Daily Planet Originals
Ready, set — precinct caucuses on Tuesday
The Republican caucuses may be the biggest news story in Minnesota on February 7, but DFL and Green Party caucuses are on for that night, too. You can locate your precinct on the Secretary of State's website. If you're Republican, you'll be able to vote in a presidential straw poll.MORE »
Packing tips for the Minnesota-based traveler
I just arrived in Mexico today. I’ll be here for a month. Yes, a whole month. Before leaving I made it clear that no one should do anything fun while I’m away. There’s a monthly brunch I attended last weekend and I told the organizer not to go anywhere super great in February. Thankfully, I’m sure everyone will take that request to heart (right, guys?).MORE »
SATURDAY PICK | 5th Annual Ice & Snow Festival, perhaps without either
Balmy—Minnesotans can use this adjective to describe winter this season without the usual hint of sarcasm. But what does that mean for the 5th Annual Snow & Ice Festival today at Griggs Park in St. Paul? Well, nothing really. Because, regardless of the mild weather, the "making the most of winter" mindset must go on.MORE »
SUNDAY PICK | It's big, it's gay, it's Super Bowl Sunday!
With Madonna as the main attraction, among gays Super Bowl XLVI's halftime show might be the most hotly-anticipated since Carol Channing took the gridiron in 1970. That makes it an especially opportune year for the Uptown Cafeteria to host its annual Big Gay Super Bowl party; among the planned attractions are dueling drag queens, touchdown Jell-O shots, and a DJ. If that's not enough incentive to get Uncle Doug off the couch, you might mention that there's also an all-day happy hour.
FRIDAY PICK | Happy birthday to the Big Wu
One of my dad's proudest achievements as a parent is having introduced my brother Joe to the jam band that Joe and his friends, as teenagers, followed across the Upper Midwest in our family's giant conversion van. (Bumper sticker: where the heck is the big wu?) Minnesota's answer to the Grateful Dead have been chooglin' for two decades now, and they'll celebrate that landmark on February 10 at the Cabooze with what they describe as "the type of music that wants to course through your veins." Expect a crowd full of well-tracked ditches.MORE »
THURSDAY PICK | Uptown Cafeteria: Designed for relaxation
It took me a while to really appreciate the design of Parasole's Uptown Cafeteria and Support Group. At first glance, it's a pretty lucid and simple gimmick—oh, right, cafeteria theme. Trays on the walls, lunch lady photos over the urinals, cute. But I keep returning to Cafeteria, and though the unpretentious and nicely priced happy hour food menu is one reason for that, the bright, appealing, smart design doesn't hurt. With a distinctive blue-and-orange palette, NYC-based Moschella + Roberts created a space that feels both comfy and classy. If you can stomach the two-figure cocktail prices—and if the jumpy Parasole doesn't shut Cafeteria down before the thaw—the Skybar is an excellent alternative to the crowded spray-tan meat market on the roof of Stella's.
Minneapolis expands community garden program
While space for private gardens may be hard to find, the city of Minneapolis currently has vacant lots available through its Homegrown program. Established in 2010 by the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, the program offers garden plots to non-profit organizations.MORE »
AMC Theatres showcases all nine Oscar Best Picture nominees
If you haven’t seen the nominees in the Best Picture category for this year’s Oscar race, don’t despair. AMC Theatres is hosting its sixth annual “Best Picture Showcase.”
The Showcase gives movie lovers the opportunity to experience every movie nominated for Best Picture in the 84th Academy Awards over two Saturdays in February.MORE »
THEATER | "1968: The Year that Rocked the World" at History Theatre is eye opening still
“I became aware this year.” A line from The Who’s 1969 rock Opera Tommy aptly describes the year 1968 for both myself and countless others. The watershed events of this year led to the creation of the History Theatre’s production of 1968: The Year That Rocked the World which opened last weekend at the Minnesota History Center in tandem with the 1968 Exhibit. The play is a compilation of seven miniplays highlighting certain events of the year, including assassinations, the Vietnam War and the election of Richard Nixon.MORE »
FRIDAY PICK | Gary Busey plays Buddy Holly at the Parkway Theater
Gary Busey's Oscar-nominated performance as the eponymous subject of The Buddy Holly Story (1978) was a breakout role for the young actor, who went on to earn a stranger but more lasting fame when a series of legal wrangles made him one of Hollywood's favorite punchlines—a role he's more or less embraced. Now those Buddy Holly hornrims are back in style, and Busey will take the stage tonight—the 53rd anniversary of Holly's untimely death—at the Parkway Theater to introduce a screening of The Buddy Holly Story and then, after the movie, play a few of Holly's greatest hits with the house band from the History Theatre's Ivey-winning stage production of the Holly story.
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