1 With a tug on a switch, you can light up a cloud at Weisman Art Museum, and change its mood to suit your own. The "Cloud" in question is a charming suspended sculpture hovering inside the University of Minnesota museum as part of the new exhibition "Clouds, Temporarily Visible." The sculpture includes 6,000 to 7,000 incandescent lightbulbs — even Canadian artists Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett don't know exactly how many — suspended in a puffy matrix of chicken wire that's about 16 feet long, 8 feet wide and roughly 5 feet tall. Dozens of cords dangling beneath it look like a cartoonist's rendition of rain, although with a gentle pull they'll turn on the 180 LED lights that actually illuminate the thing. (Ends May 22; wam.umn.edu.)
– featuring native Minneapolis sisters Paris and Amber Strother — is building a national buzz with its debut "We Are King," which already garnered the group a Rolling Stone "10 New Artists You Need to Know" nod and an NPR Music "First Listen" slot. And for good reason. With a retro- '80s flavor that suits the classic Nintendo video game look of the new video for "The Greatest," the album offers lush layers of analog synthesizers and slow-bopping grooves while piling on seductive, jazz-flavored, Sade-meets-Klymaxx vocal arrangements.
4 "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"? Really. Clever as it is iconoclastic, this bloody good horror/rom-com satire tickles by overturning much, but not all, of what we admire in Jane Austen's original. It boasts the sumptuous visuals we crave from period fare, surprisingly grounded performances, exquisite costumes and audacious comedy. It's not always the ironic humor Austen perfected, but it gives the 19th-century setting a refreshing contemporary flair. What's next, "Mansfield Park & Mummies"?
3 Could the remarkable Bep Eatery in the downtown Minneapolis skyway be the Chipotle of Vietnamese food? Diners move along a line and select from a mix-and-match set of ingredients, creating one of four dishes — spring rolls, banh mi, pho or a vermicelli bowl — that are assembled by a friendly, fleet-footed staff. Thanh Myhre wisely concentrates on bright, deeply vibrant flavors, from the pho's pristine chicken or beef broths to the wide array of garden-fresh herbs and vegetables. It's street food, served one floor up. The price is right, too. (100 S. 5th St., Mpls.; bepeatery.com.)
5 Assigned to a Minneapolis cold case squad, detective Nikki Liska is attempting to get to the bottom of a 25-year mystery over the death of Ted Duffy, a decorated sex crimes detective. Meanwhile, Liska's former partner, Sam Kovac, is focused on the brutal double homicide of a University of Minnesota professor and his wife. The two crimes eventually intertwine in "The Bitter Season," another masterful mystery from bestselling author (and Minnesota native) Tami Hoag. Minneapolitans will appreciate the name-checks of local locations — shout-out to East Nokomis, anyone?
