Household Saints
Walker Art Center

Without car crashes or marquee names, “Household Saints” is an “art film.” With a strong script and gifted actors, it’s strongly up to snuff on both accounts. Director Nancy Savoca co-wrote with Richard Guay an adaptation of Francine Prose’s novel that brandishes sheer immediacy through fascinating characters interacting in compelling circumstances. Lino Falconetti (veteran character actor Victor Argo) has too much to drink and loses his daughter Catherine (Tracey Ullman) in a card game. Joseph Santangelo (Vincent D’onofrio), the bright-eyed and humorous hard-ass, holds him to it after they sober up. Joseph and Catherine marry and fall in love. Despite a tough life, they live about as happily ever after as one can expect—until their nearly grown daughter Teresa (Lili Taylor) starts seeing and talking to Jesus Christ, not just in prayer, but also on the living room couch. The talented Taylor reinvents herself for each role, and here, she is heartbreaking as the sweetly demented Teresa. 7:30 p.m. $8/$6. 1750 Hennepin Ave., Mpls. 612-375-7600. DWIGHT HOBBES

“Let Your Goddess Grow” presentation
Magus Books

I am a self-help freak from way back. Maybe it’s because I need all the help I can get because my karma is whacked in inascertainable ways, or because human nature fascinates me. And as soon as I figure out how to program my VCR, I plan on taping some Dr. (“How’s that working for you?”) Phil episodes, too. DVDs you say? Do DVD players tape things, too? I guess I’m a few years behind on that as well. If all this sounds like self-pity, Charlene Proctor, author of “Let Your Goddess Grow: 7 Spirtual Lessons on Female Power and Positive Thinking” and “The Women’s Book of Empowerment,” has an affirmation on self-pity and hundreds of other problems/frustrations/malaise. It reads, in part, “Retreating into self-pity disturbs my energy output and reduces my power to change the world. I am no longer battered by life. I step up to the plate with a big, powerful baseball bat and get ready to swing …” We are taught much in our lives, but how to live and figuring out why we think and do what we think and do isn’t necessarily in life’s curriculum. This presentation will discuss how men and women can grow in their spirits and harness the power to create a positive and balanced life. Therapy is an expensive luxury; Proctor’s lecture is free. 7 p.m. Free. 1309 ½ SE 4th St., Mpls. 612-379-7669. REBECCA THURN

Dave Foreman
St. Paul

Claiming “environmental sensitivity” is now a corporate marketing slogan: Check out British Petroleum’s sunflower logo or Kerr-McGee’s underwater ocean shots (worthy of a Jacques Cousteau-style exploration). Even companies mining coal—one of the nastiest fuels to both mine and to use—create pastoral TV commercials. Increasingly, environmental policies are made by resource-based industries, aiming for “de-regulation” and following the Golden Rule: Those who’ve got the gold, make the rules. Big environmental groups, like Sierra Club, are little more than fundraising machines for the Democratic Party. This all makes Earth First! founder Dave Foreman more relevant than ever. Homeland Security calls environmental activists the “biggest domestic terrorism threat,” although not a single person has been hurt or killed in fire bombings of SUV dealers or condos-in-progress in Colorado wilderness. During this visit, Foreman presents a slideshow and talk, drawing on decades of experience, and challenging nature lovers to take back the conservation movement from “enviro-resourcists.” 7 p.m. Free. Patagonia, 1648 Grand Ave., St. Paul. 651-698-1703. LYDIA HOWELL

Tin Star Sisters
331 Club

The Tin Star Sisters are just one of those bands you have to see live to fully appreciate. The duo basically utilizes the oddest-sounding instruments with the oddest names (xylophone, ukelele, accordion) and tops them off with tap dance percussion. Yes, I said tap dance. There are a few other groups out there who use a tap dancer for percussion (Tilly and the Wall come to mind, and there’s even the all-tap, all-the-time Shim Sham Shufflers), but no one does it with the tongue-in-cheek campiness of the Tin Star Sisters. Throw in some cover songs and wry originals, and you have an act that’s one part musical, one part silly and altogether original. Need more convincing? Their Myspace comments include an online marriage proposal. With DJ James Leonardo’s Record Collection. Also Thu. Feb. 23. 9 p.m. (Leonardo at 10:30 p.m.) FREE. 21+. 331 NE 13th Ave. 612-331-1746. MICHELLE LEE


Dr. Marian Wright Edelman
Westminster Presbyterian Church

After graduating from Spelman College and traveling to Russia, Marian Wright Edelman immersed herself in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, trading a career in the Foreign Service for a law degree from Yale, and becoming the first African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi state bar. A tireless activist and advocate for the poor, Edelman is one of the nation’s strongest voices for the rights of children and families. Her social justice agenda and numerous awards are too lengthy to mention here, but clearly her life’s work has been to improve the lives of current and future generations. In 1973 she established the Children’s Defense Fund—a research and advocacy organization for poor, minority and disabled children. She’s the author of eight books, including “Stand for Children” and “Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change.” A long-time Washington, D.C., resident and Congressional lobbyist, Edelman takes an anti-Abramoff approach on the Hill: advocating for the well being of others. And Jack, if you’re reading, you might want to clip this quip for your ’fridge/jail cell: “Never work just for money or for power,” Edelman once said, “They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.” Edelman presents “The Meaning of America: Liberty and Justice for All” this Thursday at a Westminster Town Hall Forum. Noon. Free. 12th St. & Nicollet Mall, Mpls. 612-332-3421. NANCY SARTOR

Burning Bridges
The Viking Bar

Burning Bridges is trying to break your hear—or drown it, whichever comes first. Relative newcomers to the burgeoning country/western and honky-tonk scene, Burning Bridges stand out from the rest. With their crisp three-part harmonies and country-by-way-of-1969-California vibe, it’s easy to understand why. Pour their rich, bluesy lead and smooth pedal-steel guitars, mix liberally with whiskey and ice, and you’ve got yourself a honky-tonk cocktail. Steeped in the tradition of Gram Parsons, Hank and outlaw country like Willie and Merle, they play up-tempo twang with enough rock to satisfy the uninitiated. But don’t expect to stay uninitiated long, as once you hear ‘em, you’ll be doggin’ their heels like the following of young good-timers at their regular gigs around town, such as every Friday night at my own favorite honky-tonk and blues joint, the Viking Bar on the West Bank. With the Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs. 9:30 p.m. Free. 21+. 1829 Riverside Ave., Mpls. 612-332-4259. CYN COLLINS

Jelloslave CD Release Show
The Southern Theater

When it comes to promoting music, “challenging” and “expansive” are not exactly the buzzwords that’ll get you on Clear Channel radio, so artists that are panning for gold in streams other than the main one need all the help they can get. Who better to help them than their own kind? Enter Sugarfoot Music, an artist-run, internet-based label that shares its proceeds with charitable causes of their artists’ choosing. This show is celebrating the release of Jelloslave’s Touch It, the label’s second album (the first was Justine Sasanfar’s Endless Song). Composed of cellists Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan and Michelle Kinney, Jelloslave chop and mix influences, textures and cultures like an Osterizer over the course of the seven tracks on their debut. Opener “Touch It” welds spoken snippets to tabla rhythms and Eastern-inflected melodies; “Luna” recalls the Kronos Quartet’s Early Music—right up until Greg Schutte’s drums crack in on the proceedings and George Cartwright’s saxophone starts eating the tape; and “J.S. George” starts with a meditation on “Within You Without You” before dropping in elements from Johann Sebastian and proceeding to flip it Bach and forth. Pianist Sasanfar will open the night, and the whole shebang will be topped off with a DJ dance rave. 7 p.m. $10. 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls. 612-340-1725. STEVE MCPHERSON

The Undertow Orchestra
First Ave

Get ready to get out your moping shoes, everybody. The Undertow Orchestra combines the talents of Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan, American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel, Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel’s Will Johnson and Vic Chesnutt’s Vic Chesnutt into a delectable tear-broth-based soup of world-weary vegetables, ex-lovers’ hearts, starchy journal entries and carrots. Pedro the Lion’s “Bad Diary Days” got my vote for 89.3 the Current’s “Greatest Break-up Songs of All Time” show, and Will Johnson wrote the saddest song of all time, “Philo Manitoba,” about a young man who kills himself by setting himself on fire: “I never heard a silence fall/ Like when his mother got the call/ At 4:08 today/ Her son had gone away.” Damn, I’m practically tearing up just typing it out. Each singer will be taking a turn in the spotlight with the rest acting as backing band, so expect a round robin of existential angst, dour tunesmithery, creaky pop-folk and laments about the human condition. If you’re the crying-in-your-beer type, bring galoshes (or an extra mug) and expect some overflow. 8 p.m. $13. 21+. 701 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388. MCPHERSON

The Kick It Spot: Native Hip-Hop
The Dinkytowner

Jin. Eminem. Let’s face it. When a rapper isn’t African-American they usually get labeled with a prefix (blank-American Emcee). There are two ways to go about your presentation to the public. You can take the dangerous “color doesn’t matter” approach, or you can define yourself first. Hailing from Oklahoma City (and currently residing in Los Angeles) Quese IMC and DJ Shock B bring the “Indigenius” soul to the forefront of World Music. Quese was a finalist in the Twizzle Zizzle emcee battle with Grandmaster Flash a few years back with Grandmaster Flash and Pharcyde. Also, both Quese and Shock have roles in the Colin Farrell film “The New World.” The Kick It Spot is a hangout, performance space, and open mic for all-ages crowds put on once a month by YO! The Movement. The event encourages creativity and young enterprise by booking mostly youth artists, who are paid based on their efforts to promote the shows to other young people. With Native emcees Maniac and Gabriel Nightshield from South Dakota, and a special solo set by Slim of Guardians of Balance. Also happening over the weekend is the first-ever Minnesota Hip Hop Congress Summit at Concordia College in Moorehead, where these Native emcees will perform as Culture Shock Camp. For more info, check out HipHopCongress.com. 7 p.m. $5. All Ages. 412 ½ 14th Ave. SE, Mpls. 612-362-0437. 612-874-YOYO (9696). TOKI WRIGHT

An Early Evening with John Corbett
The Fine Line Music Café

Actor John Corbett made his name playing a range of characters—from that ruggedly handsome and offbeat nonconformist DJ on “Northern Exposure” to Carrie’s ruggedly handsome and offbeat nonconformist boyfriend on “Sex and the City” to the ruggedly handsome and offbeat nonconformist male lead in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” But his true passion is music: “When I was on the set of my last movie,” Corbett muses in his bio, “all I wanted to do was get back to making music. I wanted to be with my guys on stage, rocking the house.” When he first appeared on “The Tonight Show,” he asked if he could bring his band, and despite not having anything recorded to play for the talent director, they got their shot—“a rare case of a musician getting a coveted performance on the late-night talk show without a record deal, or even a record at all.” Being John Corbett probably didn’t have anything to do with that. His bio has a lot of other heartwarming stories like that, too, but don’t feel alienated if you haven’t yet fallen for his charms. “A lot of my fans are women,” he says, “but when they’re [sic] husbands and boyfriends hear the album or see us live, they’re going to like it, too. When we play, the guys come up and say, ‘Dude, I didn’t know you were going to rock like that.’” His blend of country and Southern rock starts early so you should be able to make it home to catch him in “Raising Helen” at 8 p.m. on Encore. 6 p.m. $16. 21+. 318 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8100. NATHAN DEAN