Photo by Hilary Stein

Revelers celebrate fashion and politics at RetroRama

Walking into RetroRama, an annual evening of retro fashion and fun at the Minnesota History Center, felt like stepping back in time. Attendees were invited to dress up for the event, and they didn't disappoint. Clad in their finest vintage attire with looks ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s, men and women alike showed that Minnesota knows how to do vintage fashion.
 
"People have fun dressing up for the event, and they are sharing their personal history with their clothing," says Aleah Vinick, adult audience specialist for the Minnesota History Center. "Vintage clothes have a personal meaning to people, and there's a story behind what they're wearing."

This year's theme, when politics and fashion collide, added a fun element to the event as attendees had the opportunity to create souvenir election hats and have their photo taken in the "Oval Office" at the "President's desk." More >>

This week's cover by multimodal artist Adam R. Garcia was an extension of his original graphics, which were designed for last year's Soundset Festival. See how his process transformed the funky original 2D characters into glorious 3D. 

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Louisa Greenstock for "Cult Sisters III"

Memorial Day weekend is upon us. And while many folks will be hanging with friends and family while grilling in the backyard, there's still plenty of fun things to do this weekend that will get you up and out of the house.

In this edition of Freeloader Friday we have a three-day block party at Memory Lanes, a CD-release show for Red Daughters at Amsterdam Bar, and a group show at Cult Status Gallery featuring awesome lady artists.

Come take a look at our list.

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Number 38: Rhea Pappas

City: Saint Paul

Years spent living in MN: 25 years

Photographer Rhea Pappas is riding a wave, be it one in a lake, swimming pool, or ocean. The 2008 MCAD grad draws a great deal of inspiration from H2O, as her collection of striking underwater photography is quite prolific. In addition to snapping underwater dances, Pappas snaps up portrait shots and candid moments of folks enjoying nature -- both on land and on boats. She also keeps busy as one of the founders of Lowertown First Friday and her blog 36 Clicks.   

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Photo: Playatta - Hal and Kara Lovemelt

Nick LeMere in He & Him / She & Her, part of Works-In-Progress 2012, May 31-June 3

Next week, The Red Eye Theater kicks off its annual New Works 4 Weeks Festival featuring new and developing projects by theater, dance, and performance artists. The event begins this weekend with Works-In-Progress, a showing of four pieces by emerging artists who have been workshopping under the guidance and support of the Red Eye staff for the last six months.

This year's Works-In-Progress promises bare chested men in cut-off wedding gowns, a performance-art piece inspired by sculptor Eva Hesse, live dance with simultaneous video projection, and a piece about obsessive love. The New Works 4 Weeks continues through July 1 with new works from SuperGroup, Deborah Jinza Thayer, and Stephen Peabody, as well as Jenny Pennaz and Blake Nellis, two artists featured in last year's Works-In-Progress.  More >>

Photo copyright Act One, Too, Ltd.

Rachel Finch and Nicholas Leeman in The Hollow.

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Image courtesy Gremlin Theatre

Why is this man leering? Find out at An Absolute Turkey.

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This Saturday is your chance to see five spoken-word artists perform and discuss their work at the VERVE 2012 Spoken Word Showcase. Featuring VERVE grant winners Naadirah tha Great, Aimee Renaud, Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria, Jake Virden, Chaun Webster, and Michael Lee, the 90-minute show will give folks the chance to discover how the artists have spent their year-long fellowship through Intermedia Arts.  More >>

Every week writers for City Pages and our parent company, Village Voice Media, produce elegant magazine-style feature writing -- a gritty portion of which comes in the form of true-crime stories. Now VVM has collected some of its best recent true-crime yarns into an ebook: Seven Sins: A True Crime Anthology from Village Voice Media. Available on Amazon and iTunes, the book features seven stories, including the incredible tale of a young American Muslim woman "honor-killed" by her own father; the odd story of a young San Francisco woman so enamored of serial killers that she became known as America's most prominent "murder groupie"; and a historic murder case in Colorado in which the golden age of tabloid journalism collided with Erle Stanley Gardner, the larger-than-life creator of the Perry Mason mysteries.

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Photo by Vicki Madsed

Tracie Hodgdon, Lindsay Marcy, and Erin Mae Johnson.

Something's rotten in a small town in the heart of Dixie; something that has ensnared a trio of sisters in its grasp. Call it Southern Gothic, or maybe it's just a case of everyday family madness, but the characters at the center of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play are starting to move beyond eccentric.More >>