Mouse on Mars

The problem with far too much electronica is that it’s so darn electronic—mechanistic, repetitious and soulless. (That’s one of the things that drove us out of the dance clubs before we were thirtysomething with bad knees.) What we love about Mouse on Mars, and especially the German duo’s wonderful new album Radical Connector, is how organic the music sounds—the seemingly random pops, bleeps, whirrs and vocalizations all fit together in some strangely computerized but very groovy way. We especially keep returning to “Wipe That Sound,” a perfect rolling rhythm that isn’t built at all the way James Brown would have approached a song, and yet is irrepressibly and indubitably funky. 110 N. 5th St., Minneapolis; 612-338-3383; www.thequestclub.com

CDs: Alva Star, Escalator; and Storyhill, Duotones
We’ve been admirers of John Hermanson’s brand of harmonic, smart guitar-pop since 2001, the year his band Alva Star released Alligators in the Lobby, and couldn’t be more pleased that he’s got not one but two lovely new CDs out. Alva Star’s Escalator is a breezy, uplifting set of tunes fronted by Hermanson’s pleasing tenor and heart-on-his-sleeve songwriting. And Storyhill, Hermanson’s cult-favorite collaborative duo with Chris Cunningham, has just come out with the splendid Duotones, covering songs by the 1970s singer-songwriter pairs who inspired them, and with liner notes by Chuck Tomlinson and Joel Stitzel of the Radio K program Cosmic Slop. It’s currently only available on storyhill.com until the official release next year, but is well worth seeking out. Available now

CDs: TALKING HEADS, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
The live album everyone remembers, of course, is Stop Making Sense, thanks to the Jonathan Demme-directed movie and the iconic image of David Byrne in that gigantic suit. But as much as we like Sense, it’s hard to beat this double-disc set, finally out for the first time on CD and with a half-hour of unreleased material added. This Band collects material from the Heads’ formative early years, 1977 to 1981, when they were at their most white-hot creatively—the brilliant concert revamps of their Remain in Light songs are especially thrilling. Available now

CONCERTS: Yat-Kha
Cedar Cultural Center, September 11
Though Albert Kuvezin grew up in the tiny Soviet republic of Tuva and learned the astonishing polytonal singing technique, khoomei, that’s the hallmark of the country, he also found inspiration in underground American acts like Sonic Youth. (We can only imagine how hard it was to get a copy of EVOL in 1980s Communist-era Siberia.) So it’s no surprise that of the many Tuvan throatsinging groups that have found an audience among Western world-music fans, his group Yat-Kha has the greatest interest in rocking out—combining traditional Tuvan instruments and song styles with that quintessentially American export, the electric guitar. When they’re really cooking, as on “Karangailyg Kara Hovaa (On the Endless Black Steppe),” from the 2000 album Yenisei-Punk, Kuvezin and crew pound out a dark, rich, dangerous, and thoroughly satisfying witches’ brew. The group kicks off its U.S. tour right here in Minneapolis. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org

THEATER: Recent Tragic Events
Jungle Theater, September 17-November 6
Minnesota’s Six Feet Under scribe tackles the Twin Towers.
Most would agree that finding humor in 9/11 seems nigh-impossible. But humor is too essential—to the human condition and to our need to cope with the enormity of the disaster—to discard entirely. That Craig Wright found a way both to be funny and to face the great darkness at the heart of 9/11 is remarkable; that he wrote the script the week after the towers fell is nothing short of amazing. Events, briefly, is a 9/11 romantic comedy that concerns a blind date on 9/12, and mixes heavy drama with such absurd touches as a sock puppet that role-plays Joyce Carol Oates. This bold concept opened to mixed reviews in New York last year (perhaps largely because of Heather Graham’s performance in the lead role). But between director Bain Boehlke and the Jungle’s long relationship with Wright—they’ve produced every one of his previous works—there’s probably no other theater with a better understanding of how to stage Wright’s work. Wright setting his play in Minneapolis is an added bonus—here, perhaps, is the first significant theatrical work about 9/11 to come from a Midwestern perspective. 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-7063; www.jungletheater.com

THEATER: THE SECOND CITY NATIONAL TOURING COMPANY
O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, September 24
If you want to catch a rising star, this is a good place to look. The venerable Second City comedy troupe, in business since 1959, is easily America’s most prolific source of comedy talent. Besides Belushi, Candy, Murray, Radner and the rest of the Saturday Night Live and SCTV crew you probably already know about, Second City’s given us folks like Alan Arkin, Robert Klein, and more recently, Mike Myers and Tina Fey. The young comics that’ll be working their improv magic at the O’Shaughnessy might be unknowns now, but in five years, they might be starring in the next Blues Brothers. (Or the next It’s Pat, but let’s hope not.) 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul; 651-989-5151

THEATER: NORTHERN LIGHTS: THE NINE/ELEVEN PLAYS
Illusion Theater, September 9-18
The Jungle and Craig Wright aren’t the only theatrical team tackling 9/11 this month. The Illusion’s Northern Lights project, in fact, is an admirably ambitious affair, staging eleven plays that grapple with the meaning of that pivotal event of our time, all newly commissioned and selected from among eighty contenders. The works include Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin’s drama about a man haunted by the disappearance of a neighbor he barely knew, and a selection of Minnesota playwrights, including Anne Dimock’s Woman Bakes American Flag Cake—a tweak of the Onion’s 9/11 issue. 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-4944; www.illusiontheater.org

THEATER: THE CHERRY ORCHARD
Theatre in the Round, September 10-October 3
Considered one of Chekhov’s best—if shortest—plays, The Cherry Orchard’s mix of comedy, tragedy and romance in in turn-of-the-century Russia is still relevant, given the hardships that continue to plague the country. Madame Ranevskaya leaves her no-good husband in Paris and returns to her homeland estate to tend to its beautiful orchard. She struggles with money, unable to give up her lavish habits, and soon feels the pressure of the feudal system shifting around her. In a twist of irony, the son of the peasant who used to tend the land now might buy it out from under her—taking the cherries and leaving her the pits. Chekhov masterfully juggles a huge cast of characters, each flawed and heroic in his or her own way, so the audience must suffer and sympathize equally with each one. Theater in the Round’s set—it’s round, you know—facilitates this by offering perspectives from all angles. 245 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; 612-333-3010; www.theatreintheround.org

READINGS: Molly Ivins

Barnes & Noble Edina, September 14

A longtime Bush observer looks at his legacy.
The publication of political books is coming so thick and fast that you’d be forgiven for wondering if a recent NEA study, the one about the decline of reading in America, just plain got it wrong. Among them is the paperback release of Molly Ivins’ best-selling Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, with an author tour cannily timed to add to the heat under Bush’s (seemingly fireproof) ass. The policy-oriented sleuthing of Ivins and co-author Lou Dubose connects the struggles of average people over the past forty-three months to actions taken—or withheld—by the Bush administration. An elderly Philadelphian who died of listeriosis illuminates USDA policies regarding the meatpacking industry; a high
-school student in Texas gets “Bushwhacked” twice by No Child Left Behind rigamarole; and a single mother represents millions of pre- and post-9/11 unemployed who fell through the cracks during the great jobless recovery. In these and more than a dozen other tales as witty as they are well-researched, the authors pointedly note that culture wars, smoking, lifestyles, religion, etc. are all distractions from the basic fight at hand: “It is about who’s getting screwed, and who’s doing the screwing. And anybody who tells you different is lying for money.” Additional nuggets of common sense will surely be dispensed at the reading. Galleria, 3225 W. 69th St., Edina; 952-920-0633; www.bn.com

READINGS: STEVE HEALEY, The Soap Factory, September 17
Truly smart poetry, with its seductive surfaces, sometimes risks the hollow note. But the poems in Earthling, the first book from Minneapolis poet Steve Healey (just published by Coffee House Press), display a heart that beats with the iambic resonance of a credible soul. Intelligent, playful, and fast-moving, they also contain a sense of genuine wonder and the power to astonish again and again; when least expected, Healey reaches deftly down into the achingly human: “Something sharp and soft, / a turning corner that didn’t say good-bye, / there’s a reason for being gone.” These are poems with a sensibility of quiet humor, startling inversion, and depth: “A backwards escape artist, the way clothes / wear us, it takes detergent to wash us out.” Healey reads from Earthling as part of the Rain Taxi Reading Series. 110 5th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; www.soapfactory.org

READINGS: ARTHUR PHILLIPS
Macalester College Kagin Commons Ballroom, September 29
One of our favorite second novels is Wilton Barnhardt’s Gospel, a rollicking, world-spanning adventure starring a couple of hapless and deeply flawed archaeologists. Reading The Egyptologist, the second novel by Minneapolis-born Phillips, brought back good memories of Gospel, perhaps only because of a superficial similarity in setting and the fact that both books are damn good reads. The intricate plot of The Egyptologist revolves around a naively delusional tomb raider named Ralph Trilipush (try anagramming that), who disappears in 1922 while searching for the burial site of Pharaoh Atum-hadu, whose name is spelled in pornographic hieroglyphics and may be a hoax. Clueless Ralph, however, seems less interested in his expedition than in designing the cover of the best-seller he plans to write when he becomes famous. Author Phillips has a chameleonic prose style and caustic sense of humor, which is especially potent in the book’s surprising ending. His facility with puzzles—not surprising in a five-time Jeopardy! champion—only makes the book more intriguing. 1500 Grand Ave., St. Paul; 651-646-2665; www.boundtoberead.com

BOOKS: JAMES ELLROY, Destination: Morgue!
Ellroy. Tough-guy writer. L.A. noir. Calls himself Demon Dog. Uses short sentences. Not even complete ones. Sounds tougher that way. (Not faking toughness—see here? In new book? Page 115. Right—his mug shot.) Sure, he wrote L.A. Confidential. Still, not his fault about Kim Basinger winning Oscar when she can’t act. New book, this Destination: Morgue! thing—some nonfiction, some short stories. Some old but most new. Three new novellas, that’s good. Plus screeds on death penalty, boxing, Robert Blake. Better read it. Otherwise Ellroy might get mad. What, you gonna make something of it? I’m talkin’ to you! Available September 14

BOOKS: MURIEL SPARK, The Finishing School
“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.” So once said the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark has enjoyed quite a prime herself, having just published her twenty-second novel. The Finishing School is a story of literary competition and love affairs set at an eccentric Swiss school called College Sunrise. This is a place where the rich send their wayward offspring who haven’t yet found a more traditional institution of higher learning, and it’s where novels are written (or not), and where jealous rages about said novels abound. By all reports, the aging Spark has not lost her ability to tap into the perverse, and even heading into her tenth decade, her legendary wit and insights into human psychology are as sharp as ever. Available September 21

BOOKS: CLINT MCCOWN, The Weatherman
Wisconsin author McCown follows up his previous War Memorials with this marvelously sardonic satire of seat-of-the-pants, renegade journalism. As a boy in Alabama, Taylor Wakefield watches his no-count cousin commit a murder—and then later suffers a humiliating defeat in the National Spelling Bee by screwing up the word “responsibility.” When, years later, his cousin accuses an innocent man of the killing he’s responsible for, Taylor’s long-suppressed moral outrage finally erupts, and he uses his meager position as a forecaster on a small, syndicated TV station in Birmingham to try to subtly clue in his viewers to the truth. Available September 1

ART: Seasons of Life and Land
Minnesota Science Museum, September 17–October 17

The Arctic landscape that changed our political landscape.

When amateur photographer Subhankar Banerjee set out in 2001 to document the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge across four seasons, he could not have known how many hot buttons his project would push. Last year, with Seasons slated for wide exposure through a prominent Smithsonian gallery exhibit and a nationally distributed book, liberal senators wielded Banerjee’s images of a diverse, flowering ANWR to prove that the refuge was not the “flat white nothingness” as described by officials from the Bush administration. Their tactic appears to have worked, since the Senate scuttled oil drilling in ANWR by a 52-48 vote, though not without a lot of heated words and threats of political revenge. The D.C.-dependent Smithsonian may not have had the courage to display such a controversial exhibit in its entirety, but the Science Museum of Minnesota is game. Banerjee has an eye for both science and art: While his wildlife photos are mostly documentary, the photographer’s landscapes capture the silent elegance and haunting gravitas of the intractable wild. The day-by-day diminishing of wide-open spaces in the Lower Forty-Eight only makes our connections to this small piece of Alaska’s vast wilderness—striped with rainbows and aurora borealis, teeming with snow geese, caribou, grizzlies, and loons—that much stronger. 651-221-9444, www.smm.org

ART: POSTER OFFENSIVE
Frank Stone Gallery, September 24-26
Election years are prime media-inundation time, and we’ve found that some forms—like witty Internet cartoons—are categorically cooler than others—say, party-sponsored ads. The Poster Offensive takes the cool kind—visually appealing public discourse set to the tune of clever wordplay and cheeky graphics—and presents it in a series of posters that are both an offensive against the status quo and just plain offensive to one’s sensibilities—or at least those of the Star Tribune, which declined to run an ad for the exhibition, citing decency standards. We’ll take it over “I’m George W. Bush, and I approve this message” any day. 1224 2nd St. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-617-9965; www.frankstonegallery.com

ART: JOSH BLANC’S COSMIC CLOUDS
Infinity Gallery, through October 31
Think of Josh Blanc’s terra cotta tiles as a grownup version of finger painting. With that classic kindergarten exercise, the child’s still-developing coordination and sense of color create a surprising synergy; the painter moves one direction, the paint pulls another, and the piece springs to life. Blanc makes tiles—on display at Clay Squared To Infinity’s new Northeast gallery—that recreate this synergy in three dimensions, with a more discerning eye (and fewer fingerprints). His bas-relief textures melt with colorful swirls of glazes that c
ould put a prism to shame. The result is an organic union of medium and artist, earthy clay and “cosmic cloud.” Or maybe it’s just a happy kid with messy fingers. 34 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-781-6409; www.claysquared.com

ART: 2004 American Pottery Festival
Northern Clay Center, September 10-12
A celebration of the beauty and usefulness of pots, as well as a chance for art lovers and art creators to come together and exchange ideas and techniques. The festival will include exhibits and sales of pots by twenty-five guest artists from all over the country, as well as demonstrations, studio tours, and artist talks. Admission starts at $5 for exhibit and sale areas, or up to $275 for the grand Collector’s Weekend package, which includes tours of artists’ private collections with brunch and dinner. 34 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-781-6409; www.claysquared.com

RESTAURANTS: TEA HOUSE CHINESE RESTAURANT
Casual suburban dining is usually limited to greasy food courts, carb-laden sandwich shops, and franchised “microbreweries.” But one day, heading for home off Highway 55, we spotted the Tea House: A shining beacon amid a tangle of road construction it had been here, waiting for us, all along. Serving up two menus—authentic Schezuan fare and gentler, Americanized dishes—the Tea House welcomes people of all palates. The city-dweller can end his search for marinated bamboo tips here, the farmboy can test his tolerance with a variety of hot chili sauces, and the soccer mom can quiet the kids with egg rolls and dan-dan noodles before heading to a movie at the Willow Creek Theater. If all this can happen at a strip mall in unassuming Plymouth… well, there may be hope for Maple Grove after all. 88 Nathan Lane, Plymouth; 763-544-3422

RESTAURANTS: BUTTER
How can you not flock to a place named for the very thing that binds life together? Butter is an homage, my friends, to the joy of living, the celebration of life that happens every time you suck the creamy center from one of Stacy Sowinski’s éclairs. In its first life, this little joint on Grand Avenue in Minneapolis was a cute little bakery shop called Sweetski’s. Now, as the stylish and expanded Butter, the magic has spread to delicate and flaky turnovers, chocolaty tarts, and savory biscuits. You can also get soup and sandwiches and a kicky veggie chili, but you’re only throwing those home to get to those life-affirming pastries. As you should. 3544 Grand Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-521-7401

RESTAURANTS: COSMOS
The sleek and chic stylings of Cosmos may, at first, cause some to feel underdressed and overly-Midwestern. Are you cool enough to eat here? The answer is always a resounding yes, and Chef Seth Bixby Daugherty, a local hero, wants to make sure you know it. The food is simply amazing, offering the safety of an Ahi tuna entrée as well as the more daring chop of wild boar. To choose the chef’s tasting menu is to embark on an adventure into the future of the Twin Cities dining scene. Not to mention that the servers are New York professional with Minnesota graciousness. And we’re in love with Cosmos and their Moulin Rouge cocktail. Le Meridien Hotel, 601 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-331-1168