While reflecting on one’s life, certain images and themes seem to dominate: God, Family, Love, etc. However, it’s occurred to me that I may have an unconscious fixation with Chihuahuas (for the record, I can barely spell “Chihuahua”). I’ve never eaten at a Taco Bell. Paris Hilton means very little to me. Yet Chihuahuas seem … Read more
It’s hardly surprising that many of the works in Walker Art Center’s newest show, Andy Warhol/ Supernova: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964, are the artist’s best-known. His repeating runs of Elvises, Lizzes, Marilyns, and Jackies, along with paintings of car crashes and electric chairs, show the extent to which a fascination with tragedy and death … Read more
Port of Duluth—Saturday, October 15, 2005 In the middle of the night, at the end of a long day in the middle of October, I found myself sitting in a recliner. I was in the lounge of the penthouse high above the long deck of the American Spirit, a thousand-foot bulk freighter. We were plunging … Read more
Although singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt is claimed by Texas, he spent two years in Minnesota at the Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, where he is remembered as the kid who dropped cherry bombs down the dormitory toilets. Elsewhere, he is noted as the dazzling guitar player who wrote the Willie Nelson hit “Pancho & Lefty,” … Read more
Is this another sign that we’re on the verge of a new Depression, or is it simply a really imaginative charity event? The Holiday Train is a string of thirteen cars outfitted with lights and decorations and a boxcar that converts to a stage. Willy Porter, Twin Citizen and Red House recording artist John Gorka, … Read more
Apparently, every Icelander who isn’t a musician is a filmmaker or actor, judging by this mini-festival of Icelandic films. Iceland’s filmmaking culture is still young (this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “spring of Icelandic filmmaking”), and its younger filmmakers are less interested in traditional storytelling, and more interested in work that reflects their … Read more
Here’s a marriage made in heaven: The very imaginative yet relentlessly unpretentious Frank Theatre company produces a new farce by Sam Shepard. Written on the eve of the 2004 election, the play has been described by Shepard as “a takeoff on Republican fascism.” This story interrupts the quiet lives of two Wisconsin dairy farmers, holdouts … Read more
It’s a happy coincidence that Theatre Unbound’s all-female version of The Tempest opens on the heels of the all-male “original practices” production of Measure for Measure by Shakespeare’s Globe Theater company, which is a guest of the Guthrie for this presentation. We’re waiting on the edges of our seats to see what these talented actresses … Read more
One of the things we try to be vigilant about is a sort of inflexible all-or-nothingism. We recognize it as a minor character flaw, and lately we’ve been working on it. It’s not that the dough of our idealism has lost its leavening. It’s just been punched down by a bit of realism. Nowhere has … Read more