For a woman who sometimes breaks down in tears during concerts and walks off stage (whether she’s a victim of pathological shyness or an art-rock-related behavioral disorder, we’re not sure), Chan Marshall is showing real guts. To record her new album, she recruited some of the greatest soul players around, including guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, … Read more
David Letterman seldom interviews musicians when they perform on his show, and that might have something to do with the legacy of Tom Snyder, whose The Tomorrow Show aired on NBC from 1973 to 1982 before being replaced by Letterman’s own program. During his run, Snyder hosted a notorious slew of punk rockers, most of … Read more
Enjoy the silence? Nah. Give us music anytime. On New Year’s Eve, the Bell Auditorium hosts Twin Cities acts Fog and Traditional Methods to respectively score the silent films The Naked Island and Tabu, A Story of the South Seas. Kaneto Shindo’s 1960 film The Naked Island follows the daily toils and trials of an … Read more
Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, former grouse-beater for the Queen Mother, tries to drive an Oscar from the Hollywood moors by writing this original screenplay for the celebrated Merchant Ivory production team. Ismail Merchant’s death in May makes The White Countess the duo’s final production, and it’s a strange one. Against the backdrop of pre-World War II … Read more
Some people are masters at creating their own mystique. Notable examples include Greta Garbo, J.D. Salinger, and, more recently, J.T. LeRoy, who may not even exist if you ask the New York Times. Terrence Malick would be high on such a list as well. A filmmaker who declines interviews and doesn’t like to be photographed, … Read more
The masterful Julian Barnes returns with an epic, complex, and fascinating tale of two men brought together by a third, fictional character: Sherlock Holmes. In the midst of grieving the death of his wife, Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is roused from a deep depression when he receives a letter from a man who … Read more
Phil Donlay’s Category Five is the sort of ripping good yarn that real guys are supposed to like. All the archetypal, Ian Fleming elements are in place: a hot-shot zipping around the world in hot airplanes and cars, a brilliant and beautiful love interest, and plenty of personal and political intrigue. And to keep things … Read more
Kaye Gibbons took her own sweet time in getting around to writing a sequel to her debut novel, Ellen Foster–twenty years, actually, but who’s keeping track? The Life All Around Me catches up with Ellen Foster while she’s still in her teens, so if it’s been two decades for you as well, it may behoove … Read more
Pedicord Apartments, the installation in which viewers/voyeurs to walk down the hallway of an apartment building and eavesdrop on the “tenants,” has always been one of the more popular artworks at the Weisman Art Museum. Now the Minnesota History Center takes Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s idea a few steps further. In the Railroad Island neighborhood … Read more
This tribute to the fleeting beauties of urban living includes the obvious (photographs of neighborhoods that face the wrecking ball, by Mike Melman, taken just before dawn), the subtle (an installation of teacups representing the teahouses of Japan, by Tetsuya Yamada), and the surreal (David Lefkowitz’s cityscapes built from Styrofoam packing materials)–plus work from seven … Read more