Item-World: Blood, but no béarnaise

Blood, but no béarnaise Theatre Pro Rata opened its new season with playwright Tracy Letts' nasty, brutish crime drama "Killer Joe" last Saturday at a new space in St. Paul. At the interval, as ItemWorld threw back a double-whiskey to steel ourselves for Act 2, we noticed a lobby poster with checked boxes listing potentially off-putting onstage occurrences. "Warning," it warned. "Killer Joe' contains nudity, cigarette smoke, strobe effects, simulated drug use, violence and adult themes." The advisory contained just one unchecked box: "French cuisine."

CLAUDE PECK

Gray matters What should John McCain and Barack Obama wear for their last debate? Surely not the funereal uniform -- dark suit and white shirt --each sported Tuesday night. "It was too stark for both of them," said Darrell Pavelka, who sells locally for Tom James, a custom clothier that makes suits and puts together wardrobes for CEOs, politicians and other poobahs. "I would've done a lighter charcoal, maybe even mid-gray, because gray connotes confidence and gravitas without looking as restrictive as the dark suit did on Obama. McCain's more folksy style softened his suit, but a blue shirt would make him look younger than the white one did." So does Tom James outfit any prominent Minnesota politicians? Not that Pavelka was aware of. Probably not a bad thing for his company's reputation, since the last time we sat in on a legislative session we saw more comb-overs and bad plaid than on a Carol Burnett rerun.

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

Guthrie East? We were all seated around a Ralph Rapson-designed thrust stage and in the audience we spotted John and Sage Cowles, Phil von Blon, Sheila Livingston, Diane Brennan and Joe Dowling. Damn you, Mapquest! Had we taken a wrong turn and ended up at a Guthrie opening night? No, we were in the right spot -- St. Paul's History Theatre. The luminaria were out for the premiere of "Tyrone & Ralph," Jeff Hatcher's delightfully easy-to-watch piece on the relationship between Sir Tony and the man who designed the original Guthrie.

GRAYDON ROYCE

The mystery excerpt Talking Volumes guest Richard Russo reminisced about Paul Newman at the Fitzgerald Theater Tuesday night. The novelist worked with the late actor on three movies, including the HBO version of Russo's Pulitzer-winning novel "Empire Falls," Newman's last screen acting project. At the end, Russo read a prose excerpt about railroad workers in the Midwest, then announced it was from a novel by Minnesotan Jon Hassler, who died earlier this year. The tribute was touching, especially when Hassler's widow, Gretchen Hassler, stood up in the audience for a round of applause.

Oh, so quiet To describe Ray LaMontagne's raspy whisper as hushed is probably generous. That's why the emo hippie singer/songwriter didn't fare well when he battled chatty (and lubricated) crowds at the Fine Line in 2005 and the Orpheum in '06. So when some dude Saturday at the State Theatre robustly requested, "Turn it up," LaMontagne mumbled: "You're at the wrong show, man."

JON BREAM

Snapshot Too bad no paparazzi turned up at last Friday's opening of a Minneapolis Institute of Arts tribute to photo curator Ted Hartwell, who died last year. A fast shutter could have caught a cross-section of the local photo scene, including photographers Tom Arndt (whose 40-year retrospective opens at the museum in February), Stuart Klipper, Vance Gellert and Howard Christopherson, and gallery owner Martin Weinstein (who will be showing Alec Soth's photos in Paris next month). Hartwell's photographer son Joe flew in from Connecticut, and his widow Carolyn was on hand with their three children: Theo, Franklin and Louise. Conspicuously absent, however, was the MIA's newly appointed photo curator, David E. Little, who is finishing his work at the Whitney Museum in New York.

MARY ABBE

Weezer by the people Weezer gave about 30 local fans who auditioned through 93X the chance to perform during its first encore last Friday at Xcel Energy Center. They came armed with guitars, bongos, accordions, wind instruments, you name it. Rivers Cuomo called out one guy with a washboard who admitted he'd bought the thing only a day earlier. A more experienced trombonist pulled off the guitar solo in "Beverly Hills." Andrew Duszynski of New Hope, 26, who was among the guest guitarists, said they rehearsed beforehand with real guitarist Brian Bell, but otherwise they only got to hang out backstage with a guy from the band's label. "He told the whole group that we were much better than the Chicago group they had the previous night," Duszynski said. Oh, sweet victory.

Blue Sunday Sunday evening, fans and friends will celebrate the life of Eddie Berger, the local bebop legend who died last weekend. Besides being the Twin Cities' finest alto saxophonist, he was a longtime KFAI radio DJ, a teacher to many noteworthy reed players and an inspiration in his dogged battle against emphysema. A hipster to the end with impeccable taste and a great sense of humor, Berger was beloved and respected statewide. So expect lots of fond storytelling and swingin' sounds -- modern jazz, of course -- at the Artists' Quarter from 5 to 9 Sunday.