Colleen Sheehy, curator at the Weisman, put together a nature-themedshow with this Bob Dylan epigraph: “The sky cracked its poems in nakedwonder.” She chose Mark Dion’s candid deer portraits, Eleanor McGough’spaintings of natural subjects subsumed into lushly decorative patterns,and Christine Baeumler’s paintings from her recent trip to theGalapagos and the Great Barrier Reef. Sheehy chose … Read more
On the centenary of Frida Kahlo’s birth, a comprehensiveretrospective can go a long way to rescue this tough, rich artist from her ArtHeroine Poster Grrrl status. She deserves more. Kahlo was full ofcontradictions and had moments of heroism and weakness; she had blindness,insight, and a gift for telling a story with pictures. She also hadtalent-maybe … Read more
RYBAK: Word trickling out of Kenan Aksoz’s Metropolitan Media Group in Bloomington is that its newly launched RADIO magazine has encountered some static after just two issues. Kenan told me Tuesday that RADIO, which is jointly owned by Metropolitan and the radio marketing group Marketing Architects, “will be put on hold while we assess the … Read more
One of these photos—a scruffy dog isolated in the center of theframe—appeared in passing on a web page and immediately snagged my eye.There was no attribution provided but I thought, that’s got to be Soth.And it was. Why was this goofy, tragic dog as good as a signature? Fora young guy, Soth seems to have … Read more
A reader e-mailed this morning to tell us about a South Minneapolis bistro (I won’t say which one. . . .because this is a common practice) where she and a friend enjoyed their entrées but were completely put off after being charged separately for the bread — a couple paltry, obviously store-bought slices of baguette … Read more
Of the two folk-pop female vocalists who broke through to massiveappeal beginning in the late ’60s, Joni Mitchell was the hippieartiste, Judy Collins the classically trained songbird. Now, atsixty-eight, Collins has taken care of her clarion soprano, deliveringup lush, conservative material ranging from children’s and Christmasfare to interpretations of Dylan and, most recently, Lennon andMcCartney. … Read more
This is the most informative seminar on hip-hop microphone skills the Twin Cities will likely ever experience. While Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, and KRS-One would all get some votes, Rakimis rightfully regarded as the greatest MC who ever drew breath, duemostly to his quicksilver-smooth flow and pioneering, now pervasivelyinfluential, rhyme schemes. The Wu-Tanger Ghostface Killahis a … Read more
The supposedly big news is that Cris Kirkwood is back from drugaddiction and a stint in jail. But the exciting part is that older broCurt Kirkwood—the alpha talent responsible for both the blistering,psychedelic guitar explosions and the sardonic, semi-sage lyrics thatare the Pups’ signature one-two punch—has responded to the siblingreunion by spooling forth Rise to … Read more
Bill Frisell’sloping, laconic guitar phrases are as implacably beautiful and subtlyshape-shifting as a prairie landscape, a perfect soundtrack forcompelling visuals. Indeed, two of the cooler items in his quilteddiscography were created to accompany the photographs of Walker Evans (This Land) and the films of Buster Keaton (Go West). Now the Walker has co-commissioned Frisell to … Read more
“So these are the famous Beatles,” says one of the manyBritish stiff-upper-lip types in Help!, their second go-round with director RichardLester. This ’65 effort concerns the Fab Four on the run from pug-faced LeoMcKern, who is a kind of Indian spiritual leader with a Cockney accent, eagerto get Ringo’s holy mood ring. Watching Help! makes … Read more