Don't get us wrong, there are plenty of non-wholesome activities going on this weekend for your partying enjoyment. We do, however, plan to be good children this Sunday by paying homage to our Madres -- it's the least we can do, considering our out-of-control-teen phase that spanned from the late '80s to the mid '90s. Have fun this fine Spring weekend, but don't forget to do something special for your mammy!
xo-l'étoile
THURSDAY MAY 5TH
Pocket Lab Reading Series
@ Rogue Buddha Gallery
357 13th Ave NE
Minneapolis
7 p.m. / Free
In a flurry of belles-lettres, the Pocket Lab Reading Series returns to the Buddha on Thursday, featuring an absolutely lavish literary lineup (we can alliterate, too!). This month's clutch savvy scribes includes book artist and printer Margit Ahmann; award-winning poet and writer Terri Ford; seasoned poet and Assistant Editor for Switchback Books, Dolly Lemke; and young Chicago-based writer and Hotel Amerika editor, Jennifer Tatum-Cotamagana. For such a bite-sized gathering, we’d say it sounds larger than life.
Click HERE for the Pocket Lab blog
FRIDAY MAY 6TH (THROUGH SATURDAY)
FRIDAY ART PICK: PEDRO FRIEDEBERG
What's l'etoile looking at this week?
When André Breton--father of the surrealists--came to Mexico, he deemed it “the chosen Country of surrealism.” Enter: the trippy, psychedelic art of Pedro Friedeberg. Although the '60s artist claimed to be an idealist and “criticizer of the absurdity of things,” Friedeberg definitely had roots in surrealism, joining an anti-art, Dadaist group and surrounding himself with surrealist intellects including painter Bridget Bate Tichenor and spiritist Zachary Selig. His art ranges from Art Nouveau to the fantastic realism including references to Tantric scriptures, occult symbols, Aztec codices with nods to architecture. In fact, Friedeberg's love of design led him to produce gorgeous pieces of furniture, the most famed of which is the hand chair still sold in Sotheby's auctions today. But perhaps the most interesting spark of inspiration Friedeberg admitted was that his art was produced often due to boredom--if only everyone would create amazing art when bored! So, in the spirit of the great Friedeberg and Cinco de Mayo, l'etoile entreats you to CREATE!
Click HERE for the Pedro Friedeberg site
Cinco de Mayo
@ St. Paul’s District del Sol
To go with the warm weather, St. Paul is serving up some salsa – and a parade, live music, and a Lowrider car show at that! Such festivities can only mean one thing: the annual Cinco de Mayo fiesta, happening Friday and Saturday in St. Paul’s District del Sol. In addition to the usual Lowrider car and hydraulic shows, live music, and salsa tasting contest, this year’s fest will feature a jalapeño eating contest (the first to scarf down 10 peppers without water wins), a Cinco sports zone, and scavenger hunts leading up to the event (prizes include free margaritas at Boca Chica and eats from El Burrito Mercado). And, of course, Saturday’s calendar features the most colorful parade you’ll see all year. Hasta pronto!
Click HERE for the Cinco site
FRIDAY MAY 6TH
Cloud Cave
@ Burnet Art Gallery at Chambers
901 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis
6-9 p.m. / Free
Join the Burnet Gallery and local sculptor/installationist, Alexa Horochowski, for an evening of expediting caves, sailing ships and exploring seascapes, all sans Captain Nemo. In her latest exhibit, Cloud Cave, Horochowski seeks to manipulate every inch of the Burnet's elegant gallery space, constructing bronze chandeliers that hang from the ceiling “like a stalactite dripping from the roof of a cave,” ships that appear like apparitions gliding across the gallery's floors and more intricate, site-specific proxy landscapes. The exhibition's black and white palette is a subtle ode to Horochowski's love of black and white cinema, fantasy theatrical effects and the chimera of utopian environments. Not to be missed!
Click HERE for this art event and more at mplsart.com
FRIDAY MAY 6TH
MCAD Thesis Closing
@ Soap Factory
514 2nd St NE
Minneapolis
6 p.m. to 9 p.m. / Free
For all the sweat and tears the soon-to-be MCAD grads no doubt put into their work, it’s only fitting they’d send off their annual thesis exhibition with a final hoorah. For the past couple of weeks, The Soap Factory has showcased the work of 12 talented students and MFA program candidates from a variety of media, including drawing, installation, photographs, illustration, and indie comic book art, and Friday is your last chance to gush over it. Join the talented young guns for a closing reception complete with all the bells and whistles.
Click HERE for this art event and more at mplsart.com
installation by Stu Brown
FRIDAY MAY 6TH
Art?
@ Altered Esthetics
1224 Quincy St NE
Minneapolis
7 p.m. to 10 p.m. / Free
The dictionary defines the term art as “works produced by such skill and imagination.” But what exactly IS art? In their newest exhibit, titled “Art?”, NE gallery Altered Esthetics hopes to dive deep into the concept of art to discovered what it really means to be a piece of art and how we can start to see artsy importance in everything around us. For the month of May, zone out on pieces that question this typical idea of “art” and find out what really makes a work into a piece of art.
Click HERE for this art event and more at mplsart.com
FRIDAY MAY 6TH
Ivory Tower Launch Party
@ Nolte Center
315 Pillsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis, MN
5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. / Free
It's no secret l'etoile has a soft spot for literary zines, and nothing quite galvanizes the spirit like a top-notch locally-made zine. So, we're totally agog for the release issue and launch party for the U of M's undergrad art & lit zine, Ivory Tower. Catch riveting readings from Ivory Tower contributors and MN-based poet, Katrina Vandenberg. Plus, enjoy the musical stylings of local songstress and YouTube sensation, Reina del Cid, challenge yourself at lit trivia with prizes from local publishers, Milkweed Editions, Magers & Quinn, Espresso Royale, Punch Pizza, Tea Garden and others. Not to mention snag a fresh copy of the 2011 Ivory Tower issue and then join staff members, illustrators and authors at Pracna on St. Anthony Main for a lit-savvy after-launch-bash. Long live lit!
Click HERE for the Facebook event
FRIDAY MAY 6TH
Brick’s Spring Smash
@ Turf Club
1601 University Ave W
St Paul
9 p.m. / 21+
What better way to end your week and kick off your weekend than by enjoying a fantastic local lineup at the Turf Club? This Friday, Brick Management presents four bands of planetary greatness: Megonia, a South Dakota-original foursome bringing you traditional Appalachian banjo-style tunes that will make your heart swell for the last century; Courtney Yasmineh, a pop-rock gal with just the right mix of heart and teeth; Satellite Voices, a futurist pop band that never, ever fails to get the party started; and Blue Sky Blackout, who, after you’ve danced yourself dizzy to the first three bands, will shock you into a serious rock ‘n’ roll coma. Come on down (and don’t let the construction on Snelling scare you away).
Click HERE for the Facebook event
COOL LINK: THE COVETEURWhat's l'etoile lookin' at on the web this week?
You could say this week’s link is The Selby for fashionistas. See, where Tod Selby rifles through the junk drawers and bookshelves of some of the world’s most interesting people, The Coveteur’s Erin Kleinberg and Stephanie Mark head straight to the walk-in closets of the fashion elite, revealing not only gorgeous wares, but creative ways of showing them off outside of a closet, shoe rack, or jewelry box (we’re particularly fond of Interview magazine president Dan Ragone’s furry aviator hat by Helen Yarmak – which he displays on a Fornasetti plate). The Toronto-based closet peepers have featured the likes of Stephanie Winston, Lincon Center’s director of fashion; Joanna Hillman, Senior Fashion Market Editor for Harper’s; L.A. TV Personality Dan Levy; and stylist Logan Horne (the man behind Leighton Meester and Jessica Stam). Naturally, their discoveries will stop your heart. Sigh, if only they were available for raiding.
Click HERE for the website
SATURDAY MAY 5TH
The Best and Worst of Frank Gaard
CO Exhibitions
1101 Stinson Blvd NE Suite #2
Minneapolis
6 p.m. / Free
The Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA and the Smithsonian may house some of his works, but Minneapolis is where art vanguard Frank Gaard calls home. And by golly if we aren’t just bursting with pride about it. So much so, in fact, that CO Exhibitions has put together a best and worst (more best than worst, of course) exhibit entirely in his honor. More than two scores of Gaard’s signature tongue-in-cheek work will be ours to peep starting Saturday, including more recent collaborations with his wife Pamela and some large-scale pieces that haven’t been shown in years. In other words, you want to be there – for better or worse.
Click HERE for this art event and more at mplsart.com
SATURDAY MAY 5TH
Traffic Zone Annual Spring Open Studios
@ Traffic Zone Center for Visual Arts
250 3rd Ave. N.
Minneapolis
5:30 p.m. / Free
The time has come for Traffic Zone to swing wide its artily gates, so to speak. Saturday, speed to the gallery’s annual open studio event, where Traffic Zone artists will be offering a behind-the-scenes look at their individual work and creative environments. Artists include conceptual installation, object, and book artist Harriet Bart; North Dakota-born painter and printmaker Jim Dryden; abstract painter Jon Neuse; potter Kathy Wismar, and many more. Don’t miss this chance to brush shoulders with some of Minneapolis’ most established fine artists. Besides, there’s even a ground-floor wine bar. Just make sure you make it upstairs, okay?
Click HERE for this art event and more at mplsart.com
Painting by Jon Neuse:
SATURDAY MAY 7TH
Dearling Physique + The Danger Board + Buffalo Moon
@ Loring Theater
1407 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis
7-11:30 p.m. / $12 adv, $15 door
Skip the the-a-ta tonight, loves, and opt for an auditory hybrid of rhythm and flamboyancy. We're talking, of course, of tonight's triple header musical phantasm featuring three bands: two with their hearts in theatrics and one tragically sweet. To kick things off lay back and enjoy the breezy, pop-heavy sounds of local bossa nova outfit, Buffalo Moon, fronted by the sunny-voiced and adorable Karen Freire. Then, feast your eyes and ears on eccentric MPLS-based punk band, The Danger Board as they share the stage with everyone's fave local Björk-kindred, Domino, and the rest of the talent dark dramaturgic electronica experimentalists, Dearling Physique. If blinding lights are flashing, thunderous beats are cascading and winged & masked figures are dancing on fog machine-crested stages, you might be at this show...That or dead, we can't promise anything.
Click HERE for the Facebook event
Photo by Shuttertrip
SATURDAY MAY 7TH
Pegasus: The Gathering
@ Madame
3401 Chicago Ave S
Minneapolis
10 p.m. / $5
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Madame, the new collectively-run Queer art space in South Minneapolis, then this Saturday’s the Gathering could be your chance. The Gathering is technically an after party to the Northrup Auditorium’s presentation of The Whiz at Intermedia Arts, but don’t let that shy you away from joining in the fun at this progressive space if you weren't able to make the performance. On top of all the general fun, the Gathering will also be offering free, anonymous HIV testing from PrideAlive from 11p.m.-1a.m. Plus, DJs CREAM and SUGAR will be spinning tunes all night and performances from Rugburns, HomerrJHomo, DNML, Marsha Stoned, and Mel D will keep you in high spirits.
Click HERE for the Facebook event
SUNDAY MUSIC PICK: GRIMES
What's l'etoile listening to this week?
Montreal's Claire Boucher – aka Grimes – is adorable. No, more than adorable, just plain lovable. Her ethereal, electronic sound is reminiscent of Twin Peak's theme-songstress, Julee Cruise, whose mysterious, sublime, ghost vocals make you feel like you're floating above your mattress in a land of outer-limits pop. One could call Boucher's tracks “exotic lullabies,” as intoxicating as they are catchy. Paired beside musical inclusives, Nite Jewel and (now defunct) Sleep Over, Grimes manages to be the type of “weird” that is still accessible and relate-able – unpretentious dance music. Dig-able? Listen-to-able? Share-able? Check, check and check. Not to mention her dance moves have got our panties all in a twist.
Click HERE for the Grimes site
Editor in Chief: Kate Iverson // Contributors: Juleana Enright, Tara Sloane, Natalie Gallagher, Kate Iverson, Robyn Lewis, Jahna Peloquin, Lauren Gantner
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