Author: rakemag

What’s really goin’ on this weekend in all this hot hot heat:

Well, for one, the Momentum Dance Series, as sponsored by the Southern Theater and Walker Art Center, will pick up much speed tonight when a troupe of dancers, performers, and clowns (but not in the Mooseburger sense) known as the Live Action Set (they’re famous for their show Please Don’t Blow Up Mr. Boban, which was a Fringe Festival hit a few years back) marries their work to the pretty music of Spaghetti Western String Co. Also showing with Momentum this weekend/tonight is a video/movement hybrid called Holiday House. (But I don’t know as much about the performance troupe in this case–The BodyCartography Project.)

Then on Saturday, the Lit 6 Project is performing another radio show at the Bryant Lake Bowl–but not until the late hour of 10 p.m. Woe is me, how ever will I make it awake that long?!?! But it should be worth it since they’re not doing another show till September!!

NOTE: There will be no Secret on Monday, as I’ll be locked in a wireless-free zone from 6 a.m. on. (Fashion shoot, not prison!)

So, there’s going to be this big, Cirque du Soleil-style spectacle of a show put on by all the aerialists-in-training at Circus Juventas, the St. Paul-based circus school for youth. Pazzanni, as the show’s called (sounds mysterious, no?), opens this afternoon… But d’Oh! Word is this first show is sold out! And at just fifteen bucks a pop, you can be sure that trend to continue, despite the fact that these be kiddy aerialists. (But they are the best ones Circus Juventas has to offer, at that! Plus, the company has invited real-life master Venetian mask makers to help pull off a certain Venetian carnivale effect.) I mention this today just in case the thing goes gangbusters and the run sells out completely.

Lookit: Barnes and Noble Galleria is hosting a reading by Robert Sullivan, author of the aptly-named CROSS COUNTRY: Fifteen Years and Ninety Thousand Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a Lot of Bad Motels, a Moving Van, Emily Post, Jack Kerouac, My Wife, My Mother-in-Law, Two Kids, and Enough Coffee to Kill an Elephant. (Check the NYTimes review.) It’s worth noting that Sullivan is a contributing editor at Vogue… a magazine I can better tolerate now that I’ve read the “Age Issue.” (You, too, can be “Vogue at any age,” but first check the depressing essay about being sixty in the back of the book.)

In any case, the real reason I’m interested in Sullivan’s travels is that, Man, have I got a hankering to go on a road trip! I’m tired of sitting in my office–which, yes, is actually just a cubicle and, despite how many cheery photos I tack up, it persists to be as gray as the skies were this past Monday night. I want away from my computer. I want to sweat it out in the car for so long. And I’d very much like to have along my high school friend Mary. After all these years, she and I still share a taste in music and we’ve even memorized many of the same lyrics. This is what makes an ideal road trip companion–someone to groove with! We’d probably pass the time belting out Joni Mitchell songs, trying like hell to hit those high notes. Coincidentally, this is the same friend who passed me a copy of On The Road in and about eleventh grade.

Sullivan’s book contends that these road trips are something we Americans have in common with one another. Meet me there if you care later for a long, lingering drive up I-35 and then into Wisconsin on 70. We’ll hit every bar stop along the way.

Tuesday isn’t normally thought to be a good night for catching live theater, but if it’s The Gatsby you’re wanting, then it’s the Gatsby you’re getting (and besides, there’s really not much else going on tonight, so you might as well give yourselves the excuse to enjoy the new building you helped pay for). And I’d venture to guess that this night of the week offers your best chance to score the cheap rush tickets. Also, the acclaimed I Am My Own Wife show, at the Jungle, has just extended its Tuesday-through-Sunday evening run through August 6–which means it’ll intersect with the Fringe, soon to open on August 3. I thought that was a no-no for the small- to mid-sized theater types, but maybe not if you’ve got a hit on your hands.

Uff. Going out on school nights… Last night’s Golden Smog show made it especially difficult to get out of bed this morning. Was anyone else there? Want to send in your impromptu reviews? Am I the only one who thinks it wasn’t worth packing in with all those other sweaty, stinky bodies, with the occasional asshole hollering “Where’s Jeff?” I won’t even get into the fact that the guys quite obviously hadn’t rehearsed. By the time I got home, well past midnight, my mid thigh-length cotton dress was drenched and hanging down past my knees. And to make matters worse, I had been stupid enough to wear steel-toed cowboy boots (a decision based upon the experiences of all those peeps stepping on my toes at various other crammed concerts).

Whether or not you were at last night’s show, there’s another opportunity to live out what’s left of your rock-n-roll lifestyles tonight, when Beth Orton plays the same First Avenue main room. Now, I’ve seen her play live twice before. Both shows appeared/sounded boppy and, at the very least, rehearsed. This show’s gonna be hot!

Musicapolis is the weekend’s coolest happening–this being Minnesota Center for Photography‘s addendum to last year’s Musicapolis exhibition, which somehow left out the work of iconic Minneapolis rock-n-roll photographer Dan Corrigan. (I heard it was some sort of scheduling glitch.) The big party, taking place at MCP tomorrow, includes performances by Spaghetti Western String Company (they’re also playing a late night concert at Orchestra Hall tonight), Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls, The Brass Kings, and more.

There’s also the ArtCar Parade on Saturday.

Last but certainly not least, Golden Smog is playing First Ave this Sunday evening–to which I’ve secured a few tickets (for nostalgia’s sake). I wonder if Jeff Tweedy is in on this one? Anybody happen to know?

Normally, I would eschew the touting of political events and fundraisers here on Horticulture/Secret of the Day. But considering this further, I figured Why not make an exception for a particularly cool-sounding political fundraiser? I mean, I hate to be the spoiler here for any uninitiated, but my political leanings are rather obvious to start, dontcha think? My guiding principle being: you can lead a horticulture but you cannot, simultaneously, turn her into a Republican.

And if you’ve bothered to peruse the other blogs here on the site, you’ll know that I am not alone in this. There’s good company in my workplace.

So here goes: Al Franken, Sheila Heti, Stephen Burt, Thisbe Nissen, and Ed Bok Lee (this last on is purportedly making all the women who work in the office at The Loft swoon) are teaming up to do a Coleen Rowley fundraiser. Yes, she’s that former FBI agent who came clean about what the agency did and didn’t know prior to 9-11, and what they did and didn’t do for that matter. A few years back, she made People Magazine’s Man of the Year, or something like that–she was on the cover anyway. And she’s also a runner, so she’s immediately got cred with me. I’ve even spotted her out running on occasion. And even though she’s at least fifteen years my senior, she’s kicking my ass every time.

For those of different political leanings, I am not sure how to help you. Perhaps try the Walker Art Center, where there’s a gallery talk about magazine photography–this, in conjunction with the very excellent Diane Arbus exhibition–starring Elizabeth Culbert, associate photo editor at The New Yorker. (cue evil laugh.) Hahahaha…

It’s been a skimpy week in terms of blogging, what with our production cycle being at its very peek during this–oh-the-terror–“production week.” For that I apologize. I’ve been busy hunting for phantom commas, along with all the other unglamorous schtuff that’s necessary when putting together a magazine. But I have vowed to pull myself away so that a fit of rollicking summer fun can be enjoyed tonight.

Lookit! A Bluegrass BBQ–with copious amounts of wine courtesy of TC Uncorked–is happening over in Golden Valley tonight. But alas, I can’t go. I’ve already committed myself (i.e., laid down the steep registration fee) to hobbling down Hennepin Avenue during the Torchlight 5K. I’m not sure why runners waste so much dough on entry fees. So that they can accumulate enough T-shirts to get them on of those tacky runner’s quilts made? Hardly. (Hint: there’s a beer party at the Dome, immediately following tonight’s race.) In any case, it’s worth noting that the race opens the traditional Aquatennial Torchlight Parade.

Note that ye former Minnesota Monthly food writer, Ann Bauer, is giving a reading of her book, A Wild Ride up the Cupboards, at The Bookcase of Wayzata tonight.

The very popular and consequently very fun Summer Music & Movies in the park event kicks-off tonight with a multi-multi rapper and a vintage flick about poverty. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds. Your truly will definitely be there.