Upcoming stuff

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:57 PM |

 
Little Shop of Horrors: Three performances left!
Mary and I caught Ten Thousand Things Little Shop of Horrors tonight and it was way beyond our expectations which were already very high. A wonderfully dark musical that really offers no hope for the fate of mankind but does it in a really entertaining way.

This is a musical with some good doowop ditties and Peter Vitale (drums and keyboard) and Jennifer Rubin (bass) created a layer of music that grooved beautifully. Yeah. Two people. White Stripes has nothing on them.

If you haven't seen a 10,000 Things show, this is a wonderful introduction to their work. This group can hold its own against any of the major venues in town and for our tastes, surpasses them all.

Three shows left on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. Reserve tickets here.

Read my last 10000 post here.

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 9:30 PM |

 
Unwiring Community
If you live in Minneapolis, Wi-Fi antennas will soon be marching across pole tops to your neighborhood. By the end of the year (current projection is November), we should be an unwired city.

There is a Community Technology Celebration in conjunction with the Downtown-Cedar-Riverside wireless rollout. This will be on Thursday, June 14, at the Downtown Central Library from 4 p.m. to 6:30.

One of the items under discussion will be creating neighborhood and community portals. I want to urge those of you already working with citizen media (bloggers, podcasters, vloggers) to come and discuss the potentials of actively participating in the larger conversation that we are already enjoying online. We need to begin the process of converting the municipal wireless system into a true community wireless system.

Historically Minneapolis has always had a strong community journalism system. In recent years, the number of community and neighborhood papers has shrunk. Many that remain are often published by a single group that can share staff and publishing costs to cover many neighborhoods. It's just too expensive for every neighborhood to try and afford a newspaper staff.

The Web has reduced publishing to almost zero once you have hardware and a connection to the Internet. The plan is for the community portal system to provide free tools for getting messages out via blogs, news feeds, audio, or video. This will be an integrated system and location specific with your community page displayed when you are in your neighborhood.

Of course hardware and connectivity costs are still an issue for many which is why Minneapolis has established a Digital Inclusion Fund Advisory Board with money contributed by US Internet as part of their agreement with the City. There is $200,000 in the fund now with another $300,000 coming when the network is finished. (I am a member of this Board.)

This Board will entertain proposals to provide Internet access and hardware to all. Potential solutions for the digital divide problem might include computer refurbishing programs, free accounts, or more funding for community technology centers. The Board will also look at training and education for new users and providing relevant multilingual content.

More meetings have been scheduled to coincide with the USIW construction schedule.

• Midtown and South; June 28, 5:30-7, Midtown Global Market
• Southwest, July 19 & August 19, 5:30-7, Lyndale-Farmstead Park
• North, September 13, 5:30-7, Shingle Creek Commons
• Northeast, Oct. 18, 5:30-7, Logan Park
• South & Southeast, November 1, 5:30-7, Nokomis Community Center

Check for changes and details here.

Labels: broadband, CityLife, digital_inclusion, events, minneapolis, wireless

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:15 PM |

 
Wi-Fi Antenna MIA
Please note the picture at the top of the page which is a Belair Wi-Fi antenna outside my window, part of the Minneapolis muni wireless. Those of you who follow the blog know that I once linked to the Internet via that antenna during the pilot project.

Well the antenna has disappeared. So has the one on the corner. My block is without antenna.

What happened?

1. There are upgrades going on so maybe they are coming back with a new and better antenna.
2. No one on my block is subscribing so they moved the antennas to a block with subscribers.
   
3. St. Paul (our twin city) is stealing the antennas to start their own municipal Wi-Fi deployment.

I think I'm at a meeting with one of the principals of US Wireless. I will let him know about the missing antenna and maybe he will have some answers.

Stay tuned.

Labels: broadband, CityLife, minneapolis, USIW, wireless

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:33 PM |

 
See this play. Seriously.
Little Shop of Horrors as done by 10,000 Things.

Here's what The Rake says:

A few months back, it was asserted in the pages of this magazine that Ten Thousand Things has great taste in literature. We stand by that assessment -- even now, as the company readies a production of an American musical that to some would appear gauche. The Little Shop story line is about as absurd as it gets. (It is, after all, a spoof of a '60s B-movie.) But the cult musical boasts an irresistible bebop score as well as a lovable cast of characters. In the hands of Ten Thousand Things artistic director Michelle Hensley, these elements get stripped down to expose their underlying darkness. What's more, a fine group of local character actors inject nuance into what is normally a big-voiced Broadway-style production. Writer, actor, improviser and all-around funny-man Jim Lichtscheidl plays geeky Seymour. Kate Eifrig, fresh off her run as Janis Joplin in Love, Janis, plays Audrey. One of the Twin Towns' preeminent physical comics, Luverne Seifert, appears as the evil Orin Scrivello, DDS. Hensley has a surprise in store for the character of Audrey II, the blood-feeding plant; she isn't giving any specifics, but teases: "It'll be VERY different; it won't be the traditional Audrey" (i.e., no giant, molded-foam puppet growling "Feed me, Seymour.").

Here's what PF Hyper says .

Here's where you make a reservation.

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:00 PM |

 
Must See! 10,000 Things Little Shop of Horrors
Those of you following along saw me rave about Ten Thousand Things theater last fall when they opened their season with The Merchant of Venice. They followed that up with Lorca's Blood Wedding in March and they've just opened the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Yes. A musical. They do them well.

The actors on the stage at a TTT production are the same ones you see at the Guthrie, Jeune Lune, and the other hot venues in the Twin Cities. The difference is the sets (virtually none), the script—pared down to the basics because they often perform for groups that haven't seen much theater, and the lighting—whatever the room lighting happens to be. The groups they perform for are prison inmates, the homeless, and the disabled.

They do a bunch of free performances at the social venues that they serve so there really is no excuse to miss them. You do need reservations. Check the schedule. (Sorry, they won't let you check out the prison shows but you can see them free at places like St. Stephen's Community Center and the Dorothy Day Center.)

They also have paid performances in Minneapolis on June 15-17 and 22-24. Tickets are $20.

Check the 10,000 Things site.

Bonus Link. American Theater article on 10,000 Things.

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 8:45 AM |

 
Minnebar Two
Minnesota's second Minnebar Unconference will take place April 21 in St. Paul's Lowertown at the Railroader Building, 235 E. Sixth St. Sign up at the wiki.

We were crowded last year at Catalyst Studio (thank you Catalyst!). The Railroader has more room and two floors.

No audience or presenters at an unconference, just participants and discussion leaders. List sessions you're interested in both leading and attending at the wiki.

Watch for an April 20 icebreaker. Last year it was at Acadia and it gets my vote for this year too.

Check out the Minnebar06 archive.

via Ben

Labels: CityLife, events, minnebar

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 8:47 AM |

 
Wireless in Minneapolis
The new Wi-Fi mesh in Minneapolis is slowly making its way across the city. I live in the pilot area so I've had a chance to play with it since July. My access ended recently as USI Wireless (the new US Internet entity for the wireless deployment) began selling accounts in the pilot area.

If you are in the Seward Neighborhood area (around 24th Ave. S. & Franklin), you can check out the USI "Minneapolis Portal" login page. Check for USI Wireless where your network SSIDs are listed. Load a new browser page (or restart the browser in some instances) and you should be at the portal where you can pay $9.95 for a day of wireless browsing (or $3.95 for 15 minutes - yikes!). (I don't know if you can actually pay-&-browse yet but the technology is there.)

If you live in the Seward area, you can also subscribe to the system for $14.95/month (1-3Mbps) or $24.95/month (3-6Mbps). The subscription service is in place as they sent out a mailing a while back.

A comfortable place for wireless exploration would be the 2nd Moon Coffee Shop at 2225 East Franklin Avenue. You should be able to see the USI Wireless network there and you can browse the Web via the free wireless at 2nd Moon if you don't want to pay USI for some browsing time.

Here is a map of the Wi-Fi access points in the Seward Neighborhood. As far as I know, this is the only accurate map. The one the City released last year was pre-deployment of the antennas and is almost completely off.

The downtown Minneapolis area is supposed to have access soon or maybe it's there already. Anyone downtown seeing the network?

The Official Minneapolis Wi-Fi Portal Page has all sorts of links to City information. I don't think any of the links work yet. Eventually, this page will serve as a Walled (or Civic) Garden, allowing anyone with a Wi-Fi connection free access to City and neighborhood information. What will be available in the Garden is under discussion and if you have ideas, please let me know as I'm on the committee that is working on this. (Comments are always best to keep a discussion going but if you're shy, email me at pfhyper [@] gmail DOT com.)

One idea put forth by Michael Maranda, a community activist out of Chicago, is that all .gov, .edu, and .org should be made available. His reasoning is that this will serve as a free access system for low income users who can't afford a monthly fee. It will also be a somewhat "safe" Internet to allow Net Newbies to get their feet wet.

(Please don't bring up the "free Internet for all" discussion. I agree with that but it ain't going to happen here in the near future. The best we can do is increase our garden space as much as possible.)

Labels: CityLife, wireless

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:50 AM |

 
Minneapolis Snow Notes
The biggest snowstorm for this century in Minneapolis started late Friday evening and is continuing on through Sunday. I will estimate over 12 inches so far.

We had to get out early so Mary could teach a class at the YWCA. The alley was plowed; the street was not plowed. This didn't make any sense as I would think it would be better for cars to get stuck in the alley rather than in the street. But we made it with our little Chevy Prizm. I've loads of experience driving in weather like this.

Then the shoveling. The snow was fairly light so it wasn't too much work.

I would love to see a snow day tomorrow but it's unlikely. I work at the University of Minnesota and they rarely close for snow.

Click the image below to see some pictures at Flickr.

Labels: CityLife, snow

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:02 PM |

 
10,000 Things Season Opener: The Merchant of Venice
Ten Thousand Things is a local theater company that performs at homeless shelters, senior centers, prisons and basically anywhere where you wouldn't expect a talented theater group to perform. Most of their shows are at non-theater venues and most of their shows are free.

They explain it better than I in their mission:

Ten Thousand Things brings lively, intelligent theater to people with little access to the wealth of the arts -- who in turn help us to reimagine theater.

Performing at homeless shelters, prisons and other low-income centers, using the region's finest actors, this bare bones, high quality theater company invigorates ancient tales, classic stories and contemporary plays through its search for raw, open interactions between actors and audiences.

Minneapolis is blessed with an awesome theater community and many excellent companies. You can rank TTT right at the top. There is a rumor (which I believe) that actors have turned down higher-paying Guthrie work to be part of a TTT production.

Mary and I discovered them in 2001 when they performed The Most Happy Fella by Frank Loesser, a musical that we'd never heard of but sounded interesting. Plus they were getting excellent reviews.

Since then, we haven't missed a performance.

According to their history page, the company has been around since 1991. They started out in Los Angeles and it looks like they moved to the Twin Cities around 1995. (The production history only goes thru 2002 but TTT has performed regularly in all subsequent years with a full schedule this year.)

The Merchant of Venice runs from Oct. 19 until Nov. 19 with paid public performances the weekends of Nov. 3, 10, and 17. Tickets are $20. There are free public performances starting Oct. 23. The paid performances are showcases for the theater public, held at a comfortable location like the Open Book on Washington Ave. The free performances are at shelters and community centers. Check their schedule here.

Besides Merchant, TTT will perform Lorca's Blood Wedding in March and The Little Shop of Horrors by Harold Ashman, in May.

If you do go to a performance, let me know or tell them that pfhyper.com sent you when you reserve. And remember, they are supported by our funds so if you go and you like it, donate!

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:58 PM |

 
Theater: Ten Thousand Things
We went to see the Ten Thousand Things Theater Company perform Antigone recently. The script was a new version written for the group by Emily Mann. I found it a bit strained in relating the ancient Greek times to our current President and his war but overall, the acting was excellent. It always is.

Ten Thousand Things (TTT) staged the play for the general public over two weekends (six performances) at two different venues and charged $20 for each ticket. Value-wise, the money is well-spent if you like excellent drama. No one else can out-perform this group overall.

But these few public performances are for fundraising. The company's mission is to bring theater to those who rarely see it. From their mission statement:

We perform at homeless shelters, prisons and other low-income centers, using the region's finest actors, to bring to life plays by Brecht, Shakespeare, Beckett and Fornes.

Their latest tour included six correctional facilities, a couple of homeless shelters, and work centers for disabled. Because their tours rarely include a real performing stage, sets are minimal, often consisting of common objects like a step ladder where they hang things to create the scene.

The actors and actresses that work with TTT are top-notch. Rumor has it that some have chosen parts in TTT over Guthrie work (and more money).

I'd give you some links to recent cast listings but their Web site doesn't list them. In fact, the site is seriously out of date. Best I can do is a production history page that hasn't been updated since 2002. It does go back to the very beginning though; Michelle Hensley started the troupe in Los Angeles in 1991. (We are so lucky that she migrated to our city.)

M. and I give some money to the group. I realized at this last performance that TTT is a very low overhead operation so our money likely goes a lot farther than it would if we made contributions to the Guthrie or some of the other MSTs (main-stream theaters) in our area. Plus they are bringing their art to prisoners and the poor.

Go to a show. Next up is Gertrude Stein's In a Garden. It's scheduled for March of next year.

Then consider a donation.

Labels: CityLife, events, minneapolis, theater

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:21 PM |