A character, keyboardist and cook
The Twin Cities lost a great old character with the death last month of pianist, teacher, gourmet cook and Picasso-inspired amateur painter John Moss. Beating long odds as a young African-American growing up in Arkansas, he went from sneaking in the back door of white piano teachers to studying with the legendary Artur Schnabel, headlining concerts and hobnobbing with the likes of opera diva Marian Anderson, who took a shine to Moss after sampling his cooking. Moss married and settled in Minneapolis after attending the University of Minnesota and MacPhail music school. "John was a charming man, a very classy guy, a dapper dresser," said concert pianist and friend Ian Shapinsky, who used to perform at Moss' annual Christmas concert for fellow residents of the Towers Condominiums in downtown Minneapolis, where Moss would cook for his neighbors. Shapinsky will play a tribute recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior ($25). Proceeds go to the American Composers Forum as a Moss memorial. "I don't know if John was 96 or 103 years old, since they didn't keep great birth records in the black community in Arkansas back then," Shapinsky told I.W., "but I know I cried when I heard he had died." -TOM SUROWICZ
Vampire theocracy
Alan Ball, creator of the HBO vampire series "True Blood," told Entertainment Weekly that Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann's bid for the presidency figured into the religion-and-politics story arc for the show's fifth season, which began Sunday. "My first instinct about going into religion and politics was from watching Michele Bachmann, who thinks she has a direct line to God," Ball told EW. "What would happen if she became president? A lot of right-wingers would like to see a theocracy in America. From there we thought, 'What would a vampire theocracy be and how would you justify it? What kind of impact would it have on humans?' " -KRISTIN TILLOTSON
Gone fishin'
For the past eight years, Seattle-area singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile has performed two to three times annually in the Twin Cities. No wonder we've become her biggest market. So where does she hang here? "Even though Minneapolis and St. Paul are metropolitan cities, I do sense a rural atmosphere when I'm there," she told I.W. "People have an earthiness. I tend to like to go to the outskirts and go fishing." She doesn't go alone. Her relatives from Waubun, Minn. -- "up near Fargo" -- often join her as do the mother, stepfather and brother of her longtime collaborators and band mates, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth. If Carlile plays "Fishing Blues" at either of her gigs next week at the Minnesota Zoo, you'll understand why. -JON BREAM
Affirmed
After winning architecture's top U.S. award in December, the Minneapolis architecture firm VJAA will be taking a well-deserved bow this week when an exhibit of its environmentally sensitive building designs opens Friday at Rapson Hall on the University of Minnesota's campus. The honor -- the Firm Award, presented annually by the American Institute of Architects -- has gone to some of the world's leading architecture firms, including I.M. Pei's, Cesar Pelli's and Kohn Pederson Fox. The 14-member VJAA firm credited some of its Minnesota projects for establishing the reputation that led to the award, among them its minimalist design for the Minneapolis Rowing Club, an elegantly understated 1997 home for arts patrons Kenneth and Judy Dayton overlooking Lake of the Isles and a pavilion and chapel renovation at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. Current projects include a new entrance plaza for the Weisman Art Museum and a new Walker Library in Uptown. -MARY ABBE
Tick's picks
Deer Tick really let it all hang out at First Avenue last week -- literally, in the case of frontman John McCauley. The Rhode Island yahoo-rock band's frontman pulled out his penis and used it as a guitar pick for the big finale at First Avenue on Thursday. One of the dudes in opening band the Turbo Fruits knelt down and held onto the guitar for McCauley, who proceeded to dangle his dingle over the strings for the final few waves of noise out of his amp. The bit lasted only a few seconds, but the image of it will probably be stuck in fans' memories for years. Unfortunately. Deer Tick was just wrapping up "Let's All Go to the Bar," the rowdy, fall-down highlight from its blast of a new album, "Divine Providence." Prior to it, they played a boisterous and cocky version of the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right," dedicated to the late MCA. So McCauley's stunt seemed to fit right into the bratty, boozy finale and the band's whole Replacements-copping vibe -- which included a nicely rollicking cover of "Kiss Me on the Bus." -CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
In the kitchen, with the bottle
There's a peculiar little drink at the bottom of bartender Johnny Michaels' fab drink list at Icehouse, the hot new "live music restaurant" on Eat Street. It costs $1. Its name: Colonel Mustard. For some, the name might conjure up images of the board game Clue. But for Twin Cities foodies, Colonel Mustard is the nickname for one of our most celebrated (and infamous) chefs. The drink, if you can call it that, is named for Landon Schoenefeld, who once squirted mustard on a fellow employee at the Bulldog N.E. for relaying a customer's request for salad dressing on the side. Schoenefeld was promptly fired. The chef moved on to bigger and better things as the owner of HauteDish. Michaels pays tribute to his buddy by offering a $1 squirt of whiskey delivered via mustard bottle. Said Michaels: "He thought it was funny." -TOM HORGEN
