July 2003

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Moldy Ramone, R.I.P.

Filed under: Imported

From Ollie Stench:

No more hugs, smiles, or spilled beer. No more lighting up a room by just being there.

Long-time local punk-about-town Steve Moldenhauer, aka Moldy Ramone, lost his third battle with cancer Sunday afternoon.

Like the Ramones album of the same name we all think that we're Too Tough To Die and it takes an emotional tragedy like Steve's to make us all aware at just how short our time is.

Speaking for myself and everyone else that knew Steve, may he rest in peace and party like a motherfucker with Joey and Dee Dee, Stiv and Johnny T. wherever they've all ended up.

Now there's one more empty leather jacket hanging on a hook, and another Minneapolis punk rock funeral to attend.

-Ollie Stench

Note from Pete Scholtes:

Here's a thread for Steve Moldenhauer and his family at the Independent Music Foundation (thanks Barabbas), and the obituary (and guest book) at the StarTribune. Listen to him sing his Punk Karaoke trademark "Sonic Reducer" with Plate-O-Shrimp here (scroll down). And here's a tribute from his friend Albatross. I didn't know Moldy, but I loved his posts at TCPunk so much that I had to quote him in an article about the site. His writing made you shoot coffee through your nose. He also seemed truly kind.

To give you an idea, here's one of his posts from two years ago below. Thanks for being here, Moldy:

posted 07-13-2001 07:25 PM

Topic:   HEY! A new movie about my Penis!

...It's playing at the Lagoon and it's called"Sexy Beast". I haven't seen it yet but I'll bet it's just peachy. Here are some past movies about my Penis you might want to check out:
Titanic
Leviathan
The Towering Inferno
The Big Lebowski
Hot Dog--The Movie
It's Alive
Oh, God!
Stick
The Longest Yard
Head
Blow
Moby Dick
The Enforcer
The Punisher
Frankenweenie
Hideous Kinky
The Giant Behemoth
It Conquered the World
From Hell It Came
Viking Women Versus the Sea Serpent
Pecker
....I could go on, but why be boastful? 

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 28, 2003 6:45 PM

 

"The Black Woodstock"

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Forget Bad Boys II (and I love Will Smith and Martin Lawrence). Starting today, one of the baddest black movies ever made will get a rare week-long run at St. Anthony Main theater in Minneapolis. Though Wattstax (every day at noon, 2:20 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:10 p.m., 9:30 pm. through Thursday) was lost for 30 years, the 1973 funkumentary kicked Richard Pryor's career into a higher gear, brought Jesse Jackson to a national stage, provided sample material for Public Enemy, and helped thousands of white kids figure out what those Watts riots were all about. It now arrives with a newly remastered soundtrack, and in one of the best-looking and -sounding theaters in town. Here's my review of the movie from this week's City Pages:

Much more than a great concert movie, this 1973 rarity aspires to be nothing less than an introduction to blackness itself--the funniest, funkiest, frankest look at modern African-American attitudes you could imagine. No wonder it was lost for 30 years! So while the restored footage of Isaac Hayes tearing up "Shaft" near the end of this 30th-anniversary re-release is indeed a find (the number was cut from the original for copyright reasons), it's still only frosting. The real news is being able to see Wattstax at all (the movie all but disappeared after its initial run, though it did screen once at "Sound Unseen" a couple of years ago)--and with the added benefit of richly remastered sound. Now, when the Bar-Kays take the stage of the L.A. Coliseum in their gold chains and white Afros to announce, "Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes," and launch into their militant wah-wah, they're not just better than their records; they're better than Public Enemy sampling this scene.

It probably helped that director Mel Stuart, who went on to TV's Welcome Back, Kotter, was more interested in the human drama than the musical one per se. Documenting a seven-hour concert (the "black Woodstock") held by Stax Records in 1972 to commemorate the Watts riots, Stuart's crew got right up in the faces of the performers, and lingered lovingly on the 100,000 funky people in the stands. The spectacle alone would have made terrific time-capsule cinema, with Jesse Jackson in full 'fro shouting "Nation time!" and Rufus Thomas in pink shorts urging kids onto the field for "Funky Chicken." But, to their credit, the filmmakers also went into the nearby neighborhoods in the weeks surrounding the concert, talking with residents in barbershops and bars about everything from love to the police. They caught Richard Pryor on a hot streak, and his bits provide a handy framing device for the movie. ("They accidentally shoot more niggas out here than any place in the world!") They found the Emotions in church, singing themselves nearly to tears. They found enough candid footage to pull back from the concert itself and give many of the songs over to thematic montage: Images of black colleges, black dolls, and black Santas--accompanied by the Staple Singers' "Respect Yourself"--leave no doubt about what "nation time" meant. And Little Milton lip-synching next to a burning garbage can, in a sequence about urban despair, leaves the realm of documentary altogether to anticipate the rap video. If this is old school...well, so is being black in America.

Side note: Look for Ted Lange, the guy who played Isaac, the bartender, on TV's The Love Boat, among the young interviewees, ha ha. And once you've seen this, go see Only the Strong Survive (which I reviewed here), a flawed but worthwhile soul doc that is in many ways an update of this film.

Wattstax plays at St. Anthony Main theater (115 SE Main St., Minneapolis; 612.331.4723) through Thursday, July 31, at noon, 2:20 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:10 p.m., and 9:30 pm. The theater may hold it over for another week, but don't count on it.

Last second plans for tonight:

I realize this it's too late to help anyone, but if you're reading this before heading to downtown Minneapolis tonight, consider seeing The Owls, the best pop band in Minneapolis, at Theatre de La Jeune Lune. The opening bands start at 8:30 p.m. but there are three of them. Afterward, I'm heading over to the grand opening of a new club owned by Tabu (formerly South Beach) in Block E: Escape (here's a review in Skyway News). Stay tuned for my own take, and for more on Tabu itself. I gotta go find some clean clothes now...

Sarah Sawyer on kids and movies...

...in which I'm put in my place by young critics. Can I just say, I feel sorry for the 13-year-old whose parents won't let her see Rated R movies. My dad took me to Saturday Night Fever when I was 8 and that seems about right.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 25, 2003 7:26 PM

 

Movies and Music: a summer schedule

Filed under: Imported

Okay, here are all the movies and music events in Minnesota this summer, with links galore. Send this page to your friends!

*Monday, July 21: The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers and Requiem For a Heavyweight in Loring Park

*Tuesday, July 22: Brian Wicklund Trio (bluegrass) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? in downtown Stillwater

*Wednesday, July 23: Rass Kwame & Ananse and Jaws in Steven's Square Park

*Thursday July 24: The Copperheads and Monsters, Inc. in Parque Castillo in District del Sol

 

*Monday, July 28: 'Llec'Trano'Freebuzz and Kid Galahad in Loring Park

*Tuesday, July 29: Movies (no music) at Bottineau Park (2nd and 22nd in N.E. Mpls at dusk) with Night of the Iguana

*Tuesday, July 29: Theater Mu (Japanese drums) and Akira Kurosawa's Dreams in downtown Stillwater

*Wednesday, July 30: Baby Grant Johnson and Cool Hand Luke in Steven's Square Park

*Thursday, July 31: Latin Sounds Orchestra and Stand and Deliver in Parque Castillo in District del Sol

*Saturday, August 2: Torture Trio (a.k.a. the Keepaways?) and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 at the NorShor Theatre in Duluth

 

*Monday, August 4: The Soviettes and Sweet J.A.P. and The Great White Hope in Loring Park

*Tuesday, August 5: Movies (no music) at Bottineau Park (2nd and 22nd in N.E. Mpls at dusk) short films about the Mighty Mississippi River (August 5th is also National Night Out!)

*Tuesday, August 5: BellaDonna Baroque Quartet and The Adventures of Robin Hood in downtown Stillwater

*Thursday, August 7: Jack Knife and the Sharps and Airplane! in Parque Castillo in District del Sol

 

*Monday, August 11: TVBC and The Main Event in Loring Park

*Tuesday, August 12th: Movies (no music) at Bottineau Park (2nd and 22nd in N.E. Mpls at dusk) The Three Caballeros

*Tuesday, August 12: Tsatkelahs All-Grrl Klezmer Band and Yentl in downtown Stillwater

*Thursday, August 14: Umbrella Bed and Shrek in Parque Castillo in District del Sol

 

*Monday, August 18: Puro Cubano and Champion in Loring Park

*Tuesday, August 19: Cafe Accordian Orchestra and Cinema Paradiso in downtown Stillwater

 

*Monday, August 25: Deerhoof and Rocky in Loring Park

 

 

 

 

Michael Yonkers: a free show schedule

Though he's an international cult figure, the great local '60s psych guitarist Michael Yonkers rarely plays live due to back problems. So don't miss his free in-store performances this week in Minneapolis celebrating the re-release of his classic 1968 album Microminiature Love on Sub Pop (recordings collected and put out last year by Clint Simonson at the local label Destijl).

Yonkers's fascinating story can be read here, here, and here. See him at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow (July 22) at Roadrunner Records, and at 7:00 p.m. Saturday (July 26) at Treehouse Records.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 21, 2003 2:54 PM

 

How I celebrated the new 2:00 a.m. bar time

Filed under: Imported

On Tuesday after X, we stopped by Gluek's in downtown Minneapolis where the Levy brothers' band Hookers and Blow was playing, and I ran into Mark Baumgarten (just about to leave for Oregon) and Jim Walsh (just back from California). Then we went over to that Irish bar across the street from First Avenue and maybe had an hour's too much to drink, because one woman at our table began exchanging loud insults with the "fake-tit chick" at another, and the next thing anyone knew the women were up out of their chairs and lunging at each other's faces, and I was pulling my friend off, saying, "Let's go," and she was like, "Hold this!"--meaning "hold my cigarettes while I pull our other friend up off the floor"--and the next thing I saw was a wall of bouncers pushing my friends out to the curb. Our group was deposited on the sidewalk less than 90 seconds after the fight broke out, which strikes me as efficient bouncing. It was stupid, but it all happened so fast, and with so little apparent injury, that it was actually kind of exhilerating. Then on Thursday, I went to say goodbye to Mark Baumgarten at the Dinkytowner, where Tiki Obmar played cool mood music, and where everyone was signing a Lost Cause banner like it was a high school yearbook. I wrote "You won!" and put a little cartoon. Mark's sweet: Later, at around 3:30 a.m., he called me at home saying thanks for the note, and let's hang out in Portland, definitely. I'll miss him. I witnessed another confrontation that night: A drunk calling the Arab tobacco-shop owners across the street "shit--all you people are shit" and then calling me a "faggot" for looking at him. I took it as a compliment: I should have worn the same tight shirt last night. Friday I went to Empire , the new queer-friendly dance club, but the place isn't quite done--the club levels weren't open (still under construction), just the lobby and the restaurant, where the Foxfire and Sursumcorda used to be. I don't know if it will be open tonight, on Saturday. Maybe because the joint's liquor liscence didn't seem to be in order, they were serving all their drinks (as well as food) for free, which was good for us--to a point. On the way out, my date slapped the bartender for playing with her friend's heart. I'm sure he deserved it, the barkeep I mean.

And as for tonight...

Thanks to Ron "the Boogiemonster" Gerber for the heads up on the new Fountains of Wayne record, which is silly fun in much the same spirit as his Friday KFAI show. I praised the album in this week's City Pages, and heartily recommend their early-evening concert tonight at First Avenue (a rare moment of perfect agreement between me, Ron, and the Imperial Room's Jake Rudh). BTW, are all these new club names a sign of the Pax American times?

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 19, 2003 11:01 AM

 

Farewell Mark Baumgarten

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I called the Willamette Weekly in Portland a couple weeks ago to give a recommendation for Mark Baumgarten to be music editor. Turns out they already hired him, but wanted to know what I thought of him. Here's what I told them: Mark made everyone here in Minneapolis and St. Paul feel excited about local music again. He got things done, and made you want to get things done. His intelligence and idealism ran through every page of Lost Cause, and just by picking it up, you felt like you were part of something.

Tonight the local music scene bids farewell to Mark with some streaking (can't say where), then a show by a bunch of great local acts at the Dinkytowner (412 1/2 14th Avenue SE, 612.362.0427, 9:00 p.m., 21+, $5), including Dan Israel, Martin Devaney, and the Holy Cowboys. See you there, unless you're heading to Cecilia, the Neville Brothers, or 50 Cent. We'll still be partying like it's your birthday.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 17, 2003 1:32 PM

 

Response From Dennis Perrin:

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You say -- "Anyone who thinks Christopher Hitchens was less coarse and merciless a decade ago wasn't reading him, or was on the comfortable side of his attacks." First, I never said he was less merciless. Quite the contrary (as my anecdote about his Georgetown eruption shows). And, yes, he could be coarse back in the day. But anyone who doesn't think there's a profound difference between the Hitchens of then and the Hitch of now, politics aside, is the one not paying attention. You cannot tell me that his Slate and Mirror pieces stand up to his Nation, Harper's and Grand Street work from a decade and more ago. His reasoning has gotten shoddy, his style is in tatters, and he's openly revising himself in a way that he never did before, to the degree that he ever did. And his crack about the Dixie Chicks shows that he's tossed aside another standard he once held about women and politics. On a November 1984 edition of "Firing Line," Hitch, responding to R. Emmett Tyrrell's book "The Liberal Crack-Up," said to Tyrrell, "Jeane Kirkpatrick, your great heroine, or Midge Decter, your great friend, are women with whom I have tremendous political differences. Immense ones. Quite irreconcilable ones. But I do not say in my column, 'the old bitch, the old bag, the old douche bag, the old dog, the old pig. She's only in politics because she's hideous and can't find a man.'" He then added "we men on the left are infinitely nicer, more stylish, more gallant than the conservatives who say, 'Isn't it a shame that women don't want the door held open for them anymore.'" Now he calls women with whom he disagrees, sluts and "fucking fat slags." I dare say there's a difference, and not for the better. Best, Dennis Perrin

James Brown on a slow day

This is too good not to swipe twice over: James Brown at half-speed, an adjunct to the academic paper "Makin' It Funky: The Construction Of Funk Grooves In The Music Of James Brown" (thanks to Christopher Bahn's essential linklog Incoming Signals, and also to Leuschke). Sounds like Papa's got a brand new band: Low. (By the way, here's Low's nanny's notes from the Radiohead tour.)

From 7/15:

If you're in Minneapolis tonight, go see X at First Avenue

Here's my appreciation of the band and interview with John Doe (second from left) in this week's City Pages.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 16, 2003 2:32 PM

 

First Avenue: An Oral History

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Over the next few weeks, I'll be interviewing people who have, at any point, hung out at, worked at, played at, run, or cared about First Avenue, the great Minneapolis music club. This is for an upcoming story in City Pages that will consist mainly, if not exclusively, of people offering the history of the club in their own words. The only reason I'm doing it now is that it seems like a good idea and I have the time: Just to be clear, this isn't any kind of "farewell" piece or anything--my hope is to write something similar (and beam it into the computer chips in your brains) in another 30 years.

The story will consist of favorite anecdotes, takes on certain DJs or dance nights or fads, opinions about the beginnings or ends of eras, tales about the club's most important figures, the controversies, the conflicts, the great moments, the myths, the music, etc., etc., etc.

Anyone interested in suggesting people whom I should talk to (including themselves) should contact me at pscholtes@citypages.com or 612.372.3764. I've only just started the research process, but I've gotten a lot of responses, so don't worry if I haven't called, or don't get back to you right away. If we do talk, let's speak ahead of time to narrow down what you'd like to go on record about, and so you can find out what I'm most interested in.

A side note to readers: You may notice a big lull in posts at this site in coming weeks, but pay no mind: Complicatedfun.com ain't going anywhere, it's just storing up goodies for the future.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 14, 2003 1:34 PM

 

More reasons I can't hate the French

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1.) Winged Migration. Granted I was making out through most of the movie, but nothing gets you in the mood like birds beaking each other to a French accented narration.

2.) Bastille Day. After the Buzzcocks show in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, friends dragged me to Brit's Pub in hopes of hanging with the band (they went to the Triple Rock instead). Now the Strib alerts me to the fact that besides the usual lawn bowling and flavorless potato dishes, you can enjoy a free set by pub-rock great Graham Parker in the rooftop garden of the bar this Sunday at 6:00 p.m., before a screening of The Pink Panther--all in honor of the French Revolution. It should be worth checking out before (or after) heading to the other Bastille Day celebrations, or to the Triple Rock for Iceland's Singapore Sling, or to Parker's compatriots Blur at First Avenue. Just don't try to tip in Euros.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 12, 2003 5:33 PM

 

Dope! Guns! Fucking! Art! Dolls! X! And Stimpy!

Filed under: Imported

Detroit's Demolition Doll Rods play the downtown Minneapolis Grumpy's on Saturday July 12 between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. as part of an art opening and reception for fellow Motor City rocker Niagara (former singer of Destroy All Monsters), whose work (below) hangs in the bar's Op-Ex Gallery (check out this poster).

Though the event slipped under my radar, Tom Hazelmyer's bar-cum-gallery has been the subject of good recent pieces in City Pages and in The Rake, which more or less update my 1999 epitaph for Amphetamine Reptile as a force in popular music (with a handy sidebar by Simon Peter Groebner on the label's essential recordings), as well as Dara Moskowitz's 2000 take on Grumpy's. These days Haze and friends are busy running the bars and putting on a succession of cool art shows, many by artists whose work has appeared on Haze's customized series of Zippo lighters, Flame Rite.

But AmRep is still active, stocking its back catelogue for mail order. And AmRep's Rainer Fronz, who also runs the excellent Learning Curve Records (Exercise, Kruddler, the Dames, We Invented Tornados--formerly Snails, and with a CD-release party at the Triple Rock on July 18), recently sent me an essential reissue on the label of the great Australian punk band X, Aspirations: Noise Archives Volume 1 (not to be confused with the great L.A. punk band X, playing at First Avenue on Tuesday). The down-under X has recently reunited, and just released their first studio recordings in a decade last May. Stay tuned for tour dates.

Meanwhile, anyone looking for the coffee table version of the Haze aesthetic should pick up the Flame Rite book Scorched Art: The Incendiary Aesthetic of Flame Rite Zippos on Feral House (sampled below).

That's Haze's work on the right. On the left is a piece by John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren & Stimpy, who has just been reunited with those characters for the first time in a decade. Fans will recall that Nickelodeon kicked Kricfalusi, and his company, Spumco, off the show after only two years (the series promptly began sucking and was canceled). Now the artist has launched a new Ren & Stimpy series as part of TNN's much hyped new network "for men," Spike TV.

So who needs early-'90s nostalgia when all these guys are still kicking ass?

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 11, 2003 7:59 PM

 

Princess Di comic suppressed!

Filed under: Imported

Two of my favorite comicbook artists are in the news this week: Joe Sacco's comics reporting on Israel and Palestine is almost always braver and better than the regular kind, as proven in "The Underground War in Gaza" from last Sunday's New Times Magazine (scroll down). And Mike Allred's art was all over television a few days ago for a forthcoming issue of X-Static (Marvel Comics), which would have resurrected Princess Di as a mutant superhero. But Marvel announced yesterday (in Business Wire) that it would remove all references to Diana and the Royal Family, and issued a statement today to Newsarama that it would publish the same story, but with certain images and words replaced. My suggestion for a substitute character: Mother Teresa.

Meanwhile, anyone as sick as I of the zombie-like Cult of Di can sign a petition of protest at Mike Allred's bulletin board, a futile gesture that will at least show you some useful links...

 

Green Man Cometh

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 11, 2003 3:39 PM

 

Thomas Paine was never called an asshole

Filed under: Imported

It's always easy to attack the personalities of guys good at changing other people's minds. They're usually jerks. But bottom line: Who cares? Karl Marx's severe debating style didn't contain the seeds of Stalinism any more than Albert Einstein's sense of humor contained the Enola Gay. And Dennis Perrin's lengthy hatchet job on Christopher Hitchens in this week's City Pages, well-written though it is, contains even less insight than the New Yorker's subtle character assasination of Noam Chomsky last March. At least that piece showed how the thinker's fighting methods might have something to do with his history. Perrin's whole point basically boils down to: "I've refrained from personally attacking my friend up to this point, but... that man's crazy!"

Anyone who thinks Christopher Hitchens was less coarse and merciless a decade ago wasn't reading him, or was on the comfortable side of his attacks. (Susan Sontag book jacket blurb from 1993: "May his targets cower.") As with Chomsky, the obvious (and unexplored) question is: Why does this particular asshole's point of view matter to so many people who hate him? Could it be he's onto something?

I bring up Chomsky because I still think he provides a useful foil for Hitchens (and did a year ago when I wrote about Hitchens's recent evolution in City Pages). Both writers illustrate classic and contrasting tactics of left-wing irony. One tradition recognizes an evil and dishonest state of affairs, and acts to dramatize that evil and dishonesty--e.g., the lunch-counter sitters of the Civil Rights movement, who expected the worst and got it. Chomsky falls in this camp, with the protesters and muckrakers. The other tradition maintains that the rhetoric of American democracy can be used as leverage against that evil and dishonesty, as when Martin Luther King exerted private and public pressure on Johnson. That's what Hitchens seems to be doing now, and given that he has actually gained an audience at the White House, he's been doing it with some success.

I would say Hitchens officially "lost me" when he seemed to start believing the rhetoric himself, calling for the United States to become a Thomas Paine arsenal, as if such a thing were possible in a cash democracy. And yet, for all the lies surrounding the war in Iraq, we now have Liberians nakedly asking us, the U.S., to intervene and impose peace in their country. They believe our rhetoric, and believe the liberation of Iraq can be taken at face value. Maybe it can't, but it's not often that I find Bush following the advice of this web site. The fact that he has even made tentative steps to do something about the situation in Monrovia is enough to make me believe that rhetoric has more power than it used to. The question for the Left, and for America, is: What are we going to do? Protest the worst about ourselves? Bring out the best? Or both?

READ THE RESPONSE FROM DENNIS PERRIN.

Plus, here's another personal take on Hitchens, this one by an old Oxford friend, Roz Kaveney. To paraphrase Hitchens from another time, upon learning that Hitch once dated men as well as women, I realized that I was pleased to find myself pleased. Now Hitchens debates sexual civil rights with Ann Coulter on MSNBC:

Hitchens: Ann Coulter is mistaken, I think, in her emphasis. Because until this recent Supreme Court decision on what�s vulgarly called sodomy--It actually just means, as it were, non-heterosexual penetration--people were going to jail for oral sex in some parts of this country. Which does mean surely that the government is intervening and morals are being imposed from the outside in an arbitrary way. What the Supreme Court said was that should not happen. Not that it should.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Ann?

ANN COULTER: Non-heterosexual, anal sex or whatever you just said is a lot longer than the word sodomy.

 

Kids to Scholtes: Nerd!

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 10, 2003 5:50 PM

 

"An anthem that we haven't

Filed under: Imported

"An anthem that we haven't torn apart"

 (Photo by Michael Markos)

Here are four previously unreleased versions of "Complicated Fun," the spine-chilling Suicide Commandos punk song from which this web site takes its name, performed last year by the reunited Commandos with John Freeman on vocals for various Target commercials (mentioned here). The shorties (this one, this one, and this one) aired on TV. This one--a full take of the song recorded for posterity--did not, which makes this a worldwide exclusive.

A million thanks to Robotboy's David Richardson, who art directed the commercials, for sending these along (with the blessings of Target and the band). He says it was his colleague Amie Valentine who came up with the idea of using the song and getting Freeman (who covered it with the Magnolias) to sing, so thanks to Amie, too, and long live the Suicide Commandos! (Odd phrase, I know.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 8, 2003 10:09 PM

 

4th of July in Arab America

Filed under: Imported

What a difference a generation makes. I've been visiting my white cousins in Detroit every few years, my whole life, and remember trying to convince them in 1986 that Run-DMC was the next punk rock. Now, on 4th of July weekend, I find my teenage second-cousins rapping along to 50 Cent (who performs in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 17 at the KDWB Star Party). And just when the papers are saying rap music has officially eclipsed "pop" on Top 40 radio, Eminem returns home to Detroit to play two sold-out nights at Ford Stadium, to 46,000 people each. (Those are his only North American dates this year, but the recent European tour was apparently enough for Rolling Stone to dub him "The Voice of America" and put him on the cover.)

Meanwhile, my Aunt and Uncle's working-class Detroit suburb of Dearborn has become home to more Lebanese than any city outside Lebanon. My second cousins say the "Arabic" ice cream man rips them off, but I'm pretty sure they have Arab friends at school. My uncle, a retired second-generation auto worker of French Canadian descent, knows where to get the cheapest Arabic food. All Americans are immigrants, he says, though I imagine it must be lonely on his street. There are neon signs on the commercial drags in Arabic, without any English translation. Most people here don't need one.

But anyone who doubts the patriotism of Arab-Americans should have been there Friday night. At first I wondered whether we shouldn't head to some official fireworks display, but it turned out there was no need to leave the front lawn. After bringing over a couple plates of humus and fruit (one plate had broccoli stems adorned with cherries, like little green cherry trees), the mother of the Arab family next door asked if we wouldn't mind if the father set off some fireworks. Sure, we said, we'll watch. These fireworks were like nothing I'd ever seen shooting out of a driveway: probably expensive into the hundreds of dollars (the father said he got them as a gift), certainly illegal. The show was huge and loud and beautiful, and it went on and on. But there were shows like it on every block, in every direction that I could see, and they went on into the night.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 8, 2003 8:41 PM

 

Randall Duk Kim Reloaded

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Speaking of local geniuses, amid all the hyping and panning of The Matrix Reloaded, few noticed the mainstream arrival of Randall Duk Kim, arguably America's greatest Shakespearean actor. He appeared as the Key Maker in the movie, and at the MTV Movie Awards, where he got to say, "What's happening, hot stuffs?" in homage to Sixteen Candles. But back when Anthony Michael Hall was hot stuff, Randall Duk Kim was best known as the co-founder and star-actor of American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the company he launched in 1979 after a stint at the Guthrie.

Now in its 24th season, American Players is still the best way of experiencing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the open air of a dreamy midsummer night. Kim became the definitive Hamlet, Shylock, and Puck during his 12 years with the company, and was endlessly courted by Hollywood. He stuck to the stage, though, and for a while wanted American Players Theatre to stick mainly (if not exclusively) to Shakespeare--a purism that became financially untenable as the company sought to keep seats filled. Kim eventually left the company as it branched out (they now do Greek classics and other British comedies). But from the vantage point of Keanu's side, such compromises must seem paltry today.

Kim returns to Wisconsin on Sunday, July 27, visiting for the first time since he left American Players Theatre in 1991. He'll speak at an afternoon ceremony inducting the new Fellows of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in Appleton (Houdini's home town). So fans might want to make a theatrical weekend of it in Wisconsin: Pygmalion, Hamlet, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona are now playing at American Players Theatre (here's their official site; the Mapquest and Spring Green sites are also helpful). Then there's always the House on the Rock, Spring Green's cheesier, trippier claim to fame. That's one for the red pill.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 8, 2003 7:23 PM

 

Thievery is the sincerest form of thievery

Filed under: Imported

Somebody stole Spider John Koerner's guitar on June 26, a crime akin to jacking B.B. King's Lucille and selling it on eBay. The prized instrument is a 1947 Acoustic Gretsch 6-string modified into a 12-string, and has long been part of the Minneapolis blues legend's distinct sound. You can't miss it if you find it: The Gretsch inlay on top of the neck is misspelled, with an 'r' where the 'c' should be (GRETSCH spelled as "GRETSRH"). Call the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, if you hear anything. And go here for a photo of the "Gretsrh." Spider John appears Sunday at this weekend's massive Green Man Festival in Duluth.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 8, 2003 2:16 PM

 

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