Mahogany’s resemblance to Turner is more physical than vocal. While matching Big Joe’s large, expansive frame, Mahogany is more dulcet crooner than blues shouter, closer in spirit to another vocalist he feted four years ago on his Mahogany Music label, Johnny Hartman. But Mahogany did play a Turner-Jimmy Rushing composite in Robert Altman’s film, Kansas … Read more
photo: diners in Bad Lauterberg listen to the bawdy stories of Fra Davolo Goettingen, Germany. Most people don’t come to this German university town in search of great cuisine, and I didn’t either. I came because my father is recovering from quintuple bypass surgery at a clinic near here. Everything you have heard about prices … Read more
If you happened to read my last article, you’ve probably already pigeonholed me as a sci-fi geek. While that much is true, I’m also an art, music, and Photoshop geek, among other things. I use the term loosely because in my mind a "geek" is someone who obsesses on any given topic with unabashed over-interest … Read more
MUSICMovies and Music in the Park featuring The Alarmists This annual tradition is one of my favorites. I still remember my first time in 1992 or ’93…I was an angsty 15 year old when I went to see Babes in Toyland play – a band which I held in the highest regard (and I had … Read more
I was recently quoted in print saying, "I don’t particularly like complaining." This came as a huge surprise to many of my friends, who immediately contacted me about what they perceived as a glaring inaccuracy in the article. Of course, I protested that it all made sense in context: I was being interviewed about a … Read more
Where would Count Dracula dine if he visited the Twin Cities? We don’t have any Romanian restaurants, but if he misses the cooking of his native Transylvania (now a part of Romania), he’ll have a once-a-year opportunity on Saturday, July 26, when Saint Stephen Romanian Orthodox Church, Saint Paul, sponsors its annual Twin Cities Romanian … Read more
On a recent sunny afternoon in Minneapolis, four fabulous looking ladies put some serious sass into the usually bland game of golf. As the young fasionistas shimmied across the grounds of the Walker Museum’s new Artist Designed Mini Golf Course, the women combined ample cleavage and golf putters to make the fantasy of millions of … Read more
Even longtime comic book/graphic novel devotees might admit to some fatigue with the apparent overkill of Hollywood translations at the multiplex, but the prodigious visual imagination, droll humor and sincere themes entertainingly weaved together by Guillermo Del Toro in Hellboy II: The Golden Army distinguish it among its peers. Hellboy seems an unpredictable choice for … Read more
Note to "media types:" Your power by using sexual innuedno to get the "prized audience" isn’t working so well…anymore! I have been spending a lot of time lately doing research on what people read and why. There are a few important areas that seem to bug the future of this country and the ones who … Read more
PERFORMANCE SuperGroup: GroupWork One I’ve got a soft spot for artsy weirdos, and artsy weirdos these are. New avant garde performance troupe "SuperGroup" will premiere their brand-spankin’ new dance/performance/art/theater/sculpture piece this weekend at the Bedlam Theatre to most likely baffled, but surely enraptured audiences. Collaborating with NYC-based performance artist Abby Browde, the group with take … Read more