The Rake: Arts & Culture

Why My Novel Is Set in Minneapolis

Cristina Cordova — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:56:12 -0500

I lived in Minneapolis for a few years, some years ago, and during that time I came to love the town and the quaint Midwestern customs of its citizens. People smiled at you on the street—without asking for money. If you were lost, they gave you directions—without asking for money. They even assisted the elderly across the street; in DC, we use them as decoys for the onrushing traffic.

Zoom In: Michael Thomsen

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:11:45 -0500

Michael Thomsen was born into a line of circus people and performers and, in a way, he's continuing in the family business. Thomsen grew up in Austin, Minnesota, "in the shadow of the Hormel meatpacking plant." His first job as a kid involved sorting through the junk drawers and closets of the recently deceased for his grandfather, the proprietor of a successful carnival midway business who worked as an auctioneer in the off-season. "I loved going through those old drawers," he says.

A Band of Outsiders

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:47:24 -0500

At a pipe ceremony, I once teased an elder about his unorthodox way of conducting invocations. The joke (I always find myself needing to explain my humor) was that I was undermining his authority at all. I don't even have a pipe, let alone any kind of expertise about this ceremony.

Zoom In: Charles Beck

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:21:07 -0500

On the wrong side of the tracks in Fergus Falls, we drive past homes patched together by peeling paint, and climb up through the cement factory's back lot. At the top of the hill, there's a silver mailbox: C. Beck. A trail of faded wood steps carries us through the woods, over a ravine; the path becomes a bridge, the bridge becomes a porch lightly dusted by snow.

Among the firs is a driftwood-colored Bauhaus-style house. Charlie Beck comes to the door in a worn flannel shirt. He has the freckled complexion of a farm boy, faded into a pale chamois and framed by wild white hair.

Where We Live

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:58:37 -0500

I've been living in the same city for a long time. Maybe that's why I crave the unusual. I abhor cookie-cutter architecture, which is just as prevalent in urban areas as in cul-de-sac suburbia. How many three-story brick condos with railed terraces have you seen constructed in recent years?

The Mice

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:32:47 -0500

For the Greeks, who had no word for irreversible death, one did
not die, one darkened.
—Mark Strand

Where the Japanese iris right
now stand ready to
accept the inevitable
purple blossom

she found four dead mice
in their nest of dirt and dusty fur
all with their small ears pointed like pilgrims
toward the trunk of the huge cottonwood.

Zoom In: Christian Nielsen

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:02:16 -0500

Christian Nielsen's paintings exist in the optic pleasure zone between literal and abstract expression. Their imperfectly repeating patterns and three-dimensional colors are familiar, yet alien. In intimate, 12 x 12 inch LP size works to 40 x 40 inch portrait-size paintings, Nielsen achieves near-photographic detail from the tightly controlled squeegees he uses to lay down the paint.

Art Market: Gather around art and home

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:55:02 -0500

In an age when we can fill our homes with an abundance of uniform, sleek, inexpensive, mass-produced goods, the gracious imperfections of handmade objects provide a particularly human comfort. A few artisanal pieces incorporated here and there into your living spaces, whether it's a simply constructed paper pendant lamp or a bit of ornate whimsy for your yard, lend your surroundings the warmth of a maker's hand.

The House that Art Built: New London's ARThouse

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:33:04 -0500

A couple of blocks off Main Street, an eager crowd waits in front of a turn-of-the-century farmhouse. As the clock approaches the top of the hour more visitors steadily appear, gathering near the door of the residence. Soon the door is opened and the crowd enters, warmly greeted by their hosts. Within the space the visitors discover videos, paintings of television characters, floating lights, and colorful sculptures throughout the rooms, spilling onto the front lawn and hovering above the house. Throughout the coming hours, more guests

Milwaukee & Franklin Avenues

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:27:16 -0500

The antithesis of Milwaukee Avenue—the Seward neighborhood's secret boulevard of late 19^th century homes—is the Cedars 94 apartment complex, located just across from Milwaukee on Franklin's north side. Where Milwaukee Avenue has dozens of brick homes with low front porches and gingerbread gables, the apartments have faded wooden shingles and a chain-link security fence. Where Milwaukee Avenue has forsythia, lilac, and crabapple trees along its center, Cedars 94 has cement courtyards and is bound by the roar of traffic from Franklin and Interstate 94.

Auralee's Playlist

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:42:12 -0500

Auralee Likes is co-owner of Hymie's Records, one of the few places in town where you can still unload a box or two of records, or stumble upon some amazing finds.

Minnesota Couples: Beware IKEA!

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:37:50 -0500

Sex. Money. In-laws. To the enduring litany of couples' dilemmas, I nominate a new entry: IKEA.

IKEA does not discriminate. IKEA'S troubling influence transcends race, religion and sexual orientation, requiring only two people in a relationship. Like all archetypal clashes of domestic life, it's wicked inevitability starts innocently enough.

Austin Hall’s Playlist

Lisa Pahl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:18:49 -0600

Austin Hall’s hands have been viewed more than 14,040,442 times. But really, who’s counting?

Zoom In: Usry Alleyne

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:15:51 -0600

As we talk in his loft above the Midtown Global Exchange in South Minneapolis, Usry Alleyne mentions that he was caught a bit off-guard by mnartists.org’s request for an interview. That’s likely because he is better known as a teacher or a photographer of arts events than as an artist.

Zoom In: Susan Hensel

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:56:23 -0600

I’m greeted at Susan Hensel Design Gallery by the gallery’s namesake, a small, ebullient woman who is a nationally recognized book artist and recent Minnesota transplant. “I’ve had friends here for years, my son was away at college—it was time,” she explains. As for her gallery, “I wanted the opportunity, not only to show my own work, but to find new work by emerging artists with guts, who have a story to tell—a story that might not be commercial, but that needs to be seen.”

The Renegade

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:25:41 -0600

Billy X. Curmano, performance artist and provocateur, doesn’t care much for the conventional wisdom that says artists must live in a large city. He may have grown up in Milwaukee and spent time in the East Village and other urban centers of art, but ultimately he decided to make his base of operations a picturesque corner of rural southeastern Minnesota.

Spearthrower

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:00:44 -0600

We piled off the bus—field trip!—
my teacher saying, suggestive and disinterested, “Just look.”
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts free and full of kids,
Chinese jades, gods and goddesses from everywhere,
room after room of very old faces looking back at us.
And here this one naked man
so tall and alone in his own room,
“The Spearthrower” though he’d lost his spear long ago
along with the hand that held it. Such a serious look

The (Indie) Play’s the Thing

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:45:59 -0600

While a handful of large companies give our city its national reputation, small, independent theater remains the life-blood of the local scene. Audiences are built by smaller theaters with more affordable ticket prices. Great actors have the opportunity to stretch and grow in smaller venues, without the pressures that they may experience later, in larger productions. Most important, baby theaters grow up to be robust adult theaters.

Art Market

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:07:14 -0600

Not all fashion designers consider themselves artists, but there is certainly a fine art to developing an exciting and cohesive line of clothing, a one-of-a-kind gown, or, for that matter, a sock-monkey bikini. Just five years ago, when home-grown clothing was paraded on First Avenue’s stage at the first Voltage fashion show, resources in the Twin Cities—for designers and their customers—were just beginning to emerge. Five years later, the response and outpouring of support speaks volumes about the growth, both current and future, for local fashion.

Theater in Motion

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:02:27 -0600

In accordance with standards for staging cosmic spectacles, (however low-budget), the cast of A Gift for Planet BX63 (above photo) appeared in glittering, metallic costume.

Noises Underground

Lisa Pahl — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:52:16 -0600

It must be something in the water. One hundred years after Saint Paul experimental composer Arthur Farwell dissected Native Indian melodies and piled up unrelated tonalities, a core of dedicated underground Minnesota sound explorers is still sampling, mashing-up, and otherwise taking musical liberties. Although largely unsung in this state of above-ground musical champions, there is a rich vein of experimental music that runs from Sauk Rapids to Duluth and Rochester, and through both of the Twin Cities.

Dress Up to Get Down

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:06:51 -0600

The directive was simple: Pick an outfit for your sweetheart to wear to a hypothetical romantic dinner-on Valentine's Day, or any other occasion, for that matter. We proposed this to three reasonably fashionable folks, all with different ideas about what flatters the female form. Our guys-an intrepid television reporter and the owner of a women's boutique in Minneapolis's Wedge neighborhood-ventured to shops new to them, whereas our lady, a noted restaurateur, had her own suggestion (naturally): Could she visit a socially responsible eco-retailer?

Christian Johnson’s Playlist

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:46:15 -0600

On a dreary winter morning, while dining on scrambled eggs at The Bad Waitress, we noticed something about this South Minneapolis eatery: It has one of the best jukeboxes in town. Miles Davis, PJ Harvey, and early REM, to name but a few, were the perfect accompaniment to a slow-starting Sunday. So impressed were we by the eclectic mix, in fact, that we asked the man behind the jukebox, Christian Johnson, who also happens to be the owner of The Bad Waitress (and the Spyhouse Coffee Shop up the street) to share his personal playlist.

Deborah Stein’s Playlist

Cristina Cordova — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:41:50 -0600

It might seem strange that Deborah Stein sees more rock shows than she does plays, but it does much to explain the genesis of the Minneapolis playwright’s own new work, God Save Gertrude. A theatrical rock concert in the style of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Stein’s play also manages to riff on one of the stage’s most familiar tales, Hamlet. Never mind the overexposed prince and his poor, dear Ophelia; this time it’s Queen Gertrude going under the metaphorical knife.

Peripa-tech!

Cristina Cordova — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:53:39 -0600

This month, all sorts of lucky boys and girls are sporting shiny new electronic doodads, freshly delivered from Santa and other thoughtful gift-givers. It’s good timing: A hot-pink Motorola RAZR or aquamarine laptop does much to cut through the gray midwinter cloud cover, not to mention spruce up many a gloomy coffeehouse interior. In fact, around these parts, tech accessories are one of the few acceptable ways to incorporate fluorescents this time of year—especially if you’re in possession of a Y chromosome. Cell phones and iPods are only the most

Mary Ellen Childs' Playlist

kristin harper — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:55:18 -0600

More than a composer, Mary Ellen Childs devised a neat trick to lure skeptical listeners to her contemporary chamber music concerts. The Northeast Minneapolis resident is known nationally in avant-garde music circles for supplementing cutting-edge sonic experiences with any number of visual hooks.

Zoom In: Amy Jo Hendrickson

kristin harper — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:26:53 -0500

Hendrickson's handiwork is a mélange of burlesque camp, cowgirl grit, and Victorian flourish. She's undeniably influenced by '70s pop design and '80s album covers, but this North Dakota girl also mixes in a frontier spirit straight out of a nineteenth-century Sears, Roebuck catalog. But make no mistake, the work has some bite: Hendrickson's all-American blonde pigtails are more Minnesota RollerGirl than Little House on the Prairie.

Window on the World

kristin harper — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:36:17 -0500

Brave New Worlds, up through February 17 at the Walker Art Center, considers "the present state of political consciousness, expressed through the questions of how to live, experience, and dream." The seventy works by twenty-four artists from seventeen countries were organized by Walker curators Doryun Chong and Yasmil Raymond; 10,000 arts spoke to Chong about the exhibition:

How did the idea for this show come about?

The Man from Hamburg

kristin harper — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:28:53 -0500

As you walk down the narrow hallway into Frank Sander's sunlit studio in Lowertown you're greeted by an entryway table piled with cables, cast-off camera bits, miscellaneous video equipment, and a couple of discarded microphone heads.

Zoom In: Richard C. Johnson

kristin harper — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:38:38 -0500

Richard Johnson’s photos of weathered storefronts, thrift-store castoffs, and tattered religious iconography in northern Minnesota serve as an astute chronicle of the erosion of small Midwestern towns. He grew up in Cloquet, which he describes as “an OK place,” one with “a slightly higher-than-average number of churches as well as per-capita consumption of distilled spirits, and the distinction of lending its name to a big forest fire.” After developing a severe allergy to