Rock on
At the memorial service for longtime Twin Cities recording engineer Tom Tucker, 63, Saturday at St. Joan of Arc church in south Minneapolis, churchgoers clapped after every reading and remembrance (by his children, ex-wife, current partner, best friend's wife, etc.) and every musical performance (by Mary Jane Alm, Pamela McNeill, and others). The mourners roared with laughter after singer Jevetta Steele expressed her trepidation when she first met Tucker about a white man recording black church music. Then the Steele family quintet performed the stirring gospel tune "I Go to the Rock" in memory of Tucker, and the congregation responded with a roaring standing ovation. The Rev. Jim DeBruycker then stepped to the microphone and declared: "I feel like the whitest white man in Minnesota." -JON BREAM
Stadium-sized audience
In one webcast, the Minnesota Opera reached more than 11 times as many people as did the live production of "Werther" last month. This was the first time the opera company sent one of its performances out on the Web, in a collaboration with SoundQue and OperaMusicBroadcast.com. James Valenti and Roxana Constantinescu starred in the opera, which reached more than 77,000 households in 18 countries. Minnesota became the first major American opera company to webcast its work in this way. Allan Naplan, president and general director, said the company "not only efficiently reached a much broader audience than what is possible in the house, but the webcast also distributed an operatic experience of the highest artistic quality." Bravo! -GRAYDON ROYCE
Will play for Slim
There probably won't be a lot of Irishness in the Mad Ripple St. Paddy's Day Hoot for Slim other than red-haired host Jim Walsh's zeal. But the spirit of it should be truly celebratory and holy, considering the tip-jar money and guaranteed good vibes will go toward beloved local music legend Bob "Slim" Dunlap, the Replacements guitarist who is recovering from a severe stroke. Curtiss A, Dan Israel, Ashleigh Still, Martin Devaney, Joe Fahey, Katy Vernon, Ben Glaros, John Swardson and many others will play. (8 p.m. Sat., Amsterdam Bar & Hall. No cover.) -CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
The Graywolf collection
The National Book Critics Circle announced the winners of its annual awards, and -- whaddya know? -- there's Minneapolis' Graywolf Press front and center once again. Graywolf, in recent years, has published one other NBCC award winner, collections by two Nobel-winning poets, one National Book Award finalist and a collection of poetry that won the Kingsley Tufts Award. This time around, it was Geoff Dyer's essay collection, "Otherwise Known as the Human Condition," which took top honors in the NBCC criticism category. The judges said that London-based Dyer is a "critic par excellence who showed his love of his various subjects in tour-de-force language." Dyer's book collects 25 years of essays and articles on topics ranging from art, music and literature to personal essays. -LAURIE HERTZEL