Something you could do tonight or put-off ’til the weekend: Shawn McConneloug and her Orchestra are presenting SHE Captains, a multi-media dance piece that roughly recreates the life of a sixteen-century she-pirate named Grace O’Malley. The real secret here is that Shawn McConneloug and company don’t perform very often, and when they do, the result … Read more
The Schubert Club is embroiled in its Saint Paul Summer Song Festival, in case you hadn’t noticed. And as part of that festival, they’re showing Ingmar Bergman’s 1975 behind-the-scenes film The Magic Flute–popularly regarded as the finest operatic film ever made, probably because Bergman made nice with the artifice of live opera by lugging his … Read more
Moving books around on the shelves, a quilt of my own making taking shape and standing solid against the wall. All those stories that have both saved and ruined me. This image is somewhere on those shelves: the testicles of Uranus, bobbing in a moon-shattered sea, headed for Cyprus. What a foul and wonderful story. … Read more
If you hadn’t already noticed, The Rake’s Raking Through Books happy hour book event topped out CJ this past weekend. That big, juicy affair happens tonight.
What if I take my kids to see Cars and they turn into NASCAR fans? I don’t want them to set up lawn chairs and coolers in front of the TV and start shouting “Don’t bogart the Cheese Whiz!” I was afraid after Babe that we’d have to forego the piggies’ gift of bacon, but … Read more
“OK, see, the thing I’ve got in my head is that we’re finally nearing the Armageddon because even the Godless are starting to freak out. Hollywood, that’s the Gomorrah of our time, and what’s going on? Religion. Look at it: Da Vinci Code, The Omen, that Mel Gibson thing with the Indians, even that Al … Read more
So, I’ve decided to divulge a few “secrets” about the Body Worlds exhibit, for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it. I saw the exhibit on Saturday evening, and it was still unsettling my supper come Sunday afternoon. OK, it wasn’t that gross. But there were a few seconds when I became dizzingly aware … Read more
I used to think that if I could just get my hands on a sweet potato all my luck would change. If I could just get me some bacon, some butter and eggs, or one of them lollypops. Life’s not so simple, I guess. Boy, did I ever find that out. I was nobody’s rooster, … Read more
Gather, ye friends! And look upon the pronto pups of our youth. Oh yea, it is the time of the fest. June 15 Viola Gopher Count Viola, MN. Besides the “famous grilled cheese hamburger” I’m betting there’s a lot of beer at this one. June 17 SPAM Museum Jam 2006 Austin, MN. How can you … Read more
What I’m really doing this weekend: Doe at the Playwrights’ Center tonight, a new play by Trista Baldwin, who’s also a member of this Workhaus Collective of local playwrights. Will report back on results. And I am supposedly, finally, making it to Body Worlds–which I’m not entirely jazzed about after one of my girlfriends said … Read more