Building Bridges

Filmmaker Patrick Coyle's locally shot "The Public Domain" has been picked up by Landmark Theatre Corp. and will get its premiere at the Lagoon in Minneapolis on March 27, with more cities to follow based on how well it sells here. The film is about four strangers whose lives are connected by the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in 2007. It also has been tapped to screen at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival in April and the Duluth Superior Film Festival in June. Actor Beau Bridges plans to attend the premiere to see his daughter, Emily Bridges, who plays one of the lead roles. "The Public Domain" is the second movie to wrap production that has received Legacy Amendment public money from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The first, William Eigen's "The Jingle Dress," opens Friday at St. Anthony Main. (See our review on page E6.)

Kristin Tillotson

That's all, Fulks

That bad compound adjective that "A Prairie Home Companion" had to edit out and apologize for in Robbie Fulks' song "Where I Fell" last weekend also goes against the Star Tribune's profanity policy and was thus left out of our report. In a related note, the local rock group we often mentioned a half-decade ago was not really called the "G.D. Doo Wop Band." As if thumbing their noses at us uptight Upper Midwesterners, the staff at Fulks' hometown newspaper the Chicago Sun-Times did print the words when reporting about the incident. Fulks himself did not directly address the ruckus, but a news item on his website Monday about his possibly snowed-out gig that night carried the headline: "Tonight's [bad compound adjective] show."

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Quiet, we're filming

Sam Green's film "The Measure of All Things," showing at Walker Art Center on Friday night, has a local connection: the anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs, used to test product noise levels. The film features some of the quirkier world-record holders around, and Orfield's chamber, where the noise level is less than minus-9 decibels, holds the title of quietest place on Earth. "People think it's deep in a forest in Chile or something, but no, it's in Minneapolis," Green told I.W. So don't the sounds made by shooting a movie defeat the purpose of portraying the most silent place ever? "Yeah, that was the challenge," he said. When he was in the chamber with lab owner Steve Orfield, he heard a clicking noise. "It was the artificial valve in his heart. I could hear my neck turning. That was kind of gross." The film screens Friday at 7 and 9 p.m., with a live score by former Minneapolis musicmaker T. Griffin, ex-Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and violinist/vocalist Catherine McRae.

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

Emily Bridges in “The Public Domain.”

No place like home

At the launch of his new story collection, "There's Something I Want You to Do," Twin Cities author Charles Baxter looked around at the standing-room-only crowd in Micawber's Bookstore in St. Paul on Wednesday and suggested that he cut his talk a little short. All those people standing, in winter coats and boots, couldn't be comfortable. Nobody seemed to think that would be a good idea. Baxter, a National Book Award finalist for "The Feast of Love," wrote his new book — a collection of 10 stories, five about virtues, five about vices — after going through what he called a "dry patch" when he wasn't writing much of anything. "I started going through some old notebooks," he said, "and I came across some old pages from 30 years ago. This is how old they were — they were typed." At the end of the evening, Baxter looked out at the crowd, at his brother, daughter-in-law, students, colleagues, fellow writers and friends. "I'm going to be on this book tour for some time," he said, "and I just have to say I don't expect ever to be in a room with so many people I care about. So, thank you."

LAURIE HERTZEL

All about that bass

Kristen Bruya has been named the Minnesota Orchestra's principal bass. Her first scheduled concerts are this week, when she will join the orchestra in a program featuring Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World." Bruya is the first principal musician the orchestra has appointed since the 15-month lockout ended in January 2014. Two other musicians have been hired since then, violinist Cecilia Belcher and bass trombonist Andrew Chappell. A native of Missoula, Mont., Bruya has been a member of the Toronto Symphony and the Nashville Symphony.

Kristin Tillotson

It's a pleasure

Drawing a younger, more diverse crowd than you'd find in many of the larger dance venues in the Twin Cities, "Pleasure Rebel," the seasonal performance series curated by Nastalie Bogira at the Bryant-Lake Bowl, was packed Wednesday. Deja Stowers, last seen at Walker Art Center's "Choreographer's Evening," enticed the lively crowd to mock a tampon commercial with her in a piece that brought down the house. Anna Marie Shogren, who has moved back to the Twin Cities after years in Brooklyn, passed out texts by famous writers to read along as she improvised to the likes of Bob Dylan, Rachmaninoff and Jane's Addiction. Chitra Vairavan, for her part, drew from her background in contemporary Indian dance to create an evocative and spirited piece.

Sheila Regan

Way out there

Was it the weather? Or has Walker Art Center finally gotten it right after more than 25 years of running the Out There series? Whatever, attendance for the four-weekend series of edgy performance art and theater hit a record last month. The Walker sold 3,077 tickets to the 12 performances. That compares with 1,805 last year and the previous record of 2,735 in 2012. Philip Bither, the Walker's senior curator for performing arts, was understandably pleased that "so many found the works to be full of new ideas, worthy provocation and sometimes great fun."

Graydon Royce