The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Good Riddance, March

    FILM & AUTHORS
    Ali Selim and Will Weaver Discuss Sweet Land

    St. Paul filmmaker Ali Selim’s Sweet Land,
    a Minnesota-made indie labor of love that garnered critical acclaim and
    spawned a minor cult, was adapted from Bemidji writer Will Weaver’s
    1989 short story “A Gravestone Made of Wheat.” The Rake’s Cristina Córdova will moderate the latest installment of The Talk of the Stacks
    series, as the auteur and the author discuss the long journey Weaver’s
    story took from the page to the screen. Both Selim and Weaver have
    interesting back stories (Selim has had a high-profile career as a
    director of television commercials, and in recent years Weaver has been
    working on a series of successful young adult novels and teaching at
    Bemidji State), so there should be no shortage of topics for
    discussion. —Brad Zellar

    Friday at 7 p.m., Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-630-6174; free.

    SOCIAL EVENT
    Grown Up Spelling Bee

    It has probably been quite a while since any of us have actually participated in a spelling bee — and I’m guessing most of us weren’t drinking back then, but maybe I’m wrong. Nonetheless, leave it to the 331 Club to introduce an event like this one. Test your spelling skills, have a beer between each round (or even a shot), and see how you make out. There is great fun to be had by all.

    Friday at 7:00 p.m., 331 Club, 331 NE 13th Ave., Minneapolis; 612-331-1746, $7.

    MUSIC BENEFIT
    Dan Jass and Others Rock the Alex White Plume Family Benefit

    According to Rake writer, John Ervin, Dan Jass is "a walking encyclopedia of the
    rock-and-roll canon. In addition to possessing a record collection that
    would make most DJ’s drool, as a performer he can match the guitar
    stylings of every master from Eddie Cochran to Eddie Van Halen. After
    working a day job for twenty years at Schmitt Music’s warehouse, Dan returned to singing and songwriting full-time." See him this weekend at the Alex White Plume Family Benefit — with John Munson, Nate Dungan, Red Ponie, Dana Thompson, Patches and Gretchen, and Shit-Fi.

    Saturday at 6 p.m., Wolves Den Native Coffee, 1201 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis.

    Also, on Sunday catch Lalgudi Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi at the College of St. Catherine or soprano Kathleen Battle at Orchestra Hall (2 p.m.).

     

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Graphic Novel Release Party

    Lars Martinson is leaving for Japan in just a few days, but before he goes he’s due for a little celebration. Join him and his friend Tim Sievert this weekend, for a double book release celebration: Tonoharu: Part One and That Salty Air. Rumor has it there will be an after party of some kind, too

    Saturday from 4-7 p.m., Big Brain Comics, 1027 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis612) 338-4390; free.

     

  • Is Italian Garbage Making You Sick?

    Photo by the Associated Press.

     

    While in Italy earlier this month, my husband and I cancelled our trip to Naples and headed instead to the north from Rome.

    We’d been going to visit the southern region mostly because we wanted to see Mt. Vesuvius and tour the wineries in Campania, where one of my favorite whites — Lacryma Christi, or Tears of Christ — is made. What kept us away? Garbage. It was, we heard, piled to overflowing on the streets of Naples, stinking up the entire place.

    It comes out now, the trash may be doing more than just producing an odor and scaring away tourists. It seems to be affecting the quality of food produced on the Italian peninsula, particularly buffalo milk mozzarella, the region’s most prized cheese.

    Health officials in several countries have confirmed that there are elevated levels of dioxin, a carcinogen, in shipments of buffalo mozzarella coming out of southern Italy. The governments of France and South Korea have actually banned imports of the cheese until the problem is taken care of. And sales around the world are declining fast: Last week, they were down 40 percent from last year. With widespread coverage of the issue, it’s likely they’ll continue to tank.

    Many local vendors have decided to stop carrying buffalo mozzarella from Italy and are recommending their customers try a domestic product instead.

    "We are not importing Italian buffalo mozzarella right now because of the concerns with contamination," says Mary Richter, manager of the cheese shop at Surdyk’s. "What we’ve found is even more popular is a company in California called Bubalus Bubalis that produces a very good buffalo-milk mozzarella. We can only get it in during the summer months, but if the demand is there, I think we’ll be able to start getting it pretty darn soon."

    Meantime, public servants in Naples are posing for photographs in which they’re very conspicuously eating Italian-made cheese and exclaiming over its superiority. And they always seem to be standing on perfectly clean, garbage-free streets. It’s a miracle.

  • 2008 Major League Baseball Forecast—National League

    Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images


    National League East

    1. New York Mets

    Johan Santana pitching in huge Shea Stadium without a DH in the opposing lineup sounds like a recipe for 20-25 wins. Depth and quality in middle relief will allow Pedro Martinez to become a dominant 6 inning #2 starter (if manager Willie Randolph is smart), and John Maine is ready to emerge as a solid #3. Offensively, the top 4 is pretty damn good–Reyes/Castillo/Wright/Beltran–but after that its seniors in decline (Delgado, Alou) and mediocrity (Ryan Church?! What’s the skeleton that got Lastings Milledge traded?). Brian Schneider is an upgrade over ‘roided Paul Loduca, but the Mets will win a weak division on the strength of their pitching and troika of stars (the top four minus Castillo).

    2. Atlanta Braves

    If they can stay healthy, they’ll be tough. Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar are good table-setters and a decent keystone combo; then come a quartet of mashers in Chipper, Teixeria (in a contract year, no less), a bulked up Francoeur who actually started taking a pitch or two last year, and the young moose McCann. But can Chipper stay healthy enough for his usual 125-130 games, let alone, 162, at age 36? More to the point, how many quality starts does the impressive but aged starting rotation of Hudson, Smoltz, Glavine and Mike f’ing Hampton have left? The bullpen is a little shaky and Mark Kotsay is no Andruw in center. I’m guessing Chipper pulls his normal duty (and produces accordingly), Teixeria and Francoeur are monsters, and everyone but Hampton hangs tough in the rotation, with Jaar Jurrjens (acquired in the Renteria deal with Detroit) a plus at #5. They’ll be in the wild card hunt before losing out to someone in the NL West.

    3. Philadelphia Phillies

    My oh my can they hit the ball, helped out by that bandbox home ballpark. No first baseman will knock in more runs than Ryan Howard; ditto Chase Utley at second, who enjoys the largest offensive advantage over his peers than players at any other position. MVP Jimmy Rollins is set for another 125 runs scored provided his hammies don’t snap, and Geoff Jenkins and Pedro Feliz are offensive upgrades at the bottom of the order in platoon with Jason Werth and Glen Dobbs. But what kind of pitching is there behind young ace Cole Hamels? Why would this be the year Brett Myers puts it all together? There’s a much better chance this is the year Jamie Moyers finally isn’t crafty enough to get people out varying speeds between 75-85 mph and spotting the corners. Kyle Kendrick? Adam Eaton? Does that sound like a playoff staff to you? And who is the genius who thinks Brad Lidge closing at Citizens Bank is a good idea?

    4. Florida Marlins

    The Marlins rebuild their roster for the same reason people pick scabs, because it hurts so good. The latest rip-it-raw swap brought them Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller for their best hitter (Miguel Cabrera) and pitcher (Dontrelle Willis) and will pay dividends (and save money) in about two years. By then, five-tool shortstop Hanley Ramirez and emerging star Jeremy Hermida will probably be on the trading block. Like Washington, Florida has no pitching to speak of besides closer Kevin Gregg, unless Miller develops in a hurry. Unlike Washington, there are a quartet of proven bats (Uggla, Willingham besides Hanley and Hermida), a breakout candidate in Mike Jacobs, and an intriguing comeback in the making with Jorge Cantu. Seventy-five wins would be an accomplishment.

    5. Washington Nationals

    Yes, there are some head cases that GM Jim Bowden has added to the ballclub, chief among them the wonderfully named duo of Lastings Milledge and Elijah Dukes. Together with hot corner stud Ryan Zimmerman, they will determine whether the Nats are a team on the rise or whether a new stadium is the only excitement. The pitching staff is horrible, and without the spacious confines of RFK Stadium to protect them this season.

    National League Central

    1. Chicago Cubs

    The Cubs will win a weak divison because of the depth of their starting rotation. Carloz Zambrano throws too many pitches but is a rubber-armed horse who can handle the work. Rich Hill and Ted Lilly are a pair of nasty lefties, and Jason Marquis and Ryan Dempster are higher-class retreads than one usually finds in the hindquarters of #s 4 + 5. Bobby Howry, Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol all possess quality stuff but does Wood have the stamina, Howry enough left, or Marmol the maturity to be the closer, or will it a baton-passing committee. Offensively, you’ve got to figure Soriano and Lee will have better years, Ramirez is uber reliable, and the 30-year old Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome will have Cubs fans gleefully spitting in each others’ faces pronouncing his name. Center fielder Felix Pie and catcher Geovany Soto look like a bright future up the middle, but the double play duo of Ryan Theriot and Mark DeRosa could use a makeover.

    2. Milwaukee Brewers

    Last year’s Brewers became one of my favorite teams. Portly Prince Fielder swatting home runs to left, right, and center yet finding his .618 slugging percentage only second best on the team thanks to the .634 posted by the Hebrew Hammer and reigning Rookie of the Year, Ryan Braun. The impossibly lanky Corey Hart knocking 24 dingers and swiping 23 bases as a six-and-a-half-foot leadoff man. JJ Hardy hitting a ton early and a few feathers’ worth down the stretch. Turnbow and Cordero tossing gas in the late innings. And yet the Brewers faded down the stretch and finished a titch above .500 at 83-79. The reason was defense: Fielder and Braun were as bad with the glove as they were accomplished with the bat. Despite the acquisition of Mike Cameron to vacuum up flies in center, swapping Braun and Bill Hall at outfield and third base isn’t going to get it done, and ancient Jason Kendall is about as bad as roly-poly Johnny Estrada behind the plate. Cordero is gone as the closer, replaced by the flammable Eric Gagne, and the rotation relies too much on young ace-to-be Yovani Gallardo and injury-prone Ben Sheets. Nevertheless, Fielder and Braun will continue to pound the ball, Rickie Weeks is due for his injury-free breakout at second, and Hart will prove last year was no fluke. Once again they’ll be loads of fun to watch and finish second behind the Cubs.

    3. Cincinnati Reds

    Another potent offense, especially if new manager Dusty Baker can change his spots and give heralded rooks like 1B Joey Votto and OF Jay Bruce 500 at-bats apiece. Alas, Bruce starts the season in the minors and Votto may platoon with Scott Hatteberg, a walking anti-Moneyball argument. Brandon Phillips and Jeff Keppinger both have some sock and decent gloves in the middle infield (although the Reds’ bandbox ballpark overrates Phillips’ vaunted offense), and Adam Dunn is a walk-homer-or-strikeout suspense machine who churns up divots trying to play left field. Will Ken Griffey Jr. maintain his improbable semi-healthy ways? Can Bronson Arroyo rebound will Aaron Harang maintains to provide the Reds with a bona fide 1-2 punch in the rotation? Can the ex-Brewer Cordero, a notorious flyball pitcher, retain his sanity (and that of his manager) closing in the Great American Ballpark? And can Votto and Bruce get a chance to compete for Rookie of the Year? If more than half of these questions are answered yes, the Reds will leapfrog the Brewers for second and perhaps even bag a pennant if the Cubs falter.

    4. Pittsburgh Pirates

    If they aren’t the most futile franchise in professional sports over the past two decades, than other franchises are certa
    inly losing quietly. But there’s hope here (not that we haven’t thought that before) in the trio of still-young arms in the starting rotation, led by lefty ace-in-the-making Tom Gorzelanny and buttressed by fireballing righty Ian Snell, with lefty Paul Maholm a decent #3 who won 10 games for a team that only trimphed 69 times last season. This is a make-or-break year for once promising lefty Zach Duke and Matt Morris probably doesn’t have anything but guile left. But the bullpen is in good hands with Matt Capps and Damaso Marte–don’t look now, but the Bucs have the second best pitching staff in the division. The lineup isn’t fearsome by any means, especially if Jason Bay doesn’t rebound from last year’s pratfall and 1B Adam Laroche gets off to another miserable start. I think both will rebound, Freddie Sanchez will continue to rake and Ronnie Paulino will develop into a quality catcher. But the rest of the lineup is forgettable. Every journey begins with a single step. Pittsburgh’s is fourth place.

    5. Houston Astros

    Their 4-7 hitters (Berkman/Carlos Lee/Tejada/Wiggington) sport classic beer-league physiques (I’m assuming an unjuiced Tejada flabs out a bit) and I’m anticipating that one or more of them will go with a major injury this season as a result. Roy Oswalt is a gritty sonavabitch on the mound and Jose Valverde gives them a closer unscarred by postseason failure, but overall the pieces don’t add up here. Hunter Pence and catcher J.R. Towles are potentially exciting young players but the Astros are neither contending nor rebuilding. They’re stuck.

    6. St. Louis Cardinals

    If Albert Pujols defies the odds and plays like Albert Pujols for an entire season, last place will be a foolish prediction for the Cards. But the deafening whispers are that Pujols still isn’t right from last year’s assortment of injuries, and if a dreadfully slow starting lineup with an injury-besotted pitching staff starts out 12-26 or something, Pujols may go under the knife in May. Then last place is inevitable.

    National League West

    1. Arizona Diamondbacks

    Their lineup is studded with young talent, their pitching staff is loaded even if Randy Johnson can’t come back, and together that should be enough to squeak by in the NL’s toughest divsion. Leading off is Chris Young, who hit 32 homers and stole 27 bases as 23-year old rookie. At short is 25-year old Stephen Drew, who knocked in 60 runs despite hitting an anemic .238. At the bottom of the order is Justin Upton, age 20, an offensive stick of dynamite who many scouts openly tout as a future superstar. It’s unreasonable to expect another monster year from vet Eric Byrnes, but corner infielders Conor Jackson and Mark Reynolds should compensate by upping their power numbers this season. And then there’s the pitching staff, led by arguably the game’s best 1-2 rotation combo, sinkerballer Brandon Webb and last year’s AL All Star game starter Dan Haren (acquired in a deal with Oakland). Micah Owings allowed a very respectable 1.28 WHIP last year (especially for a #3 starter) and lefty Doug Davis is an asset slotted at #4. Can the Big Unit loom large once again? If so, the Snakes could win 100 games.

    2. Colorado Rockies

    The Diamondbacks are best and the Giants are worst, but the middle three teams could finish in any order, and the best of the trio will earn the wild card. I’ll go with the Rockies because they’re not as young as people might imagine (and hence have more players in their prime) and because the fun generated by last year’s tsunami surge to the World Series has probably been a great off-season motivator. Matt Holliday might be ready to take over for Vlad Guerrero as the best hitting outfielder in baseball, and Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe are Vanilla personalities with Cherries Garcia rbi totals. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki deserved to be ROY instead of Ryan Braun by dint of grabbing the mantle of team leader and not letting a slow start at the plate deter fabulous defensive play throughout the season. Oh, and he came on enough to knock in 99 runs. This is a Rockies team that can hit on the road as well as at Coors (which isn’t quite the high-scoring palace it used to be before they put they deadened the balls in the humidor). Nevertheless, I put them behind the Diamondbacks, and in dogfight with the Dodgers and Pads, because they have the division’s fourth best pitching. Count me as dubious that closer Manny Corpas will post 2.08 ERA and 1.06 WHIP again, or that manager Clint Hurdle can make another stretch run with everyone in the pen pitching lights out and two kids, Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez, duplicating last year’s numbers. Put simply, the Rockies caught lightning in a bottle from August through October last year, and the hitting was more legit than the pitching. But Steve Francis had arguably the best season of any hurler in Rockies’ history, and that was real. Righty Aaron Cook should stay healthy, and even if Corpas takes a step back, he’ll be pretty good. Whoever wins the NL East or Central won’t want to face this team in the playoffs.

    3. San Diego Padres

    The conventional wisdom is that the Padres are all-pitch, no-hit, but there is more spark in that lineup than the conventional thinkers realize. Playing half their games in the toughest park for hitters in all of baseball, shortstop Kahlil Greene swatted 27 homers and third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff overcame a horrible start to launch another 18. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez had 30. Greene is 28 this year, the other two 26; all figure to take another step before hitting their prime. And Josh Bard likewise is a promising hitter due for an upgrade in his rbi’s. The problem is age in a spacious outfield, specifically erstwhile stars Jim Edmonds in center and Brian Giles in right, both now well past their apex. They will test the patience of current Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, the tall and talented Chris Young, and the gifted but frequently injured third starter, Randy Wolf. Greg Maddux is your everyday 347-game winner as #4 starter, and Justin Germano rounds out a deep rotation pitching in very friendly confines at Petco. In the bullpen, the abiding question is whether Trevor Hoffman’s late season meltdown finally marks the beginning of the end of his Hall of Fame career. If so, superb setup men Cla Meredith and Heath Bell have to prove one of them can take it to the next level.

    4. Los Angeles Dodgers

    I was tempted to put the Dodgers second out of affection for new skipper Joe Torre, freed from the once and future Bronx Zoo at Yankee Stadium. But despite a bevy of promising youngsters–especially 1b James Loney, Of Matt Kemp and 3B Andy Laroche–and the league’s best catcher in 25-year old Russell Martin, LA is still a year or two away from truly blossoming. I mean, this is a team whose home run leader was Jeff Kent, who hit 20–half his age. Juan Pierre and Rafael Furcal are go-go speedsters at the top of the order, but giving fat contracts to a couple of poor man’s Maury Wills isn’t the way to win in 2008. Free agent signee Andrux Jones will help at both the plate and in the field–expect a big bounceback from his .222/26/94 disappointment. And the Big Blue has the kind of deep and talented bullpen that Torre craved and never had his final years in New York, what with closer Takashi Saito and lefty-righty setup men Joe Beimel and Big Jonathan Broxton. Like the lineup, the rotation has depth and talent but no drop-dead superstar. The Dodgers shape up to be the best 4th place team in baseball.

    5. San Francisco Giants

    Speaking of all-pitch, no-hit, the post-Bonds Giants have the worst batting order in all of baseball, the decrepit keystone combo of Ray Durham and Omar Vizquel, has-beens like Rich Aurilia and Randy Winn, and either Aaron Rowand or Bengie Molina batting cleanup. But the pitching is rock solid, with budding star Tim Lincecum and tough-luck kid Matt Cain (7-16 despite a 3.65 ERA and 1.26 WHIP) threatening to supplant big bucks Barry Zito as the ace. Make no mistake, howev
    er: This is a baseball team going nowhere fast, stuck in purgatory as their karmic payback for enabling Bonds.

     

     

  • A True Cultural Ambassador

    I’ve spent the last year or so lauding the Dakota at every chance I get, but I have to admit that, until this week, I had never just gone there on faith, without first checking to see who was playing. The beauty of the Dakota, though, is its consistency. Go there any night, for any show, and while you might not be as fortunate as I was this past Wednesday, you won’t be disappointed.

    As luck would have it, I caught the Irvin Mayfield Quartet from New Orleans, now among the best jazz shows I’ve seen here in the Twin Cities.

    Not having started in the best mood for an evening out — and struggling to get comfortable in a small semi-circular booth directly in front of the stage — I have little to say about the show’s opening. It was pleasant, but perhaps lacked the energy required to jolt me back into my own skin after a most discomforting day.

    We ordered a bottle of Cava — a Dakota ritual at this point — and a lineup of the Chef’s features from the kitchen in hopes that this would help set the mood and ensure the fabulous evening we have come to expect from the Dakota. But, to be honest, the first course — Chicken Fried Quail — did nothing to the effect. I still wonder who would betray the delicate nature of the quail by cooking it with the clumsy boorishness of a chicken fried steak. But let me not dwell on one minor infraction that did little to taint a most excellent evening.

    As I pushed the quail aside, Irvin Mayfield presented the next number, from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. Ok. You have my attention. Now, please, oh please, let it be… Yes! "So What." Unbelievable!

    And unbelievable it was indeed. Carlos Hennriquez was exquisite on bass. And Mayfield’s trumpet echoed with Miles-ian coolness. I’m in!

    When they were done with that number, Mayfield joked about his bassist. "He just learned to play it last week," said Mayfield, "at the public library." This was the first of many jokes about the greatness of the New Orleans public library and their 25-year plan to rebuild New Orleans. It was also the start of the jokester jazz to follow — you know the kind, the kind where they actually have fun on stage.

    By the time our Surf & Turf got to the table — a lobster tail, a gloriously tender steak atop a risotto cake, and a few pieces of perfectly cooked asparagus with what I can only guess was a delightful béarnaise sauce — the band had picked up steam and the energy in the room was soaring. A perfect time to introduce the guest artist.

    Leon "Chocolate" Brown took the stage, with trumpet in hand, and after only a few notes of accompaniment to Mayfield’s intro, made his way to the mic to sing "Down on Burbon Street" with the beautifully melodic voice of a young Nat King Cole. Yeah! Now, we’re talking.

    After this, they started the real jam, and the real joking. Each musician took his turn, and each tried to top the previous one, while the others cried out in amazement, amusement, and wonder. "Oh, put your elbow into it," chided Mayfield as drummer Jaz Sawyer delivered his schtick, placing his elbow on the drum to hone the sound most masterfully. Sawyer stayed serious as he played, but broke out in laughter as soon as he passed the buck.

    "Let’s fly down, upside down, to New Orleans." Brown took the mic once more, bringing it back full swing as the audience roared.

    When trombonist Vince Gardner came back in, I confess, my hair stood on end (the hair on my arms, that is, which is plentiful) — a sure sign of sheer perfection, as far as I’m concerned.

    Then Mayfield and Brown put in the finishing touches, still smiling as they blew their final notes.

    These guys were having fun. And, man, were they good!

    From here you might say the show degenerated in the most perfect way. Or you might say this is where the show took root and really took off — into a true jazz show, in true New Orleans style.

    Mayfield took the mic to sing this time, a FEMA song, no less. The FEMA blues. "It cost us 650 million to rebuild," sang Mayfield, " then the government acts like we did something wrong." Brown chimed in for the second verse — about water, of course. And back and forth they went starting with FEMA, the flood, New Orleans, the library; ending with "your sister," who is really "your brother," who is really "your governor," who is really "your daddy" named Sarah. What an unholy mess! A most beautiful unholy mess! This is what jazz is all about.

    Finally, the two singers came together for a final chorus: "Meet me. Meet me. Meet me with your black drawers on. Meet me. Meet me. Meet me with your library card." Take it away trombone man!

    "You better pay your dues," cried Mayfield. And I couldn’t help but think about our own libraries here in Minnesota — about the shift from Minneapolis Public Libraries to Hennepin County Libraries, about the chaos, about the closed libraries and reduced hours, about the presentation I’m moderating tonight at the Central Library. "You better pay your dues." Yeah, I’ll swing by on Monday.

    I took the last bite of asparagus — still trying to figure out how exactly they managed to cook it to such perfection — and the drummer went mad. Holy shit! Never had I seen arms move so fast and with such precision. Beautiful. Most beautiful sound.

    Jaz "the animal" Sawyer, Mayfield calls him. "He won’t date you unless you have a library card."

    "Get up. Get on up." They went off on their next number, their last, and the horns came down into the audience as I got teary eyed. I’m lame like that, I admit. But when I’m moved my eyes inevitably water.

    As the horns made their way through the audience, everybody on their feet, clapping along, I realized that I had somehow lost my discomfort, that the table was no longer the wrong shape or size, and that the uneaten quail was worth every penny.

    The Dakota had done it again.

    Look for the Mayfield Quartet’s new album (which I purchased that night and haven’t stopped listening to since), available on April 1st.

  • Minnesota v. Chicago Actors

    I’m from Chicago. Chicagoans are different than Minnesotans. Everyone is different than Minnesotans. OK, everyone is different than everyone, but I live in Minnesota now, so Minnesota is what I think about.

    When you move to Minnesota, everyone warns you about the passive-aggressive thing. So, you nod and think that you’re prepared. But you’re not really prepared because all your life passive-aggressiveness has been the punch line of a joke on a sitcom. Someone who obviously has no life and incredibly bad taste in shirts, holding his or her hand up to the neck in some kind of clichéd gesture of vulnerability, expresses the opposite desire from what he or she really wants. On television, they usually do it in a high-pitched voice – as though shrillness makes it funnier.

    Here, in Minnesota, in reality, however, otherwise normal people – people who wear nice suits and dresses, who look good and not crazy atall – Here in Minnesota, even these types of people won’t tell you what they’re really thinking. And they do it in clever ways that make it almost impossible to know that they aren’t telling you what they’re really thinking. Not only are Minnesotans passive-aggressive, they’ve got passive-aggressive skills. They’re good it. It’s really passive. It’s oddly aggressive. It works.

    What does this have to do with my play? Bare with me: Chicago is the City of Big Shoulders. Chicago prides itself on its blue-collar, hard-working, straight-shooting, big, blunt citizens. Chicagoans aren’t exactly aggressive-aggressive as much as they are just, kind of, there. Raw. Decades of slaughterhouses and corrupt politics have nurtured a rough-around-the-edges, unpretentious, bloody, messy thereness.

    The character of each city can actually be experienced in the way that theaters do plays. When Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago did a production of Craig Wright’s Orange Flower Water, a play about adultery, there was screaming and shoving. When the Jungle Theater in the Twin Cities on Lyndale did it, well, there was less shouting. People in Minnesota shout less. In general, Minnesotans are more restrained, more stoic. They aren’t really precisely passive as much as stolid. Live theater reflects the community. Hence, the same play is entirely different in a different place.

    Unfortunately, because I grew up in Chicago and because I wrote the original version of this play Everywhere Signs Fall ten years ago, there is a certain blunt thereness to the characters that is hard to explain if you didn’t grow up in Chicago. It’s like trying to explain Jewishness to someone. You can read all the books and know all the rules but there is a certain indefinable something. Example: During the Guthrie’s basically enjoyable production of Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was watching a play about the Irish immigrant experience rather than the Jewish immigrant experience. It was just a feeling. While the actors were excellent, there was something indefinably not Jewish about them.

    The Chicago acting style has a clear but hard to pinpoint approach. So does Minnesota. Chicago actors are raw, loud – sometimes like a really cool looking bull in a china shop. Minnesota actors are restrained. They’re never false. They’re smart. Intellectual and effective. Their choices are like surgical punches that land. They’re clear and talented and hard-working. But – and – they are stolid. Restrained. Their instinct is to pull back. Like their town.

    In this play Everywhere Signs Fall, the characters are working very hard to avoid dealing with the problems they should be confronting. They’re distracted and desperate and irrational. It’s like the house is on fire, but they’re trying to pretend its not. But then moments come for the characters when they can’t ignore that they’re burning and they explode in fear or rage or desperation or humor. Something unrestrained. And aggressive.

    I’m just describing how strange it is to watch a play being rehearsed and realize how many ways it can be altered, changed, and adjusted because of the different live energies that different live actors and acting styles bring to a script. Even geography effects the final production.

    In case you didn’t know it already, in case you’ve heard it but didn’t really believe it, in case you really did think that “Live theater is always different” is as much a performance cliché as “I’m just taking it oneday at a time” is a sports cliché, please believe me that live theater is always different. I don’t mean that someone might flub a line or forget a few pages of dialogue or say a certain line in a slightly different way. I mean that the show you watch on Thursday and what you feel and think when you watch it will be entirely different the next time you see that play – depending on the actors who do thescript, the town in which you’re watching it, the size of the audience, the style of the director, the weather, the stage, the day, etc., etc., etc.

    I’ve heard poets say that their poems should mean different things to different people. In theater, we actually dramatize the concept.

    If you don’t believe me, you should spend the next month seeing a few plays three different times. As an added bonus, if you actually pay for three tickets to the same show, you’ll earn the undying love of every theater in town. Love is good. Enjoy.

  • The Three Pointer: Back To Earth

    Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)

    Game #70, Road Game #34: Minnesota 86, Houston 97

    Season Record: 18-52

    1. Stubborn Smallball

    Let the record show that Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes tied for the "best" plus/margin (-4) among the 9 Wolves who played in tonight’s 11-point loss to Houston, that Luis Scola had the Rockets’ only minus at -1 and that Dikembe Mutombo was second-worst among the Houston’s starters at plus +3. Despite all these numbers, you can’t convince me that the Wolves were better off playing smallball versus this Houston team. They were soundly beaten on the boards, 58-38, lost the points in the paint battle by double-digits (sorry, can’t find the numbers for it) and also yielded more second-chance points due mostly to the plethora of Rockets putbacks by the bigs.

    The Rockets’ front line of Mutombo/Scola/Shane Battier finished with 14 offensive rebounds; the Wolves front trio of Jefferson/Gomes/Kirk Snyder had 19 defensive rebounds–a weak plus +5 rebound margin cleaning their defensive glass. And don’t look to the backcourt for bailouts, because these Rockets battle and box out. Randy Foye and Marko Jaric totaled 3 rebounds *combined" while Tracy McGrady had 11 on his own.

    It would have been nice to see Chris Richard or Michael Doleac matched up with Mutombo instead of Jefferson, who shot 9-21 FG and was appropriately pissed that he wasn’t getting enough touches at times in the second half. As much as I love Ryan Gomes, I’d much rather see Jefferson scrapping for rebounds against Scola, the hands-down Rookie of the Year (it’s not close) and one leather-tough hombre in the paint, who snagged a career-high 18 boards going against Gomes. Put Gomes out on his stylistic mentor, Battier, who had a rotten game on paper–3-12 FG, 1-7 3pt, 5 turnovers–and yet played such superb help defense against Jefferson and in deterring penetration and in rotating over that you understand how a team coached by Rick Adelman–a great offensive coach–is doing such a good job limiting points.

    A legit center beside Jefferson and Gomes would kick Kirk Snyder back to the backcourt to split minutes with Marko Jaric guarding McGrady who played like he was in significant pain for most of the night (he was, he has a sprained shoulder and wasn’t even expected to play) but rose to the occasion at crunchtime. More on that in a minute. The point is, Snyder and Jaric and McCants in the backcourt along with Randy Foye. And if you really are trying to win the game, forget about the confidence-depleted, late-season thin man Corey Brewer trying to stop T-Mac, who almost literally shrugged him off a couple of times going up for jumpers. Jaric, who did such a beautiful job hounding McGrady during the nail-biter the teams played at Target Center, was a little less effective tonight, but probably a titch better than Snyder.

    Bottom line, if Mutombo insists on guarding Jefferson, force Battier to run around with Gomes on the perimeter, spot up Doleac for little step-out pops against Scola, or have Chris Richard sealing Scola off the boards.

    It probably wouldn’t matter. In Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry, the Rockets have a couple more sweat-equity ‘tweeners coming off the bench who are better than Richard and Chris Smith (who combined for 2-5 FG and just 2 rebounds in more than 25 minutes of collective action). The string of patsies are temporarily over. You can see how this ballclub could afford to let Snyder languish on the pine without so much as a second or third look.

    Speaking of which…

    2. The Uneven Adventures of Kirk Snyder

    The guy with the Mr. Potato Head nose had a sparkling, maybe even thrilling, first quarter. It was the hackneyed story of the neglected dude traded away and now come to wreak vengeance and expose the traitor traders for their blind stupidity. Even with Battier on him (although Battier wasn’t necessarily making him the top priority), Snyder began by getting to the rim–his shots were layups, dunks, putbacks, and thus some free throws to boot. But better yet, he freelanced from penetration and maintained that drive and kick game he had flashed against the hapless Knicks last time out, doling dimes to Gomes, Jefferson, Foye and Gomes again to finish the tightly contested (23-24) first quarter with a triple double flirtation: 7 points, 4 rebounds (half the team’s total), and 4 assists (out of the team’s 7).

    Alas, the thing Snyder had the most of after that whirlwind first period was turnovers–5 of them, to total six miscues for the game. He also added a mere 5 points, two rebounds and two assists in the final three quarters (in which he played 18:13 to Brewer’s 17:47 after going all 12 minutes of the first) to finish with a respectable line, if not exactly the triumphant payback he’d hoped. But the numbers aren’t usually the story anyway with Snyder. He seems to play with a little bit of mean streak, and I vacillate between liking and frowning at that side of his makeup. On the one hand he makes the hustle plays that we all want to pin gold stars on Brewer for accomplishing. In the first half tonight, he had enough juice and foresight to hightail after Marko Jaric after Jaric had made a steal and subsequently blown the contested layup (big surprise, eh?), slamming home Jaric’s too-strong finish. Conversely, there was a play during Snyder’s second half turnover spree where, after the faulty pass, he flew down the floor trailing a Rockets’ 3-on-1 drill, and it took two nifty bits of execution–a feed back from T-Mac under the hoop to a driving Scola, who double pumped under Snyder’s flying block attempt to lay it in–to prevent him from making a glorious recovery.

    Coach Wittman clearly likes Snyder’s game, but also knows the downsides. The other day he likened Snyder to McCants, in that both can do stupid things due to overweening aggression, but since the vice and virtue of it are so close together, you have to accept the whole package. And after the Wolves had failed to score for about two and a half minutes early in the third period, we saw the vice and virtue collide as one–Snyder took the ball right up the gut and challenged Mutombo with an audacious slam-dunk attempt. The shot was missed–Snyder left his feet just inside the foul line–but he drew the foul on Mutombo even as he was driving his forearm into Mutombo’s jaw.

    Maybe everything that happened after that looked more soap operatic than it was–it’s hard to know watching on television. But the 41-year old African, who had been honored at halftime for his amazing humanitarian work building hospitals in his native Congo and other countries, didn’t take kindly to the shot in the kisser and began jawing at Snyder from his spot in the lane as Snyder shot the free throws. And right there, Snyder went back to being the contemptible scrub, called out by the distinguished vet, in the eyes of his former teammates. He missed the second free throw and began to get picked on–McGrady and Battier both went at him when he was playing D, and at the other end, his passes were getting picked off more frequently. But whether or not there was a little extra emotion out there, it’s unimpeachable that Snyder already has delivered more dividends–and the promise of more still–than the man for whom he was traded, the immature Gerald Green. But it is also true that, unlike the Wolves, Houston has a lot of guard-dog athletes that made Snyder reasonably redundant.

    3. A Few More Quick Things

    Randy Foye played his worst game in quite awhile and simply seemed mentally out of sorts the entire contest. He chucked his first ill-advised jumper 14 seconds into the game, and, aside from a really pretty reverse back to either Gomes or Jaric in which he dribbled left and then spun and tossed it back to right elbow, h
    e had the sort of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey shot selection reminiscent of Troy Hudson, both in shooting quickly on the shot clock, turning down some good looks, and taking a heat check after one basket (and that one was a lucky bounce that went way up and fell through the hole). He finished 2-8 FG, with 4 assists and 5 turnovers and but one rebound, far below his recent averages. No, this is not a call for Foye to be labelled a bust at the point–he had a bad game. Just as I needed two or three good games to bump me off the notion that Foye is overmatched running an offense, I’ll need this lack of court instincts reprised a couple or three more games before the serious doubts creep back in.

    Rashad McCants likewise had a mostly off-kilter evening, until he finally rediscovered his stroke early in the 4th quarter, exploding for 7 points in the first 2:27 of the period to cut a 60-69 deficit to 70-72 with 9:33 to play. The comeback was doomed when Shaddy chose to try and make incidental contact into a whistle, awkwardly chucking a long airball, which Houston converted into a McGrady jumper on the next possession. Once again we have a situation where McCants rallies the ballclub partway back. He has a knack for turning potential blowouts into more engaging defeats–and no, that’s not a compliment. It is always fun to watch him stroke the long jumper or negotiate the thicket on a drive to the hoop–he leads the team is visually pleasing points by a huge margin–but this 1-7 FG through 3 followed by 5-8 FG in the fourth is something we’ve seen before. What we haven’t seen, aside from a very early win over Sacramento, are that glittering stroke and those creative treks to the rim spelling the clearcut difference between a victory and a defeat.

    Only caught a little of the Phoenix-Celts game, but what a different enviroment for Kevin Garnett. Like everyone else, he abused Amare Stoudamire’s matador D and banged in 30 points, but can anyone imagine him playing more than 30 minutes without a single defensive rebound while here in Minnesota? Or that his team would win by 20 over one of the supposedly elite NBA teams?

    The San Antonio tilt is not televised except for League Pass and I’ll be out of town on another assignment during the Sunday home game against Utah. I’ll throw up an open thread for Sunday evening for those who want to chime in.

  • One Heck of a Classy Evening

    WINE & DINE
    Dinner with The Rake

    Join us tonight for a Dinner Party at Via’s Cafe. Meet Ann Bauer and Jeremy Iggers, as well as other Rake
    staff and readers, and enjoy a wonderful meal of warm cheese,
    apricot chutney, roasted garlic, braised baby artichoke salad, organic
    garden greens, smoked coffee-rubbed Kobe beef brisket, fingerling
    potatoes, roasted baby vegetables, chocolate pot de creme, and sour
    cherry biscotti.

    6 p.m., Via Cafe & Bar, 6740 France Ave. S., Edina; 952-928-9500; $60.

    FILM
    Spotlight on Naomi Kawase

    Naomi Kawase was only 27 years old when she won the Camera d’Or award for Moe no Suzaku, a film she both wrote and directed. Now, eleven years later, we have a rare opportunity to see two of her more recent films, Birth/Mother (Tarachime) — a documentary about the traditional Japanese birth of her son — and The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori) — another award-winning film about an unlikely friendship between an old man with dementia and his young nurse. The best part, of course, is that in great Walker tradition, Kawase will be on hand to introduce her film.

    5:30 and 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7600; the first film, Birth/Mother, is free, the second is $8 (members $6).

    MUSIC
    Dvorak and Rachmaninoff

    Dvorak’s Cello Concerto is a romantic work of unabashed
    grandeur, with a lush and lyrical first movement, a pensive and
    ethereal middle, and a swelling, pile-driving, rondo-form finale that
    briefly pauses to dredge up elements of the first two movements before
    coalescing into a passionate crescendo. Sommerfest artistic director
    Andrew Litton will conduct Scandinavian cellist Truls Mork, who
    recorded the work with the Oslo Philharmonic for Virgin two years ago.
    Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances is the perfect
    after-intermission refresher, a neat mixture of romance, rhythm, and
    modernism. Like the Cello Concerto, it benefits from being one of the
    later works of its composer. Walton’s fun, quirky and deceptively
    difficult Scapino Overture leads the program. —Britt Robson

    7:30 p.m., Orchestra Hall,
    1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-371-5656; $25-$72.


    Bach, Vivaldi, Sierra, and Telemann — Oh, My!

    Guest conductor Paul Goodwin will lead the The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra tonight — and for the next three nights — for a performance featuring Bach’s Brandenburg No. 1 in F, with SPCO concertmaster Steven Copes on violin. But the clincher is guest guitarist Manuel Barrueco — probably one of the world’s greatest living guitarists — performing on Vivaldi’s Concerto in D for Guitar and Orchestra and Sierra’s Folias for Guitar and Orchestra. Also on the program is Telemann’s Ouverture in C.

    Tonight at 8 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church, Stillwater; Friday at 8 p.m., Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie; Saturday at 8 p.m., Saint Paul’s United Church of Christ, Saint Paul; Sunday at 2 p.m., Benson Great Hall, Bethel University, Arden Hills; 651-291-1144; $10 and $25, kids $5.

  • Investigating Accidents On Stage

    Everywhere Signs Fallis about a brother and sister who travel around the country investigatingaccidents. They interview and record people who have experienced accidents thathave changed them somehow, then they pack up and head to the next town. Whenthe play begins, we see Juliet and Jeremy interviewing a down-on-his-luckbartender in a hot, seedy motel room in the Phoenix, Arizona in the middle ofthe summer. It’s hot. It’s very hot. And something isn’t exactly right. . .

    And so it begins.

    The way we’re describing it in our press materials is: “EverywhereSigns Fall is a thrilling psychologicalrollercoaster ride set in a steamy hotel room in hot, seedy Phoenix, Arizona. Outof the Past meets Donnie Darko; Petrified Forest crossed with Memento. After losing their parents under mysteriouscircumstances, Jeremy and Juliet take to the road, recording and analyzingrandom accidents around the country that have changed the course of people’slives. When they bring a down-on-his-luck bartender back to their hotel roomfor an interview, their investigation takes a dark, deadly turn. This play isfor anyone who has ever experienced loss and wondered about whether fate orfree-will control our destiny.”

     Other things you should know about the play:

    • They’ve got video equipment. In Jeremy’s words, “We’re really scientific.” Which means that we get to not only have incredible live actors on stage but also beautiful close-ups of their photogenic and expressive faces. We get to do this within the context of the play itself rather than with some large and strange video screen behind the actors that gives nothing more than the impression that someone in the theater thought they had to be multimedia in order to be cool.
    • The scenes take place out of order – hence the reference to the film Memento above – and, for some reason, I’ve taken this as an opportunity to do cool things with sound too. (You’ll have to see the play to discover the reason.) We’ve got Ivey award winning sound designer Mike Hallenbeck helping us out; sometimes you  just increase one element of a play’s content because you have the chance to work with someone so good.
    • Film noir is fun. A hot motel room. A mysterious stranger. A dangerous investigation. A young beautiful girl. Somewhere in the process of writing this play I slipped in to certain film noir tropes. Some people associate film noir, it seems, with dark lighting, brooding actors, and windows whose blinds are always down in order to make that slatted light effect on a person’s face. What I notice now that I’ve been watching and watching different films is that all the dialogue is damned funny and the characters are usually more amused than depressed. They’re active and strong, and they know what they want and how to get. It’s just the damn corrupt world that keeps getting in their goddamned way. O, and they aren’t really angels themselves either. . . I don’t know. Sounds like life to me.
    • The play isn’t film noir. It’s noir-ish.

     

    After two evenings of rehearsal everyone is still feelingtheir way just to the place where they can actually see the way in front ofthem and my thoughts aren’t coherent enough to share. I’m still processing. Ican say that John Middleton can go from looking like a Classics Professor at asmall liberal arts college to Humphrey Bogart just by the way he holds hisshoulders. And Tracey Maloney looks nowhere near the age of the birthday she iscelebrating today. . . I have sometimes seriously thought that we all couldmake more money in theater if we could somehow market it as a real Fountain ofYouth. Think about the theater people you may know in this town. Can you reallyaccurately guess their age? Odds are better than average that you’reundercounting by at least ten years. Isn’t this the type of secret everyonewants to know? If only we could bottle it. . .

    Tomorrow, I think I’ll have something more specific to say.For now, let me remind you of the reservation hot line to see this modern takeof a film noiry premise live on stage. 651-228-7008

     

  • Smyngus Dingus: Bedlam Theatre's Polish Festival

    This is pretty short notice, but the Bedlam
    Theatre’s     Jim Bueche reports that today is Smyngus Dingus, a famous Polish holiday.

    "It
    traditionally is a courting holiday" says Bueche; "a young man would ask the
    mother of a girl he fancied for access to their home in the early
    morning.  If access was granted he would come in with a bucket of water
    and dump it on his sleeping object of affection.  For the most part it
    seems the young ladies were happy to be fancied, and to show thanks they’d rise
    and beat the suitor with a pussy willow branch (Smingus.)  So, the full
    name for the holiday is Smingus Dyngus, with dyngus being the dumping of the
    water."

    To
    celebrate, the Bedlam Theatre has a whole evening of activities planned,
    including a happy hour (4-7 p.m.), egg decorating (5-7), speed dating (7-8),  a $5 Polish mini-buffet (5-9 p.m.) and
    music, live and recorded, from 8 pm to 1 a.m. , featuring the amazing duo,
    Dreamland Faces: Karen Majewicz plays accordion, Andy McCormick plays singing saw, and the music they
    make together is both eerie and beautiful.

    Bedlam Theatre,  
    1501 S. 6th St. (on the West Bank), Minneapolis, 612-341-1038. 

     

  • Ladies' Night

    Girls, ya’ll got one
    A night that’s special everywhere
    From New York to Hollywood
    It’s ladies night, and girl, that feeling’s good

    Oh, yes, it’s ladies night
    and the feeling’s right
    Oh, yes, it’s ladies night
    Oh, what a night

    Nothing like starting out with a little Kool & the Gang, eh? (I’ll bet you thought I was going to say Tom Jones.)

    Ok, ladies, we have some special events for you tonight, so get out your Girl Power t-shirts, with your matching pink purses, and get ready to take over the world. Or… just dress comfortably, relax, and enjoy the evening.

    WORKSHOP
    Front Runners: Women with Political Ambition

    Has Hillary Clinton gotten votes simply due to her gender? Probably. Has she lost votes due to her gender? Certainly. I have no big arguements to make here — or candidates to support — but… it’s always a gender issue. Gender is an issue; what can I say? (As is race, of course.) And for women it’s still an uphill battle on the political front. Tonight, Front
    Runners     is offering a leg up in an effort to even the playing field a bit, or at least get women more engaged. Interested in electoral politics? Join this evening’s workshop for women at the
    State Capitol. Meet women members of the Minnesota House and Senate and take the Women’s History Tour of the Capitol.

    6 p.m., State Capitol Rotunda, St. Paul; free, but RSVP to Debra Fitzpatrick.

    WINE & DINE
    Women & Wine Party at the Guthrie

    Sure, I’m no girly girl. I love a cheap whiskey in the grimey shadows of a good dive. But every now and then, a girl has just got to go out in style: a little class, a little wine, a host of beautiful people — you know the kind, the good kind, the kind with brains. Ahh. And who doesn’t like a late night happy hour? Head over to the Guthrie’s Target Lounge tonight for a glorious evening of wines, cocktails, music (by local female DJs, no less), and great company all around.

    9-11 p.m., Target Lounge, Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612-377-2224; free.

    FILM
    The Wild Wild North

    "The law of the land is the gun in your hand…the Further North you go…" reads the tagline for writer/director James Snapko’s latest film. And Further North takes this pretty seriously as it explores murder through the lives of five people. Perpetrator, victim, conspirator, avenger, bystander — each one of the characters has some relationship to murder, and all of them, though traveling different paths, end up on the same road in Northern Minnesota. See the advanced screening this evening, hear from the director himself, as well as cast and crew, and follow it up with an after party at Stubb & Herbs.

    7 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; $9, students $7, MFA members $5.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Literary Trio

    Minnesota Literature has three literary events listed for tonight that all sound rather interesting, so take your pick:

    The Voice of Poetry reading features Minnesota writers reading poems in Korean, Swedish, Japanese, Yiddish, Vietnamese and Spanish. 7 p.m., Loft Literary Center, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.

    The S.A.S.E. GLBT Reading Series features Elizabeth di Grazia and Lyda Morehouse, with hosts John Medeiros and Andrea Jenkins. 7 p.m., Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis.

    Playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and musician Suzan-Lori Parks will read from her work, provide commentary, perform songs on guitar, and answer questions from the audience. 7:30 p.m., Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 Fourth St. S., Minneapolis.