BEHIND THE STORY | Covering the KDWB protest by Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet • Pretty much my favorite articles to write are the ones that cover protests. It doesn't even really matter what the protest is about. I love the energy and the passion that fuels these gatherings- it is far more dramatic and alive than any play or movie.
SOUNDING OFF ON SOUND | Robert Plant and Jeff Beck at the State Theatre: Pure joy by Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet • Within the space of a week, ageless superstars Robert Plant and Jeff Beck hit the Twin Cities with strong, sold-out shows at the State Theater in Minneapolis.
IGGERS DIGEST | Somali cuisine moves to the mainstream by Jeremy Iggers • Immigrants from Somalia are now one of the largest ethnic groups in the Twin Cities, but Somali restaurants haven't gained nearly as much crossover acceptance as Mexican, Vietnamese or even Thai restaurants. Race no doubt plays a part, and so do culture and location. Most of Somali restaurants are concentrated in neighborhoods with high concentrations of immigrants, and you are much less likely to find a Somali restaurant in a suburban strip mall than a taqueria or Vietnamese restaurant.
FRONT ROW SEAT | Guestlists are nothing but trouble by Jay Gabler • As the Daily Planet's music coverage has grown over the past couple of years, I have increasingly found myself and/or writers and photographers on assignment from me facing a capricious monster called The Guestlist. Through my adventures and misadventures with The Guestlist, I've learned a lot about how live music shows are booked, promoted, and produced. Mostly, I've learned that it's a miracle they happen at all.
NEWS DAY | Kids, children and a Crawl by Mary Turck, News Day • Here's a sample of the stories that I wish I had time to cover ... from goats to infant mortality to the St. Paul Art Crawl. Goats come first, under the heading of "wish I had written that story." Madeleine Baran covered the Minneapolis City Council decision to bar goats from inside the city limits, and the eloquent (albeit completely wrong-headed) statement by council member Meg Tuthill...
Hmong conference in Minneapolis connects countrywide by Alexander Holston, TC Daily Planet •
The 15th annual Hmong National Convention took place from the 22nd through the 24th of April, and reporter Alexander Holston was on hand with his trusty Marantz tape recorder to capture the sounds of the crowd, attend some of the dozens of workshops, and interview some of the 800+ attendees. (Audio below.)
THEATER | "Jersey Boys" in the hood at the Orpheum Theatre by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet • I don't have much comparison for Jersey Boys, but the Tony-winning musical, first produced in 2005, seems to be a paradigmatic example of the genre. In swift Behind-the-Music fashion, the show runs us through the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, one of the most successful pop acts of the 1960s.
MUSIC | Duran Duran spark fevered dreams of dancing angels at Epic by Sarah Rattanavong-Wash, TC Daily Planet • It wasn't the usual clubland crowd that queued halfway down the block in front of Epic last Friday night. Mostly in their 30s and 40s, wearing jeans and sweaters, these clubgoers had gathered to see the band so many of today's 20-something artists cite as one of their most important influences: Duran Duran.
BOOKS | Books & Bars selection The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni: Rock on by Courtney Algeo, TC Daily Planet • How many lives do you think that punk rock has changed? Maybe that's a stupid question. Still, for better or worse, I believe we can agree that it's changed lives. I'm not saying that it's changed the world or actually led to any sort of discernable revolution (feel free to quibble with that), but I know that it's at least changed my life, and the life of The House of Tomorrow's inhabitant and protagonist, Sebastian Pendergrast. Author Peter Bognanni is noted in his bio to have "once played in a terrible high school punk band," so actually, I guess that makes three.
Digging into urban farming at the University of Minnesota by Dusty Hinz and Lydia Howell, TC Daily Planet • Cities of the future may include widespread urban farming, beekeeping and a locally-grown fish industry, according to speakers at an April 19 forum on urban agriculture at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Robert Jones, U of M professor of agronomy and plant genetics, led the discussion. Featured were Will Allen, Milwaukee urban farming pioneer, and Marla Spivak, Senior Fellow in Agricultural Systems at the U of M and a 2010 MacArthur Fellow and U of M professor of entomology, specializing in bees.
MUSIC | Black Lips and Vivian Girls throw back at the Varsity Theater by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet • Eventually I worked my way forward into the dancing—some, violently moshing—crowd on Saturday night at the Varsity Theater, but at first I sat back, watched the Black Lips, and wondered whether we've really reached the end of musical history.
Take Back The Night march will see changes this year by Jeanette Fordyce, TC Daily Planet • This year's Take Back the Night rally and march includes a free dinner, entertainment, speakers and candlelight vigil at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, 1501 Hennepin Avenue South on Friday, April 29 from 6 to 9 p.m.
MUSIC | Rusko at First Avenue: O.M.G. is right by Sarah Heuer, TC Daily Planet • For all the shows I've seen at First Avenue over the years, absolutely nothing quite compares to the raucous party I witnessed on Wednesday night courtesy of Rusko: dubstep DJ, producer, and, as it turned out, crazy weekday rave ringleader.
Minneapolis input on NCR: Frustration for first focus group, more groups April 27, 28 by Maria Almli, TC Daily Planet • Confusion and frustration were apparent during an April 20 focus group held by the City of Minneapolis Neighborhood and Community Relations Department (NCR) to discuss future funding options for neighborhood groups. The meeting at the Farview Community Recreation Center on Minneapolis' North Side was attended by members of the Hawthorne and Beltrami neighborhood groups as well as a local business owner.
MUSIC | The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Twin Shadow fill the bill at the Triple Rock by Sarah Heuer, TC Daily Planet • I found myself thinking that this is the kind of show that hipster kids could comfortably take their mom to if they wanted to introduce her to their lifestyle in a safe and relatively innocuous environment (a conclusion I arrived at before I later learned one of their songs contains repeated use of the "f-word," but you get the picture). It wasn't bad, it just wasn't exciting. Though I didn't have extremely high expectations—earlier I had e-mailed a friend to ask whether she was going to the show and she replied referring to the headliners as "The Pains of Being Boring Old Farts"—despite my best efforts to become engaged, it just didn't happen. I think the best way to describe it is that it was tame, unlike Twin Shadow's set which, at least by comparison, was gritty, edgy, and impassioned.
North Minneapolis and beyond: 2011 Minneapolis & St. Paul Home Tour by Margo Ashmore, TC Daily Planet • When visitors come to North Minneapolis this weekend to see the six homes on the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour, they'll also see 25 for-sale homes bedecked with balloon bouquets, promoting new financing incentives to jump-start the spring market.
Central Corridor changing landscape in U of M neighborhood by Arvonne Fraser, TC Daily Planet
• Federal funds for the Central Corridor are assured and may be slow in arriving, but nobody's standing around waiting. More than 25 hardy souls braved wind and rain on April 26 to participate in the University District Alliance's "Forum on Foot: A New Landscape on the West Bank." From under their hoods and umbrellas, they viewed the construction underway, learned a bit of history, and learned about potential residential and commercial development around the Cedar-Riverside/University West Bank station area.
THEATER | Further Fidgety Fairy Tales, a "mental health musical," comes to the Basilica by Jose Munoz, TC Daily Planet • "What we're trying to do…is present this idea that the best way for people to live is to be in community with each other, and to care about each other and to accept each other," composer and lyricist Marya Hart, 53, said when talking about her latest children's musical, "Further Fidgety Fairy Tales."
MUSIC | The Pixies at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium: Good as new by Stacy Schwartz, TC Daily Planet • Just before the closer "Gigantic," Kim Deal instructed us all to "Watch. We learned how to bring it down over 20 years. We learned how to bring it down." Bring it down they did, and we went with them head over heels. I walked out whistling into the cool night air satisfied that one of my favorite bands hadn't changed a bit—and I liked it that way.
NEW IN BLOGS
EYETEETH | Welded graffiti plaque by NOISE by Paul Schmelzer • This welded plaque on Mississippi railroad bridge in Northeast Minneapolis -- probably a piece by this writer -- is a good book-end to the guerrilla "Struggle" placard that's on the nearby bridge between Boom Island and Nicollet Island.
TC JEWFOLK | Yom HaShoah: The beggar is waiting by Jenna Zark • Growing up, we didn't talk about it. The Holocaust entered my life through a second-grade teacher in Jewish day school who began telling us the horrific memories she couldn't forget. When I shared these memories with my parents they acknowledged that yes, they had happened, but didn't elaborate. At nine, I read Anne Frank's diary— and then a raft of movies and books on the subject seemed to be everywhere. As a Jewish child, I became completely immersed in them.
MN PROGRESSIVE PROJECT | Voter ID bill is vote suppression by Eric Pusey • As you may recall, I warned that the MN GOP would provide all kinds of distractions because they cannot create any jobs or balance the state's budget. Well, here's another.
NORTH BY NORTHSIDE | Nice Ride kiosk at Farview Park! by Jeff Skrenes • There are now actual bikes and a usable kiosk at Farview Park on the corner of 26th Ave N and Lyndale Ave N. At the time the picture was taken, the kiosk wasn't up and running yet. I'm thrilled that we've got a Nice Ride station at the park and on one of the main bicycle thoroughfares in NoMi. But not everyone is so overjoyed, and I can see why.
BLUESTEM PRAIRIE | State Policy Network's local members and friends are rethinking Minnesota's public workforce by Sally Jo Sorensen • While the frame being set up by one progressive publication for talking about the State Policy Network is that it is composed of a "well-funded network of conservative think tanks that you've probably never heard of," this narrative isn't particularly accurate for those seeking to describe the situation in Minnesota, if the ambiguous wording is meant to modify or refer to the think tanks themselves.
MN PROGRESSIVE PROJECT | First audit confirmation of previous Sheriff Fletcher accounting problems by Grace Kelly • Sheriff Bostrom took over the Ramsey County office, this January, after winning last November over four-term incumbent Sheriff Fletcher with a 15% advantage. Part of the required transition is an audit required by law. This financial audit applies to previous Sheriff Fletcher financial and accounting process only. Current Sheriff Bostrom is already implementing changes to fix all identified problems.
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