Dido takes life at a slower, more deliberate pace than the rest of us—and it seems to work for her. Remember No Angel? That was her last (and first) record, the 1999 chartbusting album that featured, most prominently, the song “Thank You,” which the evil Eminem sampled improbably in 2000 on his psychopathic tune “Stan.” It was a great song that became a calling card for an album that we still keep close at hand, a trip-hoppy classic of the modern torch-singer genre. Now Dido finally follows up with an album that’s touted as an even stronger CD. We’re not entirely convinced, but then we haven’t spun the new one a thousand times like we have the first. Prospects are good, though. Listen especially for “White Flag” and “Don’t Leave Home,” Best of Show for this enchanting ingénue.
Author: rakemag
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Georgie Fame & Ben Sidran
Born Clive Powell in Manchester, England, Georgie Fame rose to, er, fame as a footsoldier in the sixties British Invasion, fronting the Blue Flames on a string of modest hits including a cover of Mongo Santamaria’s “Yeh Yeh” that went to number one in England, knocking out the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.” Admirably, he never stuck to just one style, but mixed up jazz, rock, pop and R&B, and helped introduce ska to Londoners. The next couple of decades found him struggling, but by the nineties Fame had found his groove again, playing organ on Van Morrison’s Clinton-era albums and building up a solid body of his own work in the jazz style known as vocalese. He’ll play the AQ with Wisconsin-based jazz pianist and musicologist Sidran, whose Go Jazz label put out Fame’s acclaimed recent albums Poet in New York and Cool Cat Blues.
AQ, 408 St. Peter, St. Paul St., (651) 292-1359, www.mnjazz.com -
Handsome Family
It was cosmically appropriate that our review copy of The Handsome Family’s sixth disc, Singing Bones, arrived the day that Johnny Cash died. The New Mexico husband-and-wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks are true artistic children of the Man in Black, mixing traditional roots music with postmodern macabre about haunted all-night chain stores and doomed expeditions down bottomless pits. Brett’s deep bass is a perfect complement to Rennie’s lyrics, which aren’t so much standard verse-chorus-verse as melancholy story-poems with a dark, dry humor Flannery O’Connor would have appreciated. Bones is rich with somber alt-country, recorded and mixed entirely in the Sparks’s living room. Turn down the lights, knock back a whiskey and sing along.
400 Bar, 400 Cedar Ave., (612) 332-2903, www.400bar.com -
Dard Hunter: Master of Graphic and Book Arts
DIY? As a graphic designer for New York’s Roycroft Colony, Dard Hunter invented the concept. Hunter’s participation in the Arts and Crafts movement (which embraced an ideal of human craftsmanship over the machine-made) yielded impressive results. Hunter dabbled in a variety of media, including stained glass and metal, but his true legacy lies in his accomplishments in papermaking and typographical design. This exhibit reveals a diligent American artist whose designs are cleverly handsome, making even the decapitated head of John the Baptist, a cover design for Oscar Wilde’s Salome, into an elegant work of art.
MMAA, 505 Landmark Center, St. Paul, (651) 292-4380, www.mmaa.org -
A Delicate Balance
Listen closely: That’s not the sound of cicadas or crickets. It’s local theater critics tittering about A Delicate Balance, the Jungle’s revival of the Edward Albee play. What they’re rubbing their legs about seems to be that they can’t handle the formal speechifying and the “two-dimensional” characters, and isn’t it just a cut-rate Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and worst of all, What Does It All Mean, Anyway? Well, we won’t spoil it for them–other than to say that sometimes God is in the details, and a play is in the dialogue. We guess reality TV has whetted their appetite for more naturalistic, realistic language. But look at it this way: A Delicate Balance didn’t win the Pulitzer for the acting company, the stage set, or even the director—though these are all up to snuff in this fine production of an American classic. (By the way, Albee’s in town next month, November 19-20, as part of the Pen Pals lecture series.)
Jungle, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., (612) 822-7063, www.jungletheater.com -
Arcadia
Every fall for the last three, we Tom Stoppard fans have been blessed. Following up on the wonderful productions of The Invention of Love by the Guthrie in 2001 and Hapgood last year by the Jungle, Theatre in the Round will present us Arcadia this month. Arcadia deals with the typical Stoppard theme of taking a thorny intellectual problem, in this case chaos theory, and using it as a metaphor for a discussion of love, landscape architecture, and the inability to know the past or predict the future. Don’t be intimidated—no math beyond a vague recollection of algebra is required. And while you’re contemplating the unknowable, don’t forget to laugh, because Stoppard is also the wittiest playwright since Wilde.
Theatre in the Round, 245 Cedar Ave., (612) 333-3010, www.theatreintheround.org -
Savories European Bistro
Formerly an upscale pop-in-and-order-crepes-at-the-counter-type eatery, Savories shook things up last spring and transformed into a classy yet cozy dining nook with a distinct European flair. And then there’s the food. It starts with the fresh-baked bread, then eases into a heaping antipasto plate, slides full-force into an applewood-smoked bacon and smoked Brie salad, and then falls decadently into the moistest, most mouthwatering slice of fresh-strawberry-infused chocolate cake ever created. Stop by on a Tuesday, when Savories offers a three-course dinner for a mere $18. Menus change every four to five weeks.
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Not so Fast, Waltz!
There are just so many ways to dislike Waltz’s essay. Start with the facile, faux Hunter S. Thompson prose style; the lack of insights (spoken word has been around for, oh, ten years or so. Thanks for noticing, William!); the defense of Billy Collins (in the sixties the popular poet was Rod McKuen. Anyone happy about that?); or the commercial plugs for his buddy Gabriel Gudding (go talk to your own buttocks, fellas). What’s most appalling to me is that like most “cultural commentators” discussing poetry, Waltz assumes it’s an academic game. The writers I’ve come into contact with in the nearly thirty years I’ve been writing write poetry for love, not grades. And among those people, poetry has never been in danger of dying as an art.
R.T. Castleberry
Houston, TXOddly, a large number of letter writers who disliked Waltz’s essay accused him of shilling for “his buddy” Gabriel Gudding. The two are not aquainted socially or professionally, just one poet admiring another—a shocking enough state of affairs, we guess.—Editors
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Fire in the Hole
Thank you for doing what the rest of the press and media had been afraid to do for the last year. Up until now, no newspaper or radio program has addressed the real issues, and Chief Forte was well aware that if he did not comment on policy/politics, the local papers would not take him to task. It had been intimated that unless he would give the press his side of the story, they would not address the issues. Your article [“Is 911 a Joke?,” August] was on the money. I have attended meetings in the past, and, as you pointed out, Chief Forte “controls” the numbers quite well and masterfully dazzles the crowds. When questioned by someone who understands or has researched the facts, he has responded by attacking the individual’s motives (in the case of a firefighter at a community meeting) or telling the group that the facts were incorrect (as he did to me even though I had documented proof from the National Organization of Fire Chiefs). I encourage readers to look up an article entitled “Death by Staffing” on www.firehouse.com. It details the risks to citizens and firefighters when staffing falls too low. It also documents the liability to a city budget when deaths are caused by reduced staffing. The City Council should have read this article since it was forwarded to them prior to the budget-cutting vote. Knowing that there is danger and not acting diligently could cost the taxpayers millions more than we have saved by axing the firefighters.
Bob Nielsen
Minneapolis -
Blame the Republicans, Part I
The article about the Minneapolis Fire Department was very good. I think it missed one key point, though. The cuts to basic services in our cities are a direct result of actions taken by our state legislature and governor. The Republican mindset is very hostile to the core cities, and they have reneged on the Local Government Aid formula put in place to return revenue to the economic engines that produce much of our wealth yet also have great needs. Now we city dwellers can deal with the consequences.
Jeff Farnam
Minneapolis