The stork paid a visit to the Voog household last night, as Anacam subscribers can attest. Minneapolis performance artist/professional naked person Ana Voog gave birth to a 6 lb. 6 oz. baby girl named Lili, a child whose arrival was fretted over and celebrated by those who peer daily into Voog's life via the 24-hour live camera she's been exhibiting her life through for the past decade. And while the preceding months have had rough patches of worry in which Voog and her boyfriend drafted plans for letting family members with more conventional lives raise the baby, in the end, it all came down to a father, a mother, and an in-home birthing pool with a webcam trained on it. Mazal Tov!

Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould is scheduled to appear at the Bryant Lake Bowl on Wednesday, October 10, to promote his live concert DVD entitled Circle of Friends. Posting at his Boblog, Mould promises a Q&A session, a short acoustic set, and a screening of the DVD. Fans will be able to purchase the DVD, which goes on sale October 9, and have Bob sign it after the show. Circle of Friends was filmed at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. and features Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Richard Morel (Morel), and Jason Narducy (Rockets Over Sweden) performing with Mould songs from his Hüsker, Sugar, and solo catalogs.

Snyder to Manson: "Were you happy when you found out you weren't going to go to the gas chamber, Charles?" One of the great TV interviewers has died. Via Youtube, here's a retrospective, the first TV appearance by Weird Al, an amusing interview with the Clash, walking out on Howard Stern, who gets him riled by swearing at the end, a Star Trek special, and a 1981 interview with Bono and the Edge of U2.

Recently, the Strib's weekly freebie, vita.mn, came out with its highly anticipated "list of lists" issue. Getting input from an "army of opinionated web users," that "contributed thousands of items," vita.mn ranked, among other things, the top 10 "must-see local bands."

Number 10 on the list was the Hockey Night, indisputably one of the best bands to come out of Minnesota in the last long while. "It's quite an honor," said Alex Achen, one of the band's two drummers. Just one problem, as Achen was quick to point out: The band hasn't played a show in more than five months, because that's when they broke up.

Next year, be sure to vote for Hüsker Dü.

Left to right: Just Riley, Allison, Wonder Dave, Lorena, and Rhe / Photo by Heather Polisen

As anyone who watches the news, follows PR, or is raising a teenager can tell you, wars can be fought with words. This Sunday at the Nomad, well-conditioned teams who have been training all year will use words for another type of battle at the Big Slam. It will also serve as a practice slam before teams head down to Austin, TX for a national competition. City Pages took a moment to chat with SlamMN’s co-slam master Dave Crady, aka Wonder Dave about the slam scene.

City Pages: So how did you first get started in the MN slam poetry scene?

Dave Crady: I started about a year after I moved here from Lacrosse, WI. I went to a couple slams, I really enjoyed it, and I started slamming. I really liked the format and the openness of it. I liked the competitive aspect of it. A lot of people involved are into competitive writing as well. I liked the idea that I could get up on stage and do and say whatever I want, essentially.

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Ghostface Killah / Varsity Theater / July 24, 2007
Text by Nate Patrin | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

If it's physically possible to be simultaneously amped and fatigued, Ghostface Killah proved that the former can eventually overcome the latter. Not that you could blame him for spending almost every moment he wasn't holding the mic dabbing at his head with a towel: even though the high today—a staggering 96, matching the year Ironman dropped—had dropped nearly twenty degrees after sundown and made the hourlong wait between door time and entry tolerable, the inside of the Varsity hadn't cooled down nearly as fast.

Read more of Nate Patrin's review, and view more of Daniel Corrigan's photos, in our gallery section!

Interview by Megan Metzger

In the early 1980s, bands such as New Order and Depeche Mode jettisoned gritty guitar riffs in favor of slick synthesizers, and the dancing masses went ballistic for this newfangled pop. "Just Can't Get Enough," Depeche Mode's first hit, as well as most of the band's 1981 debut, Speak & Spell, was penned by Mode co-founder Vince Clarke. After Clarke left the band, he formed Yazoo with soul-singin' pixie Alison Moyet. In 1985, Clarke joined forces with flamboyant frontman Andy Bell, and the two became Erasure.

Most famous in the States for their uplifting 1988 single "Chains of Love," Clarke and Bell continue to churn out beautiful electro-pop with no signs of slowing down. This year, Erasure co-headlined Cyndi Lauper's highly successful LGBT equality benefit, the True Colors Tour. The pair are on the road in support of their latest, Light at the End of the World.

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St. Vincent / 7th Street Entry / July 24, 2007
Text by Sarah Askari | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

St. Vincent is the solo project of one Annie Clark, a Texas girl with a very Texas-sounding name. She has translucent skin, and tonight, she wears a shapeless white shift—the impression is that she might be an angel, fresh from the tuberculosis ward.

Read the rest of Sarah's review, and check out Daniel Corrigan's photos, in our gallery section!

John Travolta wears one in the new movie Hairspray. Amy Sedaris wore one as a kid. So where can you get your own fat suit? Not many local costume shops carry them, it turns out. A call to Twin Cities Magic and Costume in St. Paul found only muscle suits and a beer belly in stock. But you can rent male and female fat suits for between $145 and $218 a weekend from the costume rentals shop of the Guthrie and the Children's Theatre; 612.375.8722. "They're their own foam structure," says rental stock clerk Kristy Haupt of the suits. "When you set them down, they stand-up." Haupt also confirms that "fat suit" is the accepted industry term: "I have yet to meet someone who was offended by it."

Local sax man Chris Thomson looked comfortable enough onstage sitting in with Branford and Delfeayo Marsalis at Orchestra Hall last month. But three years earlier, he couldn't blow a note. Riding his bicycle one day with his saxophone on his back, Thomson collided with a car—"the guy ran a stop sign," he says—and the musician hit the pavement face first, chipping three of his front teeth.

For a while, the Grand Forks native was afraid to walk down the street, much less climb on a bike again. "I didn't like being a pedestrian," he says. "I couldn't trust anyone who was driving. Eventually I got over it—I'm an avid cyclist now." Even with crowns on his teeth, he couldn't play for months.

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