Item World: Radio wars at First Avenue; Morello loves Babes in Toyland

As a kid growing up in Apple Valley, graphic designer Eric Helmin was such a fan of "Batman" in the Michael Keaton era that he decorated his entire room, right down to the doorknob, with posters, decals and Bat-phernalia of all sorts. So when he got to work on the set of "Birdman" last year, he was doubly thrilled to do a photo shoot with Keaton. "We only got about 30 seconds with him, but he's such a pro, he can make different poses using just his eyebrows," said Helmin, who recently moved back to Minnesota to take a design job with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Helmin also helped Wes Anderson's brother, illustrator Eric Chase Anderson, create some of the more distinctive props in "Moonrise Kingdom" — those whimsical 1960s-style jackets for Suzy's books that never actually existed, including "The Francine Odysseys." While still a student at MCAD, Helmin got his first movie job as an unpaid intern on "A Serious Man" with the Coen brothers. How'd he land that plum gig? "I was sitting around at school one day and this vague request came in from career services," he told I.W. "I found the script online somehow, read it and stayed up all night putting together a portfolio." That's a serious young man.

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

It was still two days before 89.3 the Current's castoff jockey Barb Abney took the airwaves in her new 8 a.m. to noon slot at Go 96.3 FM, and the budding turf war between the two local alterna-rock stations was in full bloom Saturday at Sleater-Kinney's sold-out First Avenue show. Opening act Lizzo personally invited Abney up to introduce her at the concert, which wouldn't have seemed out of the norm except for the fact that the Current was the sponsor of the show. Adding to the awkwardness, Jade Tittle — Abney's replacement in the Current's midday slot — then came out to introduce the headliners. Lizzo did diplomatically thank the Current later in her set, and only the Current got a special on-air appearance with two of three Sleater-Kinney members, a "Theft of the Dial" segment that airs Friday at 7:30 a.m.

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Who do you call to introduce you when you're playing your first gig in 18 years? One of your old high school pals. The old friend of Maureen Herman, bassist for Babes in Toyland, happens to be guitar great Tom Morello. He took the stage at the Roxy nightclub in Hollywood last week and said: "I've been looking forward to this night for a long time. I fell in love with Babes in Toyland on the Lollapalooza tour in 1993 when they toured with my band Rage Against the Machine. They were a ferocious band of antisocial socialites who rocked as hard as they were kind. " He talked about Herman, Kat Bjelland and Lori Barbero individually and as a group. He was honest. "In the intervening years the members of Babes in Toyland have gone through hell. But each one of them looked the devil square in the eye, gave him the old Minneapolis middle finger and said, 'you can't get the better of me, mister, because me and my bad-ass sisters still got some [bleeping] rock 'n' roll to play!' " Then he declared: "They were, and remain, a kick-ass, take no prisoners, great rock 'n' roll band." Ryan Seacrest, move on over and give Morello the mic.

Jon Bream

To combat what is usually the slowest, grayest time of year, author Louise Erdrich will hold a midwinter celebration and open house Sunday at her bookstore. Birchbark Books will be open extended hours, with hot cider, cookies and Erdrich herself signing books and reading from her latest work-in-progress off and on between 5 and 8 p.m. A number of gift items will be raffled, including signed first editions and broadsides, a hand-stitched star quilt and other items. Raffle tickets are $5 and can be bought at the store at 2115 W. 21st St., Mpls., or by calling 612-374-4023. And while you're there, browse the stacks. After all, you can't spend the final icy days of February curled up with a good book unless you have a good book.

Joe Haj, the new Guthrie Theater artistic director, has struck folks as a guy who wants to deepen the theater's ties in the local community. As for building shows that might transfer to New York, "New York is just a place," Haj told I.W. "If we made a play that turns on the community and some New York producer wants it, that's fine. But the tail can't wag the dog. It's not central to my mind."

Graydon Royce

Last summer at First Avenue, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne remembered a local radio outlet playing their song as they pulled into town for the first time to play 7th Street Entry in 1985 (probably KFAI or Macalester College's station). Talking by phone last week ahead of Tuesday's trilogy-ending Lips gig at First Ave, the Oklahoma rocker also vividly recalled an in-store performance in 1993 at Northern Lights Records just around the corner from First Ave. "It's pretty famous in the legion of Flaming Lips recordings, and it was the day Frank Zappa died, which I mentioned in a speech on the recording," Coyne told I.W. "That's the thing about Minneapolis: The clubs, the record stores, the radio stations have always added up there to create something bigger."

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER