Art by Yasmina RezaPark Square Theatre, through April 13What is Art? Three answers come to mind. First, it’s a play that asks the question, What is art? In other words, Art has genuine intellectual content—something we don’t encounter very often in the contemporary American theater. (More’s the pity.) Second, Art is a play with a … Read more
“Espace Jean Villar” is an unassuming movie house and club in an outlying suburb of Paris. This twisty, drizzly township is called Arcueil, and it was (we’re told more than once) the home of minimalist composer Erik Satie. Happy Apple, a Twin Cities jazz trio, is making its European debut here. I’m along as the … Read more
“Don’t worry if you fuck it up. Just go out there and have a good time,” said Jay Leno. That was the backhanded advice he gave Nick Swardson in his dressing room, moments before Nick’s Tonight Show debut a few weeks ago. And Nick didn’t. In the vernacular of stand-up comedians, he crushed. There’s something … Read more
It was Ole Bull’s eighth birthday party, and the concert master took full advantage of the open bar, rendering himself unable to fulfill his duties with the house band. Bribed with candy, the boy filled in, ripping through a Louis Spohr composition. The performance was so spectacular that an uncle rewarded young Ole with his … Read more
To really appreciate how much the seemingly normal people of St. Paul love hockey, take a look at how they continue to support the Wild as the team finishes its second season in an unnerving display of expansion-team ineptitude. Take one recent loss to the New York Rangers, a 3-2 overtime gaffe that should have … Read more
The marine iguana, which is found only in the Galapagos archipelago, spends most of its time sunning itself on the volcanic rocks and sneezing. For nourishment, it dives in the sea and feeds on algae. Consequently, it has to rid its body of sea salt somehow. To do so, it expels a salty mist out … Read more
Tucked neatly into a shelf of dainty Victorian houses on the bluffs of St. Paul, the home of Charles Arndt and Kelly Bjorklund was the site of U.S. Senate incumbent Paul Wellstone’s February 9 fund–raiser. The Rake was in attendance to savor the food and sample the politics. Contributors to the Wellstone campaign were confronted … Read more
Thanks mostly to the Walt Disney Corporation, Hans Christian Andersen is generally remembered as a kindly composer of innocent entertainments for children. But the real Andersen was far more interesting. He was a tormented soul who larded his tales with his own psychic misery, apparently in the belief that what kids want from a story … Read more
April is, among many other things, a time for fools and taxes. Not coincidentally, it’s also the time of year when we’re forced by law to take a break from fishing. Your Minnesota angling license expired just in time for you to get your ice shack off the lake, and you can’t renew until May. … Read more
You want Russian? This place is real Russian (or as Russian as you can get in the old Robbinsdale American Legion building.) Russian owners, Russian cooks, Russian wait staff, Russian décor, Russian music, Russian customers, Russian food, Russian vodka. Lots of Russian food. Lots of Russian vodka. We’ve been there three times now and have … Read more