“They could smell death,” she said as she rolled her cigarette between her fingers. “They smelled death and everyone started tipping big.” She was talking about the regulars of a restaurant that closed, but despite the best efforts of the sunshine and summer breeze, the darkness of the end of times weigh heavy on the crowd on the rooftop patio of the Bedlam Theatre. The Bedlam is about to be evicted and downstairs in the relative cool of the brick bar, another patron sighed, “It feels like the end of a golden age.” It might be, mainly because the old aphorism is true; you don’t know how good you’ve got it ‘til it’s gone. Or in this case, on the way out.

By now you should know the details. The Star Tribune broke the story last week that the Bedlam Theatre, which has occupied a former nightclub space on the West Bank for four years now, was given notice by their landlords that they would have to leave the space by September 7th. Sheila Regan at the Twin Cities Daily Planet expanded that narrative with an excellent history of the Bedlam and what it has meant to the West Bank as a community. Even though the Bedlam is about to lose a physical space, it won’t be going down without a wash of ink and lots of peoples two cents, because opinions and voices are two of the only things that artistic-types have going for us these day. Lord knows it’s not the money or the stable future.

First Bedlam performance, “No Sugar Cookies For Herbert”

It wasn’t originally supposed to feel permanent. Four years ago, Bedlam and it’s merry band of theatre-making, authority-thumbing, romping gypsies and vagabonds were similarly evicted from a basement space and amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth, were steered into an empty building that had seen a string of failed businesses. I remember getting off the lightrail one cold day, maybe in November, and seeing people with hammers going to work on the outside of the run-down red brick building. “Whatcha doing?” “Putting in a theatre.” “Cool.” The concept seemed really simple, just take over a space and make a theatre! It hasn’t been simple at all, but it has been thrilling and rewarding to watch innovation at work. They’ve even made Shakespeare work for them.

Six months after that first encounter, I was auditioning for the first of three of the Bedlam’s 10 Minute Community Play Festivals in which I would participate. That From that first festival, I met the people with whom I would be a part of an indie-rock opera called Idigaragua. We went on to form a company called Lamb Lays with Lion and perform more works at Bedlam. I have done one-off performances there, designed for the space and written reviews of numerous shows that have been performed there. I loved a lot of it, hated some, but was rarely indifferent to what was happening in that space. I owe a lot to the Bedlam company. As it turned from just a theatre into one of the best bar & restaurant combos in town, I have had discussions, fights and feel-good sessions, been uproariously drunk and keenly sober there. Of any space in the Twin Cities, it is one where you can walk in and feel at home, whether you want to sit by yourself or get into it with a stranger. It has character, and it has community.

Bedlam’s fuzzy joyful memories

In fact, Bedlam has been central to creating a “community” on the West Bank. It sometimes feels like a neighborhood where students glide past hipsters ignoring the Somali immigrant population, all parties willfully oblivious to eachother. The Bedlam, especially through its work with the youth at the Brian Coyle Center, has made the space to change that and to bring these groups into dialogue. Bedlam has translated a fundamental tenet of theatre, that communication of personal narrative is a social force, and empowered communities and tribes in need of a voice. Fortunately this progress will not be lost, as the Mixed Blood Theatre just down the street (who own their building lock & stock) will be carrying on that community and youth based work. It only makes sense, as their stated mission is to be “dedicated to the spirit of Dr. King’s dream.”

Despite that continuation, it would be a great loss to the neighborhood, to theatre-folk, to artists, musicians and foodies, to passersby and to Minneapolis as a whole if these instigators and rabble-rousers go. Permanence may be antithetical to the revolutionary spirit, but Bedlam never let itself get bored in their space, and never bored us either. So let the mayor know that. Tell him that whether it’s through tax-breaks, real-estate incentives or good old fashioned politicking, Minneapolis needs the Bedlam’s innovative force. We should not let this go quietly, without a fight or at least a damn good party. Down in the bar, a board member was taking a distinctly different view then that of the end of days. “The moment they say so,” she grinned, “I’m ready to start a capital campaign.” She was ready to go, so let’s tip big, kick up our heels and move on to the next big change.

Spread the word! Save the Bedlam!

With everyone freaking out, we thought we’d see who should go – hell, I haven’t even heard of some of these bands.  Since the stars were added 10 years ago, shouldn’t it be all about who stands the test of time?  Who’s still awesome & rockin (even if we may not agree on if it’s good or bad)?

Well, here’s a debatable list of who we think should get the heave-ho.  You’ll have to check out the entire list over at the Onion’s AV Club Twin Cities to see if you agree.

ADDA – is this a band?  Attention Deficit Disorder Association?  What?
Alan Freed
Alex Jarvis
Alexander O’Neil
Babylon Pink
Back - Beck, maybe?  That’d make sense to me.
Big Black
Big Head Todd & The Monsters – meh. I liked that one song in the mid-90s, but what have you done for me lately Big Head Todd?
Bionic
Bis
Biz Markie - This is admittedly a tough one, but after that commercial for Radio Shack…
Black Eyed Peas – meh.
Bottom - Some metal band. Which is cool. But do they warrant a star?
Cee Bee
Chi Chi LaRue – Where’s the love for RuPaul, hmmmm?
Chris Bliss - World’s Most Famous Juggler. If it was the World’s Most Famous JuggaLO.. maybe.
Cornelius – Big in 1991…. not so much since.
Corrosion Of Conformity – Metal band. Not playing together… or maybe are sort of according to their website.
Dj Apollo, DJ Echo, DJ ESP,  DJ Jennifer, DJ Mia, DJ S. Supreme, DJ Smitty – Now, I’m admittedly not good at the DJ thing, so more than likely some of these deserve to be here.  Some prolly don’t though.  Best 4 out of 7?
DMX - I can think of other rappers who deserve this wall more. Doomtree, anyone?
Dragnet -The first thing that comes up on Google is the theme music for the TV show, not this band.
Drive Like Jehu
Drone
Dumpster Juice – I just really hate this band name.
Dutch Oven
Dwight Tilley Band
Eric Burden - Can we just put The Animals up instead?
Face To Face – Too many other good punk bands out there.
Fine Art
Fingerprintz
Firehose - Maybe pick one.  Minutemen or Firehose?  I’m voting Minutemen.
Francisco
Fresco
Golden Palominos
Grandma Flash
H Mhoon
Hammerhead
Heater
Jack Meyers
James Orndorf
Jezus Juice – Ever since the Michael Jackson trial…
Karl Who?
Kindergarten
Kristin Hersh
Lady Luck – Just go check out their promo photo.
Lagbaja
Laughing Stock
Linton Kwest Johnson – Seems like a super cool guy & all… but does he still need a star?
Man Sized Action -2 records in the early 80s produced by Bob Mould.  Mould’s prolly on the wall three times between his solo work, Husker Du & Sugar, but that doesn’t mean this band should be up there.
MC Millenium
Menudo – We’re sorta over them.
Mighty Mighty – Bosstones?
Molly McManus
Monster Magnet - Maybe this is an awesome band.  Methinks not. I do, however, like their name.
Nina Hagen – Seems like a super cool chic, but what has she done for First Ave?
NNB
O’Connor
PD Spin Love
Penkut
Perfect
Pete Raz
Pop Top
Poster Children
Poster Pal
Powermad
Randy Hawkins
Rank Strangers
Redd Kross
Rita Marley – Bob’s widow has her own star?
Ron A
Ronnie Spector – Love the Ronettes, but she can probably be taken down now.
Sharin’ Beats
Sheryl Crow - Oh Sheryl Crow, how I loathe thee…
Snakefinger
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Love these guys, but until 2010 their last album was in the late 90s and they haven’t been to 1st Ave since.  Buh-bye.
Steve Egsgaard - Is this dude’s name even spelled right?
Super Hun
Suzane Vega – Tom’s diner haunted my childhood as did “My name is puka, I puked on the 2nd floor…” Yeah, I was in jr. high.
Syd Straw
Teratism
The Clams – Is this the tribute band?  Veto those please.
The Jim Rose Circus – Maybe it was cool in 1992… and pretty much only in 1992. A novelty act that only stuck around a few years at best. Although who didn’t like The Amazing Mister Lifto?
The Maroons
The Morrells – mmm… mushrooms
The Odd
The Overtones
The Raybeats
The Squabs
The Super Rail Band
The Verve - Yeah I love Bittersweet Symphony too, but mostly because of that Rolling Stones riff.  So they had one huge hit… that they ripped off from a band much better than they would ever be.
Timbuktu
Tom Arnold – Really?  Just, really?
Tony Paul
Tricky – Now, if this was for the Run D.M.C. song…
TSOL
U2 - Like they need a star anywhere.  They could just buy a real one.
WIB
White Zombie
Whole Lotta Loves
X Cops – You already have GWAR up there… and they haven’t played since 1996…
Zartan

So, what do YOU think?

This concert will be limited in capacity, so reserve your space today. Reservation cost is $10, and to reserve space, please log into PayPal and send your payment to CakeIn15@gmail.com. Please mark your payment as a “GIFT” in order to avoid PayPal fees. This is money going to the artists, so please don’t short-change them!

Your reservation to this special show is confirmed ONLY when you receive an email both confirming your payment and giving you the house address. This email must come from CakeIn15@gmail.com and NOT Paypal (so make sure to check your spam filter). Guests are invited to bring a beverage of their choice to enjoy.

When: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Time: 7pm doors, 7:30 show
Where: The Cake Shop, location upon RSVP
How much: $10 reservations

The Cake Shop is dedicated to providing artists and audiences with a unique and intimate experience that allows artists to freely experiment with new material. Shows at The Cake Shop directly financially support the musicians playing. Previous performances at The Cake Shop include Pezzettino, Roma Di Luna, Jeremy Messersmith, The Pines and Chastity Brown.

CakeIn15.com is dedicated to covering and supporting culture issues of importance to the Twin Cities- local music, art, fashion and theater as well as national acts. After all, we do live here.

M2, as director Lisa Channer points out at the beginning of the play, is a fiction, but it is a historical fiction. Vladimir Mayakovsky (Vladimir Rovinsky, who also wrote and co-directed the play) was a Russian Bolshevik, born in 1893 who became a poet whilst doing hard time in Moscow’s Butyrki Prison. Filippo T. Marinetti (Stephen Pearce) was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1876 and was well-educated and worked in literary circles before publishing the “Manifeste de Futurisme” in Paris’ Le Figaro newspaper on February 20th, 1909. The two men only met once, in 1914, and there is no record of that meeting, so the scenario of M2, with Mayakovsky and Marinetti bouncing ideas off eachother, acting as provocateurs and fighting over a woman (Lilya Brik, played lithely and sensually by Julianna Drajko) is an imaginary conceit. These were two important artistic figures of the early 20th century though, and they were both caught up in the major political movements of their time, Bolshevism in Russia and Fascism in Italy, and so their stories are well worth exploring at a time when we more quietly and subtly are engaged in warfare and technological advancement.

What is most impressive about M2 is how Theatre Novi Most captures the kinetic and chaotic time period with full blooded, impeccably constructed performances. Rovinsky and Pearce form a spinning dynamo, pushing eachother louder, faster and more avant-garde in English, Russian and French, as poetry snippets and selections from Eisenstein flicker around them. They embody the deadly earnest faith in the machine future, that everything is better that is faster, stronger and more precise. They push their every masculine instinct to the fore- desire for newness, war, lust all comes up with a heaving sense of potential and seduction. With a cast rounded out by Billy Mullaney and Sasha Gibbs, two talented U of M undergrads and exceptional sound design by Daniel Dukich that heightens the explosiveness of every scene, M2’s ambitiously kinetic conceit may not always by conceptually clear, but it is compelling to see.

“Charge of the Lancers”, Umberto Boccioni 1882-1992

As the delirious actions of the first half of the play come crashing into the realities of the First World War and the Futurist beliefs, the ahistorical flurry of activity and imaginary construct is generally abandoned in favor of a more direct telling of Mayakovsky’s increasingly depressed life as a poet apparatchik in the new Bolshevik regime. In 1915 Marinetti published a book of poems titled “War Is The Only Hygiene Of The World”, and the program notes remark of the Futurists desire for warfare and “scorn for women” that, “Politically, it’s hard to reconcile them with our notions of art and poetry.” This is true, that decline of the avant-garde into functionary roles and acceptance of totalitarian regimes is a cautionary tale, told by Mayakosky, even if earlier he and Marinetti were a seductive vision. Both writers were dismissed by their leaders, with a particularly caustic quote from Lenin appearing on the screen calling Mayakovsky only fit for eccentrics, but the truly disturbing end is how complicit both men were in their own fate, and how the blinkered view of the future can easily be dominated.

M2 is an impressive piece of work from the new company, Theatre Novi Most, even if with all the action happening, it could be textually impenetrable at times. It sets up expectations for their next project, Old Story, a telling of the Gilgamesh myth at The Southern Theatre September 24-October 3. With many of the same performers as well as local luminaries like Barbara Berlovitz and Vanessa Voskuil on stage and a text by Kira Obolensky, if they can maintain the dynamism and focus of M2, Old Story should rock the ancient world.

Last performances Saturday 5/22/2010 at 8pm and Sunday 5/23/2010 at 2pm at Open Eye Figure Theater.

Also, if you are Art-a-Whirling this weekend, swing by the MNfashion space in the Grain Belt Bottling Building on 13th and Marshall. Not only can you vote from their computer there, but you can also check out Staciaann’s awesome photographs up on the wall, as she is an official MNfashion photog. Double win!

Also, again about the Refresh Everything Challenge, there are multiple winners in all categories and a number of local entries, so look around and find stuff to vote for. Since we pay for the companies to exist, we should be getting something back other than dentist’s visits.

Mural Detail- Photo via Cult Status Website

The destruction of art is bound to create a buzz, and the Cult Status Gallery might just reach that, based on the reaction to the martyrdom of the fresh Deuce 7 mural on their outer wall. The newly formed gallery makes it’s home at 2913 Harriet Avenue South in the LynLake area and just opened its doors this winter. In celebration of the opening, Cult Status got ahold of street/graffiti artist Deuce 7 (who has shown locally at SooVAC and been celebrated in New York) to paint a mural. With the apparent blessing of their landlord, painting began on March 10th, and was a big step up from what had been outside of the building; in conversation, gallery honcho Erin Sayer noted that, “before…it was disgusting, it was just this gross garage where they kept all their stuff,” and in a blog post on the controversy, says that the outside had been graffitied with anti-Obama and pro-gun epithets. Not your family-friendly fare for South Minneapolis, nor something really to be proud of.

Quickly into the painting process, though, Sayer received a worried phone call from her landlord, expressing surprise that the mural used so much color. The landlord had been expecting Sayer to be painting one of her own two-tone silhouette works on the outside wall and expressed concern about the progress of the mural. Sayer convinced her landlord to let them finish the mural and appeared to have the support of the other tenants in the building as well as neighborhood residents. When Cult Status held an opening on March 30th, Sayer noted that the new neighbors came over, some bearing cookies. Things seemed to be going well.

Photo by Matt Porath via Facebook

Then on April 2nd, Sayer received a call from her landlord informing her that one of the tenants was uncomfortable with the mural, to the point of threatening to move out. In lieu of losing the business, the landlord decreed that the mural had to be painted over, and initially slated Wednesday the 7th as the destruction date. Unwilling to reveal which of the tenants was offended by the mural Sayer set about to try and convince the other tenants that the work was worth preserving. As she said over the phone, “it’s not even offensive material. It’s totally benign, it’s like Chagall. I think that’s the only reason that they don’t like it, because it’s graffiti-style, even though it’s the best graffiti you’ll ever see.”

A Facebook post unleashed an outpouring of support and so far, Sayer says that 2 of the 3 other tenants, Shelter Architecture + Design and the Healing Garage seem to be on board with the mural, and they have been granted a stay of execution in order to meet on Wednesday the 7th at noon to discuss the fate of the painting. If all does not go well, this weekend is going to be a sad day for art in the Twin Cities, but Sayer says they’ll make the best of it, with full documentation of the event, and an open invitation to come down and support the art/protest the cover up. Hopefully, though Deuce 7’s art will be allowed to stay in it’s street context where it functions more subversively and powerfully than in a reduced gallery setting.

There are, of course, take-away lessons here. Should Cult Status had been more clear about their intentions for the mural? Yes. Should the landlord have been more clear about his expectations for the mural? Yes. Should there have been more communication with the other tenants about the mural? Probably.

However, we live in an age where so much of our publicly viewed space is mediated by private ownership, to the point of mass disempowerment, that if there is not privately sanctioned public art, all you are going to be left with are crass tags and puerile spray-painted phrases. Paintings on public walls like Cult Status’ Deuce 7 mural can mitigate that destructive impulse associated in the public’s mind with graffiti by creating personality and ownership to counteract the bland, sterile inoffensiveness of latter day America. Sayer said it over the phone; “I think mainly [this is] just the age old discussion of what is graffiti and why is it all bad. I think the public’s thoughts about graffiti need to change. It has such a bad connotation with so many people. It’s been going on for thirty years and its just never going to end, it’s going to keep growing. I think this movement is our defining art movement of this generation.” Here’s to fighting the good fight.

Photo by Matt Porath via Facebook

“We are each incomplete. We are drawn towards the other in search of completeness. We sense the potential closing of a circle. And this sensation, this potential, lies at the very heart of what draws us to theatre.”

-Anne Bogart, from the essay “Eroticism” in A Director Prepares.

Bogart’s words are at the heart of “The Awakening“, both the 1889 novella by Kate Chopin that was banned for immorality when it was published and also the new play based on that text. I am in the cast for the play, a co-production of the Savage Umbrella company and 3AM Productions and the cast of actors has been workshopping this production since September. It is that process of meshing our incompletion, the company of actors playing, fighting, hammering out the formal narrative aspects and the beautiful flights of impression that mark the text that has been the biggest joy in creating this play. The text is all about distance and love, how people work together and apart from each other- things that have mattered since humans began forming connections and our results on stage, I think, will surprise. Like the original text itself, which ostensibly ended Chopin’s literary career, and like so much in life, on stage we find a clash of conventions and the struggle to decide and find our own way out. It’s weird and heartfelt and it has been my pleasure to work this talented cast (who all sing better than me, but we’ll make it work) and so you should come out and see it.

We open Friday, April 2nd at the award winning (City Pages “Artist of the Year” 2008) Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul and run for three weekends, so there is plenty of chance to see the show. Tickets can be reserved by calling 612.339.0207 or via email at 3amproductions.tickets@gmail.com. If you need more convincing, Quinton Skinner spoke with out fearless leader, director Laura Leffler-McCabe as part of the new City Pages “Dressing Room” blog, and it’s great to see him back in action and that new endeavor (with Kate Iverson of l’etoile) taking off. Matt Peiken of 3 Minute Egg also stopped by for a rehearsal to capture some of the process and speak with Leffler-McCabe and our incomparable music director Candy Bilyk, so there’s a little romantic teaser for you.

You know you’re at South By Southwest when breakfast is lunch and you know you’re in Texas when that breakfast is beef brisket. It’s kind of like the Texan Breakfast of champions, and thanks to the folks at AOL/Spinner, Wednesday got off to a tasty start. Mark one day down for free breakfasts. Today, the Muzzle of Bees day party with Peter Wolf Crier should have free breakfast burritos.

Wednesday during the day was mostly spent at the Paste magazine party. Some old friends and favorites were playing and the new bands did not disappoint either. First up on the bill and with a nice crowd already for a noon slot was Basia Bulat, Canadian songstress who has been through the Twin Cities several times and who Staciaann met in the bathroom at First Avenue while Basia was trying to figure out which dress to wear for her gig. Backed by her brother Bobby on drums and Alison “Wonderland” Stewart on viola, Bulat’s warm and buttery alto filled up the room, even as she closed out her with a solo rendition of “Hush” an old gospel tune, against the noise bleed competition from the outside stage and street. Bulat’s songs, especially when she plays the autoharp, have a swirling old plains feel to them, and they were a beautiful way to kick off the day in Texas.

One of things you do need to do if you want to get the free swag/drinks/food is show up early. After Basia’s set, so by 1pm, one of the bars had already tapped out their reserves of free Sierra Nevada and the Izzie sodas were gone by 2. Still, while waiting in line for such things on the outdoor patio, Louisiana’s Givers were putting on a terrific little set. With a sort of noodling psychedelic guitar sound grounded in some deep bass and fuzz pedals, they came across like a more Jefferson Airplane influenced Dirty Projectors and were really fun to watch live, especially as the female lead switched between acoustic guitar and stand-up toms in front of her. I can only imagine that with their multiple guitar lines and percussive punches that they are a band that could fall dangerously flat on record, but on stage the mix was hot and they should definitely be on the Twin Cities tour watch list.

Back inside, Free Energy came onstage to play their first show of the day. Since Paul Sprangers used to front Hockey Night in the Twin Cities there is obviously a desire to call Free Energy a “local” band, in the same vein as the Hold Steady. In the debate posed on Twitter by @gimme_noise, @Staciaann and @doubleasterisk took the side of claiming but @solace put some distance between the band and Minneaolis, saying that the Hold Steady made it easy to claim them with their references to Twin Cities landmarks in their early records. Here’s a Mid-western passive-aggressive stand for you; we’ll claim the roots if they really truly blow up, and if not, Philly can have them. Still, with the crowd they packed in at the 7th Street Entry a couple weeks ago, and their totally infectious mix of T. Rex and J. Geils Band (which is really easy to get into if you happened to be a Hockey Night Fan) is definitely ascendant.

Free Energy from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

After an amiable set from New Yorkers Freelance Whales, whose sprinkling can used for percussion had a warning label posted on it that any use other the recommended was not advisable, Carolina Chocolate Drops came on and did something amazing. Two men and a woman, from North Carolina, they get down deep into American music. When I interviewed Ben Knox Miller of the Low Anthem and asked him about the current popularity of roots music, he responded, “Hey, I don’t know if there’s any one reason, but music that comes from the old traditions will always be around. It’s real, it’s simple.” The Chocolate Drops embody and vivify that Faulkenerian chestnut that the past isn’t even past, because through their fiddles, banjos, guitars, kazoos, jugs, bones, breath, hands, feet, their very bodies, it lives in them and on stage, music specific to time and place and yet transcendent of it. Old blues tunes, drum-and-fife, Dixie jigs, plus a cover of Blu Cantrell’s 2001 revenge belter “Hit ‘Em Up Style”, everything comes full circle and anyone who cares about American music has no excuse to miss them when they come in to town this summer, or to pick up Genuine Negro Jig, out now on Nonesuch Records.

Carolina Chocolate Drops from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Frightened Rabbit provided the first real exposition of the disaster principle of rock and roll, that everything will go wrong, we want to watch it happen and we want even more to watch a band pull though, the thrill of riding along the edge of chaos into the light. As they came into the Galaxy Room, the Glaswegians were already looking harried. Although this band of Scotsmen is rarely sunny by disposition, their dourness and desperation can be incredibly forceful and compelling, sounding like a thunderstorm across the glen. Still, they did not look like happy campers and as frontman Scott Hutchison tried different variations of UK-US converter plugs it became clear that his guitar pedals and their keyboards would not be willing to cooperate. As they became more wild-eyed and with time running out, they signaled back to their sound man, who came through the monitors saying, “Fuck it, this is the most rock and roll thing I’ve ever done.” So, making do with an acoustic guitar hooked into a direct input and some of their backing instruments, they tore into a shortened, sweaty and impassioned set. As born out by their excellent albums Sing The Greys, The Midnight Organ Fight and the recently released The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit play their hearts out. They did it in the face of adversity on a hot day in Texas and will surely do it again in more amiable circumstances at the Varsity Theatre on May 10th.

Later on in the day, Minneapolis locals and CakeIn15 faves City on the Make faced their own difficulties while playing a show on the swank stage at the Belmont. On the way down to Austin, singer Mike Massey lost his voice, and so when he took the stage, his blues rasp was deeper and rougher than usual. The band adjusted well, so that Peter Blomgren’s guitar and Stephen Rowe’s bass had extended playing time against Colin Stumbras’ drums and Massey’s upper registers were unaffected, leading to a fierce mix of high and low dynamics that made tunes like the soulful “Ships Across the Ocean” and Minneapolis summer classic “Chicks on Bikes” grind and pop. Later on at the Green Room Booking gig at Lambert’s, Ruby Isle was doing their thing with the lights on, which is not as dirty as it sounds and had the diminishing effect of stage wildness. Still, I really can’t wait for their new-wave cover album of Appetite for Destruction comes out this summer.

I’m going to try and catch as little Minneapolis music as possible whilst here, it seems like going on a package tour to Italy or Egypt and only eating turkey-mayo sandwiches. Speaking of food, and I am going to belabor this point, Austin’s street vendors put Minneapolis to shame. Where is our street food? We got these goddamn cupcakes from a truck! You can’t tell me that winter makes it impossible, there is so much we do only in summer that street food should be one of them. City Council member Gary Schiff, I am going to tag you in this note when it imports to Facebook, and I want you to get on it, mmkay? Because this is a travesty. Imagine if Rotisserie Brasa had a pulled pork sandwich stand on Nicollet. Let’s get on this.

Here’s where the Hipster Heirarchy comes in- Staciaann with her badge got into the NPR Showcase at Stubb’s with the Walkmen, Spoon, a very dimly lit Broken Bells show and an outrageously phenomenal Sharon Jones fronting her Dap-Kings. I, however, with my limited access wristband did not get in for any of that, but I did get to meet up with my best friend from college who I had not seen in far too long. She has become a dubstep DJ, and so we packed in underground at Barcelona to dance like crazy to some of the best current dubstep DJs, DreadBass Soundsystem and Eprom, both from San Francisco and Manchester, England pioneer MRK1. After mostly standing in crowds during the day, letting loose and dancing with friends to people doing what they love, that’s some beautiful freedom, and you couldn’t really ask for more.

Actually, you might ask for more linking, video and photo. We’re working on it. With limited bandwidth and capacity, uploading video is not the easiest. We will do a recap when we get back and clean everything up then. Love you all.

So take these best-of Twin Cities things, mix in the Bedlam Theatre, add a dose of Orwell, hysterical humor, paranoia and love and what do you get? Welcome To Dystopia, opening tonight. I can’t review it, because they asked me to do the video design and I am very proud of that work, especially how it plays in the space, so all I can say is, if you are looking for love in all the future places, get thee to the Bedlam. Get your tickets here, and come this weekend, because Jon Davis of Ghostband (who is part of the sound design team) has planned a whole mad Dystopia Days party. Do it, thank the Person In Charge.

Welcome to Dystopia Trailer from Carl Atiya Swanson on Vimeo.

Photo by Eric Melzer

Opening tonight, step right up, step right up! At the fabulous Southern Theatre, The Minneapolis New Breed, wonder of all wonders, three young companies, three provocative and sexy groups all on one joint bill for the first time ever! Not to be missed! SuperGroup will live up to their name! Mad King Thomas will issue dance edicts from fringes of taste! And Lamb Lays with Lion? Well, leave it to Lightsey Darst at mnartists.org to give an outsiders view of that: “I can’t tell whether Lamb Lays with Lion vs. Katie Mitchell’s The Seagull is a train wreck or a stroke of genius; I can’t even tell where the performances stop or start.” Which, ladies and gentlemen, is your life in motion! Opens tonight and runs through Sunday, $18 cheap!

***UPDATE 2/26***
Jay Gabler over at TC Daily Planet takes a look at all the action and proclaims himself right, and Staciaann shoots it all for Vita.mn. Three more shows, so take it all in with a tank full of gas and a head full of weird.