Thanksgiving for immigrants / Guthrie, CTC holiday shows

The holidays are always a mix of the old and new, and our stories today reflect that. Nekessa Opoti writes about Minnesota immigrants' Thanksgiving meals, and Jay Gabler reviews new takes on two holiday classics: A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie (naughty) and A Christmas Story at the Children's Theatre (nice). New country, new holiday, new foods for Minnesota immigrants By Nekessa Opoti, TC Daily Planet Surviving the cuisine of a new country is a challenge for immigrants; so it was for the pilgrims in the sixteenth century, and so it is now for new American immigrants. And so history goes that Native Americans saw to it that the Pilgrims, the new immigrants, would not starve. Somewhere along the way turkey, cranberry sauce and all the present day trimmings were added to what is now one of America's largest holidays. While the rest of that story on the Native Americans and the Pilgrims was to turn ugly, today Thanksgiving has become a day of giving thanks and feasting. So, how do today's immigrants celebrate Thanksgiving?MORE » THEATER | The Guthrie's new "Christmas Carol": Shaken up, but fails to stir By Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet In the Guthrie Theater's new production of A Christmas Carol, Daniel Gerroll's Ebenezer Scrooge prowls through London making sarcastic observations about the world around him, enjoying his own acid wit and declining all opportunities to actually engage with the people who fill the city's bustling streets. This show didn't inspire me to reflect on the meaning of Christmas, but it did cause me to rethink the amount of time I spend on Twitter.MORE » Guthrie Theater A happy ending: Ramsey County project helps children find adoptive families By Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost Seventeen-year-old Ashley Ankeny has been waiting most of her life for a family to call her own. Her wish comes true Saturday when the people she calls "my dream family" adopt her. MORE » New University of Minnesota President, is a new U to follow? By Lee Egerstrom, Minnesota 2020 With much excitement -mainly built around strength of personality- University of Minnesota regents have selected a new president to take over in June. The regents have concluded that State University of New York Stony Brook's provost Eric Kaler, 54, is the best candidate for the job. What's left largely unknown is just what that job is.MORE » THEATER | "A Christmas Story" comes warmly to life at Children's Theatre Company By Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet 27 years after the release of Bob Clark's film based on the anecdotes of Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story has reached a remarkably prominent position in the cultural firmament. Millions upon millions make an annual ritual of viewing the movie one or more times, and the Cleveland house used for exterior shots of the Parker family residence has been opened for public tours (after being modified inside to match the movie set). A Christmas Story has made the Depression era the default setting for depictions of children's Christmases, just as John Hughes's films have made the 1980s the default decade for depictions of senior prom.MORE » Children's Theatre Company MUSIC | John Mellencamp at the Orpheum Theatre By Erik Hess, TC Daily Planet On Monday night, John Mellencamp performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.MORE » Orpheum Theatre This week's highlights Grief and unanswered questions for family of Jason Yang by Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet Late on Friday, November 19, Mee Yang finally saw the body of her husband, Jason Yang, who died on November 13 after a police chase from the Epic nightclub in downtown Minneapolis. Yang was allowed to view her husband's body, accompanied by a registered nurse, after obtaining a court order. She was accompanied by Michelle Gross, from Communities United Against Police Brutality who is a registered nurse, but had to stand behind glass to see the body. They were not allowed to bring a photographer. MOVIES | Home movie: Mark Wojahn's Trampoline is a raw portrait of a Twin Cities family by Colleen Powers, TC Daily Planet In Mark Wojahn's new documentary Trampoline, which screened Wednesday at the Heights Theatre, husband (and stepfather of four) Nathaniel muses to the camera that maybe the world is divided into two types of people: those who have teenagers, and those who don't. THEATER | Theatre in the Round's Born Yesterday is a good alternative to holiday fare by Kate Gallagher, TC Daily Planet Harry Brock's "got a preposition for you." Just don't try to tell him he may not mean what he says or you'll swiftly be bullied into rewriting grammar rules to suit him. It's this and other brief lines and small gestures that endeared Theatre in the Round's staging of Born Yesterday to me. MUSIC | KT Tunstall plays a solid show to a chatty crowd at Epic by Kate Gallagher, TC Daily Planet As we waited for opening act Hurricane Bells to begin Thursday night at Epic, the ads for upcoming concerts by Far East Movement, DJ Pauly D, and the Wu-Fest Tour cycled on the video screens-artists who are from a different musical planet than Scottish headliner KT Tunstall. As the concert got underway, however, it was the crowd that seemed like it was on a different planet, offering mostly lukewarm cheers and muted applause for KT Tunstall's mixed breed of pop, folk, and rock music. Northeast Minneapolis up in arms over hazardous waste facility plans by Karen Hollish, TC Daily Planet Whether it's called an "environmental facility" or hazardous waste "dump," the Hennepin County Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Center planned for Northeast Minneapolis has created a growing rift between those who want it there and those who don't. What 75,000 poinsettias look like: Bachman's stocks up for the holidays by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet Not to brag, but if you happen to see a poinsettia anywhere in the Twin Cities this holiday season, chances are I've seen it already. On Monday morning I visited the giant Farmington greenhouse where Bachman's was preparing its entire 2010 stock of poinsettias to be shipped out. In total, the collection represents 32 varieties and numbers over 75,000 individual plants-that would be enough to give one to every child in the city of Minneapolis. CEO Dale Bachman was on hand to take a last look at this year's crop. DANCE | Zenon Dance Company falls into fall by Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet There's nothing more riveting than watching someone almost fall onstage. It's the ultimate gesture of risk-taking: a chicken fight that the performer has with him- or herself, a moment of reckless abandon, of complete vulnerability, followed by the landing, and a sigh of relief. And the people that do almost falling the best are the dancers at Zenon Dance Company. MUSIC | Free Energy cause the 400 Bar to collapse around them (almost) by Leslie Kruempel, TC Daily Planet It always seems like a slight miracle when a band puts on a fantastic show at the 400 Bar and the ground doesn't cave in. The venue is small enough for you to be among a closely-knit audience, but big enough to pack in a sufficient number of stomping legs to make the floor feel like it's bouncing up and down three inches below your feet. During Thursday night's Free Energy show, the legs and fists were pounding as enthusiastically as I've ever seen them: this is a band who knows how to energize their audience. THEATER | Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells at Stages Theatre Company: "Wow!" by Tammy Rose, TC Daily Planet Be a giver? Or just be shellfish That is the dilemma that Junie B. Jones has to face in Stages Theatre Company's delightful production Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, adapted from the popular series of children's books by Barbara Park. Mysteries remain in Jason Yang's death by Wameng Moua, Hmong Today A growing list of other concerns have emerged since Jason's death. At this point, these concerns have snowballed into an avalanche of doubt, fear and mistrust by those who have closely followed the life and death of Jason Yang. Teen moms breaking stereotypes at Broadway High School in Minneapolis by Zoe Ryan, TC Daily Planet Deneazra Burns wants to "break stereotypes" about teen moms: teen moms are not all high school dropouts and don't become pregnant to get attention. They're just trying to finish school and do well for themselves and their child. THEATER | Reversing the gaze: Heid Erdrich's Curiosities by Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet Intermedia Arts concluded its remarkable Catalyst Series this weekend with a performance of Curiosities, a play written by Heid Erdrich and co-presented by Pangea World Theater. Like the other programs presented in this year's Catalyst Series—such as Legacies of War, Words to Dead Lips, and Symptom—Curiosities was engaging and provocative. THEATER | Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular II: The Second Coming at the Brave New Workshop: Face-hurts-you're-laughing-so-hard funny by Kate Gallagher, TC Daily Planet If you're an easily offended Catholic who lives in Coon Rapids, loves the Galleria, still worships Brett Favre even after all the crap he's pulled, and truly love every minute you get with your relatives, avoid the Brave New Workshop's current show at all costs. If not, buy tickets to Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular II: The Second Coming quickly, before they sell out. NEW IN BLOGS OPEN ARMS MINNESOTA | Kelly: SNAP and school lunch by Kelly McManus • Since Tuesday, Max (our 11-year-old, 6th grade son) has been forced to eat school lunch. He feels like he's won the lottery. BLUESTEM PRAIRIE | Will the newly shortened legislative work week end complaints about public employees? by Sally Jo Sorensen • At a time when the state's budget crisis cries out to be resolved and families clamor for jobs, education and whatnot, the Republicans are looking out for their own families first. FLYOVER LAND | The church project by Amy Rea • I'm starting a new, occasional series looking at the churches of Minnesota. HINDSIGHT 2020 | Baby Boomers suddenly face transport issues by Riordan Frost • Having access to only one mode of transportation is an unsustainable lifestyle. If something happens to that mode, you lose the ever-important element of mobility. In much of Minnesota, the Baby Boom Generation has been focused pretty exclusively on the car and far flung car-dependent suburbs. As Boomers age, this situation turns against them. POKING AROUND | Kudos to The Uptake by Mary Treacy • Kudos to The Uptake. As some 42,000 people contributed $8 million to Minnesota nonprofits, The Uptake covered it all—not the dollars, but the stories of the nonprofits that will use those $8 million to improve the lives of Minnesotans.
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