Author: rakemag

One of my favorite scenic runs is along the stone arch bridge/west bank/mill ruins corridor–mostly because I so love seeing the Mill City Museum from this vantage. Same goes for the new Guthrie. But it’s truer of Mill City, or at least it has been for the past several years. The building is especially beautiful!

Today there are two opportunities to give mad love to Mill City–other than running. First, the, ahem, Hopefuls are throwing a concert in the ruins courtyard… again. (Nevermind my cynicism. These concerts have been quite lovely.) Two, for the more wonky types, Thomas Meyer, the architectural mastermind of MS&R, the firm responsible for the Mill City Museum development, will be in-conversation with another architecture Tom–Thomas Fischer, dean of U of M college of architecture, at the Walker Art Center.

I’ve reserved a special place in my heart for the St. Paul-based Zeitgeist new music ensemble, probably because cultivating new classical and chamber music seems like such a long row to hoe. Have I mentioned how I hate the term ‘classical music,’ by the way? Probably. The folks at Zeitgeist prefer “new music” or alternately, “the music of our time” (get the name Zeitgeist). But popular music listeners hear new music all the time, of course. It’s just not as often that we hear it performed by a woodwind, piano, and two-percussionist quartet.

I was quite pleased last summer, when I first learned that Walker Art Center would be co-presenting a new Zeitgeist-mastered piece. Happy to see our hometown players reprezent on the largely international Walker stage. Trend Alert: This is going to be another one of those “evening-length, multimedia” pieces that the Zeitgeist troupe is so fond of, with something for the eyes, something for the ears. Full sensory immersion. Nothing gets bored–except, perhaps, for the sniffer. (And I’ll decline to note which theaterhouses smell…. But you know who you are!)

Whatever the intentions of Zeitgeist, the evening-length, multimedia pieces I’ve seen have been nothing short of fabulous. Mary Ellen Child’s Dream House and Zeitgeist’s own Shape Shifting come to mind. This newest one, Pine Eyes, is based on Pinocchio, and it features music composed by Martin Bresnick and video by Puppetsweat. Zeitgeist, of course, plays the tunes. There’s a behind-the-scenes look called “The Making of Pine Eyes” that’s happening tonight at the Zeitgeist home studio in lowertown, Studio Z. Northwestern Building – 275 E. 4th Street, St. Paul; five bucks; 651-755-1600.

Pine Eyes then plays June 3.

Maybe it’s because I spent the better part of my holiday weekend cooking on the Namekagen River–where I slept under the stars but also encountered various flotillas of holidaying drunks who hollered “Whooooo!,” seemingly out of nowhere. (At the sight of me?) Well, whatever this feeling is, what’s clear to me is that I don’t feel entirely ready to reenter the civilized world. Not just yet anyhow.

Here’s something that teeters on the edge: Altered Aesthetics is hosting a bike-themed art show. On the AA homepage, there’s a beautiful image of what I think is the Midtown Greenway at dawn, taken just after the Dean Parkway exit but well before coming upon Lake Calhoun. Now, I’m not necessarily venturing a claim against cycling here. I’m an enthusiastic one m’self. All I’m saying is that there’s something about riding down that trail in the morning, and then turning north onto Cedar, that, however fleetingly, delivers me out of this city. In any case, the AA show features one hundred bike-themed works by forty-some artists. They should do the same thing for canoes sometime.

The weekend planner: Not so easy this weekend, since I’m subjecting myself to an under-planned canoeing excursion, as not even half-baked by the rather impulsive boyfriend.

But if I were to be sticking around town this weekend, here’s what I’d probably be up to:

The Fusion Fashion Event, featuring work by many-a local clothing designers at the Varsity Theater.
And speaking of local designers, The Design Collective is having a big Memorial Day Weekend Sale.

HowWasTheShow.com‘s fourth anniversary show featuring Alva Star, The Alarmists, White Light Riot, and our dear friend, the ever-optimistic, photo-snapping David DeYoung–or, as the man himself likes to say, the “best-paid man in local music journalism,” since he makes his living doing something else.

Flaming Film Festival–especially all that B-Boy shit, yo.
Speaking of which, there’s also the Homocore Minneapolis Show, on Sunday, featuring an evening of “Homo-hop.” Ha! Actually, I’m expected to have had my fill of river water by this late date in the weekend, and so I might actually catch this one.

No matter what you think about all these new designer buildings in town, you can’t help but give props to the frontrunner, Walker Art Center, for programming some pretty neat stuff since re-opening with their expansion. I’m not sure what to make of tonight’s prom-themed fashion show, curated by local hat designer/Target employee Anna Lee. For grownups: there’s also the behind-the-scenes look at Matthew Barney in a documentary by Alison Chernick called Matthew Barney: No Restraint–screening tonight as part of Free First Thursdays. Check Peter Schilling’s take.

Worth noting: The very excellent prefab housing exhibition closes Sunday. Last weekend’s New York Times Magazine shed some light on one of the houses featured in the exhibit though, the owners of “Turbulence House” being not entirely pleased with their architect’s results. The magazine also featured a piece on Herzog & de Meuron (the guys who designed the Walker expansion), chronicling the plight of designing and building their bird’s nest/national stadium for Beijing.

So the American Composers Forum has this little record label called Innova. Last I checked the label was putting out some great new jazz and gospel records, as well as the requisite “contemporary classical” discs. The few Innova-issued recordings in my collection include The Beat Circus, which is basically a collection of zany circus music–a great party-starter; The Star Chamber, intense industrial jazz–something I’d describe to my friends as “just kinda all right”; and then there’s my favorite find of the past two years, The Clouds, a record that oughtta get “discovered,” if you know what I’m saying. The Clouds’ composer is Stuart Hyatt, a guy whose work I previously knew nothing of. He was once likened to Guided By Voices vocalist-guistarist-songwriter Robert Pollard by an ACF employee wanting to entice me, and I thought to myself even then: That’s props. (I see now that this Pollard comparison lingers on the Innova website, even though the employee-in-question is long gone.) In any case, Hyatt directed a choir of young-n-old from Sumner County, Alabama for this Clouds project. I’d characterize the results as “avant-gospel” or perhaps “ambiguous gospel,” since the message from God isn’t crystal clear. But whatever it is, it’s the most listenable, likeable, and hopeful collection of music I’ve stumbled across in a long while. It’s the sort of music that endures.

The original point here is that Innova and the American Composers Forum are worth checking out. Secret of the Day is that ACF is hosting a concert at the Southern Theater tonight. If you can’t make it, Sound Check, ACF’s new, regular concert series, will reappear in a few weeks.

Augusten Burroughs. University of Minnesota Bookstore. Tonight, 7 p.m. That’s all I’ve got! Sorry. I had a long, exhausting, but ultimately great weekend that involved much shopping at Art-A-Whirl, whereat I bought a yellow necklace of Japanese beads and a low-pitched, laminate beam coffee table. I’m pleased with both purchases, but especially the latter. This table resolves the conundrum that I and many of other Minneapolis-dwellers find ourselves in, having moved into woody, early twentieth century homes but wanting, wanting, WANTING modern, clean-lined furniture. Can you believe that this table goes well with my red shag rug and camelback sofa?

Finally! All those copies of Faust come out of storage. Rarely can it be said that the library is the coolest place to be, but today that’s especially the case… because the new Minneapolis Central Library is officially open for business. Thousands-upon-thousands of items are finally available for checkout. Halleluiah!

For more information on the bash, visit the library’s website.

The Rake will be there, of course, handing out copies of our “17 Voices” literary supplement, something to put together to honor this occasion.

Word to the wise: Do not drive there, my friend. Bring your library card, and the bus and/or light rail ride will be free.

Uff, I feel old. Art-A-Whirl is turning eleven this year. And I remember volunteering, way back when, for versions three and four. Margo Ashmore was in charge back in those days. My friend Sarah Whiting later took the reins. I get a little misty when I think back–back before AAW had rock concerts, and when the Xelias Aerial Arts shows were free.

But there’s still reason to get excited about Art-A-Whirl. Among those reasons: wandering through the giant (haunted?) Northrup King and California Buildings. I’m partial to NKB m’self. Mostly because of these folks: ceramicist Ernest Miller, who’s featured in our June issue (on stands Monday), is in room 375; on-and-off contributor/writer/drawer Adam Demers is in room 428; painter Karen Wilcox in room 429 (her work accompanies fiction in our June issue); and Studiopolis in room 423, where my friend/colleague Tim Gihring lives his double-life as a photographer. (That’s what they all get for befriending the nerdy girl on yearbook staff!)

Other cool stuff: The Demers-man and others will appear in the “Battle of the Brushes,” which features “celebrity” artists going head-to-head from two to four p.m. at Columbia Grounds. (Is Adam a celebrity?) Thirteenth Avenue is the usual place to be. Gallery 13 hosts its RiverStage folk and roots music festival Art-A-Whirl-style–in the parking lot! Watch the manicurites try shoving into The Modern and Peacock Lounge. And of course, all the usual hipsters and 80s scenesters will be shuffling in and out of 331. Happy Art-A-Whirl!