February 2006

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"When in Minnesota and you got a drinking quota"

Filed under: Music

That's a key line from NOFX's "Seeing Double at the Triple Rock." The SoCal pop-punk stalwarts are shooting a video for the new track at its namesake club on March 6. In the song, the band gets "snowed in" at the bar (Don't you hate it when blizzards completely shut down Cedar?) and spends the afternoon "watching Paddy talk." This town has an overabundance of punk fans who'd happily shoot the shit with Dillinger Four's Patrick Costello without cameras rolling, so it's no surprise that the shoot's request for extras was quickly filled. Lucky "background artists" have to dedicate three to four hours to the filming. They're also required to show up dressed as priests and nuns.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 28, 2006 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

 

Love hurts

Filed under: Art/Museums

Slate has posted a fascinating essay/slideshow by local photographer Alec Soth. It's excerpted from his most recent major project, "NIAGARA," which debuted at the Gagosian Gallery in NYC last month. Soth's intimate photos, shot around the Niagara Falls area, capture hand-written love letters, shabby motels, and flaccid, naked couples. As the pictures flash by the artist ruminates on love and its (often ugly) aftermath. The collection will be published as a book next month and goes on display at the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis starting April 7th.

Posted by Paul Demko at February 28, 2006 1:43 PM | Comments (0)

 

Googling pain

Filed under: Art/Museums

Local artist Jaron Childs paints pain. He uses found photos of people crying, sobbing, or bent with loss, and re-creates them as photo-realistic images of ghostly and mysterious cousins twice removed of the original painful moment.

The titles of his paintings, currently on display at Soo Vac, are the same as his source material: Google image searches resulted in "628.jpg" and "crying(2).jpg," among 15 other found photos, that Childs has painted in careful brush strokes. But there are no links to stories or other searchable clues provided in the enlarged images; all that remains are interpretations of human loss and anguish via Childs' painstakingly realistic reconstructions.

As a comment on media saturation and a culture with a growing tragedy addiction, some of the best images of the exhibit are "crying1.jpg" and "anguish.28.jpg." By painting the photos exactly as they are, with "AP Photo" in one corner of "anguish" and the CBS logo creeping up on "crying1," Childs has made the images less about innate empathy and human connection and more about a culture of gawkerism.

In the end, though, any cynicism is abated by Childs' careful attention to each image, to each agonizing instant. The cracks in the anguish-twisted faces are deeper and more defined than any photograph could reveal, as if by reproducing the reproductions Childs made the images more real, and made the people in them more human.

Posted by at February 27, 2006 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

 

5 Silly Questions: Mary Lahammer

Filed under: 5 Silly Questions

In a new feature at Culture To Go, I've sent out five silly questions to a local blogger to find out about their life beyond being chained to their keyboard. First up is Mary Lahammer, a host and political reporter for Almanac on TPT2. When Mary's not blogging at the Almanac site, she's on the capitol beat for public television. Mary has scored a few Emmys and City Pages named her "Best Newscaster" back in 2002. We also think her last name means "The Hammer" in Italian, but our knowledge of things Italian don't really go beyond eating Chef Boyardee everyday. I thought of the silliest, most inane questions in the five minutes I allotted myself and fired them off to The Hammer. Here's what she had to say...

 

1. If you could choose anyone living or dead, who would you really enjoy playing shuffleboard with?
Abe Lincoln. I'm tearing through Doris Kearns Goodwin's great Lincoln biography right now. I'm learning he was quite a good athlete and still being a little spunky jock myself, I like nothing better than taking on tall politicians.

2. What medication are you on right now, if any?
Well, since I just finished playing shuffleboard with Abe Lincoln on what I assume to be a big cruise ship (where else do you play shuffleboard?) I assume I'm sea sick. So I'd be taking Dramamine.

3. What song would you like performed at your funeral and by whom?

"I'll Be Missing You" by Sean Puffy P. Diddy Whatever-he's-going-by-today Combs. I love how it samples The Police's "Every Breath You Take." I'll take Sean or Sting.

4. Name something you eat that other people think you're weird for eating.
Everybody thinks everything I eat is weird. I eat healthy and I eat a lot. We keep a quote board in the office and my photographer was quoted as saying, "for a little girl she sure eats a lot."

5. If you could drive 500 miles in any direction from the Twin Cities, where would you prefer to end up?

50th and France in Edina. Oh, it sounds so shallow but I'm on the biggest "Anthropologie" kick right now. No matter how much good journalism you do on TV the only thing people seem to remember is what you're wearing. Plus, I have been to every tourist destination in the 5 state area as a kid stuffed in an overcrowded old wood-paneled station wagon. I don't need to experience another family road trip to see gynormous presidents' faces carved in a hill ever again.

Thanks for image of Abe Lincoln in Bermuda shorts on the Lido Deck, Mary! Pretty sure that will be in tonight's nightmare. Check out Mary on Almanac every Friday night, 7:00 p.m., on TPT Channel 2.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 24, 2006 9:51 AM | Comments (1)

 

An Interview with John Fogerty

Filed under: Music

John Fogerty is an AC/DC fan. That's one of the revelations in this interview I conducted with the former leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival late last fall when he was out promoting his first-ever collection that includes hits from both his Creedence era and his later solo work.

 

As is apparent in the interview, Fogerty is an engaging but modest guy with pointed political opinions. The Q&A was originally slated to appear in another magazine, but was cut due to space considerations.

City Pages: You've got a brand new collection of greatest hits from both your days with Creedence Clearwater Revival and your solo career out now; your first comprehensive collection. But some of the songs are live recordings. What made you decide to do certain songs live?

John Fogerty: Because I have been doing them live anyway in my shows recently and this band is a really great bunch of musicians. All of them seemed to have new life and new vitality that seemed to surpass the original tracks. It seemed to be a good idea to add the freshness live. In some cases there were special things that happened in the live setting.

CP: Have you got some kind of psychic Third Eye going? Your political stuff, like "Fortunate Son," and naturally the anti-Iraq war anthem "Déjà vu (All Over Again)" seem more resonant now than when you first wrote them. But in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, your songs about New Orleans, like "Born on the Bayou" and "Proud Mary," seem especially resonant, and the apocalypse-oriented songs, like "Bad Moon Rising," and "Who'll Stop The Rain," are pretty eerie and chilling.

JF: Yeah, well some of that is the cycle of being alive in the world. These things do come around from time to time. Certainly there were big hurricanes back around the time of "Bad Moon Rising"--I think Hurricane Camille had happened right around that time. But yeah, I take note of apocalyptic events both past and present. Natural things like that greatly work into my point of view.

CP: And what about the political stuff? Did you ever imagine a song like "Fortunate Son" would be so apt in 2004. '05, and '06?

JF: I can't say that was the case with "Fortunate Son," other than the fact that it was a condition since time began that rich folks declare the wars and the poor folks have to go fight them. But having a President who seems to fit the description of "Fortunate Son" so well; not only that he himself is the son of a President, but by the way he behaves, with his business connections. It is so noticeable folks around him are obviously more concerned about big business and corporations. My God, he wants to put up oil wells in Yellowstone National Park! I haven't heard something like that since James Watt from the Reagan Administration.

CP: When you went on the Vote For Change tour in support of John Kerry, Bruce Springsteen introduced you as "our generation's Hank Williams" when you came out for your set in St. Paul. Having Bruce Springsteen compare you to Hank Williams must be one of the unique thrills in your career.

JF: Well, Bruce was very nice to me and said some wonderful things about me, and to me, during that tour. I was greatly honored.

CP: Aside from the content of your songs, that's the first time I can remember you doing something overtly political.

JF: Yeah, usually I just let my songs do the talking. As a matter of fact I have long had an aversion to celebrities endorsing politics, and in some cases even other causes. I wonder about their motives. And I have to admit when celebrities get involved in political campaigns I tend to get a little bit sarcastic about it. I am a citizen first--a family man and a citizen--and I have been suspicious when celebrities get involved. So at first I didn't want to do it [the tour]. But this time, with the 2004 election it seemed like an emergency to me. It still does. It is so hard to take that George Bush got elected. I scratch my head about the political process in America. Folks who tried to change our course did the best they could, I guess. Some of us feel that the election might have been confiscated, in Ohio this time and Florida before. You wonder how firm the grasp of the right wing is in some of these processes we hold dear.

CP: Do you have any upcoming songs that deal with those feelings?

JF: None of things I am working on now are in the clear, focused stage, so right now everything is bubbling under, which is how "Déjà" came about. It was unlike any other song I have ever written. It came into my ear when I was trying to do something else and wouldn't go away. The words transcribed themselves into my mind; I didn't know what they were about until the second verse. I tried to brush it away and it was very insistent. And although at the time it seemed to come from another world, I must admit that much of it, or most of it, really were things I had been thinking about for a few years and in the forefront of my mind as a citizen, but not at all in my mind to write a song about it. If anything I wanted to steer away from those things. Things I just said about soapboxes in politics, I really feel the same about in music. When Pete Townshend threw Abbie Hoffman off stage at Woodstock I was in favor of the musicians there. But if song comes that works on me like "Déjà vu" did, I will certaining keep doing it.

CP: When a song becomes so topical again, like the way "Fortunate Son" has taken on added meaning, or the way those hurricane and New Orleans songs can be framed, does it renew your interest in them in a new way?

JF: Well, that other people find renewed interest in them I take note of. But I wrote them at a different time. The original setting of "Fortunate Son" was we had Richard Nixon in the White House and he was not unlike our current president--we had a war and rich folks weren't fighting. Things were similar and I had very much emotion about it then because of the way our foreign policy was being played out. As far as the apocalyptic thing goes, there are emotions but it is just that my heart goes out to the south, a region I deeply love, and certainly New Orleans, which is a city I have a very personal relationship with. I hold it near and dear because so much of my music has been influenced by the south, and particularly by New Orleans. I hope it gets rebuilt and reborn and gets that spirit back. I think America has actually declared New Orleans its favorite city, I think I read that somwhere. I find it the friendliest city in the world really.

CP: After all that turmoil, with lawsuits and acrimony and you not being able to record for about a decade because of the conflict, isn't it sort of weird that you are now again signed to Fantasy, which is putting out this greatest hits disc?

JF: "Weird" is an understatement. Such a huge bit of my life had been spent battling with the old Fantasy, basically because I wanted to protect my songs and my rights. Part of that statement is an attempt to be paid, which never really happened in a complete way. And after all those years and all that struggle, when Fantasy was acquired by new ownership, all those bad people are gone. I could not have foreseen what this meant to me. I don't worry about it now, and it is wonderful. The new people are fulfilling the vision of the old Fantasy: It is a small company with a great catalogue; not only my stuff but some really great jazz. The people who know it really love the stuff that Fantasy has. And the people at Fantasy [now] made it clear that they honor me and honor my music, which I am very happy about. For my wife Julie and I, this is a dream come true because we have long wondered when it would be resolved and when would my music be in a clear and joyous light, and the two of us are very happy about this. This is a first, that we have a mixing of the band and the solo music. Others like Eric Clapton had this happen a long, long time ago.

CP: You've had so many hits and then some really strong secondary material too. How did you decide what made it on to the record?

JF: The material just sort of came together. I had a lot of help from people at the label and they said it is your final decision, but all of the lists were very similar. It was pretty obvious to everybody.

CP: What I noticed is how everything hangs together. You really have a signature sound that hasn't changed that much over the years, that sits at the intersection of blues and rockabilly and pop to make a classic rock and roll sound. And you were always able to make it accessible and radio-ready.

JF: I appreciate that my influences are revealed and you like them. I have messed around with lots of stuff over the years. I have gone far afield and that is what you do as a musician, try to grow. But I must say, I am happiest at the intersection you just named. You handed me a nice gumbo, a nice recipe. A little Jerry Lee Lewis and a little B.B. King and a little Beatles and a little Zeppelin. With the singles, basically, I was lucky enough that I knew how to make a hit single. Even though Creedence burst upon the scene as an "underground" band, we had all grown up with Carl Perkins and [the] Sun [record label] and all the rest. And then The Beatles hit and they were the commercial hit-making factory of all time and nobody put that down; it was a wonderful thing and all I wanted to do was be like that. Someone would come to me and say, "You shouldn't put two singles out at same time"--you know, the doubled-sided single--"it will split," and I would look at them and say, "But isn't my job to give value?" That's what The Beatles did. I still feel the same way about that.

CP: You know the part of your music that nobody talks about much, that you don't seem to get as much credit for, are those marvelous guitar riffs you come up with everyone once in awhile. That guitar in "Up Around the Bend," is incredible, and there are others--"The Old Man Down the Road," "Proud Mary," and others--that are instantly memorable. Do you work at that or does it just happen?

JF: [laughs] Yeah, you basically have to have a guitar in your hands. You sit down and fool around and a feeling comes to you. It is like you're playing around and you get in a certain mood, and suddenly your fingers do something all by themselves. Maybe it is already complete, or maybe you make just a slight adjustment, but the fingers are ahead of your brain and suddenly you notice it, and say, "Whoa! What is that?" and then you try to work on it and work on so you can remember it before it goes away. We tried to record it before, but it was never very convenient to record everything, and now I have an ipod and all I have to do is put in a microphone and push the little button right by my side, so if I get one of those feelings I can record it immediately. You have hit on something near and dear to me, did you know that? I used to have a criteria for what makes a great record. First was the title, you need a great title, and the second was the sound--so you could hold up a piece of the tape anywhere and it would have would have that sound. And then the song; there has to be a song. And the fourth and toughest thing is a great guitar lick, and if you get that you have a great record. A lot of records have a good title, a nice sound and a good song to them but are missing that incredible guitar. And when you have all four it is so rare and so memorable. Like my kids, who are 13 and 14, still play "Back in Black." Their heads snapped just like mine did when they heard AC/DC and that a great lick. A great lick is a great lick. [Fogerty then proceeds to sound out the "Back In Black" opening guitar riff.]

CP: That's great, especially you being an AC/DC fan. So, all these classic songs on the new collection whet the appetite. When is your next record of new material going to be?

JF: My best guess is sometime in 2006.

CP: We'll look for it.

Posted by Britt Robson at February 23, 2006 4:46 PM | Comments (4)

 

Now that's punny: a headline-writing contest

The Disney dog-sled movie, Eight Below, has inspired a slew of groan-worthy headlines. Can you top these stinkers?

Eight Below is Top Dog
Eight Below Licks Film Rivals
Eight Below Mushses to No. 1 Debut
Eight Below: A Mushed-See Movie
Eight Below Paws its Way to Box-Office Success
Sled Dogs Prove Ample Actors in Eight Below
Some Nifty Canines Star in the Exciting Eight Below
Eight Below: A Dogged Survival Tale
Eight Below Warms the Heart Despite Faux Paws (*)
Sled Dogs in Eight Below Tug at Heart Strings
Eight Below Freezes Nuts Off US Weekend Box Office
The Universe Must Be Inverted, Because Dogs From Heaven Have Found Eight Below (**)

*(Yes, this headline is real, and as far as we know so are the dogs' paws.)

**(Ok, this isn't real, but we think it's "A Cut Above the Other Eight Below Headlines.")

Posted by at February 21, 2006 2:27 PM | Comments (9)

 

Send New Orleans your copy of A Million Little Pieces

Filed under: Books

A couple of different organizations are working to restock the bookshelves along the Gulf Coast. The New York Foundation for the Arts website is encouraging folks to send any and all hardcover and paperback books to the New Orleans Public Library. Some will be stocked and others will be sold for fundraising. When mailing, be sure to ask for the library rate from your friendly neighborhood postal worker. The address is Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations, New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Book Relief spreads the literary love to the classrooms. Nine book distributions have already been held on the Gulf Coast, with over 1.5 million books being distributed. Book Relief's goal is to donate at least five million books to organizations, schools, and libraries supporting the evacuees, and replenish the schools and libraries being rebuilt on the Gulf Coast. Click here for donation information.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 21, 2006 2:01 PM | Comments (1)

 

Time out of joint

While visiting the gymnasium the other night, my companion picked up a Time magazine to skim while trudging on one of the infernal machines. The news was a bit dated: The issue had hit the street on January 15. Most of the pages were given over to the global war that we find ourselves in and its effects on the media, the labor force, the commodities market, etc. That old war hero McCain, for instance, was issuing yet more proclamations on how we could still win the fight.

While most of the news related to whom we're attacking these days, the publisher's note in the front of the edition boasted more cheerfully about Time's global reach: "Time has come to be...a truly international magazine (now that we are publishing special editions on every continent except Antarctica)." The ads, though, appealed to bedrock native values. Even healthy, square-jawed men drink milk! And, naturally, those men will want to drive a healthy, square-jawed new truck from Ford or Dodge!

The People page was filled with tales of minor mischief. A candidate for the governorship of Massachusetts had received campaign donations that were later found to be counterfeit pesos. Ah, dirty money and corruptible pols! A famously left-leaning Hollywood actor/director, while "laid up in his Hollywood home with cuts in his left ankle after kicking in a glass door because he had lost his keys, heard that the paternity suit filed against him by Joan Berry had ended in a mistrial." Ah, celebrities and their funny "accidents"!

Elsewhere on the People page, my companion G. noticed a local feel-good story that somehow had eluded the watchful eyes of C.J. and the sweeps producers at the television fun factories. Major Richard Ira Bong would be returning from overseas combat to wed his fiancee, Marge Vattendahl of Superior, Wisc. The nuptials were scheduled for February 10. The stiffly staged photo found the happy couple posing on a homey-looking staircase. Major Bong stood a few steps up, leaving the distinct impression that Miss Vattendahl is a good half-a-head taller than her future hubby.

The warrior's physical stature aside, Major Bong's name sounded familiar to me. And when I asked why that should be the case, G. informed me that there's already a bridge dedicated to him in Duluth--the Bong Bridge.

Before I'd had time to snigger about that, as numberless teens surely have and surely will, my companion recited some disturbing news. Buried in a few paragraphs near the back of the book, Time claimed that America's enemies are believed to be developing chemical and biological weapons to be tested on Jews. The report began, "it has been rumored," and the description that followed almost beggared the imagination in the magnitude of its evil.

Finished with her stab at physical fitness, G. handed off the magazine. Something here was out of joint, I thought, glancing at the illustration of one of our fighting men, framed by Time's trademark red border. The magazine, it turned out, had been at the gym for a while. The newsstand date was January 15, 1945.

Posted by Michael Tortorello at February 21, 2006 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

 

Lyndale Love

Filed under: Cartoons/Comics

Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly's Local is a comic book series about a city-hopping young woman named Megan. Minneapolis gets some ink with issue #2, "Polaroid Boyfriend," thanks to St. Paul resident Kelly. The story of Megan's disturbing and/or romantic relationship with a stranger takes place on a three-block stretch of Lyndale Avenue South, and it's got the landmarks (Hum's Liquors, the Wedge Co-op) to prove it. Locale aside, the book is like a visual scavenger hunt for Twin Cities readers who will no doubt spot details like a Spyhouse to-go cup or a Chino Latino billboard.

Leave it to scrutinizing local eyes to also pick up on the inaccuracies. For one, the main character works at Oarfolkjokeopus--which was renamed Treehouse Records years ago. A disclaimer says that the story takes place in 1995, an excuse which is betrayed by all sorts of musical anachronisms: Low's The Great Destroyer on the store's shelves, a Heiruspecs CD lying on the floor of Megan's studio apartment, a flyer for a Soviettes show at the Triple Rock on her fridge. Kelly blames the mistakes on trying to get the book done in a hurry. But irked residents may find solace in a snarky Twin Cities primer in the back, which includes factoids like, "[In 1866] the first Minneapolitan discovered St. Paul, immediately grew bored and returned home."

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 20, 2006 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

Toe Jam

When professional dancer Liz Wawrzonek first met Lauren Schad and Gina Kent, they were dressed in bunny costumes, or as Wawrzonek describes it, sequined unitards with "rabbit tails on their cute little butts." It was Easter, hence the uni-bunnies, and Schad and Kent were tap dancing at the Triple Rock as openers for the local punk band Dillinger Four. For Wawrzonek, colored eggs, plastic grass, and melted Peeps didn't immediately spring to mind. Instead, her first thought was, "How do I sign up to be a tap-dancing punk-rock Playboy bunny?"

Turns out Schad and Kent weren't Playboy bunnies, just skilled costume designers who called their dancing duo the Shim Sham Shufflers, had a shared dream of dancing, and never stepped a tapped foot into a dancing class.

That was nearly a year ago, and since that time Schad and Kent took a few community-ed classes in tap, added Wawrzonek to the mix, and became the Twin Cities' only burlesque-style tap-dancing troupe to open for a handful of local bands and perform at various benefits and a very special Halloween Vampyre party.

But the Shim Sham Shufflers's big break came over the summer when the girls were, ummm, tapped to be extras on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion movie. That's when Wawrzonek and company found out director Robert Altman has a thing for tap-dancing women who call themselves Busty St. Claire, Chesty LaRue, and Hootie McBoob, and that Lindsay Lohan eats only mustard and won't look the "help" in the eye.

CP: What was the inspiration for the Shim Sham Shufflers?

Lauren and Gina are always on the scene, looking amazing, so it was just a matter of time before they got together and did something hot. They combined their love for the local music scene with their lifelong dream to take the stage in tap shoes to create the Shim Sham Shufflers. But from the start, the costumes have always really been the star of the show, which is no surprise since Lauren is a fashion designer/3-D artist and Gina is a seamstress and a genius with costuming, hair, and make-up.

CP: The last time I saw you guys perform, you danced to a remake of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love." What makes a good Shim Sham Shuffler tap tune? And how does it determine your costume choice and design?

We try to choose songs that will create a kitschy, cute, or campy vibe and our costumes and aesthetic are keys to achieving this effect. "Little Spanish Flea," with country-style gingham frocks; Gloria Jones' bluesy version of "Tainted Love," with ripped fishnets and flirty dresses; Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" with black berets, gloves, and cat's-eye sunglasses....We're inspired by the renaissance that burlesque-style performance has had of late, and we strive to capture that vibe infused with our own personalities.

CP: You have (possibly) two appearances in the Prairie Home Companion movie. How did that happen?

One of the casting directors from the film heard about us from a Radio K contact of hers who saw us at a show--sort of a chain effect. She pulled our pics from MySpace (who says the internet isolates us?) and showed them to "Bob" [director Robert Altman] himself. He liked the look and they called us down. We ended up shooting two different scenes but until we see an actual print of the film we can't say for sure how much of a presence we'll have...totally amazing experience, nonetheless.

CP: How did the cast and crew respond to you?

The first day we shot was the Lily Tomlin/Meryl Streep/Lindsay Lohan scene. We thought we'd be standing around in a crowd but it was just the three of us and the three of them. Meryl and Lily were so generous and open. As they were ad-libbing through the scene, they would add things like, "Hey, Shim Sham Shufflers, give us a beat," or, "When'd you get your nose pierced?!" It was so fantastic to find these huge stars so personable.

CP: And was Lindsay Lohan as terrible as everyone says?

Lindsay Lohan wouldn't even look us in the eye--she just sat there
pretending to eat her specially ordered Chex Mix, mustard, and Diet
Coke. Altman kept forgetting her name. [He'd say],"Where's that Logan girl?"

CP: What was the most memorable moment?

The day we shot at the same time as Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly. Gina had been dying to meet John and he ended up eating dinner with us and chatting for a long time. He seemed interested in our lives. And of course it was incredible to see how Altman and his director of photography Ed Lachman would employ these elaborate dollies that cantilevered from the stage out over the audience to capture the reflection of us on stage in a mirror at the back of the theatre--talk about process.

A Prairie Home Companion plays at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March and opens in June nationwide. The Shim Sham Shufflers also can be seen opening for Gay Beast and Malachi Constant on Friday, February 24 at the Turf Club, and Saturday, February 25 at the Dinkytowner.

Posted by at February 17, 2006 5:34 PM | Comments (2)

 

Target takes Manhattan

Filed under: Advertising

Manhattanites aren't too pleased to find little red double-decker buses trolling through their city as part of a recent Target promotion. Seems the Minneapolis-based company thought it'd be a grand idea to promote British designer Luella, who has partnered with Target for a preppy-punk clothing line, by parading around town double-decker buses outfitted with the Target bullseye logo. Last August, when Target struck a deal with the New Yorker to become the sole advertiser for one issue of the magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the most jaw-dropping collapse of the so-called sacred wall between editorial and advertising in modern magazine history." Has Target, and advertising in general, gone too far? Or would New Yorkers be more comfortable with the onslaught if this were a company like Gucci?

Posted by at February 16, 2006 5:28 PM | Comments (10)

 

Rev. Charlie Jackson, R.I.P.

Filed under: Obituary , Obituary , Obituary

"In the middle of the ocean/In the middle of the night/We'll keep on fighting/Until we bring daylight," sang gospel electric guitarist Charlie Jackson on his old '70s Booker single "Something to Think About" (audio here), a lonely call for solidarity in the violent wilderness of the American South--and one of the best songs ever recorded about the Civil Rights Movement (others here). Jackson died on Monday in Baker, Louisiana (here's today's obituary in the Advocate); he was 73. The above song and others were collected three years ago on a wonderful CaseQuarter Records CD titled God's Got It (scroll down), a well-reviewed document that made many Top Tens and still astounds on 50th listen. (Buy it here, here, or here.) What follows is an open email from Kevin Nutt at CaseQuarter...

It is with great sadness that we here at CaseQuarter Records must convey the news that Bishop Charlie Jackson of Baker, Louisiana has passed away. Bishop Jackson, known to many blues, gospel and music lovers in the wider world as the Reverend Charlie Jackson, died in his sleep at a local Baker, Louisiana nursing home early Monday morning Febuary 13th. Reverend Jackson had been confined to the 24 hour care facility since the spring of 2005 after suffering the latest in a series of lifelong strokes. His wife, Laura Davis Jackson, said that Reverend Jackson had been unable to recognize anyone since his admittance and his health had steadily declined.

For anyone reading this, Reverend Jackson's music needs no introduction or reminders. Along with Elder Utah Smith, Jackson was one of few of the widespread guitar slinging gospel preachers to actually record commercial records and it is such a treasure, especially now, that we have his unique testaments. I still savor the moment when I first heard Chris Smith's and Lynn Abbott's cassette of Reverend Jackson's music. It's a cliche but nonetheless too true: it literally changed my life.

Not suprisingly, Reverend Jackson in person was even more impressive than his music. On the occasions that I visited him I was
overwhelmed with his perpetual warm heartedness and enthusisam. It was such a delight to be with him and his wife Laura.

There are many poignant and moving moments in Reverend Jackson's music but the one I've been returning to these past couple of days is "The Testimony of Reverend Charlie Jackson." "When I couldn't speak nothing, I let the guitar do it," he says in the song. And then he plays the old hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" on his guitar:

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer

There will be a visitation and service on Friday February 17th at the Hall Celebration Center in Baton Rouge from 5- 7PM for the visitation and 7-9PM for the service. Funeral sevices will be at Jackson's home church, Brown Chapel Baptist Church, in McComb, Mississippi on Saturday February 18th at 2PM. Flowers can be sent to the Hall Celebration Center through Heroman's Florist. www.heromans.com As of this writing there is no information on donations. Please email me if you need further information on this as it becomes available.

Kevin Nutt
CaseQuarter Records

More reactions here.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at February 16, 2006 4:48 PM | Comments (0)

 

Where the streets have a lame name

Filed under: Television

A couple in Duluth this week proposed renaming their street Wisteria Lane, based on the trifling but high-rated ABC show Desperate Housewives. Apparently their street was filled with so much petty drama they thought the name suited their little hood.

Thankfully, the City Council rejected the couple's request, otherwise Minnesota would be known as the home of governors who wrestle and stalk, weird things called skyways that unfortunately aren't made entirely of glass, and a street embarrassingly named after the world's most vapid primetime players. If you're going to name a street based on a television show, at least use a good show for inspiration, like this one in the picture to the left. It looks like the folks who named DuBois Avenue must've really loved the butler-turned-politician Benson DuBois, from the 80s sitcom Benson. Don't you think? Don't you?

If you could rename your street anything you wanted to, what would it be and why? And what other Twin Cities streets should be renamed?

Posted by at February 15, 2006 3:29 PM | Comments (10)

 

New Orleans Museum of Art to reopen

Filed under: Art/Museums

E. John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), has announced the museum will open its doors again on March 3, following repair and clean-up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden next to the museum reopened Saturday, December 10. Thanks to members, donors, and grant organizations, NOMA will now be free to residents of Louisiana. Donations are still being accepted at NOMA, Katrina Fund, P.O. Box 19123, New Orleans, LA 70179.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 15, 2006 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

 

Altman and "A Prairie Home Companion" the hit of Berlin

Filed under: Film

A Prairie Home Companion, the new film written by Garrison Keillor (who also stars) and directed by Robert Altman, was a crowd-pleaser at The Berlin International Film Festival, and is considered a strong contender to win its Golden Bear award. (The winner will be announced Saturday the 18th.) In the movie, Keillor does his last show (if only!), with an all-star, Altman ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, and Tommy Lee Jones. As everyone knows, it was filmed at Fitzgerald Theater, making it the second Twin Cities-based movie in the past few months to be a hit in Germany. (The other is Factotum, based on the Bukowski novel.) The Golden Bear isn't the only award nomination Altman is waiting to hear about: the 80-year-old director is up for a lifetime achievement Oscar. If he wins, it will be his first Academy Award.

Posted by Steve Monaco at February 13, 2006 4:12 PM | Comments (2)

 

May the road rise with you, Hicksy

Today is the last day on the job for my friend and City Pages arts editor Dylan Hicks, who is moving on to pursue other endeavors. Dylan hasn't asked much of me, other than about a thousand words of clean copy every Monday morning. Oh, scratch that: once, when he occupied the lofty post I now inhabit, he asked me to look after his son while he attended a show. I agreed, then promptly forgot, leaving daddy Dylan scrambling to find a more responsible party. Despite my having left him on the lurch, Dylan never voiced a word of recrimination. He's that kind of guy: generous and ethical (and as funny as anyone you'll have the pleasure to meet). Finally, he's a great editor, and I've worked with plenty. He never touched my stuff except to make it better. That's basically what he does: he makes stuff better. Here's to infinite good vibrations for what comes next.

Posted by Quinton Skinner at February 13, 2006 10:51 AM | Comments (11)

 

Unsolved mystery

Filed under: Music

Where's Robert Stack when you need him? A compilation CD titled Live in Town has been showing up in the mailboxes of musicians, DJs, rock critics, and record store owners throughout the Twin Cities. The mix, comprised of bootlegs from various local venues, ranges from the Dead Boys recorded at a Longhorn gig in 1980 to the Arcade Fire at First Avenue last September. So what's the mystery? Nobody knows where the thing came from. The discs arrived in envelopes bearing no return address, and in some cases, no postage. The cover art, a frame of an old comic featuring a bald kid with a slingshot, is of no apparent help. Any young Nancy Drews out there able to crack this one? Continue reading for the full track listing.

1. The Pixies "Debaser" Fine Line Music Cafe 4/13/04
2. The Jayhawks "Real Light" First Avenue 11/6/94
3. The White Stripes "I Fought Piranhas" Roy Wilkins Auditorium 7/3/03
4. Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians "Clean Steve" First Avenue 2/17/92
5. Luna "Friendly Advice" Pachyderm Studio for Rev 105 12/96
6. Ween "The Blarney Stone" First Avenue 10/31/94
7. Prince and Sheila E. "Holly Rock" 7th St. Entry 7/11/85
8. The Dead Boys "Sonic Reducer" Jay's Longhorn 3/19/80
9. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings "Black Star" Fine Line Music Cafe 9/24/04
10. Los Lobos "Down on the River Bed" O'Gara's Garage 7/2/99
11. Bob Dylan "Shooting Star" Midway Stadium 7/12/05
12. Johnny Cash "Big River" Guthrie Theater 3/20/89
13. Elvis Costello "Dust" Electric Fetus 6/4/02
14. BR-549 "I've got the Bull by the Horns" Fitzgerald Theater for Prairie Home Companion 1/15/05
15. The Flaming Lips "Under Pressure" State Theatre 10/18/94
16. Jeff Tweedy "Heavy Metal Drummer" Guthrie Theater 3/12/01
17. Dylan Hicks "Renaissance Man" Radio K 7/7/94
18. The Arcarde Fire "Wake Up" First Avenue 9/29/05

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 10, 2006 5:28 PM | Comments (5)

 

Your new best friend

No, it's not Tom from MySpace, though we know you spend hours a day staring at his smiling and oddly puerile little face. This new best friend smokes, drinks, possibly suffers from cold feet, and could be anything you want him to be, even a dude living in the former crafting/wrapping-paper room of his mom's basement. Meet Steve, a guy with an affinity for monochrome clothing and the drinky-drink who, unlike your finger-wagging mom upstairs, will never judge you or force you to clean up your ceiling-high beeramid.

Released by City Pages webmaster Brian Perry, Drinking with Steve is a DVD of a beer-swilling guy named Steve (what else?) who inexplicably wears slippers and never talks. Best of all, Steve makes you feel good about drinking solo. You simply pop in the DVD and your new drinking buddy appears on screen, allowing you to gulp back your burning loneliness like it's a tall shot of Jack. In the last week, Howard Stern, Gawker, and USA Today's pop culture blog have all picked up on the Drinking with Steve phenomenon, an idea that Brian Perry says Steve came up with about 10 years ago.

"It's been really funny," Perry says. "There's nothing to the video. It's got shitty lighting and Steve just hit record and that's that. I made it have a funky intro so you can select how many beers you feel like having." And chances are Steve could be more than your drinking buddy in the near future. "I've got tons of Steve stories," Perry says. "I just don't know what to do with them."

Posted by at February 9, 2006 4:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

Evangelical Love Man Turns On White Noise Machine

Born-again country music Valentino Josh Turner is so clean-cut he makes future U.S. president Tim McGraw look like Ratso Rizzo. There's a future for him as a Great Clips model, or as vice president (though maybe not with Democrat McGraw). Or as a sex therapist. His rubbery baritone, a compromise between Randy Travis and Conway Twitty, is the sort of instrument that breaks up (or sustains) suburban marriages. Listening to the lovey-dovey highlights from his latest album, Your Man, this fanciful reviewer is reminded of the time he trained a secret camera on the marital bed of an especially charming Baptist youth minister. In an era larded with stripping anthems, the beautiful "No Rush" is music by which to slowly remove ribbed turtlenecks, and the R&B-aware title track succeeds at being both tasteful and horny.

The rest of the album peaks at pretty good and bottoms out at sort of yucky. "Baby's Gone Home to Mama" rhymes "mama" with "Nostradamus," and could be called "funky" without doing severe violence to the word's pedigree. But "Me and God," featuring bluegrass Methuselah Ralph Stanley, reduces 2000 years of good and bad Christian theology to a two-star buddy movie. And then there's "White Noise," a duet with the sometimes-great John Anderson. I had assumed that the tune would be country's first response to Don DeLillo's like-titled novel, but it turns out to be a celebration of the Anglo-Saxon man's C&W hegemony. The tune (sample lyric: "Take me where those honkies are a tonkin'") intends to be playful more than exclusionary (the pair name-checks Charley Pride and alludes to Hispanic [correction: Irish-Filipino--see comment below] country singer Neal McCoy, both of whom are apparently honorary white boys), but that doesn't mean that David Duke won't get a kick out of it. Plus, it ain't even all that tonkin'. --Dylan Hicks

Posted by Dylan Hicks at February 9, 2006 4:04 PM | Comments (3)

 

Button up

Filed under: Stuff

Karl Raschke's homemade pin collection is nothing if not eclectic. Run into the local photographer/musician and he may hand you a button featuring a picture of Marshall stacks, vegetables, his dad--really any simple image that strikes his fancy. Now Raschke's making his one-inch beauties available to a slightly larger audience: thelatchhook.com is selling limited edition four-pin sets. This week's theme: communication.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 9, 2006 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

 

Spunky spelunkers take FantaSuite prize

Filed under: Lists

Mike Isabella, manager/co-owner/designer of the FantaSuite Hotel in Burnsville, runs down their most requested theme rooms just in time for a Valentine's Day getaway. Even he's baffled by the popularity of number one: "I don't know. It's a cave."

1. Le Cave
2. Caesar's Court
3. The Grecian
4. Casino Royal
5. Arabian Nights

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 8, 2006 2:14 PM | Comments (1)

 

Prince on SNL: Scott Seekins in red?

Filed under: Television

Is it me, or is Prince looking more and more like artist Scott Seekins? During his first Saturday Night Live performance in 16 years (video here), Prince wore the trademark Seekins pencil 'stache, headband, and suit, but in dark red and black rather than all-white (what Seekins wears in summer) or all-black (what he wears in winter). If you think you're up on your Minneapolis icon trivia, here's a quick quiz that asks the question: "Seekins or Prince?" 1.) Local rock band Jerungdu has performed dressed as him. 2.) For a while he owned the web site www.madonna.com 3.) He's obsessed with Britney Spears. 4.) He used to own a store across from Calhoun Square. 5.) He enjoys fly fishing. 6.) According to unsubstantiated rumor, he was banned from the last place that showed him. 7.) He once served everyone Mint Julips at a show. 8.) He and Larry Graham once proselytized as Jehovah's Witnesses during a Sunday Vikings game. 9.) He makes model train-set miniatures on the side. 10.) He is his own greatest subject. And the answers are...

1.) The band dressed as Seekins, as reported here. (A couple photos for reference.) The artist has also encountered people dressed as him, both summer and winter versions, on Halloween.

2.) Seekins owned www.Madonna.com for years before Madonna acquired it. The Warehouse District artist has long made a specialty of painting the Madonna.

3.) Seekins reportedly adores Britney. Check out this Seekins painting.

4.) Prince opened the Uptown store called New Power Generation in 1993. It closed in 1996.

5.) Seekins has been an avid fly fisherman for years, and can be spotted at many local lakes.

6.) The rumor that Prince was just banned from Saturday Night Live is most likely not true; the cast member who impersonates him, Fred Armisen, reports nothing of the kind (scroll down for his NPG post).

7.) Prince prefers to party without alcohol. Seekins was the one offering Mint Julips, according to this TCPunk thread (here's another).

8.) Prince has never denied this episode, reported in the Star Tribune. More on Graham here.

9.) Seekins is much sought-after for his train-model work.

10.) Arguably both make themselves their subject, but Seekins puts himself in many of his paintings. (More work here.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at February 6, 2006 8:03 PM | Comments (10)

 

Prairie Home Companion on Ice!

Filed under: Radio

Okay, not exactly on ice, more like near ice. The cast and crew of Minnesota Public Radio's popular program will set sail Friday, July 14, from Seattle on Prairie Home Cruise II, a week-long journey to Alaska with stops in Juneau, Glacier Bay, and Ketchikan, among others. An announcement from host Garrison Keillor on the PHC website entices would-be travellers with "all the things that people said they enjoyed about Cruise I--the group singing, the plethora of intimate musical performances, the workshops, the naturalists, the star-gazing, the late-night carousing in the Crow's Nest, the Amateur Night..." Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, and Robin and Linda Williams are confirmed, with other entertainers to be announced. No word on whether Guy Noir will coordinate the shuffleboard tournament. Any particular radio show you'd go cruising for?

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 6, 2006 3:04 PM | Comments (1)

 

The game was better than the commercials

Filed under: Television

...which isn't saying much this year. A few flashes of excitement and trickery, between dubious calls by the officials, and the decrepit Rolling Stones going through the motions during their half-time show meant the commercials really had to come through this year. Sadly, most were misfires and retreads (enough with the Clydesdales, Bud!). Check out a few Super Bowl commercial highlights after the jump and let us know what you thought...

Burger King does Busby Berkeley with that dash of David Lynch its been using in its humorous, albeit creepy, plastic-faced King campaign. A kitschy production number featuring showgirls dressed as condiments ends with a dog-pile to create a Whopper, with model Brooke Burke, as the top bun, finishing the job.

The "Best Week Ever" and MAD TV vets that make up the latest series of Sierra Mist commercials are joined by the ever-annoying Kathy Griffin, who brings the funny as an airport security worker who goes all Michael Winslow on Michael Ian Black's Sierra Mist.

A football commercial staple: The really dumb guys who really love beer ad. In "The Magic Fridge," a guy fills his refrigerator with Bud Light (ew) for the impending game, then tugs on a light fixture, employing a revolving wall to hide said refrigerated beer from his thirsty guests. The equally dumb guys in the apartment next door are the unwitting recipients of said beverages. Dumb, snarky, fun... a successful beer ad happily viewed by half-drunk guys watching a football game. Meta-larious!

A tongue-in-cheek commercial for the ABC hit Lost features the late Robert Palmer's 1980s staple "Addicted to Love" tweaked to sound like "Addicted to Lost." Probably good humor for fans of the show, a little creepy for those who aren't fans of watching dead celebrities selling stuff.

The Clydesdales line up for their annual football game on the prairie when a streaker, a shorn sheep, decides to venture onto the field for a little show-boating to the cheers of the assembled four-legged crowd. A couple of cowboys provide the punchline. Very silly and more effective than the other Bud ad which featured a young Clydesdale attempting to pull ye olde beer wagon all by himself in some sort of Currier & Ives meets alchohol distribution dynamic.

Michelob Ultra Amber's commercial features a friendly game of touch football that goes a "little darker." A spindly female player gets up-ended by an over-zealous opponent, but gets the last laugh with a "late hit."

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 6, 2006 1:27 PM | Comments (9)

 

Pet(ra) Sounds?

Filed under: Music

Petra Haden, former That Dog violinist and current member of the Decemberists clan, drew national attention last year with her a cappella cover album Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out. Now she's taking on "God Only Knows." No word yet on whether she plans to record the whole album, but the track is worth checking out--sweet as the original and playful as a grown woman imitating castanets with her mouth. Still, it's not quite as much fun as the more rockin' Who project.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at February 3, 2006 4:59 PM | Comments (0)

 

Chicago loves Craig Wright's Grace

Filed under: Theater

As rave reviews go, they don't get much more ravier than this, about Jungle Theater grad Craig Wright's latest play Grace. Writes Chicago Sun-Times critic Heidi Weiss: First question: "Why isn't Craig Wright the talk of Broadway, with his name right up there in bright lights alongside those of, say, Edward Albee, David Mamet, Martin McDonagh, John Patrick Shanley, Richard Greenberg and the rest? By any measure his plays are as sharp and provocative as theirs. Yet at least until now, his work has been consigned to the regional circuit -- by no means a lesser place, but somewhat less noticed.

"Second question: Will 'Grace,' the sublimely acted, hypnotically directed drama that opened Wednesday night at Northlight Theatre, be his big commercial breakthrough? It certainly deserves to be.

"This is a darkly comic, eerily tragic, wholly timely play. It dives headfirst into questions of faith and religion (not necessarily the same thing at all). It explores the nature of those often deeply painful partners: love and change. And it leads us into the realms of time and space through the use of purely poetic language. What's more, Wright does all this in ways that are at once profound and dangerous, epic and personal. And, as he demonstrated in an earlier work, 'Orange Flower Water' (seen at the Steppenwolf Garage), he is one of most searing and incisive observers of male-female relationships, faithfulness and broken faith."

Posted by Jim Walsh at February 3, 2006 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

Performers run riot, lottery ensues

Tuesday might have been just another day for you and me, but at the Minnesota Fringe office they were dealing with almost a hundred last-minute applications for slots in this year's festival. In all, 283 shows will have to be pared down for 150 available slots--an unenviable task and one, for the second year, that will be left to the (sometimes cruel) hand of fate. Next Monday the Fringe will hold a lottery at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage at 7 p.m., and guests and audience members will pluck numbered ping-pong balls from a spinning bingo cage. The total of 283 performance applications falls just shy of the Fringe's record of 287 in 2004.

Posted by Quinton Skinner at February 2, 2006 3:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Erik Lundegaard on the Oscar appeal of Brokeback Mountain

Filed under: Film

One of the best pieces on the much-discussed Brokeback Mountain comes from Minneapolis-based writer Erik Lundegaard, who writes, "I have to admit that 'Brokeback' didn't look particularly appealing to me from that September trailer. A hopeless, doomed romance. Yay. I also admit to some straight-guy trepidation -- but of the general rather than the Larry David 'it might make me gay' variety. If the number of times I got screwed over by women in my youth didn't lead me to consider an alternative, there's nothing Heath Ledger can do now.

"But when I finally saw 'Brokeback' I found it nearly perfect. It's more than a love story; it's really about loneliness, which is a more universal emotion anyway. Some of us haven't been in love; some of us don't believe in love. Everyone's been lonely."

Read the rest of the piece here.

Posted by Jim Walsh at February 2, 2006 9:08 AM | Comments (9)

 

Minneapolis man possessed by curly-haired film reviewer

Filed under: Music

I just listened to Sun, Sun, Sun, the new album by Sub Pop recording artists the Elected, led by Blake Sennett, the mustachioed, suede-vest-wearing lead guitar player and occasional breathy, phony, full-of-himself second-string singer from Rilo Kiley. And then the spirit of Gene Shalit came over me:

Sun, Sun, Sun? Well, that's one compact disc I won't want to take home and burn, burn, burn onto my personal computer's music-playing device.

The Elected? They must have stuffed the ballots, because here's one rock combo that this critic votes "no" on.

Blake Sennett? More like "Take Sennett," as in "take this confounded platter off the hi fi and throw it in the ol' cylindrical filing cabinet."

Sun, Sun, Sun by the Elected? Can someone call Bonnie Tyler and see if we can't arrange for a total eclipse...of their art?

Posted by Dylan Hicks at February 1, 2006 4:41 PM | Comments (6)

 

Michael Stipe sings Joseph Arthur to benefit Katrina victims

Filed under: Music

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has created the In The Sun Foundation to benefit Gulf Coast residents still suffering the effects of last year's hurricanes. This Sunday, February 5, iTunes will make available an EP including six versions of the Joseph Arthur ballad "In The Sun," featuring Stipe with guest singers and remixers, including Coldplay's Chris Martin, ex-Smashing Pumpkin James Iha, Black Eyed Peas's will.i.am, Arthur himself, and for some reason Justin Timberlake. Profits will go toward The Mercy Corps, whose relief programs currently reach 7 million people in more than 35 countries.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 1, 2006 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

 

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