But only one square every five minutes.
Category: Blog Post
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Who wears these clothes?
Last minute alert for your social calendars: The third annual Sashion Flow (get it, ha-ha) event is happening tomorrow, September 8 at Soo Visual Arts Center. What a great way to combine clothes- and art-making, as I know you Minneapolitans so love to do. The featured designers include Annie Larson and, one of my new faves, House of Henry. You can spy the HoH fall line here. But I’m telling you, it pales in comparison to the upcoming Spring ’08 collection, for which I received a “look book” earlier this week. If I had the scan skilz, I’d be sharing, I promise. But alas, ineptitude has caused my being barred from the office Epson. However, I will now demonstrate my dazzling powers in describing, with words, my two favorite outfits: 1) Red dress of stretchy cotton with Donna Karan-style cutout from the cleavage to, oh, the bottom of the sternum. 2) Unforgiving, ultra-short yellow romper with “trouser” detailing and a sweetheart neckline that’s gathered by three white buttons. Of course, this means I’ll be spending my winter on weight watchers.
In fact, much as I love these clothes, they call to memory a lyric that was once sung by my best friend Andrea (a singer and cabaret artist) who unearthed this chestnut while preparing an entire clothes-themed cabaret.
Who Wears These Clothes
from The Times, music by Brad Ross, lyrics by Joe KeenanWho wears these clothes
And in that size
I mean, who’s got the dash
Or the cash
Or the thighs…
Who wears these clothes
And where can I find them in
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Sanctuary Has Arrived
We spotted Michael Kutscheid the other night in the dining room of his new restaurant, Sanctuary, looking proud as a peacock – and even more dapper than usual. The elegant new dining room and lounge, which Kutscheid owns with partners Roger Kubicki and Naomi Williamson, opened quietly last week on the ground level at of the Stonebridge Bank Building at 903 Washington Ave. S. (below Wasabi),a few blocks from the Metrodome. Kutscheid is a familiar face on the local dining scene – back in the the mid-90s, he was the owner and driving force behind Kapoochis, one of the most creative restaurants of its time, until a dishonest bookkeeper drove the business into bankruptcy. In the years that followed, he worked his way back, working as a manager at restaurants ranging from Oceanaire to Martini Blu and Babalu .
On the Sanctuary website, Kutscheid boasts that “If Charlie Trotter and Bobby Flay met Morimoto in Spain, that would begin to describe Sanctuary’s menu!” Charlie Trotter and Bobby Flay are familiar names, but who’s Morimoto? Turns out he was the last of the Iron Chefs Japan on the Iron Chef TV show, and now owns his own Japanese restaurant in New York City. There isn’t much on chef Gary Stenberg’s menu that sounds Japanese – except for a yellow fin tempura entree with seafood salad an wasabi horseradish cream, but Kutscheid does have a bit of Iron Chef host Takeshi Kaga‘s flair for the dramatic – back in his Kapoochi days, he greeted guests in borrowed stage costumes from the Guthrie. (This time around, he greeted guests in more subdued black formalwear, complete with black vest and wing collar tuxedo shirt.)
Kutscheid also has a flair for the visual – the romantic interior of stone walls and old massive wood beams is gorgeously executed.
There’s plenty to explore on the menu – from starters ($5-$12)such as calamari stuffed with rock shrimp, or crab-stuffed risotto cakes with risotto cream, to entrees ($13-$29)of beef tenderloin stuffed with Maine lobster, and wanton-wrapped shrimp with polenta fries and avocado chimichuri.903 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis,. www.sanctuaryminneapolis.com
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I Respond to the Surly Masses
Every so often a comment rolls in too ripe for response to bury in a link. So I’m dragging a couple recent shots across my bow out in the full light of day. (How many metaphors is that?)
The first, upset with my “ranking” of local TV newsrooms, says:
“Lambert, you love taking swipes at KMSP.
And no doubt there are a few clunkers at every station. But ‘CCO’s reporting staff has been decimated. I wouldn’t trust most of them to cover a house fire. KSTP’s staff is just strange. And KARE’s are exceptionally strong story tellers, but I don’t think you’ll see them breaking much news.
“KMSP slightly back,” doesn’t wash. That’s not analysis Brian, it’s a cheap shot.”I hope this came from a loyal KMSP staffer, otherwise some simple viewer has way too much emotional involvement in the local news game for his/her own good.
I of course deny “loving” to rake swipes at KMSP. Yeah, I did write this back last spring, but otherwise it’s been live and let live. Still, I stand by my off-handed ranking, with the caveat that “slightly” means exactly that. “Slightly”. As in just a bit off the pace.
I’m arguing that the number and quality of reporters/photographers obviously matters. Less is not more. Every TV news shop undergoes regular churn, losing career-climbers to better jobs, sloughing off the gold-brickers and screw-ups all while continuing to benefit from the established, reliable dogs who can always be counted on to bring back something worth running, whether a story about a house fire or a cat beheading. (Actually, I think the Strib owned the cat story.)
But as big a factor as the talent pool out there in the newsroom is how they are deployed, what news strategy/vision they operate under. For my taste … cheap shot or otherwise … KMSP’s hour-long 9 o’clock news show is too heavily stocked with instantly disposable eye and ear candy. I get the strategy. It’s “Fox-y”. Celebrities, attitude, hip. Definitely … not your Mom and Dad’s news-with-a-hot-cocoa show. Differentiation. Young and younger. But trivia is trivia. More to the point, it’s shameless and not particularly imaginative. (I suppose I should give KMSP points for being “shameless”.)
I’ve followed this stuff too long to blow (another) gasket over low common denominator pandering. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t what it is. I continue to believe “average news consumers” need both spot news reporting AND informed analysis … badly. Make that “very badly”. Avid news consumers will take care of themselves just fine — although KMSP and everybody else had better lose sleep over that avid, and often up-scale news crowd drifting away from the local TV news habit because the stuff is so generic, predictable and insistently middle-brow.
To reiterate my essential point … everyone, KMSP, KSTP, KARE and WCCO needs more feet and cameras on the street. Last time I checked the population of the Twin Cities and the region was increasing, i.e. there are more stories out there, not fewer.
The next rip comes from “The Frogman of Grant”, commenting on media reporter Deborah Rybak leaving the Strib:
“I’m getting lost here. Prisoner? Gulag? Man, that media beat is a bitch! And remind me again why we are obsessing about who’s in or out at the Strib. It sounds like we should give Ms. Caulfield Rybak a round of applause and a warm blanket. Surely, she’ll press charges. Meanwhile, I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink until I know which fledgling online recycler of aging local journalists signs her up for one of those coveted $100-a-story contracts.
“But if things are so bad down at 425 Portland, why all the hand-wringing about its undoing? And who is to blame for Caulfield Rybak’s torment….the “dicking” as you have it…Avista or her colleagues now carrying water for Avista? Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think you can have it both ways. Is the Strib a corrupt, venal insitution beyond redemption…or a noble element of the Fourth Estate we should be pulling for? Maybe we could get Dick Cheney to pronounce the Strib officially in its “last throes.”
What I’ve been trying to get across these past few months — poorly, no doubt — is that, A: Good journalism matters, maybe more right now than in anytime since I was born, what with the country’s reputation and sense of purpose reeling from an unprecedented number of staggering frauds and blunders. And that B:, The “strip and flip” ethos of pirate “entrepreneurs” like Avista Capital Partners is making the process of relevant journalism more difficult, not less.
Fundamentally, journalism is a tough business to force into a strict profit/loss model. The stuff we all need to know most can take time/money to ferret out, often makes people angry and isn’t nearly as sexy/salable as schlock — which describes not just celebrity foo-foo but timid business and political “stenography” reporting as well.
So yeah, the steady, inexorable depletion of an entity like the Strib is worth wringing hands over, and its harvester/executioner, Avista is worth denouncing.
Personally, I’m pulling for anyone who can apply a reliable supply of intelligence, guts and imagination to the noble profession of news reporting, commentary and analysis. If Avista has little or no interest in honestly incentivizing its staff to do that, I’ll root for whoever can re-invent the game.
I do agree, completely, that that re-invention will cost a lot more than $100 a story.
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Sexuality, Body Image, and Gender
ART & LECTURE
Contemporary Practice of Ancient Women’s Ritual
Inspired by a short story by writer Leah Lax, Janice Rubin began documenting the contemporary practice of the ancient and secret Jewish ritual bath, mikvah. The resulting underwater photographs are both sensual and enigmatic, haunting and evocative. But The Mikvah Project is not a one-woman show; it’s a collaboration. Joined by Lax, Rubin expanded the project to include oral histories and anonymous portraits of a variety of women, creating a multifaceted testimonial of contemporary mikvah practice. “In interviews, women speak of mikvah observance as aiding in their struggles with body image… as a means of infusing their sexuality with privacy, boundaries and a sense of holiness.” The Mikvah Project is about Jewish women reclaiming a ritual. Sunday’s opening reception will feature a lecture by Lax, sharing some the surprises and obstacles encountered in their journey, as well as a book-signing of the catalog.Sunday from 4-7 p.m., Sabes JCC Tychman Shapiro Gallery, Jay & Rose Phillips Building, Barry Family Campus, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Rd., Minneapolis; 952-381-3400.
ART
What Makes a Man?
When you affect one side of an equation, the other side changes — a fact we so seldom consider. In our quest to give voice to the oppressed, the silenced, the others, we often neglect the mainstream category through which that other is defined. Feminism has challenged male dominance, altered standards of judgment, reorganized institutions, and sparked a reformulation of female identity. But, how do men figure into this equation? How do we begin to re-define masculinity in light of these developments? Mush Mush Masculinity! examines these issues through a collection of two- and three-dimensional work, installation, and video. The single-night art exhibition explores the definition of masculinity, how masculinity might be constructed, and what the repercussions of such constructs might be.Saturday at 8 p.m., ACVR Warehouse, 106 W. Water St., St. Paul; 651-227-2622; free.
Also opening this weekend is the mystery Host exhibition at the The Soap Factory (Saturday at 7 p.m.), Jodi Reeb-Myers’s new acrylic installation at Frame Ups Gallery (Saturday at 6 p.m.), and both Clay in Living Color: Jim Romberg and Focus on Detail: Timothy Lloyd and Jean Matzke at The Grand Hand Gallery (Saturday at 5 p.m.).
BOOKS & AUTHORS
Tongue-in-Cheek City Girl Philosophy
Since she left Minnesota in 2004, artist/writer/performer Karn Knutson has become a city girl extraordinaire. The title of her latest collection says it all — City Girl Philosophy: Everything You Need to Live a Simply Stunning Life. And city girls only live simply stunning lives, that at least is clear. Those of you who actually like Sex and the City will appreciate Knutson’s hip, urban party-girl guide. Those of you who don’t, might at least have a good laugh. “City Girl likes [her] martinis dry and her humor even dryer–and she’ll take it the right way if you laugh your way through all her good advice–as long as you pay attention to it.”Friday at 7 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.
In Our Culture, Porn Makes the Man
Engage in intellectual conversation about good old-fashioned smut this Sunday afternoon, when Robert Jensen discusses his latest book, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. In addition to his role as professor of journalism at the University of Texas, and feminist anti-pornography activist, Robert Jensen is one of the sharpest cultural critics in the country these days, and has penned books on other provocative topics, such as white privilege and freedom of expression. Articulate and outspoken, Jensen is sure to lead a lively and smart discussion. ––by Danielle KurtzlebenSunday at 3 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Idigaragua
The always irreverent and ever-theatrical indie-rock band Fort Wilson Riot created this five-part “indie-rock opera” (and album) about a nameless American journalist and his adventures in a mysterious foreign land. Enlisting the help of Jeremey Catterton, a stage director and friend from the University of Minnesota who now resides in London, the band has cobbled together a fictional travelogue based on the writings of Paul Bowles, the ex-pat author best known for The Sheltering Sky. Given the scarcity of collaborations between theater-makers and rockers, this won’t be your typical night at the theater; plus this production incorporates puppets, dancers, and video. As for the score for Idigaragua, one local music critic compared it to Sondheim and Beethoven — but these ears detect more the influence of Queen. –by Christy DeSmithFriday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Bedlam Theatre, 1501 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis; 612-341-1038; $12.
Speed-the-Plow
There is Shakespearean language, with its grand soliloquies and sonnets. And then there is the language of David Mamet, who made his name by elevating everyday speech into an art form. This fall, The Jungle Theater brings those trademark machine-gun sentences, stutters, and profanities to the stage with Speed-the-Plow. Jungle Artistic Director Bain Boehlke directs this satire about a Hollywood producer who is torn between art and money when he’s given twenty-four hours to green-light either a spiritual, apocalyptic film (pitched by his gorgeous secretary) or a sex-and-violence-packed action flick (pitched by a close friend). Consider it a palate cleanser after the summer of Transformers and Spiderman 3. –by Danielle Kurtzleben
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-7063; $36.
COMEDY
YouCube Humor
As long as there have been cubicles, there has been cubicle comedy (Office Space, Dilbert, The Drew Carey Show). Tonight Brave New Workshop tackles the life of the cubicle drone when it opens its 260th comedy revue, YouCube: This Company Loves Misery. YouCube will lampoon everything from Blackberries and motivational seminars, and as per usual will have at least a few hilarious sketches. Also, stay after the show on Friday or after the late show on Saturday for late-night improv… sure, improv comedy is hit-or-miss, but it’s free, so what have you got to lose? –by Danielle Kurtzleben7:30 p.m., Brave New Workshop, 2605 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-6620; $20.
MUSIC
Red House Records Tribute
Red House Records owner Bob Feldman was a fire hydrant of fun and positive energy before he died, a year ago January, at the age of fifty-six. With a folk-music show on tiny KFAI that was strictly a labor of love, Feldman cherished music enough to achieve a remarkably high batting average on the quality of music released on his label. Thanks to Feldman’s remarkable ability to recognize and attract talent, Red House Records is now home to some of the finest acoustic singer/songwriters in the country. Now many of those folks whom he patronized — Greg Brown (the first and still the best Red House artist), Eliza Gilkyson, Dave Moore, Peter Ostroushko, and many, many others — will pay tribute to his memory at an overstuffed gig that should produce a memorable confluence of combos and pairings, passionately offbeat covers, funny and tear-jerking anecdotes, and a rousing, poignant finale on a very crowded stage. — by Britt RobsonSunday at 7 p.m., Fitzgerald Theater10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; 651-290-1221; $25 and $50.
Also this weekend is the second annual West Bank Ruckus festival in the parking lot next door to The Nomad, and the fabulous Harvest Fest in Geneva — three days of music and camping with three stages and 35 bands.
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Ferrari Moms. A Meditation.
I post the following strange sighting from the summer. This grainy video was captured icognito in the lobby of Colonial Church in Edina. I shot it on a morning when that Mommies (mainly) send their brood off to a camp called, stranger still, Pyro. It was recommended by a Mom to my wife.
Now don’t get me wrong, the world needs Moms. I just wonder whether Moms, or at least “Ferrari Moms,” mix well with camp.
You see I was a very big camper in my day and I remember my Dad (mainly) dropping me off at the Downtown YMCA downtown at 6 AM (during the heydays of the Village People, no less). While other Dads would huddle at the drop-off site with their Big Gulps, fishing hats and flannel shirts to set the mood, slick Italian jackets with prancing horses were nowhere to be seen.
I think that is because I went to a camp called Menogyn, where we burned wood, muscle and brain cells coping with wilderness survival. In fact, we often planned our 21-28 day canoe trips with too little food and ended up with Goldmanesque tales of our experiences.
This Mom would never have let that happen. While I am not sure that she drove off in a sports car she did not leave her campers wanting for anything. I know this because I saw the size of the care package she left them for a mere three day stay.
I guess this means that my Dad should have bought that Ferrari when we lived in Milan instead of the Wine Cellar he imported and dropped me off at camp with more to chew on than my character.
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Blogging in Your Parents' Basement
The Literary Review of Canada gives us “The Rise of the Pyjamahadeen: Who says blogging in your parents’ basement is unhealthy?” — Warren Kinsella’s review of Blogosphere: The New Political Arena
, by Michael Keren.
