Category: Blog Post

What’s the next featured designer for Target’s Go International line? Alice f#@king Temperley! Eek! I love this designer. And if the sample image at right is any indication, this line won’t be the disappointment that Libertine is/was. It’s supposed to hit stores September 16. But if past experience is any indication, you can look for it late morning on the 17th.

While we’re on the topic of Target, I see that one of the scribes at Elle magazine recently got her hands on some samples of the Loeffler Randall for Target collection, which will debut early next year. (Hot damn, I love me these loafers at left!) So proud we can feel about our hometown discount megachain. But, much as I love fawning over (and anticipating, and scrutinizing) Target’s Design For All items, I’m curious to know how many of you actually wear these clothes. Me, I continue to adore the Proenza Schouler for Target jacket I picked up at the Salvation Army last year. But all the other stuff – the Tara Jamon cotton tee, the Patrick Robinson cotton dress – has found its way into my running wardrobe or sleepwear collection.

On that theory that a rising tide floats all boats (to which I subscribe), I’d like to point you to a new food blog, Eat Local Challenge, which is sponsored by the Wedge Natural Foods Co-op. The point of this new site is to encourage people to get at least 80% of their food from local/regional producers, growers, and farmers. Eat Local defines “regional” as Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, and it includes content from Twin Cities luminaries such as Lenny Russo, chef/owner of Heartland, a restaurant dedicated to sustainable gourmet cooking; Elizabeth Archerd, education director at the Wedge; and Beth Dooley, co-author of Lucia Watson’s Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland.

Now, as a dedicated wine and coffee drinker who’s wild about Alaskan salmon and a deep-sea fish called John Dory, I sympathize with those who might have difficulty making the pledge. But eating mostly locally is — like calling a moratorium on all those plastic bottles of French spring water — the right thing to do, for the economy and for the earth. Even sometimes, even halfway, even just as much as you can. And if you’re not into grilling pork or making blueberry cobbler, Eat Local provides a handy list of restaurants like Cafe Brenda and Restaurant Alma that can help you out with exquisite, local fare. Check it out.

FILM AND MUSIC
Dirty Country Documentary Comes to Minnesota

On March 14th, 2007, Dirty Country made its world premiere at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Tonight, the wacko documentary makes its Minnesota premiere, with the very subject of the documentary, Larry Pierce, in town to answer questions and even perform. That’s right, the small-town factory worker and family man will grace us with his raunchy country music. Beautiful! That’s icing on a cake. Find out whether we’re a nation of prudes or just a dirty country. Then stick around after the screening for a Q & A with Pierce and filmmakers Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher. Think you’re done? Not quite yet. Experience the real deal. Head over to the Cabooze for the after party with performances by Larry Pierce and his band, Itis.

7:30 p.m., Heights Theatre, 3951 Central Ave. N.E., Columbia Heights; 651-644-1912; $10. After Party at the Cabooze, 917 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; $10, but 2 for 1 with a ticket stub from the premiere.

Digging the music and movies vibe? Don’t forget about tonight’s Sound Unseen events in Northeast Minneapolis: Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London and PDO3: Day Dream Nation at the Ritz Theater, followed by live performances by Boys and Girls and Switzerlind at the 331 Club.

ART AND VIDEO
Triangle of Need

I love the description on this one, so I’ll let you read it yourself: “The Neanderthal, a 20th-century industrialist, Nigerian cinema, and a Florida mansion with a hodgepodge of architectural styles are some of the elements — physical and conceptual — that make up Catherine Sullivan’s new multichannel video installation. In a series of immersive image and sound environments, the piece weaves a nuanced story about evolution, class, wealth and poverty, and the inequalities in our global economy.” Wow! I love this, and I’m dying to experience an immersive image. The exhibit opens today and runs through November, so you have plenty of time to explore and re-explore it.

Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7600; $10 (seniors $8, students $6, members and children free).

FILM
I Bury the Living

For something a little lighter, or at least a little more fickle, enjoy the latest film in the Bell Museum’s late-50s sci-fi series. The Killer Shrews is another freaky, low-budget horror flick about a group of people trapped on an island with a whacked-out doctor. Of course, his experiments have generated some hideous beasts — shrews, to be exact. I wonder who will be going home with a giant shrew tonight. (Last week, it was a leech.)

8:30 p.m., Bell Museum Courtyard, 10 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-624-7083; free.

MUSIC
One Stop Shopping

First Avenue has it going on tonight — two great shows. (Yes, great… or at least they might be fun.) Granted, they both have a separate cost of admission, but maybe you can finagle a way to get more bang for your buck. The Bangles are back and banging it out in the main room with The Bridges, another sweet mostly-girl group; and The Analog Collection will be chilling in the 7th Street Entry with The Blue Mollies, Gini Dodds, and The Dahlias. While the Bangles might be a hoot — yes, that’s the word for it — I would skip it all just to see Gini and hear that sweet, gritty voice of hers. Dodds is the real thing, folks. She’s our very own Lucinda (as if Lucinda weren’t our very own).

The Bangles, doors at 6 p.m., Main Room, $25; The Analog Collection, doors at 8 p.m., The Entry, $5; First Avenue, 701 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775.

Another Kind of C.K. Intimates

Christine Kane has pretty much done it all: singing, writing, performing, teaching, leading workshops — she even holds women’s retreats in the mountains of North Carolina. Yup, this is the real stuff, people — the kind of music that sets you howling at the moon and running naked through the forest with your sisters. OK, that might actually be Marilyn Manson; and this is nothing at all like that. You get the idea, though; don’t you? This woman doesn’t just sing sweet, intimate words; she lives them. And tonight, so can you. Join her in the perfect setting for an intimate evening of song. She might be multi-faceted, but you’ll quickly see where she belongs.

7:30 p.m., Ginkgo Coffeehouse, 721 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul; 651-645-2647; $14.

ON THE NET
Things You May Have Missed

Dr. Lonnie Smith playing at the Dakota this week

WCCO Unplugged from the State Fair

Hillary Clinton: The Surge is Working, Prepare for New War

The Scritch-Scratch of Busy Little Hands

Great cartoons, great philosophy, great consumer culture blog, great explorations of marketing in the digital world — all by Hugh MacLeod, at Gaping Void.