Category: So Little Time

True film independents will find a voice at the 2008 Minneapolis
Underground Film Festival, celebrating the best in low-budget
filmmaking. The parade of self-financed works begins August 29 with a
world premiere from Germany, Julia Ostertag’s *Saila* at 7:30 pm.
Ostertag will be present for a post-screening discussion and Q&A.

The festival continues through August 31st. Many of the filmmakers will
be present to represent their works and discuss them after screenings.
All screenings will take place at the Minneapolis College of Art and
Design, located at 2501 Stevens Avenue South in Minneapolis. Tickets
are $8 per show and $4 for students cast and crew. For more
information, including a complete schedule and information about
purchasing tickets and passes, visit www.minneapolisundergroundfilmfestival.com

Award-winning musician and cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge will rock
the O’Shaughnessy at the College of St. Catherine on Saturday, August
9th at 8 pm. Etheridge, whose hits include "Come to My Window", is a
celebrated gay rights and environmental activist who has two Grammy
Awards to her credit. She also recently won an Academy Award for the
song "I Need to Wake Up," which appeared in the 2006 documentary *An
Inconvenient Truth.* Of her ten studio albums, five have gone platinum
(including three that have gone multi-platinum) and two gold albums.

Tickets range from $36 to $101. They can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com
or by visiting or calling The O’Shaughnessy box office at (651)
690-6700. The O’Shaughnessy is located on the College of St. Catherine
campus in St. Paul at 2004 Randolph Avenue. For more information, visit
www.oshaughnessy.stkate.edu.

Want to join a book club, but not exactly thrilled by the idea of
having gabby TV talk show hosts telling you what to read? Try Books
& Bars, a literary club that meets every month to read and discuss
with good food and good drinks. All are welcome, even if you haven’t
read the book.

Striving to get more people reading and talking about books, the club
is now in its fourth year. Past selections vary from new bestsellers
like *Water for Elephants* to classics like *Cat’s Cradle* and
*Lolita.* The club will meet next on Tuesday, August 12th to discuss
Neil Gaiman’s bestseller *Anansi Boys.* The meeting will take place at
the Nomad World Pub on Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis. The doors
open at 6 pm for the 7 pm discussion. There will be a Happy Hour
2-for-1 deal before the meeting from 4 – 7 pm.

Books & Bars otherwise meets the second Tuesday of every month at
Bryant Lake Bowl. Upcoming books include *Zeroville* by Steve Erickson
and recent Pulitzer Prize-winner *The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao*
by Junot Diaz. For more information, visit www.booksandbars.com.

It’s a common conception that our pasts are better than we make them
out to be. Former Twin Cities Reader editor and New York Times
columnist David Carr proves that the opposite is possible in his new book which recounts his past as an addict
through journalistic investigation. As he reports his past, he realizes
that things were much worse than he made them out to be. Memories
change and become uncovered with time; the friend he believed once
pulled a gun on him reveals it was Carr who pointed the gun. His belief
that he became sober after his children were born becomes unproven.

Carr will discuss The Night of the Gun at Magers and Quinn bookstore
on Thursday, August 14th at 7:30 pm. Magers and Quinn is located at
3038 Hennepin Avenue South in Minneapolis. *The Night of the Gun* is on
sale now. For more information, visit www.nightofthegun.com.

A haunted mansion on the Louisiana bayou plagued for 200 years. A girl
in search of love, knowing that she is cursed to lose it. Three
malevolent spirits who will do anything to make sure that no one in the
house marries for love. The legends of New Orleans have inspired the
Circus Juventas to create *Raven’s Manor*, a Cirque du Soliel-style
production that will have audiences on the edge of their seat.

A young girl wants to marry, but her family was cursed many years ago;
any girl who marries for love will lose her groom to the house.
Determined to break the curse, the girl calls on all the spirits of the
house in a thrilling event to banish the evil.

Incorporating thrilling new acts, including a wall trampoline, the
production will also feature the talents of Peter Ostroushko,
continuing his collaboration with Circus Juventas, and local actor Ansa
Akyea. Featuring 75 of Circus Juventas’s advanced students, *Raven’s
Manor* begins performances on Thursday, July 31 in a sold-out show. The
production runs through August 17th. Tickets run $12.50 – $25.00 and
can be purchased from the Circus Juventas box office or at www.uptowntix.com.
All performances will be held under the Circus Juventas Big Top on 1270
Montreal Avenue in Saint Paul. For more information, visit www.circusjuventas.org.

The biggest global and political issues of today will be responded to
trough artwork when “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” premieres
July 31st at Altered Esthetics. Continuing its mission of proclaiming
artists as the historical voice of society, the nonprofit community
gallery accepted submissions from the artists whose work will be on
display in the gallery through August 30th.

Opening Reception: 7-10pm 

The gallery is located at 1224 Quincy Street NE in Minneapolis. Gallery
hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 pm – 7 pm and Saturdays 1 pm – 5pm.
For more information, call (612) 378-8888 or visit www.alteredesthetics.org.

Jazz master Dennis Spears kicks off “Hot Art, Cool Jazz” at the Joan
Mondale Gallery at the Minnesota Textile Center on August 15th. Part of
the Joan Mondale Gallery Endowment Event, the exhibit will showcase
some of the finest fiber art of the Twin Cities, set to the smooth
sounds of a man who’s preformed with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald,
DeeDee Bridgewater and Sarah Vaughn.

The event starts with a reception at 6:30 pm, followed by the program
at 8. The Minnesota Textile Center is located at 3000 University Avenue
SE in Minneapolis. For more information, call (612) 436-0464 or visit www.textilecentermn.org.

DYING IN PUBLIC PLACES

Lust. Terror. Violence. Outbursts of Song. All of these can happen when
stuck in an invisible box… cannibalism too. Dying in Public Places: a
darkly comic new musical, written by Keith Hovis and directed by Jenna
Papke, premieres August 1st at 10:00 pm as part of the Minnesota Fringe
Festival.

60 minutes of new musical hilarity ensue as five strangers find
themselves trapped in an invisible box. They soon learn that they must
discover what they have in common if they want to survive. And as the
minutes tick by, each person becomes more desperate and tries to find
another way of escaping, no matter how devastating or bloody the
results may be.

*Dying in Public Places: a darkly comic new musical* will also perform
Saturday, August 2nd at 1:00 pm; Sunday, August 3rd at 7:00 pm; Monday,
August 4th at 10:00 pm and an audio-described performance on Sunday,
August 10th at 7:00 pm. All performances will be held at the
Minneapolis Theatre Garage at 711 Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.fringefestival.org
or in person 30 minutes prior to each show. Tickets are $12 for adults,
$5 for kids under 12 and $10 for seniors, students and Minnesota Public
Radio members. Before seeing a Fringe show, everyone 12 years old and
above must purchase a $3 admission button.

Eric Inkala‘s no fool. After a good run of years of painting his coloristic, hazy-dazy, arabesque, Little-Engine-that-Could-meets-Pacman murals (this guy is a tagger of the most whimsical sort) on walls around town, Inkala’s finally been hit by the legitimacy bug. That is, in the manner of graffiti artists gone legit–like Keith Haring in the 1980s and, more recently, Barry McGee, whose work was a highlight of the recent Carnegie International–Inkala’s bringing his particular brand of graffiti stylings indoors to show at The Gallery @ Fox Tax. (Note: Fox Tax is a tax and financial services company that also has an art gallery.) Called "Overflow: A Pleasure Trip" and curated by Emma Berg of mplsart.com, this is being billed as Inkala’s first local solo gallery exhibition. How exactly he manages the transition (from outdoors to in-; from renegade to law-abider) remains to be seen, but press materials promise there will be "smoothly cut whales hanging from the ceiling," "bulbous characters" flowing in and out of the background, "walking creations of his recurring character," and the sum of these parts will form an "abstract diary that represents everything from the day-to-day mundane to his travel experiences…"

"Overflow: A Pleasure Trip" runs August 8 – September 6. The opening reception is on August 8, 6 – 11 pm. The Gallery @ Fox Tax is located at 503 1st Ave NE, Minneapolis.