People often ask me for suggestions as to party venues. Not that I host many parties…but I’m pretty good at finding them! And some of my very favorite soirées tend to happen at spaces normally dedicated to the arts, including museums, art and photography galleries, theaters, sculpture gardens, pottery studios, college art department classrooms, and places like The Loft Literary Center, where you can rent space for so little, you might feel like donating extra.

Topping my list for the year so far is Karl Reichert’s birthday party Saturday night at the Capri Theater in North Minnepolis. Transformed into Studio 44 by Karl’s partner Reynaldo Diaz, an artist and DJ, and friend Edgar Nieto, the place thundered with ’70s music and shimmered with disco balls and sequin-attired dancers.  read more »

DIVA NOIR is the high energy, fashion and entertainment event of the Twin Cities social season, and yours truly will be there with bells on! (Well, with sequins on, at least.) Inspired by Film Noir, a genre of dark and sultry film, DIVA NOIR will celebrate the iconic Femme Fatale by honoring 12 powerful, socially aware women (ages 20-60) from our community who show up strong, sexy, exciting, independent, unrepentant and with no intention of reaching the tragic ending!

I’ll be announcing these spectacular women and their costume designers as they arrive at the VIP Reception at 6 p.m.

The annual DIVA event has raised more than $2.5 million for HIV/AIDS services in our community. For tickets, call UptownTix at 651-209-6799 or click here. Ticket prices range from $35 (advance non-dining Big Show and Late Night Party ticket) to $150 per seat at a Patron Table with Diva-licious Cocktails, Dinner, Live Auction, Big Show and Late Night Party. See you at DIVA NOIR!

The rugs that I’d sent out for cleaning last week were due for delivery at noon Friday. After several botched scheduling attempts (neither his fault nor mine), Larry showed up at around 4 p.m. with my rugs.

Larry looks like a rug delivery guy: low-hanging pants, faded sweatshirt, baseball cap, substantial paunch. The look is deceptive. Larry is a rug delivery artist.

Before placing the Persian onto my dining room floor, he asked if I’d intended for the Dan Mason painting on the wall to be centered there. “It…well, yes…,” I stammered. “Hmph,” he replied, critically surveying the painting.

His eyes darted from corner to corner of the space. Hoping to be useful, I tugged at the carpet pad. “Uh-uh-uh,” Larry said. “Let me do that.” Tap dancing over the pad, he put it squarely in place. I watched him place the heavy log of carpet at the narrow end of the room, lifting and dropping repeatedly until it was centered and straight. Then he rolled it out with his hands, and I knew better than to interfere.  read more »

At a party in her honor tonight at the home of Grace and Jack Harkness, theater aficionado Shirley Moore pronounced her feelings about Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake at the State Theatre: “I liked it. I’d go again. It was a new take on something old, and it worked,” she said.

Everyone listened because Shirley knows the performing arts. She knows because she GOES. “I go out every night,” said the energetic social worker/whirler and widow of WCCO TV anchor legend Dave Moore.

Most of the people who gathered tonight, including my former Spamtown neighbor and Cross Country Journal publisher Knowles Dougherty, are members of the University of Minnesota’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), billed as “a health club for the mind,” through which Shirley Moore leads popular courses such as Twin Cities Theater and Dinner and Winter City Adventures.

From the OLLI website: OLLI members pay an annual fee of $195. Your membership is good for one full calendar year from the date you enroll. It entitles you to participate in two courses per session, and as many open activities and summer programs as you wish. Additional courses are offered on a space available basis. Fixed income or short on cash? OLLI offers a $120 scholarship to anyone who requests it. That means a full year’s membership would cost $75. Sounds like a great deal to me!

Just finished this week’s show and am planning tonight’s ultra-casual wardrobe for the Theatre Unbound 24-Hour Play Project at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, followed by Minneapolis City Council member Lisa Goodman’s birthday party, a fly-by at Jitters Cafe and Martini Bar, where friends-of-friends are gathering, and finally the Funky Beat party at sculptor and eventioneer Brant Kingman’s northeast Minneapolis studio, featuring live music by Chill 7 and, at midnight, aerialist Risa Cohen, whom I saw on New Year’s Eve and can’t wait to see again.

I want to thank everyone who called the show today, especially those of you who called from the St. Paul Winter Carnival after the Grande Day Parade. We heard from the Royalty, the Klondike Kates, the Ice Sculpture event, the Snow Sculpture event, and the Vulcan Krewe. We did not hear from Mayor Chris Coleman, however, and I am a bit disappointed about that. I figure he must be a bit overwhelmed with the sheer fun of it all, given that this is his first Winter Carnival in elected office.  read more »

Okay, so I had a bad hair day, but that didn’t keep me from sidling up to world-famous painter, TV/movie producer, illustrator (Cranium board game, The New Yorker), humorist, and my friend Michael’s hero Gary Baseman for a photo op at Ox-Op Gallery. After standing behind him (not a bad view, by the way) in a line that seemed unending only because he so generously adds illustrations to the books he signs, I was pleasantly surprised to see, when he turned around, that the artist is as cute as the characters he paints—and that he has no visible wounds. For some reason, I received custodianship of flexi-mascot Toby, whose little leather tummy nestled into my palm with the pleasant heft and squishiness of an orange. Part of the fun in meeting Gary (yes, we’re on a first-name basis now) was watching him display equal charm in addressing do-ragged bikers from Grumpy’s as he did in squatting down to chat with children.  read more »

Friends,

If you’re checking in to see when the show starts, relax—it’s not until next Saturday the 14th (update: 21st), as the station is still juggling producers. (Rather amazing to watch, epecially when they light ‘em on fire.)

Great crowd Thursday night at Marysburg. So much fun to see y’all and sing some tunes again after a month-long hiatus for the holidays. Of course now there’s one more reason to hang out at Washington & 3rd on Thursday nights, in addition to J. D. Hoyt’s, the Monte and the Burg—it’s The R Factor at the new Trocadero’s, just up the street. My heart is still racing a full day and a half after hotboy Emil Campbell (red suit, at right) brought that portable mic all the way into the dining room and sang to me. (Hear it? Thumpity-thump thump!) Jimmy May, I hope that photo you took turns out.  read more »

Extra “Happy New Year” points for recognizing the tune paraphrased in that headline!

I hope the year 2006 is off to a great start for you. I had a great time party-hopping, and started my New Year’s Day with a healthy antioxidant breakfast of blueberries and yogurt, thanks to the doggie bag sent home with me by hostess-with-the-mostest Barb Brin, at whose house my friend Karl and I rang in the new year.

The Southern Theater event was remarkable, too, and not just because of the food. Check out the entertainment lineup:  read more »