The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis

Thanks for the update, Fancy Ray.

jaygabler — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:05:19 -0400

Thanks for the update, Fancy Ray.

jeromeartistfellowship: Last night I visited the Northeast...

jaygabler — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:47:51 -0400

Last night I visited the Northeast Minneapolis studio of fellow Melissa Loop. We talked about the work she’s created inspired on her 2012 trip to Belize; some of it is pictured here, and will be featured in a June show at the Rosalux Gallery. In the meantime, Melissa is off to French Polynesia, where she will be doing research for her Jerome project. She intends to create a large work that speaks to the scope of the setting and evokes the spirit of the epic landscape painting tradition—while also implicitly critiquing some aspects of that tradition.

- Jay

The Christmas installation at Macy’s downtown Minneapolis...

jaygabler — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 11:45:37 -0400

The Christmas installation at Macy’s downtown Minneapolis auditorium is now a permanent Santaland, but flowers—unlike animatronic elves—are perishable, so Macy’s annual Flower Show continues to change every year.

This year’s theme is The Painted Desert, a show that’s inspired by the culture and fauna of South Asia but is not so purist about it as to exclude our local natives (wassup, pine trees) and other, more exotic, plants. Have you ever seen a pineapple plant? They’re pretty trippy, but not as trippy as the trees that are literally painted, Queen-of-Hearts style, in pastel colors.

The whole show would make your local organic farmer run screaming, in which respect it’s awesome. See it for free (there’s a charge for the souvenir tote bags) through April 7.

- Jay Gabler

Abraham Cruzvillegas at the Walker Art Center: "I'm not a fetishist"

jaygabler — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 11:16:54 -0400

Every artist needs a charismatic, articulate advocate; fortunately for Mexican sculptor Abraham Cruzvillegas, he has that advocate in himself. At a media preview on March 21, Cruzvillegas utterly charmed attendees with clear and quotable (“To me, nothing is trash”) explanations of his work. What visitors who don’t have the luxury of having the artist at hand will make of The Autoconstrucción Suites, though, is an open question.

The title of the show—a major collection of Cruzvillegas’s work that will tour to Germany and Mexico following its Walker sting—refers to the theme of construction and reconstruction, inspired by Cruzvilegas’s childhood in a poor but politically active community where no resources were wasted.

The pieces on display have been assembled from motley components, and the first impression most visitors will have is that of a surreal landscape. Objects Man Ray might enjoy include a feathered umbrella, a stump penetrated by dozens of knives, and a mobile featuring dung molded into the shape of shrunken heads. (The fact that they’re reproductions and not actual heads is significant: “I’m not a fetishist,” said Cruzvillegas.)

At the center of the show is a large wooden assemblage built in Paris from found materials, in a shape that replicates the historical growth of the French capital’s boundaries. That fact, of course, would be completely opaque to anyone who didn’t read the catalog—just as you’d never know that the collections of white- and red-painted paper and cardboard are ephemera from the artist’s own life. Cruzvillegas’s gift for creative composition will catch viewers’ eyes and imaginations, but if you want to delve deeper, you’ll need to do your homework.

“If I were a conceptual artist,” said Cruzvillegas to the assembled media (I’m paraphrasing, since I was too busy taking Vines to take notes), “I’d say this is all a fiction. But I’m not. This is all real, this is all my life.”

- Jay Gabler

Photo

jaygabler — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:42:37 -0400

Places in St. Paul for Tiger Woods to Pick Up Women to Satisfy His Sex Addiction When Lindsey Vonn Brings Him Home to Meet the Family

thetangential — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:23:00 -0400

Mickey’s Diner for tourists and (challenge points) waitresses

Red’s Savoy Inn to rock it like Norm Coleman’s dad

Fabulous Fern’s for college students and legislators

Chairs that play music in the MPR lobby, also for college students and legislators

Highland Village for desperate housewives

Tiff’s for slumming Minneapolis hipsters

Como Park for kinky zookeepers with access to whips and tranquilizers

Science Museum for ladies who can arrange after-hours Omnitheater porn

Town & Country for ladies whose caddies carry their condoms

Video

thetangential — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:58:54 -0400

firstavenuempls: We’ve just added a bunch of new dishes to our...

thetangential — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:22:19 -0400

firstavenuempls:

We’ve just added a bunch of new dishes to our menu at The Depot Tavern, so be sure to stop by soon to give them a taste:

Classic Poutine
Ellsworth Cheese Curds and Beef Gravy on Russet Fries $7.50 (add bacon for $1.50)

THE POUTINE IS BACK

Propeller's "Twelfth Night" at the Guthrie Theater: Shakespeare in the company of men

jaygabler — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:11:00 -0400

On March 7, a performance of Twelfth Night by the UK company Propeller was attended by the smallest audience I’ve ever seen for a professional Guthrie-presented production on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. “Sometimes you just get Shakepeared out,” said my girlfriend—and maybe it’s true that local audiences’ tastes are shifting towards lighter, more summery fare, but it’s also true that this is not Shakespeare for beginners.

Shakespeare’s convoluted plots can be hard enough to follow the first time you see them, and unlike the Acting Company—a regular Guthrie partner presenting “Shakespeare for a new generation”—Propeller doesn’t bend over backwards to help new audiences understand the text. Further complicating matters is the fact that Propeller’s casts are all male. What I’m getting around to admitting here is that until the last scene, I thought Viola and Sebastian were actually the same person.

They’re not—they’re siblings separated by shipwreck, Viola (Joseph Chance) in disguise as a man to procure employment with Duke Orsino (Christopher Heyward). Olivia (Ben Allen), the recently widowed (but not badly bereaved) target of Orsino’s affection, falls for “Cesario” (Viola in a suit) and, when Sebastian (Dan Wheeler) shows up, marries him. Eventually, both Sebastian and “Cesario” show up onstage together, and in the production’s campiest moment, Olivia cries with a throaty hint of pleasure, “Most…wonderful!”

Casting one of Shakespeare’s gender-benders with all men—men who are very comfortable in drag—lends a welcome contemporary perspective to shows where hints of same-sex attraction are generally played for yuks and/or yucks. Here, the erotic heat between the men in each pairing is, so to speak, embraced; the cross-dressing is played for dramatic effect, not for cheap laughs.

If anything, this production could stand to be a little cheaper. It’s adorned with a rich soundtrack created onstage by cast members in character as well as those who stealthily don white masks—those who are still trying to forget Tom Cruise’s creepy orgy in Eyes Wide Shut, you’ve been warned—to play water glasses, bass guitars, conga drums, and other motley instruments. (I can’t be positive there wasn’t a saw in there somewhere.)

Composed collectively by the company, the music is expert and sometimes very enjoyable—notably during a spirited jig by Gary Shelford, who all but steals the show as the gossipy servant Maria—but all that stage business tends to distract, and imparts a sinister air that director Edward Hall’s production doesn’t ever fully explain.

If you’re a Shakespeare fan with a Twelfth Night or two under your belt, you’re likely to find this a stimulating production. If you’re new to this twisted comic tale, though, you might first point your dinghy towards more accommodating shores.

- Jay Gabler

Photo by Manuel Harlan, courtesy Guthrie Theater

Last spring I worked an overnight security shift at the parish...

jaygabler — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:39:00 -0400

Last spring I worked an overnight security shift at the parish festival for St. Mark’s Catholic Church in St. Paul, and I wrote about my conflicted relationship with the parish I grew up in from ages 12-18.

My dad grew up a block and a half away, and he and his siblings all attended the parish school. We bought my dad’s childhood house from my grandpa just as I was going into seventh grade, and my siblings and I were all enrolled at Dad’s alma mater. It didn’t go well for me. As I recounted in my review of the movie Bully:

“After finding me one day after school in seventh grade screaming and beating my bedroom floor with my fists, my parents made an appointment with my homeroom teacher and the school principal, to inform them that I was transferring schools to get away from the unceasing bullying I’d been enduring. I don’t remember the principal’s and the teacher’s exact words, but I remember the general sentiment: ‘This won’t solve your problem, Jason. The only way for you to stop the bullying is to fight back—or just stop being so weird!’”

I fared better in the next school, and never came back to school at St. Mark’s. My siblings all graduated from this school, though, and a lot of kids I baby-sat went here. I have a cousin here now. We went to church here for years, until I entirely stopped churchgoing and then my sister married a Lutheran pastor, inspiring my mom to decide that God would rather have her attending church with her grandchildren than coming to St. Mark’s just because it’s Catholic. (I always thought my parents were closet Protestants anyway.)

So my family history has been tied up with this church and school for 60 years. This is where my dad had his Glory Days as a football star in eighth grade, where he and his brother were proud crossing-guard captains. My dad just helped to organize his 50-year grade school reunion, an event that was so meaningful to him that it was a motivating factor in his decision to end his 38-year marriage and start a new personal journey to reconnect with the Jim Gabler of 1960: a prince of Minnesota, as John Irving might say, a king of the Midwest with a million dreams to chase.

My time at St. Mark’s, by contrast, was bleak.

Now, enjoy this video of a Catholic convert standing in St. Mark’s and playing “Amazing Grace” on harmonica.

- Jay Gabler

Theatre in the Round’s publicity photos (these are for the...

jaygabler — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:19:00 -0500

Theatre in the Round’s publicity photos (these are for the upcoming show Life and Beth) just get better and better. The press releases always command, “It is imperative that you credit the photographer: ‘copyright Act One, Too, Ltd.’”

This poster is amazing in so many ways.

jaygabler — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:36:46 -0500

This poster is amazing in so many ways.

Busting out with a mug that dates, I’m pretty sure, from...

thetangential — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:47:35 -0500

Busting out with a mug that dates, I’m pretty sure, from my eighth grade class trip in 1989.

beckylang: A fancy new restaurant called Burch opened up across...

jaygabler — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:34:29 -0500

beckylang:

A fancy new restaurant called Burch opened up across the street from me. It’s too fancy for me but it has a basement restaurant where you can get pizza.

I really like basement restaurants that feel secret, especially when I’m drunk.

The pizza we got at 1 a.m. had too many onions for my taste but I like that I can drunkenly stumble into an underground cave for fancy pizza now.

(photo by jason zabel)

ourflowishard: HELLDOYOULIKEHOLYTOO? https://www.facebook.com/e...

jaygabler — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:32:59 -0500

ourflowishard:

HELLDOYOULIKEHOLYTOO?

https://www.facebook.com/events/615946401754523/

See you tonight at the Nomad!

thetangential — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:26:08 -0500

See you tonight at the Nomad!

"The Twin Cities are not Brooklyn. We’re not LESS, we’re just different."

jaygabler — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:11:45 -0500

“The Twin Cities are not Brooklyn. We’re not LESS, we’re just different.”

- Inevitable sentiment voiced by an attendee at this talk by the publisher of the Brooklyn Rail.

Photo

jaygabler — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:03:11 -0500

All this month, you can buy our book Future Cities at...

jaygabler — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:16:39 -0500

All this month, you can buy our book Future Cities at participating Dunn Bros. locations. Pay $7.99 for the book, and get your fancy latte for FREE!

wr3n: 22nd & Lyndale True story: I was at Hum’s...

jaygabler — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:16:37 -0500

wr3n:

22nd & Lyndale

True story: I was at Hum’s several months ago, and the cashiers were talking among themselves. One said, “I hate bikers on Bryant. They think because they’ve got that green stripe, they can ride in the middle of the road. Whatever happened to ‘share the road’? Isn’t that your thing? Lemme just check you with my car and break your leg…maybe then you’ll start sharing the road.” The other cashiers laughed.

I don’t go to Hum’s any more.

- Jay