Author: rakemag

Boy, I really blew it yesterday. So preoccupied I was with the Walker’s presentation with Must Don’t Whip ‘Um that I forgot to mention another great entertainment option: The Rake’s free screening of the supposed Movie of the Millennium, Children of Men. Sorry about that, folks.

Not wanting to miss anything for the weekend, and assuming that tickets to Must Don’t Whip ‘Um are long gone, I offer this comprehensive list of goings on for the weekend: Sin Cities 7, a series of readings tonight and tomorrow night at Bryant Lake Bowl, featuring one of my favorite performers, Amy Salloway, as well as The Rake’s own Colleen Kruse; tonight at the Triple Rock, there’s a concert featuring Kid Dakota, Duplomacy, and Ice Palace. And that’s about it, as far as I can see. It is the first week of January after all, when bar owners get pummeled by that annual dip in sales. So rest up and prepare yourself for next week.

Anyone who’s anyone will be at the Walker tonight. But there’s also an impressive array of concerts to consider: Chris Koza’s at the Entry; the Twin Cities Hot Club is at the Artists’ Quarter; the DeWayn Brothers Bastard Bluegrass Band is at Lee’s.

Today you should channel your energy into purchasing tickets for the first of the Walker’s 2007 series of Out There performances, which starts tomorrow. Cynthia Hopkins’s Must Don’t Whip ‘Um is sure to be the bestseller–what with its combination of alt music and alt theater. See what I already wrote about the show in our So Little Time section. Or head to the Gloria Deluxe website–this being Hopkins’s band–to download free mp3’s.

And this other thing: This being January, and the gym being crowded with New Year’s Resolution types and all, I thought it might be a good time to ask the question I’ve long meant to pose: What are the best running songs? And I’m not talking Chariots of Fire here… I want to download some hard-driving but hip, indie running tunes. I’ve tried a couple of those runners’ podcasts, but I’m too much of a snob to enjoy such a thing. So far, the best song in my mix is Benny Goodman’s Sing, Sing, Sing, which is excellent as far as beats per minute goes. I put in a couple Har Mar Superstar tracks, courtesy of Mr. Taylor Carik. Toss in some Gossip, some Jacques Dutronc, and you’ve got the not-quite-complete soundtrack to my 2007 Boston qualifier. Suggestions, please?

If it weren’t for the hangover, or something, I’ve been nursing for the past 36 hours, I’d consider going to the Magic Exists show, which is a reprisal of Derek Hughes’s one-man Fringe Festival magic show, only this time it’s tossed in with performances by Mary Mack, Michael Morris, and Jayhawks bassist Marc Perlman. Also, the last time Hughes played this gig, in August 2005, he was at the Women’s Center Theater; but this time he’s at the 400 Bar.

New Year’s Eve sucks! If only because a) you cannot safely drive anywhere that night because there are so many drunks on the road and b) after one measly cocktail, you cannot safely drive anywhere that night because there are so many cops on the road. But it’s our lofty expectations that really spoil the night. So far in our scavenging for the perfect New Year’s plans, the boyfriend and I haven’t found anything that fits our fancies. Of course, pegging the right plans is impossible when you’ve got both a snob and a booze-hounding, but babelicious, Average Joe to please. We had been considering the party some of my friends are going to, which is in a gallery above Lurcat. But the Evite provided a link to Flickr.com, which had photos from last year’s happening. All the men were dancing with their shirts off; the women were not. Boyfriend winced and suggested we go to the beer bash in his high school buddy’s New Brighton garage. Nope!

Here are some other options:

If you want to be in the company of naughty people
New Year’s Eve In Heaven. This event is brought to you by Vox Medusa, the very folks who sponsored that famous Nudes party at Jeune Lune a few years back. Through personal connections (I worked at Jeune Lune at the time), I was able to lineup a gig bartending at their party. It all started out just fine–nude performance art and aerialists performing with their shirts off. But, from my perspective, things quickly went south, with every farm-fed blonde having striped off her shirt by 11 p.m. My personal favorite was the gorgeous 18-year-old dancer who, I presume, was performing somewhere about the building that night. He repeatedly made trips to the bar to purchase Red Bull. On his last visit, while waving his left hand in the air, revealing the big, red I’m-not-allowed-to-drink X marked there, and looking directly at me, he asked when the barstaff would be undressing.

Swanky people
Que Fiesta! A Five Star New Year’s Eve Party. This is The Rake’s very own throwback event, with dancing to the Volare Loung Orchestra, martinis, champagne, poker, and more. You’re supposed to go all-out; get dressed up.

Standing-in-place-nodding-their-heads-to-the-beat people
Mark Mallman is playing the Varsity, and his guests are Vicious Vicious and Solid Gold.

Single people
Can you tell I’m getting tired of this? From what I understand, my friend Bridgette has met a single man or two at the annual International Market Square party. To sweeten the pot, The New Congress, which is one of The Rake’s favorite bands, is playing the party this year. I must admit however, that things haven’t worked out between Bridgette and these men. The guy she’s currently dating was met at the gym, which brings us, full circle, to our prospects for January 1. Happy New Year!

Tonight, the Bell Museum’s Science on Screen series features State of Weightlessness, a 1994 documentary that pairs archival footage of early Soviet space travel with the reflections of various cosmonauts on being in Space. Our friend Colin Covert likes it very much.

From the moment I met him, which was a couple years ago now, I knew there was something familiar about my Rakish coworker Brad Zellar. He looked an awful lot like the musician Martin Zellar, the guy my high school friends used to follow around to beer bashes and the Taste of Minnesota concerts. It occurred to me sometime later: these two talented fellows even share a last name. Hmpf. In any case, Martin Zellar is gigging in beautiful Excelsior, Minnesota this evening. This strikes me as another of those mirthful most-wonderful-time-of-the-year entertainment offerings, although, as far as I know, the show’s not expressly holiday-themed.

A moment of silence in honor of the Godfather of Soul … … … By chance, I was listening to this fine James Brown-inspired band at about the moment lightning struck.

Also, go see Dream Girls. I got very excited about it after reading David Denby’s hyperbolic review in the Dec. 25/Jan. 1 issue of the New Yorker–“The sigh you will hear across the country in the next few weeks is the sound of a gratified audience: a great movie musical has been made at last.” Now, I wouldn’t pile on the praise quite that generously, if only because the cinematography during Effie’s showpiece, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” was shameful. I found that the music, however, was perfect holiday fare.