State of the Arts: July 7, 2009 Archive

Think art is for the weekends? Think again.

Posted at 8:49 AM on July 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Events

It's Tuesday, not even Humpday, and yet when you look at what's going on, it feels like a Friday. Take a look:

If you're free at lunch you could head over to Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University in St. Paul. Today is the final quintet round for the International Piano-e-Competition, and six pianists will each play with the Rosalyra quartet, starting at noon. And it's FREE.

Fountains of Wayne play an acoustic set at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.

At the Guthrie you can take in a performance of "When We Are Married."

Interested in cooling off? Take a walk through the Walker Art Center and stop by the lecture room for a screening of Bruce Connor's "Luke" - a behind the scenes examination of the filming of "Cool Hand Luke," starring Paul Newman. It plays on the hour, and runs 22 minutes.

Feeling sinful? Check out The Seven Deadlies at Bryant Lake Bowl tonight.

Art: it's not just for weekends.

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The monster in the house

Posted at 3:18 PM on July 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

When I saw this Slate.com article on the recurring theme of evil adopted children in movies, I just about punched my fist in the air and shouted "finally!" Ever since the trailers for "Orphan" began playing, I've been muttering "again?" under my breath. Evil children are almost as common as zombies in cinemas, and in many ways more unsettling. Jonah Weiner writes:

The plot device of the adoption-gone-wrong plays on a fear that the family will be infiltrated and torn apart by a malevolent outsider it's foolishly welcomed in... In these movies, the eruption of evil often comes hand in hand with the disruption of traditional family order...Time and again in the evil-kiddie canon, it's driven home that Mom and Dad can survive (if not prevent) their child's attack only by sticking together.

While Weiner focuses exclusively on the kiddies, I see the adopted-child-theme as just a subset of a greater genre: the alien in the family. And this genre is not just limited to movies; it goes back to our earliest stories. There's the evil step-mother (Cinderella) and the evil step-father (Hamlet). A new member in a close-knit family presents a threat, and we love to embody that threat with all sorts of awful traits, in order to further justify our loathing.

So do these stories help us, or hurt us? Or are they harmless? Why do we continue to tell them over and over?

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When we don't restore buildings

Posted at 10:09 PM on July 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture

In the New York Times, writer Nicolai Ouroussoff asks:

How old does a building have to be before we appreciate its value? And when does its cultural importance trump practical considerations?

The building that prompted Ouroussoff to ponder those questions is Kisho Kurokawa's historic Nakagin Capsule Tower, a rare example of Japanese "Metabolism."

But Ouroussoff could have as easily been referring to the old Guthrie theater, designed by architect Ralph Rapson. Both buildings represented unique architectural visions, but both buildings were also in a state of disrepair. And both buildings are of an era that's a little too recent to inspire concensus over their historic value. Ourroussoff continues:

...all too often, private developments like the Capsule Tower, no matter how historically important, are regarded in terms of property rights. They are about business first, not culture. Governments don't like to interfere; the voices of preservationists are shrugged off. "Want to save it?" the prevailing sentiment goes. "Pay for it."

Until that mentality changes, landmarks like Kurokawa's will continue to be threatened by the wrecking ball, and the cultural loss will be tremendous. This is not only an architectural tragedy, it is also a distortion of history.

While preservationists did argue for the rehabilitation of the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center (the owner of the land it stood on) deemed it too expensive, and not in line with museum's core mission.

Now, the most prominent set of buildings by Rapson left standing are at the Riverside Plaza apartment complex. They too are controversial, in a state of disrepair, and represent a modern vision that has since faded. It seems inevitable that they, too, will someday be torn down to make way for a new, more profitable development. Then what will we have left of Rapson's vision? Will we have distorted our own architectural history?

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