Boiled in Lead, the legendary Minneapolis folk band, performed at the Mabel Tainter Theater on Saturday night. They’re promoting their new album, Silver. It’s been nearly ten years since I last heard them in concert, and I shrieked like a teenager when my friend Susan told me she had tickets. They played Macedonian tunes, Estonian […]
Author Archives: jonnagjevre
Poetry Fix: Blake
An impassioned prologue by one of my favorite poets. A great Q & A at the end. O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue To drown the throat of war! When the senses Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed Fight in […]
Laika
Nick Abadzis’ Laika is a fictionalized account of the short life and sad death of Laika, the Soviet space dog. Be forewarned: it’s a three-handkerchief, bucket-of-tears kind of novel. Laika’s story is one of loyalty and trust repaid with callous abandonment and deception, and the injustice of this tale resonates deeply. “Do not worry,” Laika […]
Fantasy matters a lot
…so says Neil Gaiman, who was the keynote speaker at the Fantasy Matters Conference this weekend in Minneapolis. He read the opening chapter of his new (as-yet-unfinished) novel The Graveyard Book, which was really quite charming, spooky, and lovely. I gave a scholarly presentation on Peter Jackson and Hayao Miyazaki, and I was very glad […]
Rosie Cotton
I’m not usually one to dress up for Halloween, but this year I decided to go as one of my favorite female characters from The Lord of the Rings: Rosie Cotton. You’d think that Eowyn or Arwen would have been my choice for a Halloween character, but that would have been a little too obvious. […]
Global Voice: Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen is touring the States with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in both King Lear and The Seagull. Last night–on one of the knight’s few nights off–he was the Guthrie Theater’s speaker for their annual “Global Voices” forum. It was a delightful and inspiring event. Looking relaxed and happy, McKellen strolled onto the […]
“Reader, I married him.”
I went to see Alan Stanford’s adaptation of Jane Eyre at the Guthrie Theater on Sunday night. I’m trying to remember the last time I was so deeply moved by a live performance, and I’m not able to come up with anything. Jane Eyre was just stunning. Having loved Jane Eyre for thirty years (and […]
Poetry Fix: James Wright
A gently uplifting poem: epiphany puncturing alienation. “A Blessing” Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into […]
