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Arts Orbit Radar 12/2/10 What's happening this week On the radar: Chicago singer-songwriter Andrew Bird moves from the Church of God to the Cathedral of Rock. Under the radar: Wait a second, #Movember isn't just a hashtag? It's a real thing? Invented in Australia? To fight prostate cancer? "The moustache serves as the 'ribbon' and the vehicle by which participants raise awareness for men's health," says a press release announcing tonight's celebration for "Mo Bros" at Bootleggers. Needless to say, "Mo Sistas" (to use the official term: "'Mo Sistas' act as ambassadors for the 'Mo Bros'") are very welcome to join the party. The event starts at 8:00 and according to the Bootleggers website, "college night" starts at 7, so there's sure to be plenty of educated, socially conscious conversation to enjoy. On the radar: This holiday season, an old but magically immortal Italian woman takes the stage once again. No, not Liza Minnelli: La Befana. Under the radar: Tonight, all your Freaky Deeky friends—me included—will be at the 7th Street Entry for a "fun raiser" featuring artists including First Pube, Stewart DeVaan of Savage Aural Hotbed, and Mark Mallman's pop-rock project Waxx Maxx. What's Freaky Deeky? Well, you could read my Daily Planet article about the first time I appeared on the show, or you could allow the description on First Avenue's website to suffice: "Live public broadcast display of mustache piracy in full style freeform eyejuice. Freakzitsauce popping smiles, drinking video milk from their teats of exhibitionism." On the radar: As the Weisman Art Museum prepares to shut down for a year-long expansion project, l'etoile magazine is taking the place over for a break-every-rule-(well-at-least-some-of-the-rules) event called WAMarchy! If this is your kind of a party, you'll dig it. Under the radar: Zenon alumna and Macalester teacher Krista Langberg has long been an admired and influential member of the local dance scene; she and her husband Terry Chance are both now battling cancer. Today, a daylong event culminating in a dance concert and party at the Southern Theater will raise funds to help Langberg, Chance, and their family.
On the radar: Mason Jennings plays the second of a pair of headlining shows at First Ave. His latest albums have been on the dark side, but he shouldn't have to reach too deeply to find some warm fuzzies for the holiday season. Under the radar: It's opening weekend for Open Eye Figure Theatre's Holiday Pageant, which I referred to in my review last year as "one of the most fascinating and disturbing holiday shows in town." On the radar: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Under the radar: Dance community leaders at the Walker Art Center, the Southern Theater, the Ritz Theater, and the Cowles Center for Dance are hosting Doug Sonntag, director of dance for the National Endowment for the Arts. In a public conversation at the Ritz, Sonntag will talk about "the state of dance throughout the U.S. and some of the efforts that others have been making to thrive and survive in these times." On the radar: Now that National Novel Writing Month is over, send that manuscript off to your agent and hie thee to Coffman Union to hear from three local authors who have just published their debut novels: Peter Bognanni (The House of Tomorrow), Matt Burgess (Dogfight, A Love Story), and John Jodzio (If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home). Under the radar: At Honey, a fantastic lineup of performers including Maria Isa, I Self Devine, Mayda, and Adam Levy play a benefit show (admission free, donations accepted) to fight child trafficking. It's an early show, so if you feel like keeping the rock going, cross the bridge to the 501 for a free show by Speeds the Name. On the radar: To sit or to stand during the Hallelujah chorus of Handel's Messiah? It's the kind of debate that gets classical music fans fired up, but at the 11 a.m. matinee performance that inaugurates the Minnesota Orchestra's weekend-long go at the holiday-season chestnut—the first time Osmo Vänskä has deigned to raise his baton to the piece in Orchestra Hall—the audience is likely to include many elderly concertgoers who would really prefer to just remain sitting. If you're attending one of the subsequent evening performances, remain seated at your own risk. Under the radar: For those looking for some holiday warm-and-fuzzies, later this month the Cedar Cultural Center will be hosting Neal and Leandra, David Benoit, and Roma di Luna. Those whose favorite holiday movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas, however, will want to get to the Cedar tonight for the show by Dark Dark Dark.
Daily Planet arts roundup • James Franco and Anne Hathaway will host 83rd Academy Awards (feature by Barb Teed) • Red House supergroup Red Horse release a debut disc to enjoy over and over again (review by Dwight Hobbes) • Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular II: The Second Coming at the Brave New Workshop: Face-hurts-you're-laughing-so-hard funny (review by Kate Gallagher) • Storytelling and beyond: Photographing the cultural landscape (video by Nate Mains) • Venison—Four ways (blog entry by Amy Doeun) • Remembering my mom: A life full of love—and baseball (blog entry by Jean Gabler) "Marwencol" and "Dogtooth": Revelation and revolution Two films opening this weekend will test your ideals and memory, and will require your full attention. Neither is easy to explain in a short blog entry, but I recommend you see both: you'll want to discuss them with others long after you've seen them. The first is Jeff Malmberg's directorial debut, the beautiful and rich documentary Marwencol, opening Friday at the Lagoon. Its subject, Mark Hogancamp, was attacked outside of a bar in upstate New York ten years ago and spent nine days in a coma and close to two months in the hospital, leaving him with hardly any memory of his previous life. The doctors thought attending therapy would help revive his memory and help him through his healing process, but Mark was unable to afford the sessions and started his own type of therapy: he created Marwencol, a fictional WWII town with dolls that represent his family, friends, co-workers, and even his enemies. The amazing nugget about Marwencol is that the town/village dolls are so carefully put together that they have helped Mark retain his hand-eye coordination, as he's been able to regain his basic everyday life with each "character" impeccably represented. Everyone in Marwencol from Mark (he has his own doll) and other dolls, are all given names, and a reason for being in his Marwencol setting, as Mark continues to add "characters" to his collection weekly. Without giving away too much, the story has a stunning melancholy charm, which comes to fruition in the last third of the film in some of the finest minutes in film this year. Malmberg's lens rarely leaves Hogancamp, but once others are interviewed about Mark, its hard not to see him as a true innovator hard at work at not only art, but life. In the Greek bizarro drama/comedy/horror film Dogtooth, co-writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos seems to have played a practical joke on us—although we shouldn't be laughing this loud, should we? Dogtooth, finally opening in the Twin Cities Friday at St. Anthony Main, has its share of haters out there (critics and audiences alike), but has also been widely praised as a "true original," and you can see why. The film works as a sinister satire of family living and fear of paranoia. Three children (we're never given their names) live in a confined and strict home with their parents, who've developed an interesting way of raising their children (the vocabulary is beyond strange: the children are told to call a salt shaker a "telephone") and are forbidden to leave the perimeter of the enclosed house. The father educates them differently, considering he's asked a female co-worker to come to their home to satisfy his son's sexual desires, while the two daughters are kept even more shielded. When the female co-worker starts to help the children understand the outside world, the three begin to rebel, to hilarious and disturbing results, including in two separate scenes, a cat and an airplane. I can say confidently that I've never seen anything quite like Dogtooth, and I almost hope I never do again. It's a revelation—and, perhaps, a revolution. Q: Who IS that? A: Courtney McLean, queen of naughtybilly Name: Courtney McLean What's your job? Other than your job, what are your claims to fame? What's your relationship status? Where are you most likely to be seen? Where are you most likely not to be seen? With what people are you most likely to be seen? Where were you born? What neighborhood do you live in? What's your ride? What's the best way to start a conversation with you? |  |
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1 Aralık 2010 Çarşamba
Arts Orbit Radar 12/2/10
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