The whole thing about being the "daughters and sons of no one" pretty much flew out the window during http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=102018www.vita.mn/event_detail.php. With participants ranging in age from barely legal to nearly AARP-ready, the 'Mats marathon once again showed just how deep-seated the band's musical lineage remains in the local music scene -- albeit, some of it quite bastardized.

As with last year's "Let It Be" revival, the centerpiece Friday was the live re-creation of 1985's "Tim" album with a different singer for each song and a house band featuring Ryan Smith and Pony Hixon-Smith of the Melismatics, Peter Leggett of Heiruspecs and guitar wiz Terry Eason. That part of the show flowed a little less smoothly this year -- "I'll Buy" was derailed when nobody could find would-be vocalist Jim Walsh, who was probably still in the Entry. Johnny Solomon's "Kiss Me on the Bus" was also pretty lifeless, which often happens when sheet lyrics are enlisted. But the Communist Daughter frontman did come up with his own good line: "I've been to jail more times than Paul Westerberg."

The show had its ecstatic moments, too. Pretty much the whole second half of the album was keenly stirred/stirring, starting with a perfectly bittersweet "Swinging Party" (sung by Ben Kyle of Romantica) and an anthemic "Bastards of Young" (sung by Pink Mink's Arzu Gokcen, who called it "sacred") and then a slithery "Lay It Down Clown" with mean slide guitar from Eason and vocals by Dale T. Nelson. First-timer Erik Hendrickson, who landed the gig via a YouTube video submission, deserves big props for nailing "Dose of Thunder" -- especially since he did so without spilling his PBR tallboy.

After more than six years in business, a hard-hitting economic downtown and a relocation, the beloved design shop ROBOTlove has announced it will be shutting its doors by the end of the year. The news came last week in an e-mail from owner Kristoffer Knutson, who avoided citing a reason other than "hav[ing] my weekends free for the first time since 2004." Though Knutson has declined to comment further on the closing, it's likely that the time commitment played a part. When he moved his shop from Uptown to the PUNY headquarters last summer, he also took on a position as full-time managing director with the interactive media studio. In his statement, Knutson made clear his continuing commitment to local retail, saying he would be consulting with PUNY partners Shad Petosky and Vincent Stall on event-based retail within PUNY and the adjoining Pink Hobo Gallery. Until Dec. 31, ROBOTlove devotees can shop the store's recently launched Black Market, a "curated retail experience" highlighting products by ROBOTlove favorites like Aesthetic Apparatus, Burlesque Design, Calpurnia Peach, Broken Heart Social Club, Too Many Suitors and King Mini.

The great cranberry cream-cheese puff battle has begun in St. Louis Park. A business spat is boiling between restaurateur Thom Pham and a group of his former employees at Thanh Do, who happen to be his family members. Here's the blow-by-blow.

When Pham's lease wasn't renewed at his longtime Thanh Do location in May, he moved the restaurant across the street into another strip mall at 8028 Minnetonka Blvd. In September, his sisters -- Hannah Johnson, Charis Fishbein and Grace Ray (who were Pham's foster siblings when he immigrated here from Vietnam) -- opened their own restaurant, Wok in the Park, in the former Thanh Do space. Pham filed a lawsuit earlier this year saying, among other things, that the sisters are using his secret recipes at Wok in the Park, and that they also mismanaged money during their years of managing Thanh Do. He fired them in early 2009.

The sisters went public with the family feud this week by advertising a fundraiser to help them pay mounting legal costs (it's scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday at Wok in the Park). "The lawyers' fees are making it so we're drowning," Ray said.

Both agree that this is one ugly situation. A trial for the lawsuit is scheduled in April. Pham said he's willing to settle. But the sisters say he'll only settle if they change the concept, which they won't do.

Atmosphere returned to the dark confines of First Avenue on Saturday for the first of two immediately sold-out shows. Slug & Co. similarly returned to a darker, heavier tone in their set. Earlier in the show, Slug talked about being nervous, blaming it on a leg brace hidden under his jeans. However, he finally he admitted the cause of his nerves:

"This is the first time I've had to get up and perform in front of people since my homey Eyedea died," he said. "It's been a big deal to a lot of us. I was worried about getting up here and putting on my clown face and all that, but you made it a lot more comfortable for me to do this, so I thank you."

He then asked for a moment of silence that turned out to be quite lovely - when was the last time you heard First Ave quiet? From there, the sad clown braved his way through "Yesterday," a song he wrote after his father's death about running into his memory around town. No need to sum up how the song went over at the club Slug and Eyedea conquered together.

What a pleasure it is to see Chris Stevens and Gail Mollner back on the job. Sit at the copper-topped counter at their new Blackbird and catch glimpses of Stevens as he cooks up a storm in the kitchen, or take a perch in one of the roomy booths and observe Mollner as she makes sure the great-looking dining room operates like clockwork.

The couple lost their life's work in a devastating fire on Feb. 18, and after plenty of grit and determination, they've relocated their charmer of a restaurant to a new Kingfield neighborhood address.

It's a win-win scenario. Not only is Blackbird 2.0 a welcome jolt of economic stimulus for 38th and Nicollet, but the larger, sunnier digs are an improvement over the old space, which always felt cramped.

Now with nearly twice as many seats, the restaurant can accommodate the throngs who know to come for Stevens' sharp, affordable, crowd-pleasing cooking and Mollner's attentive hospitality. They're role models for overcoming adversity, and this diner is thrilled to have them, and their restaurant, back.