By: Alexander Brodsky

We’ve all considered hitchhiking to carry our bags back from the grocery store. Such is life in the University of Minnesota food desert.

You don’t have to succumb to hopping in a stranger’s van, though. A backpack’s worth of groceries is all you need to eat well for a week, provided you shop smart.

 The key is to eliminate any waste in the kitchen, though using every bit of every ingredient takes planning. Ideally, you’ll want to use a single vegetable or meat through a number of different meals.

read more

By: Joe Kellen

Dance is never one thing. Sometimes, however, it’s easy to pigeonhole it with images of tutus and leotards.

“There are those who don’t want to see another ballet, and I’m probably one of them,” Minnesota Dance Theater artistic director Lise Houlton said.

MDT’s 2013 Fall Repertory is designed to avoid presenting another production of “Swan Lake.” The company is showing four pieces in its evening of dance, ranging from modern dance to ballet.

read more

By: Callie Sacarelos

Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil has so much to say about her Indian heritage that she can’t fit it into just one play.

So she wrote three.

“Originally I tried to write one play, because why would you even think about writing three plays?” she said. “That’s a crazy thought.”

Each play’s unique format will stand alone on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at the Mixed Blood Theatre. They will also appear together as “Displaced Hindu Gods,” a marathon performance on Saturdays and Sundays during the show’s run.

read more

By: Callie Sacarelos

The director of the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival is expecting attendance to double this year.

But bigger crowds and increased publicity won’t bring the festival into the mainstream.

“It’s more about the content of the films,” festival director and lead programmer Mark Hanson said.

“The films deal with topics you wouldn’t find in mainstream movies,” he said. “And there are a lot of subcultures featured, too.”

The festival is open to everyone from hardcore cinephiles to festival newbies, he said.

read more

By: Joe Kellen

Friday: “Sever’s Corn Maze and Fall Festival”

read more

By: Emily Eveland

“Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf” sounds like a particularly unsavory sexual innuendo, but editors Saiya Miller and Liza Bley swear it’s kosher.

“It’s sort of an expression that means not the same old thing,” Bley said.

“Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf: A Sex Education Comic Book” is a collection of work from more than 50 different artists, all exploring their own sexual experiences.

read more

By: Emily Eveland

The Soap Factory’s staff and volunteers swear the basement is haunted. Over the years, they’ve brought in local paranormal investigators who have confirmed their suspicions using readings and recordings.

“Whether or not you believe it, we have so many stories to support it,” company and stage manager Birdie Freitag said.

These stories include inexplicable child-size footprints, creeping shadows and falling light fixtures.

read more

By: Thom Q Johnson

While fraternity row got sloppy on a rainy homecoming Saturday, in a basement room of the Science Teaching and Student Services building, a dozen young men sat bro-ing out to something other than football. These men are bronies: bros who love My Little Pony.

“I don’t like going to the game,” a member of the group said. “Every time I go, someone just spills beer on me.”

Every brony nodded in agreement.

read more

By: Emily Eveland

Since their arrival on the heavy metal scene in 1984, Gwar has been anything but shy.

Dave Brockie, the man behind the Oderus mask, purportedly smoked crack behind a dumpster with folks from the heavy metal magazine Decibel during an interview in 2010.

Maybe it’s true, maybe not — after almost 30 years of playing a man-beast with a cuttlefish phallus, Brockie and Oderus have become too intertwined to tell what’s what.

This weekend marks Gwar’s first appearance in Minneapolis since the death of guitarist Flattus Maximus, aka Cory Smoot, in 2011.

read more

By: Sarah Harper

What’s a fashionista/o? One of the first things I imagine is a walk-in closet worthy of getting Bling-Ringed: shoes in every color, fur collars toppling over perforated leather vests, cargo shorts up the wazoo, etc., etc.

But it’s time I cleared out my head — and my closet — to change this harmful stereotype. It’s costing me a ton of cash and precious space in my fun-sized bedroom. And don’t even get me started on how our disposable clothes culture is bad for the environment.

read more