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What do you get when you put two eight-hundred-pound gorillas—er, Minnesota literary lions—in the same room? Hey, we’re just joshing! Truth is, Robert Bly and Garrison Keillor were entirely at ease with each other when Bly appeared onstage, along with his buddy Donald Hall, at one of Keillor’s “Literary Friendships” events last year. Which, come … Read more

Italian food had already gone from molto chic (oooh, pesto!) to ultrapedestrian shtick (humph, another Olive Garden) before carbohydrates, and thus pasta, went out of fashion. What has diners coming back to this cuisine, locally at least, is a mini-renaissance of neighborhood restaurants that focus more on Italian flavors than on heaping mounds of pasta. … Read more

Lager-battered onion rings, homemade ginger ale, and Frogger on a flat-screen TV. Is there really any other way to spend your lunch hour? The Chatterbox’s new outpost in Highland Park, a onetime Perkins, has been refashioned as a hipster den full of vintage couches and paint-by-number artworks—though it seems slightly more polished than the original … Read more

With its proximity to Macalester College, this new Mediterranean grill seems poised to fulfill student cravings for falafel, gyros, and kebabs. Shish’s hummus ranks as some of the best in the city, and for under seven dollars, you can get this lemony spread with a generous portion of gyros—a nice deal for wallet-watchers. The Shish … Read more

Virtually unknown here, Morrisseau is revered in his native Canada. The influential Woodland style of painting he developed stemmed from an isolated childhood in northern Ontario, where he was inspired by petroglyphs and drawings on birchbark scrolls, but also cautioned by his elders against indulging his own visions. He eventually gave in to his artistic … Read more

Norsten is one of those Minneapolis painters whose many, quiet years spent with his nose to the grindstone are paying off with higher-profile recognition of late: a slot in the Whitney Biennial earlier this year and a new affiliation with a New York gallery. Some (okay, it’s those dealers in New York) associate Norsten and … Read more

Is there a seasonal approach to art, as there is to eating? If summer puts one in the mood for sprightly, challenging, out-there work from contemporary kids, does that make fall and winter best for cozying up to rich, impressive oils from long-dead Europeans? If so, then this traveling show hits our town at the … Read more

Put those thoughts about “wearable art ”—the tie-dyed caftans and bat-winged tunics made from elaborately loomed, jewel-colored fabrics—right out of your head. With artists like Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Yinka Shonibare, and The Art Guys, this exhibit is more like a bizarre, intellectualized version of Project Runway. Spanning five decades, its thirty-nine garments and other … Read more

After a fascinating show contrasting “official” and “dissident” works of art made in the former USSR, the Museum of Russian Art gets back to its strength: Russian realism that celebrates industry, agriculture, and the people of the motherland. What’s on view here shows a diversity of scenes and styles that many will find surprising. In … Read more

More and more, it’s looking like film buffs have to gaze across both oceans for their B-movie fix. A product of France and Georgia (not the Peach State, mind you), 13 (Tzameti) has already been gathering raves for its steely intensity and bold filmmaking. Gela Babluani’s film is the story of Sebastien, a down-on-his luck … Read more