Central

On November 17, opening night for the 2013 production of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater, the show had to be paused just before the Fezziwigs' party: a man in the audience experienced what was feared to be a cardiac arrest, and paramedics came to take him to Hennepin County Medical Center. He was conscious and waving as he left, but the incident gave an added resonance to the classic story's YOLO theme.

The first time I heard about squash I was in sixth grade, and I immediately signed up for it. I signed up because it's different from other sports at school. Learning squash was not easy. At first, I didn't know how to hit the ball, I didn't know how to play against other squash players, and I didn't know how to serve—but I had to understand that certain things don't come to your brain instantly. Practice makes perfect!

Shared a bill with singer-songsmith Ana Lena Copeland at Corner Coffee over in the Warehouse District—with Wenso Ashby having pulled a sneak surprise, to come down and check out my set. Had just encountered, last time down there, one impressive artist, name of Nancy Olson. That was maybe a month ago. And now, here comes Copeland, with strong chops on some very nice, real special material.

"Alice taking pulls of Jack Daniels, spitting it on the crowd," tweeted The Current's Andrea Swensson from First Avenue on November 1. "Rock'n'roll is still very much alive. It just doesn't sound like it used to." True, on both counts—though the irony of Andrea's tweet, I thought as I read it from the throbbing perch we shared in front of the speaker bank at stage right, is that even the aggressive electro-centric gallop of Crystal Castles' music doesn't sound all that newfangled any more.