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  • Things are Looking Up

    I’ve got to remember to bring a camera to rehearsal so I can post some pictures on this blog. Right now, imagine a photograph that is so cool it makes you want to see Everywhere Signs Fall at Gremlin Theatre. I don’t care what you picture as long as you trust your imagination and call 651-228-7008 for reservations.

    Saturday’s rehearsal felt like a breakthrough of sorts. From what I witnessed on Saturday everyone seemed to be channeling a better sense of the electricity and odd subtext throughout the play. Both scenes that we worked on Saturday were charged with an increasing tense energy. A gun. A hotel room. It’s hot. These three people are damaged. . . It seems to be coming along in a heart-stoppingly good way. Which makes me think of three things:

    1. Theater can be hard to do. You try to invent an entirely new and believable person/world/story one day. It has its challenges. In some ways, we’re stabbing in the dark and hoping that when we stab ourselves it doesn’t bleed too much. I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my short adult life — from construction to technical writer to goatherd to bartender — and I find theater harder. More fun but also harder.
    2. In my plays, the scenes that appear to be the most confused and hopeless when you read the script, often hold the keys to the success of the play. Though this makes it hard for me to send my plays out to theaters outside the Twin Cities, it also makes me happy. If anyone reading this also saw my play How to Cheat in the 2006 Fringe Festival, you may enjoy knowing that the sex/card game that the audience liked so much is also the scene that made the actors want to scream at me. Saturday, for this show, they seemed to solve one of the most difficult scenes to the point where it was the best rehearsal I’d watched so far.
    3. Without great actors, I’m sunk. Thankfully, we have three great actors in this play. Again, though it makes my scripts a little hard to read, it also makes me happy. One of the reasons I stayed in Minnesota after I moved here in 2003 is that I very quickly met a lot of actors who made me look really really good. I was going to include a story about D.H. Laurence here, but I couldn’t phrase it in such a way that wouldn’t make me look bad. As I write this blog, it occurs to me that I’ve grown accustomed to actors making me look good. I’m going to have to consider that for a while. For the moment, though, I’ll just enjoy it and be grateful.

    A short contribution today. . . Tomorrow will be longer. Pictures. Must have pictures.

  • Mexico Rising: Indio Mexican Cuisine and La Chaya Bistro

    A couple of talented Mexican-born chefs have opened new
    restaurants in south Minneapolis that raise the local standards for Mexican cuisine.

    Hector Ruiz, who trained with Alain Senderens at Lucas
    Carton in Paris, has added a third Latin restaurant to his collection: first El
    Meson    , which features the flavors of the Latin Caribbean, then last year, Café
    Ena    , which has a more South American lilt, and now Indio Mexican Cuisine (web site under development), which highlights
    the flavors of Ruiz’s native Mexico. And elsewhere in south Minneapolis, Juan
    Juarez Garcia has opened La Chaya, "featuring the flavors of the Mediterranean
    and Mexico."

    When they announced plans for Café Indio last fall, Ruiz and
    his wife/partner Erin Ungerman made it sound like they were going to open a
    very modest taqueria, with tacos, tortas, tamales and a few traditional dishes
    like pork in tomatillo sauce, and chicken adobo, but no wine, beer or alcohol,
    and everything priced at $10 or less.

    Instead, they have transformed the former Pizza Nea space at
    1221 W. Lake St. into a very stylish new bistro, decorated in vibrant colors
    with a full bar and an ambitious Nuevo Mexicano menu. Starters range
    from guacamole made to order ($8) and taquitos (small tacos filled with beef,
    pork or wild mushrooms, served with onions, cilantro and salsa ($9) to a
    Oaxacan-style tamal filled with chicken, and served wrapped in a banana leaf,
    accompanied by a mole sauce. Entrees
    range from duck-filled flautas in guajillo sauce ($16) and pork ribs in green
    mole sauce ($17) up to seared rack of
    lamb with roased poblano salsa ($23) , and huachinango, oven-roasted red
    snapper served with a tomato cucumber salad ($25).

    I have been a big fan of Ruiz’s cuisine over the years, but
    I must admit that I got a bit of sticker shock when I first glanced at the
    menu.Prices are markedly higher than at Ruiz and Ungerman’s other restaurants,
    though the ambience is actually more casual.

    I have only sampled a few dishes so far, including the
    guacamole, which was fresh and lively, and the ceviche sampler, three tasting
    portions of marinated seafood that included corvine soaked in lime and tequila;
    raw tuna with fresh avocado, and chopped shrimp and salad with onion, tomato,
    Serrano peppers and cilantro. I was underwhelmed by the pollo de olla, chicken
    stewed in a tomato and hominy broth, but really enjoyed the camarones a la
    diabla ($18), an assertively spicy preparation of shrimp in a sauce of morita
    (chipotle) peppers, lime and tequila.

    There is a lot more that I would like to
    try, including the lechon (marinated pork tenderloin) and the ling cod, served
    in a roasted red pepper flauta with a huitlacoche sauce ($18). Huitlacoche,
    prized in Mexico as a delicacy, is a fungus better known in the the U.S. as
    corn smut.

    Indio Mexican Cuisine, 1221 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, 612-821-9451.

    At La Chaya, a former Kentucky Fried Chicken (or so I am
    told) at 4537 Nicollet Ave.S. has been transformed into a rather romantic bisto, with earthtones and
    open kitchen. Mediterranean flavors predominate, but the Mexican influence is
    in evidence in a variety of dishes, from the thick black bean soup of the day
    and the Mexican pizza (topped with refried beans, grilled chicken, chorizo and
    too many jalapeno peppers, $13.95) to the entrees of halibut, offered either
    baked in banana leaves with achiote and sour orange, or topped with a pumpkin
    seed sauce, and served over mashed potatoes with poblano pepper (both $22). I
    only sampled a few dishes, but I was impressed with the halibut in achiote
    sauce, and liked the black bean soup a lot. On a return visit, I would like to
    try the garlic cilantro ribeye with green caper salsa, and some of the
    Italian dishes, such as the artichoke, onion and prosciutto pizza ($13.95) or
    the housemade black fettucine tossed with shrimp and cherry tomatoes ($14.50).

    La Chaya Bistro, 4537 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-827-2254.

  • Kimya Dawson

    Kimya Dawson is just the cheer
    we need for these economic doldrums. The tattooed fairy godmother visits
    the Cedar Cultural Center on April 16, riding high on the indie box office
    smashery of Juno and the soundtrack that serves as a collection
    of her hits. Dawson performs folk stripped down to its bare essence.
    Her soft-spoken brilliance touches on the subjects real life: finding
    and losing love, war, shysters, size 13 basketball shoes, and how "All
    girls feel too big sometimes regardless of their size." She found
    fame with alt folk favorites The Moldy Peaches, and her solo career
    continues to soar. Scratchy voice and afro included.

    7:30 p.m., The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-388-2674; $12; SOLD OUT.

  • Cloud Cult

    Listening to Feel Good Ghosts
    is a visceral event with images flooding from vocalist Craig Minowa’s
    decadent lyrics. Take this snippet from "When Water Comes To Life":
    "And underneath your ribs/ they’ll find a heart-shaped locket/ an
    old photograph of you in daddy’s arms/ then they’ll sew you closed."
    In one moment it sounds painfully fragile, as if being fastened together
    by a teary-eyed romantic. The next moment its musical bravado blossoms
    around their insecurities. Cloud Cult is a mix between indie-tastic
    emotional crooners like Bright Eyes and The Shins and a genre of its
    own creation. The band fuses elegant strings with crunchy guitars all
    while speckling cheerful ba-da-das in the background of Minowa’s warbly
    tenor. Feel Good Ghosts is a sonic wonderland that folds out into
    a third dimension as Cloud Cult incorporates two visual artists into
    its live shows. Catch its multi-media extravaganza at the band’s CD
    release party April 8 at the Electric Fetus or at First Avenue April
    26.

  • Fiscal Lubrication

    For those of you lulled into complacency by auspicious
    recent events such as Britney’s brief
    flirtation     with lucidity, it’s important to note that, not only is the
    entertainment industry still pumping out fucking loons
    at a heretofore unheard of pace, but our politicians are providing ample
    evidence of a world view so profoundly divorced from reality that it’s likely
    only a matter of a few short days until Gov. Pawlenty declares "Blame it on the
    Rain"     our state song and Speaker of the House Margaret Kelliher declares her
    undying love for Michelle Bachmann’s fabulously taut ass. In other words, take
    heed, Minnesota denizens, for the Oh Shit meter has gone from a subdued puce to
    an alarming ochre.

    And what has triggered these dire portents? What could
    possibly be serving as the harbinger for yet another pending apocalypse? The
    answer is disarmingly, deceptively simple – nothing more, or less, than the
    overwhelming demonstration of the profound stupidity endemic to all levels of
    our representative democracy.

    These portents have appeared at a furious pace as of late. John McCain’s assertion that Purim is
    the Jewish Halloween    , thus disappointing a highly influential voting block
    as they continue a hallowed tradition of offering a big "Fuck you" to yet
    another culture that tried to annihilate them, was only the beginning. And Dick
    Cheney’s apparent pleasure at providing a big
    "Fuck you"     to the American public as polls indicated two-thirds of
    Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq was just a cherry on top of the mountain of asshattery displayed whilst our policy-makers grandstand and
    pontificate on how best to take advantage of the economic reaming the average
    American feels
    they are about to receive    .

    To address the assembled citizenry’s fervent desire for
    fiscal lubricants to ease the anticipated pain, Obama and Clinton
    have released their economic stimulus and oversight plans. McCain, of course,
    is standing pat, toeing the GOP line as he has for the last few years and
    stating that the check going out to taxpayers in May, not to mention the tax
    breaks for businesses that will surely convince them to invest in added
    infrastructure while consumers aren’t buying anything, is plenty to arouse the
    economy and stimulate a good old-fashioned consumer orgy.

    What baffles me, however, is that the plans put forth by
    these august candidates are, for the most part, predicated on becoming
    president despite all three having plenty of legislative power. And since statistically, recessions are generally over within a year to a
    year and a half, meaning any fiscal policy levied after scoring the presidency
    won’t take effect until January of 2009. Much like downing the morning after
    pill nine months after the condom breaks, that’s long after it could possibly
    do any good.

    Then you might think to yourself, "At least our local
    legislators, staunch realists like Marty Seifert and the Iron Range’s Tom "The
    Sex Hog" Saxhaug, are carefully balancing Minnesotan needs against the harsh
    reality of the budget deficit threatening our government services and
    benefits". If you were harboring such thoughts, you may want to relieve
    yourself of them via repeated
    blows to the cranium     with a blunt object, since you’d be laughably wrong. To
    address the state’s approximately $1 billion deficit, GOP legislators offered a program
    of cuts to higher education, dips into the state’s rainy day fund, and
    bizarrely, a token tax cut to make Minnesotans feel better about the panty raid
    Gov. Pawlenty proposed on the state’s health care access fund and budget reserves. DFLers universally
    derided the deficit fix, calling the proposal shortsighted and damaging. House
    Majority Leader Tony Sertich went so far as to say, "Everyone knows people from
    Eagan are twats. And Tim Pawlenty is a twat among twats. The alpha and the omega of twats, if you will."

    One might imagine the DFL, after such an ideological salvo,
    would come back with a solution to the state’s budget woes. A solution that
    would salvage programs to salve the economic doldrums afflicting our state’s
    citizens whilst securing Minnesota’s solvency for the biennium and beyond.
    Sadly, it seems we’ll sooner see Michelle Bachmann in an Amsterdam donkey show
    than have a budget proposal that actually addresses the real issues facing the
    state. The budget that the DFL’s greatest financial minds came back with dips
    even further into the rainy day fund. And while the $23 million in extra
    education spending is nice, the proposal doesn’t provide any details on the
    program cuts necessary to cover that spending. Nor did they make any attempt at ensuring solvency in the next biennium. Much like the Pawlenty
    administration and inflation, reality and the DFL have never quite meshed.

    Frighteningly enough, the group we must look toward for
    fundamental change in our fiscal policy is the Bush administration. They’ve
    bailed out Bear Stearns despite outcry from left and right, thus avoiding a
    repeat of the market crash that triggered the Great Depression. And we’ve
    already seen some small changes – allowing the Federal Reserve and treasury
    some additional oversight of investment houses and mortgage originators. But
    more meaningful changes, changes that will allow the hand of government to wrap
    itself around the balls of America’s financial system and give a great tug when
    necessary are not yet forthcoming. Can an administration that has spent the vast
    majority of its time in Washington on a ranch in Crawford, TX or up its own ass
    aggressively move to create meaningful legislation? Can a man whose sole method of
    reassuring the public that the economy is in good hands consists of letting us all know
    the government worked over the weekend     actually trigger substantive change?

    Yeah, I know. We’re fucked. But I, for one, welcome our new
    Chinese overlords, and will enjoy receiving the benevolent treatment afforded
    all China’s provinces    .

     

     

  • Open Thread: Wolves Top Jazz Again

    Minnesota played its best basketball game of the season to beat Utah earlier this season. They played one of their worst, least inspired games in the rematch with the Jazz, a contest in which my criticism of the Wolves’ effort was greeted by many commenters with: "We knew they had no chance because Utah remembers what happened the first time and wants revenge."

    Okay, I wasn’t there this afternoon–out of town on another assignment–so what happened?

    As in the first game, it looks as if the scoring was very balanced, with seven players in double figures, and an 8th, Randy Foye, with 9 points on just 5 shots. Kirk Snyder, bumped from the starting lineup for the first time in nearly a month, led the Wolves in plus/minus and Jefferson, McCants and Gomes led them in scoring. On paper, it looks as if D-Will had a bad game.

    So chime and let me know what happened.

  • It's Opening Day, You Know What To Do

    Theater lovers, don’t delay. Today is last day of the Theater All Year Sale, so take advantage of the six-ticket package, and catch some great shows over the next four months.

    Tickets also went on sale this weekend for the Kid Rock show at the Target Center on May 24th, the Melissa Etheridge show at the O’Shaughnessy on August 9th (talk about selling in advance), and the Ween show at Roy Wilkins Auditorium on July 19th, so if any of these interest you, act fast.

    SPORTS
    Minnesota Twins Home Season Opener

    There’s really no question at all about what you should do tonight. It’s just a matter of whether you can get in or not; and if not, there’s always the tube (and I’m not talking lightrail here). While no one is giving the Twins much of a break in the season forecasts, we still have to find a way to muster up enough excitement to give it a good run. Who knows? We’ve come through at some odd times in the past. We can do it again. And, believe me, the players know they have something to prove. Ten-year Major League veteran, Livian Hernandez will be pitching today’s game against the Los Angeles Angels — the first American League game in his career. And Rake writer Brad Zellar will be there to relaunch his annual baseball blog, Warning Track Power. So stay tuned.

    6:05 p.m., Metrodome, 34 Kirby Puckett Pl., Minneapolis; 612-375-1366.

    MUSIC
    Schubert Club Winners

    If the Twins just aren’t your thing — or if you just like to wait until you know who won to watch the game — perhaps a classical evening is in order. The Schubert Club is hosting a special presentation this evening, featuring Schubert Club Competition winners: Denis Evstuhin on piano, Jenny Berg on violin, Rolf Haas on violin, Joe Peters on oboe, Jacob Jonkers on guitar, Nicholas Donatelle on cello, and Ben Ullery on viola. Performing with them will be Hill House Chamber Players Julie Ayer, Tom Turner, and Tanya Remenikova.

    7:30 p.m., James J. Hill House, 240 Summit Ave., Saint Paul; 651-297-2555.

    WINE & DINE
    Sicilian Wine Dinner at Bellanotte

    Enjoy a delicious six-course meal paired with wines from Sicily, Italy. Dinner will begin with an amusé of caponata, paired with Lamura Rose’ Di Sicilia. This will be followed by an insalata of crisp mixed greens, raspberry vinaigrette, and poached pears, paired with Santa Tresa “Rina Ianca.” The third course, pollo, consists of slow-roasted chicken breast and fresh Roma tomatoes with bleu cheese cream sauce tossed with penne pasta; this paired with Santa Tresa “Nivuro Nero D’Avola” Cabernet Sauvignon. The fourth course, pesce, consists of seared chilean seabass topped with fennel, fresh Roma tomato, and Mediterranean mussels in a kalamata olive ragu, paired with Santa Tresa “Cerasuolo Di Vittoria.” And the entrée is a grilled marinated pork tenderloin with Peruvian purple mashed potatoes and fresh grilled vegetables topped with a basil demi-glaze; this paired with Santa Tresa “Avulisi.” And finally, for dessert, an espresso tiramisu. It doesn’t get much better — or more decadent — than this! Space is limited, so call to make your reservation now.

    6:30-9:30 p.m., Bellanotte, 600 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-339-7200; $65 or $120/couple.

  • Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow

    After the wretched transformation of Beowulf to film, the time is ripe for a modern-day monster tale we can all read and imagine (rather than ruin with trite images). And try as I might to disassociate Toby Barlow’s debut novel from this timeless classic, Beowulf keeps coming to mind. Clearly, the title, Sharp Teeth, could have something to do with this. As could the subject matter: werewolves in Los Angeles. But beyond that, Sharp Teeth is written entirely in blank verse — an odd choice perhaps, but Barlow masters it so effortlessly that we hardly notice, except to feel its commanding flow hastening us forward through the multiple plotlines. Granted, Sharp Teeth offers no mead, but if you’ve read John Gardner’s Grendel — a rather nihilist monster-POV rendition of Beowulf — you’ll recognize the strangely non-heroic approach to an epic tale. As in Grendel, Barlow’s tale has no true heroes. There is no clear sense of right and wrong; there is only the gray in between, and how you choose to navigate it.

    7 p.m., BirchBark Books and Native Arts, 2115 West 21st St., Minneapolis; 612-374-4023.

     

  • Bo Ramsey CD Release Performance

    While it’s all too possible you may not know Bo Ramsey’s name, you’re sure to have been touched by him somehow — whether as a musician or a producer of something wonderful you’ve heard. For whatever reason, Ramsey has drawn more attention from musicians than from the general public. Perhaps he’s simply not a limelight man, a fact confirmed by his many performances in the dingy, din-filled corners of The Deadwood, in Iowa City during the ’90s. But despite his understated fame, Ramsey has played a tremendous role in shaping the midwest blues-rock scene. He’s one of the original Iowa City blues-rock boys, along with Greg Brown, David Zollo, David Moore. In fact, Ramsey’s guitar work can be heard on their albums, many of which he has even produced. But Ramsey’s biggest call to the spotlight probably came from Lucinda Williams, who contacted him immediately after hearing Down To Bastrop in the early ’90s. So impressed was Williams with his inimitable guitar work that she invited him to play on her Grammy-winning Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, after which he joined her on tour — twice, as he went on to produce and play on her follow-up album, Essence. With his new CD, Fragile, due for release on April 8th, Ramsey is on a solo tour this time, and gracing us with his music.

    8 p.m., The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-388-2674; $18.

  • James Sewell Ballet Spring Program

    Dancer/choreographer James Sewell
    made his way back home to Minneapolis in 1993, after a long stint in
    New York, bringing his company with him. Sewell began choreographing
    ballets in 1982, while at the School of American Ballet, in New York. He went on to dance with ABT II, an apprentice company of the American Ballet Theater, and then as principal dancer for the Feld Ballet. Once hailed by The New York Times as "one of
    American ballet’s best choreographers," James Sewell consistently
    delivers innovative and exciting pieces. This month, the company delivers its Spring Program at The O’Shaughnessy, with two Twin Cities premieres choreographed by Sewell himself: Social Movements and If This Then What. Also on the program are Table Waltz, choreography by Penelope Freeh, and By the Gypsy River Banks, choreography by Sally Rousse.

    The O’Shaughnessy, College of St. Catherine, 2004 Randolph Avenue, Saint Paul, 651-690-6700, $31.