FOLK WISDOM HAS IT that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit, like staying away from sweets, exercising, avoiding caffeine — and reading John Jodzio’s new collection of short stories If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home (Replacement Press, 2010). To abet your new habit, Jodzio has helpfully provided 21 stories, one per day, each one a sugarcoated pill of literary yum. The story collection sits well…

HER DEAD BODY LAY TWISTED TOWARD THE WALL. Her skin, onion thin, draped over the high, bold cheekbones she passed to me through my father. Deep ditches cut through her square jaw toward her lips — evidence of respirators recently removed. Her white hair matted and uncurled. The week spent dying made her frail and thin, as dying can do. Her mouth lay open, all breath — both natural and forced — now gone. Her…

THE LIFE OF THE WORKING ARTIST IS FREQUENTLY BOUND BY CONSTRAINTS: commerce, genre, expectation, and opportunity. The experience is at times antithetical to the artistic impulse, which is defined by a desire to shatter barriers and communicate with immediacy and, at its best, with community-forming intensity. King for Two Days at the Walker seems a testament to one percussionist’s achievements in…

ETHAN IVERSON OF THE BAD PLUS CALLS MILO FINE “the most career-allergic musician on the planet.” Since 1969, Fine has pursued his own path, what he calls his “lifework in free jazz/improvised music; a lifework whose cornerstone has been self-determination.” He advocates “recognition over fame, publicity over hype, support over worship.” That kind of attitude does not lead to contracts with major record…

WHEN THE FREDERICK R. WEISMAN ART MUSEUM OPENED IN 1993, people took notice. Against the backdrop of formal university buildings, the Weisman exploded from its ledge overlooking the Mississippi in a sheath of steel and brick that stacked upwards in complicated geometric whimsy. No one had ever seen anything like it, certainly not on the University of Minnesota campus. But then, the Frank…

MNARTISTS.ORG IS LAUNCHING A NEW SERIES of medium-specific interviews with notable, local contemporary artists, whose primary focus is on the sweat, creative decision-making, the rewards, and the tedium of the day-to-day work of painting. This occasional series of artist-to-artist conversations — led by artist, and painter, Ruben Nusz — aims to probe at the heart of the daily practice of working in the…

AN EXPERIMENTAL TONE SETS JAMES SEWELL BALLET’S winter concert, the Ballet Works Project, apart from the rest of JSB’s season. A smaller stage (the intimate Southern, not the wide O’Shaughnessy), lower-budget costumes, and a variety of choreographers — Hijack (Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder), Shannon Christie, and Nic Lincoln, in addition to James Sewell — all give the impression you’ve been invited to a…

Camille LeFevre’s essay on the “critical regionalism” in Minnesota architecture is part of a series of topical articles, “Feeling Minnesota,” jointly published by mnartists.org and Minnesota Playlist, a site with “information and inspiration for Minnesota’s performing arts.” IN 1983, BRITISH ARCHITECTURAL CRITIC KENNETH FRAMPTON advocated a new approach to architecture in his essay, “Towards a Critical…

NORTHERN WISCONSIN MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER, KEVIN MCMULLIN, wants his compositions to do more than just entertain: “I want to use music to bridge cultures and to connect people.” McMullin’s symphony, One Nation - three movements of which will be performed by Wisconsin drum group, Pipestone, and The Minnesota Youth Symphonies’ philharmonic orchestra as a part of the upcoming Minnesota Youth Symphonies’ Winter…