Tuesday news and reviews

Here's a look at the arts stories making headlines... shout out to TC Daily Planet for dominating the theater section this morning!

Theater

Sandbox Theatre's "Unspeakable Things" haunt Red Eye Theater

- Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet

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If you're a brilliant composer or writer or artist, chances are good that after your demise--or even, if you're really good, before it--there will be one or more scripts or songs written about you.

"Fully Committed" at the Jungle Theater: So good, it's like printing money

- Matthew A. Everett, TC Daily Planet

On the surface of it, there are three primary reasons I shouldn't like Fully Committed, the returning comedy hit currently rounding out the Jungle Theater's 2010 season. It's a one-person show. It's about a struggling artist. It's about somebody's day job. These three things instead turned out to be the reasons I loved Fully Committed.

Classical Actors Ensemble's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore": Isn't it, though?

Matthew A. Everett, TC Daily Planet

Writers of Jacobean tragedies are individuals with deeply sick imaginations. And I mean that as a compliment.

"Spring Awakening" at the Orpheum: If you slept through it, don't worry

Becca Mitchell, TC Daily Planet

"Wasn't it just here?" a friend asked when I told her I was going to see Spring Awakening on Saturday.

Books

A literary landscape Photographer Joe Rossi finds the alphabet in nature.

By Maja Beckstrom, Pioneer Press

The letter "Y" is the easiest to spot in nature. It pops up everywhere -- in the fork of a trees or a crack in rock. The most elusive is the letter "Q," according to photographer Joe Rossi, who spent 18 months roaming the state's woods, bogs and prairies taking the pictures that appear in "Minnesota's Hidden Alphabet," published this month by Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Music

Pinetop Perkins delivers the Delta goods at the Dakota

By Dan Emerson, Pioneer Press

Delta blues pianist Pinetop Perkins and his band performed only one show at the Dakota jazz club Monday night rather than the two shows the downtown Minneapolis club usually presents. The Austin, Texas-based Perkins has cut back a bit on his touring workload, which at the age of 97 seems a wise move.

Movies

Trylon Premiere Tuesdays begin with "Valhalla Rising," the first good Viking movie. Ever.

Erik McClanahan, TC Daily Planet

Take-Up Productions continues to spread the filmic love for Minneapolis cinephiles with its latest new series, Trylon Premiere Tuesdays, which showcases a Twin Cities premiere of a new film on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

A free screening of 'Animal House' to launch TV series 'Glory Daze'- John Ervin

The new TBS comedy series Glory Daze will be given a local debut celebration this Thursday with a sneak peak of the first show, followed by a screening of the movie that most influenced it and the last 32 years of comedy, National Lampoon's Animal House.

Comedy

Doug Stanhope rants, 'blorts,' and more at the Varsity

- Nate Patrin, City Pages

Doug Stanhope is not interested in your approval. He might be owed some -- at least if mortified horror can fuel approval -- but he will not make it easy for you.