Sunday news and reviews
A note on SXSW coverage... yes there is a lot of it out there, and you may have noticed I'm not linking to most of it. That's because I'm focusing on stories that talk about the Minnesota music presence in Austin. Otherwise you'd be reading a bunch of reviews about bands that aren't from here and aren't playing here. What's the fun in that?
Art
Rogue Docents present morbidly inclined tours
Largely unscripted, the tours are aimed at an audience that is either already familiar with or bored by the typical museum docent experience. "Taking a Rogue Docent tour is a lot like getting into a car with an unlicensed taxi driver," explains Michelle Layland. "You don't know where he'll take you but it will be interesting."
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- Jennifer Shannon Boggio, Southside Pride
Books
A terrible time, punctuated with hope
A Lithuanian girl and her family are sent into exile.
- LAURIE HERTZEL, Star Tribune
A history of the game dispels many myths -- including that Abner Doubleday was its inventor.
- ALLEN BARRA, Star Tribune
A woman faces her twilight years alone, but with interest and curiosity.
- MARK ATHITAKIS, Star Tribune
Window into a vanished culture
The history of how Hawaii became a state, and what was lost in the process.
- TOM ZELMAN, Star Tribune
Too many plot twists take the edge off Michaud's fine writing
A pregnant teen goes to live with her aunt, whose marriage is already strained.
- BETHANNE PATRICK, Star Tribune
What better gift for a literature lover than this handsome little collection of Irish poems?
- ANDREA HOAG, Star Tribune
A great, big anthology for poetry month
Coming right up: Poetry month.
- Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune
Music
Gimme Noise and First Avenue day party fills up Skinny's Ballroom
"If a bomb goes off today @gimme_noise party, MN will lose all its club bookers," Chris Riemenschneider from the Star Tribune tweeted. "The music critics would be easier to replace."
- Andrea Swensson, City Pages
Stage
Oedipus the ex-con, in a barrio
REVIEW: Sophocles' mythic tragedy gets a poetic and imaginative retelling by Teatro del Pueblo and Pangea World Theater.
- LISA BROCK, Star Tribune
Mu puts a refreshing spin on 'Little Shop of Horrors'
Mu's "Little Shop" is a terrific staging that acknowledges and honors the show's familiar history, even as it gamely, creatively and successfully subverts it.
- Dominic P. Papatola, Pioneer Press
William Kentridge's puppet work "Woyzeck on the Highveld" continues to reveal its meaning almost 20 years after its debut.
- ROHAN PRESTON, Star Tribune