Early Prince for a price

When photographer Robert Whitman mounted a show this year in a Los Angeles gallery of Prince's pre-Warner Bros. publicity photos, his lawyers heard from Prince's lawyers. Whitman didn't have a model's release for those photos taken in 1977 for brochures to help Prince land a record deal. "We're selling them as fine art," Whitman told I.W. last weekend at the Minneapolis opening of the show, which runs through Nov. 16 at Douglas Flanders Gallery, 818 W. Lake St. Yes, 30-by-40-inch black-and-white photos of Prince with a giant Afro are going for $3,500. Smaller ones cost as little as $1,500. At one point in the mid-1980s, Prince's management company contacted Whitman about buying the negatives, but the managers never followed through. Whitman, formerly of Minneapolis and now of New York City, hasn't heard from Prince's people about the Flanders show. But he noted: "Prince is litigious."

Jon Bream

Ready to Rock 'SNL'

With word getting out that he will play one eight-minute montage instead of the usual pair of one-song appearances, Prince fans around the world seem extra pumped for his return to "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. Foremost among them is this week's host, Chris Rock. All of the promo spots made by the stand-up king center on Prince, including one in which women scream off camera every time he says "Prince." Rock also wrote a short essay in Billboard this past week screaming his love for "Purple Rain" on its 30th anniversary. He said of the album, "There's no 'Baby Be Mine' on it," referring to a filler track on Michael Jackson's "Thriller." He also recounted going to repeat screenings of the movie the day it came out: "We were all like, 'Where the [expletive] is Minneapolis?' "

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Talking the Dog

The Twin Cities blues community lost one of its characters with the Oct. 16 cancer death of Tim "Dr. Dog" Bradach. A dapper charmer from the hippie heyday, he ran two record labels (Cold Wind and Narnian) that released albums by Big George Jackson, Doug Maynard, Lamont Cranston Band, Lazy Bill Lucas, the Liquor Pigs and Lynwood Slim, among others. Bradach was even better known in canine circles, earning his "Dr. Dog" moniker by judging dog shows all over the world while breeding giant schnauzers and marketing his own line of dog shampoos. In a picaresque career, he owned a Wisconsin blues bar for a while and played Louisiana-style rubboard with the original Liquor Pigs, and with Wain McFarlane, Spider John Koerner and several jug bands. Bradach was always great barroom company so it's apropos that his memorial gathering will be at Palmer's Bar on Minneapolis' West Bank. The stories, and there should be some doozies, start at 3 p.m. Saturday.

TOM SUROWICZ

Photographer Robert Whitman and an exhibition of his Prince photos at Douglas Flanders Gallery. At right, a detail from one of his contact sheets.

Where the women aren't?

Female composers remain almost entirely unrepresented in the concert programs of major U.S. orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra. That is among findings of a new study by a writer attached to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Ricky O'Bannon pooled the 2014-15 classical concert seasons of 21 orchestras and looked at ages and gender of composers, whether composers were living or dead, and the countries of origin of composers being played. Female composers represent 1.8 percent of the works performed. When looking at works by living composers, those by women increases to 14.8 percent. In the current season, the Minnesota Orchestra will perform one work by a female composer (Polina Nazaykinskaya's "Winter Bells") Nov. 13-15, and pieces by two female composers (Kati Agocs' "Perpetual Summer" and Loren Loiacono's "Stalks, Hounds") as part of the Future Classics program on Jan. 16.

Claude Peck

Dylan or Garth?

Let's be honest: There's probably not much overlap between Bob Dylan and Garth Brooks fans. Except maybe Garth himself, who recorded Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" (even before Adele did). When told the final evening of Dylan's three-night stand at the Orpheum next week coincides with the opening of Brooks' 11-show run at Target Center, Garth told I.W.: "That's not tough for me at all. I'd miss Garth Brooks' first night."

Jon Bream

Wind-powered beer

Got a spare $500,000? You could be the owner of a wind-powered farmhouse brewery. Specifically, Dave's BrewFarm less than an hour out of the Twin Cities in Wilson, Wis. Founder Dave Anderson and his wife, Pam Dixon, are selling the pastoral brewery and 35-acre plot where Dixon ran a community-supported agriculture farm. The couple wrote on its website that the decision is not out of "financial necessity, marital discord or physical health issues" and that Anderson plans to stay in the brewing game. The popular mini-road-trip destination for local beer fans will remain open in the interim.

Michael Rietmulder