest quarters on the U of M West Bank (alongside an intriguing display of Japanese ironwork kettles). Tema Stauffer’s Heart Land plays with the multiple meanings of its title, moving from homey Midwestern landscapes that evoke a depopulated Norman Rockwell world to noirish police-beat scenes more akin to Weegee. Richard Copley’s CITY is New York, though London, Boston, San Francisco and Paris also make appearances. He’s a master at capturing small, quirky human moments framed and even engulfed by concrete-and-metal urban scenery. A small but worthwhile show. Katherine E. Nash Gallery, U of M Regis Center for Arts, 405 21st Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-624-7530; www.mncp.org

We’ve always thought Mary Pickford was quite a fabulous dame, and we were even more impressed to discover recently that she built her own personal mini-golf course inspired by the surrealist Max Ernst. Leave it to the Walker to reunite art and mini-golf eighty years later, as part of the consolation package for its year-long museum renovation. Area artists and architects, including some of the Walker’s own employees, have transformed part of the Sculpture Garden into a cute, crazy, and even enlightening ten-hole course for putt-putt fans. Until Labor Day, at least, art lovers and golf nuts have something they can team up on. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis; 612-375-7622; www.walkerart.org

Fact may be stranger than fiction, but fictionalized fact often makes for the best story. In The Dazzle, playwright Richard Greenberg (of Tony-winning Take Me Out fame) fictionalizes the already strange tale of the Collyer brothers, Depression-era America’s answer to Howard Hughes. Homer and Langley are the stuff of urban legend: As the family fortune dwindled, the brothers became increasingly eccentric, living alone in a broken-down mansion in once-fashionable Harlem. When New York police finally broke into the home in 1947, they found the brothers’ decaying bodies deep in a labyrinth of old newspapers and junk. (Which reminds us, it’s about time we cleaned our living room.) The Dazzle offers a compelling peek through boarded windows at the Collyers’ guarded existence and their enigmatic demise.

Spooky! The Manningham family has recently moved into a new house full of old secrets. While husband Jack struggles to conceal his past trangressions, wife Bella drifts toward insanity, as the house’s gaslights flicker and footsteps echo in the attic. Even Scotland Yard makes a signature appearance. Does the mix of plot-driven whodunnit and dark twentieth-century character study sound familiar? It should. Angel Street inspired the 1939 film Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman, and successfully ran on Broadway in the late sixties. Now it’s coming to Theater in the Round, who will no doubt show us all sides of this complex mystery. 245 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 333-3010, www.theatreintheround.org

THEATER: Dirty Blonde
Park Square Theatre, July 17-August 8
In the realm of legendary twentieth-century blondes, who looms largest, Madonna, Marilyn, or Mae? We’d vote for the brassy, bossy, up-front-and-in-control Ms. West. So, apparently, would Claudia Shear. In her 2000 play Dirty Blonde, the early-American sex bomb inspires a connection between a librarian, Charlie, and an actress, Jo, who explore their love for each other and West against the backdrop of West’s life. Jodi Kellogg plays both West and Jo, returning to Park Square in a reprise performance that further blends the stories of the legend and her fans. 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul; (651) 291-7005, www.parksquaretheatre.org

THEATER: The Phantom of the Opera
Orpheum Theater, July 14-August 8
Antiques Roadshow fans beware: The Orpheum’s production of Phantom contains graphic scenes depicting violence against excessive ornament. Broadway’s most beloved romantic tragedy moves to Minneapolis, along with its ten-story, half-ton chandelier, which, during the performance, crashes onto the stage and shatters to bits. And you thought Prince smashing his nonsensical symbol-shaped guitar was dramatic! For a play that is known far and wide, with every song memorized by many a teenage girl (or middle-aged housewife), the only way to go out is to go big. So it is that Phantom arrives with the full array of accoutrements from the New York set, including that ill-fated chandelier, to give Minnesota audiences an affair to remember. (612) 339-7007; www.hennepintheatredistrict.com

RESTAURANTS: Machu Picchu
2940 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis;
(612) 822-2125
If the question is “do French fries belong in a stir-fry?” then the answer is Machu Picchu. While the game of musical chairs continues apace with restaurateurs at the intersection of Lyndale and Lake, the Saltados at this Peruvian-style joint have made us glad they’ve stuck it out. Their new expansion features a nifty little bar in a nicely lit room facing Lyndale. Gastronomic temptations include Papa a la Huancaina, about which you only need to know the phrase “feta cheese cream sauce.” If Paddington Bear ate this well, he never would have left darkest Peru.

RESTAURANTS: Tin Fish
3000 E. Calhoun Pkwy., Minneapolis; www.thetinfish.net
Everyone thinks they could be a writer, and everyone thinks they could run a restaurant. Folks don’t realize how much work, tedious work, is involved in either enterprise. Well, we confess that our second-best idea—after starting this magazine—was to open a good fish-and-chips joint, in the classic British style of a walk-up chippy. True, you can find fish and chips all over town, but other than Mac’s in St. Paul, none is dedicated exclusively to this noble cause. Now Minneapolis has a proud contender, in an amazing location: The Tin Fish is the Minneapolis Park Board’s seasonal restaurant in the boathouse at Lake Calhoun. The prices are a little steep (running $10-$15 for an actual meal) and the wait can be unsettling, but the quality (walleye, salmon, cod, cross-cut fries, slaw—upscale!) has us beaming with civic pride. Each of the city’s great lakes deserves a delightful gathering place like this. Now how about a model yacht club at Loring Pond?

In the realm of legendary twentieth-century blondes, who looms largest, Madonna, Marilyn, or Mae? We’d vote for the brassy, bossy, up-front-and-in-control Ms. West. So, apparently, would Claudia Shear. In her 2000 play Dirty Blonde, the early-American sex bomb inspires a connection between a librarian, Charlie, and an actress, Jo, who explore their love for each other and West against the backdrop of West’s life. Jodi Kellogg plays both West and Jo, returning to Park Square in a reprise performance that further blends the stories of the legend and her fans. 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul; (651) 291-7005, www.parksquaretheatre.org

Antiques Roadshow fans beware: The Orpheum’s production of Phantom contains graphic scenes depicting violence against excessive ornament. Broadway’s most beloved romantic tragedy moves to Minneapolis, along with its ten-story, half-ton chandelier, which, during the performance, crashes onto the stage and shatters to bits. And you thought Prince smashing his nonsensical symbol-shaped guitar was dramatic! For a play that is known far and wide, with every song memorized by many a teenage girl (or middle-aged housewife), the only way to go out is to go big. So it is that Phantom arrives with the full array of accoutrements from the New York set, including that ill-fated chandelier, to give Minnesota audiences an affair to remember. (612) 339-7007; www.hennepintheatredistrict.com