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  • The Visitor Kicks Off the Film Festival

    FILM
    International Film Festival

    The 26th Annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival begins today (through May 3rd) and features over 100 films from over 40 countries. Tonight’s kick-off film is The Visitor, by director Tom McCarthy — who, by the way, got his start at the Guthrie. McCarthy’s new film follows an economic professor to suburban Connecticut, where he first startles and then befriends a young couple before one of them is carted away to an immigration detention center. If it’s half as good as his previous film, The Station Agent, it’ll be well worth your while. Be sure to check out the full film listing for the varies venues. Among the visiting luminaries due for the festival are cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind, & more than 15 titles), director of Dry Season (Daratt) Mahamet-Saleh Haroun, director Lance Hammer (Ballast), Chinese independent filmmaker Jian Yi (Bamboo Shoots), Somali actress Sam Sam (Family Motel), former Minneapolis filmmaker Mirek Janek (Citizen Havel), and veteran Russian director Valery Pandrakovsky (Full Breath).

    7 p.m., Kerasotes-Block E Theater, 600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-338-1466.

    WINE & DINE
    Opening Night Gala

    Once the movie has come to a close, take the celebration into full swing with a carnivalesque Opening Night Gala at Bellanotte. Treat yourself to a free dinner buffet, $3.50 to $5 festival happy hour prices, plus half-price bottles of wine. Dinner options include: pastas, salads, and wood-fired pizzas. And entertainment will be provided by the Secrets Circus, complete with stilt walkers, jesters, and jugglers. Following dinner, the Secret Circus will light up the night with a fire dance and juggling act on the Bellanotte outdoor Patio, which will finally be open tonight.

    9 p.m., Bellanote, 600 Hennepin Ave., corner of 1st Ave & 6th St., Minneapolis; 612-339-7200; $10 (free with opening night film ticket).

    MUSIC
    Refreshingly Tart

    The singer Somi, who will be performing at the Dakota
    tonight, is like a cool glass of pink lemonade, a titch
    more sweet than citrus, yet still refreshingly tart on the tastebuds.
    Born in Illinois to parents of Rwandan and Ugandan heritage, Somi
    (actual name L. Kabasomi Kakoma) is a smooth cultural-musical polyglot,
    sinuous like Sade, with some of the breathy restraint of Cassandra Wilson, yet cognizant of the African vocal tradition of long, extended coos that gradually fade in the ether. —Britt Robson

    7 & 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $20 & $15.

    The Man Playing the Man

    When one musical genius pays tribute to another musical genius, you don’t want to miss that. And that’s just what you’ll see tonight if you make your way to Orchestra Hall for Deleayo Marsalis’s Tribute to Louis Armstrong. Marsalis will be on Trombone, Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Victor Goines on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Bill Charlap on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, Herlin Riley on drums, Kermit Ruffins on vocals and trumpet, and Charmin Michelle on vocals.

    7:30 p.m., Orchestra Hall,
    1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-371-5656; $45-$65.

    ART
    Lisa Pahl Paintings

    Former Rake Production Manager Lisa Pahl is exhibiting some of her fabulous artwork for the next ten days, and while the opening reception is not until this Saturday (5-7 p.m.), I suggest a sneak peek today, so you can get dibs on the paintings for sale. Her beautiful broad stroke and wonderful use of colors will make it well worth your while. Check out her work here.

    10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mezzolago Art Gallery, 5255 Chicago Ave S., Minneapolis; 612-824-1570.

    Also tonight: Exhibition Preview, Performance, and Reception for Trisha Brown (7 p.m.). Watch the modern dance legend improvise movements across a large piece of paper placed on the Medtronic Gallery floor as it is simulcast in the Cinema and online on the Walker Channel. Then join a reception in the Bazinet Garden Lobby preceding the opening of the exhibition Trisha Brown: So That the Audience Does Not Know Whether I Have Stopped Dancing.

  • The Pope and BMW. Hellish.

    I have been struck by lightning.

    BMW now apparently wants the Popemobile biz (proposal depicted above). As a Mercedes (exclusive builders of Vatican limos for an eternity) owner, I pray for an intercession.

    As no self-respecting Swabian would be seen in a high-end Manure Wagen, neither should His Most Holy Benedict.

    Irrefutable evidence of this can been seen in the long, storied history that Mercedes has enjoyed with the Vatican. I believe its finest hour was clearly the 600 Pullman Series open top cars from the early sixties. I could wax about them, but I think this ad from a Seattle limo service does it best:

    "The rarest of the hand built 600 limousines was the Landaulet, of which only 59 were ever made.

    These
    exclusive parade cars were owned by royalty and heads of state,
    including Pope Paul VI. The previous owner of this car was a Columbian
    bu    sinessman. The head of a highly profitable “import-export” cartel,
    he is now serving a number of life sentences in a US Federal
    penitentiary.

    The penultimate bridal limousine, or the crowning touch for a special
    occasion. B    y itself, or in convoy with one or both of our matching ex-Hugh
    Hefner 600 Pullmans , this magnificent example of automotive indulgence
    will make a day to remember."

    Why I even need to make argument is beyond me. Given that Pope Benedict is from Bavaria, however, I am not exactly holding out a candle. Dio mio te deum in grande excelsis.

     

  • Whole Foods Has One Word for You: Paper

    Starting this Earth Day — April 20 — you will no longer have the choice of paper or plastic at Whole Foods. It’ll be paper, unless you’re one of those too-good-to-be-true types who can remember to bring your own reusable string bag. Yes, the world’s largest natural foods retailer, which operates nearly 300 stores in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, is doing away with plastic entirely.

    “Central
    to Whole Foods Market’s core values is caring for our communities and the
    environment, and this includes adopting wise environmental practices,”
    said A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods
    Market. “    More and more cities
    and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic
    shopping bags since they don’t break down in our landfills, can harm
    nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our
    roadsides.     Together with our
    shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our
    environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic
    grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year
    alone.”

     

    Now, just between the two of us, I’m ambivalent. I love the earth, don’t get me wrong. And I think chucking plastic is a bold, leadership-y sort of move. But I have a few concerns.

    One: Did you see the movie An Inconvenient Truth? (I swear, I’m going somewhere with this.) Here was Al Gore, talking about the devastation of our natural resources, droning on and on about it, getting up on rickety ladders with pointers at his own peril. . . .And WHERE was he every single time he was not standing in front of an audience in this film? He was on a gas-guzzling airplane, that’s where. The man was flying all over the world to tell people about the problems of global warming, burning probably 11 times his share of fossil fuels, when he could have sent out an e-presentation and been done with it. But that wouldn’t have made such as splash with film producers, I guess. So let’s look at the practices of the people at Whole Foods. They, like all other monstrous grocers, assume that all people everywhere should have access to all foods. So we here in Minnesota should be eating cheese from Italy and chocolate from Venezuela and kumquats from Florida. And how is all this food getting to us? Well, it’s coming by truck and airplane mostly (hardly ever by ship, especially from Florida), polluting madly as it rides the roads and skies. So I guess what I’m saying is, where’s the consistency here?

    Two: Every time we make some big sea change in our habits, it seems, we find that instead of helping the environment, we’re actually further degrading it. You never know what the sly, lurking problem will be. Use cloth diapers because you think the plastic ones are evil? Shame on you. What a waste of water, one of our most precious earthly gifts! Gas up with ethanol much? Turns out you’re both decimating the earth by promoting the over-growth of corn and demolishing sweet little family farms. So what’s going to come next, I wonder? Some report that links reusable cloth bags to a dangerous rise in cotton spores that form an impenetrable cover over our planet and seal greenhouse gases in. . . .I don’t know about you, but I’m just waiting to find out what havoc is wreaked by Whole Foods’ decision to bag the plastic.

    Three: OK, you’ve been waiting for the selfish reason, right? — what am I going to use to carry my sweaty workout clothes home from the gym? At my house, every Whole Foods, Target, and other plastic bag gets recycled in some way. Only once, I grant you, but there are viable uses for these things. Throwing away juicy pineapple cores (I know, I should be composting, give me a break); picking up dog poop. The ways in which we use plastic bags are endless!

    I’m actually serious here. We consumers will have to figure out other methods for doing, carrying, and disposing of the things we’ve always wrapped in plastic bags. And I’m not sure this is a bad development but it may turn out to be, well. . . .inconvenient. At least for a while.

    By the way, in addition to a ritual bag-shedding, Whole Foods at Calhoun’s other Earth Day-related events include:

    Just for Kids: Spring In to Gardening – FREE

    Noon-1
    p.m.

    Kids
    can get ready for spring by planting their own plant. They will get your own
    dirt, seeds, and a recycled container to plant them. Kids can take their plant
    home, add some sun and a bit of water and watch it grow!

    Greening Your Home with Kel Heyl

    2-3
    p.m. lecture

    This
    lecture will walk people through the steps for greening their home. Greening is
    more energy-efficient, healthier for you and
    healthier for the planet. A basic kitchen will be used as a case study
    and a stairways approach will be used to examine costs. There will also be time
    to have questions answered and you will leave with an excellent list of
    resources for greener design, consulting and building services and some local
    vendors of green products. Kel Heyl is a certified building designer and Minnesota licensed
    building contractor. His company, Studio Rebus Incorporated, has had a strong green
    offering for more than three years. For more information, visit studiorebus.com

     

    Composting 101

    3:15-4
    p.m.

    Are
    you aware that the U.S.
    waste stream is comprised of more than 25 percent food and yard scraps? Home
    composting is a great solution! This class on the basics will help people
    get started by teaching the acceptable materials and the benefits of this great
    natural process!

     

  • Somi Preview

    The singer Somi, who will be performing at the Dakota tonight and Thursday, is like a cool glass of pink lemonade, a titch more sweet than citrus, yet still refreshingly tart on the tastebuds. Born in Illinois to parents of Rwandan and Ugandan heritage, Somi (actual name L. Kabasomi Kakoma) is a smooth cultural-musical polyglot, sinuous like Sade, with some of the breathy restraint of Cassandra Wilson, yet cognizant of the African vocal tradition of long, extended coos that gradually fade in the ether.

    Last year’s Red Soil In My Eyes, her second full-length disc, is better than her debut at showcasing her range. The opener "Ingele" is a beguiling reminder of Sade with a bossa nova pitter-patter that both singers borrowed from Astrid Gilberto. "African Lady" is a slab of Afro-beat based on a Fela tune and has his dank horn voicings. "Natural," performed as a duet with breakthrough Blue Note guitarist Lionel Loueke, may be her most impressive vocal, providing us with depth and sheen as she roams the musical scale, while the music straddles the still pool of folk and the agile improvisation of jazz. Red Soil contains some duds, of course — "Day By Day" is a compound cliché, the lyrics and the pat rhythm, and "Mbabazi" strains too hard, down to its heavy-breathing denoument. But it demonstrates that Somi is talented and able to vary the mood without a clumsy drop in quality control.

    I’d expect more jazz at the Dakota gigs, not just because it’s a jazz club, but because Somi’s current touring ensemble includes a backing trio with extensive jazz chops. Guitarist Herve Samb is a Senegalese native last at the Dakota with David Murray’s Gwo Ka Masters. Samb’s own music leans toward hip-hop inflected neo-soul, so he too is a polyglot. He’s also scheduled to perform in France later this week so I’m not positive he’ll make the Somi gigs. Pianist Toru Dodo is a Japanese native schooled at Berklee who has played with jazz heavyweights like Kenny Garrett and Benny Golson. And percussionist Daniel Moreno has gigged with George Benson and Roy Haynes, appeared on Roy Hargrove’s Rh Factor world-jazz fusion disc, and collaborated with Angolan singer-guitarist Waldemar Bastos who put on a fabulous (and obviously memorable) performance at the Walker nine years ago.

    In the past year or two, the Dakota has increasingly supplemented its jazz calendar with kindred music from New Orleans and Africa in particular, ranging from Dr. John and Irvin Mayfield to Toumani Diabate and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Red Earth project. These next two nights with Somi have a chance to further buttress that breadth.

  • Identity Crises… Literary Edition

    When she was in second grade, my girlfriend was informed by her teacher that E.B. White was a woman. Ostensibly, she was using the initials ‘E.B.’ to hide this fact, because books written by women, of course, didn’t sell as well as those by men.

    "No," I said, fifteen years after the fact. "You’re wrong, like usual. Or rather, your teacher was wrong, but I’m putting it on you."

    After a quick Google search, we found that E.B. (author of Charlotte’s Web, the book they were reading) was short for Elwyn Brooks, and even though that’s still somewhat androgynous, the pronoun ‘he’ was being used in all instances. And there was a picture of a man, which was fairly incriminating, smooth cheeks notwithstanding.

    "This changes everything," my very sweet, feminine girlfriend said. "But you shouldn’t have told me I was wrong. I still love you though."

    This changes everything. Why do we form such set ideas about the authors whose books we read? To the point that, if we learn an unusual fact about them, our opinions change about their work? Like when I heard Roald Dahl was an anti-Semite, or Wallace Stevens was American (I’d thought Irish – I don’t know why), or Shel Silverstein is maybe the most terrifying person ever: All of a sudden I felt I had to reexamine their stories and poems, as if these personal tidbits might unlock some secrets hidden in their texts.

    But it’s unfair of us. Especially in the realm of fiction, where the entire premise of a story is that it doesn’t have to be real. (They have to be honest, they have to be sincere, but certainly not real.) I imagine the very reason writers like J.D. Salinger become reclusive is so that their biographies don’t get intertwined with their work. Still, I’ll re-read Catcher in the Rye or Franny and Zooey and think to myself, ‘This was written by a man who totally took himself away from society. What does that mean?’ And I suspect that thinking about this gives the narrators of these books, in my head, certain desolate, lonely voices that may not have been intended. That is to say, we mar fiction by involving its authors in their work.

    In the last year or two, the already-ailing literary world has been getting a ton of bad publicity due to some identity fraud. The most notorious example, of course, is James Frey’s admission that he exaggerated some facts in his Oprah-loved memoir, A Million Little Pieces. More recently, Margaret Jones confessed that she wasn’t actually a half-Native American raised by a black family in LA, as she posited in her memoir, Love and Consequences; and Misha Defonseca, author of the Holocaust memoir Misha, admitted she wasn’t raised by wolves in the forests of Europe during the war. (Is this new news? No — this isn’t new news.)

    Memoirs are supposed to be true, and these writers deserved to get called out. Apparently Mr. Frey was considering publishing his as fiction…and then didn’t. My theory? It’s because he can’t write a sentence. An excerpt? An excerpt:

    "I see my attendant friend and I raise a hand.
    Are you okay?
    No.
    What’s wrong?
    I can’t really walk.
    If you can make it to the door I can get you a chair.
    How far is the door?
    Not far.
    I stand. I wobble. I sit back down. I stare at the floor and take a deep breath."

    If we all go back to late high school/early college and take out our differential calculus text books, and decide to apply mathematic principles to literature, one might say that Frey’s prose is a derivative of Cormac McCarthy’s prose (aptly ridiculed here), which is a derivative of Hemingway’s prose, which is sometimes perfect but still sparse.
    Hem’s answer to what might be the best intellectual training for the would-be writer, taken from his interview with The Paris Review:
    "Let’s say he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with."

    Frey had a good story (in minor need of embellishment, I guess), but not a lot more. Still, in the current climate of the literary industry, if you’ve got a good story, and it’s mostly true, it can still sell well in spite of shoddy craftsmanship.

    Rachel Donadio puts it well in Papercuts.

    The real damage, though, has been inflicted upon the fiction industry. Take a look at JT Leroy. Among other books, he wrote a short story collection entitled The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2001). It was met with ridiculous amounts of praise, and deserved every blurb. Then, in 2006, it was revealed that JT Leroy didn’t exist — he was actually an alternate personality for one Laura Albert, a middle-aged woman in California. (‘Alternate personality’ meaning, this was no mere pseudonym. Check this out.)

    Unqualified rage ensued. Pretty soon thereafter, the likes of Ian McEwan (Saturday, Atonement) was getting harangued for not citing his sources in his novels. Even though he did cite them.

    The point being, Leroy/Albert’s writings were published as fiction, which gives the author, in my view, the liberty to slap whatever they want to inside – or outside – a book’s covers. Albert never claimed the writings were autobiographical, rather it was assumed. And to make something imagined so personal that people believe it’s real, well that’s just good writing. (I’m not going to get into the battle over film rights, which does incriminate Albert just a little bit…or a lot.) Really, though, this is no different than Mary Ann Evans writing as George Eliot, or Amandine Dupin writing as George Sand…or E.B. White the woman writing as E.B. White the man.

  • More April (and March) Book Releases

  • Brenda Weiler

    After four years, Brenda Weiler
    is finally at it again with her new album End The Rain. Weiler’s sultry
    voice and melodious guitar work come together in this collection to form songs that sing
    right to the heart — perhaps a result of the recent loss of her sister. During the last four years, Weiler has focused on healing, using her writing
    and music as therapy. When she finally got into the studio, she turned out her album in one week, and it’s
    no surprise she’s recieving rave reviews. Joining her for her 400 Bar show this month are David Huckfelt (the Pines) and Michael Rossetto (S/Mother Banjo).

    Friday April 18th, 2008, 9pm 400 Bar, 400 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, 612-332-2903

  • Minnesota: Card Carrying Member of the Mile High Club

    After $761 million in public financing in the early
    nineties, countless broken promises to workers, unions, legislators, and the
    inane poke to the rectum that is the price of the Northwest
    SmartSnack    , Minnesota’s favorite dysfunctional relationship is over.
    Sure, it was great to throw our international hub status in the faces of those
    who would dare deem us flyover country. And surely the fascinating articles on
    Minnesota cities and landmarks featured in NWA WorldTraveler
    brought hordes of screaming tourists to our fair state and raised the profile
    of Forest
    Lake     on the world stage. The tax revenue didn’t hurt either.

    But we paid dearly for these perks. For no matter how many
    times the airline took advantage of our willingness to bend over, we never once
    got a reacharound.
    And make no mistake, the announced acquisition of Northwest Airlines by Delta
    is no exception.

    Many are calling this move a merger. I call bullshit. Delta
    is paying $3.1 billion for Northwest, the company is going to be called Delta,
    and the headquarters is going to be located in Atlanta. This shouldn’t strike
    anyone with a functioning neuron as a merger of equals. Of course, this isn’t
    such a horrible thing for the companies. By trimming operations, marketing, and
    executive staff, not to mention logistics, at various airports, the company
    gets to continue to do business in a remarkably inefficient way – continuing
    the holding action the airlines have been running for the last decade as they
    try to cope with the economic realities of the modern world.

    That’s what this merger is about. Two large airlines, both
    in fairly weak positions coming off bankruptcy, recognizing that being bigger
    would allow them to continue the status quo for a few more years before the
    economy and their own stultifying cultures and abject idiocy brings them
    inevitably to the conclusion that the only way to survive and cover the rising
    cost of jet fuel is to sell "executive
    services    " in WorldClub lounges.

    But what does this mean for Minnesota? In the short term,
    we’re getting buggered again, sans lube. Northwest HQ will leave town, along
    with the high paying jobs and tax revenues that accompany it. The newly merged
    company will have a conversation with our esteemed governor to discuss how it
    can adhere to the "spirit" of its agreements with the state and much noise will
    be made about the obvious benefits of whatever agreement is made to release the
    company from its obligations – maybe we’ll take flying unicorns instead of
    planes, and the in-flight drink service will include MDMA cocktails, making for
    the happiest red-eye in aviation history.

    Regardless, Minnesota’s grand tradition of being boned by
    business will, of course, preclude taking payment on the $245 million in
    bonding money the airline technically would owe the state for pulling the
    headquarters out of the state.

    Of course, Northwest leaving would present more opportunity
    should our government show some huevos and take away some of the preferred
    provider status the airline enjoys at MSP. For years, Northwest has rabidly
    turned away competition at the airport by undercutting competitor pricing and
    locking up three quarters of the gates at the Lindbergh Terminal. With
    concessions from the uber-line, we could have real competition in the market.
    Southwest and JetBlue might actually set up shop here, thus dropping average
    fares for Minnesotans. Because sure, we have service to 160 cities, but on
    average it costs us $60 more per ticket to get to any of them, according to a
    University of California, Berkeley study.

    But given how many times our government has rolled over and
    wet itself in the face of pressure from business interests, I’d say das
    uber-line will be happily gouging Minnesotans for Cancun vacations until we
    rise up in a grand populist rebellion, or until they realize what kind of
    margins Ashley
    Alexandra Dupre     could bring to the WorldClubs.

     

     

     

  • The Three Pointer: Painless #60

    AP Photo by Carlos Osorio

    Game #81, Road Game #41: Minnesota 103, Detroit 115

    Season Record: 21-60

    1. One More Smallball Razzing

    Since this will probably be my last Wolves three-pointer of the year (I’ll either do a season evaluation and/or cover the team’s press conference later this week after tomorrow’s Milwaukee tilt), it’s appropriate that I jackhammer on the anti-smallball theme one more time, eh?

    Without being a conspiracy theorist, isn’t it odd that we finally got a long look at Jefferson-Gomes-Brewer-McCants-Foye the other night (a lineup one might think would be deployed on a more regular basis, given that it best reflects the five players this organization is probably most invested in right now) and tonight had not one but two stints where Al Jefferson and Chris Richard actually were allowed to play on the floor together? Now, granted, the first one was just 3:16 in the second period and the second only a tad longer at 3:33 in the fourth, which is hardly a large sample. But lo and behold, how did the Wolves and Jefferson fare in that combined 6:49?

    How about plus +9, factored out at plus +1 in the first half stint and plus +8 in the second half one. If you go plus +9 in 6:49 of a 12-point loss, that means the Wolves were a miserable minus -21 in the 41:11 Jefferson and Richard didn’t play together. Here’s another interesting stat: On a night when Jefferson labored hard to get his 30 points, shooting 12-26 FG, he was 4-5 FG during his time with Richard, and thus 8-21 FG without Richard. What makes this even more skewed is that Richard had a case of the dropsies tonight; he flubbed an easy slam opportunity on a pick and roll, frittered away a basic feed into the post, and couldn’t even retain possession of a rebounded free throw in the final period. Imagine Al Jefferson playing beside a center who could not only hang on to the rock a little bit, but stick a 12-footer just often enough to deter those double-teams. Imagine Ryan Gomes guarding Tayshaun Prince instead of Rasheed Wallace.

    2. The Foye-McCants Redundancy

    It is quite possible that Randy Foye and Rashad McCants can find a way to co-exist in the same backcourt, especially if they realize it is the only way they both get regular rotation minutes. But in a very fundamental way, they really do have a lot of overlap in their respective games. Neither one of them is really a point guard, in that point guards are working for a seamless blend and a synergistic ensemble above all else–they are the Anthony Hopkins or Gene Hackman of hoops, capable of greatness mostly in the context of their character role. Foye and Shaddy are more like Jack Nicholson, the shooting guard of actors, a guy who is essentially himself regardless of what role he plays, a guy who elevates the ensemble by being a shining star, not a blender.

    Everybody knows this about McCants, of course. Tonight he got up 17 shots (making 8, with 2-7 from 3pt range) in 30:30, and received a technical foul for banging into Rodney Stuckey heading back up the court after executing a spectacular dunk that facialed both Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson in the 4th quarter. Foye is a little less obvious, especially if you just read his stat line in the box score instead of watching him operate an offense. Tonight, for example, he had an impressive 9/1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But what the stats don’t show is after he nailed a jumper midway through the first period for his initial points of the night, he waited three seconds on the team’s next possession to give himself a heat check and try to stick another. Later that same period, he stepped back and made a trey for his second bucket of the night. Eight seconds into the team’s very next offensive possession, he launched another trey–heat check #2 (both heat checks missed).

    On a slightly more macro level, Foye very much buys into his 4th quarter mythology. Tonight, he was 4-7 FG with 4 assists after three periods. But in the final 12 minutes, he launched as many shots as he had in the first three quarters (going 2-7 FG) and doled out even more assists (5, versus zero turnovers). In other words, Foye’s governance of the offense was much more pronounced in the 4th quarter, in ways that were both good and bad.

    There are worse things than two Jack Nicholsons, of course, and by that I mean that both Foye and McCants have undeniable talent. Er, offensive talent, anyway. Neither one seems to be able to play a lick of defense. Randy Wittman has loosened the reins a little bit these past couple weeks, which has certainly made the games more entertaining in the sense of showmanship and skill-rendering, but in the process the Wolves are yielding a whopping 112 points per game during the month of April, and it starts on the perimeter. Tonight, both Chauncey Billups and Ronnie Stuckey could get pretty much anywhere they wanted off the dribble, and Shaddy’s defense was equally porous and lackadaisical.

    Getting a quality point guard would be a boon for this ballclub in more ways than one. It would shake up the pecking order and compel both Foye and McCants to redefine their styles and priorities. It would also nice to see Jefferson, Foye and McCants all benefit from a slick passer with good court vision who, unlike Mr. Telfair, could keep opponents honest with an accurate jumper and/or an ability to finish at the hole as well.

    3. Snyder and Brewer Are Not Redundant

    The largest stylstic difference the past few games has been when Brewer and Snyder have subbed in for one another. Even as Snyder’s defense has become more sporadic, he has gotten to the rim off the dribble more consistently than any of the swingmen or back court players on the roster. Brewer, on the other hand, is thankfully concentrating on defense and rebounding once more and letting the shots come to him by accident–he was an efficient 4-5 FG in 24:46 tonight as a result.

    The biggest similarity between the two small forwards is they both are anxious to exploit opponents in transition and are much less effective when the pace is slow and the offense bogs down in the half court. On the odd chance that Snyder is still around next year, it might be good to see them playing together on a quintet that tries to play three-quarter court traps and just generally pressures the ball. Of course that’s best utilized when you have a shot-blocker to help clean up the gambles of pressing, which brings us back to square one (or at least point one) and the need for a pivot man to prevent small ball from becoming the fallback position.

  • Sparks Fly

    FASHION & MUSIC
    Voltage 2008: Fashion Amplified

    Voltage: Fashion Amplified pumps up the volume again with their annual synthesis of music and fashion. First Avenue is showcasing local fashion gurus along the catwalk with the native Minnesota sounds of The Haves Have It, Zibra Zibra, Bella Koshka, MC/VL, White Light Riot and Birthday Suits
    (who also sport the fashions of the designers). The event is set to
    take place the day before the opening of Voltage Fashion Weekend 2008,
    which will include workshops, fashion shows, trunk shows, and social
    networking happy hours for those interested in design and fashion. For
    a list of the weekend events go here. And be sure to peruse the list of runway designers. —Hannah Simpson

    7 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775; $20.

    See a slideshow preview of the designs, enjoy Christy DeSmith’s Exclusive Sneak Peek, and read an interview with Voltage designer Ra’mon Lawrence Coleman.

    FILM
    Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Milos

    If Voltage isn’t your thing, you have some fabulous film fare from which to choose. The Milos Forman retrospective at the Walker continues this evening with one of his best, and perhaps funniest — though most controversial — films, The Fireman’s Ball. For another, very different kind of classic, of the angel-eyes variety, put your drawers on, take your guns off, and head over to the Edina Cinema for a screening of the world’s best Western, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. And finally, for an "eclectic mix of local filmmaking talent," make your way to the Bryant Lake Bowl for IFP’s monthly Cinema Lounge, featuring films by Jon Springer, JoEllen Martinson & William Scott Rees, Troy Zimmerman, Shakademic, Sean Cook, Sarah Jean Kruchowski, and Jarl Olsen.

    BOOKS & AUTHORS
    Tough Questions, Straight Answers

    A man with two purple hearts and two U.S. Senate terms under his belt — including membership on four senate committees: Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Intelligence; and Rules — Chuck Hagel is sure to have an erudite position on the current state of our country. Tonight, he will share these views with the Twin Cities as he discuss his new book, America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers. Through a largely conservative, but consistent and perhaps even practical lens, Hagel looks to the nation’s founding principles to explore the economic, foreign policy, national security, political, domestic, and leadership challenges facing America today.

    7 p.m., University of Minnesota Bookstore, Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-625-5549; free.