Twin Cities choreographer Emily Johnson has won a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship. Johnson is one of approximately 200 creative artists, natural scientists and humanities scholars to land the midcareer honor. Guggenheim winners receive varying amount of funding to support their work over a period of six months to a year. Johnson, who has performed at Walker Art Center and Northrop, is known for work is marked by intelligence, subtlety and striking imagery. Other Twin Cities-connected Guggenheim winners include writer Paul Lisicky, whose books including "Lawnboy" and "The Narrow Door" are published by Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press; poet Sally Keith, who is published by Milkweed, and poet Stephen Burt, a former Twin Citian who now teaches at Harvard.
Rohan Preston
Pulp fiction
Don't expect a presidential endorsement for John Kasich from the Coen brothers. In his 2006 autobiography, "Stand for Something," the Ohio governor put the Minnesota-based classic "Fargo" through the woodchipper, dedicating three pages to how offended he was by the movie's brutality and violence after he and his wife rented it. He even tried to get it banned from his local Blockbuster Video. His opponents in the presidential race have somehow restrained themselves from raising this issue, but one of the film's stars, Steve Buscemi, couldn't help but poke the bear Friday on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." After reading from the book, the actor participated in a parody skit in which he plays a very upset Kasich confronting a video-shredding store clerk, played by Colbert.
Neal Justin
Happy hunting
Minneapolis children's author Kate DiCamillo is a big fan of Little Free Libraries. "I love opening the doors," she wrote on her Facebook page this week. "I love anticipating the magic that waits inside." So when her publisher sent her a box of copies of her new novel, "Raymie Nightingale," she autographed several and then seeded Little Free Libraries. Given that the book doesn't pub until Tuesday, some lucky readers will get their hands on an autographed copy before bookstores do. Remember the etiquette, kids: Take a book, leave a book.
LAURIE HERTZEL
Stop and stare
Many people haven't a clue about how to look at art. At the Louvre in Paris, they spend an average of 15 seconds gazing at "Mona Lisa," probably while trying to snap a photo of her over the scrum of other visitors. Elsewhere, studies find viewing times range from 17 seconds to a max of 30 seconds. Now comes Slow Art Day, an annual international effort to encourage people to take a long look. Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis is staging — from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday — two simultaneous "slow looking" sessions in which visitors will look at three paintings for 10 minutes each and then talk about them with the artist. Just musing is fine; sketching or note-taking are OK, too. One session will focus on paintings by Minneapolis artist Dani Roach, the other on plein-air pictures by St. Paul's Richard Abraham.
Mary Abbe
Professor of rock
Once again promising to be as informative as it is entertaining, the Minnesota Music Summit snagged a Grade A music biz specialist as a keynote speaker for this weekend's event — Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery, who's also now a professor at the University of Georgia. The '80s college-rock vet and '90s alt-rock star will speak about digital-age issues at noon Friday at McNally Smith College of Music. That kicks off two days of seminars and mentoring sessions for musicians and music-related professionals at the college, all free with registration. The event is put on by the nonprofit Minnesota Music Coalition.
Chris Riemenschneider
Find more coverage of the arts all week at our pop culture blog startribune.com/artcetera and follow us on Twitter @entertain_mn.
