The duende, a mysterious spirit behind all Spanish arts, has both a dark side and an irresistible appeal. With flamenco, it’s the devil that lights a fire under the feet of dancers, and the handsome stranger who keeps turning up in all the right places. Practitioners of these sultry moves, which began as a gypsy … Read more
What started twelve years ago as a modest performing arts festival has swelled into an eleven-day extravaganza, a tribute to the seamy, steamy, and sometimes hilarious underbelly of the local theater community. This year’s lineup features visual arts, kids’ events, podcasts, “site-specific” performances (such as a frilly production of The Virgin Diaries at Via’s Vintage … Read more
The world’s tallest structure is not the Sears Tower, the Space Needle, or those strange conjoined skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur. The acme of human achievement isn’t even in a city. It stands a few miles outside the hamlet of Blanchard, in rural northeast North Dakota. Two million feet of one-foot-thick steel guy-wire stretch upward in … Read more
There aren’t many stretches of road in Minnesota like Highway 1. Though it’s not officially designated a scenic byway, it should be. Narrow, with pine and birch trees crowding right up against the tarmac, Highway 1 winds through the Superior National Forest, connecting Lake Superior to Ely. The sun bursts in patches through the trees, … Read more
While hockey and competitive figure skating can be brutal, they are rarely fatal. Naturally, civilians don’t normally think of ice arenas as potential morgues. But the topic came up the other day, during a minor crisis at the St. Louis Park Aquatic Park and Recreation Center. Paul Omodt, City Council member and president of the … Read more
There are basically three kinds of poets. There’s that guy at the coffee shop who’s in need of a personal hygiene care package from the International Library of Poetry. There’s that tortured woman in Iowa who’s won so many big-buck fellowships and grants that her very existence tortures fellow poets everywhere. And then there’s the … Read more
There’s a certain cult of pastrami that takes people on a global search. For many, the journey begins at a New York deli, but from then on, it’s usually a sad undertaking, as each new pastrami sandwich moves further from the true form. Enter Louie’s Habit and–oh my–a new standard. Louie’s pastrami is cooked slowly … Read more
The other day, a shaggy-haired, bespectacled woman in overalls—we’ll call her Megan—welcomed a visitor into her south Minneapolis home, where she lives with ten unusual friends. They are mostly in their twenties, and they identify themselves as dumpster divers—anti-consumerist people who on principle do almost all of their shopping in garbage bins. The interior of … Read more
Marriage is a bit vague, isn’t it? Unless you have a lawyer write your vows, the actual terms of the agreement aren’t really spelled out beyond love and cherish. Who has to clean the bathroom? Whose last name does the dog take? In William Somerset Maugham’s witty, subversive 1920s comedy The Constant Wife, the spouse … Read more
LANDMARK: 24 Hours at the Stone Arch Bridge Sunrise August 27 to sunrise August 28, Stone Arch Bridge How do you say “I love you” to a 2,176-foot span of metal and stone? Six local artists decided the only way to pay proper tribute to the architecture, culture, and history of this 1883 landmark, as … Read more