Daily Planet Originals
Federal detention rule change, Minnesota impact for detainees
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced national detention reform efforts early in October, and while advocacy groups are encouraged by a greater effort to prioritize the health and safety of ICE detainees, they want DHS and ICE to do more to " improve the existing detention system," according to a press release from the Advocates for Human Rights, a Minnesota based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights.MORE »
THEATER | At Bedlam, Four Humors prove that "Love is Blind...and Furry"
I see quite a few plays, but never have I heard someone laughing so hard that she actually cried out for help. At the Thursday night performance of Four Humors' Love is Blind...and Furry at Bedlam Theatre, the woman behind me was in such paroxysms that she pleaded for mercy, as though someone was tickling her. "Stop! Oh, Stop!"MORE »
VISUAL ARTS | CVA casts a "Minnesota Eye" on contemporary photography
Why are numerous Twin Cities galleries showing photographs this month? Because the esteemed Society for Photographic Education (SPE) held its annual three-day Midwest conference here last week (October 29-31) to great success. Titled Freeze/Thaw: Cycles in the American Heartland, the regional Midwest conference drew photographers, educators, historians, and critics from 13 states.MORE »
Faces and dollar signs: The human impact Of General Assistance Medical Care cuts
On Wednesday night, the line for dinner outside of St. Stephen's Shelter in south Minneapolis is just beginning to grow as the sun goes down and the temperature drops. MORE »
Arts Orbit Radar: 11/5/09
What's Happening This Week
On the radar: For most of human history, no one ever said, "Fo shizzle, my nizzle." Then Snoop Dogg said it, then everyone said it—and now, thank God, we're back to no one (except your awkward uncle) saying it. The West Coast drawler will be at Epic tonight, playing to a crowd of former frat boys, aging gangstas, and hipsters who face a tough choice between Snoop and A Fine Frenzy.
Under the radar: Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble isn't coming to Minnesota in the near future, but tonight we have the next best thing: Robaybat and Güvenç and Burk Orchestra, an all-star cast of local musicians who promise to lead "a musical journey through Greece, Turkey, into the Balkans, through Central Asia and Persia."
On the radar: This weekend's Art Attack gives you a chance to see the work of Northrup King artists without having to fight the Art-a-Whirl crowds. If you're looking for a crowd, try to squeeze in to the Paramore show at Roy Wilkins.
Under the radar: Lowertown has been pushing hard to compete with Minneapolis as an entertainment destination, and at least according to Sean McPherson, it's working. Tonight, the newly-anointed Lowertown Entertainment District hosts its first monthly First Friday open-studio event.MORE »
Six Nutcrackers, eight Nativities, and seven Christmas Carols: Your complete guide to holiday theater
The holidays are a time of cherished traditions, and for many families, those traditions include a theater outing. Local theaters are mounting a dizzying array of holiday shows this November and December—but most of them are variations on a few standard plots. You've got your Nativity stories, you've got your Nutcrackers, you've got your Christmas Carols, and you've got your Santa stories; in each category, there are options ranging from the reverently traditional to the completely outlandish. MORE »
Saving the Victoria Theater and getting on board LRT in St. Paul
The train is coming, and one group of Frogtown and Summit-University residents and business owners is fired up to prepare for the arrival of light rail transit (LRT) on University Avenue in St. Paul. The group, organized mainly through Facebook and the e-Democracy Forum met October 21 at Rondo Community Outreach Library, with the assistance of the District 7 Thomas-Dale Planning Council and the District 8 Summit-University Planning Council. MORE »
MUSIC | Willie Murphy: So hot he could burn asbestos
Willie Murphy's new album A Shot of Love in a Time of Need/Autobiographical Notes (Red House Records) is going to fly off shelves like stores are giving it away.MORE »
NACDI aims to transform Minneapolis Native American community
"We will return to our ceremonies, and we will gain back our strength and our values," said Justin Kii Huenemann, President and CEO of the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI). "We are just at the beginning of this new prosperity." That, at least, is the prophecy that Huenemann learned as a young man and re-told to the October 22 American Indian Community Development Symposium. According to the prophecy, the Native people of North American (or Turtle Island) would endure seven generations of extreme hardship-- they would lose their language, turn away from their ceremonies and traditions, and experience terrible tragedies, death, and famine, but at the end of the seven generations, there would be a period of prosperity. According to the prophecy, it will take seven more generations to bring about the resurgence or culture, language, and strength to the Native American people in North America. MORE »
Joe Dowling miscast himself in the Guthrie's "Faith Healer"...but who should have played his role? Here's my suggestion
Despite the fact that it meant ending an extended acting hiatus, it must have been irresistible for Joe Dowling to cast himself as the title character in Brian Friel's Faith Healer. Not only is Friel a playwright whose work has long been particularly significant for Dowling, Faith Healer is much more a meditation on art—and theater in particular—than on faith.MORE »
