This weekend, the thing I care mostly deeply about is the Macy’s Day of Music, which is really part of Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, in case you got fooled by the name. Check this cool lineup: The Melismatics play at 10 p.m., The New Standards at 11, Low (oh-my-god, oh-my-god) at midnight. The good thing about having injured my foot is that, normally, I would have to be waking up at some uncivilized hour tomorrow morning, so that I get in a long-ass, marathon training run before the mercury hits ninety. This would require being early-to-bed tonight, and I wouldn’t let myself indulge in a beer or two either. But now that I’m kicked up on the sofa and calling myself an invalid, there’s absolutely no reason to skip the Day of Music, one of my favorite events all year.
Author: rakemag
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Things to do, the bah-humbug edition
I am immune to all this heat that’s got everyone in a tizzy, so it’s not that that’s got me feeling so blue. Rather, I injured my foot on a routine five-mile run Tuesday night. At first I thought it was just a cramp. But when I tried to go for a run again last night, what became evident is that it’s something more serious. Last year I suffered a bone fracture in a right metatarsal, which kept me off my foot for six depressing, long weeks. And I’m afraid I’ve injured that exact same fragile, little bone again. Please understand how tragic this is for the hyperactive lady with a desk job. Grrrr.
And there’s something else to get pissed-off about: South Dakota and all its dude-politicians who want to take away a woman’s right to an abortion, even if she happens to be a victim of rape, incest, or physically debilitating disease. (And I’ll ask for your understanding yet again because, for a grown-up Catholic girl, this issue is not an easy one…) But a group of local writers, performers, and comics are doing something about it by staging a “Comedy for Choice” at the Woman’s Club Theater tonight. The lineup includes Kevin Kling, Amy Salloway. Visit Pro-choice Minnesota for details.
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His so-called life
Remember me?Note to every girl born between the years of 1971 and, say, 1978 who ever rushed home after band practice to watch My So-Called Life (this being the hit TV drama on which Claire Danes got her start, if you’ll recall): Jared Leto (a.k.a., Jordan Catalano!) is in Minneapolis tonight to play First Avenue with his band, 30 Seconds To Mars. The occasion should be of interest to each and every woman who blossomed, during the mid-90s, out of an artsy, emotionally tormented teen. You and me, we’ve spent the better part of our adult lives in unsuccessful relationships with the likes of Jordan Catalano, or else we’ve been vying for the attention for these characters–you know, the sort of guys who are hunky but not-so-smart, case in point: they are apathetic to our charms. I persist to be excited about this, even though some recent shots of Leto indicate that he is either deeply entrenched in playing a fatty or else–eek!–has let himself go. If my ten-year reunion was any indication, this is the poetic justice that dogs all high school hotties. wha-Ha!
And to the music-heads who might accuse me of being shallow here: a thirty-second visit to the 30 Seconds website indicates that this will be typical of the cerebral emo genre. Try-if-you-like Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley, I guess.
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The Divine Cocktail Show and Supper Club
I do not know much about The Divine Cocktail Lounge Show and Supper Club, but I do know that it’s emceed by an all-around great guy named Henry Allen, a writer/musician/performer who did duty with Theatre de la Jeune Lune back in the days when I worked there. In any case, tonight’s episode of this recurring lounge show promises to be a collection of performance, visual art, and indie pop. And besides, any show that’s embedded with the term “supper club” deserves our patronage, right? The shebang’s free, in any case. Check the MySpace page for details.
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Some sort of panorama
Short-n-sweet: the University of Minnesota has invited local puppet and object theater master Michael Sommers onboard its showboat to perform Old Four Eyes: A Mississippi Panorama, a new play by Kevin Kling. I highly recommend Sommers’ work for reasons that I can’t push through this morning’s fog of coffee- and sleep-deprivation. The first performance is today but the show goes on through August 23.
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Fry Day. Ouch.
The, uh, preferred weekend agenda:
Tomorrow night at the Turf Club, they’re offering a crash-course for geeks like me who’ve fallen out of touch with the local indie music scene. The band Diplomacy, whose music is described as rather peppy and yet restrained, will celebrate the release of another new CD. “Try If You Like” Low and Death Cab for Cutie, they say. My dear friends at 2024 Records have even provided this link, which gives a taste of the new disc’s sound: www.2024records.com/preview/
Two interesting theater happenings that came in after the July deadline: Torch Theater, the new-ish theater troupe belonging to local stage vet (and one helluva Blanche DuBois in a recent production of Streetcar), Stacia Rice, will open Cat on a Hot Tin Roof–and hopefully Rice will be continuing her streak with Tennessee Williams.
Another interesting theater happening (that I, admittedly, know very little about, other than the fact that I’m intrigued but won’t have time to actually go): Ode To Walt Whitman, something that’s been dubbed as “a puppetry performance that uncovers an unspoken dialogue between Whitman’s Leaves of Grass poems and Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem, Ode to Walt Whitman.” See what I mean?
I could go on and on. A Night of Short Films and Dadaist Vaudeville With Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls. A costume design retrospective, featuring the work of Theatre de la Jeune Lune resident designer Sonya Berlovitz. The Midwest Bookhunters Bookfair. The Minnesota Orchestra’s free outdoor concert on the waterfront of the quaint, rather summer-like town of Hudson, Wisconsin. Yes sir, I love the summertime. Too bad it’s about half over.
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I'd bend a rim for the Bicycle Film Festival
There’s no way the Bicycle Film Fest will get by unnoticed by the likes of me. In fact, I’m so excited that I’m even been contemplating, over my oatmeal this morning, whether I should ride to work–this being something I haven’t done as often as I’d like to this year. I’d like to honor the occasion.
OK, OK, I’ll admit that, in my case, the Saturday night screening of Peewee’s Big Adventure is probably the biggest draw. Hate to say it folks, but I can probably recite the entire movie by heart, having watched it over and over again, with my kid-brother, during our formative years back in Circle Pines. Second best BFF draw (once again, I’m showing my C.P. roots here): Joe Kid on a Stingray – The History of BMX. Growing up, there was an indoor BMX course right next door, in Lino Lakes. Kids in the C.P. loved this stuff. Too bad the BFF curators didn’t go the route of the 1986 BMX flick Rad, which yielded the hit-song Send Me An Angel and was probably the most inspiring bit of bike culture for me and my freestyling clan.
In any case, the BFF starts tonight and lasts through the all-day Bike Block Party on Saturday.
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Art cars hit the wall
Let’s start the short week on a light note, shall we? Those zany Art Car artists now have their own exhibition at Outsiders and Others Gallery–and they’re working in media other than automobiles, mind you. The official opening is this Saturday evening, but the show’s on view between noon and 5 p.m. today, tomorrow, and Friday as well. Quietly peruse about your merry ways…
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Bored in the U.S.A.?
Happy freakin’ Fourth. I always get so depressed after this holiday, knowing that summer’s about half eaten up. So, while I don’t exactly look forward to this occasion, I do tend to make the most of these final days of sunny summer moods. I will be enjoying a much-needed, four-day hiatus… If you need anything from me in the meantime, try the rooftop of my uptown area brownstone. I’ll be the pasty-white thing fanning myself, slathered in 55+, beckoning to my houseboy (uh, boyfriend) to fix me up some pina colada.
In any case, je vous presente the template social calendar for my fellow pessimists out there, anyone who’ll be weathering the dog days of winter dread come July 5:
On Saturday, check out Electropolis (with bonus, Alva Star!) at the Nomad. Apparently, there have been some booking problems with other Electropolis shows, and so this will be the last of their shoes in a while. Get your fix!
There’s also the ARTSOURCING opening night party at the Soap Factory.
Or, if you’re not that hip, try the Minnesota History Center, where there’s a Red Wing Pottery retrospective opening tomorrow.
On the big day itself, the most dignified thing to do is to check out the free Minnesota Orchestra concert in Excelsior, set on the banks of Lake Minnetonka. There’s also the very popular Ten Second Film Festival happening down at the Soap Factory, just after the grand finale of fireworks over downtown Minneapolis.
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Femmes at The Fred
You know you’re getting old when, if left in charge of suggesting happenings to the general populace, you end up plugging panel discussions two days straight. But there are many reasons why the WARM and the Feminist Art Movement talk–again, at the Weisman–is of interest to me. First, the old Women’s Art Registry Gallery in the Wyman Building is mentioned in one of this month’s feature stories (that collective being a precursor to WARM)–but the writer never goes on to say what exactly became of these artists. There’s also a concurrent exhibition running at the Weisman, WARM: 12 Artists of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota, which takes a look at feminist art from here and beyond. And finally, with the boom of starchitecture that’s been cropping up across town as of late, I figured why not take a step back to appreciate The Fred, which remains one of the most gorgeous structures in the city, far as I can tell.