April 13, 2008 - April 19, 2008

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Hot Hot Heat: Students melt metal for art

Filed under: Art/Museums

Things heated up at the U of M's Regis Center for Art on Friday -- all the way up to 2,443 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact.

A U of M metal casting class teamed up with students from other local universities in the 39th annual Iron Pour to liquidize iron and fill their homemade ceramic bowls with the scalding substance. Video and photos after the jump.

Watch this video of the process, and see a dozen or so images in the slideshow.

People padded around in heavy, fireproof wear and protective masks, waiting on a cupola, a massive cauldron, to melt the iron to the proper degree. Around every 20 minutes, when the cupola looked like it was about to erupt and spew lava all over the warehouse, a horn sounded and students gathered to empty some of its contents (around 300 lbs worth) into a contraption one student referred simply to as a "ladle." From there, students transported 100 lbs of the steaming, red-hot liquid into
a smaller ladle, and then used that to gently pour the iron over nondescript bowls the students made in the class.

"It's just like making a sandcastle," U of M senior Krista Cuellar said.

Yeah, exactly. A very scary one.

Posted by Amy Lieberman at April 18, 2008 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

 

On like Donkey Kong: RJD2 at First Ave

Filed under: Concert Review

RJD2
First Avenue, April 17
Review by Jeff Shaw
Photos by Daniel Corrigan

"Tell him to go back to making hip-hop records," Nate Patrin shouted.

I was on my way out the door to catch last night's early show with RJD2, whose most recent album finds the prominent producer venturing more into rock with live instrumentation.

Like some from the old school, Nate was dismayed by RJ's explorations. Others -- like me -- see it as a natural outgrowth of where the prominent DJ has come from musically.

RJD2 where he started -- behind the wheels of steel. More photos by Daniel Corrigan.

In a live setting, this translates into a show that is equal parts music-appreciation listening party and groovetacular experience. The crowd can enjoy the subtle nuances of a track "Ghostwriter" with a band while mentally comparing it to the album version -- while getting loose to the part cut "Good Times Roll Pt. 2."

There was no division between the scratching and the rocking, no "live set" with a clear line of demarcation separating it from a "DJ set." The coin's two halves were always there, with turntablism melting into live instrument and back seamlessly while the video screen played video montages of memorable gunfight scenes (The Matrix, Hard Boiled), schlock horror-comedy (Evil Dead) and the occasional hair products commercial.

That's not all that was going on visually. During an interlude, RJ played a spot-on parody of the Donkey Kong video game sounds -- while a nearby camera projected his puppeted hands pantomiming Mario jumping barrels.

While Mario hopped, the show shifted back to hip-hop. Guitar sounds and Moog-driven atmospherics aside, booming beats were what moved the crowd, with "The Horror" from Deadringer capping off the main set.

This is where RJD2 roots lie, if not his most recent release. When I interviewed him for the music feature, I asked him to name a favorite track from all those he'd ever produced. He thought for a long time before coming up with the track "Big Game," a bass-heavy rap groove from Diverse's solo LP that you can hear in 30-second sample clip.

The night was a blend of old standards and new favorites, with the line between musical genres blurring.

There's a place at an RJD2 show for the b-girl trying out new moves on the edge of the crown and a place from couple doing ballroom dance twirls in the back. There's a spot for the stoners up front hiding from security and the heads sipping on deuce-deuces of beer in the back. And Nate, I'll save you a seat at the next one, because there's a place for you, too.

But as far telling RJ to go back to the old school, I would do no such thing.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 18, 2008 11:19 AM | Comments (2)

 

Will B-Girl Be? Not in 2008

Filed under: Music News

Where have all the b-girls gone? The annual B-Girl Be summit for women in hip-hop will not be taking place this year, as the organizers have decided to go on a one-year hiatus. Hosted by Intermedia Arts in Uptown, the event has become a touchstone for hip-hop ladies from around the world, culminating each summer with a four day summit that includes live performances, exhibitions, workshops and discussions for b-girls of all ages.

(See also: Pete Scholtes's cover story on B-Girl Be from last year.)

According to Intermedia Arts executive/artistic director Theresa Sweetland, the reason for taking a year off from the summit is simple: the B-Girl Be organizers are in it for the long haul, and they want to make sure that they have the energy and resources to make the next gathering as successful as possible. "This decision was made by Intermedia Arts and the B-Girl Be curatorial committee at the completion of last summer's summit to give us a chance to rest, regroup, raise funds and sustain ourselves for the long haul," she says.

Sweetland insists that despite the hiatus, Intermedia Arts will continue to provide events and services for young women in the arts. They are currently selling a documentary DVD about the 2006 B-Girl Be summit on their website, and this summer Intermedia Arts will host the Wisconsin-based Project Girl, a series of exhibits and workshops geared toward young women ages 10-18. Project Girl opens at Intermedia Arts on June 6, 2008.

Posted by Andrea Myers at April 18, 2008 5:15 AM | Comments (1)

 

Akon: Konvicted Liar

Filed under: Music , Music

The Smoking Gun usually gives readers a heads-up on the circumstances under which a celebrity has been arrested and/or sent to jail. But their breaking story on Akon is a bit different: apparently the R&B singer, best known for his criminal background as detailed in prison weepie "Locked Up," actually exaggerated his jail time.

Fabricating a gangsta/street image can be a tricky thing: to successfully overcome a relatively ordinary upbringing, you need to fabricate details, but not over-do it -- something Ice Cube understood and Vanilla Ice didn't. Akon forgot this rule, or at least pushed it out of his brain to make room for vocoder instructions. His faux-criminal backstory has some major tells:

--He claimed to be the leader of an auto theft ring/chop shop. That's... kind of credible. But specializing in Porsches, Lamborghinis and Mercedes-Benzes? Really? Is there that huge a market for stolen exotic auto parts? The most successful chop shops specialize in Toyotas and Hondas and other makes that have millions of models on the streets, not some supercar with a six-figure price tag.

--On top of this, said chop shop allegedly catered not only to a criminal element, but to "celebrities." So apparently if Jay Leno's Gallardo threw a rod, Akon was his man.

--Akon's arrest came not from some tactical screwup or any sort of police work, but due to ungrateful underlings who ratted on him because they felt they weren't getting paid enough. This is the sort of thing you find in David Simon's wastebasket.

--Three years for leading a notorious auto theft ring? Three?

--Apparently, despite the fact that he weighed only 150 pounds, Akon eventually developed the ability to beat up any fellow prisoner who challenged him: "I knew where to hit you to knock you out, so I didn't fear you," he's claimed. So he's Maindrian Pace, Avon Barksdale and a skinnier version of Ving Rhames in Undisputed.

As it turns out, Akon did serve three years for a felony -- but the felony was gun possession, and the three years were probation. And his "auto theft ring" was a single stolen BMW for which he was never officially convicted.

Since this information inevitably would have come out, why take the risk? The discrepancy between the number of murders in "N.Y. State of Mind," "9mm Goes Bang," and "Peel Their Caps Back" and the number of people actually killed by Nas, KRS-One, and Ice-T is a pretty huge gulf (by which I mean the latter number is zero), but they didn't feel compelled to claim all their lyrics came from personal experiences. If Akon had just said "yeah I've been arrested a couple times, and I know people who've done time," and still recorded the same songs with the same "man, prison is hard" themes, would his career be any less healthy?

As it is, I'm already wondering if the dude he chucked off the stage last year was a trained professional wrestler.

Posted by Nate Patrin at April 17, 2008 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rock n' runway stroll at Voltage: Fashion Amplified

Filed under: Concert Review

Voltage: Fashion Amplified
First Avenue, April 16
Review by Andrea Myers
Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Minneapolis is no epicenter for cosmopolitanism—for the most part, we leave the posh fashion decisions up to the coasts and stick to our own style of sly, nonchalant hipness. Especially in the rock and roll world, where skinny jeans and slightly fitted t-shirts are almost unanimously preferred to anything more risque, there are few times when a Twin Cities showgoer can look around a club and think Damn, these locals sure are swanky.

Which isn't to say that the city is totally lacking in stylish people; the local fashion scene seems to grow exponentially each year to include more and more homespun boutiques and design collectives. And once a year, at a sold-out show at First Avenue, the trend setters invite the rock scene to come out and play at one of the biggest local events of the year, Voltage: Fashion Amplified, bridging the gap between the fashion-forward and the fashionably ironic.

Someone call PETA, I think they killed an aviary. More photos by Daniel Corrigan.

It always surprises me how many people manage to show up for Voltage before the start time. Seriously, when was the last time you caught an opener at a rock show at a venue that was more than half full? By the time the first band, Zibra Zibra, launched into their set, the Main Room at First Avenue was packed to the gills with every scenester, hipster, indie rock kid and fashionista in the city.

I've always found Zibra Zibra to be delightfully terrible, and their set at Voltage only furthered my opinion that they walk a thin line between amusingly tongue-and-cheek and just flat-out bad. The music and lyrics jump around frenetically and are pieced together with the agonizing and often out of tune vocals of lead singer Z, who seems more intent on showing the crowd how wacky and zany he can be than holding down any kind of real melody. As the models started filing down the runway, it was obvious that many of them had trouble finding a good stride against Zibra Zibra's off-kilter sound, making for an awkward start to the evening.

It's interesting watching amateur models walk the runway, especially since none of the participants at Voltage could agree on what kind of face to make. There were the proudly grinning models; the cool, sultry models; the militant marching models; and my personal favorite, the deadpan models with vacant stares whose bored expressions contrasted sharply with the pulsating energy of the room around them.

She's a model. Yeah, you know what I mean. More photos.

The smell of spearmint gum and gin and tonics filled the air as the Haves Have It played, accompanying a slew of drapey dresses that ballooned around the models' tiny size 2 frames. I remember once hearing someone describe the Haves Have It as a female-fronted version of the Pixies, and that description was partly right; much like the indie rock legends, the Haves enjoy falling in and out of time and toying with the listener's sense of reality, and lead singer Portia Richardson has perfected her rock yelp.

The Haves set led nicely into the other female-fronted group of the evening, bohemian gypsy-trance band Bella Koshka. The moody, subtle nature of their music was the perfect backdrop for watching the especially vacant-looking models glide down the runway, and the second half of the set showcased one of my favorite collections of the evening: George Moskal's line of delicate, Victorian-inspired creations.

White Light Riot got off to a shaky start as lead singer Mike Schwandt slipped on a guitar cord and fell flat on his back not five seconds into their first song. Always a showman, Schwandt continued playing while he wriggled around the floor on his back, jumping back to his feet and hardly missing a beat. WLR were dressed regally in tailored military jackets and billowing scarves, giving their aesthetic a Sgt. Pepper's vibe.

As the night wore on the crowd started to thin out, making it easier to approach the edge of the runway and move about the room. MC/VL dominated the runway for their first song, running up and down the length of the catwalk as they rapped to samples of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." Dressed appropriately in member's-only jackets and gold cassette tape and microphone necklaces, both their style and sound spoke to their Beastie Boys and early rap influences.

As I expected, the Birthday Suits cleared the room with their screeching, breakneck punk, and it was amusing to note that the Suits were able to squeeze nine songs into their 25-minute time slot where other bands had only played four or five. By the end of the show only a row of diligent photographers and a small throng of straggling concertgoers were left to wander out into the night, drunk from the free-flowing cocktails and the idea that maybe we, too, will someday be chic. Or maybe not. We're no Manhattan, but the Twin Cities definitely has its own sense of style, and as I hobbled back to the car in my highly uncomfortable pink pumps I decided that I was ok with us not being posh—it's hard on the feet, anyway.

Posted by Andrea Myers at April 17, 2008 7:47 AM | Comments (0)

 

Childlike cool: Andy Mannix reviews Kimya Dawson

Filed under: Concert Review

Kimya Dawson
Cedar Cultural Center, April 16
Review by Andy Mannix

Kimya Dawson doesn't look the part.

Not of a hipster. Not of a folkster. Not of an indie-rockster.

She wears a navy blue zip-up hooded sweatshirt, and a plain, brown dress. She has tattoos crawling up her arms, piercings on her face and a messy afro that sticks out about a foot in every direction. If you were to see her on the street, she would be difficult to place. Her music is the same way.

A sold-out audience seemed to dig her Wednesday night at the Cedar Cultural Center. The former Moldy Peach was received with booming applause and cat-calls after every gently strummed tune.

Dawson is a strange act. She is by no means brilliant, and no prodigy of guitar or lyrics. She timidly strokes simple chords, and sings in a glorified whisper. But that doesn't mean that she disappoints. In fact, that's exactly what her fans come to see.

With her recent escalation in success derived from performing a hefty portion of the “Juno” soundtrack, Dawson has staked her claim in the music business as the awkward girl in class. She is a genuinely shy, modest, mama's girl who sings quirky songs that are the antithesis of cool (somehow resulting in a backwards subset of coolness).

Her music is refreshing. Instead of singing about things like war and politics, she sings about things like bowel movements and “Babbio, the skinny brother of Fabio.” Her songs are dream-like narratives filled with playful life advice. She's charming, and makes people laugh.

At one point during the show, Dawson performed about a half dozen songs off her upcoming children’s album “Alphabutts.” Like much of her work, these are barely one minute delves into fart jokes and kiddish messages on topics like the importance of sharing. No Radiohead, sure. But her fans seemed to love it.

And that's exactly it with Dawson. If you pick up an album like “Remember that I Love You” expecting it to be good in the sense that “The Bends” is good, you are destined for disappointment. But if you want something light-hearted, funny and evocative of previously forgotten elementary school memories, you're in for a treat. -- Andy Mannix

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 17, 2008 6:28 AM | Comments (1)

 

Marya Horbacher discusses Madness

Filed under: Books , Books , Books

Marya Hornbacher was only 22 when she received critical praise for her bestselling memoir, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, which recounted her childhood and teen years spent cycling through health care facilities, state institutions, and family homes in hopes of breaking destructive cycles. The true root of her problem wasn't determined until several years later, when she was diagnosed with Type 1 rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe and difficult to treat form of the disorder. In Madness: A Bipolar Life she recounts the struggles she's faced in managing the illness with intelligence, honesty, and even humor. The award-winning journalist, lecturer, and author took a moment to chat with City Pages.

City Pages: There are moments early on in Madness where you express embarrassment that you suffer from bipolar. Yet you talk very openly about your experience now. How were you able to become more open?

Marya Hornbacher: I think Wasted was not as difficult because I was a little bit… younger. I think when you’re younger its easier to say, “To hell with it! This is the deal, this is what I have experienced, these are my thoughts on the larger issues, this is the story.” With Madness, I had to suck it up and say, “Alright, I think this is an important issue. I think there are a lot of people that go through this, and are curious about bipolar disorder. This is something I want to write, as a writer.” In the end I wanted to write a book about this, and it’s an important story.

CP: You’ve written two memoirs. Do you ever find it difficult or upsetting that so much of your life is out there?

MH: Yeah. It would be more comfortable if I had never written a book about myself. They’re books about my life, but not so much about me. When you’re writing memoir, it’s a shaped story; not just about my life. My life story would be drastically boring; nothing really happens. Yeah, people have 300 pages about something I know about, and alright, there are some deep, dark secrets. And I don’t exactly come out squeaky clean, but this is just one aspect of a 34-year experience. That fact—that it’s only a segment of my life—makes it a little bit more comfortable.

CP: Due to your illness, you have chronological gaps in memory. Was it hard to write a memoir with missing memories? Or was the experience therapeutic in any way?

MH: For me, writing is not therapeutic. I think most people have this idea about memoir and writing; that you write to get it all off your chest. I wasn’t feeling particularly burdened by the story; it’s just a story. I have a really great therapist who I pay a lot of money to help me. Writing Madness was extremely difficult on a personal level. On a technical level, I did a lot of research. I interviewed family, friends, doctors. I went through everything I could find: photographs, letters, medical records, postcards, journals. When you have a fragmented memory, you use tools and triggers to try to fit the rest of the pieces. There are things that are totally AWOL from my head. I don’t remember my 30th birthday party. There are plenty of stories from the book that are gone. But when you are writing a memoir, you have to edit pretty heavily anyway. What happens with memory loss is that it can be inconvenient for the purposes of writing the book. It was annoying, it was challenging, but it’s also not so different from what you do with any memoir, which is shape your recollection.

CP: Do you ever use the act of writing to gage wellness?

MH: I do a lot of keeping track of what’s going on during the day. When you’re manic, the language part of your brain lights up. You think everything you say is fabulously important. So I find that if at the end of the day I have written half a notebook of really fascinating thoughts, I do begin to wonder. The days when I can’t work, it feels like writer’s block. It’s sort of surreal knowing that the language center of my brain has slowed down. I am directly impacted when I hit a mood cycle that’s going to not allow me to write. When I am high, I write a ton, but when sliding down, the writing slows up. So I am able to gage by whether or not I can write whether or not I am on the verge of losing my mind.

CP: Do you feel your illnesses have improved your writing in any way? Hindered?

MH: One of my favorite subjects! I think people have a very lovely idea that mental illness, or rather the concept of madness aids you. I am willing to entertain the notion that the 8 months a year when I can actually function, that it could be helping, but during the 4 months a year I can’t function, doesn’t help so much. There are a lot of people in the arts with mental illness, and they do know that there is a certain degree of connection. People with mental illness often come from families with high rates of mental illness and high rates of creativity, so there’s a genetic link. But on a day-to-day practical level, I am certainly no better at writing because I have mental illness than I would be if I didn’t.

CP: You write about expressing bipolar symptoms at a very young age. Do you think we need to re-evaluate how we diagnose our kids? Is it possible that mental illness starts younger than previously assumed?

MH: It absolutely does. They’ve known for a while that depression can have a pretty early onset. They’ve known for a shorter while, that there was such as thing as early onset bipolar. There’s this idea that we’re over-diagnosing and under-diagnosing. I think the understanding of bipolar is changing so rapidly that we don’t always know which form we are looking at, we still don’t know how many forms there are, or whether we’re looking at ADD or bipolar or both. It’s very confusing with children because childhood bipolar looks different that adult bipolar. Kids with bipolar often also have ADHD or ADD. More research money needs to be spent on understanding the lifelong development of mental illness. We know what illnesses look like in one form, but we don’t always know what it looks like in children, in the geriatric community, or at other various points in life. This is especially important when dealing with bipolar, which is progressive until it is arrested and managed. We have the capacity to know more. I sincerely hope people start looking into childhood diagnostic.

CP: Do you ever get frustrated with the way mental illness is portrayed in the media?

MH: Yes! I think it's one of those things that gets worse before it gets better. We all jump up down saying, "Oh, we're being so understanding. People are crucifying Britney Spears, but she has bipolar, so doesn't that make us fabulous because we are trying to understand mental illness?" We're not trying to understand living with mental illness; we're trying to entertain ourselves with a thing that is still viewed as freaky. It's sort of talked about, so we think we know what it is. Or, like when I see an episode of Law and Order, and there's a bipolar character. He goes manic and pushes someone in front a train, and then he's immediately sorry. I think that's one of the more pervasive and problematic perceptions: That people with mental illness are more violent, which is not true. There's absolutely no higher rate of violence or violent crime among people with mental illness than those without. The whole perception is that when one has mental illness they are across the board crazy. You're not psychotic all the time, and even when you are, you probably don't look that psychotic, you're often just psychotic quietly.

CP: You talk about the importance of pacing yourself in order to maintain good mental health. How do you integrate a schedule while working in a very unscheduled profession?

MH: I do work in a high pressure job. I am also driven, not because I am bipolar. I love my job, and not because I am bipolar. So there are these things that enable me, as well as things that make it harder. Right now I am on tour. I am running 20 hours a day, which is not ideal. Knowing that living day-to-day this way could cause mania--that’s terrifying. My tendency is to push on through it, but I can’t pretend. Working daily, pacing yourself as much as possible is important. I also know that I can’t go 24-7 anymore just because it’s fun. I have to keep track of every single minute, which is tiresome, but in the long run keeping me sane.

Marya Hornbacher reads Thursday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble (3225 W. 69th St., Edina; 952.920.0633).

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at April 16, 2008 5:46 PM | Comments (0)

 

Anti-Flag's Progressive Thrash Unites First Avenue

Filed under: Concert Review

It seemed every other pierced punker standing in line outside First Ave in the Tuesday afternoon sunshine was decked in an Against Me! or Dead Kennedys t-shirt, though neither band was on the bill.

The sun had finally set behind the upstairs bar-length window as politi-punk rockers Anti-Flag took the Main Room stage. When lithe frontman Justin Sane——looking like a bulimic Joe Strummer——launched into the crunchy opener "“Spit in the Face,"” the all-ages crowd boiled over into a swirling circle mosh, more than a few fluorescent 18-inch Mohawks waving urgently to-and-fro like sails of Dimetrodons engaged in a feeding frenzy.

In town to promote their recently released album, The Bright Lights of America, the Pittsburgh quartet laid thick the machinegun powerchord riffage, the high-pitched “Whoa-ohh!”s and, of course, the heavy-handed jeremiads that have made the band a staple among the vegan/leftist/anarchist set.

"My friends, January 20 is not that far away,”" shouted bassist/vocalist Chris #2 to the charged capacity crowd. “"That'’s the last day we'’ll have to endure Bush! In 279 days we will celebrate the removal of that motherfucker from our lives. But on January 20, the struggle begins! None of the three candidates are progressive enough for us and we need to push to bring back every soldier from Iraq!”"

Drummer Pat Thetic couldn't make it ("He had some business to attend to, namely fucking his girlfriend," explained Sane between songs.) His replacement didn't miss—or unnecessarily add—a beat.

The 15-song set, which they chugged through in less than an hour, was heavy on newer stuff, mostly from the aforesaid release and 2006’'s For Blood and Empire, both of which were released under——gasp!——mega-label RCA Records. But they threw some A-F Records-era favorites in for good measure, most notably the menacing anti-Big Media mantra "“Underground Network"” and the folksy fuck-Bush anthem "“Turncoat." For the encore, the band reemerged to kick out a methodically urgent "“Die for the Government,"” whose chorus the audience ferociously belted out with a fiendish mix of anger and pride.

Granted, the group's knee jerk lefty screeds and hyper-P.C. ethos are best taken in small doses. And, yeah, the paradoxical mix of individualism and collectivism they espouse (let’'s hear it for nonconformist unity!) is hard to logically reconcile. But so what? Certainly there are more malevolent forces out there vying for 16-year-olds'’ political consciousnesses. Like, for instance, those Anti-Flag rail against. What is it when a mob of teenagers flails euphorically in righteous fury, all idealism and no cynicism?

As Anti-Flag themselves sing on occasion: "“That’s youth. That’'s all."”

Posted by Matt Snyders at April 16, 2008 4:33 PM | Comments (0)

 

The very first Minneapolis Film Festival, 1981

Filed under: Film

Unearthed is a series of blog posts resulting from too much time spent rummaging around in the City Pages archives.

To celebrate the 26th Minneapolis Film Festival, with the kind assistance of the Internet, we've recreated the very first. The clips are old and the screen roughly 450 pixels wide, but you can't beat the ticket price.

In January, 1981, when The Minneapolis Star and The Minneapolis Tribune sponsored the first Minneapolis Film Festival, City Pages (then called Sweet Potato) put film reviewer Tom Baglien (who left Minneapolis that year for New York City) to the task of hyping the event.

We've recreated bits and pieces of the Festival here, matching the late Baglien's capsule reviews to vintage clips borrowed from the good people at YouTube.

We'll let Baglien set it up. Here's how he introduced the Festival in 1981:

Light up the kleigs! Roll out the red carpet! If you've ever questioned the position of Minneapolis as a vital film center, now is the time to put your doubts to rest, once and for all.

While we may not have the sun-drenched, publicity-mongering glitziness of Cannes or the laid-back sophisticated sheen of New York, Minneapolis nonetheless has the movies, which, of course, is what film festivals are supposed to be about anyway.International in scope, the Festival promises to be the biggest event of its kind in the United States, with nearly four times the amount of celluloid than even New York unreels each fall.

The Festival was overflowing with what is now the stuff of cinema history. New films by Jean-Luc Godard (Every Man for Himself), Igmar Bergman (Faro Document), and Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha, or, The Shadow Warrior).

Here are some of Baglien's short reviews, and the clips to match:

"...one of the Festival's most bizarre entries is a little horror thriller called Fade to Black. A first film by Zimmerman, it stars Dennis Christopher (from Breaking Away) as a psycho movie fan who likes to dress up as his favorite movie villains (Cagney, Lugosi, Lon Chaney) and knock off his tormentors. I suspect there's a buried message in this for all of us obsessive movie nuts."

"Kagemusha--The Shadow Warrior brings Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, The Seven Samurai) back to moviemaking in triumph. This stunningly beautiful epic adventure story focuses on the struggle for power between warring samurai clans in 16th-Century Japan. It puts Shogun to shame. Centering on a beggar-thief who's saved from crucifixion because of his resemblance to the ruling warlord, Kagemusha becomes a moving study in the discrepancy between identity and impersonation, reality and illusion as the beggar-thief is forced to act the part of the warlord after he's killed in battle ... Chances are you won't see a better epic movie this year."

"...Ken Russell's biological shocker, Altered States, closes the Festival ... based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky, Altered States is a reported "mind-blower" that deals with a young man (William Hurt) who constructs a deprivation machine and then manages to travel backward in evolutionary time to a state of primitivism. Russell's outrageous hallucinatory imagery finds its perfect outlet here--or so we imagine since the movie has been popping up on various "10-Best of the Year" lists."

There were 50 films in the Festival, and Sweet Potato couldn't get to all of them. Here are a few more, with a brief description and details on the screening:

The Wicker Man, directed by Robin Hardy

Varsity Theatre, 9:45 PM
Saturday, January 17, 1981

This film has been described as the Citizen Kane of horror movies. Filmed in Scotland, this clip is actually an outtake.

Wernor Herzog Eats His Shoe, a short film directed by Les Blank

Varsity Theatre, 7:30 PM
Wednesday, January 21, 1981

Infamous filmmaker Wernor Herzog made a bet with Errol Morris: If Morris could finish his first feature Gates of Heaven, Herzog would eat his shoe. It doesn't end there.

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, another film by Les Blank

Varsity Theatre, 7:30 PM
Wednesday, January 21, 1981

A rather comprehensive tribute to garlic. Wonderful.

The Man Who Stole the Sun, directed by Hasegawa Kazuhiko

Campus Theater
Friday, January 23, 1981

Winner of the Tokyo Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film of the Year in 1980, this film is a satire on the nuclear insanity of the Cold War era.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 16, 2008 2:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Sen. Chuck Hagel In Town

Filed under: Books

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, one of the few politicians that makes CSPAN enjoyable, will promote his book America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers today at the Nicollet Mall Barnes & Noble at at 12:30 this afternoon and the University of Minnesota Bookstore at 7 tonight.

Nebraska's Senior and soon to be former senator. Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, one of the few politicians that makes CSPAN enjoyable, will promote his book America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers today at the Nicollet Mall Barnes & Noble at at 12:30 this afternoon and the University of Minnesota Bookstore at 7 tonight. In his book, Hagel, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, outlines the ways in which he thinks America can best handle the war and more importantly mend relationships with the world. Hagel draws on his past, his war experiences, and what he's experienced in Washington to form an ideal of America, and sets forth a plan he thinks will get the country to back to his ideal. He's announced that this term, his second, will be his last, and declined calls for a presidential run. As he heads into the retired life, the book will almost certainly will be the birth of a new career as political pundit, which means he'll be one of the few people that makes Lou Dobbs and Bill O'reilly enjoyable.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 16, 2008 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

 

Dental hygiene and pop music with Loren Depping

Filed under: Music

This Minnesota Monitor item from a few days back rounds up local news about dental hygienists. Surprisingly, there's a lot of it.

What there aren't a lot of is songs about dental hygienists, so there's no chance of finding a list of five. But there is this gem, a pop confection so sweet your dentist might object to the listening. It's a track by Loren Depping called, fittingly, "Dental Hygienist."

Depping is an Oregon-based singer songwriter with a love for guitar pop, but his roots lie in Americana. His solo discs are populated with story-songs reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, quirky ditties and dreamy, Pernice Brothers-style vocals. This song's light touch isn't an indication that Depping's simply a silly songster. He can do the serious stuff, too. But how endearing is a song about love and tooth care?

Depping is touring here this summer. "Dental Hygienist" is on his latest CD, Go By Train, and you can also download it here.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 15, 2008 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

 

Lil Wayne set to release Carter 3--Sneak peak

Filed under: rap/hip hop

According to Mixtapepass.com, Tha Carter 3 is slated to ship June 10. But don't mark your calenders just yet--the elusive album has proven to be something of a hip-hop Chinese Democracy. The funny thing is, many of the songs slated to be on Tha Carter 3 have been widely available for months. YouTube clips of five favorites inside.

I Feel Like Dying

Help

La La La

Diamonds & Girls

I'm a Beast

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 13, 2008 5:57 PM | Comments (3)

 

KRS-ONE makes miracles happen: Jordan Selbo reviews

Filed under: Concert Review

KRS-ONE
April 11, 2008
Trocaderos Nightclub
Review by Jordan Selbo
Photos in this post by Jeff Shaw
Photo slideshow by B FRESH Photography

Better Than: The T-wolves squeaker win or the Miss USA pageant on mute, both great viewing experiences seen before the concert

The legendary KRS-ONE sought to navigate and transcend a rough upbringing by developing a unique pedagogy of self-education and -awareness early in life. Like a particularly caring but no less lethal Midwest tornado, his drive for constant learning and refining manifests in his powerful presence as he sweeps across the scenery, sucking up loads of knowledge, wisdom and understanding while simultaneously spewing those re-combobulated formulations of reality and metaphysics back onto the unsuspecting public, in some cases hundreds of miles away. Like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed or Jesuit missionary, he came spreading the seed of self-construction and the gospel of hip-hop to our humble little Midwest outpost. For an artist that was last in the Minneapple more than a few years ago, it must've been a pleasant surprise indeed to find that the seeds had already been planted and the gospel preached and memorized; what could have easily turned into an extended lecture and sermon, then, became instead a community revival and forum, with BDP's crew head less a teacher (despite his best efforts) than a fellow participant in the night's creation.

More, better photos in the slideshow.

A slew of opening acts performed their warm-up duties, well, dutifully. The crowd stayed nicely packed but fairly low key through the first and second block, then began to simmer as Kanser put it down with typical good vibrations and superior song craft. With the night's host O.S.P. popping up to drop a verse and local MC supreme Prof bouncing joyfully left of the DJ, they gave off a family feel that would extend throughout the evening. Other notable T.C. rap staples like M.anifest and Brandon Allday from Big Quarters also came to Troc's to pay their respects to the creator of "South Bronx" and "You Must Learn." Truthmaze, a fellow Hip Hop elder statesman, then showcased his typical effortless versatility with staccato machine gun flows and booming reggaeton over skeletal and catchy breakbeats. Muja Messiah murdered Minneapolis last weekend, but apparently you missed it, so he just gave us a taste of his venom but still almost ran away with the show (or at least attempted to). Seemingly without prompt, KRS then made his strangely underwhelming entrance, striding to front stage with an authoritative aura and a broken mic.

More, better photos in the slideshow.

Despite that early miscue, the Blastmaster began with a bang, running through a who's who of early staples, practically wasting the Preemo banger "MCs Act Like They Don't Know" (my personal favorite) in the set's first five minutes. Master mic control was in effect from the start, as the imposing but gentle giant swung his dexterous voice in and out of the beat, letting the die hards finish memorable lines while never losing the track or the room. After the traditional performance of hits and a few newer jams, the boxy but enveloping Trocadero venue quickly dissolved into a loosey-goosey jam session/party/celebration of hip-hop, where extended freestyle riffs melded seamlessly with impromptu b-boy/-girl showcases, giving way to meandering lessons on "the ancient ways" (i.e. be your own best friend) and flipping his more well-known verses over classical strings. Also, there was a rapid autograph sign-off with Kris the only contestant (but everyone wins!).

For a good part of his set, a throng of dancers, hangers-on, extra DJs and hypemen and even a few curious bystanders and fame seekers haloed KRS on stage, like a choir moaning and confirming the lesson being imparted (even if that lesson was frequently unpalatable and downright nonsensical). In the end, the hits were welcome to see live, the freestyle workouts were fun but unimpressive, and the lectures (especially the last block right before the night's closing numbers, a tangential but nonetheless interesting meditation on time and space), were, if nothing else, novel and thought-provoking. By the night's end, it became clear what he mentioned earlier about Troc's being "the Ark" and us being the chosen few called for salvation before the storm. Hip-hop is so much more than making money off reciting twenty-year-old hits endlessly on tour. His visit was less an event in itself than a reminder and a prompt to further the art. Because even if the Teacha is right and time and place don't much matter, hip-hop is now, and it's over HERE.

Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: Though KRS gets the utmost respect in my book, when put head-to-head in any relevant historical comparison, he would always barely lose out if it was up to me. In the title of greatest to touch the mic, he'd nip Chuck D but fall short to Rakim; in perhaps the most classic crew battle ever involving MC Shan and his Juice Crew against KRS and the BDP posse, I'd have to pick the J.C., even though Blastmaster got the better end lyrically, because I find Marley Marl's layered James Brown breaks superior to BDP's early minimalist productions. And in the race for most lovable hip-hop crazy, I'd have to go with Kool Keith, because although they are both legitimately off-the-wall, Black Elvis sometimes wears a wig, which trumps everything. In the end, comparisons are unfair and inaccurate; KRS is such an oddity as an MC that he's in his own category altogether ("I'm not number one/ oh, I'm sorry I lied/ I'm number one, two, three, four and five!")

Random Detail: Was KRS' use of the instrumental to Puffy's uber anti-edutainment manifesto "It's All About the Benjamins" to get the crowd hype with the chant of, "The real hip-hop/ is over here!" meant to be: a.) an ironic commentary on ass-shaking versus thought-sparking, b.) a sincere homage to a fellow artist, or c.) just completely absurd? Can it be all three at once?

By the way: The Tru Roots crew continues to make moves as it continues its partnership with Trocaderos to sponsor two more shows in the next two weeks. If PM Dawn's early-90s spiritual optimism is your thing, head down next weekend. But I would advise everyone, regardless of age, sex or creed, to make the trek downtown when the Alkaholiks bring their funky act out of recent retirement to show us how the West throws down. -- Jordan Selbo


More, better photos in the slideshow.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 13, 2008 8:43 AM | Comments (2)

 

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