Arts and Culture : Buzz
The Brooklyn Brewery, a craft brewery in New York, “is paying the Twin Cities a little visit in a big way,” a City Pages article states.
This week, the brewery is coming to the area as a part of its national MASH tour, a series of beer and food-related events plus film showings and music.
The Twin Cities is one of 11 stops in the festival that includes a “series of parties, concerts, and private diners in honor of Slow Food USA, an organization the promotes "the pleasure of food by linking it to the community and the environment."”
While in town, MASH will make its home St. Paul’s The Happy Gnome, while also visiting with a number of local restaurateurs.
The New York Times featured local artist Chris Larson’s art installation that was a part of the recent Northern Spark.
For the St. Paul dusk-to-dawn art festival, Larson created a replica of Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer’s St. Paul house. Before an audience at the festival, Larson proceeded to burn down the house. It was the festival’s main attraction.
Although Larson worked from 1961 blueprints of the house, he “made the walls and roof out of cardboard and two-by-four studs,” the story states.
Of the original, which is still standing, the story states, “Despite its heritage, the house has been neglected in books on Breuer.”
As for the burning of the replica, it may have been a statement about the architect, the design, or putting too much emphasis on one’s house--several people in the story weigh in on the significance of the pyrotechnics.
The Huffington Post recently pulled information from a Travel + Leisure survey that shows that the Twin Cities is the 6th best metro for beer nationwide.
Craft breweries are trending across the country, with more than 2,300 counted in 2012, “the highest number since the late 19th century,” the story states.
The Twin Cities jumped nine spaces in the survey this time around. “The buzziest beers seem to channel the outdoorsy, hipster vibe that voters love about Minnesota,” according to the survey.
Local breweries range in character from Indeed Brewery, which “prides itself on its retro, back-to-basics cans, while Fulton Beer offers a Russian imperial stout.”
Fulton claims its beer can hold up against the Minnesota winter, in case it's left outside.
Portland, Oregon topped the list of beer towns.
Vincent Kartheiser, an actor on the popular AMC series “Mad Men,” will return to his hometown this summer to play in the Guthrie Theater’s production of “Pride and Prejudice,” according to the Star Tribune.
Kartheiser first graced the Guthrie stage as a seven-year-old in the theater’s staging of “A Christmas Carol.” This time around, he’ll play the role of Mr. Darcy.
“Kartheiser, 35, grew up in Apple Valley and moved to Los Angeles as a teen to pursue an acting career,” the story reads. The actor became well known beginning in 2007 as the “Mad Men” character Pete Campbell, the “slimy, conniving ad executive everyone loves to hate.”
“Pride and Prejudice” marks the theater’s 50th season.
WCCO Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Given Minnesota's love of outdoor dining during the summer, choosing the best patio in the state seems like a daunting task, but WCCO viewers took up the challenge. In a recent poll, they named Psycho Suzi's in Northeast Minneapolis as the top spot for outdoor lounging.
The restaurant boasted a popular patio area in its former location just a few miles from where it now resides, but the move a few years ago created an opportunity for building an expansive patio area that's now packed in the summertime.
In an article about the results, Psycho Suzi's Shannon Weed noted that being on the Mississippi is hugely beneficial, especially since some customers cruise up to the restaurant on their boats. Also, the patio is dog-friendly.
Recently, the restaurant added a second patio level, giving it an even bigger boost of popularity.
ArtPlace America, a consortium of arts funders across the country, recently announced a couple of St. Paul winners in its latest round of grant awards, according to the Star Tribune.
Both the Blue Ox Mini Golf project and the Bedlam Theatre won $350,000 grants from the group in a category titled, “Using Art to Connect and Animate Communities.”
The Blue Ox will use the funds to develop an artistic 18-hole course at the old Schmidt Brewery grounds, which is being renovated for artist lofts, while Bedlam is planning a new home base near the Union Depot.
Jennifer Pennington, a spokesperson for Blue Ox, comments in the story about the funding group: “They’re really interested in funding a variety of creative placemaking efforts to spur economic development and increase vibrancy,” she says.
Source: Star Tribune
Minnesotan Amy Matthews has a new TV show focusing on home renovations, according to the Pioneer Press.
Matthews, who is “already a staple on the DIY Network,” is now bringing her home improvement savvy to HGTV, with the TV show, “Renovation Raiders,” the story states.
“Renovation Raiders,” which was filmed locally, is “a remodeling show with a fun twist.” It debuts on May 30.
In a matter of hours, a crew makes dramatic changes to a room in a house, which varies by episode.
Beforehand, “contractors work with another one of the homeowners, who is in on the big surprise, and strategically plan the remodel, being extra careful not to be caught by the unsuspecting party,” the story states.
Source: Pioneer Press
WCCO Wednesday, May 15, 2013
A recent WCCO story describes New York-based author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s book, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, which centers on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
The 1970s TV show was set in Minneapolis.
In researching the book, Armstrong looked at a handful of places seen in the show. For example, Kowalski’s on Hennepin Avenue is where Mary shops for groceries. “The neighborhood overall also made sense for Mary, a young and single urbanite, as the Uptown area developed into an artsy enclave,” the book states.
When Moore tossed her beret into the air at 7th and Nicollet, which is marked by a statue of her character, “director Reza Badiyi captured the moment for what would become one of the most indelible TV credit sequences of all time.”
Minneapolis is a good place for anyone who’s into sports, according to the financial literacy website NerdWallet.
The website examined cities across the country, evaluating them on what sports are represented, attendance at games, ticket prices, and local sports culture.
By its criteria, Minneapolis came in in sixth place, after Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and San Francisco.
The article cites reasonably priced tickets and the fact that teams like the Vikings and the Wild, which recently went to the playoffs, have generated a lot of enthusiasm from fans.
When the Vikings play their “archrival,” the Green Bay Packers, “thousands brave the bitter cold to tailgate before these games in mid-winter.”
Minnesota has also been called the State of Hockey, “which locals make clear with attendance at Wild games over 100% this season,” the article states.
Soon, Minneapolis will host the 2014 MLB All-Star game, when the Midsummer Classic visits Target Field, it adds.
Rolling Stone magazine recently identified the country's top 10 music venues, which it called "The Best Big Rooms in America."
First Avenue in Minneapolis came in at number three on the list, with a major nod toward hometown musician Prince. "Throughout the Eighties, he and the Revolution were sort of the house band here--you can see it all in the famous concert scenes in Purple Rain," the article noted.
The club was also a key staging ground for the city's punk-and-hardcore scene, the article continued, noting that bands like the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Soul Asylum got their start on First Avenue's no-frills stages.
The top two "best big rooms," according to Rolling Stone, are 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and The Fillmore in San Francisco.
The locally produced comedy variety show “Wits” has made it to the next level.
A number of other National Public Radio stations are picking up the MPR show, which is recorded live at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Kare11 reports.
“Wits” includes such well-known talent as singer Rufus Wainright and “30 Rock” alum Kristen Schall, the story states.
The show’s senior producer, Larissa Anderson, describes the winning formula for “Wits,” which mixes improv, comedy, music, and theater: "It's comedy, it's music, it's surprises; and sometimes things go off the rails, and we love it when that happens,” she says.
Food and drink website The Daily Meal recently ran an article about dining options at Twin Cities museums, highlighting three major local museums.
Although the article is titled "Minneapolis' Best Museum Food," one of the entries is Cafe Minnesota at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. The article notes that the cafe highlights sustainable, local ingredients, and offers self-service dining with a grill and an array of entrees.
Another notable museum dining experience, according to the site, is FIKA at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The Nordic-inspired cafe serves a seasonally inspired menu dedicated to regional ingredients, which includes smoked sturgeon with pickled beets.
The third highlight is the Walker Art Center's Gather restaurant, which also focuses on locally sourced ingredients for its globally inspired dishes.
The article notes, "As we know at The Daily Meal, a key part of any traveling experience is the food. Although food service at a museum might not be the establishment's first priority, many do cater to their guests' appetites, and they do it well."
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that a Minnesota lawyer, John Levy, is teaming up with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern on an Arizona food truck.
Levy leads the new Minnesota Food Truck Association.
The story quotes Levy as saying, “Through my friendship with Andrew and my experience as a business lawyer, I thought it would be cool on the side to have an interest in a food truck.”
The deVine Film Fest, which runs June 23, features six-second videos made by locals with the Vine app.
The film fest is a part of Comedy Corner Underground, which hosts an open mic night.
Right now, the group is accepting submissions for the film fest.
On the fest’s website, founder Andy Erikson writes, “My friends and I have loved using the Vine app immensely, and wanted a way to showcase the six-second videos made by local Minneapolis comedians and artists.”
At the film fest, the best submissions will be played several times. “There will be prizes and also some standup comedy planned for the evening. The best part is, you don’t have to be from Minneapolis to submit, nor do you have to be a trained filmmaker,” the website states.
Next month, Peter Kelsey of the New French Bakery will be honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as the Small Business Person of the Year for Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune.
Kelsey, who started out modestly in 1997, “credits his success to hard work, luck and the SBA,” the story states.
In the past, he ran a small shop in the Warehouse District. “Kelsey believed bread could trump booze and a hard-rock joint,” but he needed the money to make it happen, the story states.
Luckily, others believed in him and the New French Bakery grew into the 400-person operation it is today, according to the story.
John Rimarcik, a Minneapolis restaurateur, is quoted in the story, saying that Kelsey "is just driven to be one of the best bread bakers in the United States."
Movoto Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Given the importance of science and technology in every aspect of social and professional life, being a nerd is a great thing, and it appears that Minneapolis has plenty of that greatness.
Real estate site Movoto recently released a list of "nerdiest" cities in the country, and found Minneapolis to be the 5th nerdiest, after Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, and Sacramento. Rounding out the top ten were Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, San Jose, and Denver.
The site created the ranking by measuring the number of science museums and computer stores in each city, as well as comic book stores, video game stores, and sci-fi/fantasy conventions. Even distance to a Renaissance faire was a factor.
In his blog post, survey author Randy Nelson noted that these cities are "Nerdvana" and that when nerds eventually take over the world, their new capital will be Atlanta.
City Pages has compiled a list of the top local clubs "to see bands before they break big."
"We are truly fortunate to have plenty of intimate rooms here in the Twin Cities, where local and national bands alike can find their footing in a live setting while building a solid reputation within the Minnesota music community--a rep that will follow them as they return to the area to play bigger clubs to match their rising profile," the story reads.
The Triple Rock Social Club, Turf Club and 7th St. Entry are among the most-established venues for seeing artists that have gone on to play for bigger audiences.
But the list also includes some new clubs, like the Icehouse in Minneapolis and the Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St. Paul. The Amsterdam has already "seen its fair share of breakout acts, including Cloud Nothings' rousing first local performance...and the emergence of the Girls Got Rhythm Festival."
Last week, the James Beard Foundation released the names of the nominees in its various chef and restaurant award categories, in Charleston, S.C., Vita.MN reports.
Jack Riebel, the chef and co-owner of Butcher and the Boar in downtown Minneapolis, is up for best chef at these “Oscars of the food world,” according to Vita.MN.
Riebel used to work at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in Minneapolis and La Belle Vie in Stillwater, the story states.
Michelle Gayer, the chef and owner of the Salty Tart, who’s been nominated for outstanding pastry chef before, is a candidate for regional best chef.
The Current blog has a recent post about Minnesotans in the running for a couple of Independent Music Awards, in which individual songs are judged by a group of well-known artists.
Sleep Study, a pop quartet, is up for an award in the Indie/Alt. Rock category for “Flower Song,” which the post describes as “a lo-fi, driving ’70s pop cut off their debut full-length, 2012′s Nothing Can Destroy.”
Secondly, Minnesota Remembers Vic Chesnutt, a compilation, is a nominee in the Tribute Album category. Luke Redfield, a Duluth songwriter, led the project, which nonprofit Rock the Cause released. It features covers of Chesnutt songs by local performers, including Dan Wilson, Haley Bonar, Dave Simonett, and Charlie Parr.
The results of the contest will be tallied up later this summer.
The Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video Festival was “an unparalleled and unexpected success,” according to a museum magazine piece.
The film festival turned out to be a viral success, “sparking news headlines worldwide, the festival itself saw the convergence of 10,000 people—some in costumes, others cradling kitty companions, all feline fanatics—on the Walker’s hillside one warm August evening last year,” it reads.
The festival has since led to a national tour, lots of media attention and an expanded event for next year. And a "legitimate" film festival in Austria has made a bid to host it.
Scott Stulen of the Walker is quoted, saying, “It was something unique. Also, we were very aware that we were tapping into a powerful meme, and we knew there was some interest with it.”
St. Paul’s Community Neighborhood Housing Services recently put together its own version of the “Harlem Shake,” the music and dance video that went viral on YouTube in February.
Thousands of 30-second “Harlem Shake” videos featuring part of the song went up on YouTube every day when the Internet meme hit its peak.
In the video, staffers break out in a dance in what appears to be the office lobby.
“Our counselors are up on the latest trends,” it states on the organization’s Facebook page, adding, “It was a great team-builder.”
Minneapolis has the sixth largest arts economy in the country, according to city information.
A report from the Creative Index, which takes into account arts jobs, consumer spending, and revenue of arts organizations, shows that in Minneapolis, the arts scene “is an integral, thriving part of the local economy that has stayed steady even during tough economic times,” the city’s website states.
Go here to see the Minneapolis Creative Index data for 2013.
The index used some indicators “that have never been measured before in Minneapolis,” drilling down to the zip-code level.
Other cities that came out ahead of Minneapolis in the Creative Index include Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.
Minneapolis outpaced the national average creative index score by 4.8 times, according to city information.
Local artist Jennifer Davis got a shout-out in the national art magazine, Juxtapoz.
Scroll through a gallery of her work on the magazine’s website.
Davis, who has shown her work all over the U.S., Canada and the U.K., studied art at the University of Minnesota.
It was during that time that she fell in love with painting and drawing, specifically. She’s continued to work in those mediums since she graduated with a B.F.A. in 1998.
“Her portraits of people and animals, acrylic paintings on panel (and sometimes paper) have a surreal candy-land exterior full of innocent charm, which only hint at an undercurrent of darker truths," says the magazine.
Fast Horse featured Public Functionary, a new nonprofit art gallery in Northeast Minneapolis, in a Q&A on its blog.
The post’s author, Jen Kreilich, was among the 230 people who contributed to the gallery’s $30,000 Kickstarter campaign.
Right now, the gallery is preparing for an event centering on building momentum for such a campaign.
Kreilich says in the post, “I can’t wait for Public Functionary to open its doors. I’m thrilled by their focus on making art more accessible, cultivating young collectors and using content to expand the experience beyond the walls of a gallery.”
The New York Times recently featured the Minnesota Orchestra, which played a concert in early February despite a lockout that’s been ongoing since October.
“The Minnesota Orchestra and its players have been locked out since Oct. 1, after they rejected management’s proposal for a 32 percent cut in base pay and refused to make a counterproposal,” the story reads.
The special concert took place at the Minneapolis Convention Center, celebrating an orchestra ensemble’s Grammy nomination for its Bis recording of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5, the story states.
“The recording is indeed superb, easily one of the best of 2012, and the concert represented it well, despite compromised circumstances,” the story adds.
The Okee Dokee Brothers, a Minneapolis-based bluegrass duo made up of Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing, recently nabbed a Grammy award for the Best Children's Album of 2012, and saw subsequent buzz from news sites like Entertainment Weekly.
The magazine's online site published an article that highlighted the award-winning and folksy "Can You Canoe?" recording, which was created after a Mississippi River trip that the musicians took in 2011.
"We were up against some really quality kids' performers," Mailander told Entertainment Weekly. "The range really represented the genre and what's going on in the industry."
The duo plan to make the recording into the first of a series, and the next album will cover a trip on the Appalachian Trail.
MPR Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Twin Cities is among “America’s Most Literate Cities,” a just-out report for 2012 shows.
Once again, Minneapolis came in third place while St. Paul was sixth, according to MPR.
The annual report from Central Connecticut State University looks at the number of bookstores, educational achievement, Internet and library resources, the publishing business, and newspaper circulation to rank cities.
Dr. John Miller, who led the study, is quoted in the story, saying that the marks are “a large-scale portrait of our nation's cultural vitality. From this data we can better perceive the extent and quality of the long-term literacy essential to individual economic success, civic participation, and the quality of life in a community and a nation."”
The Princeton Review recently listed the University of Minnesota as a "Best Value College" for 2013, according to a prepared statement from the university.
This is the third year in a row that the university has been singled out by the publication for the distinction.
“The University’s commitment to academic excellence, financial aid availability and the overall value of an education at the U of M’s Twin Cities campus has again merited inclusion on this year’s Best Values list,” the statement reads.
The Princeton Review uses more than 30 data points related to academics, cost, and financial aid to single out schools.
This year, the publication recognized 150 schools out of 650 total.
A story in the Southwest Journal highlights a documentary film, “Food for Change,” which features a number of local food cooperatives.
“The Twin Cities enjoys the greatest concentration of food co-ops in the country,” the story reads.
This fact piqued the interest of Steve Alves, a Massachusetts filmmaker.
He wound up producing “Food for Change,” which includes footage of The Wedge Natural Foods Coop and Linden Hills Co-op in Minneapolis and Eastside Food Co-op in St. Paul.
““Food for Change” was recently screened at the United Nations as part of the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives, and many local co-ops provided funding for the project,” the story reads.
Wedge membership and marketing manager Elizabeth Archerd is quoted in the story, saying, “We have such a rich history in the food co-op world, and our founders are maturing,” adding, “Their stories need to be told. ... We were on board right away.”
The Atlantic Cities ran a story in January from Richard Florida that asks, “Does Human Capital Tend to Cluster in Center Cities or the Suburbs?”
Human capital, another way to describe educated people, represents “a key factor in the growth of cities and metro regions,” the story reads.
Florida studied the way that human capital spreads out in cities and suburbs throughout the country and its impact on local economies. He used 2000 U.S. Census data to get the percentages of college grads for those areas.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are among the top 10 large metros with the most college grads in the center city, it reads. About 35 percent of the area’s residents hold bachelor’s degrees, the study found.
“Knowledge-based high tech metros top the list,” the story states.
A blog post from Bon Appetit, the culinary magazine, describes the “Return of the Tater Tot.”
“Most people forgot the Tater Tot once they graduated from the lunchroom,” writes Foodist blogger Andrew Knowlton.
But Knowlton has long kept a bag of Ore-Ida Tots on hand for late-night snacks or treats for his daughters. “They’re great baked, even better fried,” he says, adding, “And while they'll always be second to french fries, chefs are starting to show them some respect on menus.”
Some restaurants serve them traditional style, while others take them up a notch with "Totchos," Tot casseroles, he says.
Haute Dish in Minneapolis also has an “upscale version served with short ribs,” he adds.
A handful of local cultural institutions are among 105 finalists from across the country for creative placemaking grants from ArtPlace America.
The list includes Bedlam Theatre, Minnesota Public Radio and the Blue Ox in St. Paul, along with the Hennepin Theatre Trust in Minneapolis.
“The selected applicants represent the best of the 1,225 letters of inquiry from across the country,” ArtPlace’s website reads. “Finalists were chosen for their potential to transform communities through placing art and culture at the heart of portfolios of integrated strategies that drive vibrancy and diversity.”
Grant recipients will be announced in May, according to the website.
Open Table, the restaurant reservation website, recently put together a list of its top 100 picks for dining out across the country.
The Capital Grille in downtown Minneapolis and Restaurant Alma in the city’s Marcy-Holmes neighborhood both made the list, beating out thousands of other restaurants.
“Out of more than 5 million restaurant reviews submitted by OpenTable diners for more than 15,000 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, these outstanding restaurants are the top 100 'Best Overall' restaurants in the nation for 2012,” an Open Table posting reads.
A recent feature in The New York Times centers on the Minnesota Opera’s premiere of “Doubt,” which opens January 26 and runs through Feb. 3.
According to the article, playwright John Patrick Shanley was initially skeptical of the idea of rewriting the show, which had been a play and an award-winning movie, into an opera libretto.
But it turned out to be a rewarding experience, Shanley says. “There’s a lot of feelings that could not be expressed in the play because of its austerity,” he says, adding, “But opera, even when it is austere, is as rich as chocolate cake. So that allowed me to go back and express a lot of things that I could not before and still tell the story"--a story which centers on the nature of the relationship between a Catholic proest and a young African-American boy.
Preparing for production, the Minnesota Opera hosted a number of workshops for composer Douglas J. Cuomo, Shanley, and stage director Kevin Newbury, the story states.
Newbury says of the resulting show, “It isn’t just about doubt, it’s doubt brought to life onstage. And it’s a particularly American play with all the questions about class and race and religion rolled up into one.”
Several Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods made ArtPlace America’s list for 2013 of the country’s top art destinations.
Every year, ArtPlace, a consortium of national arts groups, puts together a report that pinpoints the top “art places” in 33 of the country’s largest metro areas.
Art places are those that have a “backbone of creative culture,” the ArtPlace website reads. Small local businesses and shops define these areas, which are often walkable. These are “neighborhoods where the arts are central to creating the kinds of places where people want to be.”
ArtPlace uses indicators such as the percentage of independent and arts-related businesses and organizations, walkability, and the number of people in creative professions.
In Minneapolis, Downtown West and Loring Park are on the list, while across the Mississippi River the Lowertown neighborhood is included.
Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis recently got props from Food and Wine magazine as one of the best pizza joints in the country.
On its website, Food and Wine quotes TV star and chef Andrew Zimmern, who says,
“Yes, it’s true, Minnesota has the best pizza in America,” adding, “Better than New York City and Chicago put together.”
Although the piece acknowledges that Zimmern, a Minnesotan, could be biased, “his favorite order makes a case for thinking outside those major pizzaiola hubs: The Sunnyside is topped with guanciale and leeks that have been caramelized in the cured pork fat and finished with a hint of cream. A sprinkle of Pecorino Romano cheese and two fresh sunny-side up eggs complete the recipe,” it reads.
A recent story from the Minnesota Daily highlights a Minneapolis-specific annual variety show called, “I AM MPLS,” including its future plans.
Sarah Edwards, a marketing director at the Pixel Farm creative agency, initiated the show several years ago as way to “bring together all of the different types of talent the Twin Cities offers, from rockabilly to the sophistication of the MIA,” it reads.
“It’s hard to explain what people should expect,” Edwards is quoted saying, adding, “It’s not a fashion show, and it’s not a comedy show and it’s not a music show; it’s all of those things together telling a story.”
She hopes this collaboration will happen more frequently and become “more of a hub for innovators and artistic enthusiasts to have easier access to one another,” it reads.
Already, the ”revolution-esque intent of the collaboration has the foundation to become more than just a Minneapolis project, insofar as creatives from Denver will be flying in for the production.”
A new group called Public Interest Design has released its first “Public Interest Design 100,” an infographic list of national design leaders--trained designers and others--who deal with public policy issues. And it includes a couple of local notables in the field.
Eric Muschler, a program officer at the locally based McKnight Foundation, has made big strides in affordable housing, while Thomas Fischer, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Design, is “one of the foremost writers and thinkers in architecture and design,” it states.
On its web site Public Interest Design describes the attention the list has already garnered: “We watched our inbox explode; literally hundreds of people have alternately described it as a “milestone” for the movement or a 'resource' or 'reference' for those in the field and working to support it,” the piece states. “But we are most heartened to have had the opportunity to recognize so many amazing people (in the U.S. alone, as a global edition will follow), doing such important work in the world.”
Travel + Leisure magazine recently polled readers about their favorite cities across the country.
People ranked 35 cities according to food, people, nightlife, and more.
Survey results show that Minneapolis and St. Paul have the best ratings in public parks and outdoor access, summer, cleanliness, intelligence, and home décor and design stores.
However,the Cities are among the worst for winter, spring break, and New Year’s Eve, the article states.
Two Minneapolis authors recently won National Book Awards, a prestigious designation that highlights the rich literary culture in the state.
Louise Erdrich won for her novel "The Round House" and William Alexander won for his debut young adult novel, "Goblin Secrets." As noted in The New York Times, Erdrich's book centers around a teenage boy's effort to investigate an attack on his mother on a North Dakota reservation.
Speaking to the newspaper, Erdrich said the novel is about a huge case of injustice, and focuses on the violence that can happen on reservations. The Times adds that in her acceptance speech, the author noted: “If this prize means anything, it is that small stories in so-called hidden places matter because they implicate and complicate what we consider to be the larger story, which is the story of people who do have political and economic powers.”
In a Minnesota 2020 blog post titled “A tale of two bike cities,” guest blogger Amber Collett compares biking in Minneapolis to Portland, Ore., where she recently relocated.
She touches on how both cities have made a name for themselves with more and more bike infrastructure and a growing cycle culture.
Bike boulevards differ from place to place, with Minneapolis having roomier lanes, she says.
Portland has more of them, plus protective boxes at traffic signals that keep bicyclists from breathing in exhaust.
She turns to Steve Clark at Bike Walk Twin Cities to find out more about how the two cities compare bike-wise. He’s quoted saying, “Minneapolis has been trying to catch up to Portland in terms of on-street facilities where certainly Portland has led the way with some of the nation’s first and finest bike boulevards and miles upon miles of bike lanes.”
That being said, visitors from Portland “quickly become very envious of our off-street trails--particularly the Midtown Greenway which is basically a freeway for bicyclists and provides separate space for walkers and joggers too.”
A recent Star Tribune story highlights art as a successful development tool in a number of St. Paul building projects.
While in the past, artists may have been viewed as “a mysterious and crazy bunch,” today they’re sought out by the city to help make development plans, the story states.
They’re seen as “innovators who can fill hard-to-adapt historic structures like the long-vacant Schmidt Brewery and turn them into vital and lively corners of the city once again,” the story reads.
Renovation plans for the Schmidt Brewery, for example, include studio, gallery, and performance space. The place is also a part of a developing Midway arts district.
Mayor Chris Coleman says in the story, “I look at every thriving city in the country and there's a thriving arts community within it,” adding, “It helps shape investment decisions. Things are enhanced.”
Travel + Leisure magazine named 13 U.S. neighborhoods as top examples of ethnic food destinations, and St. Paul's Frogtown got a nod for its Hmong specialties.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to 30,000 Hmong, the largest community outside of Southeast Asia, and their restaurants are clustered along University Avenue, the article says.
Also in the area is the Hmong Cultural Center, as well as a farmers market where Hmong and other Southeast Asian immigrants shop and eat, Travel + Leisure noted.
The article adds that other top neighborhoods include ones in Houston and D.C., cities that are home to large numbers of Indians and Ethiopians, respectively.
"[An] open mind and sense of adventure helps when exploring these communities, which can be a little gritty and less accessible than touristy Little Italys," the article's writer notes.
Grand View Lodge is among the top resorts in the Midwest, according to a recent round of Readers' Choice Awards from Condé Nast Traveler.
Located in the Brainerd Lakes area, the resort came in at No. 4, and was the only Minnesota resort on the list. Topping the list was the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, which beat out Grand View Lodge by only about two percentage points.
The lodge, opened in 1916, sits on Gull Lake and features cottages, cabins, and a spacious main lodge, all with a log-cabin, Northwoods feel. The lodge also features a spa, championship golf course, and several restaurants.
A recent piece in the Harvard Business Review examines the local business community's stand this month against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
Business leaders made the case that this piece of legislation would negatively affect everything from employee retention to workforce diversity, the article states.
Fifty current and former CEOs took out a full-page ad in the Star Tribune a week before the election this month, voicing their opposition.
“Business executives know a winning brand proposition when they see one. Which is why they stepped into the political arena this year to defend the community values that have helped make Minnesota one of the most economically vital and livable states in America,” it reads.
St. Paul resident Nicholas David has been named one of the top 12 contestants on NBC's reality TV show The Voice.
It’s quite a feat because “Getting onto The Voice means you have to rely solely on (wait for it...) your voice while a team of celeb judges decides whether or not they'll turn their chair around and offer you a spot on their team,” a City Pages story reads.
His recent performance on the show of Barry White's “You're the First, the Last, My Only” is described as "raspy, passionate, and unique."
David doesn’t fit the “usual pop-star mold,” the story goes on to say. “When most of the other singers on the show merely gush about how crazy and amazing it feels to be on The Voice's stage David talks about inspiration, his 'gal' and his kids,” it states.
Livability.com, which profiles the best places across the country to live and visit, has an entry about Minneapolis.
The site characterizes Minneapolis as “a center for business, arts and professional sports,” with Fortune 500 companies, a strong theater scene, and the Twins, Timberwolves, and Vikings. Forbes has also named it as one of the safest cities nationwide, it adds.
The city’s workforce and parks are also highlighted on the website, while local landmarks are featured in the photo gallery.
“With so much to offer, Minneapolis has received numerous accolades,” the entry reads.
St. Paul is a finalist for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, rising above a pool of over 300 entries.
The competition is about inspiring “American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life,” a prepared statement from the city reads.
The city's entry was an idea to make the city’s permit review and license process accessible online.
“Permit St. Paul,” as it’s called, aims to improve customer service and results and make government more transparent, while also keeping costs down, the statement reads.
The city is up against 19 others across the country for the $5 million grand prize and $1 million runner-up awards.
Forbes Wednesday, October 31, 2012
On its inaugural list of America's Best Hipster Neighborhoods, financial magazine Forbes chose Minneapolis' North Loop as one of its picks.
To define "hipster," the publication searched through data on more than 250 neighborhoods in the largest U.S. cities, and looked for factors like the number of coffee shops per capita, the diversity of food trucks and farmers markets, walkability, the percentage of residents who work in artistic occupations, and the number of bars and restaurants.
The North Loop, also known as the Warehouse District, was recognized as "hipster" for its large warehouse spaces that have been converted to apartments, boutiques, and restaurants. Forbes also added: "Bike trails, a park and an arts collective also boost the hipness quotient." The North Loop came in 12th out of 20 neighborhoods.
At the top of the Forbes list was Los Angeles' Silver Lake, San Francisco's Mission District, and Brooklyn's Williamsburg.
Outside Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Recently, Outside magazine featured Minneapolis as a top biking city.
“Cold winters can’t cramp the style of Minneapolis cyclists. Quite the opposite, in fact. This tight-knit community of bicyclists is the envy of many in the North American cycling crowd,” it states.
The article cites places like One on One Bicycle Studio as gathering places for cyclists, along with Open Streets outdoor events that shut down certain intersections, celebrating the car-free lifestyle. The piece also calls attention to other bike-themed events, including brewery tours, bike messenger races, and more.
Dedicated bike lanes and trails throughout the city, along with a bike-sharing program, contribute to making the city ideal for cycling, says Outside.
The Zillow Blog recently named Minneapolis as one of 20 top cities around the country for trick-or-treating.
Zillow’s survey determined where one can “get the best Halloween loot,” the article states.
Minneapolis came in 11th place, while San Francisco topped the list.
The rankings are based on median home value, walk score, population density, and crime--in short, where to get the most candy with the least amount of walking and safety risk.
Within Minneapolis, the neighborhoods of Fulton, Lynnhurst, Linden Hills, Tangletown, and Cedar-Isles-Dean provide the best experience, according to the survey.
In an op-ed article, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman recently attempted to create a food labeling system that would benefit consumers rather than food companies.
In developing the system, which he proposes to replace current nutrition labels on packaged foods, Bittman turned to St. Paul-based design firm Werner Design Werks. The firm helped him create a label that "can tell a story about the three key elements of any packaged food and can provide an overall traffic-light-style recommendation or warning."
Werner Design Werks' clear and straightforward label would be a large improvement over existing labeling, Bittman believes. He notes that such a shift would help to counter obesity, a problem that "all but the most cynical agree is closely related to consumption of junk food."
Several local breweries fared well at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal states that the festival is “considered one of the most prestigious worldwide competitions for brewers.”
St. Paul’s Summit Brewing Co. received a silver medal in the Bohemian-Style Pilsener category for its Summit Pilsener, the Journal reports.
Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth, which is planning a Minneapolis location, achieved a bronze medal in the American-Style Sour Ale category, with its Fitger’s Framboise, and the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery got a bronze medal in the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition, according to the Journal.
Active.com includes Minneapolis and St. Paul as number eight in its list of the top 10 running places across the country.
“Aside from ample places to train and races to run, spirited running communities add color and support the local traditions that make certain cities ideal for runners,” the website reads.
The website cites events and infrastructure such as the Twin Cities Marathon, “called the most beautiful urban marathon in the U.S.,” a 50-mile city trail system, and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, and its home to the elite distance running-focused Team USA, coached by Dennis Barker.
New York City was named as the top running destination.
The local foodie website Heavy Table recently started a taproom directory for Minneapolis and St. Paul, which it plans to update regularly.
Ever since the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill in 2011 that “allows for brewers to operate an on-sale establishment on their brewing premises,” new brewing ventures have emerged all over the place, many of which include taprooms.
Dangerous Man Brewing, Indeed Brewing and 612Brew even make up a Northeast “Brew District,” the directory states.
It also includes listings for taprooms to come.
A short video on the TC Daily Planet website titled “Art Saves Lives,” from DJM film company with the help of Art Institutes International Minnesota and the Waite House, documents the making of a local youth-driven mural project.
The mini-documentary shows how a blank wall was transformed, going from the beginning of the project to the mural’s unveiling. The video also includes interviews with young artists and the project’s facilitators. They talk about how the mural beautifies the neighborhood, provides valuable personal and professional training for youth, and builds trust between teenagers and adults.
Monica Nassif Loves Minneapolis is the headline of a recent Huffington Post piece.
In a letter format, Nassif, the founder of the Caldrea company, which manufactures cleaning products and sleepwear, tells of her love affair with the city.
When she and her husband were stranded on a cold winter day years ago, she was impressed by the level of recreational activity happening around Lake of the Isles.
“We were star-struck--standing in front of the most charming lake I had ever seen--in the middle of our new city,” she says, adding that it’s a feeling that continues today.
“How can you not love a city--a major metropolitan city--with so much green space and water?” she asks.
St. Paul parks designer Don Ganje recently joined the Council of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects, according to Minnpost.
ASLA describes this induction as "among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and recognizes the contributions of these individuals to their profession and society at large based on their works, leadership and management, knowledge, and service."
ASLA goes on to say that with Ganje’s “eye for the smallest site detail and mastery of vast public open spaces, he has the ability to make places where people feel welcome and that comfort, excite, and encourage them to interact,” adding, “He further infuses his colleagues with a passion for the highest levels of design excellence.”
Businessweek released a list of "America's 50 Best Cities," and St. Paul and Minneapolis came in at no. 10 and no. 12 respectively.
"St. Paul may be the smaller of the Twin Cities, but the state capital is also cleaner and safer, if slightly behind Minneapolis in median household income," the business publication notes.
Minneapolis, meanwhile, is recognized for its parks and lakes, as well as the University of Minnesota's numerous national championships in ice hockey. The article states, "Downtown Minneapolis beats the cold with a unique network of connected buildings, with the City Center mall at its core."
As for the best cities in the rest of the country, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. took the top three spots.
To get the results, Businessweek teamed up with Bloomberg Rankings to evaluate data on 100 of the country's largest cities, and looked at leisure attributes, educational attributes, economic factors, crime, and air quality.
Recently, Artforum, a national art magazine, included a review of a local art show from Andy DuCett at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis.
The story’s writer, Jay Gabler, is also from the area.
Gabler compares the installation, called, “Why we do this” to a film.
“DuCett has created dozens of distinct spaces and assembled them in an eccentric progression that draws the viewer through the gallery with the promise of a surprise around every corner. His themes are memory and life history—specifically, the memories and history of the thirtysomething Minnesotan man he is,” the piece reads.
A recent story from the TC Daily Planet tells of a St. Paul resident’s home-crafted K'nex toy, dubbed Clockwork, which “has become a fast internet phenomenon since he released the video of it earlier this month.”
The toy has more than 40,000 pieces of K'nex--a creative construction material--plus eight motors, five lifts, a computer controlled crane and a couple of K'nex balls, according to the story.
It has attracted over a million hits on YouTube and landed on Reddit’s front page.
Its creator, Austin Granger, is quoted in the story, saying, “Every time I make one, I try to go bigger and more complex, and more ambitious than the one that came before it.”
Publishers Weekly recently reported on the Sept. 8 debut of a local literary journal called Revolver.
The new journal publishes a mix of prose, poetry, visual art, photography, and play excerpts, PW states.
Online content will be refreshed every couple of weeks, while a print edition will come out twice a year.
Revolver’s seven founding editors are part of a writing group that began meeting two years ago.
Esther Porter, a founding editor, explains that the journal came out of their monthly conversations: “We’d go out and close down bars fighting over stories, literature of all kinds. We wanted to have something to show for it.”
Reflecting the group's energy, the journal publishes pieces “that hit the brain like a bullet,” she says.
Local arts journalist Matt Peiken’s new project, MNuet, is featured in a recent blog post from Knight Arts.
Peiken intends MNuet, which launched on Sept. 4, to be an online hub for statewide classical music coverage.
He wants to create a community around classical music. Furthermore, members of MNuet will help support that.
"No media organization around here has a staff writer dedicated to covering the classical music beat any more,: says Peiken. "The coverage is all farmed out to freelancers."
While major media outlets broadcast occasional concerts, nobody's reporting on the scene, he says, adding, "You can learn about what the major players are doing, but you don’t get context, and you certainly don’t hear much from individual artists.”
For seven days, Minneapolis-based musician Mark Mallman will be perfoming one continuous song, in the back of a van, and streaming it online. The project, called Marathon IV, is so unique that USA Today recently featured it in its Popcandy section.
Kicked off on Saturday, September 15th, the 150-hour music performance features distinctive sounds from instruments like a keytar, as well as a heart-rate monitor that creates music while Mallman is sleeping.
During the project's span, the musician will be traveling as well, with stops in Chicago, Omaha, Denver, and Las Vegas. At his final destination, Los Angeles, guest musicians will join him.
The Salty Tart in Minneapolis recently made a list of the top 10 bakeries around the globe from Departures magazine.
“Though it is a risky move to arrive in a new city and set up shop immediately, it paid off for pastry chef Michelle Gayer,” the story reads.
After working on Los Angeles and Chicago, the baker opened the Salty Tart in 2008 in the Midtown Global Market.
With everything from coconut macaroons to pastry cream-filled brioche to various kinds of seasonal tarts, “The bakery was an instant hit,” the article states.
The Minneapolis-based Game Informer magazine is the country’s third-highest-circulation periodical, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports.
While so many other print publications have reported declining sales in recent years, “Game Informer's circulation grew more than any U.S. publication in the past year,” surpassing Better Homes and Gardens in growth, and trailing only two AARP publications in total circulation, according to the Business Journal, which cites Bloomberg Businessweek data.
In terms of circulation growth, he second-place national magazine is Family Circle.
Part of the magazine’s success has to do with its connection to the Texas-based GameStop company, the article states.
In a recent piece, Midwest Living features Minneapolis as an ideal destination town for a two-day getaway.
“No matter what your mood, Minneapolis offers something to suit: beautiful lakes nestled among hip art communities, tree-lined trails behind modern museums, vibrant nightlife blocks from high-class cultural attractions,” the story reads.
For starters, the extensive art collections housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts make the museum worth a trip. “The Department of Contemporary Art shows works by living artists, and the institute’s collection of paintings spans more than five centuries,” it states.
Also, Nicollet Mall’s pedestrian-level shops, restaurants, and farmers market, and scenic Lake Calhoun are just some of the city’s many attractions, the article adds.
PedalMn.com has a short video that shows off the state’s extensive bike trails.
It goes through a number of bike paths both in urban areas and in greater Minnesota. In Minneapolis, bicyclists are followed as they careen past the scenic Chain of Lakes, the St. Anthony Main historic area, and Nicollet Mall.
Bike-friendly infrastructure, such as bike racks on buses, helps flesh out some of the reasons why the state has gotten so many props lately in this area.
The video will “will remind you why you love to get out and pedal in Minnesota,” the website states.
Business publication Fast Company recently featured an article about how cities can foster a thriving creative class, and highlighted local nonprofit real estate developer Artspace as an ideal example.
The organization's flagship project, the Northern Warehouse in the Lowertown district of St. Paul, has been housing artists for more than 20 years, in a neighborhood that's undergone vast transformation.
This is significant, the article's writer believes: "Today, as widespread civic enthusiasm for 'creative' projects has begun to spawn skepticism, the Northern Warehouse may be one of the clearest case studies of the role of artists in rejuvenating decayed neighborhoods--and sticking around afterward."
Artspace doesn't prove that artists can power the economy of whole cities, the article notes, but it does seem to be providing an effective model for other urban centers that want to maintain a stable, thriving artistic culture.
Minneapolis and St. Paul made Sherman's Travel’s recent list of the country’s top 10 places for bicycling.
“The Twin Cities emergence as a bike-friendly superstar coincided with a general plan to make the area more livable,” the story states.
The story points to the Nice Ride bike-sharing program, and to bike-themed events that happen frequently here.
Just last year, the city of Minneapolis added 37 miles of bikeways, installed hundreds of bike-specific street signs, and created a citywide bike map for the first time, the story states.
Bill Dossett, who heads Nice Ride, is quoted saying, “All of these things are happening at the same time that we’ve made this great investment in the last five years,” adding, “You bring all of that together and I think our future is very bright.”
The Anchor Fish & Chips restaurant in Minneapolis is featured in a Yahoo! Travel piece about the best seafood spots in the country.
“Crisp Alaskan cod and hand-cut fries steal the show at this traditional Irish chipper,” the piece reads. “Request a side of tangy curry sauce to layer on your fries and you're sure to tantalize your taste buds.”
The Anchor’s seafood isn’t the only thing drawing people to the small hole-in-the-wall pub, the piece points out. It also has a solid beer selection, well-executed Shepherd’s Pie, and a trendy ambience.
For those on the go, the restaurant’s food truck is a good option, adds Yahoo!
The Bachelor Farmer restaurant in Minneapolis was recently featured in the New York Times.
The modern, chic restaurant “playfully blends Scandinavian design and tradition with a handmade-food ethos and the friendly unpretentiousness of the Midwest,” the story reads.
With its unique offerings, such as roasted rutabagas and reinterpreted cinnamon rolls, the place “has given Scandinavian food a much-needed shot of adrenaline.”
Although the state hasn’t always garnered a lot of attention for its food ideas, “this Scandinavian surge is intersecting with the most avant-garde movement in food today: New Nordic cuisine,” it states.
Eric Dayton, who co-owns the restaurant, told the newspaper that the restaurant fell into the trend. “Our goal was something that was authentic to Minnesota, not necessarily authentic to Scandinavia.”
In a recent piece from Fox News, Minneapolis is recognized as a top “revival city.”
Fox explored a handful of cities that might seem under the radar or “once balanced on the economic precipice only to sustain as a stronghold for independent artists, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and corporate backers"--and looked at "how they're being transformed into unique vacation destinations,” the story states.
Minneapolis leads the nation in bicycling; it has award-winning restaurants and music venues and striking hotels, and plenty of art, the story states.
It mentions a laundry list of area destinations, including a 44-mile network of bike paths, the hard-to-get-into Marvel Bar, Eat Street Social, the Art Deco-style W Minneapolis, ArtCrank bike-inspired art and more.
State fairs aren't exactly known for their healthy food and beverages, and the Minnesota State Fair is no exception. With its cheese curds, garlic fries, and bacon-on-a-stick, the yearly event is a much-loved indulgence for thousands of visitors.
For Traveler magazine, the standout treat for this year is deep-fried cookie dough. In an article on state fairs around the country, the writer notes: "At the Minnesota State Fair, the scent of freshly baked cookies is not what it seems. These chocolate chip treats skip the oven--instead, they're coated with a sweet batter, deep-friend, and sprinkled with powdered sugar."
Other dishes showcased from state fairs include fried watermelon at the Arizona State Fair and chicken-fried bacon at the State Fair of Texas.
The Walker Art Center is renowned for its curation of compelling artworks, cutting-edge contemporary performance, and thought-provoking films. But it's generating a great deal of buzz lately for a particularly quirky offering that's distinctive in the art world: an Internet Cat Video Film Festival.
As noted in ABC News, the "festival" is really just an hour-long event, held at the center's Open Field space on August 30th.
Since organizers are still reviewing submissions, a solid lineup hasn't been announced, but ABC posited that some viral favorites could be included, such as Surprised Kitty, which had more than 64 million views on YouTube as of late July.
News stories about the festival abound, appearing in the Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, BBC News, and Gawker.
The Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis has been re-imagined as a “hotel for locavores,” according to a recent New York Times story.
Part of the hotel’s recent $25 million renovation used area manufacturers, artisans, and artists. Its new décor “pays tribute to the city’s heritage and industry,” it states.
While the hotel is internationally known, architect Mike Suomi of Stonehill & Taylor says in the story, “We also wanted to craft a narrative that is specific to the location.”
Design touches reference timber and woolen mills while an oversized map of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers is tied together with Post-Its, which the city is also known for.
Bon Appetit magazine recently pulled together a list of the top five soda fountains around the country.
“A band of bartender converts are stepping up to the seltzer tap, returning us to the era of phosphates and egg creams,” the story states. Eat Street Social in Minneapolis made the list.
“Sodas go toe-to-toe with craft cocktails at this lively bar,” it reads, adding that the Raspberry Rickey is a must-order.
The Twin Cities is full of incredible finds, from avant-garde desserts to haute tater tots, according to Food & Wine magazine.
In its August issue, the publication features the insights of writer Kate Krader, who visited Minneapolis on a restaurant research trip.
"I lost my heart to Minneapolis and its awesome restaurants, bars and bakeries," she writes. "Plus, it's hard not to adore a city where such good restaurants are so inexpensive, at least when you're used to New York City prices."
Krader provided short write-ups on a number of local restaurants, including Travail Kitchen & Amusements, Victory 44, The Bachelor Farmer, Haute Dish, and Tilia.
The Twin Cities are home to 18 companies in the Fortune 500, so it's little wonder that such a lengthy list of ad agencies have set up shop here, according to industry must-read magazine Advertising Age. As a bonus, Minneapolis is a "smart and artsy town," the article states.
Another unique aspect of our local ad agency scene is the breadth of new agencies and their ability to thrive, Ad Age notes. As an example, the article points to Olson, which has 330 employees in the Minneapolis office, and counts Target, Bauer Hockey, and Northwestern Mutual among its clients.
The article goes on to list other benefits to living and working here, including our fast-growing craft-beer scene, startup culture, and progressive diversity programs.
The Pioneer Press reports that a local fashion designer will appear on the next season of Lifetime’s popular reality TV show, “Project Runway.”
The 27-year-old Raul Osorio describes himself as self-taught, according to the story. He’s “known for his attention to tailoring and striking a balance between feminine and masculine designs,” the story states, adding that his combination of hats, rolled-up pants and ankle boots make him a striking sight at fashion events all over town.
Four other Minnesotans have made it onto the TV show. The show’s 10th season starts on July 19.
Lifestyle magazine Whole Living recently showcased Minneapolis as a top destination spot, in a July/August feature titled "10 reasons to love Minneapolis."
The article singled out Red Stag Supperclub and Spoonriver as must-visit eateries, with a nod toward Peace Coffee for its Fair Trade focus and cold press blend.
For activities, the magazine recommended hiking through Minnehaha Park, renting a kayak on Lake Calhoun, and visiting the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near the Walker Art Center.
Paper Hat, Design Collective, and Moss Envy were singled out as top shopping locations, and rounding out the list was the Radisson Plaza as an eco-friendly place to stay.
A story in The Atlantic titled, “The Right to Experience Art,” discusses the “community supported art” program from St. Paul’s Springboard for the Arts.
Through the program, people can buy “shares” in local art, the same way they would buy food from local farmers through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
The story highlights comments from Laura Zabel, who leads Springboard.
Zabel is quoted as saying, "The art is wonderful and it's always beautiful, but the purpose of the program is to build tight relationships between artists and the community," adding, "We found this incredible audience for this project of people who care about their local economy and community but aren't necessarily from the art community."
In a recent story, Slate.com profiled a Texas library that occupies a building that had once been a Wal-Mart.
The Minneapolis-based architecture firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., “breathed fresh life into the warehouse, about as big as two-and-a-half football fields, late last year, when they repurposed it as the country’s largest single-story public library,” it reads.
Interesting signage, reading nooks, and special spaces, such as a quiet room, several computer labs, and a bookstore and café, have redefined the place.
So much so that the McAllen Public Library won The International Interior Design Association’s 2012 Library Interior Design Awards, the story states.
The Wall Street Journal highlights a standout Minneapolis home that was locally designed. It belongs to Kaywin Feldman, who leads the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and her husband, Jim Lutz.
The house originated as a part of the prefabricated “weeHouse” series designed by area architects Geoffrey Warner and Scott Ervin of Alchemy Architects, the story states.
The modern house has a boxy exterior and glass walls, while the couple’s art collection, midcentury furnishings, and library fill the space, the story reads.
About the white walls, which provide a neutral backdrop, Feldman says, "It's my world," adding, "Our museum is all white walls."
Reclaimed wood and renewable bamboo floors characterize the place, which has a treehouse feel.
Besides being an attractive retreat, the home is energy-efficient and doesn't require too much in the way of upkeep, according to the story.
According to a Scarborough Research report, Minneapolis is among the top microbrew-drinking cities in the country.
About seven percent of adults had a microbrew within the past 30 days, putting it at 10th in the nation, tied with five other cities, including San Diego, Tucson, Austin, and Hartford.
At the top of the list were Denver and Portland, which reported that 13 percent of their adult population had sampled a microbrew within the past month.
The report notes: "Microbrews, or craft beers, are a terrific example of how localism has become trendy." Brands would do well to capitalize on the consumer loyalty that comes with rooting for the home team, or visiting neighborhood hot spots, the research firm suggests.
The Washington Post recently featured the Minneapolis restaurant the Bachelor Farmer, in its lifestyle section.
Writer Tom Sietsema describes the Nordic-themed restaurant as “homespun and stylish.”
“Cheery blue-and-white awnings welcome diners to the sprawling corner property,” along with an underground cocktail lounge that’s known as the Marvel Bar, the story states.
“Asked to define Minnesota cooking, Eric Dayton says it revolves around the simple use of a few ingredients, preferably local. “There’s a humility to the cooking” in his state, he says. The description sums up my meal in his restaurant, where nothing shouted “Look at me!” but everything reveled in good taste, right through dessert.”
KSTP Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The internationally touring 48 Hour Film Project, which gives filmmakers a deadline of two full days to put together a movie, included Minneapolis in its 125-city tour this year, KSTP reports.
As a part of the project, filmmakers had to complete everything from the writing to the editing of a movie within 48 hours, the story states.
Teams also had to work with certain genres and props and some scripted dialogue.
Standout work will be screened at the 48 Hour Film Project Filmapalooza in 2013.
CNN Wednesday, June 20, 2012
More and more airports are sympathetic to those facing long layovers, and they're adding unique amenities to keep travelers entertained, a recent CNN story notes.
The article highlights an interactive touch-screen concept at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport: Digiboo kiosks, where travelers can download digital versions of more than 500 movies to watch on their laptops or table computers.
The movies can be rented or purchased, and since they're digital, there's nothing to return, according to CNN.
Other airports highlighted in the story include Schiphol in Amsterdam, Hong Kong International Airport, Zurich Airport, and Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport.
Recently, Kevin VanDeraa, who owns Cupcake, a Minneapolis bakery, won the Food Network’s TV show competition, “Cupcake Champions," according to a Twin Cities Business Magazine story.
As such, he took home the $50,000 grand prize.
It was his desserts inspired by the "Yo Gabba Gabba!" children’s TV show that earned the top spot.
Minneapolis's La Belle Vie recently was named one of the top 25 bars in America by Men's Fitness Magazine.
La Bellie Vie is one of the Twin Cities' most award-winning restaurants, the story states.
Its executive chef, Tim McKee, is a 2009 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef Midwest.
"Fittingly you can expect this posh eatery, outfitted with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers, boasts a meticulously chosen wine list, but don’t let an evening go by without sampling a drink from their French-influenced cocktail menu," the story reads.
The Parlez-Vous made with raspberry vodka, pineapple juice, cava, and topped with orange-passion fruit foam is a must-get, it says.
A recent Star Tribune story highlights University Grove, which it calls the state's "own mid-century architecture laboratory."
The New York Times has dubbed it "an architectural time capsule of modern America."
University Grove is a part of a new history crawl of sorts next month.
"University Grove, tucked into a corner next to the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus, was sort of an early version of a planned community," the Star Tribune story states.
More recently, there's been rising interest in building from this time period.
The Twin Cities is already well known for its bike-friendly environment, and this week and weekend we're showing off that reputation.
As highlighted in Downtown Journal, the metro is hosting Bike Walk Week June 2 - 10, an annual cavalcade of events and activities promoting walking and bicycling. The week drew nearly 10,000 residents last year, and promoters expect a similar or better turnout this year.
One highly anticipated event is the Midtown Greenway Coalition's Greenway Glow, scheduled to start at 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 9th. The Greenway Glow features local food and beer, and a tour of Northern Spark art installations.
Local sushi lovers, rejoice: one of the country's top new sushi restaurants is in Northeast Minneapolis.
Masu Sushi and Robata was recognized by gourmet magazine Bon Appetit, in its debut of the BA Top 10, a monthly roundup of the best new restaurants and bars nationwide.
The magazine highlighted the restaurant's silky scallop sashimi, as well as a Firecracker roll that's packed with shrimp tempura, snow crab, cucumber, avocado, and spicy tuna. Also notable is the "tasty bowl of ramen" on the menu.
Other new sushi spots on the list included restaurants in Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York.
KSTP Wednesday, May 23, 2012
KSTP reports in a recent story that the state’s music scene is “experiencing a groundswell of national attention.”
The hip-hop collective Doomtree, which just got back from a national and European tour, is getting quite a bit of traction, the story states. (See this week's interview with Doomtree member Dessa
here.)
Kevin Beacham, who is a marketing specialist at Fifth Element and Rhymesayers Entertainment, states in the story that Doomtree was a favorite at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, this time around.
"Last year their presence was strong, but this year they were everywhere. People from all over the world were packing these Doomtree shows to see Doomtree,” he says in the story.
The Pioneer Press reports that the food truck scene in the Twin Cities “shows no sign of petering out.”
It cites the Orange County Register, which used information from the Roaming Hunger website to assert that the fastest-growing food truck cities are Philadelphia, Raleigh, N.C., and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
At this time, 2,300 gourmet food trucks and carts can be found across the country, it states.
Ross Resnick, who is behind Roaming Hunger, is quoted, saying, "We're adding over 150 trucks to the site every month.”
PBS’ Antiques Roadshow filmed three hour-long episodes in Minneapolis last July, which premiered on tpt this week.
Minnpost highlights some of the results of the show’s local visit, which will continue to air over the next two weeks.
“The show visits the American Swedish Institute to look at Mora clocks, the Wabasha Street Caves to talk about flashlights, and the World War II hangar of the Commemorative Air Force—Minnesota Wing, whose holdings include (who knew?) wartime Disney cartoons and memorabilia," it states.
One local woman finds out that her 1885 heirloom oil painting by Russian artist Franz Roubaud is highly valuable, thanks to the current Russian art market.
The upcoming May 14 episode includes appearances from Minnesota Supreme Court justice and Pro Football Hall of Famer Alan Page, who collects black Americana objects.
The Walker Art Center magazine features a story about the “Art of Placemaking,” as it pertains to Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.
“Despite its status as a major, historic thoroughfare in Minneapolis--or maybe because of it--Hennepin Avenue has for decades been regarded as a problematic, contested public space,” it reads.
A project called Plan-It Hennepin aims to change that, by turning it into a “lively, compelling cultural corridor,” the story says.
The story touches on the Walker’s perspective on the process, in which it’s a participant: It quotes the Walker’s Olga Viso, who says, “Along with our partners in Plan-It Hennepin, we thought that the Walker could help lead a different conversation in terms of creativity and envisioning possibilities, by bringing artists’ voices into the process.”
This story dovetails with
The Line's feature this week on Candy Chang.
Even with a somewhat improved economy, belts are still tightened when it comes to vacations and extra expenses. Fortunately for the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas, we still have the ability to entertain visitors without risk of giving them sticker shock.
A recent study from Livability.com ranked the top 10 most affordable vacation cities in the country. The website took its database of 500 cities and narrowed them down based on factors like availability of discounts on local attractions and quantity of free activities.
The Minneapolis area was ranked second on the list, after Louisville, Kentucky. The editors noted: "Explore the City of Lakes and 180-plus area parks, where 81 miles of on-street and 85 miles of off-street trails showcase landscapes and historic neighborhoods."
Minneapolis-based Robina Foundation has given the Yale School of Drama its largest donation ever, in the form of an $18 million gift.
According to an article in Yale Daily News, the funds will go toward supporting the Yale Center for New Theatre, which was established in 2008 with a grant from Robina. The Center will be renamed the Binger Center for New Theatre, after Robina Foundation founder James Binger, a passionate advocate of theater.
The Robina Foundation is a private grantmaking organization that "seeks to positively impact critical social issues by encouraging innovation...and transformative projects," according to the foundation's mission statement.
Yahoo! Wednesday, April 18, 2012
A story from Yahoo! about “America’s Most Creative Food Trucks,” features the Twin Cities-based Chef Shack.
Yahoo surveyed the country’s “quirkiest cuisine” delivered on wheels.
It found that while the popular Chef Shack may seem to offer a random menu at first, with everything from bacon beer brats to beef tongue tacos, everything is sourced from local family farms and coops.
“Chef Shack operators Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson switch up the menu on a regular basis, tailoring it to the season's prime ingredients. This means that your taste buds are guaranteed a flavorful punch no matter which dish you order,” it states.
The Minnesota Book Awards have become popular and highly competitive honors, and more than 750 people attended the announcements about who won, according to a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Nine categories were included, and some of the winners were: Laura Purdie Salas, for her children's book "Bookspeak! Poems About Books"; Richard A. Thompson, for his novel "Big Wheat"; and Ed Bok Lee, for his poetry book "Whorled."
Allan Kornblum, founder of Minneapolis-based Coffee House Press, received an award for lifelong contributions to the state's literary community.
The award program is a project of the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, in consortium with the St. Paul Public Library and the city of St. Paul.
In a Bicycle Times story titled “The surprising rise of Minneapolis as a top bike town,” local writer Jay Walljasper describes the city’s affinity for bicycling.
Minneapolis' goal is to make biking an even bigger part of the transportation system, he states.
Mayor R.T. Rybak is quoted in the story, saying to a group of out-of-towners, “Biking has become a huge part of what we are,” adding, “It’s an economical way to get around town, and many times it’s the fastest. I frequently take a bike from city hall across downtown to meetings.”
Jeff Stephens, the executive director of the Columbus advocacy organization Consider Biking, also visited the city. “It was exciting to see what they’ve accomplished in Minneapolis, which is a city that seems a lot like Columbus.”
Livability.com recently put together a list of the top ten music cities in the country, excluding Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles. Minneapolis wound up in second place.
Athens, Georgia, topped the list.
First Avenue in Minneapolis’s Warehouse District is an important music venue, according to Livability.com.
“Most remember it from the Prince movie Purple Rain,” and the building’s decorative stars make up a who’s-who of artists who have played there, it states. The wall includes such big names as U2, B.B. King, Death Cab for Cutie, Wilco and many more, notes the article.
Also, the nearby Fine Line has drawn artists such as John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, The Black Keys, Lady Gaga, Ben Harper, and Buddy Guy over the past two decades.
The New York Times recently featured Minnesota's statewide “museum month,” which is coming up in May.
It’s the first celebration of the sort to spring up nationally, according to the newspaper.
Several local museum administrators came up with the idea, the story states.
“The rich history of Minnesota’s museums invites such a focus,” says the Times, citing the 1849 founding of the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.
The Walker Art Center’s chief of operations, Phillip Bahar, is quoted saying, “There are stories that we each try to tell individually, whenever a special exhibition is happening,” but “What we want to do is tell the stories that we don’t have the opportunity to tell very often, about the broader community of museums across the state.”
An episode of the Food Network TV show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” this week spotlights Pizzeria Lola, a popular pizza joint in Southwest Minneapolis.
Pizzeria Lola, which features wood-fired artisan pizzas, is known for a creative menu that includes everything from a Korean barbecue-style pizza to the “Sunnyside” pizza, which is topped with an egg.
The neighborhood eatery is a favorite of chef and TV/radio personality Andrew Zimmern, according to a summary on the show’s website.
Another part of the episode takes viewers to a destination diner in Georgetown, Texas, with actor Matthew McConaughey.
The Huffington Post includes the Twin Cities in its recent list of top 10 places for bicycling.
It recognized cities of over 100,000 residents that “feature an abundance of great rental shops, municipal bike racks, exciting trails, and dedicated bike lanes,” the story states.
“The Twin Cities' emergence as a bike-friendly superstar coincided with a general plan to make the area more livable,” according to the story.
In Minneapolis, the Nice Ride bike-sharing program has seen plenty of use, while bike-friendly events are abundant.
Last year the city “added 37 miles of bikeways, installed hundreds of bike-specific street signs, and created a citywide bike map," says HuffPo.
In a review of the film's release on DVD, Pop Matters points out that Minneapolis is one of the stars in “Stuck Between Stations,” which stars Josh Hartnett.
The couple upon whom the film centers “may or may not love each other, but they clearly love their city,” it says.
Minneapolis becomes a character in the movie, and its “signature characteristics are on display: its art, its architecture, even its bicycling culture,” while local bands are also featured.
The author also praises the film’s cinematography, which shows “visually stunning” views of the area.
Director of photography Bo Hakala, who lives in Minneapolis, demonstrates his “love for his home city and its visual appeal manifests itself gloriously on screen.”
First came the
James Beard Award nominees, and now comes Food & Wine magazine's competition for "Best New Chef." It's official: the Twin Cities are a gourmet paradise.
The magazine divided the country into 10 regions, and chose 10 restaurants from each. Four Minnesota chefs are on the list for the Midwest region.
The contenders are Sameh Wadi from Saffron Restaurant in Minneapolis, Landon Schoenfeld from HauteDish in Minneapolis, and Mike Brown and James Winberg, both from Travail Kitchen & Amusements in Robbinsdale.
Readers were asked to choose their favorites by voting on the magazine's website, and winners will be announced soon.
A recent USA Today story highlights the makeover of the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
As a part of a $25 million project that started in December 2011, the hotel charged its designers with creating a “sleek, new look with an eye towards all things “local”--including Red Wing Pottery,” the story states.
Michael Suomi, design chief for Stonehill & Taylor, which came up with the architectural and design plans, is quoted saying "We had a specific goal of bringing as much of the manufacturing and sourcing back to America to promote job growth, increase speed to market and celebrate American craft"--adding that this way, “we saved money!"
A local couple who were facing foreclosure got help from comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, according to a Star Tribune story.
DeGeneres presented them with a $25,000 check from Fujifilm Medical Systems on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which aired last Friday.
Carrie Agnew had written to the show about the dire situation she and her partner, Rebecca Johnson, were facing.
When the show offered to fly them in to watch a taping, Agnew had no idea that the visit would involve financial help.
"It's such a relief," Agnew says in the story, adding, "Our lives are changing."
The Walker Art Center blog features artist Aaron Draplin’s graphic map, called, “100 Things I Love About Minneapolis.”
The image shows a map of the state, which is filled in with words and illustrations that touch on everything from the iconic Grain Belt Brewery sign to the common phrase, “You betcha.”
It includes landmarks along with bits and pieces of pop culture. Among the destinations it pictures are the Ideal Diner in Northeast Minneapolis, Ax-Man Surplus store in St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis skyways.
Forget sun-drenched beaches and ocean views: for this spring break, college students might want to consider Minneapolis instead.
That's the view of one editor at the Kansas State Collegian, the newspaper for Kansas State University. She posits that students there may not be considering a road trip northward, but that they should.
Highlighted in the story are the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden, Hell's Kitchen, and the Mall of America.
"Minneapolis is a city with specific attractions for all sorts of people," she writes in the article. "The city takes pride in its ability to entertain a diverse group of out-of-state travelers."
The American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis recently announced its June 30 grand reopening with the addition of the Nelson Cultural Center.
The expansion and other campus enhancements will get a visit from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in October. During their Minnesota trip, the king and queen will also go to the Swedish-founded Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, which will be celebrating its 150th anniversary.
“The Nelson Cultural Center’s innovative design and handcrafted, Swedish-inspired detailing embrace Nordic values--including respect for nature and quality materials, as well as for the environment, through energy conservation and sustainable building practices,” the statement from the American Swedish Institute reads.
On KPCNews.com, which serves northeastern Indiana, writer Lou Ann Homan-Saylor describes her recent Twin Cities trip.
Her itinerary included catching Garrison Keillor’s live radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” at the Fitzgerald Theater, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, and in Minneapolis, Bryant Lake Bowl and the Mary Tyler Moore statue, among other things.
“A Prairie Home Companion” is a highlight: “The show lived up to all my expectations and I did not stop smiling for the entire two hours. Keillor received a standing ovation,” she writes.
On a quick tour of Minneapolis, she finds that “The city is breathtaking with arts facilities everywhere … home to this ballet, that musical company…The lights and sounds of a big city draw me in and certainly make me wonder how I can capture this energy to bring home to my own small town.”
The Knight Blog features a couple of its local grantees who were recently profiled by Minnesota Monthly.
Dana Nelson of GiveMN and Laura Zabel of Springboard for the Arts are Minnesotans who are “changing the way we think about the world--and its future," according to the magazine story.
Nelson is giving philanthropy a new twist while Zabel is empowering artists, it states.
Stonehenge recreated in miniature with Rice Krispies. A bearskin rug made from a single Gummi Bear. A treehouse built into a single stalk of broccoli.
These charming, diminutive creations are the work of Minneapolis-based artist Brock Davis, who captured the attention of LA Weekly recently. In a blog posting, the newspaper featured photos of Davis' work, along with an appreciation of his style.
"In some pieces, Davis elevates a humble product, often iconic out of ubiquity in its own right, by manipulating it to resemble an iconic image," the writer noted, pointing to a work that recreates a Pink Floyd album cover out of Dorito bags.
The blog states that in Davis' world, junk food can be medium, muse, and, perhaps even a message.
A recent posting from The Atlantic highlights an interesting crime-fighting strategy at work in Minneapolis.
Classical music is being played at various light rail stations to “dissuade criminal behavior,” it states.
The strategy, which the city began using last summer, is based on the idea that “potential criminals find classical music so detestable that they won’t hang around the station long enough to realize their criminal potential: 'If it encourages some people to wander away because it's not their favorite type of music, I guess that's okay,'" said Acting Transit Police Chief A.J. Olson.”
Minneapolis took inspiration from Portland. “Oregon lawmakers liked the tactic so much." says the Atlantic, "that they proposed a bill that would require light rail stations in high-crime areas to play classical music as long as they remain open.”
The recent premiere of the Travel Channel’s new show, “Bizarre Foods America,” hosted by local chef Andrew Zimmern, featured a number of outstanding local delicacies.
In his column in Mpls. St. Paul Magazine, Zimmern lists some of the distinctive places to which the new show goes, including area farms, streams, and lakes and a Hmong market.
The Minneapolis restaurant Piccolo offers a “lesson in meat glue 101” from Doug Flicker; a local VFW hall has a hot-dish cook-off, and at Haute Dish in Minneapolis, Zimmern pitches in with offal hot dish. St. Paul's The Blue Door Pub also makes it into the show.
Zimmern adds, “I couldn’t be prouder of the show, our local crew, the fans who came out to watch, and the local stars [who] opened up their farms and restaurants to us. “
A January posting from Publishers Weekly praises Minneapolis' Coffee House Press for its recent accomplishments amid a change in leadership.
Two of its fall 2011 releases, Leaving the Atocha Station, a first novel by Ben Lerner and Song I Sing, a debut poetry collection from Bao Phi, “have been published to critical acclaim in major media publications," it states.
“Leaving the Atocha Station,” PW writes, “landed with the sort of bang that most book publishers can only dream of,” with a lengthy and positive review in the New Yorker.
It’s also been talked about in the New York Review of Books, National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” show, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Foreign Policy.
Minneapolis is the third most literate city in the United States, according to a survey done annually by Central Connecticut State University.
The university looks at each city's newspaper and magazine circulation as well as library and Internet resources. The study compared data in cities with populations of 250,000 and larger. Minneapolis has ranked in the top three since the study's start in 2005, and came in in first place in 2007.
This year, Washington, D.C. was ranked first on the list, followed by Seattle. Others in the top five were Atlanta and Boston. The bottom five included Fresno, El Paso and Corpus Christi.
In a regular column in USA Today called, The Pop Traveler, local writer Amanda Fretheim Gates makes a list of top 10 reasons to visit the Twin Cities.
The iconic First Avenue, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Chain of Lakes, skyways, Hennepin Theatre District, local brews, public art, and Jucy Lucy hamburgers are just some of the things that she enjoys about the area.
From her home, “I'm never more than 15 minutes from a play, museum, park, lake, farm-fresh dining, and tax-free shopping,” she says.
In general, “The people are friendly, the cultural offerings stellar, the sports exciting (if not depressing at times) and the outdoors flourishing all year round,” she writes.
The Atlantic magazine features Kopplin’s Coffee in St. Paul in a compilation of 35 top-notch neighborhood coffeehouses around the country.
The article starts out with a point about coffee trends in the U.S.: “Despite, or perhaps because of, the rapid expansion of Starbucks and other standardized chains, small coffeehouses are flourishing,” and Americans are getting more sophisticated in their coffee tastes.
Kopplin’s Coffee in St. Paul stands out in part because it’s “truly about supporting the local community,” with milk from locally raised grass-fed cows and Fair Trade and organic coffee.
The magazine also suggests stopping by Rustica Bakery in Minneapolis for a pastry.
For National Geographic Traveler, the St. Paul Winter Carnival takes fourth-place in the world when it comes to wintry festivals.
Anchorage's Fur Rendezvous topped the list.
The Traveler's writeup of the event explains how Winter Carnival began when a reporter wrote that St. Paul was "another Siberia, unfit for human habitation in the winter." Beginning in 1886, St. Paulites asserted their local pride with the winter festivities.
As a part of a Huffington Post series called “Libraries in Crisis,” the Minneapolis Central Library is featured as a cultural center.
Despite budget cuts, “more people than ever are visiting their local library,” the story states.
That point holds true at the Minneapolis Central Library, where the busy computer area, teen center, and New Americans Center show how library use is changing.
“Librarians across the country are looking to institutions such as this to show the way forward. For their part, the librarians here say their hope is that this library can be more of a cultural center than a book repository,” the story reads.
Next season, the popular Bravo reality show “Tabatha Takes Over” will visit a couple of local salons, according to the Pioneer Press.
Jungle Red Salon in Minneapolis’s Loring Park area and H Design Salon in Uptown will be featured in separate episodes of the show, which starts on Jan. 10.
“If this year is anything like past seasons, the new episodes likely will be full of shears and jeers as outspoken salon owner Tabatha Coffey swoops in and tells salon owners and their employees how to improve their game,” the story states.
The web-based Education News, which covers various national and international education topics, recently highlighted the comic degree that’s available through the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
It’s one of only three such programs around the country, the story states, citing information from MPR and the Star Tribune.
Local author Britt Aamodt, who profiled over 20 area artists in a book called, “Superheroes, Strip Artists & Talking Animals: Minnesota’s Contemporary Cartoonists,” is quoted saying that a “recent crop of artists is taking Minnesota’s scene to new heights.”
Aamodt goes on to say that the local comic artists have "really spread their wings,” and, “They can tell any kind of story. And they just don’t have to be about men in tights.”
BBC Wednesday, November 16, 2011
A photo from Jen Ritt, who is a student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, is featured in a gallery of fireworks images from the BBC.
Ritt’s dramatic picture shows a figure poised with a sparkler atop a boat. The sparkler illuminates the otherwise dimly-lit lake.
The BBC photo gallery, which exhibits photos weekly according to a theme, presents images from England, Scotland, France, Spain, and other places around the world.
About 500 unique and formidable mansions have vanished from the Twin Cities, and now many of them can be "visited" thanks to a new book by architectural historian Larry Millett.
Showcased in The Downtown Journal, Millett's work, Once There Were Castles, tells fascinating tales about the wealthy individuals who lived in these often-massive homes. A notable example is a mansion on Lake of the Isles Parkway East that became the largest private residence ever built in Minneapolis. Yet the owner died before he could move into the behemoth.
As noted by The Journal, Millett will talk about his book on Nov. 7 at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.
Auditions for a Hollywood movie with Tom Hanks as its star will be held in Minneapolis on Nov. 5, according to Minnesota Public Radio.
Hanks will portray Capt. Richard Phillips, “who was taken hostage by Somali pirates who hijacked his ship in 2009,” the MPR story states.
Sony Pictures, which is doing the casting, is looking for black actors, "preferably born in Africa ... Especially seeking SOMALIS," the story reads.
It’s what brings the company to the diverse Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which has the highest population of Somali-Americans in the country, according to the story.
The auditions will happen at the Brian Coyle Center, a community gathering place.
The story quotes casting consultant Debbie DeLisi: “We just looked at where there's huge Somali populations," who adds, "It may be our only stop, depending on the turnout."
U.S. Representative Keith Ellison was recently named by the Utne Reader as one of 25 visionaries from around the world who "don't just concoct great ideas but also act on them."
"These people also have delivered hope and renewed faith and tangible improvements to the lives of millions, the Utne reads.
The magazine describes Ellison as someone who is "A make-no-apologies progressive surrounded by a party of 'moderates.'" and adds that "the nation's first Muslim congressman believes true justice begins with tolerance--cultural, racial, and religious."
In its Impulsive Traveler column, the Washington Post recently highlighted several top tourist sites in Minneapolis, including Mill City Museum and the Midtown Global Market.
The newspaper's columnist, Alexandra Pecci, noted that while visiting her sister-in-law in Minnesota, she attempted to see the city a little differently than the last time she'd visited (a trip filled with the Mall of America and downtown Minneapolis' Mary Tyler Moore statue).
In marveling at Mill City, the Global Market, and Mill Ruins Park, Pecci described the historical significance of the buildings she was visiting. "It was Minneapolis as I'd never see it before," she wrote, "which was exactly what I'd hoped to find."
The American Planning Association (APA) put St. Paul's Rice Park in downtown St. Paul on its 2011 list of 10 Great Public Spaces across the country.
Through the APA’s Great Places in America program, sites such as the historic park are recognized for “exceptional character and highlight the role planners play in creating communities of lasting value,” according to a press release about the award.
The park, which is characterized by decorative lamps, statuary, benches, and a central fountain, “serves as much as a pathway and shortcut as it does a lunch stop, festival grounds, and outdoor sanctuary,” the release says.
The 1849-vintage park is also surrounded by a number of historic buildings, museums, and music halls that developed over the course of more than a century.
A recent survey of major metropolitan areas found that Minneapolis and St. Paul are the best in the nation when it comes to senior living. The cities were rated based on nine categories that are key to seniors' quality of life: healthcare, transportation, housing, social opportunities, crime, environment, economy, health and longevity, and spiritual life.
Ranked by Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement, the other cities in the top five were Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Denver. At the bottom of the list of 25 cities were Washington D.C., Austin, and Chicago.
In awarding the Twin Cities the top spot, the organization noted: "Seniors gravitate to Minneapolis-St. Paul for Minnesota's progressive medical insurance program and for proximity to the Rochester, MN-based Mayo Clinic; factors that contribute to the region's high scores for life expectancy and healthcare."
OpenTable, which takes online reservations to various eateries all over the country, gives props to four Twin Cities restaurants in its recent list of the "Top 50 Restaurants Most Fit for Foodies," the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports.
The list came together following OpenTable's “foodie” survey, which garnered more than 10 million reviews, the article states.
The standout restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul include Haute Dish, Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market, Piccolo and Saffron Restaurant & Lounge.
The piece quotes Caroline Potter, OpenTable’s Chief Dining Officer, saying, "These restaurants have been singled out for being able to satisfy the folks for whom dining is practically sport--those avid, passionate eaters, often armed with cameras, who take careful notes and relish every bite.”
In a recent review of Insiders’ Guide to Twin Cities by local author Jay Gabler, the librarian/blogger known as ricklibrarian talks about spending hours with the book before coming to the Twin Cities.
In previous visits to the area, “I only had a limited amount of time to see the sites and saw just enough to know I wanted to see more. So I enjoyed the well-organized and frequently updated Insiders’ Guide,” he states in the post.
The book helped him to compile a list of must-see sites, including Minnehaha Falls, Open Book, the state capitol, Como Zoo, local art museums, and more.
He sums up by saying, “There is enough in the Twin Cities for several trips. Perhaps I should read Gabler's chapter on relocating to the great Midwestern metropolitan area. I'd love to go to Twins games regularly no matter where they are in the standings and have my picture taken on Kirby Puckett Lane. I hope the weather is fair.”
A local food writer gets a shout-out in a Boston.com piece as a possible successor to the outgoing restaurant critic at the New York Times.
The Times’ food critic, Sam Shifton, is shifting into a new role at the newspaper, it explains.
“Still in the outsider vein,” Devra First writes, "Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, who writes for the Minnesota Monthly," is “a wicked writer, a New York native, well respected.”
In a position that’s long been male-dominated, it may be time for a new perspective. “Grumdahl's sensibility appeals to the younger readers the Times is looking to attract,” says First.
The novel “Crossbones,” from Somali author Nuruddin Farah, who lives part of the year in Minneapolis, is featured in a recent issue of the New York Times Sunday Book Review.
“Some in the media may paint Somali pirates as womanizers with lavish tastes and an eye for Nairobi real estate, but Nuruddin Farah exposes the shallowness of such depictions in his 11th novel,” the review states.
One of the book’s central characters is a New York-based war correspondent who is part Somali and part Malaysian. With the help of his father-in-law, he embarks on an international journey to track down his teenage nephew who has left Minnesota to join the militant Islamic group al-Shabab.
Warfare and poverty in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu are also part of the story, which reviewer Hirsh Sawhney describes as “politically courageous and often gripping.”
Sawhney writes that the Farah “takes great pains to illuminate the roots of Somalia’s turmoil in a nuanced manner.”
All in all, the book is a “sophisticated introduction to present-day Somalia, and to the circle of poverty and violence that continues to blight the country,” Sawhney concludes.
Maybe it's da wind chill, doncha know? For whatever reason, Minnesota has a rich history in comedy, as noted in a recent story in the Miami Herald.
The newspaper noted, as evidence, our election of former professional comedian Al Franken to the U.S. senate, as well as the popularity of A Prairie Home Companion, the public radio show that mixes Midwest humor with Americana-type music.
Another comedy mainstay is the Brave New Workshop, a theater troupe founded by Dudley Riggs, credited by many with the invention of improv and sketch comedy.
Why are the Twin Cities so lively when it comes to humor? They don't quite know in Miami, but one theory posited in the story is that with severe winters and mosquito-filled summers, our laughter somehow balances out the forces of nature.
Travel + Leisure magazine's international editor Mark Orwoll wrote about Minneapolis's fun summertime activities in a recent blog posting.
"Am I really the last person to "discover" Minneapolis?" he starts out by saying.
The city's bike-friendliness struck him. "With 84 miles of off-street bike trails and 46 miles of dedicated bike lanes on city streets, Minneapolis makes it easy to venture out on a velocipede," he says.
Also, kayaking above the falls offers a chance to spot all kinds of wildlife within view of the city's dramatic skyline while waterfront Segway trips are another way to go.
"You'll hear a little city history and meet lots of locals on the way, but mostly you'll just have fun going up hills, inching along footbridges, and racing along a parkway at speeds up to 12 mph (faster than it sounds!)."
He also enjoyed "Nordeast," and cites its high-end condos, a brick-lined Main Street, outdoor cafes, and unique spots such as Nye's Polonaise Room (which, as local's know, is actually just inside Southeast Minneapolis) and Kramarczuk's.
The Fox is Black, a national art and design blog, recently featured the Minneapolis-based Studio on Fire.
In the writeup, blogger Bobby Solomon says that the local studio is producing some of the strongest letterpress work that he's found in a long time.
He's such a fan that he'd like to get some business cards done in a style like that of Studio on Fire. "I've toyed with the idea of getting some letterpress business cards, a simple white card with a big black fox embossed into it; it would be great, and this makes me want to do it even more," he says.
He adds that the studio's portfolio "is filled with a wide variety of projects--[their] Godspeed bike print is pretty rad, especially the fact they used the pattern of the bike seat itself."
A couple of local beer companies made it onto the recent list of "Best Beers in America," according to a story in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
The results come from the American Homebrewers Association, which polled the readers of its journal, Zymurgy. Readers came up with a list of their 20 favorite beers.
Minneapolis-based Summit Brewing Co., placed 48th for Summit EPA. In terms of best beer portfolios, it ranked 25th, with nine of its beers named by readers, according to the story.
Another local company, Surly Brewing Co., did well with its Furious ale, while it also ranked high in the category of best breweries.
At the top of the list was Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Russian River Brewing Co.'s Pliny the Elder, while the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Del., led for its brewery and portfolio.
Phyllis Goldin, a columnist for the River Falls Journal, was so impressed with the Twin Cities' recent Northern Spark arts festival, that she says in a recent piece that she'd like to see a similar event happen closer to home.
Northern Spark (see the
feature about it in this week's issue) was "a marvelous example of possibilities that emerge when a dedicated group of people collaborate to maximize local creativity," she reflects.
Like the Twin Cities, River Falls and Hudson are arts- and river-oriented communities, suggesting that, "a remarkable happening here is worth considering."
The western Wisconsin area has the talent and resources to duplicate the 24-hour-long show: "Since it occurred just across the border and included some of our western Wisconsin artists and musicians, it surely demonstrated that what we need is here," she says.
Touching on some of the artistic expressions that caught her eye, she says that "I only hope the festival will continue in years to come" in the Twin Cities.
A June 7 Gather.com story marks the 53rd birthday of Prince, the iconic Minneapolis rocker.
"It's a safe bet he can look down from his royal throne and enjoy the fact that he's as popular today as he was two decades ago," the story states.
Gather.com cites the artist's recent run of 21 sold-out shows in Los Angeles, "sending fans and critics into a frenzy with his stellar performances of songs from his ever-growing catalog," it states.
Describing Prince as an icon and "ultimate showman," the post makes the case that he rivals younger performers, especially with his impressive guitar skills.
Washington Post, Associated Press Wednesday, June 08, 2011
The Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota made the the Washington Post with its upcoming exhibit on Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
An Associated Press article notes the exhibit, called "Arctic Sanctuary: Our Collective Refuge," which opens June 25 and runs through Sept. 4.
The exhibit features large-format photographs and text by wilderness landscape photographer Jeff Jones and writer Laurie Hoyle, according to the article.
Their book, "Arctic Sanctuary: Images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," commemorates the 50th anniversary of the creation of the refuge.
The work of Minneapolis-based Artspace is featured in a recent Nola.com story about the rise of artist live/work spaces in New Orleans and elsewhere.
Artspace is a nonprofit organization that develops affordable space for artists and arts organizations all over the country.
The group plans to convert the Andrew J. Bell Junior High School Property in New Orleans into a $40 million home for artists--one of a number of similar developments taking place across the city, the story states.
These kinds of developments are appealing to many artists because they're often affordable and offer gallery space, built-in community, and other professional opportunities, it explains.
Wendy Holmes, senior vice president of consulting for Artspace, is quoted in the article, saying that it makes sense because "Artists bring a lot to the table."
A strong artist community can improve a city's tax base and turn around struggling neighborhoods. "Artist communities re-energize neighborhoods. And even though we're all businesspeople it's not always about the bottom line. It's about community engagement," she says.
LA Times Wednesday, May 25, 2011
In his interview with Reuters' Mikael Wood, Owl City's Adam Young recalls first gig at the Varsity Club in Dinkytown. ""I'm standing backstage before I go on, just so terrified," the Owatonna native tells Wood in a May 24 article in the LA Times.
Little more than two years later, the butterflies are gone, and Owl City's major-label debut "All Things Bright and Beautiful" is due out June 14 on the Universal Republic label.
The band will kick off a six-week tour this summer that includes a St. Paul date--July 30 at Roy Wilkins--but no Varsity Club show.
Buzzfeed Wednesday, May 18, 2011
"A hipster is just a Brooklynite who wishes they were from Minnesota because it's 'more real,' while genuine Minnesotans are exempt from the label," writes Chris Menning in Buzzfeed on "the most hipster state in the U.S."
They are strong words, stated tongue-in-cheek and a with a good amount of data behind them: Menning cites the frequency of regional searches for the term "hipster," and he backs up Minnesota's crowning with our "lumberjack look," thriving theater scene, plethora of co-ops and farmer's markets, favorite musical sons (from Dylan to Atmosphere), bike-city status, and the movie Juno.
The Secrets of the City website has posted a mini-documentary about a large-scale international work from a couple of Minneapolis stencil artists who go by the name Broken Crow.
The artist duo recently left their mark in Mexico City, with a mural at the Antique Toy Museum. In the short video from Brooklyn Street Art, which local blogger Eyeteeth shared with Secrets of the City, viewers get to see the artists in their element: The pair is shown scaling scaffolding, wearing gas masks and spray-painting their original stencil designs on a huge wall.
Also, viewers get to watch the final image come together, and hear from the artists.
Patisserie 46, a neighborhood bakery in Minneapolis opened less than a year ago, yet it already has a loyal following, a recent story in the New York Times states. Its French-style croissants "are crisp and light as air," while the macaroons evaporate in the mouth, the story says.
Patisserie owner John Kraus trained in Europe before teaching at the French Pastry School in Chicago, where he worked for over a decade. He opened up Patisserie last summer. In the story he observes, "Minneapolis is becoming a phenomenal baking town."
Other local bakeries that are given a shout-out in the story include Sweets Bakeshop, which has locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Salty Tart Bakery in Minneapolis, and St. Paul's Bars Bakery.
A local chef and restaurateur was chosen by the James Beard Foundation as the best chef in the Midwest at a New York awards ceremony this week, the Star Tribune reports.
Props went to Isaac Becker, who is a chef and co-owner of a couple popular spots, including the 112 Eatery and Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis.
The Star Tribune notes that Becker is the third Minneapolitan in a row to receive the honor, which is considered by many people to be the "Oscars of the food world," it states.
Another Minneapolis 'who's who' among foodies, Sameh Wadi, the chef and co-owner of Saffron Restaurant & Lounge, cooked for the event's 2,000-plus crowd, the story adds.
The story quotes Shay Goetzman, the general manager for the 112 Eatery: "We had people watching for us and texting us," adding,"Isaac called, too, and said to put the champagne on ice. We'll celebrate later. It's crazy busy here."
Malcolm O'Hagan, a businessperson who has a love for literature, is scoping out U.S. places to house a writers' museum similar to the Dublin Writers' Museum in Ireland.
He says it could happen in the Twin Cities, according to a Star Tribune story by Laurie Hertzel.
Though Chicago has been hailed as a strong maybe, Minnesota Historical Society acquisitions librarian Patrick Coleman invited O'Hagan to come to the Twin Cities--in the hopes that he would think about it as an alternative.
O'Hagan took him up on his offer to visit. During the author's trip to the area, which was timed around the Minnesota Book Awards in April, O'Hagan met with local publishers and librarians; toured the Loft, University of Minnesota campus, and various libraries; and stopped by a few literary landmarks.
In the story O'Hagan reflects on his trip, saying, "Everything about it was hugely engaging and enjoyable," adding, "The Twin Cities, with its corporate structure and support for the arts, is a very viable candidate."
CNN Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Following on the heels of National Geographic's top 10 list of summer places from around the globe, which put Minneapolis in fourth place, CNN recently published a first-person account from local journalist Chris Welsch about what makes the area such a draw.
He writes, "Yes, winters here tend to be on the chilly side of things, but the place has so much more to offer than a slick spot for ice fishers to set up their shanties."
A thriving arts community and a bike-friendly, foodie atmosphere make for an unbeatable combination.
For proof, Welsch names numerous local cultural institutions, including the Guthrie Theater, First Avenue, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Also, at restaurants such as the Aster Café in Minneapolis, outdoor seating is at a premium. He says: "Since winters here are so long, people--including yours truly--tend to come down with what I would call the worst cases of cabin fever known to man. When spring finally does arrive, it's like the gun's been fired and gates opened at the racetrack."
National Geographic features Minneapolis as a top summer spot in its just-out list of '10 Best Summer Trips of 2011,' which also includes international destinations.
Minneapolis comes in fourth place while Muskoka Cottage Country, Ontario, Canada, is number one.
The city deserves such praise thanks to its pedestrian- and bike-friendly routes, lively summer cultural events, farmers' markets, and fun baseball-related activities--all things that National Geographic took into consideration.
The story elaborates on some of the city's amenities, including cultural and natural resources: "Survey the vibrant scene from the new CRAVE restaurant rooftop patio near the State Theatre, then grab a bike at the nearest Nice Ride Minnesota kiosk ($5 plus trip fees) and cruise all or part of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, a 50-mile urban trail loop. With 22 city lakes and the mighty Mississippi, playing on, in or near the water always is an option."
The locally-based Utne Reader magazine, which speaks to independent ideas and alternative culture, got props for its March-April cover from Business Insider magazine's "13 Coolest This Month," Minnpost's media writer David Brauer reports.
It's a distinction that puts the Utne Reader alongside other nationally and internationally known periodicals such as Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter and The Economist, among others.
The cover depicts Donald Trump being burned at the stake under the line "Fire the Rich."
Brauer states, "Even if you disagree with the, ahem, uncivil sentiment, it's a pretty great piece of art."
He also notes that despite raising its newsstand price, the Utne Reader has recently increased sales.
Brauer includes comments from Utne editor David Schimke, who adds that the covers have fared well in big urban settings on the East Coast, especially New York City.
Recent auditions for celebrity comedian Adam Sandler's upcoming movie, "I Hate You, Dad," were held locally at the Hennepin Center for the Arts in downtown Minneapolis, the Pioneer Press reports.
Casting calls are also happening in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, the story states.
One Maple Grove resident who showed up to try out for the part of a young Adam Sandler, 15-year-old Ethan Maisel, is quoted in the story saying, "I've never been told I look like him. But, he adds, "I've never been told I don't look like him, if that makes sense."
When the casting agents ask him, on camera, why he wants the job, he tells them, "I would be so excited," adding, "I've always been interested in movies and TV. I'd like to get involved in the business side of things, but to be cast in a movie would change my life."
MSNBC Wednesday, April 20, 2011
An MSNBC story about the growing trend of bicycle cafes, which ran last month, highlights a couple of local shops, including Cars-R-Coffins and One On One Bicycle Studio.
Bike cafes, one-stop shops where bicyclists can grab coffee or a bite to eat and get their bikes tuned up, are becoming increasingly common, as seen in Minneapolis, Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere, it states.
The story cites the trend's correlation to an "emerging bicycle culture sweeping many U.S. cities," which has led to more bike paths and lanes, bike-sharing programs, and related legislative changes.
Gene Oberpriller, a partner at One On One Bicycle Studio, which opened in 2003 in downtown Minneapolis, is quoted saying, "In cycling culture, there is a strong connection to coffee." In some sense, "We're the engine for the bike," he adds.
Wired Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Local duo The Ultramods brought a new claim to fame to the Twin Cities by becoming the first artist to record an album on the iPad, reports Brian X, Chen in Wired.
The iPad 2 offers a GarageBand app, which Max "Bunny" Sparber and Coco Mault used to record every instrument and track for their album Underwear Party.
The album is available for $10 on the Ultramods' website, and a free MP3 track is available through the Wired article. (Note: judging by the song titles and description, the "pervy collection of two-chord songs" is not for tender ears or the very young.)
The mystery bookstore in Minneapolis's Uptown area, Once Upon A Crime, is the first from Minnesota to be honored with the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America, according to MPR.
The Raven Award, which goes back 50 years, recognizes excellence in the mystery-writing world.
Despite a tough bookselling market, Once Upon A Crime has stayed on top of its niche, with plenty of personalized attention to customers and a strong collection of titles, plus numerous events that support the genre, the story states.
Larry Light, vice-president of Mystery Writers of America, who is quoted in the story, describes the bookstore as a strong booster for mystery storytelling: "They helped turn mysteries into a genre that...thrives in Minneapolis."
MTV's "The Real World," a long-running reality TV show, recently visited downtown Minneapolis to discover potential cast members for an upcoming season, a City Pages story notes.
Writer Jessica Armbruster writes that "producers are especially on the lookout for applicants who are working through timely issues--or who at least have a timely look."
It could mean that someone has a hard time with their weight, is grappling with a tragedy, has an alternative background, or wants to bring attention to a social issue, it states.
The show's executive producer, Jonathan Murray, is also quoted saying, "we look for characters from real life; people with strong personalities who are unafraid to speak their minds."
The Twin Cities will play Denver in some scenes of a movie called 360, which stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, and Rachel Weisz, a Star Tribune story notes.
"Minnesota's snowy reputation didn't let down the movie's makers," the writer states.
The story quotes Anne Healy, who helped find the movie's locations, and who says the Twin Cities area was chosen for scenes in 360 because the movie's makers wanted "a major airport under blizzard conditions."
With the help of the Internet Movie Database, it describes 360 as "a look at what happens when partners from different social backgrounds engage in physical relationships."
Source: Star Tribune
A Pioneer Press brief highlights a recent film screening of a documentary called "Lowertown: The Rise of an Urban Village," at the Union Depot in St. Paul.
The documentary describes the development of the St. Paul neighborhood of the same name. Lowertown is a "warehouse district that, in stops and starts, has grown an arts quarter, a mid- to upscale bar and restaurant scene and a broad range of apartment, condo and loft housing," it reads.
Twin Cities Public Television hosted the documentary's reception and screening, which included St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Ramsey County Commissioner Jim McDonough as presenters.
Minnesota Public Radio reports that the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will be the first in the country to exhibit a collection of Renaissance Venetian paintings from the National Gallery of Scotland.
It's part of a campaign to raise money for the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Gallery in London to buy some of the pieces, which the Duke of Sutherland is looking to sell.
John Leighton, who heads the National Gallery of Scotland, is quoted saying, "I think it would be safe to say this was a moment of crisis for us."
The works are important, he says, because "They were painted by Titian at the height of his powers in the 16th century, when he was without any doubt the most influential, most famous painter anywhere in Europe, and they were painted for the most powerful monarch of the time, Phillip II."
Minneapolis is the third-most literate city in the nation, behind Washington, D.C., and Seattle, according to a study from Central Connecticut State University. St. Paul is also in the top 10 list, coming in at seventh place.
For the study, which the university has done every year since 2005, researchers honed in on six main indicators for literacy within cities that have populations of at least 250,000. Those factors include the following: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, libraries, magazines, and Internet-related resources, the university website states.
The rankings will help "better perceive the extent and quality of the long-term literacy essential to individual economic success, civic participation, and the quality of life in a community and a nation," the posting says.
At the American Library Association's book awards ceremony in San Diego earlier this month, five authors and two publishers from Minnesota received numerous prizes in various categories, which are tallied by the Star Tribune.
Author Laurie Hertzel quotes Alison McGhee, who, along with Kate DiCamillo received the Theodor Seuss Geisel award for best book for beginning readers for "Bink and Gollie," saying, "The Minnesotans are ruling!"
McGhee describes the phone call about the news: "It was an unfamiliar number and I thought it was a marketer, but instead it was Julie Roach from the ALA and there was a roomful of people clapping and cheering in the background, so I figured it had to be good news."
As the news made waves on Twitter, Hertzel says in the article, Andrew Karre, editorial director of Minneapolis' Carolrhoda Books, tweeted about the Minnesotans' "stunningly good" performance."
For the first time since 2004, the Antiques Roadshow will drop by the Twin Cities as a part of its summer production tour that includes a handful of other U.S. cities, the Pioneer Press reports.
The long-running PBS show puts a dollar value on people's accumulated treasures.
On July 9 the show will be staged in Minneapolis with host Mark L. Walberg--though a venue hasn't been announced yet, the paper says.
Anyone wanting free tickets should sign up at the show's website well in advance, or by April 18, according to the Pioneer Press.
It probably comes as no surprise to music enthusiasts everywhere that First Avenue and 7th Street Entry in downtown Minneapolis are featured by a Gibson Guitar Corp. blog post that pays homage to 10 world-class rock venues across the globe.
Both stages have hosted many pop icons, including some who started out in the Twin Cities, the blog notes. But when Prince and the Revolution stepped on to the main stage at First Avenue to perform the music in the film, "Purple Rain," the place was memorialized forever.
Throughout the 1980s, Prince continued to experiment with new songs in front of audiences at First Avenue. At the same time, 7th Street Entry turned out such noteworthy local bands as The Replacements, Husker Du, and Soul Asylum, the blog goes on to say, adding: "One wonders if the Midwest alternative explosion would have occurred at all were it not for this cornerstone venue."
Some other venues that made the list include Whisky A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, the Apollo Theater in New York, and the Marquee Club in London, England.
In its recently released top 10 list, Songkick, an online source of all kinds of concert and band information, rated the Twin Cities as the country's seventh-most happening rock scene.
Songkick mined a database of over 1.8 million concerts from 2010, including everything from alternative music to classic rock, it states on its website. Cities got a score based on how many rock concerts they had over the past year, per capita.
According to the charted results, the Twin Cities notched above Seattle. Austin, Texas was the most musically inclined while Nashville, Tenn. came in tenth. The average price of a concert ticket in the Twin Cities was also among the most reasonable, at just under $12.
About the results, Songkick states on its blog, "We wanted to do a top 10 list that reveals something unexpected about the best places to see a show," adding, "We hope you'll agree that the list is surprising."
The Walker Art Center in October began a policy of free admission for everyone age 18 and younger, Minnesota Public Radio reports:
"Walker Public Relations manager Ryan French said teens have long been an important part of the Walker audience, and he hopes the new policy will encourage even more young visitors.
"'So this is really meant to target the teen audience that really is critical to the Walker,' French said. 'In fact it's 14 percent of our overall audience, or about 84,000 teens visit annually.'"
City Pages has the story of how the proprietors of a local music studio saw the writing on the wall and decided to embrace new technology rather than hope it went away.
Or in their words:
"We just put our big-boy pants on and moved on to something else, instead of sitting in the corner muttering under our breaths about these youngsters with their flying machines."
Matthew Foust and Evan Olcott co-founded Integral Studio in 2000. Soon after that they started developing recording and other music-related software and founded Audiofile Engineering.
Those development skills have since become in demand, as City Pages explains.
Oddee.com takes a break from cataloging the odd and bizarre to make a list of the world's 10 most breathtaking gardens. Of only three in the Western Hemisphere, one is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden:
"The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is one of Minnesota's crown jewels and its centerpiece, the Spoonbridge and Cherry, has become a Minnesota icon. Claes Oldenburg best known for his ingenious, oversized renditions of ordinary objects, and Coosje van Bruggen, his wife and collaborator, had already created a number of large-scale public sculptures, including the Batcolumn in Chicago, when they were asked to design a fountain-sculpture for the planned Minneapolis Sculpture Garden....Van Bruggen contributed the cherry as a playful reference to the Garden's formal geometry, which reminded her of Versailles and the exaggerated dining etiquette Louis XIV imposed there."
Read the entire article here.
An idea born in Minneapolis is growing into a phenomenon in cities around the world, Cool Hunting reports. Artcrank art shows of inexpensive posters that celebrate local bicycle culture have spread to the West Coast and the United Kingdom:
"Started in Minneapolis just three years ago, the Artcrank show was a quick, fun way to publicize local artists by inviting them to create posters about bike culture. Since then, the concept has spread with lightning speed to cities like Portland, San Francisco, Des Moines, and even London. With new cities taking part every year, 'Artcrank is growing roughly 10-15% faster than I can keep up with,' said Charles Youel, Artcrank's director and curator--not a bad problem to have. ...
"Local works on display each sell for an affordable $30 apiece at each venue. 'The more accessible those experiences are, the more diverse and interesting a biking and artistic culture becomes. I see people arriving on bikes, discovering local artists they've never heard of and connecting with causes. If free beer and cheap posters are the catalyst for that, it's cool by me,' continues Youel....
"'We're betting that Artcrank can and will work anywhere that people love bikes and art. So far, it's a bet we've won every single time.'"
Read the entire article here.
Mark Mallman stayed awake for 78 hours, playing music with help from fellow rockers from near and far. The Mark Mallman Marathon III astounded fans at St. Paul's Turf Club and around the world via the Web. City Pages live-bloggers bore witness to an event that blew off any dust that had gathered on the local scene since Mallman's last marathon. Afterward, CP collected quotes from others who can say they were there:
"Some of us may remember when our friend Mark Mallman decided to do his first 'Marathon' in 1999. Knowing Mark, it didn't seem weird that he would attempt such a stunt. The man has far too much energy and tends to be one of those creative juggernauts that fill the Twin Cities music scene....There was a sense of pride in being able to participate and carry the music on stage, while in the club and on the internet the event created a pervasive feeling of unity in the community. On a zombie-filled weekend intent on keeping the Twin Cities weird, Mark Mallman finished his Marathon Sunday night to roaring applause from all walks of life in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and around the world."
Read the entire article here.
Two mainstays of the local classical-music scene, the Schubert Club and the Music in the Park concert series, have merged their organizations. Both are in good shape but see their merger as a route to bigger and better things, reports the St. Anthony Park Bugle:
"Opportunity, not desperation, prompted Himmelstrup to accept van Bergen's proposal. 'We were not in trouble. We are rock-solid. We have a good amount of money in the bank,' Himmelstrup says, noting an annual budget of more than $150,000. 'It's good for both sides. Together we can cook up a whole lot of things.'
"Joining a well-established and well-respected institution like the Schubert Club, which has an annual budget of nearly $2 million and a 12-person staff, was a seductive proposition for Himmelstrup, who, with a part-time manager, makes up half of Music in the Park's staff. Still, the decision to merge with Minnesota's oldest arts organization was not made in haste.
"'We thought long and hard' before accepting van Bergen's proposal, says Himmelstrup who started the chamber-music series in 1979.
"'She is taking a big leap of faith and trusting us to carry and grow her baby,' van Bergen says. 'How do you continue to grow this amazing thing that she's built?'
"For more than three decades, Himmelstrup has served as artistic director for Music in the Park, bringing chamber music (including jazz) to St. Anthony Park, exposing the neighborhood to nationally prominent and promising musicians and composers.
"Still, joining forces made sense on both an artistic and a financial level. It ensures the future of the Music of the Park series and expands the program offerings of both organizations.
"'Two healthy organizations coming together—we really couldn't ask for a better scenario,' says van Bergen."
Read the full article here.
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 & Café, 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.'"
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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."
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