Ah, the magic of globalization. Thailand, once known for its tiger-filled jungles and ancient, deeply spiritual culture, has become the promised land for trust-fund hippies wearing Patagonia underpants and business travelers cruising for underage prostitutes. In this gripping collection of short stories, twenty-five-year-old Thai-American writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap spys on the tourists and eavesdrops on the … Read more
Receiving snail mail from loved ones is always exciting, simply because it’s such a rare form of intimacy. That sense of closeness is bound to bleed over onto the stage with the Literary Friendships series. The first two writers paired up for an onstage conversation are Robert Bly (pictured here) and Donald Hall, friends and … Read more
What is home? To M.J. Andersen it’s a warm cup of tea, a blazing fire, and a quilt sewn by hand, all nestled together in Plainville, a South Dakota township. In “Portable Prairie: Confessions of an Unsettled Midwesterner,” quiet landscapes slow the fast-paced writer, now settled out East, in a large Victorian with her husband. … Read more
The fortunes have smiled widely upon Evelina Chao. Gifted with both music and poetry, this violist for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has written a memoir, “Yeh Yeh’s House,” that carries readers to China, where her ancestors endured the cruelties of the Cultural Revolution and also enjoyed a land of beauty. In 1987 Chao traveled … Read more
In her essays, memoir, and novels, Gordon is not one to shy away from either the deeply philosophical or the overtly feminist. Her latest novel revolves around Pearl Meyers, a twenty-year-old American student in Dublin, who has chained her emaciated body to a flagpole, protesting the violence in a land where religion and politics are … Read more
If Happy Apple’s brand of loud, fast, and bursting music—a little electronica, a little Coltrane, a little Cobain—hasn’t single-handedly restored Minnesotans’ interest in new jazz, it has, at the very least, attracted a new crop of listeners to the form. This trio of composers and multi-instrumentalists, who moonlight with rock bands and countless other side … Read more
Masters of the slow buildup, these downbeat Duluthians seem to have finally reached a point of catharsis on their seventh album. Compared with their previous shades-of-gray works, “The Great Destroyer” is kaleidoscopic in range, showing off the trio’s considerable songwriting chops and blowing a big hole in its reputation for sonic somnolence. (Read more in … Read more
We’re as tempted as anyone to hole up at home during January, but thereÕ’ no better excuse than this festival to break free from a self-imposed house arrest. Some of Hawaii’s most accomplished musicians are descending upon the Twin Cities at the very moment that planeloads of Minnesotans are zooming away in search of sunshine … Read more
Did we need another Elton John? Apparently so. With Scissor Sisters, we get the five bad children of the Rocket Man, who play keyboards with both a bang and a flounce, and write catchy dance tunes that seize your butt and bounce it across the floor. How can it be that this country, which soundly … Read more
Few venues are brave enough to put an exclamation point in their name. But that’s not the only thing that makes Pop! different. The menu of this Northeast neighborhood joint, which has become a magnet for a broad swath of hipster types, is as bright and fun as the pop-art decor. Nevertheless, please refrain from … Read more