Arts and Culture : Buzz

If it seems like you can't swing a bicycle messenger bag in this town without hitting another artist or creative, it's because we're creatively dense.

Creative-class guru Richard Florida has been crunching geographic numbers over at The Atlantic lately. Last week, Florida took a look at the density of artistic and cultural creatives.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area ranks fifth overall, behind Los Angeles, New York, DC and San Francisco, when measured by the number of artistic and cultural creative workers per square kilometer.

The Twin Cities rank in the same place on Florida's list of creative "overperformers"--cities with the highest density of artistic and cultural creatives compared to what would be expect based on their population density.

Charts and graphs over at The Atlantic.

The small indie music venue known for more than half a century as the Turf Club got a big-time visitor when Lady Gaga dropped by during her two-night stand in St. Paul. City Pages sampled the stir she sent through the scene via Twitter messages:

"That'll teach ya not to go home early on a school night. .... As soon as news of her arrival hit the Twitter stream, several locals bolted to the small St. Paul club to hang with the megastar, talking to Gaga and having their pictures taken with her in the Turf's dingy old photo booth."

Meanwhile media outlets around the world, such the English newspaper The Guardian, took note of the new song Lady Gaga debuted in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center:

"Live, the song proved to be a melancholy piano ballad, but we're willing to bet our last pair of Alexander McQueen 10-inch heels that Living On the Radio will come with a banging, Euro-pop backing track by the time it's released."

Read the full City Pages article here.
Read the full Guardian article here.

A group that seeks to limit the impact of billboard's on St. Paul's urban environment lost a round in court this month. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Clear Channel Outdoor, over the advocacy group Scenic St. Paul, as Courthouse News Service reports:

"For several years, Clear Channel regularly granted its customers temporary billboard extensions that gave them greater creative freedom over the signs.

"But as complaints about the extensions mounted, a local group called Scenic St. Paul suggested banning billboard extensions altogether, instead of charging a permit fee for each extension, as the city's zoning committee had discussed.

"The ordinance, adopted by unanimous vote in March 2006, stated, 'No sign shall be enlarged or altered in a way which increases its nonconformity. Billboard extensions are not permitted.'"

Read the full article here.

The big question in Showtime's new TV series "The Big C" is how actor Laura Linney, in her role as a Minneapolis school teacher, deals with her cancer. A separate, less momentous question is whether the series, filmed in Connecticut at Linney's insistence, can capture the Twin Cities' vibe without its environment. Neal Justin in the Star Tribune seems to think it can:

"The show's creator, Darlene Hunt--a veteran sitcom actress who hails from Kentucky--has spent considerable time in Minneapolis, where her husband's sister lives, and thought it would be an ideal setting.

"'It had to be a city with distinct seasons, because it's about a woman going through the seasons of life. Setting it in L.A. definitely wouldn't do it,' said Hunt.

"She plans each 13-episode season of the series to reflect one of the four seasons, starting with summer. Producers won't say which town they used as a model, but think Edina, or St. Paul. ...

"'The first day I was there, I didn't quite have my bearings, said Linney, who had never been to the Twin Cities. 'But the second and third day I realized, Oh, this is a very, very cool place. The arts are so prominent and, for someone like me, that made my heart sing.

"'I really got a sense of how the city interacts with nature in ways you don't think it's going to, in terms of walking, running, boating and how the lakes and land interact with each other.' ...

"The show has some quintessential Minnesota touches, including an episode that revolves around Cathy trying to get someone to share a bicycle-built-for-two and a Scandinavian neighbor who guards her privacy."

But Minneapolis native Jessica Flint, writing in Vanity Fair, doesn't see it:

"The houses, restaurants, and cityscapes that appear in the show feel like something straight out of suburban Stamford, Connecticut--which, it turns out, is where 'The Big C' was filmed."

Read the entire Star Tribune article here.
Read the entire Vanity Fair article here.

Miles Mendenhall represented the Twin Cities visual art scene to the world this summer on Bravo's reality-TV competition "Work of Art." He didn't win, but in a postmortem Q&A with New York magazine, Mendenhall explains why he's staying in Minneapolis rather than relocating to New York:

"Could you see yourself being a part of the New York art world one day?

"'I think I'd participate in it from afar. I love Minneapolis. I think Minneapolis, for me, really works. It's a beautiful community, and it's small enough but still has a lot of networking and connections that are actually fruitful and official rather than kind of just superficial...I got a show in New York in a week--I don't think I'm allowed to say where yet. And a solo show back here in April. I just finished curating a show here in Minneapolis to raise money for the BFA scholarship program at University of Minnesota. It went really well in terms of the community really coming out to support young artists, learning and everything. The show has gotten really good reviews.'"

Read the entire article here.

Simple, Good, and Tasty followed the Chef Shack around for a look at a day in the life of a Twin Cities street food vendor.

Writer Sarah Rykal woke up early to follow chefs/owners Lisa Carlson and Carrie Summer for an 11-hour day that starts before dawn.

Among her observations: "[W]hat I experienced today was more than just the business of food preparation. It was also the business of building community through awe-inspiring dedication and ridiculously hard work."

Read the Simple, Good, and Tasty article here.

A garage, a "great room," a funeral parlor. They're among the unconventional local venues, often in private homes, where musical and other performances are taking place, writes Jon Bream in the Star Tribune:

"House concerts are a folk tradition that's as old as 'Oh! Susanna.' But nowadays they're the stage for pop performers, too -- everyone from Wilco's revered Jeff Tweedy to Canada's Be Good Tanyas to your neighbor's aspiring singer/songwriter college student. Other arts -- dance, theater and even visual arts -- are being presented in Minnesota houses, apartments and back yards, as well.

"These alternative gigs are less a response to tough economic times than a grass-roots strategy of reaching and building an audience. The Twin Cities blog Cake in 15 has been hosting 35-seat house concerts for indie-rock hipsters. And living-room performances have become special-occasion events for baby boomers who don't see much live music beyond arena concerts by old heroes like Elton John or James Taylor."

Read the full article here.

Only three weeks after the opening of a new Apple Store where the Uptown Bar once stood, there are signs that the nightclub, a longtime fixture of the local music scene, may soon resurface in the vacant Lyndale Theater building, according to Finance and Commerce:

"Jeffery Herman, president of the Minneapolis-based retail real estate firm Urban Anthology, is representing the Uptown Bar. Herman confirmed the deal, but would not go into details.

"'We do have a deal,' Herman said. 'I just can't comment on the timing.'

"The former Uptown Bar & Caf�, which traced its history to the 1930s, closed in early November 2009. The old bar was razed and replaced by a new location for the Apple Store, which opened on the site at 3018 Hennepin Ave. last month.

"The deal is likely to be contingent on sorting out a key issue: the operators of a revived Uptown Bar would need to secure a new liquor license from the city of Minneapolis."

Read the full article here.

 

Are revived art galleries a sign of emerging from the recession? The Soo Visual Arts Center, hit hard by the economic downturn, is back, reports the Southwest Journal:

"The smell of fresh paint was in the air in June as Greenberg, standing in the new SooVAC space, ticked off all the changes since the gallery closed temporarily in March: an expanded, more deeply involved board of directors; a new gallery manager to ease Greenberg's workload; a new resolve to build gallery membership and community ties; and the spinning-off of SooVAC's shop into a new, independent entity.

"Manufactory is planned to open soon in the former space of design boutique ROBOTlove that relocated in the spring to Northeast. Greenberg said her collaboration with collectible toy-maker Erin Currie and her husband, Dave, will operate like an 'old-school cobbler,' with goods for sale in front and the artists who make them at work in the back of the store.

"Marketing agency Zeus Jones will occupy the third and final space in Greenberg's building, setting up a confluence of creative energy near the Lyndale Avenue and West 26th Street intersection. Rob White, co-founder of the growing firm currently headquartered in the Uptown Row building, said 'artistic karma' drew them to the site."

Read the full article here.

Yoga is leaving the studio and hitting the streets in the Twin Cities. Guerrilla yoga sessions might happen anywhere, from a parking lot to a park, reports the Star Tribune:

"On the shores of Minneapolis lakes, recent graduates from CorePower's teacher training programs lead free classes with the twin purposes of gaining teaching experience and making yoga accessible to those who can't afford studio yoga.

'It's a win-win,' said Joe Pollock, who started Saturday classes at Lake of the Isles. 'It's a fun way to practice in an outdoor setting. People running by always want to know what's going on ... one random person came because someone else tweeted about it. ... The reality is, yoga is a huge business. I think that's fine, as long as there's a way to make it accessible to other people too.'"

Read the full article here.

Target Corporation has given $5 million to the Minnesota Orchestra's fund to renovate Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. The gift puts the $40 million campaign over the top, giving the green light to the project.

"No start date has been set for the project, but [orchestra president and CEO Michael] Henson says it is on target to open in June of 2013.

"Target Corporation will hold naming rights for Orchestra Hall's new lobby and terraces. The state provided $14 million in bonding money and the orchestra raised another $29 million in private donations."

Read the full article here.

Nye's Polonaise Room, located just across the Hennepin Avenue Bridge from downtown Minneapolis, has again made the upper reaches of Esquire magazine's national bar ratings. In 2006, Esquire named Nye's the best bar in America; this year, as the Star Tribune notes, Nye's is listed as one of "10 Bars Every Man Should Drink in Before He Dies." Six other bars in Minneapolis and St. Paul also rate mentions by the magazine.

"If they made a sequel to Fargo, the first scene would be set here. The sparkling vinyl booths and sing-along piano bar made this place the epitome of swank for the generations of Polish-Americans who populated northeast Minneapolis. Thankfully, the old-timers refuse to yield."

Read the full story here.

Minneapolis once had a neighborhood called Bohemian Flats, but that was named for a different kind of Bohemian. Now the Mill City, together with St. Paul, has achieved top-ten status among the most Bohemian cities in the United States and Canada. Richard Florida explains the rankings at the Atlantic magazine's website.

"The index charts the concentration of working artists, musicians, writers, designers, and entertainers across metropolitan areas. We measure it as a location quotient, which basically compares regional employment to the national norm, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and StatsCan. ... Los Angeles is North America's most bohemian metro, followed by New York, Vancouver, Toronto, and greater Washington, D.C. Rounding out the top 10 are Nashville, Salt Lake City (which may come as a surprise to some), Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, and Montreal."

Read the full story here.

In its ninth decade, the modest Ran-Ham Bowling Center in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood faces the announced end to its existence, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Fans of the place are protesting the threatened non-renewal of Ran-Ham's lease, while the landlord isn't saying what might take its place.

"So, the Highland Park landmark--set in a basement at Randolph and Hamline avenues, its entrance sandwiched between the Nook tavern and Kopplin's coffeehouse--might have already scored its last frame.

"And while there's no crime in not renewing a lease, it doesn't mean fans of the Ran-Ham have to be happy about it.

"'It would be a real shame for it to disappear,' said Tim Jennen.

"Jennen, marketing manager at the Grand Avenue art supply store Wet Paint, said the store has had holiday parties at the bowling alley for 17 years.

"'I often liken it to Mickey's or the Dari-ette, that's one of those local places that really says something about St. Paul,' he said.

'It's a treasure.'"

Read the full story here.

Photographer Wing Young Huie's latest documentary effort, "The University Avenue Project," is on display not only in enlargements hung in shop windows but also in a nightly slideshow projected on a 40-foot screen. MinnPost reports that the Project(ion) Site was specially designed and built to host the show along with live performance and dialogues with Huie.

"'The University Avenue Project,' like Huie's public art installation on Lake Street in 2000, is sprawling and ambitious. In the fall of 2007, Public Art St. Paul received a grant from the Joyce Foundation with which to commission a publicly displayed installation of Huie's photography documenting the diverse neighborhoods, businesses, and residents of University Avenue. According to the introductory essay in the project's companion book, such an endeavor documenting the neighborhood was deemed all the more important now, given the impending transformation of the avenue when the new light rail line comes in along the Cities' Central Corridor.

"'The University Avenue Project' features about 450 photographs--a mix of black-and-white and color shots, some large-format, others quite small--which have been placed along a six-mile stretch of the urban thoroughfare, from the Capitol to the border between the Twin Cities (roughly near KSTP studios).

"A handful of the photographs are candid, but many are carefully staged; all of them bear the distinctive mark of Huie's knack for capturing telling human details, his gift for composition."

Read the full story here.