Blog

ART & LECTURE
Contemporary Practice of Ancient Women’s Ritual

Inspired by a short story by writer Leah Lax, Janice Rubin began documenting the contemporary practice of the ancient and secret Jewish ritual bath, mikvah. The resulting underwater photographs are both sensual and enigmatic, haunting and evocative. But The Mikvah Project is not a one-woman show; it’s a collaboration. Joined by Lax, Rubin expanded the project to include oral histories and anonymous portraits of a variety of women, creating a multifaceted testimonial of contemporary mikvah practice. “In interviews, women speak of mikvah observance as aiding in their struggles with body image… as a means of infusing their sexuality with privacy, boundaries and a sense of holiness.” The Mikvah Project is about Jewish women reclaiming a ritual. Sunday’s opening reception will feature a lecture by Lax, sharing some the surprises and obstacles encountered in their journey, as well as a book-signing of the catalog.

Sunday from 4-7 p.m., Sabes JCC Tychman Shapiro Gallery, Jay & Rose Phillips Building, Barry Family Campus, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Rd., Minneapolis; 952-381-3400.

ART
What Makes a Man?

When you affect one side of an equation, the other side changes — a fact we so seldom consider. In our quest to give voice to the oppressed, the silenced, the others, we often neglect the mainstream category through which that other is defined. Feminism has challenged male dominance, altered standards of judgment, reorganized institutions, and sparked a reformulation of female identity. But, how do men figure into this equation? How do we begin to re-define masculinity in light of these developments? Mush Mush Masculinity! examines these issues through a collection of two- and three-dimensional work, installation, and video. The single-night art exhibition explores the definition of masculinity, how masculinity might be constructed, and what the repercussions of such constructs might be.

Saturday at 8 p.m., ACVR Warehouse, 106 W. Water St., St. Paul; 651-227-2622; free.

Also opening this weekend is the mystery Host exhibition at the The Soap Factory (Saturday at 7 p.m.), Jodi Reeb-Myers’s new acrylic installation at Frame Ups Gallery (Saturday at 6 p.m.), and both Clay in Living Color: Jim Romberg and Focus on Detail: Timothy Lloyd and Jean Matzke at The Grand Hand Gallery (Saturday at 5 p.m.).

BOOKS & AUTHORS
Tongue-in-Cheek City Girl Philosophy

Since she left Minnesota in 2004, artist/writer/performer Karn Knutson has become a city girl extraordinaire. The title of her latest collection says it all — City Girl Philosophy: Everything You Need to Live a Simply Stunning Life. And city girls only live simply stunning lives, that at least is clear. Those of you who actually like Sex and the City will appreciate Knutson’s hip, urban party-girl guide. Those of you who don’t, might at least have a good laugh. “City Girl likes [her] martinis dry and her humor even dryer–and she’ll take it the right way if you laugh your way through all her good advice–as long as you pay attention to it.”

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

In Our Culture, Porn Makes the Man

Engage in intellectual conversation about good old-fashioned smut this Sunday afternoon, when Robert Jensen discusses his latest book, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. In addition to his role as professor of journalism at the University of Texas, and feminist anti-pornography activist, Robert Jensen is one of the sharpest cultural critics in the country these days, and has penned books on other provocative topics, such as white privilege and freedom of expression. Articulate and outspoken, Jensen is sure to lead a lively and smart discussion. ––by Danielle Kurtzleben

Sunday at 3 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Idigaragua

The always irreverent and ever-theatrical indie-rock band Fort Wilson Riot created this five-part “indie-rock opera” (and album) about a nameless American journalist and his adventures in a mysterious foreign land. Enlisting the help of Jeremey Catterton, a stage director and friend from the University of Minnesota who now resides in London, the band has cobbled together a fictional travelogue based on the writings of Paul Bowles, the ex-pat author best known for The Sheltering Sky. Given the scarcity of collaborations between theater-makers and rockers, this won’t be your typical night at the theater; plus this production incorporates puppets, dancers, and video. As for the score for Idigaragua, one local music critic compared it to Sondheim and Beethoven — but these ears detect more the influence of Queen. –by Christy DeSmith

Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Bedlam Theatre, 1501 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis; 612-341-1038; $12.

Speed-the-Plow

There is Shakespearean language, with its grand soliloquies and sonnets. And then there is the language of David Mamet, who made his name by elevating everyday speech into an art form. This fall, The Jungle Theater brings those trademark machine-gun sentences, stutters, and profanities to the stage with Speed-the-Plow. Jungle Artistic Director Bain Boehlke directs this satire about a Hollywood producer who is torn between art and money when he’s given twenty-four hours to green-light either a spiritual, apocalyptic film (pitched by his gorgeous secretary) or a sex-and-violence-packed action flick (pitched by a close friend). Consider it a palate cleanser after the summer of Transformers and Spiderman 3. –by Danielle Kurtzleben

Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-7063; $36.

COMEDY
YouCube Humor

As long as there have been cubicles, there has been cubicle comedy (Office Space, Dilbert, The Drew Carey Show). Tonight Brave New Workshop tackles the life of the cubicle drone when it opens its 260th comedy revue, YouCube: This Company Loves Misery. YouCube will lampoon everything from Blackberries and motivational seminars, and as per usual will have at least a few hilarious sketches. Also, stay after the show on Friday or after the late show on Saturday for late-night improv… sure, improv comedy is hit-or-miss, but it’s free, so what have you got to lose? –by Danielle Kurtzleben

7:30 p.m., Brave New Workshop, 2605 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-6620; $20.

MUSIC
Red House Records Tribute

Red House Records owner Bob Feldman was a fire hydrant of fun and positive energy before he died, a year ago January, at the age of fifty-six. With a folk-music show on tiny KFAI that was strictly a labor of love, Feldman cherished music enough to achieve a remarkably high batting average on the quality of music released on his label. Thanks to Feldman’s remarkable ability to recognize and attract talent, Red House Records is now home to some of the finest acoustic singer/songwriters in the country. Now many of those folks whom he patronized — Greg Brown (the first and still the best Red House artist), Eliza Gilkyson, Dave Moore, Peter Ostroushko, and many, many others — will pay tribute to his memory at an overstuffed gig that should produce a memorable confluence of combos and pairings, passionately offbeat covers, funny and tear-jerking anecdotes, and a rousing, poignant finale on a very crowded stage. — by Britt Robson

Sunday at 7 p.m., Fitzgerald Theater10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; 651-290-1221; $25 and $50.

Also this weekend is the second annual West Bank Ruckus festival in the parking lot next door to The Nomad, and the fabulous Harvest Fest in Geneva — three days of music and camping with three stages and 35 bands.

The Literary Review of Canada gives us “The Rise of the Pyjamahadeen: Who says blogging in your parents’ basement is unhealthy?” — Warren Kinsella’s review of Blogosphere: The New Political Arena, by Michael Keren.

ART
Practice What You Preach

With so many great art galleries and artists in town, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the high-profile exhibit spaces and lose sight of some of the most productive and interesting venues — the colleges. While we occasionally make our way to one or two of the numerous (and often underestimated) student shows, we so often forget about the molders, the authorities, the mentors, those who choose to dedicate their lives and art to inspiration and guidance, rather than surrendering themselves to the competitive world of selling, of turning their art into a business. Is this a romanticized notion of the art educator? Perhaps. But as a former teacher, I have to believe that at last some percentage of us do it for noble reasons. Regardless, you have an opportunity tonight to indulge this romanticism, and to experience how an artist stands behind his own words, how he honors the art of teaching. It’s an awfully vulnerable state for an educator to put himself in — exposing his own work to analysis, rather than simply sitting back to analyze. Will they live up to their own demands? Find out for yourself. The College of Visual Arts (CVA) begins its fall semester with the Annual Faculty Exhibition. Head out tonight for a public reception, and view faculty 2D and 3D artwork in the college gallery.

6 – 8 p.m., College of Visual Arts Gallery, 173 Western Ave. at Selby Ave., St. Paul; 651-290-9379; free.

FILM
It’s Thursday, so if you’ve been an avid Secrets reader, you should be expecting me to send you off to the Bell Museum Courtyard for the latest, and the last, of their ’50s sci-fi horror movies. This week’s movie is The Giant Gila Monster, so help yourself to a dose of teenage heroism against a 50-foot monster, if you like. Or choose from two slightly more “highbrow” options.

Conquering Ozymandius

You’ve seen this image before. Of course you have. If nothing else, at least a cheap print in a college dorm. (I had one myself. I mean, it’s beautiful, albeit cliché at this point.) It’s Gustav Klimt’s Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold — and the opening subject of The Rape of Europa, an “epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction, and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during World War II.” Have you heard of the Venus Fixers, the Monument Men, the Roberts Commission, the MFAA? They were essentially a pared down Secret Service of the art world through the 1940s — young museum directors, curators, art professors, and architects who volunteered to protect Europe’s strong artistic cultural history by policing looting, theft, destruction, and artistic loss of any kind. The Rape of Europa maps out Europe’s artistic loss at the hands of the Nazis over the course of twelve years — the most savage theft and destruction of art to date. See the film this evening and carry the experience to full hilt with a discussion led by Corine Wegener, assistant curator in the Department of Architecture, Design, Decorative Arts, Craft, and Sculpture; and Erika Holmquist-Wall, curatorial assistant in the Department of Paintings and Modern Sculpture.

6-8 p.m., Pillsbury Auditorium, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-870-3200; $5, free to MIA members.

Honesty and Illness Don’t Necessarily Equal Lifetime

After a reasonably successful short (Lena’s Spaghetti) in the Telluride Film Festival, Director Joseh Greco set out to make “a film about mental illness that was not only true to [his] experience, but also universal” — an emotionally honest look at schizophrenia. I’ll spare you all the plot details, which on paper (or screen) might inaccurately portray a typical Lifetime movie. I assure you, the schizophrenic mother is not played by Meredith Baxter Birney. Canvas is raw and real, telling the beautiful and painful tale of ten-year-old Chris Marino (played by newcomer Devon Gearhart), his dysfunctional family, and the bizarre and somehow admirable relationship that develops between the boy and his father in the midst of crisis.

7:30 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; $8 (seniors $6, members/students $5).

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
She or He?

“In my wedding there won’t be a groom, there won’t be a bride. I’ll just stand, and everybody will come, shake my hand. Then they’ll go dancing, and I will stay standing,” writes former Israeli soldier and transgender playwright Ronny Almog. And I can only assume that after reading the last half of that sentence, you’ve completely forgotten the first part, the quote. Former Israeli soldier and transgender playwright? That’s enough to get my attention. He certainly must have something interesting to say, no? “In my wedding there won’t be a groom, there won’t be a bride.” But there is a wedding, right? How does a transgender person establish a balance between the established social needs and the need for new parameters? Somewhere In Between examines gender identity. What is a man? What is a woman? If you can answer these questions in any acceptable manner, you need to start writing. You need to share it with the world. But don’t expect a cookie-cutter answer from Somewhere In Between. Ronny Almog presents the questions, explores the resulting “distress, pain, confusion, rejoice, pleasure and enjoyment,” and leaves you to formulate the answers on your own — as all good art should do. And as all good art should do, the play presents itself in a manner truly representative of its time — “a multimedia assault.”

7 p.m., The St. Paul Jewish Community Center, 1375 St. Paul Avenue, St. Paul; 651-698-0751; $15 ($12 for St. Paul Jewish Community Center and Center for Independent Artist members).

If you miss tonight’s performance, you can catch it at the Center for Independent Artists this weekend.

MUSIC FESTIVAL
Concrete and Grass

St. Paul has had some especially bad luck with its outdoor festivities this year. True, some events have been spared, but I drove through there a couple weeks ago to find several different neighborhoods cordoned off and empty beneath the rain, a nullified pupa. Let’s make sure this doesn’t repeat itself this weekend. We’re drip dry. And as long as it’s not too cold (and we know cold), we can weather the storm — as long as it’s worthwhile. Tonight begins the first-ever Concrete and Grass: Lowertown Music Festival in Mears Park. The festival features an eclectic mix of twenty local groups spanning pop, classical, blues, country, world, funk, and soul music — including Reilly, The Alarmists (who play this evening at the Mill City Museum), Joanna James, and Maria Isa. Tonight’s acts include Jonathan Delehanty, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Chastity Brown and the Sound. If you can’t make it tonight, try to make it to Friday’s happy-hour concert, or Saturday’s thirteen-hours music fest. You’ll need a lawn chair for that one.

5 – 9:30 p.m., Mears Park, Lowertown St. Paul; 651-292-3248; free.

You’ve seen this image before. Of course you have. If nothing else, at least a cheap print in a college dorm. (I had one myself. I mean, it’s beautiful, albeit cliché at this point.) It’s Gustav Klimt’s Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold — and the opening subject of The Rape of Europa, an “epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction, and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during World War II.” Have you heard of the Venus Fixers, the Monument Men, the Roberts Commission, the MFAA? They were essentially a pared down Secret Service of the art world through the 1940s — young museum directors, curators, art professors, and architects who volunteered to protect Europe’s strong artistic cultural history by policing looting, theft, destruction, and artistic loss of any kind. The Rape of Europa maps out Europe’s artistic loss at the hands of the Nazis over the course of twelve years — the most savage theft and destruction of art to date. See the film this evening and carry the experience to full hilt with a discussion led by Corine Wegener, assistant curator in the Department of Architecture, Design, Decorative Arts, Craft, and Sculpture; and Erika Holmquist-Wall, curatorial assistant in the Department of Paintings and Modern Sculpture.

6-8 p.m., Pillsbury Auditorium, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-870-3200; $5, free to MIA members.