Lizz Winstead's 'Convention Guide for Us'

Across the river from where "artists" of one sort or another are clogging streets for the RNC is an underground movement designed to empower those who've been disenfranchised from the conventional system.

The circumstances couldn't be better for an incandescent performance by these explosively feisty, Grammy-award winning thrash rockers. They were in their pissed-off prime during the Clinton era, splintering into semi-retirement right around the time the U.S. Supreme Court was ruling on Bush vs. Gore. Consigning themselves to a smattering of gigs during two terms of Bush seems like a missed opportunity — or unbashed piñata — for band and die-hard fans alike.

This year, I arrived at the Minnesota Great Get-Together armed with details because Janet, Carol and Mark had already spent at least one 12-hour day scoping out every piece of seed art and every scarecrow in the Agriculture Building, every quilt and craft in the Creative Arts Building, and a selection of goodies in the new International Bazaar (mint lemonade!) and elsewhere (leprechaun legs!).

HARTFORD, CONN. -- At the Artists Collective in Hartford, there’s no graffiti on the walls. No one loiters on the corners of the collective’s block on Albany Avenue.

As St. Paul becomes the political locus of our national conversation next week with the onset of the Republican National Convention, a slew of musicians and acts are turning out in force to protest the Republican policies that have dominated our government over the past eight years.

Last year, 1,681,678 Minnesotans attended the State Fair. That means 3,485,423 stayed home. So, which bunch had the better idea?

Jeanette Winterson, "August 08" (essay from jeanettewinterson.com). From the author of "Written on the Body" and "The Stone Gods" comes this instructive riff on the highs and lows of creativity.

So, maybe you've never woken up in bed with two of your best friends and no memory of the night before. That shouldn't stop you from relating to the idea of lost evenings and awkward situations.

Here's the first question off just about anyone's lips when introduced to the new director of concerts and lectures for the University of Minnesota: What's going to happen to the Northrop Dance Season?

When I wanted to learn how to make sushi, I took a class at Cooks. Curious about Venice, I signed up for a Compleat Scholar course at the University of Minnesota. If I ever decide to try Bharatanatyam dancing, I’ll go to Ragamala. We live where classes are available on almost anything, including jazz.

Cee-Lo Green is a man meant for mirth, a puckish fun-lover with a mastodonic physique who gives as good as he gets in the belly-laugh department — he's the Fat Albert of hip-hop soul music.

The Loft Literary Center is dogged by a certain stereotype: its "typical student."

"True Blue," the opening song on "Vagabonds" – the February 2008 release that is the one and only solo album by Gary Louris –  is one of the best things Louris has ever written.

The Polyphonic Spree, "It's the Sun" (Friday, 5:53 p.m, The Current) and Death Cab for Cutie, "Soul Meets Body" (Sunday, same time, Cities 97). Two variations on the exact same auburn-absolution hue; thanks to all the deejays across the twin towns who honored the most glorious week of the summer by letting the sunshine, etc., in and reminding us to stop and smell the sunflowers.

Preservationists are fretting over the fate of the Bardwell-Ferrant House, a Moorish Revival house at 2500 Portland Ave. S. in Minneapolis. Two years ago, the 1883 house sold for $385,000 (minus about $7,700 in owner upgrades). Today, Countrywide Mortgage is trying to unload the foreclosed property for $229,900.

The Slim side of Morris Holt's moniker is off by a hundred pounds or more, but the Magic part is sure enough accurate, especially if you go by dictionary definitions No. 3 (the exercise of sleight of hand or conjuring for entertainment) and No. 4 (a mysterious quality of enchantment). For decades upon decades a bio like Magic Slim's has been wholly unremarkable: Born poor in rural Mississippi, migrated to Chicago, now stings the hell out of an electric guitar. But that Delta blues train is coming to the caboose: Slim turned 71 last week and he's one of the youngest.

Kennedy's 'White House' salutes first lady of the press

Driving through northern Wisconsin awhile back, I saw a roadside sign that summed up American inventiveness: "Cheese and Taxidermy." Give the people what they want, even if they aren't related.

Catch the energy and fast-paced reports of the "Solutions for the Other 90%" panel that brought home the ideas in the "Design for the Other 90%" exhibit at Walker Art Center.