The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Heather Jansz: Still Spicy After All These Years

    photo by Tom McConnell

    It probably would have been quicker to just ask Heather
    Jansz what she hasn’t been doing lately.The woman who first brought really, really hot and spicy cuisine to Minnesota has her
    fingers in so many pies, chutneys and sambols that it’s hard to keep track
    without a website.

    You might remember her as Heather Balasuriya, from the days when she was chef and co-owner of the Sri Lanka Curry House. I first met Heather about 30 years ago, when she and her
    then-husband, Evan Balasuriya, were running a little café in northeast
    Minneapolis called Mulligan Stew House #1. An entrepreneur with dreams of
    franchise fortunes had hired them to run the first of what was envisioned as a
    national Mulligan Stew chain.

    The stew wasn’t a big hit, and there never was a
    Mulligan Stew House #2, but word got around about the terrific, spicy Sri
    Lankan curries that Heather offered as daily specials. Mulligan Stew House #1
    soon became the Sri Lanka Curry House, the first restaurant to introduce Minnesotans
    to really hot and spicy cooking. The café quickly outgrew its storefront, and moved
    to more spacious and stylish home in Uptown.

    Much later, after Heather and Evan split up, Heather opened
    up the short-lived Curry Leaf Deli. I had heard that she was working at Macy’s
    as a personal shopper, and doing a little catering on the side, but it turns
    out she’s been up to a lot more than that.

    When I caught up with her recently, Jansz brought me up to date on just a few of her current activities – these days, she’s a cooking teacher, caterer, singer,
    personal chef, restaurant consultant and personal shopper. You can find a lot
    of the details on her new whizbang website, www.heatherjansz.com, where you can
    also watch videos of Heather giving a cooking lesson, and singing, (with local
    guitar legend Dean Magraw.) Dinner parties catered by Heather come with an optional bonus: on request, she’ll bring along Magraw and perform a private concert after the meal.

    The cooking classes come in lots of different versions:
    large groups, small groups, one-on-one, as do her catering services. Her repertoire of dishes for dinner parties and classes ranges from simple Sri Lankan curries to an elaborate Indonesian rijstafel. Many of these are the same dishes she served at the Sri Lanka Curry
    House, and later at the Curry Leaf Deli in Saint Paul, but Heather says her cooking style has evolved since those days – she now incorporates the Ayurvedic philosophy of
    food and health into her dishes. She also offers her homemade spice blends, spicy sambols, savory salsas and chutneys for sale – check the website for details.

    Her cookbook, Fire & Spice: The Cuisine of Sri Lanka (co-authored
    with Karin Winegar), is out of print, but you can find used copies on the
    Internet selling for as much as $175.

  • My Fifth Wife's Life

    I received an e-mail that this Ron guy insisted I publish along with a picture of his scarcely-aged trophy (above). This has not been spell-checked and is re-produced unmolested (bad choice of word?)

    I am writing this on behalf of my wife and son to your
    snarky blogger named Bert. My name is Ron Spellman and I own more cars than your
    pissant perpetrater of automotive polemic ever has. My wife currently drives a
    Veyron for her grocery getter, you little bastard, as I want my foie gras to remain
    appropriately firm and chilled from the first bite to the last. (Bellagio* does take-out in Telluride.) In fact, I am so rich that I hire unpaid interns from Bennigton College (the most expensive liberal arts
    school in the country—which would be in Vermont) to respond to my
    e-mail and write my blog. I can hardly fathom why I stoop to address the wanten
    stupidity that emanates from The Rake, but my wife has insisted. In fact, she
    wants you all to know that she does know the difference between an Audi and an
    Enzo. It seems however that we had to wait too long for the latter so she
    purchased the Audi to tide e.e.clinton over till the 650 HP Enzo in racing red
    arrived in Benni, I am mean Boston. Our son is impatient. What’s wrong with
    that? It’s not like he spends all his time on a blog during school or some stupid
    sh, I am mean stuff, like that.

    (*Bellagio is so great. I don’t care that Wynn has the Ferrari dealership in Vegas even though he makes makes people pay for entrance. That’s really cool but not not as cool or class as Bellagio.)

  • Dinner, Drinks, 2 Movies, and 2 Lectures

    WINE & DINE
    New French Cafe Reunion

    Ah, yes. Remember the New French Café? Many a lovely latte was enjoyed there. Many a meal. Many a show. Many drinks for all. Those were the good old days. And tonight, you can re-live them a bit and reminisce with a New French Cafe reunion at Nick and Eddie. (Smart move.) Join an inimitable
    gathering of New Frenchies, Warehouse District Originals, Aging
    Hipsters, and Newbies tonight — and every second Tuesday — for a happy hour and more. Plus, enjoy the music of Willie Murphy at 8 p.m.

    5 p.m., Nick and Eddie, 1612 Harmon Place, Loring Park, Minneapolis; 612-377-6582, 612-486-5800.

    FILM
    Lecture & Screening by Experimental Filmmaker Peter Hutton

    Detroit-born experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton will be sharing his work and his knowledge this evening in a combined lecture and screening at MCAD. Primarily known for his silent cinematic portraits of cities and landscapes, Hutton offers a rich and contemplative experience of diverse places, from the Hudson River Valley to Iceland and Bangladesh. "Typified by fixed shots of extended duration, his concentrated gaze builds a bridge between early cinema, landscape painting and still photography." Come out and drink from Hutton’s vast well of knowledge.

    6:30 p.m., Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-874-3700; free.


    Meet Bill

    Also playing tonight is Meet Bill, Aaron Eckhart’s latest film and his first stab into the physical comedy genre. While the trailer and promos for the film make it out to be just one more Jessica Alba-infused silly comedy, Meet Bill actually touches on some deeper issues of fulfillment and dissatisfaction. Ok. I have to admit, the ending somewhat ruined it for me, but I was pleasantly surprised by most of what preceded it. And Eckhart’s belly, alone, is worth the watch. Besides, how often do you get to see him in a Speedo — and shaving his chest on screen! The film is at the Lagoon for one week only, which means you have but three days to catch it, so don’t delay. And read our Rakish interview with Eckhart.

    7:30 & 9:40 p.m., Lagoon Cinema, 1320 Lagoon Ave., Minneapolis; 612-825-6006; $8.25 ($5.75 seniors and children).


    LECTURE
    Our Inner Ape

    Join world-reknown primatologist and author Dr. Frans de Waal this evening for a lecture about human behavior. That’s right, de Waal, will leave the chimps aside for a moment to examine the greatest primate of all — humans. Actually, he doesn’t quite leave the apes aside; he uses chimps and bonobos as a metaphor and lens to explore our own behaviors. De Waal will be drawing from his latest book, Our Inner Ape, and the evening promises to be quite fun.

    7 p.m., Minnesota Zoo, Great Clips IMAX, 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; 952-431-9200; free, but R.S.V.P.

     

  • The Three Pointer: Two Ugly

    Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)

    Game #75, Road Game #37: Minnesota 88, Phoenix 117

    Game #76, Home Game #39: Memphis 113, Minnesota 101

    Season Record: 19-57

    1. Jefferson Finally Cracks

    The Timberwolves offered themselves and their fans a choice of embarrassing performances over the weekend: Which do you prefer, an annihilation so complete there was literally 38 minutes of garbage time (the Wolves trailed Phoenix 32-12 with 2:10 to play in the first) or being sluggish early and tepid late in order to drop an eminently winnable home game against one of the few opponents with inferior personnel (Sunday’s loss to Memphis)?

    The Phoenix blowout was the more sobering because it was the first time this season that Al Jefferson was plainly rattled. Even when he was getting lunched a half-dozen times by Samuel Dalembert back in ’07, Jefferson was indomitable and his aggression with respect to both wiles and willpower have been the signature virtue for this ballclub this entire season. So when Jefferson seemed so out of sync and disinclined to bull his way into the paint–and, not incidentally, Shaquille O’Neal–that he couldn’t even coordinate his footwork with his dribble, the Wolves were doomed, injured in the head as well as the heart.

    After torching Phoenix for monster games that keyed improbable Minnesota wins twice this season, it just flat-out looked like Jefferson didn’t want to be out there Friday night. After Sunday’s game, someone remarked to coach Randy Wittman that Jefferson only had one shot in the entire first half against Memphis, and Witt was quick to pounce, saying "That was Al, nothing but his doing." The coach added that the second half Sunday was the first time in awhile Jefferson "had been Al Jefferson," that what he had been doing before was "asking for the ball 15, 20 feet from the basket" and the Wolves weren’t going to reward that. Asked if fatigue was a factor, Wittman said yeah, it probably was, but that the guy Jefferson was replacing–KG was inferred, not mentioned outright–played all 82 most of the time. He added that he was proud Jefferson had played all 76 games for the Wolves this year and that it was important to finish strong.

    I sat next to Stephen Litel of Hoopsworld, who mentioned that Jefferson’s voice indicated he had the flu or something before the game. He mentioned some other things about their interview that were interesting and that I imagine he will publish soon if he hasn’t already.

    In any case, the daily beat writers have duly noted that Jefferson is in a bit of a slump, at least statistically, lately. He’s already exceeded his career highs in games and minutes-played by a fairly wide margin. I still think his defense has begun to improve, although it is hard to know against Phoenix because Amare Stoudamire is like a man unleashed since the Shaq acquisition–he’s not only going beserk on offense, but deigning to cover his man with some diligence lately. Today against Memphis, the large mobile swingmen, Mike Miller and Rudy Gay, were the tandem that thrashed the Wolves, neither of them Jefferson’s man on D.

    2. Wittman Still Barking; Are Players Listening?

    Last year, I disrespected Randy Wittman’s performance because he walked in declaring that he was going to hold players accountable and then called out some players directly (Trenton Hassell) and indirectly (Kevin Garnett and his locker room leadership) while Ricky Davis personified corrosive dysfunction and Mark Blount laid down like a dog without a public peep out of Witt in either case.

    This year, Wittman hasn’t been afraid to pull out the carrots or the sticks on any and every player on the roster, and the absence of a double-standard represents an improvement. In the past week or so, the coach has also seemed particularly caustic–and specific in both the nature of his criticism and the punishment. Against Memphis, he told Marko Jaric and Corey Brewer exactly why they were being yanked as they went to the bench, and didn’t mince words with Randy Foye either.

    But there’s a chicken-or-egg dynamic that needs to be addressed here. If I was coaching the team the past two games, I’d go batshit on them too, probably–but is all that haranguing precisely why the effort and grit have begun to wane as the meaningless games pile up in the spring? It’s a very subtle line, but the body language exhibited by the players as they’re being blistered is less deferential and respectful, and certainly more dismissive. It is way too dramatic to say that Witt is "losing the team," given that there literally isn’t that much to lose, quite frankly, and that it is hard to motivate any ballclub that owns less than 20 wins in April. But if the idea was to finish strong–for example, Wittman said he was disappointed because overcoming Memphis in the standings had become a late-season goal–well, that isn’t happening, and there’s only six left to play.

    3. Shaky Cornerstones and Robust Afterthought

    There are few things worse that Rashad McCants knowing that it is garbage time–the "I’ll get mine" shots rain down–but two of them are Al Jefferson and Randy Foye being the abysmal catalysts for that premature garbage. Jefferson we’ve already discussed. Foye followed up two dreadful defensive performances against Detroit and Utah with a totally disinterested and mentally casual game versus Phoenix. After he inexplicably launched a airball three pointer for no reason whatsoever with about 15 seconds on the clock Friday, Wittman almost had no choice but to give him a quick hook, and indeed, McCants climbed off the pine almost before that stupid shot hit the floor.

    The theory I’ve been toying with as for why Foye has regressed recently has to do with leadership. He was obviously the heart and soul of a very talented Villanova team in college, and I assume the same was true in high school. His rookie year he’s naturally going to be very deferential to KG, yet he still manages to snag a niche–"4th Quarter Foye"–and make the all-rookie team. After Garnett was dealt this summer, Foye attended preseason media day loudly announcing that he was now the leader of this ballclub.

    Then he goes down before all this new personnel really gets a chance to see anything out of him. While he’s rehabbing, Jefferson steps to the fore, slathered in gushing praise from the VP of Personnel, who is essentially saying that Al Jefferson is the next Kevin McHale, and will someday eclipse even that. Now McHale had his reason for touting Jefferson so highly that are bound up in basketball philosophy, kindred styles, and butt covering on a huge trade that, even if successful in the long run, represents a failure for McHale for having to make it in the first place. But the net effect is that it is impossible for Foye to assert himself as even co-leader of the club any time this season.

    Foye’s most egregious mistakes this year–some weird statements about the point guard position, for example, and a lack of deference and feeding of Jefferson at crunchtime in favor of taking the shot–make more sense if you consider that he’s had to grapple with a setback in the pecking order as well as physically with his own body this season. The "little" things he hasn’t done well, like defend, and generate some consistency in terms of shot selection, reflect a player trying to figure out for himself what his role is on this team–and I don’t mean point guard or shooting guard; I mean co-leader with Jefferson, chief sidekick to Jefferson, crunchtime go-to guy, etc. As much as Wolves fans worry about him being able to play a set position, maybe an equal concern is whether he can accept a set role–like #2 guy, or less.

    Then there is Kirk Snyder, who w
    as probably the best overall Wolves player this weekend. Yes, Snyder’s defense has slipped a bit recently–he was one of the multitude who couldn’t guard Rudy Gay Sunday, but he draws fouls, gets to the rim, and dishes off penetration better than any none point guard on the club, and plays a hard, physical style that is very handy to have contained in your 8th, 9th or 10th man. Snyder could carve a role for himself at the end of a bench on a very good team, the one who steps in for 10-20 minutes a night for 2-3 weeks when injuries have depleted a roster and prevents a steep drop in quality of play and emotional momentum. He might even be more than that. Yet for about three solid weeks now, he has outplayed Corey Brewer. It says something about the Wolves’ doldrums that that passes for good news nowadays.

  • Unleash the Power

    MUSIC
    Nellie McKay

    Nellie McKay     is certainly like no other — and yet she draws from so many. Ella Fitzgerald one moment. Ethel Merman the next. Soon she abandons the piano keys and is off pantomiming some strange Broadway musical. A glimpse of the past. A peek at the future. She’s got grit alright, but the pretty-little-blond image throw you off, somehow makes the obscenities more a parody of themselves than truly obscene. She’s got talent, no doubt, but it’s the show that counts. She’s like a confused, grown-up Shirley Temple, always a performer, though. Always a performer.

    7 pm, Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $25.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Heal Your Body, Unleash the Power of Your Mind

    The mind and body are so much a part of each other, that to address one without the other — as we have come to do — is almost absurd. Forget almost; it’s absurd. Yet we do it. All the time we do it — so much so that now we have to relearn what was probably pretty organic at some point. And perhaps we need a guide. Dr. Rick Levy, a pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, is the perfect escort for those first steps, and beyond. Today, he’ll be discussing his new book, Miraculous Health: How to Heal Your Body by Unleashing the Power of Your Mind and showing us how using the mind to heal the body is not just a good idea; it’s hard science. Miraculous Health shows how the mind has the ability to help everyone heal from illness, injury or pain, and to prevent their occurrence in the first place. Don’t tell me you’re not interested in a better (simpler) quality of life?

    7 p.m., University of Minnesota Bookstore, Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-626-0559; free.

    WORKSHOP
    The Textures of Your Life: Healing through Art

    And more healing… "Reflect the rough and smooth places in your life as you experiment with various media in this introductory art exploration and support group. The process of discovery, not the product, is the focus. And everyone is welcome."

    12:30 – 3 p.m., Well Within, 1880 Livingston Avenue, Suite 103, West St. Paul, MN convenient to several major highways; 651-451-3113; $15 .

  • The House Rules

    Inside our marriage, my wife has arranged a division of labor. She’s a (marital) union teamster when it comes to tasks that I can and cannot do. Specifically, there are jobs around the house that are “Daddy Jobs” and others that are “Mommy Jobs.” As the man of the Smith Family House, these are the roles I perform:

    Pooper Scooper: Responsible for removing and cleaning anything in the house (including the yard, garage, and highly treacherous city alley) that is nasty, yucky, funky, stanky, or just plain gross. This often includes kid and animal poop, projectile vomit, dead rodents, and urine splashed across the bathroom like a Jackson Pollack painting.

    Evel Knievel: Participating in daredevil stunts (in the name of the family) that can cause both physical and mental pain. Activities include going to IKEA on a Saturday, hosting a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s, shopping at Ridgedale mall two days before Christmas, and riding a bike harnessed with a child carrier around Lake Harriet on the first day of Spring.

    The Fetcher: Must run out of the house or work to retrieve anything the wife needs. This includes retrieving food cravings (Punch Pizza, Steak salad from The Edina Grill, etc.), DVDs (the episode where Felicity cut off her hair, the original version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth — NOT the other one — or the entire fifth season of The Wire, etc.), groceries, Holy Water, school supplies for the children, feminine hygiene products, sea salt, a plunger, pharmaceuticals, and Burt B’s blemish sticks.

    Field Trip Coordinator: Includes taking the kid(s) out of the house for a substantial amount of time so that Mommy can get some peace and quiet. According to my wife, the instructions are simple: “I don’t care where you go or what you do. But do not come back home for two hours, or I will cut your balls off.” The Field Trip Coordinator is highly active immediately upon coming home from work and on weekends. Popular trips include the local park (where the Field Tripper conjugates with other Fathers, like buffalo at a watering hole), Target (it’s an oasis of distraction), the grocery store, the zoo, museums, and theme park restaurants where they serve food in fun shapes and fish swim in the walls. In doing his duties, The Field Trip Coordinator earns the dubious credit of being “the fun parent.”

    The Bouncer: Must eject anything or anyone that annoys Mom. This includes tossing out bratty playmates, long haired beatniks going door-to-door for the Sierra Club, Grandpa who squeaks out rancid silent farts in the living room, the pesky rabbit who eats all the plants, and telemarketers. Duty also intales talking to asshole neighbors, such as the alcoholic around the corner who watches porno on a 75-inch projection TV with the blinds open.

    The Reflector: Say these following statements to the wife and the house will run like a well-oiled machine: You have nice coloring. That outfit is very flattering. Your friends are really nice, but you definitely are the hottest. And… would a backrub help?

     

     

  • How Clinton Wrecked His Ferrari

    When you have enough money, you call your son Clinton or Caufield or something stilted enough to create an affect. You also (or so the guys at the Porsche dealership tell me) buy your kid a car he or she should never try to pilot. Of course, this results in great websites.

    The pictured vehicle is not a Ferrari. It is the new Audi exotic. Some stupid kid drove and wrecked the thing all the same. I cannot vouch for his name, but I am virtually certain it was not Bill, Barrack, or pray tell something as plain as "John."

    The sugar daddy was likely a big contributor to Bill or Hillary’s campaign and decided to give his first born by his fifth wife the naming rights. The new wife being of firmness other than mind decided to score still more points, perhaps, with the original political lothario.

    It seems recently, however, when the little Clinton screamed for his first car dumb Mommy went out and purchased an Audi instead of a beast from Maranello.

    This could be payback.

    And yet, it may not last for long. Read "Why Rich Kids Don’t Stay Rich."

  • Paper Tigers, etc: Seriously, People, It's Still Too Damn Early to Even Have This Conversation

    AP Photo, by Paul Battaglia

    I walk away happy as a clam from any baseball game that features a successfully executed suicide squeeze. It’s a great, gutsy, and increasingly rare play, and last night, with the Kansas City Royals in town (I actually heard some radio guy refer to them as the "red hot Royals"), the Twins –with ex-Astros (Adam Everett and Mike Lamb) at both ends of the squeeze– worked it to perfection. That, of course, was a good thing, since the Twins in the early going are once again playing like a team that needs to scratch and claw for every run.

    Eventually you have to suppose opposing teams are going to figure out a way to keep Carlos Gomez off base (the obvious solution: don’t give him anything to hit, let alone bunt), but right now he’s making it look easy, and with a guy who has that kind of speed leading off –and Joe Mauer hitting behind him– the Twins have the potential to manufacture a run every time he gets on base; once he gets on first he’s demonstrated he knows how to get around.

    As far as the anemic offense is concerned, there’s probably no point in getting too wound up about it just yet, even if the production (12 runs in five games) is disconcertingly reminiscent of last year’s misery. Surely, though, you’d think, the middle of the order will come around, and surely, you’d think, the bottom of the order can’t possibly be as bad as it was last year, even if you have the sinking suspicion that the bottom of the order very well could be as bad as it was last year.

    We’ve had several years now to watch Justin Morneau –and I’ve watched him very closely– and when the guy is going bad he’s an absolute train wreck. Right now he’s not even close to being right. I know he and hitting coach Joe Vavra have access to videotape up the wazoo, and I can’t for the life of me understand why Morneau has such a hard time figuring out what he’s doing wrong. I mean, yes, I know, it’s an extremely difficult thing, hitting major league pitching, but he looks anxious and off balance and he’s jumping at pitches and beating them into the ground. His first (and thus far only) hit this year might have been the only truly decent swing he’s had in five games, and it was exactly the kind of swing –waiting on a pitch he can’t pull and driving it the other way– that keys his success when he’s going good.

    The Cuddyer injury is unfortunate, but if it gets Jason Kubel a chance to play every day for a couple weeks it might be a blessing in disguise. I’m already tired of Craig Monroe (five strikeouts in nine at bats), and Kubel’s present situation resembles nothing so much as where Cuddyer was a few years ago. Kubel is now a couple years removed from his catastrophic knee injury, and it’s time to see what he can do when given a chance to play every day. I know there are plenty of folks out there who have given up on him, but anybody who saw the guy swing the bat in his minor league stops before the injury can’t help hoping he can still be the player he was once projected to be. And naysayers should keep in mind that Kubel is still just 25 years old.

    Another guy I really don’t like in the early going is Brendan Harris. He showed he could hit a little bit last year in Tampa Bay, but he appears to be seriously lost on defense. Even watching him in pre-game drills he looks stiff and hapless and clumsy around the bag. A good hitter can go through slumps at the plate that temporarily obscure how good he really is, but first impressions on defense are generally pretty reliable. And given the emphasis the Twins place on making the plays in the field, I think Harris is going to be on a very short leash.

    The good news: the starting pitching has actually been pretty damn stout. That was a very sharp and very encouraging comeback from Scott Baker last night (the guy had thrown 41 pitches through two innings, and managed to leave with two out in the sixth, a one-run lead, and a respectable pitch count of 84), and the bullpen looks to be as outstanding as ever. And after one turn through the rotation the starters have walked just one batter.

    Today we’ll get our second opportunity to marvel at Livan Hernandez, one of the most brazen slop tossers in the big leagues, a guy with the stuff to be a Town Ball ace. Try to just enjoy the show, and for the time being I’d advise you to fend off all thoughts of Ramon Ortiz and his April tease of a year ago.

  • At Cue: A Thinking Woman's Wines

    She may look like a lost cast member from Charmed, the former WB’s show for Gothic teenyboppers that featured beautiful, modern-day witches living in San Francisco, fighting evil lords, and dyeing their long, silky hair. But Jessica Nielsen is, in fact, the wine captain at Cue and a first-level accredited sommelier (which is rare these days, when most people calling themselves sommeliers actually are not) who spends every night circulating among the tables and making personal recommendations for the guests.

    If you have a yearning to see what this sorceress of a wine expert would select for you, now’s the time. Three reasons: First, the Guthrie Theater is on hiatus, so it’s easy to get a table, even at prime pre-show times. Second, chef Michael Delcambre recently introduced a new spring menu that features pan roasted chicken breast in a roasted lemon sauce and a beautiful grilled artichoke and ricotta ravioli. But third — and most important — Cue is putting all its wines on special until April 11.

    Management at Bon Appetit — the company that owns Cue and runs the food service operations at high-end colleges such as Macalester, St. Olaf, and Carleton — has come up with a hopelessly (and unnecessarily) complicated rubric for what they’re calling the Spring Cellar Celebration. What it boils down to is this:

    Wines from overseas will be offered at a 30% markdown this weekend, through Sunday, April 6. Wines from the Americas, both North and South, will be offered at the same 30% discount next week, until April 11th. All 35 by-the-glass options will be available 1/4 to 1/3 off at lunch only. There’s a special prix fixe lunch for $20 that can be paired with a flight for an additional $24 or $30, and a prix fixe dinner for $30 also with the two tiers of 3-ounce flights. And finally, on the 11th itself, Nielsen is adding a special Big Red flight that will cost you a mere $45.

    Got all that?

    Well, here’s the real deal. Word on the street is that Cue overbought on the pricey end of the wine cellar, and they’re trying to sell off those truly [for most of us] out-of-reach bottles so they can bring in more $60 and $90 vintages that real people can afford. So for the next 8 days, they’re willing to broker some pretty incredible deals on wines you may never, under normal circumstances, have an opportunity to taste.

    Plus, Nielsen is a pro. Put aside the fact that she looks barely old enough to drink, she has a great palate, an ear for the things that make a wine interesting — such as the fact that it was made from grapes shipped from one tiny French region to another, then casked in a way that makes the taste completely unlike other varietals of its ilk — and she’s willing to tell you what she doesn’t yet know. . . .then go find out.

    My advice: Go to Cue, forget their ridiculous "program" for specials, pick out the wine you like and ask if they’ll give you the discount. My guess is the answer will be yes. And if you’re so inclined, there are a couple extraordinary and unusual wines there that I think serious wine drinkers really should try.

    Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot, Meursault 2001 — a white Burgundy with a sunny, straw-like yellow hue, this is one of the wiliest wines I’ve ever drunk; full of butterscotch and oak, it has a looonngg finish that zings back on perhaps ten seconds after you’ve swallowed with a shot so mineral-rich it’s like having a stone land in your mouth. There is even [and believe me when I tell you, I liked this about it] a slightly fishy, oyster-y quality to this Mersault. A wine you must think about as you drink, if I were ever to drop $150 on a bottle of white wine, this might be the one.

    Nicolas Catena Zapata 2002 — a huge, formidable, conquistador of a red from Mendoza, Argentina, that comes in the heaviest bottle I’ve ever hefted (I swear, it weighs a good three pounds). Meaty, complex, and hot — the Zapata has 13.9% alcohol — it has layers of salt, saddle oil, tobacco, and plum, all suspended in a strong base of cello: the wood, the bow, the resin, and the sound. Never have I had to listen to a blend so carefully. . . .This is a $205 wine that will sell for roughly $140 on special, Monday through Friday of next week. And if you happen to show up for Big Red night on 4/11, it will appear on the $45 flight alongside a California Zin and an ultra-smooth Bordeaux.

     

  • All You Need Is a Mission

    FILM

    Box Elder

    Things are changing in the film industry. It’s true. We’ve gone from indie to super-indie, or something of the sort. Todd Sklar is of this new regional indie-auteur variety — the new school of film, or should I say video? With a new HD camera in hand, and a Cine Brevis 35-mm lens adapter, there’s no stopping a man with a mission. But dreams and possibilities aside, it’s what’s left on screen that really matters. Sklar’s latest film, Box Elder, makes its Twin Cities debut this evening (and continues through next weekend). Titled after a Pavement song (Sklar’s favorite band) as well as a noisy, annoying, passive-aggressive, yet harmless insect, Box Elder paints an unrestrained picture of a generation defined by these same characteristics. See what a touch of your typical privilege, potential, and self-induced paralysis can do to four friends in their last years of college.

    Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., The Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, 612-331-3134, $7.

    MORE FILM

    Leatherheads

    Dressed in 1920s attire, George Clooney and Renee Zellwegger began their Leatherheads tour with an appearance at the old Depot, in downtown Duluth. Now, we finally get to see the film. Directed by Clooney himself, Leatherheads
    offers a comedic tribute to the early days of pro football. Determined
    to keep his team alive after they lose their sponsor, Dodge Connelly —
    played by Clooney — brings in a college football star, better known as
    a local war hero, to recapture the country’s attention. Zellwegger, who
    plays a budding journalist, suspicious of the war hero’s
    too-good-to-be-true tales, take it upon herself to defraud the team,
    but in doing so somehow manages to make both men fall hopelessly in
    love with her. How will Dodge keep his team alive and get the girl? Go
    and see.

    AMC Southdale 16, 400 Southdale Center, Edina; 651-777-FILM.

    Under the Same Moon

    The story is nothing new: a Mexican mother goes to America, Los
    Angeles to be precise, in search of a better life for her child, whom
    she leaves in Mexico under the care of her mother. It’s "real," if
    nothing else. And it’s touching, if you’re at all moved by a mother’s
    love and a child’s determination. Director Patricia Riggen brings us a
    heartwarming tale addressing the controversial issue of illegal
    immigration. But her focus on nine-year-old Carlitos, and his physical
    journey to reunite with his mother, makes Under the Same Moon a most precious tale.

    Uptown Theatre, 2906 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-825-6006; $8.25 (seniors and children $5.75).


    Also opening this weekend, Meet Bill, starring Aaron Eckhart.

    DANCE
    James Sewell Spring Program

    Dancer/choreographer James Sewell
    made his way back home to Minneapolis in 1993, after a long stint in
    New York, bringing his company with him. Sewell began choreographing
    ballets in 1982, while at the School of American Ballet, in New York. He went on to dance with ABT II, an apprentice company of the American Ballet Theater, and then as principal dancer for the Feld Ballet. Once hailed by The New York Times as "one of
    American ballet’s best choreographers," James Sewell consistently
    delivers innovative and exciting pieces. This month, the company delivers its Spring Program at The O’Shaughnessy, with two Twin Cities premieres choreographed by Sewell himself: Social Movements and If This Then What. Also on the program are Table Waltz, choreography by Penelope Freeh, and By the Gypsy River Banks, choreography by Sally Rousse.

    Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., The O’Shaughnessy, College of St. Catherine, 2004 Randolph Avenue, Saint Paul, 651-690-6700, $31.

    MUSIC

    Bo Ramsey CD Release Performance

    While it’s all too possible you may not know Bo Ramsey’s
    name, you’re sure to have been touched by him somehow — whether as a
    musician or a producer of something wonderful you’ve heard. For
    whatever reason, Ramsey has drawn more attention from musicians than
    from the general public. Perhaps he’s simply not a limelight man, a
    fact confirmed by his many performances in the dingy, din-filled
    corners of The Deadwood,
    in Iowa City during the ’90s. But despite his understated fame, Ramsey
    has played a tremendous role in shaping the midwest blues-rock scene.
    He’s one of the original Iowa City blues-rock boys, along with Greg Brown, David Zollo, David Moore.
    In fact, Ramsey’s guitar work can be heard on their albums, many of
    which he has even produced. But Ramsey’s biggest call to the spotlight
    probably came from Lucinda Williams, who contacted him immediately after hearing Down To Bastrop in the early ’90s. So impressed was Williams with his inimitable guitar work that she invited him to play on her Grammy-winning Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, after which he joined her on tour — twice, as he went on to produce and play on her follow-up album, Essence. With his new CD, Fragile, due for release on April 8th, Ramsey is on a solo tour this time, and gracing us with his music.

    Saturday at 8 p.m., The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-388-2674; $18.

    Also on Saturday night, Black Blondie and Maria Isa will play at Trocaderos Nightclub.

    BOOKS
    Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow

    After the wretched transformation of Beowulf to film,
    the time is ripe for a modern-day monster tale we can all read and
    imagine (rather than ruin with trite images). And try as I might to
    disassociate Toby Barlow’s debut novel from this timeless classic, Beowulf keeps coming to mind. Clearly, the title, Sharp Teeth, could have something to do with this. As could the subject matter: werewolves in Los Angeles. But beyond that, Sharp Teeth
    is written entirely in blank verse — an odd choice perhaps, but Barlow
    masters it so effortlessly that we hardly notice, except to feel its
    commanding flow hastening us forward through the multiple plotlines.
    Granted, Sharp Teeth offers no mead, but if you’ve read John Gardner’s Grendel — a rather nihilist monster-POV rendition of Beowulf — you’ll recognize the strangely non-heroic approach to an epic tale. As in Grendel,
    Barlow’s tale has no true heroes. There is no clear sense of right and
    wrong; there is only the gray in between, and how you choose to
    navigate it.

    Saturday at 7 p.m., BirchBark Books and Native Arts, 2115 West 21st St., Minneapolis; 612-374-4023.