Culturology Calendar 10-13

by Travis Ryder

The First Friday concept of synchronized art events and openings throughout a community is now firmly in place in Grand Rapids.  Our own cultural man-about-town, Guido, delivers this field report on the grand opening of this local First Friday last week.

Call for Artists

Deep Portage Learning Center is seeking black ink drawings of wild animals, fish, and birds that are native to the north-central Minnesota area.  The winning artist's drawing will be featured on Deep Portage's 2012 critter art mugs. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2011.  Send your drawings to Deep Portage Learning Center, Attn: Linda Suvada, 2197 Nature Center Drive NW, Hackensack, MN  56452.

Thursday, October 13

The Minnesota Orchestra continues its residency in Grand Rapids.  Their string quartet will perform and visit with us here in the 8 o’clock hour.  They have Kinder Konzerts aimed at preschoolers at 10 today at the Reif and 2 at the Library.

The Classic Movie Series continues at the Edge Center in Bigfork: On Thursday, it’s It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable. The reel starts spinning at 6:30, and admission is free.

The Crossing Arts Alliance annual meeting will be at the Gull Lake Yacht Club on Thursday night.  This will be preceded by a fundraiser mixer for the Alliance featuring appetizers, wine tasting, music, and clay artist Haddie Hadachek.  The event gets started at 4:30 at the yacht club in Brainerd.

The acclaimed play that gets philosophical about dust: The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl, at Wild Rose Theater, Bemidji.  Thursday through Saturday, and Monday at 7, and Sunday at 2.

It’s opening weekend for the vaudeville show with a cast that’s 100 percent eligible to join AARP.  The 55-and-better cast of the Geritol Frolics has performances at the newly-refurbished Franklin Arts Center auditorium Thursday and Saturday at 7 and Friday and Sunday at 2:30.

Friday, October 14

Friday brings another Kinder Konzert by elements of the Minnesota Orchestra, this time at the Grand Rapids YMCA.  The Orchestra’s conductors join us in the studio at 3 as they program an hour of music. The full Orchestra performs at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids at 7:30.

Saturday, October 15

A youth fiber art workshop will be held at the Bemidji Community Art Center, as part of their textile exhibit that runs through October 22.  Call the Center at (218) 444-7570 for more information.

Brainerd has a family Great Pumpkin Festival Saturday afternoon.  Activities include three-legged races, sack races, pumpkin rolling, and contests in the disciplines of pie eating, pie throwing, and screaming. It’s at Gregory Park in Brainerd from 1 to 4.

At the Reif Center, the Minnesota Orchestra has a Family Concert at 2:00, and the Classical Concert at 7:30, closing their residency in Grand Rapids.

KAXE presents the Great Northern Radio Show: Hard Time Good Times, live from Hibbing Community College Theatre.  Free admission; be in your seat by 4:30.  Or, listen to KAXE from 5 to 7.

Deer Camp: The Musical, featuring the original cast, at the Edge Center in Bigfork Saturday at 7 and Sunday at 2.

I think harpsichords are underexposed in general.  It’s not often that you hear one harpsichord.  On Saturday, there will be four of them expertly playing a newly-commissioned piece, along with a string quartet.  This spectacle starts at 7:30 at Thompson Recital Hall on the Bemidji State campus.

The Roe Family Singers are at the Chief Theater in Bemidji Saturday night at 7:30.  They do originals and contemporary takes on old-time songs.  They’ve won a jug band championship as well as the McKnight Fellowship for Performing Artists.

Wednesday, October 19

A high-flying combination of new-music and verbal artistry, For the Birds is a musical journey through dreams and fantasies depicting portraits of our feathered friends. It is a brand-new chamber work, which highlights the poetry of humorist, Kevin Kling and new-music champions, Zeitgeist, a group composed of percussion, piano and woodwinds based out of St. Paul.  Wednesday, 7:30, at the Reif Center, GR.

Minnesota History Datebook

Oct. 14, 1853: St. Paul begins the slow process of numbering buildings with 20 Robert Street, which was home to a dry-goods store called Cathcart, Kern & Co.'s Crystal Palace.  Ever try to find a street number in St. Paul?  Do you notice how the numbers just keep going and don’t have anything to do with the intervening cross streets?  I’m guessing they never changed the numbering scheme, started this week 158 years ago.

Oct. 12, 1892: The first car of iron ore travels from Mountain Iron to Duluth. Shoveled straight out of the ground, it assays at 65 percent iron.  Today’s taconite pellets are about 65 percent iron, too, but require a labyrinthine process to get to that same purity level of the original ore.

Oct. 15, 1971: the Minnesota Supreme Court rules that the state's prohibition of same-sex marriages is constitutional. It’s the first such case in the United States, involving two men who sued when the Hennepin County clerk denied them a marriage license. This prohibition still stands and next November, voters will decide if it should also be included as a Constitutional amendment.