A fairly fun time Loyalty and the lure of State Fair food attracted a jumbo-sized crowd to the opening of Tom Arndt's photo show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts last weekend. A snapshot would have shown photographers Lynn Geesaman, Chris Faust, Jana Frieband, Paul Shambroom and his wife, Joan Rothfus, a writer and former curator. Everyone munched mini corndogs, popcorn, M&Ms and Rice-Krispie bars-on-a-stick, the perfect food for Arndt, who takes in every fair he can find: state, county, small town and neighborhood.
MARY ABBE
Conduct unbecoming? Ouch. Former Minnesota Orchestra music director Neville Marriner doesn't fare very well in a Minnesota Public Radio-produced radio documentary about the orchestra that the BBC broadcast Tuesday evening in the conductor's native England. Then again, Marriner gave as good as he got. When his stint began in 1979 with a musicians' strike, Marriner said he was upset to encounter open disputes with unionized players in Minneapolis. During tours, "golf clubs were predominant" over instruments, he said, implying that musicians were lazy and indifferent. Outspoken oboist Basil Reeve fired back, giving Marriner low grades as a conductor. Back in the BBC's London studios post-documentary, MPR's Brian Newhouse played a Marriner-led recording of the MO playing a British composer (Britten). Perhaps this helped soothe ruffled British fans of Marriner, who was knighted in 1985.
CLAUDE PECK
LISTEN
to the MPR documentary at startribune.com/a/?4612
Mom always liked him best Mark Olson had just explained the meaning of "Life's Warm Sheets," the tune he and Gary Louris were about to play Saturday at the jam-packed Varsity Theater. But Louris needed more time to tune his guitar, so he asked Olson to talk a bit more. Olson explained how some things need to be aired out, "including bathrooms," prompting Louris to ask his longtime Jayhawks partner: "When did we become the Smothers Brothers?" Said Olson: "It's a natural progression."
JON BREAM
Memphis blues again While they didn't bring home the big prize, the Brothers Curtis -- guitarist/singer Curtis Marlatt and harmonica wizard Curtis Blake -- had a fine time at the recent International Blues Challenge in Memphis, onstage and off. "I was stumbling out of my hotel room one afternoon," Blake said, "and there was an elderly gentleman playing his guitar in the hallway." It was L.C. Ulmer, a recently rediscovered bluesman and star of the recent documentary "M for Mississippi." Black sat down and jammed with him, capturing an hour of their impromptu duo on video. They exchanged phone numbers and addresses, and hope to play some gigs this summer. "L.C. may be 80, but he doesn't drink and is in great shape," Blake said. "He even tap dances!"
