Representative Keith Ellison talks with community about rail safety

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Representative of the Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Keith Ellison, had an informal talk with citizens at the Lutheran Social Service, Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 28. “At my congressional office we really do regard you as our partners,” Ellison said at the event. “If we are not serving you as well as we should be, we want to know about it because we are not afraid of getting better.”

Ellison said that listening to people and arguing on their behalf at the national level at Congress is his top priority. The topics discussed included prosperity for working families, reforms in the juvenile criminal justice system and an update on rail safety in Minnesota. One member in attendance asked if there would be reforms in the juvenile criminal justice system to prevent the youths from being trapped in the cycle where they’d continuously be on the streets. Continue Reading

6. Allan (Robert Gustafsson) and Julius (Iwar Wiklander) in THE 100 YEAR OLD MAN. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

MOVIE REVIEW “The One-Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”

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One of the great pleasures of foreign cinema is that you can see films that would never find financing or the means of production within the states. Certainly, there are plenty of rogue indies and inspired risk-takers in domestic cinema, but the budget/imagination ratio is usually tilted heavily one way or the other. By imagination I mean the ability to envision a movie in a way few others would, not the ability to imagine a movie that everybody expects to see. The One-Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window & Disappeared is a Swedish movie that is in limited theatrical release in the United States. The film, directed by Felix Herngren, was the third highest grossing Swedish film of all-time. Continue Reading

Stakeholders divide over Dinkytown preservation

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Homeowners favor, landlords oppose, and business owners appear mixed on whether portions Dinkytown should be declared a historic district in the four blocks across University Avenue from the original entrance to the University of Minnesota in Southeast Minneapolis. Their debate is over the “Dinkytown Historic District Designation Study” written by Minneapolis planners that will be considered by the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission on June 9 and by the City Council, probably in July. The HPC’s public hearing will be at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, in Room 317, Minneapolis City Hall.

Principal city planner Haila Maze presented the report to the board of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association on May 19, which voted unanimously to support historic designation of the district, and to the Dinkytown Business Alliance on May 21, which rejected the idea after much discussion.

In February 2014, the HPC imposed a moratorium on development in Dinkytown pending a study to determine whether some of the area is historically significant and worthy of preservation. The city’s Community Planning & Economic Development (CPED) posted its study and solicited public input from April 20 through May 25 . Additional comments may be still submitted to be included with the appendices. Continue Reading

Violet at North Hennepin Community College

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Over the years, I have found theater productions by local colleges to be hit and miss. As an adjunct instruction at North Hennepin Community College (NHCC) in Brooklyn Park, I have been attending the college’ productions over the past 18 years and similarly found the quality to be uneven. But NHCC’s Theatre Arts Ensemble has undergone a tremendous growth in the quality of its student productions over the last couple of years meriting some attention by the theater community as a whole. The growth of the program was evident in last year’s production of Dames at Sea which was such a splendid production that it compared to musicals I have seen performed on Broadway. The Ensemble’s most recent production of Violet, takes on a more edgy musical. Continue Reading

Soundset 2015 at Canterbury Park

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The gates of Canterbury Park opened at 11am sharp to hordes of eager hip-hop fans. The Soundset Music Festival is an exclusively hip-hop music festival created by local music label Rhymesayers eight years ago, an affordable event that draws nationally acclaimed talents as well as local acts. The Rhymesayers event is unique in its focus on urban music and great bargain price (this year it’s $50-$70 for a lineup of the likes of Ludacris, J. Cole, Ice Cube, and Big Sean, just to name a few).

This year, performances were unofficially baptized by Amir Sulaiman’s opening delivery of “Come to the Hills,” a poignant spoken word addressing race, economics, politics, and police brutality. In the Fifth Element tent, Minneapolis rapper Manny Phesto proved that soulful samples can rock a crowd too, spitting conscious fire over signature soul beats. Producer Mike the Martyr joined him onstage for “The Account,” a track from Manny’s last album, “South Side Looking In.”

Doomtree member Dessa was another local act that shook crowds, performing tracks from their new album “All Hands” as well as songs from her recently dropped solo album. In intervals singing, chanting, and rapping, she hypnotized the crowd with folksy metal and plenty of intense eye contact. Vince Staples was a Molotov cocktail in Timberlands, spitting singles from his last EP. Soundset 2015 was packed with many strong newcomers, from deM Atlas to Father, and Vince had the crowd ready to explode in a fiery performance on the Fifth Element stage. Continue Reading

Fashawn and Prof rock First Avenue at the official Soundset before party bash

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First Avenue was packed on Saturday night with a lively pre-Soundset bash.  DJ Fundo, Blvck Spvce, Bobby can rap, Fashawn, and Prof provided the jams at the official Rhymesayers Soundset Before Party. DJ Fundo hosted the night and kicked a diverse mix of old and new school, from vintage A Tribe Called Quest to Bobby Shmurda. The crow warmed up to the alternating boom of 808s and trap snares. By the time he got to spinning some Snoop Dogg, the audience was ready to fill in words, and Flo Rida took the teens up with “Turn Down For What.” The venue filled up quickly, an even split of twerking youths and more somber adults, who mostly managed a respectably enthused head bop. Continue Reading

Animation Station!

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It’s hard to believe that nineteen Art-A-Whirls have gone by since the first one, in 1996. I almost missed that first Art-A-Whirl, but my state representative, Diane Loeffler, suggested I go and maybe do some videotaping. So I went out on the last day of that first Art-A-Whirl and asked a few people who they were and what was going on. I managed to run into several of the founders of the event, and I saw that those quietly large industrial buildings in my neighborhood were full of life and activity. This year, Debbie Woodward, the building manager of one of those buildings, the Northrup King, gave me the opportunity to use a space on the second floor of that building, right in the heart of the Northeast Arts District. Continue Reading

It’s back: Walker on the Green Artist-Designed Mini-Golf

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Artist-Designed Mini-Golf is back at the Walker’s Sculpture Garden. As part of the media preview on May 20, my friend and I putted our way through both A and B courses (9 holes each) and lazily kept score. There’s no par for the course, so we just chatted in between strokes and took the time to read about each hole (which were delightfully full of puns). The Walker has a masterful summer event here not only bringing the art outside but creating a way to engage, both with the pieces and each other. It’s no wonder people keep coming back. Continue Reading

MUSIC REVIEW | Gypsies invade Mankato for “Kiss Me, Kate”

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Minnesota Opera’s Carmen may have closed, but its gypsy cast – the titular zingara included – appeared to be alive and well on Sunday, when four of the principles appeared in the Mankato Symphony Orchestra’s concert performance of the musical Kiss Me, Kate. Unlike their last onstage appearances, there were no stabbings involved and hippie chic was nowhere to be seen. The general mood of Sunday’s concert was pleasant and amiable: an afternoon idle to enjoy some excellent music with a full orchestra. Kenneth Freed led the orchestra with from the podium, while the spotlight fell alternately on Bergen Baker (Mercédès in the previously mentioned production), Brad Benoit (Le Remendado), Rodolfo Nieto (technically not present at said production, but who’s to quibble about an extra barihunk?), and Victoria Vargas (one of the Carmens). Technically, each member of this quartet sang a character in this abbreviated version of Kiss Me, Kate, but none of those details matter nearly so much as the basic recipe of classically trained singer + live orchestra + fun musical theater songs. Continue Reading

MUSIC REVIEW | New Kids on the Block at the Xcel

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On the surface, one would not think there would be a lot of overlap between fans of Nelly, TLC, and New Kids on the Block. While all three are essentially a sort of danceable ’90s pop, there’s something about the mental image each group conveys that makes it difficult to put them together. Take that gritty, sexy, maybe a little vulgar, club sound from Nelly, mix it up with the smooth almost R&Bish sound of TLC, and throw in the, well, straight pop sound of the prototypical boy band that inspired all those knock-offs in the ’90s, and you’d seem to be on the right track to make about the most indigestible musical smoothie you could ever fix up. Really, the only common thread I can think off for all of this is “songs I had to listen to on the school bus growing up because the driver wouldn’t change the station from KDWB.”

But given the audience reaction throughout the evening, this trio of 90s superstars (for the sake of ease we’ll lump them in there, even though NKOTB had a bit of the ’80s in, too) were a perfect match. The crowd was electric all night for this eclectic mix of talent, which delivered a very, very good show last night at Xcel Energy Center. Continue Reading