Snoop Dogg still has the touch

There's probably not a smoother rapper in the land than Snoop Dogg, nor has there likely ever been a better local display of his sly-talking antics than his first of Tuesday's two sold-out shows at the Cabooze. The venue was quite a step down for the Doggfather, but it was a genuine thrill seeing one of hip-hop's more successful performers doing his G-thang in such a small venue.

While highlights included "Gin and Juice" and "187," this concert wasn't just an old-school affair. Decked out in sleek shades and a yellow/black hoodie, the charismatic antihero opened with his 2009 rouser "I Wanna Rock" and quickly rolled into "Kush," the lead single from the forthcoming Dr. Dre album "Detox." Weirdly, he never got around to his own new single, "Wet," but he didn't need it to set a libidinous tone for the show.

Returning to the stage shirtless mid-show, Snoop delivered some of his sultriest and most overtly horn-dog tunes, including "Sexual Eruption" and "Beautiful." What really set off a lot of women in the crowd, however, was the surprise appearance of Warren G, who walked out and delivered his mid-'90s hits "This DJ" and "Regulate," and then disappeared just as quickly. Snoop also paid homage to another of his old cronies with a medley of Tupac Shakur tunes.

Chris Riemenschneider

A comeback of Myth-ic proportions

The suburban club scene is about to get a whole lot bigger -- again. Myth, the giant Maplewood nightclub that opened with so much promise in 2005 only to close in 2009, has a new owner.

On Monday, the Maplewood City Council approved a liquor license for Mike Miranowski, who has taken over the lease at the 40,000-square-foot space. The club closed in August 2009 after a rocky financial spat between owner Michael Ogren and investor Steven Sadowski. Miranowski was tight-lipped on specifics, saying it was too early to talk about a reopening date or who would be booking the bands.

"The intentions are to have live music and club nights and corporate events and that's about all I can comment on now," he said.

Karen Guilfoile, Maplewood's director of citizen services, said the liquor license was approved with several conditions. Guilfoile said Maplewood police will do several unannounced compliance checks during the club's first year of operation. The club also needs to secure a bevy of new parking spaces. It currently has 371, which would allow for just more than 1,000 patrons. The club's capacity allows for more than 4,000. Guilfoile said Miranowski is trying to work something out with a neighboring mall parking lot.

Miranowski will also have to meet with Maplewood's police chief to discuss crime issues. The old Myth had its share of problems, including a shooting on the night of a Lil Wayne concert.

"We don't want the business to be a drain on our public safety," Guilfoile said. "But we also don't want a big empty building sitting there. We wish them well."

Guilfoile said Miranowski was a former "upper level" employee at Myth and has 20 years of experience in the bar business.

Tom Horgen

Mallman's 'Appetite' suppressed

Who in their right mind would devote time and resources to making an electro-pop version of Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction"? The one and only, piano-pounding madman Mark Mallman with his side project Ruby Isle, that's who. The album was available online last week until it was abruptly pulled from iTunes by Kindercore Records (which is operated by Ruby Isle's electronic wizard Dan Geller), due to the label's inability to secure publishing rights. Ruby Isle has a CD release party Saturday at the Triple Rock, but sadly, the song-for-song remake of the hair-metal masterpiece will not be available at the show.

"I know there was talk that it might happen," Mallman said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "[Kindercore] is not a big label and they can't really afford to get sued. So, when our lawyer told us, 'You guys better stop selling this,' that was kind of it for the people at the label. I was kind of bummed at first, but my point in making this wasn't to sell it anyways. My point was just for people to hear it and find something enjoyable in it."

If you're itching to hear what a synthed-out version of this party-anthemic album sounds like, don't fret. Mallman's publicist said Spinner.com is scheduled to begin streaming the album as early as Monday -- you just can't buy it. On Tuesday, Mallman posted a cryptic, if temporary, link on his Twitter account to a feed where fans could download the album for free.

Mallman and Geller initially decided to cover an entire album after partnering with indie blog aggregator Elbows to do their own versions of indie hits by artists like Fleet Foxes and the Decemberists.

"We agreed on 'Appetite' because of how it really opposed the vernacular of what electronic music was, even though you party to electronic music and at one point people partied to metal," Mallman said.

Saturday night's gig will likely be the last for Ruby Isle for quite some time, "in light of recent events," Mallman said. But who knows what life after "Appetite" has in store like for this imaginative rocker?

"That record's kind of in my rearview mirror," Mallman said. "I'm just [moving] onward and upward and trying to rethink music every day."

Michael Rietmulder

Movies from women stand out at Sundance

PARK CITY, UTAH -- Women made just three of the top 100 movies at the U.S. box office last year. In contrast, nearly a quarter of the 117 feature films at this year's Sundance Film Festival have female directors. In this environment, said film producer Annie Sundberg, women's voices are more clearly heard.

"I don't want to use the word 'affirmative action,' but Sundance has been very good at championing new voices," the Edina native said in a café at this snowbound ski resort. She prefers to call the festival's programming "gender-neutral."

Sundberg's documentary, "The Bengali Detective," is a project that no studio marketing meeting could produce. It follows a real-life Calcutta private eye who is working a triple homicide case while rehearsing with his dance troupe in hopes of appearing on a national televised talent competition. The investigator, Rajesh Ji, is so lovable that Fox Searchlight Pictures bought the rights to create a feature film inspired by his adventures in India's underworld, and on its dance floors.

"The Future" from indie icon Miranda July is more eccentric than life. July has created a comedy narrated by a cat, with a speaking part for the moon, and scenes of Los Angeles frozen in time. July stars as a young woman who persuades her slacker partner to put their lives on hold while they adopt a tabby with one month to live.

A gamut of emotional violence forms the backdrop to Danish director Susanne Bier's Oscar-nominated "In a Better World." Her film follows a pacifist doctor working in a sub-Saharan refugee clinic and his schoolboy son in provincial Denmark, who is drawn into a violent vendetta.

Wayzata-born Amy Wendel got to know students from all walks of life as a seventh-grade instructor in the Teach for America program, an experience that informed her naturalistic debut feature "Benavides Born." It follows a high school girl hoping to win a college scholarship at the state powerlifting tournament. Wendel's feature moves through unpredictable, lifelike detours.

Kelly Reichardt's minimalist frontier story "Meek's Cutoff" stands the usual western on its head. The focus is on the women in a three-family wagon trail wandering lost along the Oregon Trail in 1845. There is no gunslinger drama; star Michelle Williams fires a single shot. The film's real concerns are the gender politics of an era that kept women literally blinkered with bonnets, and America's follow-the-leader mentality.

"When you read the journals from that era, when people are setting out they are so excited about the place they're going to they make it sound like heaven on Earth," Reichardt said. "I'm filming the part of the journey where the entries are like, list of chores." A woman's viewpoint on U.S. history, if you will.

Colin Covert

Kevin Smith's 'Red State' to premiere at State Theatre

Minneapolis will be one of the first cities to see Kevin Smith's self-financed roadshow release of his fundamentalist horror film "Red State." The controversial satire of Christian intolerance will come to the State Theatre on March 9.

Charging a premium ticket price for "The Red State USA Tour," which will include Smith's trademark extended, funny and profane Q&A sessions, the ever-unconventional Smith expects to recoup the film's entire $4 million budget before the film opens theatrically around Halloween. Smith, who has a loyal base of followers, is confident they will pay "probably six, seven, maybe 10 times" the usual multiplex ticket price to see the film, himself and star Michael Parks in person.

It could work. Smith auctioned off two tickets to the buzzed-about Sundance premiere Sunday for $1,000 (which he donated to benefit the Sundance Institute Labs).

Colin Covert

Soth photos in NYT Magazine

Portraits by Minneapolis photographer Alec Soth fill the cover of the New York Times Magazine's Jan. 23 issue. On assignment for the magazine, Soth went to Rockford, Ill., and photographed people in their workplaces to accompany a story about the Obama administration's efforts to revive the economy with a new jobs policy. As the magazine put it, Soth's photos "illustrate the human dimension of Peter Baker's cover article on the economy." See the photos at www.nytimes.com/magazine.

Mary Abbe

Birchwood hires Becht

Phillip Becht is ending his seven-year run as chef at the Modern Cafe. He's headed to the Birchwood Cafe, taking the title of operations manager.

"I've never worked at a restaurant that had an operations manager, so I'm not quite sure what that means," said B'wood owner Tracy Singleton with a laugh. "But we came up with this job description after barely surviving this past summer. I'm not complaining that we were busy. That's an awesome problem to have. But Phillip is going to make this thing work better."

Which means not cooking. "This will allow Marshall [Paulsen, the restaurant's longtime chef] to be in the kitchen a lot more," said Singleton.

"I'm not the chef, and I'm excited about that prospect," said Becht. "It's a good move for me, and I hope that it's going to be a good move for the Birchwood. I'm sad to leave the Modern. But this is also going to bring new vigor and new excitement to the Modern. It's good for everyone."