OK, so you probably can’t be a Food Network star, but you can be in the presence of an infamously uncensored one. Anthony Bourdain is coming to Solera on Tuesday, November 27, for an evening of Spanish wine and tapas, during which he will answer questions [beware!] and autograph copies of his new book, “No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach.” There are a limited number of tickets available at $80 a pop. Click here, if you’re so inclined.
9/26 UPDATE: Albright is out, and Gillespie is in…”temporarily.” Hope that doesn’t mean he’s going to decimate the opinion pages, then return to his regular newsroom vagaries….
Here’s the memo:
“Editorial Page changes
by Chris Harte, Publisher and Chairman
September 26, 2007 – Susan Albright, our editorial page editor, will be leaving the Star Tribune, effective Oct. 12. Scott Gillespie, our managing editor, will move over to be the editorial page editor on an interim basis.
Susan has ably guided the Star Tribune editorial pages with the highest integrity since 1993, and I have the utmost respect for her as a journalist and an editorialist. She is a nationally recognized leader among editorial writers and a former president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers (NCEW).
Under her leadership, the Star Tribune editorial staff has won numerous editorial, op-ed and cartooning awards. In 2001 her staff conceived and launched the Sunday Op Ex section, now called “Opinion Exchange.”
With all of these fine credentials to Susan’s credit, it is all the more difficult to say that she and I have a difference of opinion that results in her leaving. As I moved into the chairman’s role in March and then into the publisher’s role, it was clear as Susan and I talked that we had different views of the future.
We have a professional disagreement about the role of the editorial pages and how they should be edited. The main shift I want to see is toward even more locally focused editorial pages.
I believe the role of a metro newspaper is changing radically and rapidly in a world of instant global access to information. I see the need for our editorial pages, like the rest of the newspaper, to concentrate more heavily than ever on local, state and regional issues. This is where we can stake a claim like no other media can.
Our readers can go to many places to get informed opinion on the Iraq war or global warming. But there are very few places they can go for expert opinion on local issues. And that is where I want us to dwell, with the active participation of our readers.
As you know, we will soon be locally zoning the metro news pages, and my mandate to Scott is to move our editorial pages in a direction that complements this local strategy.
Regarding her departure, Susan said: “It has been an honor and a privilege for me to serve as the Star Tribune’s editorial page editor for nearly 15 years. I am proud of what the opinion page staff has accomplished in those years. On leaving, I can only express my profound gratitude to all my colleagues, and wish them all the best.”
I hope you will please take the time to congratulate Susan on a job very well done. She is a true professional who stands up for her beliefs, articulates them eloquently and genuinely respects the views of others. I wish her all the best.
Posted yesterday: It should come as no surprise to any of our faithful readers that the Strib’s, uh, shall-we-say, “progressive leaning” editorial department, under the long-time stewardship of Susan Albright, has for years been a painful, pricking thorn in the side of McClatchy, and now Avista. My partner in crime, currently on a kayaking adventure in Utah, recently posted about management’s directive that the editorial department lay off support for the nickel a gallon gas tax hike.
The latest rumor to rumble around Shake-up Central on Portland has Albright stepping down from her post, to be replaced by none other than Strib managing editor Scott Gillespie.
It makes sense.
Gillespie hardly seems a favorite of Strib uber editor Nancy Barnes. Heck, when a reporter from the American Journalism Review showed up earlier this year to do a piece on the paper’s contractions, Barnes offered a list of people for him to contact. Although all her other newsroom favs were included, Gillespie’s name was nowhere to be found. Then there was the leak that now-vanished publisher Par Ridder wanted to bring PiPress’s editor Thom Fladung Stribside (Fladung declined).
Gillespie is well-known as an editor who has continuously lost vertebrae as he’s ascended through the ranks and become more adept at avoiding controversy at all costs. Over the last few months, he made his bones with top management by following its staff whacking and restructuring orders to the letter, no matter who got hurt. Staffers who once considered him a friend have no doubt that he’d run the layoff truck over them if Chris Harte so ordered, rather than take a stand.
Having Gillespie in the Editorial driver’s seat would not only get him out of the downsized newsroom–where two editors are probably now seen as too many (read expensive)–it would put a malleable executive in charge of what, until now, has been the paper’s last bastion of rage against the machine.
Watch this space.
Unfortunately, I forgot my digital camera at home today – it holds all the substandard pics I snapped during MNfashion Weekend. I’ll report more on the affair (and my associated quest for commerce) tomorrow, perhaps in the p.m. But, in the meanwhile, check out this week’s big fashion event, which you can still buy tickets for:
Collage Fashion Show
Thursday, September 27 at Nicollet Island Pavilion
Two of my favorite local boutiques are participating in this three-way of a runway affair: the refined, and yet funky, Ivy and super-girly Stephanie’s. The third boutique, Bluebird, isn’t a fave, but I have found fabulous vintage jewelry there in the past. However, I’m probably most excited about Bluebird’s contribution to this year’s (the third annual) Collage. They’re planning to show clothes by Loeffler Randall, the shoe designer – a favorite of the shop’s owners – who only recently introduced a line of apparel.
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Double Your Pleasure
Theatre Limina invites you to “double your pleasure, double your fun,” tonight at its 2nd Annual Burlesque Show and Fundraiser. Two years, two purposes, two nights, two babes at a time (and so much more). “Order up your favorite cocktail, and watch our bawdy babes shake their bitchin’ booties. We’ve got hungry harlots, prurient poets, tarty tramps, and licentious ladies of the evening.” Tonight is preview night, but don’t miss out on Sunday’s benefit performance and silent auction.
7p.m., Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-82-8949; $15.
Home Place
Brian Friel is one of Northern Ireland’s most celebrated playwrights today. Dancing at Lughnasa, probably his most successful play, won three Tony Awards in 1992, including Best Play; and Translations, an earlier work, has gone on to become a telling allegory of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Now, his most recent work, The Home Place makes its American premiere after a sold-out season in Dublin and another successful season in London. And it’s all happening right here, at the Guthrie. Set in a big house in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, The Home Place tells the story of a landlord and his son, whose lives come undone with the arrival of an English cousin.
7:30 p.m., McGuire Proscenium Stage, Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612-377-2224; $29-$49.
MUSIC
Lavay Smith & The Red Hot Skillet Lickers
First there was Bessie Smith, then Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday. Now, there’s Lavay Smith, today’s jazz and blues diva. And just as Bessie had Clarence Williams, just as Billie had Lester Young and Count Basie, just as Dinah had Max Roach, Lavay Smith has the Red Hot Skillet Lickers at her back — and you can’t ask for a more swingin’ jazz and blues band these days. Enjoy their vast array of original compositions and jazz and blues classics tonight and tomorrow night.
7 and 9 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $30 and $20.
Sons and Daughters of Folk
It’s hard to resist mentioning her father when writing about Pieta Brown. Sure, it’s a great claim to fame in its own right — to be Greg Brown’s daughter; to grow up in his midst, in his embrace, his love; to be the subject of so many beautiful songs. But the truth is, Pieta is much more than this. While some might say that she reflects her father’s greatness like the very moon — actually, the light is all her own. She’s been in town quite a bit lately, but tonight’s performance is a double whammy, as the Iowa girl will perform alongside another great “seedling.” Benson Ramsey — son of Greg Brown’s longtime producer and sideman Bo Ramsey — now makes up half of The Pines, an up-and-coming roots, blues, and indie rock duo (with David Huckfelt). While it’s certainly more common to see Pieta sharing a stage with Bo than with Benson, I suspect this is not the first time the two have played together; at least now they’re not wearing diapers.
7:30 p.m., Varsity Theater, 1308 4th St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-604-0222; $12.
Qui? Quien? Who? Huh?
While they’ve been around for seven years, there’s a pretty good chance you hadn’t heard of Qui until last year, when drummer/vocalist Paul Christensen and guitarist/vocalist Matt Cronk were joined by vocalist David Yow of The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid fame. Heck, let’s be honest: There’s a pretty good chance this is the first you’ve heard of them. But that would mean you’re no longer on the cutting edge of the whacked-out indie punk-rock world. Can you live with that? Either way, it might be worth your while to go see 7th Street Entry, 701 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775; $12.
A commenter asks Ms. Rybak and me to say something about the sorry state — make that “the perpetually sorry state” of Twin Cities radio, since people have been complaining about how dull, dim-witted, choked-with-advertising and uninspired local radio is since I started paying attention to it back in 1989.
It’s not like it has gotten any better, generally speaking, but where would we begin?
First though, just to catch up, two stations parted ways with their program directors last week. First, Doug Westerman, briefly my boss, at KTLK-FM, was shown the door, then Erin Rasmussen at FM-107. There had been some gossip that Westerman’s departure might signal the much-anticipated format switch at KTLk, away from conservative talk to … God knows what. But by replacing Westerman with a talk radio program director from Memphis, Steve Versnick — via WLW in Cincinnati, the signal would seem to be that Clear Channel will stick with, delusional 29%-er talk at least through next year’s election, which has been my bet for a while.
The move at FM-107, a.k.a. “The Chick Station”, home of Kevyn Burger, Lori & Julia and more recently, Andrew Zimmern and Colleen Kruse, is more like looking for fresh ideas.
The next quarterly Arbitron ratings won’t be out until later next month, but trends since the “spring book” show very little change other than an overall bump upwards for KSTP-AM, very likely due to Twins baseball — which provides the station with virtually no revenue.
What the commenter wants I think is a grand overview, a station-by-station analysis, which might be an interesting project. But it’ll take a while to gather the deepest of my/our deep thoughts.
Until then here’s a blurb a friend sent my way. It comes from Tom Taylor a veteran radio analyst/information trader, who has a successful independent until he sold and joined forces with … (cue Darth Vader theme) … Clear Channel.
Taylor’s headline is: After Clear Channel goes private — will there be an exodus of management talent?
He writes: One observer e-mails me to predict that “many folks at the management level are just waiting for their payday from the stock buyout. Watch and see. Fueling that is the feedback from the recent managers meeting. Market managers were told that they will be given their revenue goals from above, and then they’re expected to hit them. So much for bottom-up budgeting. The subtle hint was that ‘You’ll hit them, or we won’t be seeing you at this meeting next year.’” He goes on to say that managers feel particularly helpless because “in reality, local markets have discretion on less than 20% of the expense line items in the budget” and that “a large percentage of promotion and research decisions are made in San Antonio,” leading to what he calls “micromanagement.”
I include this only because the “Clear Channelization” of the seven stations the company owns in the Twin Cities and as well as the extent to which competitors acquire Clear Channel-like attitudes toward programming, salary levels and ad clutter is arguably the underlying malaise effecting this market and many others.
Clear Channel is going back to private status some time in the next few months, a move that will — you guessed it — re-line the pockets of the company’s major investors, some of whom joined the Gilded Age when it went public several years ago.
Finally, after nine straight months of blogging, I’m taking a brief break. I couldn’t leave town until the Par Ridder follies reached some kind of conclusion. The Slaughter will be in Ms. Rybak’s more than capable hands until I get back on Oct. 5, although she too will be away soon for a few days.
The Minnesota Zoo is excited to announce the arrival of two Lynx kittens. They are still getting used to their new exhibit, spending more time outside each day.
Beautiful! Beautiful! We have what is, as far as I know, our first local Somali horror flick coming next month. Check out the trailer.
And if I’m wrong about the first-ever-local-Somali-horror-flick claim, please educate me.
Here’s my theory: the brains behind Parasole Restaurant Holdings (owners of Manny’s, Chino Latino, Good Earth, Muffuletta, Figlio, Salut, and Pittsburgh Blue; and originators of Oceanaire and Buca di Beppo) have buried enormous, powerful magnets beneath all their restaurants. Then they abducted the entire citizenry of our state, one by one, and implanted corresponding metal chips in our necks.
Now maybe I’ve just watched too many old episodes of the X-Files. But you have to admit, it would explain a lot.
I was at Pittsburgh Blue, the newest Parasole creation, last Saturday. And it was mobbed: mobbed in that can’t-get-into-the-parking-lot, six-deep-at-the-bar sort of way. The food was good, tasty but definitely not arterial-cleansing. It was mammoth and meaty: salads heaped with bacon, huge hunks of beef, the best yellow corn I’ve ever tasted, though I’d bet my next paycheck it was swimming in heavy cream. People were — literally — eating it up.
The same thing happened when Salut opened in 2005: I remember walking in one night and asking for a table, to which the young host gave a snort. “How’s a week from Thursday?” she asked before disappearing again into the fray. It’s still packed every night. And now, Parasole is planning to open a second one next spring, in the Milton Mall, across from J Crew on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. The restaurant will be about the same size as the one in Edina, but Salut St. Paul will sport a large, secluded patio, rather than having its outdoor dining streetside.
And the partners at Parasole are already thinking about the next Pittsburgh Blue location, too; less than three weeks after opening, PB Maple Grove is looking at a “run rate” (that’s restaurant-speak for annual gross profit predictions, based on the average so far) of more than $7 million. It’s a potential gold mine.
Phil Roberts, co-founder of Parasole, says they’re scouting for locations like Maple Grove and Edina. “We’re talking about the Chicago suburbs,” Roberts told me. “Places like Northbrook. But Northbrook is just a metaphor for the kind of place we want: a high-income bedroom community.
In fact, Roberts is — even as I write — on his way to Honolulu, home to one of the biggest Buca di Beppos in the country (piles of pasta on the beach. . . .it doesn’t sound right to me, but that’s why I’m not a restaurant mogul) to shop for real estate. There’s talk that Parasole will start doing “communities” of restaurants in particularly favorable locations.
Imagine: a Manny’s, a Chino Latino, a Salut, and a Pittsburgh Blue all lined up like storefronts on Hawaii’s white sands. Mark my words. Tourists will begin disappearing for a couple hours at a time and when they come back, they’ll all have incisions just under the left ear and a rabid craving for bacon, steak, creamed corn, and red wine.
I guess the next top chefs and models just weren’t enough. Now we’ve got a new cable pay-per-view show setting out to find America’s Next Hot Porn Star. Just what we’ve all been waiting for…
Porn invariably becomes the ultimate exploiter of every medium.
THEATER REVIEW by Danielle Kurtzleben
Everyone was excited for the opening of Frank Theater’s The Pillowman. The Star Tribune on Friday ran an article on lead actor Jim Lichtseidl: “Funnyman Jim Lichtseidl exercises his dark side with a meaty role,” read the subheader. The Pioneer Press also ran an interview with Lichtseidl and Luverne Seifert, another Pillowman star: “It’s almost guaranteed that sparks will fly,” the PiPress proclaimed. Expectations were high, and the show succeeds…sort of. Frank’s production of The Pillowman is good, but too overwrought to be much more.
Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman focuses on Katurian (Lichtseidl), a writer of grisly tales in which children are tortured and killed. When a number of child murders resembling his stories take place, Katurian is detained for questioning by the totalitarian state in which he lives. He is interrogated by detectives Ariel (Chris Carlson) and Tupolski (Seifert), who have also detained Katurian’s mentally disabled brother, Michal (Grant Richey), as a way of baiting Katurian into confessing.
Katurian is on stage for the entire play, but is ironically forced into the background. Pillowman is about artistic responsibility, and Katurian and his art seem to be present only to generate a reaction from Tupolski, Ariel, and Michal. This is not to say that Lichtseidl disappoints; to the contrary, Lichtseidl gives Katurian what depth he can, and his big-brother relationship with Michal is sweet and sincere. But the plot itself gives Lichtseidl little to work with, and as a result he is underused. The role of Katurian proves that serious does not equal “meaty.” In this case, it just means the eye of the storm.
Fortunately, the rest of the storm is entertaining. Seifert and Carlson are wonderful as the good-cop/bad-cop team of Ariel and Tupolski. Carlson’s Ariel is high-strung and constantly enraged; Seifert’s Tupolski is docile but menacing — together they are mean and unfair and completely engrossing. Seifert is so deliciously nasty that you can’t help but laugh. Grant Richey also succeeds in the role of Michal, uttering even the most disturbing of lines with innocence and vulnerability.
Pillowman is heavy — it discusses child torture, for God’s sake. And furthermore, it’s about the importance of Art with a capital A. Sometimes it sounds more like a debate in a college literature course than a play. One can’t expect to feel uplifted, but Frank’s production can feel suffocating. There are periods of interrogation so uniformly intense that they drag and grow dull. Nearly every surface is a greenish, corroded metal. The compartment in which Katurian’s stories are acted out hulks over the small Dowling Studio stage, taking up considerable space but only used for about 20 minutes total. The between-scene music is loud and throbbing. Taken separately, these elements could be considered stylized and — especially in the case of the corroded set — kind of cool-looking. But taken together with McDonagh’s script (itself a bit heavy-handed) the whole thing screams “DISTURBING!” and doesn’t really let you think otherwise. It’s hard to see this genre-busting play as anything more than a psychological thriller in this environment, which is a shame. While entertaining, Frank’s Pillowman could use a lighter touch to create some sort of balance, or even a bit of breathing room.