August 2007

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Raging Bull

Filed under: Spotted

Ever wanted to run with the bulls in Spain? Minnesotans at the State Fair had an opportunity to run with a bull this morning when the 1,600 lb. testosterone-fueled animal named Saber, became agitated and somehow managed to escape from his handlers.

At approximately 9:15 a.m. the Saber was seen cruising down Judson Street for about two blocks, his head tilted down as people screamed and scattered about the busy street. Confused with his newfound freedom, the bull briefly chased one elderly couple, and contemplated stomping a baby in a stroller. Eventually, the Saber chose self-destruction instead, running full-force into a red fire hydrant near the Miracle of Birth Center and the all-you-can-drink milk booth. Moments later he died from massive head wounds. The bull was removed via forklift and transported to the University of Minnesota for disposal (anyone for steak on a stick?). The fire hydrant as well as the fairgoers involved, thankfully, appear to be uninjured.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at August 31, 2007 3:43 PM | Comments (0)

 

Final show at the Toybox Friday

Filed under: Local Music

As reported in City Pages earlier this month, all-ages rock club the Toybox is closing after a final show this Friday (click the flyer for a larger image), with club owner Andy Everson citing burnout and show violence as reasons he's decided to move on. Headlined by Four Letter Lie, the concert doubles as the CD-release party for Sing It Loud. Hopefully the place will be taken over by a new owner--we'll let you know what we hear. For more all-ages club happenings, check out my MySpace page devoted to all-ages venues in Minnesota and surrounding areas, www.myspace.com/tcallagesclubs.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 29, 2007 7:41 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rock the Bells (Wu Tang)

Filed under: Concert Review

Click the photo to view the Slideshow

Wu Tang at the Myth Nightclub
Review by Jordan Selbo

Better Than: A sharp stick in the eye, as I always say.

After slashing three major acts from the lineup and starting the obligatory two hours after opening, Rock the Bells (corporate festival, joyous celebration, nostalgic movement?) rarely failed to disappoint Saturday at Myth in Maplewood. Apparently, the affluent, abhorrent suburb is the new home of hip hop. But most of the fans Saturday, regardless of their class, race or age (usually upper middle, white and 21 on average, respectively), showcased genuine adoration and respect for each act; this is even more amazing when you consider that although they are all still making relevant music these days, the bulk of these artists had their "hay days" in the mid to late '90s. Is rap so bad currently that shorties as young as 15 are seeking out music that was hot when they were sucking thumbs? In the end, my attitude towards mainstream hip hop's ever-evolving audience demographics is weary but conciliatory.

The sound was clean and loud, giving the room an instant and persistent energy, as host Supernatural (the freestyle king) put on a showman's performance in the long intervals between acts. (Seriously, does it really take an hour to haul some crates up to the booth and pass the mic to the left?) Jedi Mind represented before intelligent thug Immortal Technique ripped his usual brand of righteous rage and populist politics, a real crowd-pleaser for the underage cigarette smoking suburbanites. Seriously, rap concerts feature profound moments of mind fuck, such as watching a white mob of arm pumping youths chanting "we live that murder/murder shit, we live that gangsta/gangsta shit." Scary and hilarious. Then Pharoahe Monch came through with a live band and rocked it. The amble selection from his latest "Desire" showcased a mature and talented artist that deserves major shine. Talib Kweli still doesn’t do much for me live, as his rapid-fire and diminutive voice was washed out by ridiculous bass and ear-rending snares. Good time for a breather.

Nas was a true showman, going through a skilled mix of his most popular tracks. One man, one mic, with nary a hypeman or a DJ in sight. After an epic set, we were left high and dry (well, at least high) for over an hour before Wu Tang came through and made up for the wait almost instantly. Although my personally favorite member GZA mysteriously disappeared halfway through the set and never returned, just seeing all eight survivors on stage at once was worth the ticket price. Method Man played jester as usual, but his infectious crowd-surfing energy still makes him one of the best performers in the game. The live instrumentalists Wu featured (curiously including the bassist from System of a Down for half a song) were mainly annoying, adding steroids to the already too loud records (or am I just getting old?). In the end, I came away with minor ear damage, smelling of sweat and smoke, with some good memories (both created and confirmed), knowing a little more about 2007 (or, maybe, 1995) hip hop but still more confused than ever.

Critic's Notebook

Personal Bias: 36 Chambers was my first love; I am almost certain I will get a Wu Tang tattoo sooner than later.

Random Detail: I ran into Monch in the VIP bathroom lobby, telling some girl about tickets to the, ahem, "gun show." (Though I think he was joking; but still.)

By the way: Sounds like next year's incarnation of Rock the Bells will be even more bananas than this year's line up; don’t sleep.

Posted by Nick PapaGiorgio at August 25, 2007 3:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

Across the Country in Seven Days

Filed under: Q&A

For 30 years Lon Haldeman has been cycling -- though not three-mile commutes to and from work, and not leisurely weekend/family trips along scenic bike paths. Haldeman has been cycling like Forrest Gump might cycle had he not been running. A trailblazer in the relatively new sport of ultra marathon cycling, Haldeman holds the double transcontinental record and the tandem transcontinental record and has twice won the Race Across America solo. He got off his bike between bike tours to speak with City Pages.

City Pages: How did you first get involved in bicycle ultra marathons?

Lon Haldeman: I’m 49 years old now and I’ve been doing what I consider long rides ever since I was ten years old. But the definition of a long ride is usually something that you haven’t done before. So when I was ten years old riding five miles to a distant town or a distant water tower -- that was considered a long ride. For me it was a very gradual build up from a ten-year-old to finally being in high school and doing some hundred mile rides. And then eventually doing two and three and four hundred mile rides. I think I was twenty years old when I started in Lake Superior up in the Red Cliff, which is up in the Apostle Islands area, and I raced down to the Illinois border, which is 407 miles in 23 hours. When you start doing rides of over four hundred miles -- that probably fits the definition of long rides. I started doing that when I was twenty years old.

CP: Why did you start doing bicycle ultra marathons?

LH: I got into the sport as a tourist, more or less. You know, doing bike touring, loaded touring, and going to ice cream shops -- just riding and exploring and things. Eventually I liked to just test myself and go a little bit further, a little bit longer, more difficult or whatever. I just liked that challenge of going to new places. At that time there really weren’t that many events. It wasn’t like it is today when you can go out and do a two hundred mile race almost any weekend around the country somewhere -- the sport really didn’t even exist at that time. So a lot of it was just my own fun and satisfaction of going out and doing things like that.

CP: Can you give us a brief description of how the Race Across America works?

LH: The Race Across America is a non-stop race across the United States. There have been various routes over the past 25 years. The clock never stops and you just get across the country as fast as you can. Whatever time you spend eating, sleeping, whatever is still on the clock. My fastest time across the country was seven days fourteen hours.

CP: Did you get to see much?

LH: Yes and no. I can remember that route in minute detail. I know pretty much everything on it. You get in a zone. It’s not a zone like you’re a zombie. It’s more like you’re in a zone where you’re super-sensitive to everything going on around you so you take in a lot more. When I look back on events that I’ve done the best in I was probably in that super-sensitive zone and I was able to remember a lot. Right now I could look at a snap shot of me riding and I could look the white line and the pavement in the picture and what was on the side of the road and I could pretty much tell within ten miles where that picture was taken.

CP: What was one of the highlights from that ride?

LH: There’s just so much to see. There’s the desert southwest, the Navajo Indian reservations, Gallup New Mexico, and the sights and sounds. We had great police escorts across Wichita and Indianapolis and, you know, there was a lot of festivity-type of fun stuff going on too.

CP: What has been your greatest personal accomplishment as an ultra marathoner?

LH: There’s a couple parts to that. There’s the individual accomplishment of a good ride. But then there’s also the satisfaction that it’s actually developed into a sport. Back when I started, there was no sport. I was one of the pioneers that started to set precedent for the sport. And from an equipment standpoint, a lot of the things that we developed were prototypes at the time and then it had the trickle down effect. It was common in bike shops and stuff five years later. One personal thing was to set the seven day fourteen hour cross-country record. I set that in 1987 and it still stands. The record with my wife, Susan, on a tandem was nine days twenty hours and that was set in 1986 and that still stands. Those records as the years go on have stood the test of time because they’re really difficult to break. That’s probably one of the things I look at and think, yeah, I guess it was a tough thing to do.

CP: How does an athlete typically train for an event like the Race Across America?

LH: I would tend to think that you need to be well rounded in a bunch of different things. You need to have the speed -- the road racers’ type speed. It’s good to do short distance. But then you also need the long tourist-type miles where you’re just out there dealing with all types of weather and all types of road conditions. So I would do a little bit of both. I would do some racing, and then I would take off on some 2 or 3 hundred mile rides with the clothes on my back and lights on my bike and do some all day all night kind of rides. I think mentally that probably toughens you up a bit. When the Race Across America comes down to it, it’s all just problem solving. You’re going to the point of failure and then fixing that problem and then going until something else fails. And it might not be something physical on your body, it might be the tires on your van. It’s other stuff that ends up stopping riders, it’s not always just the rider failing, it’s something else because there’s so much that goes into it.

CP: What is or was your greatest challenge during a race?

LH: You’re dealing with the diet restrictions, trying to get in enough food and to keep going. That has evolved over the years. When we first started, it was anything you could eat. I had a reputation for just eating MacDonald’s or whatever I could get because I was just living off whatever I could find. But then it evolved into instant breakfasts and liquid diets, and now the stuff today is more and more scientific. So the diet part of it, if you can get that mastered, that’s worth a lot. I didn’t really get it that figured out until almost my tenth race. Now that the pioneering has been set though, somebody can come into it and at least they’re pointed in the right direction. Back in the old days we didn’t know what we were doing, it was all just trial and error.

CP: What do you think about when you’re on the last day of a long-distance race?

LH: Like I said about being in a zone -- if you’re really focused on what you’re doing, you’re going ten miles at a time. You know every ten miles, you know the terrain-- you’re doing ten mile races over and over and over again. Mentally that’s hard to do because you tend to start daydreaming and stuff. And other times when I’ve been on tandem rides and riding with other riders, we would make sure that we kept at a conversation pace. We would spend a fair amount of time talking just to make sure that was the intensity level that we stayed at. Although we were still watching the clock and watching our mile per hour to make sure we weren’t lackadaisical.

CP: How do drivers on the road during the Race Across America treat the cyclists?

LH: It varies. We’ve had lots of people come along and stop their car and take pictures and yell encouragement. Usually the drivers during the races are pretty good because the vans are all very well labeled with signage and it’s kind of a prestigious thing to have the race come through town and so the town comes out and everybody’s pretty nice. As a cyclist, they all have to obey the rules of the road and not go blowing through stop signs and traffic lights and things. You have to be somewhat of an ambassador of cycling when you’re out there. I think that helps.

CP: You hold a number of tandem records and have won several tandem races. How do you not strangle your partner when you have to spend so much concentrated, intimate time with them?

LH: I think you have to be on the same wavelength going into it. You do a lot of training together. You’ll train five thousand miles together even before the event begins, so you kind of talk through a lot of things. I’ve had different partners in races where we didn’t get along and it was a professional respect that we were on the bike. We did our best, but we didn’t spend a whole lot of time chit-chatting either. Not that I ever got to the point that I wanted to strangle somebody, but there are times when you don’t want to cause conflict and you just get the job done. The ideal situation is that you’re in a swimming relay race mentality where you don’t want to be the weak link on your team and you actually rise to the occasion and do better than you would’ve on a solo bike because you don’t want to fail. Looking back on tandem records that I’ve done well in, that was the mentality that I had.

CP: Are you still racing now?

LH: No. We have a touring business. We do coast to coast tours and we do a major event almost every month. So I’m on the road about two hundred days a year now, just to and from events and getting things set up for those. For example, we did a northern transcontinental. We went from Seattle to Williamsburg, Virginia. It was 26 days, a hundred and thirty five miles a day, and we had forty riders. I just got back from that. I was planning to go over to do an event in France next week, but I have too much going on. Then in September we do a tour of the Grand Canyon in the southwest, which is 14 days, fourteen hundred miles. And then I come back from that for a couple weeks and then I go down to Peru and we do trips in the jungle down there for three weeks.

Hear more about Lon Haldeman’s experiences, the history of ultra marathon cycling, and transcontinental touring at The Hub Co-op Saturday, August 25th from 6:30-8:00 pm.

Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at August 24, 2007 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

 

Sound Unseen opens tonight with 1981 punk film

Read the City Pages profile of local-music filmmaker Rick Fuller (his website) and then head down to the Riverview Theater tonight, if you're near Minneapolis, to see his 7 Nights in the Entry, a must-watch 1981 punk/new wave documentary featuring early performances by Husker Du, the Replacements (click for a video sample), Fine Art, the Dads, Things That Fall Down, Hypstrz, the Neglectors, Rusty Jones & the Generals, the Situation, Wilma & The Wilburs, Stagger Lee, and Peer Group. It's screening as part of this week's Sound Unseen festival (City Pages reviews here, more here), which mostly takes place at the Ritz in Northeast Minneapolis. Girls Rock!, which screens Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., also looks pretty awesome. Afterparty tonight in the 7th St. Entry honoring "Artists of Distinction" Tony Paul (of KFAI), Dessa (of Doomtree) and Conrad (from First Avenue). See you at the Sound Unseen Dance Party Saturday! (See also this post at Complicated Fun, and the MNSpeak thread.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 22, 2007 3:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rain Relocation: Andy Palacio

Filed under: Local Music

Tonight's scheduled program for the Walker's Music & Movies in Loring Park has been relocated to the Walker's own cinema. Doors will open at 6:30, when free tickets, required for admission, will be given out, first-come-first-served. Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective, will perform from 7-8, and the Douglas Sirk movie Magnificent Obsession will begin at 8:30 pm.

Posted by Sarah Askari at August 20, 2007 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

 

God Bows to Math: The Human Calculator Speaks

Filed under: Q&A

Scott Flansburg, the Guinness World Record holder for "fastest human calculator," sees the world in digits. We called him to ask a few questions about numbers, and other unknowns, in advance of his appearance on Thursday at the Minnesota State Fair, where he'll demonstrate his skills in the Qwest tent between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

City Pages: How big is the problem of innumeracy?

Scott Flansburg: People get nervous even talking about math. They're afraid of me because it. We could save the world if everyone knew math.

CP: What are some of the ways you get kids into math?

Flansburg: I tune people into the language of numbers. Those ten digits on your calculator, the Arabic numerals zero through nine, those are the foundation of all the numbers in the universe. If you write down any number and add up the digits, and subtract that sum from the number, you end up with nine. That works with any number to infinity.

CP: Do you believe in numerology?

Flansburg: No, humans take numbers and try to make themselves more important by interpreting them in certain ways. But at the same time, there's the language of numbers: The small-N "numerology" is patterns that exist in languages throughout the world, not just English but Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, all those.

CP: So was there any truth to the movie Pi?

Flansburg: Yeah. It was a good movie. What's weird is the number [that the main character] found on a piece of paper, that was 216 digits, and 2 + 1+ 6 = 9. And what's even more interesting is 216 is "6-6-6"--it's 6 x 6 x 6. I see patterns in whatever I do. It's all numbers. But this nine thing, what it does is it turns on the calculator in your brain. So if you look at the number 22, that number was designed to teach you 2 + 2.

CP: Are you into mathematical philosophy?

Flansburg: I'm a high school dropout. I've never been to college. The only higher math I learned is the stuff that intrigued me that I sat down and wanted to learn on my own. But I get into different things, like calendars. I'm also a human calendar: You can tell me your birthday and I can tell you what day of the week it fell on. So what's your birthday?

CP: November 8, 1969.

Flansburg: That was a Saturday.

CP: Do you picture the entire calendar in your head?

Flansburg: No, it's a formula that I have in my mind, and I plug the number that you say into it.

CP: Do you see numbers differently than other people when it comes to, say, current events?

Flansburg: Well, there's some crazy stuff about 9/11. Just do a Google [search] on "$20 bill folding": It reveals the towers before they collapsed. And 9 + 11 adds up to 20. Nine-eleven is a really interesting day because it's the 254th day of the year, and that adds up to 11, and there's 111 days left, so there's another bunch of ones, and the two Trade Towers were like two "ones" in the sky. And what's there now? "Ground Zero." It's all about zero.

CP: I'm looking at this on Google now. How did anyone think of this?

Flansburg: The weird part is, all they did was fold it up into a paper airplane. And isn't it interesting that an airplane is exactly what knocked those towers down, and there were 20 hijackers.

CP: I guess that falls into the realm of coincidence.

Flansburg: Does it? That $20 bill was created just a few years before 9/11, and that's when this image appeared. I don't believe in coincidences.

CP: Well, what else could it be?

Flansburg: What's the exact opposite of coincidence?

CP: Um, cause and effect?

Flansburg: A divine plan. It goes as deep as you want it to.

CP: You think the $20 bill predicting 9/11 is evidence of a divine plan?

Flansburg: Well, that's a big statement. If there's somebody that believes in God, and believes that God said, 'Hey, why don't we kill 3,000 people and knock down some towers?'--that seems extreme. At the same time, I read this fascinating book where this guy claimed that God is infinite and eternal, where man is not. Did God just create everything and allow that to happen? It makes humans ask some amazing questions that we might not have asked before.

CP: You're reminding me of the Minutemen song "God Bows to Math."

Flansburg: Wow, I love that, I'll have to check it out. I'm just researching all this stuff. I don't have the answers. I'm just trying to figure out the questions to ask.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 17, 2007 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

 

Scootering with Kent Aldrich

Filed under: Q&A

Behold the scooter! Some may say that the vehicle has had a meteoric rise since the humble post-war production of the Vespa in Italy. And Minnesotans love their bikes— be it bicycles on the Greenway on Saturday to Harleys cruising the University strip in St. Paul. This weekend marks a celebration of the scooter, where enthusiasts will embark on rides, mini-safety courses, enjoy live music, and even compete in a scavenger hunt. City Pages took a moment to speak with Kent Aldrich, one of three coordinators of the Rattle My Bones Scooter Rally.

City Pages: So, what type of wheels do you drive?

Kent Aldrich: I’ve got two scooters, one is a 2003 Stella— people may have seen me around town because I have around 46 mirrors. My other bike is a 1964 Vespa VBB.

CP: Vintage vs. newer?

KA: The newer one is flashy, and requires a fun attitude to ride— people smile at me and I smile back. The Vespa is a little older— not necessarily a beater, but it’s lost its shine. And I can be more anonymous riding that one. But really, I have no preference, it just depends on my mood.

CP: How long have you been scootering?

KA: I owned my first scooter at ten. We found an abandoned scooter at Battle Creek Park. We took it home and basically pushed it around the backyard for the summer.

CP: Are there a lot of Minnesotan scooterists? Do you feel that there is a strong scooter community in the Twin Cities?

KA: There is definitely a community. In recent years— all the sudden there are multiple communities! Just like anything else, there are a lot of different kinds of scooters, so people tend to hook up with people that ride the same kinds of bikes that they ride. There’s a large group of us out there. If you’re a scooterist, if you see a scooter broken down, you’re supposed to stop even if you don’t know how to fix a bike— maybe you offer your cell phone, get a soda, let them know that someone is out there keeping an eye out for them.

CP: Why the growth?

KA: In the last 4 years, when I bought my Stella in 2003, I would go the whole summer seeing maybe only 8 other scooters. Now I can ride downtown on the parkway, and see more scooters than that in one afternoon. It might have something to do with gas prices. But people always say, "Jeez— that’s great you get great mileage!" Yeah, I get great mileage, but then I am riding around 3-4 times more than I would if I were riding around in the family van. I’m nor really sure why there’s more— there’s a lot more models that are on the market, there’s some little models with 50-40 cc motors. A lot of college kids ride those. There are also 250cc models out— high speed, you can take them on the highway, and on long trips. And there’s everything in-between.

CP: Do you ever get shit from the motorcycle community? Or is there friendly overlap?

KA: Maybe because my scooter is tricked out and goofy, I get smiles and waves from most of the two-wheel community. Most Harley riders are happy to see scooters show up, there’s some good-natured ribbing. Not any real animosity.

CP: What type of scooter usage do you find that you get in the Twin Cities? It must be hard to ride year round— presumably you only have a certain amount of time riding during the year…

KA: There are some die-hards that ride through the winter. There are contests out there that measure who rode the furthest distance on the coldest day. You get a certain amount of status from it. That’s a status that I don’t seek. But I’ve lived in Minnesota most of my life, so winters are winters. As long as there’s not snow on the ground, I’ll keep riding. It gets a little silly with snow and ice though.

CP: I’ve noticed a ton of biker bars and coffee shops around the city. Are there certain locals that scooter enthusiasts hang at?

KA: There really isn’t just one place. There are a number of different clubs that ride and end up at different places around town.

CP: Is there a type of person that is more predisposed to owning a scooter? Is there a scooter enthusiast stereotype?

KA: That’s one of the fun things about scooters— there’s a huge variety of people that ride them. I can find myself sitting at a table with a skinhead, a 52-year old woman who’s a postal carrier, a clean-cut college kid jock, and a couple guys into vintage bikes. Everyone gets along, and it’s interesting to talk to different types of people.

CP: What are some benefits to using a scooter versus other modes of transportation?

KA: Well, parking is easier. There’s always some little space you can flip into, and some places you can park on the sidewalks. Also, it sounds silly, but when you ride around you can smell the seasons happening. Drive down the street— you can smell what flowers are bloom, what people are cooking.

CP: What are some things that newbies should keep in mind when looking into buying a scooter? Are there certain brands or types of scooters that are more user-friendly?

KA: You don’t to get something too big for you— too much power. Start out with something easy to control. A lot of scooters are automatic, so there’s no gear shifting. Those are nice. Vintage bikes are more expensive and require more fiddling. If you’re not handy with a wrench, then that’s probably not the bike for you.

CP: What are some common safety mistakes you see newer scooterists make on the road?

KA: One of the things I have seen a lot this summer are people riding street legal bikes in bike lanes like they’re bicycles— riding in the lanes off to the sides, then they get to an intersection, the suddenly they’re are bouncing into traffic. If you’re on a scooter and it’s street legal, you need to be in the flow of traffic, keep your eye on everyone else, because they are not keeping an eye on you.

CP: Is there a scooter anthem? Or if not, what do you think it should be?

KA: The Who’s album, Quadrophenia, is based on scooter-themed stuff. It mentions some scooters in a couple songs. That’s kind of the album. I don’t know that there’s just one anthem off of it, but that would be the most scooter-associated album out there.

CP: What are some things you are looking forward to at this year’s rally?

KA: The scavenger hunt is new this year. It’s a nice way to get together with a group, looking at things and looking for things. We’ve never had one before. The big ride, the Saturday ride when everyone gets together. That’s a really exciting event. Lots of different scooters— a swarm of scooters! People come out and stand on their front steps, little kids jump up and down and wave, and people enjoy watching us go by.

CP: So are there a lot of warm feelings towards scooters from the general public?

KA: Yeah, that’s my experience. My bike is pretty tricked out, it’s hard to go anywhere without getting my pic taken. I understand from other people who ride scooters that that is pretty common. People want to know about scooters. They’re cute, they’re more accessible than a big tricked out Harley that not everyone has the right attitude or strength to deal with. Riding a scooter around, it’s a nice way to start conversations with people. I ride down the street, I get smiles from guys with the big cars, the lowriders, the little cars, the Harleys, kids on the street. It just doesn’t matter who you are, people enjoy that type of transportation.

For a complete schedule of activities and locations call 651.291.1454 or visit www.rattlemybones.com.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at August 16, 2007 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

 

North Vs. South Festival in Lawrence, Kansas this week

Looking for a rock and roll road trip? Twin Cities bands are battling Austin, Texas bands in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during the fourth annual North Versus South Festival. Read Chuck Terhark's account of last year's festival, then pack a cooler. Bands include the Meat Purveyors and Charlie Parr on Thursday, Little Man and Moonlight Towers on Friday, and Grand Champeen, Grant Hart, Chooglin', and Superhopper on Saturday--plus a couple dozen other bands. Directions from Minnesota: Take I-35 into Kansas City and hook up with I-70 West; go bout 38 miles to the East Lawrence exit, pay your $1.40 and go down to the traffic light and turn left; proceed about 2-3 miles into downtown Lawrence; cross the Kansas River bridge and make a quick left and then right and you will be on Massachusetts Street (like the Main street or High Street); cruise down to 10th and Mass and you will be in the center of North Versus South.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 13, 2007 3:40 PM | Comments (0)

 

Pox Stops Wilco Show

Filed under: Music

The Wilco show scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, August 14th, at Duluth's Bayfront Festival Park, has been canceled. Apparently, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline has come down with the chickenpox. Guess he didn't get 'em in kindergarten like everybody else. But take heart, Wilco fans--a make-up date is set for the same location in three weeks, on Tuesday, September 4th. Tickets for the original date will be honored, but if you can't pull it off, you can get a refund from Secret Service Concerts. More info is available at the Bayfront Festival Park website.

Posted by Sarah Askari at August 13, 2007 2:54 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minneapolis City Council clowning around

Filed under: Pop Culture

The circus may no longer be coming to town. An ordinance recently introduced by Minneapolis City Council members Ralph Remington and Cam Gordon would prohibit using wild animals in performances.

Remington argues that circuses regularly abuse the animals. "Tigers are deathly afraid of fire," he says. "When they're being made to jump through hoops of fire that does psychological damage to them."

The Ward Ten council member believes the measures is simply common sense. "It's the same as dogfighting, cockfighting, bullfighting, bear baiting, all of that," he says. "It's just wrong."

Apparently there's only one circus that regularly comes to town and utilizes animals, George Carden Circus International. The shows are sponsored by the local Shriner's chapter. In fact, members of the Zuhrah Shrine showed up at a city council hearing on the matter last week to voice their displeasure.

Remington, however, has little sympathy for them. "We've encouraged them to use animal-less circuses," he says. "They've had years to work on this."

The circus is safe for now. Last week's hearing was postponed owing to the bridge collapse. The city council will now discuss the ordinance on September 12.

UPDATE: Tim Davison, who sits on the Zuhrah Shrine's circus committee, just called to offer a different perspective on the proposed Minneapolis ordinance. He denies that circuses abuse animals. "This is an emotion driven issue," says Davison, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department. "They don't want to be bothered with any facts or reality." Davison further posits that animal rights activists won't be satisfied with simply banning animal acts from circuses. "This is the camel's nose under the tent," he says. "Because they hate rodeos at least as much as they hate circuses." Davison also claims that the Zuhrah Shrine Circus, which is slated to be held at Target Center in October, is the city-owned venue's second biggest revenue maker. "I would bet that Ralph Remington has never been close enough to an elephant to smell one."

Posted by Paul Demko at August 10, 2007 3:58 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Game Least Dangerous

Filed under: Q&A

Two Saturdays each month Aric McKeown gets lost and locals in his social network must track him down. McKeown sends them clues through Twitter. For example: "Bob Dylan has a lifetime ban." "Derived from an Aldous Huxley Title." "Founded by a circus performer." (Answer: Brave New Workshop.) A bounty of riches await the first to find McKeown. Thus goes the aptly named "The Least Dangerous Game," a bi-monthly event invented and run by McKeown, who kindly made himself available to answer City Pages' probing questions.

City Pages: What was the inspiration for the game?

Aric McKeown: I was in the car looking for bead stores for my wife. I have a GPS on my phone so I was looking that up, trying to find different locations around the Twin Cities and I saw, "You are here" on the map—kind of weird. I couldn't find these beads I was looking for. That's where Twitter comes in—it's a social texting program online. I was text-messaging people through my phone about how frustrated I was. At that point it just kind of snapped together—just the combination of the GPS and the frustration.

CP: How many times have you played the game so far?

AM: Maybe around ten.

CP: What kind of participation have you had?

AM: There are about fifty people following the updates and the clues. The most people that have found me on one occasion have been about six.

CP: How do you pick the location?

AM: I generally try to go with some place with historical significance or if there's an event going on like the Craftstravaganza at the Fair Grounds.

CP: Will you play it even in the cold winter months?

AM: I'll give it a try. It depends on the how the participation is.

CP: How is the Least Dangerous Game using technology to make people more social?

AM: I try to make websites which have more of a face to them, where you know who you're dealing with, who you're talking to, whose blogs you're reading. The web can be so impersonal. Not only do people get out and see the Twin Cities here, but they discover the people they have been talking to online.

CP: What rewards do people get?

AM: It's all pretty much out of pocket right now. Every so often there's like threadless.com—it's a site where people submit their t-shirt designs and people vote on them and then they produce them. They gave a fifty-dollar gift certificate to the winner. But generally it's just a fifteen dollar gift certificate somewhere.

CP: You're funding it yourself right now?

AM: Yup.

CP: It must be something that's somewhat important to you then?

AM: It's fun to do. I enjoy doing it.

CP: What is your personal remuneration for doing this?

AM: None.

CP: What is the personal reward?

AM: Doing something different. It was rewarding for me because I could be sitting at home on these beautiful Saturdays doing nothing. It gets me out and about. It gets me to discover new places. You know, everyone goes, "Well, there's nothing to do." If you look for ten seconds, there is something to do. There's lots to do around here.

CP: Any particularly funny or interesting behind the scenes stories the game?

AM: I try to do some wrap ups on line after each game has been played. It's kind of fun, you can private message with Twitter so you can Twitter just one person. Sometimes they'll say what they're thinking, you know, and send that to me. Like, "I think you're here. I'm not sure. I'm on my way." It's fun 'cause they're going in completely the wrong direction. Well, I can't really guide you until the next clue. Ed Kohler of Technology Evangelist found me at Matt's Bar and he was actually in Edina and he biked all the way there. I think he was meeting his wife at Lake and Calhoun, so he was about half way in between. So he did a quick bike ride and showed up in all his bright colors and spandex pants.

CP: Did he win?

AM: Yup. He did win. If you can win on a bike, you know, then other people have to try a little harder.

CP: Do people actually sit down and talk to each other after they've played the game?

AM: It's happened a couple of times. The first time on our terribly rainy, cold test run we sat around in a coffee shop for about an hour and a half discussing everything from the Internet to the Twin Cities. That's happened a couple times—it's happened at Matt's Bar on Cedar.

CP: What has been the response to the game?

AM: People have liked it. Everyone thinks it's pretty clever. I haven't heard anyone say it was the stupidest idea. Well, maybe when I first tell them about it. It's hard to describe sometimes and they can't tell if I'm serious or not. They're like, "You do what? Hide?" Once people get the general idea down, they like it.

CP: Where does the name come from?

AM: The name comes from a take on "The Most Dangerous Game" which is a short story about humans hunting humans. I didn't really want to be hunted like that—with guns and weapons, so I figured "The Least Dangerous Game,"—just people getting up, getting out, meeting.

CP: Are you looking for further sponsorship right now?

AM: I have just a general "If you're looking to sponsor" on the website. It'd be nice if I didn't have to pay 15 dollars every time I did this. But it's its own reward I guess.

CP: Is there any danger involved at all?

AM: There is no danger. No one's been mad if they didn't win. You know, if someone shows up a minute or half a minute before them, then it's like, "Oh, I was so close." And then they compare their notes and what they were doing and what they were thinking when the different clues came out. It's a very friendly game.

The Least Dangerous Game is played on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. For more information and to sign up, go to www.leastdangerousgame.com

Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at August 10, 2007 2:58 PM | Comments (2)

 

Media Rescue Mission: The Movie

Filed under: Film

"Everybody likes a break," exclaims the fledgling photographer in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951), imagining that Life magazine might spring for his exclusive shots of a collapsed mine and the poor man trapped inside. "But we didn't make it happen."

No, perhaps we didn't. But, as timing is everything in the media, so tragedy equals opportunity. "And one day I'll be on CNN!" reads the photo caption for CP's review of Ace in the Hole in the July 25 issue. Who'd have thought then that events would bring the cable network's own ace reporter Greta Van Susteren to our fair city a week later?

As luck (both bad and good) would have it, the recently resuscitated Parkway Theater has been screening a fine 35mm print of Ace since before our town's own terrible collapse; tonight is the end of the two-week run (show times at 5:00, 7:15 and 9:30 p.m.). Opportunity abounds. Indeed, might the Parkway ship its print to a theater near Huntington, Utah?

Posted by Rob Nelson at August 9, 2007 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

Join an archeological dig in downtown Minneapolis

For the fourth year in a row, archaeologists, students, and other amateur Indiana Joneses can volunteer for an archeological expedition in the heart of Minneapolis. No experience is required to take part in the Elliot Park Neighborhood Archaeology Project. The dig happens tomorrow (Wednesday) through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, but you can stop by anytime during the dig. "The project area for 2007 is located west of Elliot Park on East Grant Street at 7th Avenue South," reads the website. "It is currently a gravel parking lot, but historical maps show private houses in this area during the 19th and early 20th centuries. We are also lucky to have an aerial photograph of the site from 1938. Although we may find foundations from the houses, most of our excavation area will be in what used to be peoples' backyards."

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 7, 2007 5:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Patti Smith and special guests rock the State

Filed under: Concert Review

Patti Smith / State Theatre / August 6, 2007
Text by Christina Schmitt | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Quick fashion report: Patti Smith skipped onstage Monday night in her trademark blazer, t-shirt and jeans—a look that's aged well. She also had on boots and a black hat, which made her look part Annie Hall and part Amish. I was glad when she lost the hat.

Read the rest of Christina Schmitt's review, and view Daniel Corrigan's photos, in our gallery section!

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 7, 2007 2:32 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Cool Kids energize the late-night Foundation crowd

Filed under: Concert Review

The Cool Kids / Foundation / August 5, 2007
Text by Amber Schadewald | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

After a mediocre performance by Muja Messiah and a stellar set by Digitata, the Cool Kids took over the crowd just as they should, looking smooth and sounding like butter. The bass rattled from ears to shoelaces as Mikey and Chuck rocked the mic wearing their flat brimmed hats slightly to the side and steppin' in their smudge-free Puma sneaks. Their earlobes glitzed and their gold chains hung low over their black and graphically induced T's.

Read Amber Schadewald's review and view Daniel Corrigan's photos of the Cool Kids show in our gallery section!

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 6, 2007 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

 

Femi Kuti roars, the Wailers squawk at the Zoo

Filed under: Concert Review

Femi Kuti and The Wailers / Minnesota Zoo / August 2, 2007
Text by Peter S. Scholtes | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Walking to the amphitheater of the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley takes you past a fleet of boats made in the glossy likeness of giant swans. Beyond this surreal sight, a bridge brings you to what appears to be, what feels like, an island. If you're late, as we were last night to see Femi Kuti, then the music invites you across the water, like the sun, and echoes out as far as the outer parking lot. "You're late, you're late," cried Femi's alto sax in the sky, as we headed for his island.

Read the rest of Peter S. Scholtes review, and check out Daniel Corrigan's photos, in our gallery section!

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 3, 2007 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

 

Gardner Hardware Anvil Drop cancelled

Filed under: Pop Culture

Following the I-35W bridge collapse, Gardner Hardware has cancelled their annual Anvil Drop scheduled for tomorrow, August 3. With the horrific images of twisted metal and smashed cars fresh in people's minds, locals may not be ready to find enjoyment in watching anvils and assorted produce descend from the top of the 123-year-old Washington Avenue hardware store's roof onto cars below. A press release from Adam Klein noted that the employees arrived at this decision and also wished to thank everyone who played a role in planning this year's event.

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 2, 2007 11:03 AM | Comments (1)

 

Let me guide U 2 the Chocolate Rain

Filed under: Local Music

Are you keeping track of the point totals? Do you know who is winning the internets? Then you know Tay Zonday is one million YouTube hits and tribute videos ahead of everybody else. If the words "Chocolate Rain" mean nothing to you, you must take this curative immediately. It is a sepia-tinted tribute to outsider art styled with Gap-ad retro-fondness. And it's star lives here, in Minneapolis. He hasn't booked a local gig yet, preferring the obscure life of a bedroom savant--but he's out there, somewhere, "**moving away from the mic to breathe in," while the rest of us are snoozing our lives away. [h/t Rex]

Posted by Sarah Askari at August 1, 2007 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

 

Mo in Minnesota

Filed under: Q&A

Tongue-in-cheek commentator and pop culture guru, Mo Rocca, recently made a visit to the Twin Cities to film a segment at the site of the 2008 Republican National Convention for The Tonight Show. City Pages interrupted Rocca's blogging about Lindsay Lohan and Eric Moran to ask him about his visit.

Mo Rocca: I love the Twin Cities.

City Pages: Do you really love the Twin Cities? You're not just saying that because you're supposed to?

MR: No, I'm not. It's funny—people from the Twin Cities, as I'm sure you know, are fanatical about where they're from. People from Minnesota in general—in college, the Minnesota people were crazed. And one of my best friends, Carol Bagnoli, she grew up there. She was my first exposure to it. And she hectored me until I finally came and I visited and I loved it. We went canoeing in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, which was just glorious. I just love the Twin Cities. I mean, I always feel kind of slovenly when I'm there because everybody's always in great shape and it's just an energetic, really optimistic place. And the parks are so gorgeous.

CP: It is supposed to be one of the most fit urban areas in the country.

MR: I think it's really well read as well. A lot of places in the Midwest are like that—Des Moines is that way. People do a lot more reading than they do in other parts of the country. But yeah, there are so many bookstores. And I know you guys have—although this figure is controversial—Carol, my friends says, "We have the second most theater seats in the country." And I said, "Carol, that must be per capita." "No, total." It's got to be per capita! You can't have more theater seats than Los Angeles. But there's all these great little independent outfits. And the museums are great—I love the Sculpture Garden at the Walker. I haven't been to the Weisman yet.

CP: What did you do while you were in the Twin Cities?

MR: Part of it was comparing Denver and the Twin Cities, the two different convention sites. One of the things is how green they are. Both cities seem to be competing for who's going to have the greener convention. So we put R.T. Rybak through his paces and Mayor Coleman to see how green they could be. I don't want to tempt the wrath of NBC by telling you exactly what we had them do, but I wanted to see if Rybak really did ride to work. I certainly wanted to hear Mayor Coleman play the bagpipes, and that's somewhat green. I mean, it's energy efficient.

CP: Did he convert the bagpipes into some CO2-eating machine?

MR: Well that would have been really, really cool. If St. Paul could generate electricity through Mayor Coleman's bagpipes. I mean, forget Al Gore, Coleman would be President.

CP: What was the highlight of your visit?

MR: The highlight for me was biking across the Stone Arch Bridge in tandem with Mayor Rybak. It was really fun. My goodness, he's an energetic guy—I barely had to pedal. Believe me, my job was made a lot easier by the enthusiasm of Minnesota's politicians. And then of course I had my own closed door meeting with Jesse Ventura, back from the wilds of Mexico.

CP: What sort of world problems did you solve in that meeting?

MR: First, it was very, very cool to meet him. I mean, my God, he's an original—which is the most unoriginal thing that can be said about him. He's let his hair grow out... which is a choice. It's a look. It might surprise you to know that he was fairly outspoken in the interview. I always thought of him as being just kind of a wallflower. But I guess the wilds of Mexico, living an hour from electricity and an hour from paved roads will do that to you. I'm inspired, I might become a mercenary. I met him at the Mall of America and I thought we were going to eat Cinnabons and ride the roller coaster, but no such luck. He actually was very, very nice. You can't buy charisma—I'm not just kissing ass there. It's one of those things. It's present. It doesn't matter if your head's shaved or if you've ill-advisably let your hair grow out. If you've got it, you got it.

CP: What did you think of the Mall of America?

MR: I actually was surprised at how aloof people were at Mall of America. OK, here's the thing, everyone in the Twin Cities is really, really friendly. So I expected, OK, I'm going to go to the Mall of America and that will be the height of friendliness. Well, in fact, because the Mall of America has lots of shoppers from all over the country, you really get to see in high relief how nice, in fact, Minnesotans are. Because the Mall of America is populated, really, with shoppers from all over America, the average niceness level is lower. We thought that people would be really enthusiastic to talk to The Tonight Show, but they were just like, "Eh, forget it." But out on Nicollet Mall, oh my God, it was a love fest. I mean, I was bathed in Minnesota Nice.

CP: Did you visit the Mary Tyler Moore statue?

MR: Of course I did. I took a picture of myself in front of that. I also got really... Wait. What kind of paper is this? This is like the free paper, right?

CP: This is like The Village Voice.

MR: I was at Graves 601 Hotel. For the first time in my life I was the victim of my own minor celebrity.

CP: What happened?

MR: I was so flattered by this private equity guy who was there for some convention, buying me drinks, that I just let him buy drink after drink. I just became so embarrassingly drunk, I cannot even tell you—I had not done this in years—it's honestly not something I'm proud of at all. And the worst part about it is they were Old Fashioneds. And I like Old Fashioneds—it's Maker's Mark with bitters and a muddled cherry and orange. It's basically like a kick-ass Shirley Temple. But the problem is that if you drink many of them you not only get really, really shit-faced, you go into sugar shock. I was flattered by this private equity guy saying, "Whoah, Mo Rocca, you're a pop culture genius," that I just kept letting him load me up on Old Fashioneds.

CP: Did you find yourself in an SUV chasing after your former assistant?

MR: If I had a current or former assistant I would have run down her mom but in a hybrid vehicle. It is a very green city. I must have looked pathetic: bobbing and weaving and stumbling along the sidewalk of Hennepin Avenue.

CP: You were staying at Graves?

MR: And they put me in a beautiful room. I just want to tell them how much I love them because I want to come back there and pay for a regular room and get upgraded once again to like the Executive-Presidential-Boundary Waters Suite—whatever it was.

CP: Replete with the sounds of loons in the background?

MR: Exactly. With like the Hubert Humphrey memorial whirlpool—or memorial jacuzzi. Never again will I fall for the Graves Hotel flatterers. The Graves Hotel was great—I only have nice things to say about them. They really were incredibly nice.

CP: What should we keep an eye out for in The Tonight Show segment?

MR: I think everyone will be interested to see how much the camera loves R.T. Rybek and Chris Coleman. I mean, how much it loves all of them. No, sorry, that sounds weird. If you want to see your Mayors in action—if you're concerned that your mayors are desk bound and you want to see them in action, then tune into The Tonight Show.

CP: What are your thoughts on the CNN/You Tube debates?

MR: It was revolutionary, ground-breaking, historic—never been tried before. Really, on par with democracy itself—it was so revolutionary. I wanted to vomit hot blood more than I did after my Old Fashioned binge from watching twenty minutes of CNN earlier in the day. I mean, it was shameless the way that network, God bless them, but the way that that network treated their own debate as a major news story. Not the substance of the debate. This was before the debate took place. The imminence of the debate was treated—replete with the countdown clock. Suffice it to say that if they had they asked me to do the red carpet I would have been there in a second. "Wolf Blitzer who are you wearing?" I agree with most people that the questions were good. Some of them were really, really great. The whole thing smacked of this ratings-challenged network trying desperately to talk to the young people. They culled questions—digitally produced and sent to them and then put them on a big overhead project. It's like the equivalent of listening to your favorite TV show on the radio. I mean, you know what I mean? It's like taking new technology and putting it in old technology terms. In essence what you had basically a Q & A session—a town hall. You had what Larry King Live has been doing for over 20 years—people asking public figures questions. And it's not a debate because they don't engage each other. I remember even watching—I'm being awfully unfunny—but even watching like a clip of the last debate with Sarkozy and the woman who ran for president of France. I mean, they really hated each other. They were going at it. I don't even remember if they had a moderator.

CP: St. Paul or Minneapolis?

MR: I have a more friends in St. Paul and they take it more seriously, so I'm going to have to... you know what? I'm going with Duluth and I'll tell you why. When my friend Carol, who works at General Mills and is from St. Paul—when we went canoeing in the Boundary Waters, we parked the car in Duluth. We left her car in Duluth for the week and when we came back, it turned out that the car had been egged but these little kids on the block had come and cleaned the car, had washed it off. They cleaned it! They like spit polished the thing. And we only found out—the kids didn't tell us—because another neighbor said, "Oh, your car got egged and these nice kids came and washed it off." It was cleaner than it had been before. And I just wanted to pack it in and move to Duluth.

CP: Next time you're in the Twin Cities, we'll have to make sure that your car gets egged and we'll see what happens.

MR: So, yes, until my car gets egged in each other Twin Cities, I can't tell you if I prefer either of them to Duluth. Girls! Girls! You're both pretty—but you're not Duluth.

CP: Denver or the Twin Cities?

MR: That's a rough one. You know, I'm more likely to return to The Twin Cities before I return to Denver mainly just because the altitude just makes my head feel like it's splitting open in Denver. I'll say this, the Twin Cities in July, Denver in February, which may not actually be fair because Denver had a really brutal winter.

CP: We'll see what happens when global warming hits the Twin Cities.

MR: Exactly.

CP: Do you have plans for future visits to the Twin Cities?

MR: Well, you know, a very good friend of mine is in Spamalot. He rode into town. And I very well may in the next week or so make a quick jaunt. And he's in the ensemble but he's covering two of the big roles and he told me that he might end up going on for Galahad or one of the bigger roles. If that's the case—I have so many miles from work travel and I barely ever travel just for fun and I really just have a great time there. It would be fun. And my friend Carol's pregnant right now so it'd be fun to go and see her also.

CP: When you were last here, did you make it to Nye's Polonaise Room for some polka?

MR: I didn't. But I've been there twice before.

CP: On your next visit, we'll take you to Nye's.

To catch a glimpse of Mo Rocca hang out at Nye's or The Ordway Theater (or perhaps the bar at Graves) – or just watch his Twin Cities segment on The Tonight Show 10:30 p.m. tonight.

Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at August 1, 2007 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

 

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