Author: rakemag

Again, it’s a big weekend for theater: For one, Gatz is running… It’s a production I had promised myself I’d see, way back when the Walker was first announcing its performing arts season. This was to be an exercise in self-betterment, or so I thought. But now that the show’s here, however, I can’t quite bring myself to sit through it. The adult ADD persists, despite my best efforts to medicate…

Another biggie: Jeune Lune just re-opened its take on Moliere’s The Miser, which is a terrific show. (I saw it last year.) I’m not sure if it’s been written here before, but yours truly once spent about three years of her life working for l’homme at Jeune Lune. And during that time, of course, my all-time favorite theater house devolved, on the personal spectrum of adoration, from rockstar to slave driver–as any employer would, really. But there’s no need to sully my praise with personal baggage. Jeune Lune is still among my favorites. And it’s definitely the best place to take an out-of-town guest–especially if he’s a foreigner you want to convince of your city’s cosmopolitan virtues. In fact, in some instances, Jeune Lune can make you and your city look downright exotic. For example, I was able to impress a certain Hungarian last year when I suggested we meet up to see Jeune Lune’s production of Amerika. And I almost had ‘im after that night. He sprang to his feet for the standing ovation. (And these aren’t obligatory and readily handed out according to the Hungarian standard, you know…) I even introduced him to the director after the show. But then, as it turned out, something terrible occurred, and this, it seems, left an indelible mark on the hot Hungarian’s memory of our date. He offered to walk me to my car after the show, but I couldn’t quite remember where I’d parked. I could sense the disappointment as we circled through the blocks going up and down First Street. Thanks anyway, Jeune Lune.

Addendum (added at about noon): I should also note that the Dell’Arte Company, a physical theater school and performance troupe out of Cali (and thus, loosely related to Jeune Lune), are in town this weekend to perform with Danish theater company, Jomfru Ane Teatret, in their production of The Liar: The Peer Gynt Project. It all goes down at the Ritz.

Hmmm, it’s definitely a movie sort of day…. For one, the Walker Art Center will preview its season of films this evening. And then there are myriad opportunities to catch arty short’uns–at the Bedlam Theatre’s Wings on a Shelf Film Festival, for example, (which begins and ends today) and at the Soap Factory’s You Were Never Here Film Series (showing through Sunday, October 8). There’s also the Viva Pedro film series, honoring filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, playing at the Lagoon…

And if you’re in need of an Almodovar primer, might I recommend Peter Schilling’s Man from La Mancha, which appeared in our September issue. You know, LAST month… The new issue, the October one, should find its way online later today.

There’s not much in terms of exceptional after-school activities today; unless you count the special screening of Meet Me In St. Louis, with a very special guest, the former child star of that film, Ms. Margaret O’Brien (i.e., Tootie). It all happens at the Heights Theatre tonight.

What strikes me, however, is that a lot of fashion events are coming down the pike: Glamorama, Collage, even a Rake Appeal event starring the trendmaster, Ms. Robyn Waters. Thinking about it all yesterday, I started choreographing my own little imaginary fashion show. Funny thing is that I don’t seem so concerned with what it would look like as I am with what it would sound like: everything from “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” by The Kinks, to “I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today,” from Avenue Q. How’m on doing on cheese factor?

The reason for my current music obsession should become apparent tomorrow when the online version of our October issue goes live. It’s all about music, see.

The seed of what follows was planted yesterday, when I blogged, in passing, about the band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Pretty cool name for a band, huh? And there’s more where that came from in today’s concert listings: Mel Gibson and the Pants. The latter of these plays the Nomad this eve. But what I’m more interested in, at this moment, is plumbing the depths of my (our?) fascination with band names that reference famous peeps? Reiner Maria is a favorite example, of course, if only because the band refers back to a poet I obsessed over in my younger years. And I bet more than one of us is thinking of the Dead Kennedys. Then there’s this other thing: On the way into work yesterday my mind wandered, for whatever reason, to an old bluesy local band called Wallace Hartley (named after the dude who rocked the Titanic). A stranger example: my buddy Matt Foust (better known as one-quarter of the Love-Cars) was once in a Beloit College band called Willis Smoked a Guy–an obvious reference to Diff’rent Strokes star-gone-wrong Todd Bridges. What to make of this? In cases such as Reiner Maria, the band name means reverence. In others–Mel Gibson and the Pants–it’s something of a gag. But, can an unknown band ride the wave of someone else’s name recognition? And what of the bands who took their names from famous somebodies who later faded from the consciousness or went out of fashion? Smart or dumb move? Hmmmmm.

I don’t know… what’s going on today? It’s raining. Dave Barry‘s in town. Corey Flintoff, too. At the Nomad: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin–which is a great band name! Anyone read that profile of former president Clinton in last week’s New Yorker? Turns out, Clinton loves Yeltsin, too. In any case, I heard ’em on The Current for the first time yesterday, and that was aw’right.

What I’d do this weekend if I wasn’t going to the North Shore (I go begrudgingly… its hard to pull me away from the city I love in the thick of fall arts season): Kid Dakota at the Turf, Lit 6 at the Ritz, Osmo at Harreit.

Oh, and I’m ‘sposed to say there’s going to be a giant fish fry and half-way to St. Patrick’s day party at Keegan’s this weekend. Supposedly, on Saturday, they’re going to fry the world’s biggest piece of cod or something.

And if there must be a daytrip, a group of potters and ceramicists will be hawking their wares just outside of Hudson, Wisconsin this weekend. I actually went to the Rustic Road Pottery Sale a few years back, and had a fun time watching them all fire their pots with shredded newspaper and garbage cans. I still have nightmares about the red-hot pot in its kiln–which I spotted just outside the ole’ farmstead’s garage. Several children got awfully close. Yikes! (Note: Click on that link and you’ll find the info in the left margin.)

Also: If you’re looking for a theater production to go see; I recommend Foxfire, which I saw at Theatre In The Round last Sunday. After seeing several disappointing productions on the previous three evenings, this show came as a welcome, relaxing surprise.

The Soap Factory’s 99 sale/fundraiser is tonight…. The basic rundown is this: The gallery’s putting up a bunch of 5 x 7 (as in, inches… INCHES!) original works–some by famous artists, some by regular enough folks (with cool jobs). But you’ll never know unless you buy something.

We’re putting the finishing touches on the October issue today and tomorrow, and so I won’t be able to sneak over to Peazey Plaza for the Minnesota Orchestra’s free, lunchtime concert. (But I’ll likely catch the replay this Sunday at Lake Harriet.) Nor will I make it to Lee’s tonight to see The Derailers. (Ah, the memory of youth, with the sound of dad’s radio wafting out from the garage…) Can’t get to the Built To Spill concert either. Right now this desk is the Center of my Universe.

How is it that you firsted respond to Herman Hesse’s book, Siddhartha? For me, I was in about my sophomore or junior year of college when I read the thing, and I found it absolutely riveting. And so I took my color-coded highlighters to it as a Pentecostal would her bible. In particular, I remember underlining some passage in the beginning about Siddhartha’s as of yet meandering and unsuccessful quest for enlightenment. I very much identified with this.

Looking back upon it now, this was probably the perfect time for me to read that book. I’d taken the requisite eastern religious studies courses, that’s for sure. And my mind was still open to the possibility of mysticism… But reading Siddhartha today would be akin to something my sister did a while back: Having not read Catcher In The Rye when she was fourteen (like the rest of us did), she became interested in it after reading a magazine article about how all those serial killer-types are inspired by it. And then she saw The Silence of the Lambs. She read the book in her late twenties… Hello?

In any case, I’m glad as all get out that the Lit 6 Project will be having some fun with Siddhartha tonight, and probably at the book’s expense, as part of The Rake’s very cool Raking Through Books party!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention today’s five-year anniversary of the September 11 catastrophe. There are, of course, all kinds of memorial concerts going on this evening–at Landmark Center and at the Harriet Bandshell, to name just a couple. But Emigrant Theater is commemorating the event in an interesting way; they’re doing a series of play readings, by local writers, that are inspired by the events of that day. The lineup includes Alan Berks’s Blue Skies Forever and Matt Di Cintio’s Lady Liberty Gets Put Back Together. Cost is just ten bucks, with proceeds benefiting the Minnesota Fire Service Foundation. Showtime: 7:30 p.m., Mixed Blood.