The Rake Magazine

I've reserved a special place in my heart for the St. Paul-based Zeitgeist new music ensemble, probably because cultivating new classical and chamber music seems like such a long row to hoe. Have I mentioned how I hate the term 'classical music,' by the way? Probably. The folks at Zeitgeist prefer "new music" or alternately, "the music of our time" (get the name Zeitgeist). But popular music listeners hear new music all the time, of course. It's just not as often that we hear it performed by a woodwind, piano, and two-percussionist quartet.

I was quite pleased last summer, when I first learned that Walker Art Center would be co-presenting a new Zeitgeist-mastered piece. Happy to see our hometown players reprezent on the largely international Walker stage. Trend Alert: This is going to be another one of those "evening-length, multimedia" pieces that the Zeitgeist troupe is so fond of, with something for the eyes, something for the ears. Full sensory immersion. Nothing gets bored--except, perhaps, for the sniffer. (And I'll decline to note which theaterhouses smell.... But you know who you are!)

Whatever the intentions of Zeitgeist, the evening-length, multimedia pieces I've seen have been nothing short of fabulous. Mary Ellen Child's Dream House and Zeitgeist's own Shape Shifting come to mind. This newest one, Pine Eyes, is based on Pinocchio, and it features music composed by Martin Bresnick and video by Puppetsweat. Zeitgeist, of course, plays the tunes. There's a behind-the-scenes look called "The Making of Pine Eyes" that's happening tonight at the Zeitgeist home studio in lowertown, Studio Z. Northwestern Building - 275 E. 4th Street, St. Paul; five bucks; 651-755-1600.

Pine Eyes then plays June 3.

Maybe it's because I spent the better part of my holiday weekend cooking on the Namekagen River--where I slept under the stars but also encountered various flotillas of holidaying drunks who hollered "Whooooo!," seemingly out of nowhere. (At the sight of me?) Well, whatever this feeling is, what's clear to me is that I don't feel entirely ready to reenter the civilized world. Not just yet anyhow.

Here's something that teeters on the edge: Altered Aesthetics is hosting a bike-themed art show. On the AA homepage, there's a beautiful image of what I think is the Midtown Greenway at dawn, taken just after the Dean Parkway exit but well before coming upon Lake Calhoun. Now, I'm not necessarily venturing a claim against cycling here. I'm an enthusiastic one m'self. All I'm saying is that there's something about riding down that trail in the morning, and then turning north onto Cedar, that, however fleetingly, delivers me out of this city. In any case, the AA show features one hundred bike-themed works by forty-some artists. They should do the same thing for canoes sometime.

The weekend planner: Not so easy this weekend, since I'm subjecting myself to an under-planned canoeing excursion, as not even half-baked by the rather impulsive boyfriend.

But if I were to be sticking around town this weekend, here's what I'd probably be up to:

The Fusion Fashion Event, featuring work by many-a local clothing designers at the Varsity Theater.
And speaking of local designers, The Design Collective is having a big Memorial Day Weekend Sale.

HowWasTheShow.com's fourth anniversary show featuring Alva Star, The Alarmists, White Light Riot, and our dear friend, the ever-optimistic, photo-snapping David DeYoung--or, as the man himself likes to say, the "best-paid man in local music journalism," since he makes his living doing something else.

Flaming Film Festival--especially all that B-Boy shit, yo.
Speaking of which, there's also the Homocore Minneapolis Show, on Sunday, featuring an evening of "Homo-hop." Ha! Actually, I'm expected to have had my fill of river water by this late date in the weekend, and so I might actually catch this one.

No matter what you think about all these new designer buildings in town, you can't help but give props to the frontrunner, Walker Art Center, for programming some pretty neat stuff since re-opening with their expansion. I'm not sure what to make of tonight's prom-themed fashion show, curated by local hat designer/Target employee Anna Lee. For grownups: there's also the behind-the-scenes look at Matthew Barney in a documentary by Alison Chernick called Matthew Barney: No Restraint--screening tonight as part of Free First Thursdays. Check Peter Schilling's take.

Worth noting: The very excellent prefab housing exhibition closes Sunday. Last weekend's New York Times Magazine shed some light on one of the houses featured in the exhibit though, the owners of "Turbulence House" being not entirely pleased with their architect's results. The magazine also featured a piece on Herzog & de Meuron (the guys who designed the Walker expansion), chronicling the plight of designing and building their bird's nest/national stadium for Beijing.

One of those things I wish I had tickets to: The Minnesota Orchestra is performing Tosca all weekend long. Word on the street is that soprano Deborah Voigt, in the title role, has been knocking musicians' socks off in rehearsals.

On that note, here's a word to the wise/note to self: If you want to go see/hear the Orchestra's big Sommerfest finale, its semi-staged version of Carmen later this summer, you should buy your tickets soon-ish. You might also note how Sommerfest conductor Andrew Litton resembles Big Boy.

I'm just sayin.