The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

It's hard to figure out how many times Romeo and Juliet have died onstage. The plays is four hundred and some odd years old, and one of Shakespeare's most popular, even when the playwright was alive. And so it is that his star-cross'd juvenile lovers get trotted out with great frequency, to sweet talk each other on a balcony and then protractedly dispatch themselves in the Capulet crypt. I suspect more Romeos and Juliets have died onstage than any two other characters in history, with their equally doomed friends and kinsmen Mercutio and Tybalt coming in close behind.

Paul Rotha, the great filmmaker and critic, once said that a documentary film must, above all, reflect the problems and realities of its times. “It cannot regret the past,” he continued. “In no sense is documentary a historical reconstruction and attempts to make it so are destined to failure. Rather it is contemporary fact and event expressed in relation to human associations.”

Self Portrait by Lydia Field Emmet (Not the work in question)

Sometimes less is more. Some people say that quiet is the new loud. Often the best art is made by artists who have the most modest agendas.

I blame it all on Holland Cotter.

Darren Aronofsky's film The Wrestler, which netted Mickey Rourke a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture last night, is not the first movie to have that title. Back in 1974, here in Minneapolis, American Wrestling Association owner Verne Gagne produced his own movie, inspired by his own status us the AWA's undefeatable champion, starring himself and Ed Asner as a wrestling promoter.

The death of Senator Jesse Helms.

But there from the wise Empress’s lips,
Like a sun’s ray, a smile has broken:
Before her stands a golden-curled youth.
Frolicking midst the throng of warriors,
First he lifts up the heavy sword,
Then takes from them the battle helmet,
Then, trembling in rapture, he attends
To the tales of grizzled warriors.
                            –lines from “A Vision” by Kondratyj Ryleev (1795-1826)

Here at Secrets of the City and MNSpeak, we thrive on the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. We love to feast and be merry with our friends and families...and to exchange cool presents, which is often easier in theory than in practice - especially with all that merriment. But gifts happen, so we prepare! Think of this guide as your brainstorming jump-start: gift ideas, tips for fun shopping efficiencies (oh yeah), and thoughts on how to make your holiday season sparkle in a creative and original way.

On December 1, 1989, about six hundred galleries, museums and arts organizations across America, concentrated primarily in New York but including some here in the Twin Cities, observed the first "A Day Without Art." Coordinated by a New York-based group called Visual AIDS, the idea was for these institutions to mark the impact that the AIDS epidemic had made in the art world by shutting dow