It was cosmically appropriate that our review copy of The Handsome Family’s sixth disc, Singing Bones, arrived the day that Johnny Cash died. The New Mexico husband-and-wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks are true artistic children of the Man in Black, mixing traditional roots music with postmodern macabre about haunted all-night chain stores and … Read more
The last time our Golden Gophers won a Big Ten football championship, none of this year’s players had been born. It’s possible that some of their parents hadn’t either. In 1967, we had a shifty quarterback named Curt Wilson, a bruising fullback from South St. Paul named Jim Carter, and an All-American defensive end in … Read more
DIY? As a graphic designer for New York’s Roycroft Colony, Dard Hunter invented the concept. Hunter’s participation in the Arts and Crafts movement (which embraced an ideal of human craftsmanship over the machine-made) yielded impressive results. Hunter dabbled in a variety of media, including stained glass and metal, but his true legacy lies in his … Read more
Listen closely: That’s not the sound of cicadas or crickets. It’s local theater critics tittering about A Delicate Balance, the Jungle’s revival of the Edward Albee play. What they’re rubbing their legs about seems to be that they can’t handle the formal speechifying and the “two-dimensional” characters, and isn’t it just a cut-rate Who’s Afraid … Read more
My great-aunt lived in three centuries. She remembered seeing her first automobile. “It was such a novelty. I never thought I’d actually get a ride in one,” she said. She lived through ten popes and twenty presidents. Born in St. Paul, in 1894, Sister Esther was the oldest of eight girls. Her parents moved to … Read more
Every fall for the last three, we Tom Stoppard fans have been blessed. Following up on the wonderful productions of The Invention of Love by the Guthrie in 2001 and Hapgood last year by the Jungle, Theatre in the Round will present us Arcadia this month. Arcadia deals with the typical Stoppard theme of taking … Read more
Formerly an upscale pop-in-and-order-crepes-at-the-counter-type eatery, Savories shook things up last spring and transformed into a classy yet cozy dining nook with a distinct European flair. And then there’s the food. It starts with the fresh-baked bread, then eases into a heaping antipasto plate, slides full-force into an applewood-smoked bacon and smoked Brie salad, and then … Read more
It was cosmically appropriate that our review copy of The Handsome Family’s sixth disc, Singing Bones, arrived the day that Johnny Cash died. The New Mexico husband-and-wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks are true artistic children of the Man in Black, mixing traditional roots music with postmodern macabre about haunted all-night chain stores and … Read more
DIY? As a graphic designer for New York’s Roycroft Colony, Dard Hunter invented the concept. Hunter’s participation in the Arts and Crafts movement (which embraced an ideal of human craftsmanship over the machine-made) yielded impressive results. Hunter dabbled in a variety of media, including stained glass and metal, but his true legacy lies in his … Read more
Shutterbug buffs have a busy month ahead of them, with three diverse exhibits sure to help build a sense of camera-derie. Two are, more or less, single-artist retrospectives. At the MIA, it’s a look at the 22-year career of Swiss photojournalist Bischof, one of the leading lights of the Magnum agency. Best known for documenting … Read more