The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Love Is All Around (but it may be hiding)

    DANCE
    No Tiaras, No Tutus — Ballet of the 21st Century

    Minneapolitans beware: The Chamber Ballet of Saint Paul is vying for the spot of "Minnesota’s premiere professional ballet company." Artistic Director Phillip Carman has crafted a Debut performance — featuring eight of the Twin Cities’ top dancers — that brings classical ballet into the 21st century by adding elements of contemporary dance in innovative ways. The Debut program, which begins this evening, consists of four pieces — two of which are world premieres. "The hypnotic performance of Andrew Lester, in L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune will leave you breathless, while the passion and longing of Coeur d’Amour made our Italian audience in Ascoli Piceno weep with its sensitivity in August 2006." Also on the slate — and making a world premiere — Nightmusic offers an exploration of Mozart’s music, while In the Moment offers cutting edge choreography. Sure, you can catch performances on Friday and Saturday, as well, but this evening’s performance includes the option of a black-tie reception at the St. Paul Hotel. If you really want to make a night of it, you’ll just book one of their romantic packages and spend the night in joyful bliss — with a loved one, of course.

    8 p.m., Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; 651-290-1221; $37.50-$47.50, black tie dinner & show $145.

    FILM
    La Bohème

    What better way to spend your Valentine’s Day than
    taking in La Bohème, a silent, melodramatic classic at the beautiful and, dare
    we say, sexy Heights Theater. This 1926 film, based on the Puccini standard,
    has all the usual suspects: the tragic
    Mimi, a consumptive, and her jealous lover, the Bohemian poet Rodolfo. Their
    love affair and eventual separation unfolds in all its emotive glory to the
    luscious sound of the Wurlitzer organ. Lillian Gish, then one of the cinema’s
    brightest stars, personally chose the great King Vidor to direct, and the
    result is a beautiful and touching movie that will send you and your beau home
    in each other’s arms. —Peter Schilling

    7:30 p.m., Heights Theater, 3951 Central Ave. N.E., Columbia Heights; 763-788-9079; $8.

    MUSIC
    Who Says Sweet Has to Be Soft?

    If heartbreakingly sweet vocals are more your style for the big V-day, then head over to the Triple Rock for The Redwalls show. The Chicago quartet offers an evening of "rambunctious ass-shaking stomp, raucous energy, and meticulous R&B pop and rock."

    9 p.m., Triple Rock Social Club, 629 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612- 333-7399; $12.

    THEATER & PERFORMANCE
    Teatro del Pueblo’s Political Theater Festival

    If you ask me, the best way to spend V-day is exploring Latin American social political issues. That’s right; you heard me. What reasons can I give you? Well, first off, we’re the hot-blooded lovers, right? (That’s what they say, anyhow.) Reason number two: we’re very (and I mean very) passionate about our politics — and passion is certainly what the day calls for, in one form or another. And finally, Valentine’s Day is actually named after two Christian martyr’s — both named Valentine — and certainly that’s somehow more in keeping with "theater of the people" (the literal translation of Teatro del Pueblo, the group putting on tonight’s show) than spending a bunch of money on a fancy dinner. The Seventh Annual Political Theater Festival includes a number of plays, all by Latino playwrights: Hurricane in a Glass, by Kimberly del Busto; The Great All-Dominican Championship Playoff Game, by Rubin Rice Lichtig; Out of Cordoba, by Hector Roberts; Variation on Mixed Generations, by Eric Silva Brenneman; and For Mi ChiChi, by Tere Martinez. The show also includes two premiere interactive plays by Dominic Orlando and Papers of Antigone, a dance/performance piece by the Columbian group NAME. New this year will be a world premiere retrospective art exhibit of the political paintings of Spanish painter Santiago Zarzosa.

    8 p.m., Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-871-4444; $15, students, seniors, fringe $13.

    For more Valentine’s day ideas, see Jeremy’s Iggers blog post, "Dinner and a Show? — Valentine’s Day." And while you’re at it, check out some of our other great online stories.

  • Music of Love (and Hate) on Valentine's Eve

    MUSIC
    New Orleans Piano Master Allen Toussaint

    If you know New Orleans R&B, you know this man. Allen Toussaint has been producing hits for half a century, teaming up with some of the country’s best musicians, and inspiring others to record his songs with great success. Bonnie Raitt recorded "What is Success," Warren Zevon recorded "A Certain Girl," the Jerry Garcia Band recorded "Get Out of My Life Woman," The Band recorded "You See Me," The Who recorded "Fortune Teller" — all Toussaint songs. And tonight, you can have the pleasure of hearing him for yourself.

    7 and 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $50, $40.

    Break the Habit

    Ok, I love New Orleans R&B, and certainly I can appreciate a master piano player, but I have to confess (embarrassing as it may be) it’s not Toussaint I listen to — much too loud — in my car when things are not quite right. Shhh. "Here we go for the hundredth time. Hand grenade pins in every line. Throw ’em up and let something shine. Going out of my f**king mind." That’s right, baby: it’s Linkin Park. Tonight. No need to hide any longer. (Though I’ll probably go in disguise.)

    7 p.m., Xcel Energy Center, 175 W Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; 651-989-5151; $39.50-$56.

    Valentine’s Eve Glam/Fetish Bash

    Celebrate Valentine’s Eve with glam, fetishism, and All the Pretty Horses. Let frontman Venus redefine rebellion and sexuality for you on this special day. "My neighbor Venus is the front person for a band called All the Pretty
    Horses," wrote Emily Carter for us in 2002. "He or she sports a lovely pair of partridge-sized breasts that
    peek out over a leather bustier, a talent for fearsome guitar licks,
    and a vocal apparatus that effortlessly blends the power of Diamanda
    Galas with the decadence of David Bowie… It’s one thing
    to be a transsexual glam-goddess in Manhattan’s seen-it-all Meat
    Packing district, where trannies strut their stuff as a matter of
    course. It’s quite another to walk into Mill’s Fleet Farm in Oakdale at
    eight in the morning, wearing a lace-up midriff and standing six feet
    tall in platform boots." You don’t have to go to Fleet Farm to catch Venus this evening.

    8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8388; $8.

    Also tonight, Dan "Daddy Squeeze" Newton brings his fox trottin’ ways to the Varsity. And you can bring your own music to the stage at the Cedar as part of Bill Cagley’s open mic.

  • Open Thread: Nets and Raptors Losses

    Okay folks, I just finished a Three Pointer (entitled "Point Drought"), clicked on to my "node hierarchy" and promptly lost all the copy. If you have any impressions of the past two losses, feel free to put them down. I’ll add comments when I wake up in the morning.

    The computer system extends its apologies.

     

    Update: First of all, thanks to the loyal bunch of you who have thoughtfully filled the breach with comments early this morning. In answer to some of your disbelief, yes, I really am that computer illiterate–it’s amazing that this tubes things works as often as it does.

    Anyway, here is an abridged version of what I wrote and somehow erased last night. I’ll post them a point at a time so something is up as soon as possible, and try to make the third point be responses to comments already posted. Thanks again.

    1, Missing McCants

    It’s already been a strange February for Shaddy. I was one of the very few media folks to notice (or at least report on) the temper tantrum he threw during the Houston game; and apparently one of the few who didn’t notice that ESPN highlighted the friction between Wittman and McCants during its telecast of the Celtic game. Whether you think either of those things was underplayed or overhyped–and I’m honestly just trying to play straight man here–it didn’t look good for Shaddy’s long term status with the ballclub.

    But since he sprained his ankle late in the second quarter versus Toronto, McCants has demonstrated his enormous value to the ballclub. Last night against the Nets it was especially obvious why you need at least two scoring threats to win most NBA games. Notice I didn’t say two scorers. Bassy Telfair led the Wolves in scoring last night, tying his second best point production (24) and field-goal attempts and makes (8-17 FG) of the season. But the Nets never seriously regarded him as a threat; not enough to prevent them from doubling down on Jefferson with Jason Kidd whenever Big Al had the ball in the low block. Often a third person, a big man, would likewise come at Jefferson from the side. He finished 5-18 FG, with 11 rebounds, after torching New Jersey for 40 points and 19 boards the previous time the two teams hooked up.

    Whatever you think of him–and my bar graph on the guy rises and falls like an amusement park ride–McCants get his own shot better than anyone on the squad, leads the team not only in three-pointers made but three point percentage (40.9%), and, after falling in love with the long bomb earlier in the season, mixes that trey threat in with deft drives to the hoop. He is the only Timberwolves player who can burn an opponent for a bushel of points in a big hurry should they decide to play Ring Around the Rosey on Jefferson and dare Minnesota to beat them elsewhere.

    Consider the other possibilities.

    Randy Foye was supposed to be the #2, or even #1A guy beside Jefferson this season, but that’s clearly a long ways off. Foye’s line last night was typical of his 2008: 2-7 FG (although he did hit 2-3 from outside), 2 assists and 3 turnovers. And Foye’s lack of lateral movement and quickness on defense is worrisome. Is he really that far off from NBA game shape, both physically and mentally, or is that knee still balky?

    Ryan Gomes is the #3 scorer on the ballclub behind Jeff and Shaddy. But Gomes works best moving without, rather than with, the ball. He needs smart, unselfish teammates in order to be truly effective. It was revealing, however, that when Gomes snapped out of his slight slump by canning his last three shots in the 4th quarter last night (taking 1-6 FG to 4-9), the Wolves not only scored more than 21 points for the first time in six quarters since McCants went down, they jumped up to 32 points. Simply put, if Gomes is your second scoring threat, you are going to struggle to get 90–a figure the Wolves haven’t hit in their current 4-game losing streak.

    Antoine Walker is probably second to Gomes in court intelligence, and second to McCants in three-pointers made, which is why Wittman had him out there plenty last night, especially to combat New Jersey’s fairly effective zone in the second half. But age and/or rust have clogged ‘Toine’s wheels and it was a changing-of-the-guard moment in the third period last night when he faked the trey, twinkle-toed down the lane and tried to offer up his floater only to have rook Sean Williams smack it away. A short term solution at best for second scoring option and even then not a particularly reliable one.

    Gerald Green periodically gets the sob story treatment in the dailies about how he wants to play more and is such a great athlete. What those stories never seem to mention is that Green is now 47-143 FG for the season, which is less than 33%. And putting the ball in the basket is supposed to be his forte.

    I presume I don’t have to make the cases for why Marko Jaric and Corey Brewer–who both bring some tough defense and nice intangibles to the court–aren’t your #2 scorer.

    2. Small Is Not Beautiful

    As someone who has harshed on the Wolves’ small lineup, I give Coach Wittman and the front office (and, as a previous commenter noted, the selflessness of Jefferson for agreeing to play out of position without complaint) credit for making it work better than I imagined it could against a variety of opponents.

    But last night wasn’t one of those times. The Nets were able to run out the seven-foot Nenad Krstic alongside 6-10 Josh Boone, then bring 6-9 leaper Sean Williams, 6-10 Stromile Swift, 6-10 Malik Allen and 6-9 Bostjan Nachbar off the bench. Their ability to own the boards kept them in the game during the first half (when the rebounding edge was 33-19) and then made the difference in the game-deciding third quarter. Consider that aside from two jumpers by the seven-footer Krstic, all of New Jersey’s 28 points came on free throws, layups and slam dunks. Combined with the ability to surround and frustrate Jefferson with a variety of bigs and littles, New Jersey won the points in the paint 40-26 (the gap was 32-14 early in the fourth period), and the Wolves lost despite getting more free throws (28 attempts to NJ’s 22) and despite ringing up 43% from outside the arc (6-14 3pt FG).

    3. "Viewer Mail"

    First of all, thanks for hanging with me through the gremlin snafus.

    A few of you are carping on Jason Kidd, named game MVP by the Strib and the lead personage in most of the game accounts I’ve seen elsewhere. That’s why I love my independent-minded readership (even when they train their contrarian focus on me). I think the Kidd-Shaq comparisons are apt, in that both bring something to the table that, while fading fast, is pretty unique and potent when it can still be uncorked. For Kidd it is the jack of all trades aspect, the abilty to rebound, dish and defend in a manner that enhances the ability of his teammates on the court. And I think the trey he hit in the 4th quarter last night was a back-breaker (on a nice feed from Vince Carter, another target of yours and mine). Jim Petersen kept talking about how dangerous the Nets would be as a distantly seeded playoff team, but I don’t buy it. They have no answer for Dwight Howard, KG, or Sheed. And it is truly Vinsanity imagining Carter trying to guard Rip Hamilton or Ray Allen. I whole-heartedly agree with Stop and Pop that Sean Williams is a great prospect–he has impressed me more than any rook I’ve seen this season–and that is Krstic can get a little more mobility, that will be an intriguing front line to go with the sporadic Big Three.

    Wim and Andy G want to know if I think there is a death watch (occupationally speaking, of course) on Wittman. No, I don’t. Not only that, but I think Wittman wins a power struggle with Shaddy if it ever comes down to a one-or-the-other showdown. I yo-yo in my regard for Wittman nearly as much as I do McCants. It is to his credit that he has fostered a very tight ballclub in terms of players pulli
    ng for each other and mostly getting along–Jefferson, as tops on the pecking order, also deserves kudos for this. I can second-guess as well as the next sideline observer, and think he should play a legit center much more frequently beside Jefferson, and that he should give McCants much more rope in terms of playing time to either hang himself or make like Tarzan and swing to a fat new contract. This would be at the expense of Marko, through no fault of his own. Jaric has been a good soldier this season, but starting and getting 30-35 minutes a night is not a good fix for this club in the short run or the long term. As much as I enjoy what he and Brewer are bringing to the table on defense, has anyone else noticed that the Raptors and the Nets have put up back-to-back 30-assist games on Minnesota (Toronto had 31, actually)?

    Finally, I’ll throw out this topic for conversation: Who does Corey Brewer guard tonight? The matchups on smallball would dictate Brewer on Vlad Radmanovic, with Jaric on Kobe and Gomes on Odom, but that removes our second (or first) best on-ball defender against the Lakers’ two potent swingmen.

  • Malaysian Restaurant Does Chinese New Year, Singapore Style

    Yusheng means raw fish, but it’s pronounced the same as
    another word that means increasing abundance, which is why raw fish salad is
    eaten on Chinese New Years, when it is traditional to dine on foods whose names
    or shapes may augur good fortune in the year ahead. Yusheng, however, isn’t an ancient Chinese tradition – it was
    invented in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore in 1964, and it isn’t widely
    eaten in China proper, though its popularity has spread to Malaysia and Hong
    Kong.

    Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine on Eat Street is offering yusheng (listed as Good Luck Rainbow Raw Fish Salad) as one of
    the courses in their 12-course Chinese New Years menu, available through Feb.
    21. The complete banquet costs $268 for a party of 10, but you can also order
    the individual courses a la carte, and the yusheng ($12) is definitely worth trying.
    The new year – the year of the Rat, was actually last Thursday, but you aren’t
    too late for yusheng – it’s traditionally eaten on the seventh day of the new
    year (i.e., this coming Thursday, February 14), which happens to be the same
    day that everybody turns a year older, according to the Chinese way of keeping
    track.

    The ingredients for yusheng are on display on a table near
    Peninsula’s entrance: mounds of shredded daikon and jicama in shades of bright
    red, yellow, orange and green, slices of raw squid, dried papaya and bags of
    wonton chips and sesame seeds. If you order the dish, the ingredients are
    brought to your table on a platter, and the server does the final assembly,
    adding a few small strips of raw salmon, pouring over a sweet plum sauce, and enthusiastically
    tossing it all together with chopsticks.

    We sampled a couple of other auspiciously named dishes, but
    our luck was mixed: the Good Luck Seafood Crabmeat Soup ($12/$18) was
    delicious, but the House Full of Silver & Gold Buddhist Yam Pot (actually,
    a basket of fried taro root stuffed with stir-fried vegetables just wasn’t very
    interesting, or very tasty. Still, I would gladly go back to try some of the
    other New Years Specials, like the Prosperity Seaweed with Chinese Mushroom and
    Dried Oyster, the Double Lobster, or the Coconut Butter Jumbo Shrimp. And I am
    a big fan of a lot of the Malaysian dishes on the regular menu, such as the nyonya laksa curry soup ($7.95), and spicy golden tofu ($10.95).

    Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine, 2608 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, 612-871-8282.

    Just down the street at Rainbow Chinese Restaurant, chef-owner Tammy Wong
    is offering a list of a la carte specials through Saturday, February 16 that
    ranges from a starter of king crab salad, celery hearts and Belgian endive
    tossed with yuzu dressing and topped with caviar ($13), to entrees of tangerine
    beef fried with kumquat, ginger and rock sugar ($16),
    Chilean sea bass with black bean sauce over spinach ($30) .and an egg custard with
    asparagus and king crab ($16).

    Rainbow Chinese Restaurant, 2739 Nicollet Ave.,Minneapolis,(612) 870-7084.

  • Love and Mystery at the Expense of Laughter

    BOOKS & AUTHORS

    A Literary Lovefest at Raking Through Books

    Join us for tonght’s Raking Through Books, The Rake’s monthly happy hour book club, at Kieran’s Irish Pub.
    This month, local literati present their takes on love, hate, kissing,
    bittersweet meetings and partings, rants about family, whatever moves
    their hearts around Valentine’s Day. Guests include authors Antay
    Bilgutay, Carol Bjorlie, Jill Breckenridge, Carol Connolly, John
    Gaterud, Cindra Halm, Phebe Hanson, Lorna Landvik, Ardie Medina, Bart
    Schneider, Faith Sullivan, and Katrina Vandenberg. The featured book, Classical Love Poetry,
    edited by Jonathan Williams (with contributions from Clive Cheesman) will be
    for sale at a 20-precent discount. Plus, partake in the new monthly book swap. Bring a book, take a book! Meet kindred readers! Have a beer. —Jennifer Havrish

    5:30-7:30 p.m., Kieran’s Irish Pub, 330 2nd Ave. S., Minneapolis; free.

    MORE BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Celebrate Writing and Sisterhood with the Erdrichs

    Not since the Brontës bulled their way to prominence in
    nineteenth-century Duluth has the flyover cultural set seen a distaff
    literary dynasty—or, quite honestly, any sort of literary dynasty—the
    likes of the Erdrich sisters. By now everybody knows Louise (independent bookstore owner and author of the award-winning Love Medicine and all sorts of other critically acclaimed novels, children’s books, poetry, and short story collections); and everybody should know Heid,
    who for our money is a more consistently stunning poet than her more
    celebrated sister. The impetus for this family reunion, however, is the
    publication of Night Train, a debut collection of short stories by Lise Erdrich,
    the sister we confess to knowing almost nothing about. We do know,
    though, that she was a 2007 Bush Foundation fellow, and Sherman Alexie
    has said of her collection, “This book challenged, entertained,
    thrilled, and scared me.” No idea how often they actually get a chance
    to sit down together, but we’re guessing they’ll have plenty to talk
    about. —Brad Zellar

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

    COMEDY
    Cinematic Titanic

    It’s coming on the 20th anniversary of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the crew is coming to us, right here, tonight, at the Acme. Join original cast-members Joel Hodgson, Josh Weinstin, and Trace Beaulieu — along with MST3k favorites Mary Jo Pehl and Frank Conniff — for an evening of "stand-up comedy, interactive hijinks, and
    peeks at our first DVD release: Cinematic Titanic’s ‘The Oozing Skull‘."

    8 p.m., Acme Comedy Company, Historic Itasca Building, 708 1st St. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-6393; $20, dinner & show $32.

     

  • Letting Go Of The Hate

    I used to think hating Diablo Cody was only a regional pasttime. This is, after all, an area lousy with writers who have not written Writers Guild of America award-winning screenplays or gotten incredibly rich and famous or appeared on David Letterman. And sometimes, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, I swear you can hear about 500 of them grumbling: I wrote for City Pages once years ago. . . .and I could have been some skanky sex worker if I were willing to stoop that low. . . .and every single one of those screenplays sitting on my closet shelf is about a million times better than Juno.

    Of course no one says exactly this. They jeer at her nom de plume and make fun of the length of her skirts and talk about how Juno — a sweet, decent film in a year full of overblown, overdone losers — sucked anyway. If Cody wins an Oscar, I imagine the gnashing and retching will go on in our local writing community (and believe me, I use that phrase loosely) for years to come.

    Now, however, I come to find that the irrational antipathy for Cody has spread. In an article in Slate, writer Dana Stevens describes how what I previously thought of as a Minnesota phenomenon exists from coast to coast. People all over the world, apparently, hate D.C. and her movie (which, by the way, has grossed over $100 million, so some people must like it. . . ). And despite a mostly even-handed exposition of the whole controversy, Stevens herself even gets in a few digs.

    In a strangely similar turn of events, it seems Hillary Clinton hating is on an upswing as well. Now, the Bush-Cheney set has always hated Hillary. (Since the day she announced her candidacy, my father has called her "Billary" — which causes me to grind my teeth practically into dust each time we’re seated next to one another at Sunday dinner.) But here’s a new twist: now, just as with Cody, it is Clinton’s putative fellow thinkers who are spewing the most bile.

    In "Hate Springs Eternal," his column in the New York Times yesterday, political commentator Paul Krugman wrote, "I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody."

    What’s going on here? We’ve got two immensely talented women — and I’m not going to make this a gender thing, because I truly don’t think it is — being reviled as sport. Why? Jesus, I don’t know. Pure envy in the first case, it seems. Zealous and cult-like political behavior [and let me say, I think this has little to do with Obama himself] in the other.

    Now, listen my children: You should know that hate — whatever its genesis — will curdle your blood and cause painful ingrown hairs. It leads to cancer and shingles and bad posture. And more important, it’s just bad juju for the rest of us, making this world an uglier place in which to live. So stop it!

    And why should you listen to me? Because, I’m going to lead by example. I, too, have allowed hatred to creep into my heart. But I’ve seen the light and banished the darkness from my soul. I. . . .are you ready for this?. . . .have returned to Trader Joe’s.

    Back in November, I wrote about their trademark wine, Three-Buck Chuck, in a post that began, "Have I mentioned how much I hate Trader Joe’s?" Well shame on me! I have been guilty of doing the devil’s work with my foul words. What’s more, I’ve actually, sort of, in a sense changed my mind.

    It all started one day last week when I got a craving for white cheddar popcorn. One of my guilty secrets — even back when my soul was sullied — was my love for the snacky popcorn products available only at Trader Joe’s. So at 3 in the afternoon, I drove over to get a bag. And while I was there, I stopped into the wine shop and picked up an $8 2006 Bordeaux from Chateau Michel de Vert.

    It had a nice label. And we’re working on saving money, my husband and I, particularly where wine is concerned. What the hell, I thought. And I trotted home with my white cheddar popcorn, which I ate immediately, and wine, which I uncorked around six o’clock.

    I was dismayed even as I poured. The wine had a thin purplish color I didn’t quite like. And it tasted. . . awful. A combination of fireplace ash and cough syrup. I took a swallow, gave my husband one. Then we stuck the cork back in and opened a bottle of the Portuguese wine I was raving about last week that we now buy by the case.

    I had planned to absorb the eight dollar loss and call it a lesson: Trader Joe’s is vile (unless you need a popcorn fix). But then, I recalled something vaguely. I’d heard a rumor, once, that TJ would take back any product for any reason. All you had to do was show up and demand your money back.

    I was skeptical even so. I called the manager to ask, Could I return a bottle of wine that wasn’t corked or heat-damaged or in any other way defective, simply because it wasn’t to my taste?

    "Absolutely!" he said. "Just look for me."

    And so I did. Yesterday afternoon, I grabbed that old, warm bottle, took it back without so much as a receipt, and the manager — no questions asked — handed me my money. So pleased was I, it seemed natural to pick up yet another ultra-cheap Bordeaux: Les Caves Joseph 2005, which sells for (you’re sitting down, right?) $5.99.

    Was it special? Er, no. But what do you expect for six bucks. It was a spot-on average table wine, sweet and decent (much like Juno!), with a cherry-ish flavor and a little bit of rough wood.

    So. Heed this story. I have seen the light, given up my hatred, and cleansed my spirit with a profoundly mediocre French wine. If I could, I’d buy a thousand bottles, get all the writers and rabid Obama supporters I know, and put them all together in a room. I see a big, diverse Bachannalian event. An orgy of the liberal and literati. All cheaply lubricated, thanks to Trader Joe’s.

  • Oh Ee, Oh Ee, Oh

    I watched the Grammy Awards last night, but it wasn’t Amy Winehouse nor Kanye West I wanted to see perform. My heart belongs to Morris Day and The Time, whose performance I eagerly awaited. I mean, how much fun was it watching Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jerome Benton, Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, and the rest of the original Time group perform, just like they did 20 years ago, with the same energy and infectious smiles they have always had?

    Have these guys aged like the rest of the hit-makers of the early ’80s? Hell, no! BETTER. They still made me get up and do the Jungle Love in front of my horrified kids. Hang on. I have to do it one more time. Oh ee, oh ee, oh. (Deep breath.) Dammit, my rhythm still sucks.

    Now, it is important that I disclose a few things about my relationship with these guys, so that you know I am not being a biased friend, but more a fan of the group that along with Prince put Minnesota music on the Map.

    I first came to know these guys when I was in my late teens looking for a summer job. Through the kindness of mutual friends, I was able to land a job with American Artists (Jesse Johnson’s management company), as the head of the Jesse Johnson Fan Club. Like most people starting out as a glorified gopher, I basically answered phones and made sure that Jesse was always happy and taken care of. The one difference was that I had… kind of dated… John McClain, a top executive at A&M Records and the brilliant man behind Jesse’s bread and butter. So, while I was making sure that Jesse’s favorite chicken wings from Runyon’s were being delivered to his house — hot — I was also fielding phone calls from fans and accepting extravagant deliveries from my "friend" John.

    Confused? Yea, well, so was I!

    John would come into town to do business with Jesse, but he was also overseeing a project that he put together: a Janet Jackson album produced by Jesse’s former band-mates Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. So instead of spending my weekends going to shopping malls, like my friends, I was flown off to California, where I handled Jesse’s fans while — better still — being treated like a princess by my… uhh… friend John.

    Rough life? No! Confusing? Absolutely. I was dating the man that was responsible for making or breaking all of my bosses. So, I did what any normal young woman would do in this position: I made sure that my bosses knew that I was NOT going to take advantage of the situation. I continued to answer phones, make photocopies, set up Jesse’s schedule, and so on. But as soon as John would call, I took full advantage of being treated like a real Jewish Princess.

    Well, after a long and hard reality check, I realized that I was very young — too young to be involved in a serious relationship with anyone, so my time as John’s girl slowly came to a halt. And although I quit the gopher job, I did stay friends with Jesse and the rest of the crazy crew who went on to make Janet Jackson a household name and establish themselves as the top production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, otherwise known as Flyte Tyme Productions.

    To this day, I still keep in contact with Jimmy, who married the beautiful
    Lisa and has three ridiculously gorgeous kids; Terry, who also
    married his love Indira and is proud papa to a whole team of great kids; and Jerome Benton, who drives a limo for celebrities in Los Angeles when he is not performing — and who SHOULD HAVE HIS OWN REALITY SHOW ON VH-1!

    What is so bizarre to me is that Terry’s oldest son was my son’s Senior buddy when he was a little tyke, and his daughter and my daughter have been friends since kindergarten without even knowing that their parents knew each other way back in the ’80s, when life was big, crazy, and whole lot of Jungle Love!!! Until NOW…

    As far as John goes… I am told that he has continued to be successful in the music business and that it is HE who I have to thank for my fondness and appreciation of Orchids and Louis Vuitton.

  • Of Ice-fishing, Lust, and BBQ

    Speaking of running into ex-crushes …

    There I was at the DMV, getting my license renewed when I thought I recognized the guy sitting in the row behind me. Because I was thoroughly primped for my photo-op (this time I swear it’s going to be a good pic), I felt a little bit psyched that fate had dealt me the chance meeting on that particular day.

    The guy, who for good reason we’ll call Guy, had distracted my world for most of my senior year in high school. I think I was a game to him. He was dark and slightly broody and always held himself a little away from the rest of us. Guy was cocky and arrogant, but I seemed to be able to break him down and make him laugh.

    We’d flirt at parties. There was clearly an electric charge between us, and we’d end up making out in the corner or behind the garage. Just a lot of heavy breathing and smooching, nothing too nasty. But other than that, he’d pretty much ignore me. We all hung together in a rather big pack, but if there were a lot of others around, I was wallpaper to him.

    It drove me crazy. I would drive by his house at night just to see if I could glimpse him in his window. At school, I would go out of my way to walk a different hallway just to stroll by him, but then I’d be torn as to whether I should acknowledge him or just breeze by. The whole thing was secret and sad and thrilling and tormentous.

    Then one night, a bunch of us decided to party at a cluster of ice-houses on the lake. I had decided to play it cool, and Guy was working hard to be charming. This pleased me. After a few rounds of cards and quarters, some decided to make a food run. Guy suggested we stay and watch for fish.

    What ensued was some serious mashing and fumbling on the smelly ice-house couch. Things were getting hot and heavy and I remember feeling almost lifted away by warmth of his hands on my body. But I was a good girl, and I had pride and expectations. Part of me also wondered, if he achieved his ulitmate goal would all the excitment and anticipation end? Would I be full-time wallpaper? He tried a few more earnest advances but when met with my rebuffs he delivered a statement that I’ve never forgotten "C’mon Steph, I can’t help it, I’m a guy."

    That was that.

    With lightening speed I re-adjusted my wardrobe and stepped outside just as the others returned with food. Loud and laughing, we jammed ourselves into one of the larger houses and ate bbq like sloppy cannibals. The sauce was hot and tart and I remember feeling like I could eat a thousand ribs. Refusing to reveal my bitterness, I made sure to be very hilarious and had everyone nearly shooting bbq sauce from their noses. Guy sat three people away from me and I never met his gaze.

    By the time I’d worked up my courage at the DMV, I turned around and he was gone. It probably wasn’t even Guy anyway.

    That night I drove to Tonka Grill & BBQ in Spring Park to grab a couple slabs of ribs for take-home. The smokehouse smell starts pulling at you the minute you leave your car. Their sauce is sweet and tart with a vinegar kick that I appreciate, the ribs meaty and generous. The stacked pork sandwich is nothing to scoff at, either. It’s a small, local, family-run joint and they’ll offer you a free cup of coffee and chat you up while you wait for your order. Or, you can just stare out the front wall of windows at Lake Minnetonka, a vast white expanse dotted with an ice-house here and there.

  • Letters from Eurydice

    Hi,
    this is Steve Hendrickson, a local actor living in the Twin Cities and
    an Artistic Associate of Ten Thousand Things Theater (hereafter known
    as TTT). I’ve been asked by The Rake to do a blog on TTT’s upcoming
    production of Eurydice. TTT is the brainchild of Michelle
    Hensley, who founded the company in LA and then moved it here to the
    Twin Cities. TTT is distinctive in that is has no permanent theatre
    venue. Instead, TTT takes it’s productions to people who might
    otherwise never be able to experience a live theatrical performance. We
    tour prisons, homeless shelters, drug rehab facilities and other sites
    who minister to the poor and otherwise disenfranchised of our society. (We
    also do two weeks of paid public performances. These occur the first
    two weekends in March at the Open Book and Minnesota Opera Center.
    Check the website below for dates and move fast, these performances
    sell out fast.)     We perform for these audiences, not out of charity
    or pity, but to acknowledge our common humanity and facilitate a
    wonderful barter: our audiences participate in the wealth of a live
    performance and, through them, we re-explore, re-imagine and
    re-invigorate theater.

    OK, lofty grant-proposal words. In common parlance, here’s how they translate:

    Being a TTT actor is hard. TTT shows tour
    and must play in spaces not designed for performance- gymnasiums,
    cafeterias, lobbies, etc. Of necessity then, the productions must be
    spare. There is no theatrical lighting- we perform in whatever light
    the room offers, frequently fluorescent. Everything we bring, sets,
    props, musical instruments, etc. Must fit in the back of one small
    rental van. The company (frequently at 9:30am) unloads the van, sets
    everything up, get dressed in a classroom or bathroom or no room at all,
    plays the show, stays and talks with the audience if they’re willing
    and able, takes down the set, packs it back into the van and heads home.

    But
    because TTT shows are spare, they focus almost exclusively on the text
    of the play, it’s characters and their relationships. TTT presents
    theatre at it’s most essential, reductive level. There’s an old adage:
    you need four elements for a theatre: an audience, a player, a passion
    and a place to stand. There can be no disguising the shortcomings of a
    TTT production through dazzling scenery, lighting and special effects.
    It’s just the actors and the audience, an arrangement at once
    terrifying and exhilarating because…

    Our
    audiences are smart. Not educated, perhaps (though you would be
    surprised at how often they’ll quote Shakespeare back at you), but you
    can’t survive on a poverty level income without knowing a bit about the
    world, the people in it and how they think and engage with each other.
    They recognize dishonesty, deception and plain bullshit five miles away
    whether upwind or down and have no reservations about letting the
    characters in a play (or the actors playing them) know when something
    smells. These audiences are used to dealing with officials in power,
    where the wrong form or the wrong word could mean the difference in
    getting a hot meal or a warm bed on a twenty below night in St. Paul.
    In non-prison venues if they don’t like the show, they leave, usually
    with a "this is bullshit!" for us to remember them by. On the other
    hand, true kindness, compassion, generosity and love are also quickly
    noted, prized and embraced. TTT audiences can be openly engaged,
    enchanted, enthralled. With the intelligence of adults but seldom any
    of the reserve of traditional audiences, they are the closest modern
    equivalent we have to the groundlings of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
    Hamlet, sword in hand and pondering the killing of King Claudius as he
    is praying asks "and so he goes to heaven, And so am I reveng’d?"

    Audiences at the Guthrie may think things like "No, wait!" or "do that motherfucker!" TTT audiences will say them, no, shout
    them. And, gentle readers, let me say when that happens there is no
    situation close to it. It is one of the most exciting, visceral
    theatrical experiences anyone, actor or audience member, can undergo.

    Which
    is why, for most local actors, working on A TTT production is a highly
    prized gig. TTT attracts some pretty impressive talent: Sally Wingert,
    Bob Davis, Sonja Parks, Richard Ooms, Kate Eifrig, Jim Lichtscheidl,
    Kevin Kling, Norah Long and Bradley Greenwald, to name only a handful,
    have all been tapped by TTT and I suspect are eager to return.

    So TTT is something extraordinary among extraordinary theatres. Next time, I’ll write about our current production, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

    For more information on Eurydice and all things TTT visit our website at http://www.tenthousandthings.org

  • Cat Psychiatry with a Hawk's Eye

    MUSIC
    Cat Power

    Last
    time Charlyn Marshall played Minneapolis, her set was half songs and half
    nervous chatter, owing to the notorious self- consciousness that occasionally
    overshadows the subtle beauty in her music. But her 2006 triumph, The Greatest,
    has given the shy and sad kid a renewed sense of confidence that will only be
    further buttressed by her pro backing band, The Dirty Delta Blues. Expect
    plenty of The Greatest, along with a generous assortment of masterfully
    evocative tunes from her new Jukebox, which, like The Covers Record from 2000,
    consists of stark interpretations of an array
    of old classics. If nothing else, count on the beguiling Marshall to
    deliver more bangs for your buck. —Christopher Hontos

    8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Avenue North, Minneapolis; 612-338-8388; $25.

    FILM
    Charlie Bartlett Special Advanced Screening

    Jon Poll’s name has been in the credits of many an amusing movie: producer of The Forty-Year-Old Virgin and Meet the Fockers, editor of Scary Movie 3 and both Austin Powers movies (are there more than two now?), and now director of Charlie Bartlett. Catch a sneak peek of Poll’s directorial debut tonight, two weeks before its official opening. The film stars Anton Yelchin as a loser high school student who finally manages to make some friends by turning himself into the unofficial school psychiatrist. "When he starts doling out advice, and the
    occasional pill, to classmates, his popularity soars in this witty take
    on teenage insecurity." And who is there to confront him but a disenchanted principal played by Robert Downey, Jr. You can never go wrong with Robert Downey, Jr.!

    7:30 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; $8, seniors $6, members and students $5.

    Also tonight, the Film Noir series continues at the Parkway with Night and the City.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    John Minczeski

    "Let me be the one hawk / migrating late / my white underside / against low clouds

    "let me dive / to what you can’t see / in the grass

    "let wings collapse / then spread / and talons grasp"

    Let local poet John Minsczeski whisk you away this evening as he reads from two collections, Glass Elegy and November.

    7:30 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.