On the Road with Bruce Springsteen

Opening Day Program

The Road Springsteen has Travelled
Dave Marsh
Sunday, September 22, 2:00 p.m., doors open at 1:00 p.m., Ages 21+, ID checked at the door.
400 Bar, 400 Cedar Avenue (at Riverside), West Bank, Minneapolis
$7 at the door the day of the show.
$4 advance tickets available only at the Weisman store for WAM members, students, seniors (limited availability). Call 612-625-9495.

Former associate editor of Rolling Stone magazine and a leading rock critic, Dave Marsh is author of a two-volume biography of Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run and Glory Days, as well as numerous Springsteen articles and interviews and a dozen other books on rock 'n'roll. Join him at the 400 Bar for an informal talk that will comment on Springsteen's journey, from his early days to his new release, The Rising.

Club Concert

Drive All Night
A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen
Featuring Twin Cities bands covering the Boss!
Saturday, September 28, doors open at 8:00 p.m., music at 9:00 p.m. Ages 21+, ID checked at the door.
400 Bar, 400 Cedar Avenue (at Riverside), West Bank, Minneapolis
$7 at the door the night of the show.
$4 advance tickets available only at the Weisman store for WAM members, students, seniors (limited availability). Call 612-625-9495.

Drive and dance all night (or at least 'til closing time) with Springsteen's music at the 400 Bar as interpreted by some of the Twin Cities' finest musicians. Bands performing include Love Cars, Fog, Martin Devaney with members of Heiruspecs, and many, many others!

Road Scholar Talk

Andrei Codrescu
Hunting the Nauga: Confessions of a Shameless Passenger
Saturday, October 5, 7:30 p.m.
Ted Mann Concert Hall, West Bank, University of Minnesota
$16/$12 Weisman members, MPR members, students, and seniors
Call 612-624-2345 for tickets. Advance purchase is highly recommended.

Author Andrei Codrescu narrates his own American road trip-invoking the womb-like poetry of car interiors and the mysteries of naugahyde. Codrescu has been in nearly perpetual motion since leaving his native Romania in the mid-sixties. His book and film Road Scholar established Codrescu's insightful probing of the American terrain. Reborn in a car in Detroit, he tells and retells his New World origins, but never in the same way. This rare Twin Cities appearance is presented by the Weisman Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibitions Inside Cars-Surrounding Interiors and Springsteen-Troubadour of the Highway.

Andrei Codrescu is a regular commentator on National Public Radio, editor of Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters & Life, and author of numerous works, including poetry, memoirs, fiction, and essays. He recently published a new novel, Casanova in Bohemia. Codrescu is also a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Talk with Springsteen cover set

On the Backstreets
Christopher Phillips
November 17, 2:00 p.m. followed by acoustic set with Tim Sigler of Luckytown

For the last 22 years, a unique magazine has served the Springsteen fan community. Learn more in this talk with Christopher Phillips, editor of Backstreets Magazine-devoted to all things Springsteen.
Tim Sigler (frontman for Luckytown, the Twin Cities' ultimate Bruce Springsteen tribute band) will play a short acoustic set of Springsteen songs. Catch the full Luckytown band at O'Gara's in St. Paul at 9:00 p.m. Friday, November 15 performing a special show to coincide with the Weisman's Springsteen exhibition.

Weisman Film/Video Series
Cruising Inside Cars and Springsteen
All screenings are free and take place in the Shepherd Room at the Weisman.

Thursday, October 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Wild Wheels, Directed by Harrod Blank, 1992, 64 minutes
Wild Wheels is filmmaker Harrod Blank's comic and revealing exploration of art cars and their creators.
Driving the Dream, Directed by Harrod Blank, 1998, 29 minutes
Harrod Blank's follow-up to Wild Wheels focuses on the personalities behind spectacular art car creations.

Thursday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Road Scholar, Directed by Jean De Segonzac & Roger Weisberg, 1992, 82 minutes
Andrei Codrescu, émigré Romanian poet and nondriver, heads for driver training school and then takes to the road for a 4500-mile journey of discovery across America. Andrei Codrescu will speak October 5th at the Ted Mann Concert Hall! See the program description above for more details.

Sunday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m.
Annie Leibovitz: Celebrity Photographer, Directed by Rebecca Frayn, 1993, 51 minutes
This star-studded video documentary surveys Leibovitz's career and working style as a leading portrait photographer. Leibovitz has taken many key images in Bruce Springsteen's career and nine images are featured in the Weisman exhibition, but unfortunately, Springsteen does not appear in this video!

Thursday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Lowriders: The Real Story, Directed by Gregory A. Thomson, 1995, 28 minutes
This documentary examines the activities of "lowriders"-hobbyists who customize their autos with hydraulic technology. The film also challenges a prevailing media stereotype of lowriding as a gang-related activity.
Motorist, Directed by Chip Lord, 1989, 69 minutes
This fictional narrative follows the driver of a 1962 Thunderbird from the Southwest to Los Angeles, all the while commenting on the road and his personal history. Lord juxtaposes idealistic 1950's media imagery with updated banal road vistas-tracking the end of an American dream as viewed by the "motorist." Chip Lord has worked with video since 1971, first as a partner in the alternative media collective Ant Farm, and since 1978 as an independent artist/producer. See Ant Farm's Cadillac Ranch Show and Media Burn below.

Thursday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
Cadillac Ranch Show, Made by Ant Farm members: Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier, 1975 (1981 edit), 14 minutes
This video documents the 1974 installation of Cadillac Ranch, in Amarillo, Texas (and the subject of Bruce Springsteen's song by the same name). The artists buried ten Cadillacs in a Route 66 wheat field as a monument to the rise and fall of the Cadillac tail fin.
Media Burn, Made by Ant Farm members: Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier, 1975 (1981 edit), 23 minutes
Media Burn documents a live Ant Farm performance in San Francisco. This spectacle staged for the camera culminated in the 4000 pound "Phantom Dream Car," a customized Cadillac Eldorado, crashing through a pyramid of TV sets to the cheers of the audience. A Media Burn clip appears in the music video of Bruce Springsteen's song, "57 Channels."
Greetings from the Parking Lot: The Springsteen Fanomenon, Directed by Mike Sodano, 1999, 70 minutes
Another installation in the popular "parking lot" genre, this documentary explores the passionate fandom of Springsteen's followers. Interviews with fans were shot in the parking lot of New Jersey's Meadowlands stadium in 1999.

Driving the Dream
Oak Street Cinema Films October 11-31
In conjunction with Inside Cars and Springsteen: Troubadour of the Highway
Oak Street Cinema
309 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, Phone: 612/331-7563 or 612/331-3134
$7/$4.50 WAM members, Oak Street Discount Card Holders, children, seniors
For show times and film details, go to the calendar at oakstreetcinema.org.

October 11-13
American Graffiti
Rebel Without a Cause

October 14, 17
Bonnie and Clyde
Badlands

October 18
Lost Highway
Raising Arizona

October 19
Raising Arizona
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Bonnie and Clyde

October 20
Raising Arizona
Lost Highway

October 21, 22
Gun Crazy
Thunder Road

October 23, 24
Thelma and Louise
The Rain People

October 25-26
Duel
Pee-wee's Big Adventure

October 27
The Grapes of Wrath

October 28, 29
Easy Rider
Electra Glide in Blue

October 30,31
Detour
They Live by Night

Related Compleat Scholar course

Guthrie, Seeger, Dylan, and Springsteen: Working-Class Troubadours?
Benjamin Filene and Colleen Sheehy
Wednesdays, October 23 - November 6 (3 meetings), 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
William G. Shepherd Room
$85/$76.50 age 62+ and Weisman members
To register, call The Compleat Scholar at 612-625-7777.

What makes a singer "authentic?" Examine four towering figures in American music-Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen-and consider the roots of their appeal as voices of the "folk" or "working-class." Traditional notions of folk musicianship and lifestyle are challenged by these figures, who mix grass-roots themes with commercial exposure and success. Upsets to conventional folk expectations include Guthrie's urban lifestyle, Seeger's privileged roots, Dylan's"going electric," and Springsteen's huge arena-rock shows. Compare and contrast these performers by examining songs and video segments, and discussing writings by and about each musician. The course includes a tour of the Weisman Art Museum exhibition Springsteen-Troubadour of the Highway.

Benjamin Filene, Ph.D. in American studies, is author of Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music, which has won multiple national awards and was named a Notable Book of 2001 by the New York Times Book Review. He is an exhibit curator at the Minnesota Historical Society, where he was lead developer of the exhibit Sounds Good to Me: Music in Minnesota. Colleen Sheehy, Ph.D. in American studies, will be guest lecturer on Bruce Springsteen's life and music. She is director of education at the Weisman Art Museum, and is curator of the Weisman's exhibition, Springsteen-Troubadour of the Highway.