Entertainment

THEATER REVIEW | "Rock of Ages" is so 80s at the Orpheum Theatre

Photo credit Scott Suchman

My understanding of the 80s is mostly constructed by the stereotype of the era—growing up Carebear-obsessed didn't gain me much perspective outside of what was happening in Care-A-Lot. Yeah, I know all the songs I'm supposed to and the style just like everyone else. And while Friday, May 17th's performance of Rock of Ages didn't show or tell me to anything non-cliched about what it was like to live in the 80s, I concluded that—between the crass tongue lappings, booby jokes, and repulsive hair styles—it was just simply a gross time. That probably wasn't the consensus in the midst (is it ever?), but it certainly seems to be now.

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MN VIDEOS | Art-a-Whirl 1996: What the first year looked like

Art-a-Whirl, now the largest art crawl in the country, had its start in 1996. John Akre was then a volunteer at MTN, and created a 40-minute documentary about the new Northeast Minneapolis event. He's now edited the documentary down to a more concise five minutes to provide this peek into the past.

"Sex and Sugar"...and art, and writing

This is a photo of sugar cubes (by David Pacey, Creative Commons), not an artwork by Elizabeth Erin Fowler. To see one of those (NSFW), click here.

I took a break from the column last week because I really just needed a little time off. Such a thing probably won’t happen often, but I expect that it will happen from time to time. I’ve been making up for my lack of writing by painting and drawing whenever I get the chance. The work for my upcoming solo show is coming along nicely, but not at the speed I would like. I suppose I’ll never be satisfied until everything is finished, framed and hanging on the Smitten Kitten's walls.

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THEATER REVIEW | "An Illiad" at the Guthrie Theater: Homer, up close and personal

Stephen Yoakam in An Illiad. Photo by Aaron Fenster, courtesy Guthrie Theater.

In Athens, Greece, circa 450 BCE, the blind poet Homer was bigger than the Beatles. His The Iliad and The Odyssey put him on the level of John, Paul, Luke, and Matthew in terms of laying the literary foundation of a civilization’s religious beliefs. Dramatizations of Homer’s work are always a challenge in the modern day and I can only imagine a theater approaching Homer with fear and trepidation. Director Benjamin McGovern rises to this challenge in the Guthrie Theater production of An Illiad.

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MUSIC REVIEW | Brother Ali records the second episode of MN Original and TPT’s " The Lowertown Line"

Photo credit Ann Treacy

Last night I attended the taping of MN Original and TPT’s new series The Lowertown Line, a program that features in-studio concerts and interviews with local musicians. Dessa is the host, although her portion of the program had been recorded earlier, so we didn’t see her last night. Last night’s featured artist was Brother Ali. Apparently tickets for the event were gone within half an hour. (Tickets were free and announced via MN Original’s Facebook page.)

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COMMUNITY VOICES | Popular culture's appropriation of the Harlem Shake

UPDATED: February of 2013 forever engrained flailing bodies, ridiculous costumes, and a deep, chopped and screwed voice commanding  everyone to “do the Harlem Shake” in the minds of h

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"Aberration of Starlight": Playwright Walter A. Davis gets to the heart of Emily Dickinson

There aren't a great many male playwrights who do well creating female characters of any dimension. In fact, the list of famous names is fairly short. After William Inge, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson you have to scratch your head pretty hard to come up with more. Which makes it all the more fascinating that accomplished author Walter A. Davis (The Holocaust Memorial: A Play About Hiroshima, Trim: The Tiger Woods Story) is bringing his work back to the Twin Cities with the premiere of Aberration of Starlight: A Play About Emily Dickinson.

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THEATER PREVIEW | Sibyl Kempson, living female playwright of Elevator Repair Service

Sibyl Kempson. Photo by Sheila Regan.

Last week, I met Sibyl Kempson on the day of her arrival from Brooklyn as she began final rehearsals for the preview performance of Fondly, Collette Richland at the Walker Art Center. She's a petite, exuberant firecracker of a woman, and we immediately dished about arts education policy, the economy, sexism, and a number of other political, artistic, and social topics as we walked across Loring Park to have a drink.

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