State of the Arts Blog

Friday news and reviews

Art

American Craft's new home

A move from New York to the Twin Cities has refreshed a national organization whose annual expo opens today.

- MARY ABBE , Star Tribune

Jayme Halbritter: 100 Creatives

In this day and age where anyone may be carrying a camera on them to use at any moment, it can be difficult to make a living as a professional photographer. Jayme Halbritter is one creative living the dream.

- Jessica Armbruster, City Pages

World's largest textile garage sale this Saturday

This Saturday the Textile Center is having their 11th-annual textile garage sale--the world's largest of its kind. The event is a must for button and bead buffs, fabric-ophiles, and pattern fanatics.

- Coco Mault, City Pages

Funding

Southern Theater founders over funding

The performing-arts hotbed in Minneapolis is facing down a budget and management crisis

- ROHAN PRESTON , Star Tribune

General

Opening night at MSPIFF: Congolese classical music, David Carr and a surprising lack of chaos

- Max Sparber, MinnPost.com

Movies

Review: 'Scream 4' finds fresh blood

In the new sequel; laughs and scares keep coming, along with great surprises.

- COLIN COVERT , Star Tribune

Review: Just say, 'Aaaaaarrrrgh!'

The movie conditions us, early on, to expect it to be constantly reversing itself, piling twist upon twist upon twist.

- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

David Carr, Andrew Rossi talk 'Page One,' Gawker, and the future of newspapers

Last night, the documentary "Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times" premiered at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. The movie stars Minneapolis alt-weekly alumnus David Carr, who is now the Times' brashest media writer. We caught up with Carr and film director Andrew Rossi before the showing.

- Andy Mannix, City Pages

Bold plumage masks 'Rio's featherweight

n the unlikely event that there is a bookstore in Moose Lake, Minn., it should hop on the marketing of "Rio" fast. An animated comedy that plays younger than most, "Rio" is set in both Moose Lake, where Linda Gunderson and her pet macaw, Blu, run a bookstore, and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the two venture when they learn Blu is the last male of his kind.

- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

"Super"

Rainn Wilson goes vigilante.

- COLIN COVERT, Star Tribune

"The Conspirator" catches a mother in the middle

Robert Redford directs a period courtroom drama arising from the Lincoln assassination.

- COLIN COVERT , Star Tribune

Music

Local music: Greg Brown's new album a true 'Freak' of nature

The Iowa folk hero rolls with the unexpected, including a forced do-over of his latest disc -- and a new family.

- Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Concert Review / In its premiere, concerto dazzles and challenges

The virtuosic 25-minute work could not have gotten a better premiere.

- David Hawley, Pioneer Press

You and Me

Pianist/composer Jeremy Walker says forget about business models, record label contracts, or dire predictions about the collapse of the music industry - the fundamentals of playing - and the human relationships at the center of it all - haven't changed

- mnartists.org

Terry Eason four months into his 'Song-A-Day' project

Busy on his own as a stay-at-home dad, Eason still has time to make his own music and since the beginning of the year has taken on his biggest musical task yet his "Song-A-Day" video series.

- Danny Sigelman, City Pages

Get in the groove for Record Store Day

Record Store Day, marking its fifth year, is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success.

- Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press

New releases by two of Minnesota's most revered indie acts

CD reviews: Atmosphere, Low

- CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER , Star Tribune

Review: Cutting-edge storytelling boosts Israeli dissection of the middle class

As a title, "The Human Resources Manager" doesn't offer the promise of action "The Enforcer" or "The Expendables" do, but the Israeli comedy/drama has quiet pleasures of its own.

- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

William Elliott Whitmore Talks upcoming album and P.O.S. Record Store Day split

Whitmore's renowned for his soulful, bluesy voice, which rattles with a wisdom deeper than his thirty-two years, and stirs with organic integrity.

- Loren Greene, City Pages

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra dishes up tasty Mozart sampler

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra came up with a wonderful idea for assembling a tasty yet nutritious four-course feast of Mozart: Perform four works that the composer wrote consecutively in late 1786.

- Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press

Stage

Fear of 'Heights'

Producers have long shunned Bernard Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights." Now Minnesota Opera tackles the only opera by the film composer behind "Vertigo."

- GRAYDON ROYCE , Star Tribune

Having a little fun with the dead

The Jeffrey Hatcher play presents a trio of fetching stories set in funeral homes.

- Rohan Preston, Star Tribune

At the Jungle Theater, "Next Fall" is, like life, imperfect

Why disrupt a seemingly on-track relationship by addressing something that could be put off until "next fall"? But what if we find that life is short and "next fall" might not be an option?

- Becca Mitchell, TC Daily Planet