Die Buchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box), 1929. Directed by G. W. Pabst, written by Pabst, Joseph Fleisler, Ladislaus Vajda and Frank Wedekind. Starring (and how!) Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts and Gustav Diessl. Now available in a handsome DVD from The Criterion Collection. She was a girl from Cherryvale, … Read more
Today you should channel your energy into purchasing tickets for the first of the Walker’s 2007 series of Out There performances, which starts tomorrow. Cynthia Hopkins’s Must Don’t Whip ‘Um is sure to be the bestseller–what with its combination of alt music and alt theater. See what I already wrote about the show in our … Read more
As someone who never tired of railing at copy editors sucking the life — the precious bodily fluids — out of my copy, I realize this blogging thing has the downside of requiring me to re-re-read my own stuff. Brutal. But I’ll do my best to keep the corrections coming, promptly. “Par” Ridder. Not Parr.
Is it me or has the eulogizing of Gerry Ford now gone on longer than his presidency? Let enough be enough or at least let someone on the air who attempts to put Ford in some kind of rational perspective. By the 24 hour mark after his death, I was maxing out on the “decency” … Read more
If it weren’t for the hangover, or something, I’ve been nursing for the past 36 hours, I’d consider going to the Magic Exists show, which is a reprisal of Derek Hughes’s one-man Fringe Festival magic show, only this time it’s tossed in with performances by Mary Mack, Michael Morris, and Jayhawks bassist Marc Perlman. Also, … Read more
The surprise sale of the Star Tribune to a recently-formed private equity partnership has left reporters and other mid-level employees in a full churn of speculation, almost none of it good. There just isn’t handy model for these things improving the service to community or the professional/personal lives of working stiff journalists. Nick Coleman got … Read more
Sweet Land, 2006. Written and directed by Ali Selim. Starring Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Alan Cumming, John Heard, Alex Kingston, Ned Beatty, Lois Smith, Patrick Heusinger, and Stephen Pelinski. Now showing at the Edina Cinema (and a few others around the Twin Cities). Someday I’ll be wise and watch movies like Sweet Land when they … Read more
According to conventional mythology a new blog is born every second, each with an average readership of … one. I hope to do better than that, if only for the sake of Rake publisher, Tom Bartel, who, after months of brutal negotiations has finally consented to attach my idle, crackpot meanderings to his otherwise sober-minded … Read more
To surface each morning already grasping for every precious scrap of consciousness. To dance and blow bubbles and reach instinctively for the brightest colors in the crayon box. To creep through bushes and fling yourself at the world. To howl and holler and feel the grass between your toes. To move forward. To lunge. To … Read more
New Year’s Eve sucks! If only because a) you cannot safely drive anywhere that night because there are so many drunks on the road and b) after one measly cocktail, you cannot safely drive anywhere that night because there are so many cops on the road. But it’s our lofty expectations that really spoil the … Read more