Thursday news and reviews

Art

Walker: Puck is out, D'Amico is in

The art museum's Asian-influenced 20.21 is being replaced by D'Amico team's Gather, which will feature American food.

- RICK NELSON, Star Tribune

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'You are Not a Dinosaur' at Vine Arts Center

Bruce Holland Rogers's Dinosaur is a short story that begins at the point in a small boy's life when he must let go of his dream of being a dinosaur. "You Are Not A Dinosaur" is the newest art exhibition at the Vine Arts Center, and was inspired by Rogers's story.

- Coco Mault, City Pages

Books

Borders turns to a new chapter: 11

The long-troubled bookstore chain will close about 200 stores across the country, including four of its seven Twin Cities stores.

- Megan Nicolai, Star Tribune

Books & Bars selection "One Day" by David Nicholls: A most unconventional romance

Despite great superficial evidence to the contrary (the film adaptation is going to star Anne Hathaway, if you know what I mean), the 19-year relationship between Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley is not particularly one of romance. It is one of character discovery through perspective...with a little romance thrown in.

- Courtney Davison, TC Daily Planet

Dance

'Devotion' takes the stage at the Walker

Poetry-inspired dance by renowned choreographer Sarah Michelson will hit the stage this Thursday evening at the Walker Art Center's McGuire Theater.

- Shelby Meyers. City Pages

Cowles Center director named

The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts (the former Shubert Theater and Hennepin Center for the Arts in downtown Minneapolis) has named Frank Sonntag as executive director.

- Pioneer Press

General

Surreal printmaking at MIA; blue Britons in 'The Eagle'

- Max Sparber, MinnPost.com

Movies

Shooting the 'Rapids'

Two guys with Minnesota ties who are behind the movie are pleased with the characters, the casting and the Midwestern vibe.

- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

Music

The sound of Americana, North and South

Two guitar greats - one from Brazil, the other from Seattle - will showcase their beautiful new album in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

- Britt Robson, Special to the Star Tribune

Grammy winners spent time in St. PaulIt seems a little time in Minnesota is good for the career. The Parker Quartet, artists-in-residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons and artists-in-residence with Minnesota Public Radio during the 2009-10 season, took home a Grammy Award on Sunday.

- Pioneer Press

Kronos Quartet surprise, unsurprisingly, at the Walker Art Center

For over 30 years Kronos have been pushing the definition of classical music with astounding success, having commissioned over 700 works and arrangements and released more than 45 recordings.

- Kate Gallagher, TC Daily Planet

Owl City sends Taylor Swift a Valentine's letter

Adam Young of Owl City fame issued a new song on his website for Valentine's Day that proves he's enchanted by Taylor Swift.

- Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Justin Townes Earle at First Avenue: "I know better, but sometimes I just don't care"

Justin Townes Earle's Valentines Day show at First Avenue was not sold out. It was not outrageously hot, or too packed to move. The crowd was pleasant and comfortable. But it shouldn't have been so calm, really, when you take into account the caliber of the performance that Earle put forth.

- Natalie Gallagher, TC Daily Planet

Motörhead in spades again at First Ave

"Are you all right? Well, we'll fix that." That's how Lemmy Kilmister greeted to the sold-out crowd for Motörhead's last night at First Avenue, and it wasn't just cocky rock talk.

- Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Motörhead at First Avenue, 2/15/11

Motörhead have not changed all that much since 1977, mostly because it seems stupid to try to fix what's not broken.

- Pat O'Brien, City Pages

Deerhoof's John Dieterich talks about his band's new album

Art-rock quartet Deerhoof have made a semi-brilliant career out of atom-smashing together genres, gene-splicing musical tropes, and generally just being way more interesting than most of their peers.

- Ray Cummings, City Pages

Stage

'Agnes Under the Big Top' author readies world premiere

The piece explores immigrant experience in the United States through the eyes of a number of recent arrivals, from a Liberian homecare worker to a Bulgarian ringmaster and his wife.

- Ed Huyck, City Pages

Ma Rainey sings with the cathartic essence of the blues

Divas don't come any more high maintenance than the title character of playwright August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

- Brad Richason, Examiner.com

Iranian playwright premieres innovative take on ancient text

On February 24, Mohammad B. Ghaffari will be premiering his new work, Journey, a theater piece using storytelling, music, and dance in an adaptation of Havy ibn Yagzan ("Alive, son of Awake" in Arabic), a philosophical novel written by Ibn Tufayl, an Andalusian Muslim who was both a philosopher and physician in the 12th century.

- Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

Fargo students' publicity stunt for play about Matthew Shepard's murder backfires

North Dakota high school students trying to create publicity for their school play sent messages to a Kansas-based fundamentalist church known for its anti-gay protests, hoping Westboro Baptist Church members would announce plans to picket the production. They got the publicity. But it put police on alert and sparked plans for a counter-protest, and might have gotten the students in trouble.

- Associated Press

Two strong plays about kids facing supreme challenges: Youth Performance Company's "MEAN" and SteppingStone Theatre's "Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963

As an adult who has quite a number of young people in my life, it's a hideous and frightful thought that any child I know would go through these experiences.

- Betsy Gabler, TC Daily Planet

Panel will examine multicultural/ multethnic casting

The issue of multicultural/ multiethnic casting in local theater, which surfaced during a recent production titled "WTF" that was staged by Mu Performing Arts, will be discussed from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Minnesota Humanities Center, 987 Ivy Ave E., St. Paul.

- Pioneer Press

Love, war and gays in the military

"Leave" shows how U.S. policy affects one couple.

- John Townsend, Star Tribune

'Drakul' and 'Vampire Lesbian of Sodom': theater that drips redYou wouldn't know it to look at us, but we Minnesotans are fairly accomplished monster hunters.

- Max Sparber, MinnPost.com

Letter from a young theater artist to Charles Mee, re: "erased bobrauschenbergamerica" at 1419

When I look at this production, it's essentially student work.

- Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

"Our Town" by Yellow Tree Theatre: Excellent "community" theaterYellow Tree Theatre's latest is a winning effort that throws the gauntlet down to its metropolitan cousins.

- Christopher Kehoe, TC Daily Planet

Sam Green's "Utopia in Four Movements" asks a big question, but gives a wrong answer

The most perplexing, and frustrating, thing about Sam Green's Utopia in Four Movements is that it offers some Big Ideas about society and supports them with provocative examples, while ignoring the obvious discrepancies between the ideas and the examples and making no mention of the idea that considering data more systematically might yield more satisfying answers.

- Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet