Tonight is the Annual Bob Dylan Sound-Alike-Contest at the 400 bar. Need I say more? 9 p.m., 400 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-332-2903.
FILM
Ready, Set, Film
Last Saturday, filmmakers took to the streets, the studios, and the computers to create an original short in just 12 hours. This might seem like a lot of time for a four-minute film, but it leaves only three hours to concept, write, storyboard, shoot, and edit each minute of film. If you don’t know — in film time, that ain’t much. In fact, it often takes longer than that just to log the footage you shot. As if time didn’t pose enough of a challenge, the filmmakers were given a theme and a surprise element with which to work — the theme, a favor; and the surprise element, duct tape. Curious? Go see a screening of the submissions. All of the completed films from the Minneapolis Film Race will premiere for the public tonight at the Oak Street Cinema. Winners will receive prizes and advance to the national competition.
8 p.m., Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak Street S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; $8.
One, Two, Three
Yes, folks. While it may feel ridiculously cold outside today (remember, this is Minnesota), we are in fact well into “outdoor season.” The restaurants and cafes have their patios open. Nicollet is bustling all night long. And the time has come for outdoor movies. Yay! While the Walker’s movies in the park don’t begin for another couple of weeks, Take-Up Productions is offering a series of three Thursday-night films on the back wall of The Soap Factory by the Stone Arch Bridge. This week’s outdoor screening, Billy Wilder’s Cold War comedy One, Two, Three, features James Cagney in his last starring role. And what a role it is! This is some of Cagney’s finest work. He plays a Coca-Cola representative in West Berlin who agrees to watch over his boss’s wacky daughter. We’ve certainly seen this story repeated since the movie’s 1961 release date — guy has to keep the boss’s troubled daughter under control in order to keep his job. Yup. Seen it — only back then the enemies were the Communists, so clearly the daughter gets mixed up with a Commie. Regardless, it’s Cagney. It’s funny. It’s outdoors. You can’t go wrong (as long as the rains don’t come).
9:15 p.m., The Soap Factory, 518 2nd Street SE, Loading Dock, Minneapolis; 612-623-9176; free.
ART AND MEDIA
Be a Zinester
For decades, zines have offered an alternative outlet through which to publish original or appropriated texts and images that fall far enough outside of the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. One might even say that Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was published as a zine of sorts. Since then, the punk movement took the medium on in the 70s, and more subcultures followed with a boom in the 80s and 90s. (Granted, the Internet seems to have caused a dwindling of print zines, but the idea lives on in many forms electronically.) The current Walker exhibit Paper Trail: A Decade of Acquisitions features artists who have found innovative ways to narrate experience through works on paper while challenging viewers to consider both technique and concept in printmaking. Using these works as inspiration, printmaker Aaron Johnson-Ortiz will be leading a zine-making workshop this evening. Focus on the politics and art of printmaking as you carve printing blocks and use stencils to construct a unique narrative on paper. Do you have something to say? Watch it materialize before your eyes.
6-9 p.m., Walker Art Center, Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7600; free.
ART
Ruskie Art
Looks like paper is the name of the game tonight. This is the final week to catch the Works on Paper exhibit at the Museum of Russian Art. This collection of drawings, etchings, and watercolors covers the entire spectrum of social and historical subjects of life in 20th century Russia. The museum is open until 8p.m. tonight, so it’s a great time to go. See Works on Paper in the Fireplace Gallery and be sure to catch other exhibits as well. The Soviet Breadbasket, on the main and mezzanine levels, includes almost 50 paintings featuring Russian landscape scenes and images of Soviet agriculture. And Russia, which just opened on the 14th in the Lower Gallery, features 20 large-format, high-fidelity color photograps by Andrew Moore that capture a glimpse of the grandeur of Imperial, pre-Revolutionary Russia as well as scenes reflecting the painful transition from the Communist to market economy of the 21st Century.
10 a.m. to 8 p.m., The Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-821-9045.
Also opening today at the Hopkins Center for the Arts is The Northern Landscape in the Charles D. Redepenning Gallery — photographs by Dave Eisenlord, woodcuts by Cecilie Lieder, and sculpture by Dean Rehpohl. And in the Lobby Gallery, Imagined Landscapes is opening with painting by Craig Bell and Deborah Thomas, and manipulated photography by Jes Lee. The opening reception is this evening from 6-8 p.m. at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins; 952-979-1103.
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Changing Minnesota’s Future
Jeffrey Feldman, author of Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (And Win Elections) and editor-in-chief of the political blog Frameshop, will be sharing and discussing his ideas this evening at Open Book. Clearly, you’ll notice the repetition of the word “frame” in Feldman’s titles. The concept of “framing” — originated by George Lakoff — centers on the idea that language can be used to evoke a moral worldview or core values that are already stored in our brains. Feldman suggests that progressives can use framing to communicate with each other, experience the world, and solve problems. Changing the Conversation, Changing Minnesota’s Future will feature a talk by Feldman, followed by a discussion about how progressive candidates, advocates, and citizens can make framing work for them.
6:30-8 p.m., Open Book, Target Performance Hall, 1011 Washington Avenue S., Minneapolis; 651-917-6037; free with rsvp.
LAST MINUTE ADDITION
Randall Throckmorton and The Dreamland Faces are performing tonight at Clubhouse Jaeger. Stop by and catch the crooning troubadour with sawer/vocalist Andy McCormick and accordianist/vocalist Karen Majewicz. If you enjoy them this evening, you can catch them again on June 2nd at the Vaudevillian Stages show.
9:30 p.m., 923 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-2686.
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