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Max About Town

Max About Town

The vegetarian and the alligator: Reclaiming the top of the food chain at The Bullfrog

By Max Sparber | 08/09/11
I am going to take a brief break from covering the Fringe today to discuss alligator. Before I get to either of them, let me start with an introduction. I am, as some of you know, a vegetarian.
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The uses and abuses of imagination: 'Ex Gays' and 'Fletcher and Zenobia' at the Fringe

By Max Sparber | 08/08/11
One of the keys to the Fringe Festival is to pace yourself.
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Wrestling and the arts: The Crusher and Baron Von Raschke

By Max Sparber | 08/05/11
Like many people in the arts, I barely comprehend sports. I'm not constitutionally allergic to the undertaking, like many I know, but it's something like, say, endocrinology.
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Infographic: The MinnPost guide to the Fringe Festival

By Max Sparber | 08/04/11
This includes Max's own system of identifying the contents of a Fringe show, which mostly involves whether it has any sorts of monsters in it.
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Emptying the notebook: A variety of cultural recommendations

By Max Sparber | 08/03/11
Every so often, I wind up with a dozen or so things that I've done, none of which I really have enough to say about to make a full column, but all of which I have something to say about, and so I'm going to group them all into one column today.
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Food at the Fair and Hipstamatic war photos: The controversial aesthetics of information

By Max Sparber | 08/02/11
A few items today. Firstly, thanks to the FormFiftyFive blog, I have just learned about Minnesota designer Brian Danaher, whose website I have been perusing, and whose work I like very much.
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The tools of growing up: 'Terri' at the Uptown Theatre

By Max Sparber | 08/01/11
I saw a film called "Terri" this weekend, although I did so with no small amount of trepidation.
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Automatic music at The Walker; Women in crisis at Bryant-Lake Bowl

By Max Sparber | 07/29/11
The Walker Art Center had a group out from Los Angeles for the past two weeks called Machine Project, which hails from a storefront performance space in the Echo Park neighborhood and is, as they describe themselves, "a loose grou
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Behind the scenes at the Science Museum

By Max Sparber | 07/28/11
As regular readers know, I have a great interest in seeing the behind-the-scenes of museums.
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The First Avenger, or why I need to apologize to Captain America

By Max Sparber | 07/27/11
In 2006, in Omaha, I had about the most awful roommate I have ever had. He was a broad-shouldered young man who liked to roam around our shared house with his shirt off, often with his hands linked behind his head, thrusting his elbows out.
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A first preview of the Fringe Festival

By Max Sparber | 07/26/11
The Fringe Festival is almost upon us, and when I say it that way, it sounds like the last words somebody declares in a disaster movie.
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On the death of Amy Winehouse

By Max Sparber | 07/25/11
The big news in the arts this weekend was the death of soul/jazz singer Amy Winehouse.
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This weekend: cars, motorcycles and dance

By Max Sparber | 07/22/11
I recently watched a fascinating documentary about the Australian film industry's exploitation filmmakers, called "Not Quite Hollywood" and available for instant viewing on Netflix.
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Wood chippers, ghost stories, dog operas, and bad dancing

By Max Sparber | 07/21/11
I have to give the folks at the MN Film and TV Board credit for seeming like an awful lot of fun.
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Everything's coming up Down Under: The Topp Twins and Australian country music

By Max Sparber | 07/20/11
Today is the second day of my look at this new golden age of the documentary, as there is a perfectly marvelous film out just now called "Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls." This also gives me a chance to mention something poorly known
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Bad news: Errol Morris' 'Tabloid'

By Max Sparber | 07/19/11
I am very pleased to be living in the Golden Age of the documentary. There weren't many that made it onto movie screens when I was a boy, and now a well-made documentary is a staple of the art house circuit.
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Harry Potter, science fiction and fantasy, fan art and the future

By Max Sparber | 07/18/11
The Harry Potter franchise came to its inevitable conclusion this weekend. Or, at least, formally it did so.
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Festivals, ahoy! There will be a lot happening in the streets this week

By Max Sparber | 07/15/11
Nicollet Mall is always so exciting during the week, with its hustle and bustle of downtown employees, outdoor restaurant seating, and drunks from the ball game mingling with drunks from North Loop bars mingling with downtown's population of chronic
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A shadow festival: Max's alternative to the Walker's 'Location: MN' series

By Max Sparber | 07/14/11
OK, the Walker fest has "Fargo" and "Factotum," etc. My list includes "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Patti Rocks."
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The local pleasures of Etsy

By Max Sparber | 07/13/11
I suspect a good portion of the art I now own is from Etsy. The website, which started in 2005, seems to be a favorite among artists, and I can understand why.