Item World: Kacey Musgraves badgers MN crowd; Garrison Keillor pays for poems; more

Award-winning country singer Kacey Musgraves is the kind of person you want to hang with. She's smart and smart-alecky, charming and mischievous, clever and wacky. She might get you into trouble but she is quick-witted enough to get you out of the jam. Last Friday at the State Theatre, she reminisced about having spent her birthday last August roller skating in Burnsville. (She was in town opening for Katy Perry.) Then when she mentioned last week that she'd been in Wisconsin the night before, the Minneapolis crowd booed. She quickly realized that there must be a Wisconsin/Minnesota rivalry (wondering out loud if it was sports related) and then teased about it the rest of the night by whispering "Wisconsin" at unexpected moments. She's a fun and funny one, that Texan is.

Jon Bream

Fame has not tarnished the aw-shucks charm of Twin Cities photographer Alec Soth, which is a good thing since the denizens of Artland are salivating over him these days. His signature alone is worth $99 at the online store of Magnum Photos, the international agency that handles his work. That's the markup as of Thursday when a signed, first edition of his new "Songbook" — originally priced at $60 — was on offer for $159. Just two weeks earlier Magnum was touting the same autographed books for $109. With a first printing of 5,000, the book is nearly sold out nationally. Walker Art Center has sold its entire shipment, but the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is holding 30 copies for a Soth book signing on March 12. Or, peruse 22 "Songbook" photos for free at Weinstein Gallery in south Minneapolis.

Mary Abbe

Joe Minjares, the Minneapolis comedian/ actor/ restaurateur, has two upcoming moments. Friday night he trots out a new stand-up act at the Parkway Theater next door to his Mexican establishment, Pepito's, at 48th and Chicago in Minneapolis. On March 6, he makes a brief appearance in the premiere episode of the ABC docudrama series "Moment of Truth," which retells real-life stories about scrapes with death. In one segment, Minjares plays a bush pilot who rescues a family whose own plane has crashed in the wilderness. When he hits some dense fog, his plane crashes into a mountain, killing him and his TV daughter, but the family survives. I.W. hopes that Minjares' stand-up gig turns out better than his one on TV.

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

Imagine a comic book convention – but everyone is wearing their geek cred on their feet. Sneaker heads will invade Target Center on Sunday for the fifth Twin Cities Sneakers Art Xchange to trade, buy and just nerd out over rare footwear. We're talking Air Jordan Concords, custom Foamposites and Red Octobers. This gathering is the brainchild of Studiiyo23, an Uptown Minneapolis shop that is ground zero for the latest in sneakerdom. (An event ticket gets you a seat at the Wolves game on Monday.) Besides footwear, TCSAX5 will have art displays, music and food. Here's I.W.'s question: Will anyone be wearing the highly coveted Yeezy 3s?

Maybe it was an audition to host "A Prairie Home Companion" as a couple. Or maybe it was just Abigail Washburn playing all her Minnesota cards in a homecoming concert. In any case, the singer/banjoist and her banjo-god hubby Bela Fleck were all about local references Wednesday in St. Paul. In an ad-libbed lyric, Washburn, an Edina High School alum, rhymed "St. Paul" with "thaw" and "Twin Cities" with, well, an expletive that means crappy. She did an impression of her grandmother from Sanborn, Minn., and when she whined about some challenge in life, Fleck gave her flak: "It must have been tough growing up in Edina." She immediately gave him a fist bump for his spot-on comment.

Jon Bream

Proprietor Garrison Keillor has upped the total prize money to $5,000 for Common Good Books' annual poetry competition, and he's come up with a new theme — "Dear You." The bookstore is looking for poems in the form of letters — and they don't have to be nice ones, either. Just poetic. And to real, living people in the United States. One poem, previously unpublished, per person. Entries must be snail mailed to Common Good Books, 38 S. Snelling Av., St. Paul, MN 55105 by April 4. Winners will be announced on April 19.

Laurie Hertzel

Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to, um, mess with and neither is the Negroni. The only other thing the great rap collective and the classic cocktail might have in common is Marin's drink menu. The restaurant's Library bar, tucked in Le Meridien Chambers hotel in downtown Minneapolis, features Negroni variations with Wu-inspired names. Accordingly, Marin is throwing a tribute party to Wu-Tang's debut album, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," with T-Wolves scratchmaster DJ Mad Mardigan playing cuts from the record, starting at 9 p.m. Friday.