Sep 2008

It's falling here!

So, we met a guy at a bar (the typical story starter), and he told us about this improvisation company he works with in his spare time – his hobby. The next night they were doing a $1 show for their student groups to get on stage. He was stunned to see us there, thought it was just lip service that we said we were interested in that kind of thing – the things that make a city just a little more special and you get to know it just a little better. He thought we were looking for ideas like the zoo. Which maybe, if he would’ve told us how great the zoo was, we might’ve gone there, who knows. Either way, we ended up in this laid back, bicycle and hippie laden, organic market neighborhood with amazing homes. We didn’t want to leave. The show was great – groups of 2 to 8, just improvising and laughing, cultivating a genuine feel good night. By the way, there are TONS of Improv shops in the area, folks must be pretty creative and outgoing here.

Charlie makes herself at home anywhere, thankfully, but this place is just creepy. The total opposite of the groovy, friendly, and clean ES in Wilkes-Barre earlier this year. In the three weeks we’ve been here, the fire alarm has gone off three times and the local police drive through parking lot SLOWLY at least twice a day. And that’s just what I’m aware of. It’s strange. And we are in a good area, very clean, appears very safe. For one week, the hotel had security guards as well. Then, they just disappeared. Weren’t doing that much good, I’m afraid, as Cujo saw him sleeping in his car when we went to work. Sure doesn't make me feel safe. Still, though – why? Someone cooking something illegal in here? Someone bad living here they need to nail? Or is it us, a group of 50 construction guys in one hotel make them nervous?

Ha, look what I found! It was like striking gold when I saw this in the liquor store - I have never seen it and thought it was a myth. Yes it was super cheap and no it wasn't disgusting.

There was another great concert (I swear they have great music support here) that took place outside in a fabulous location. It was at Harriet Island across from downtown St Paul – had a great view of the skyline, the water, and best of all – we watched it free just on the other side of the fence. We had the most interesting company, a man named Bob who rolled up on this bike.

He was the most true to himself person I’ve met in ages – just said what he thought, and he thinks a lot. Doesn’t know much about TV controversy, sports scores or name brand importance; he knew people, history, music and great stories. Turned out, he used to be the flower guy – you know the one at the bar that tries to shame guys into buying flowers? Well, through that, he’d been in all sorts of venues, met all sorts of people – such as our entertainment for the night – Jakob Dylan and his pop. After his days doing that, he turned to art. He was quite original and wore cutoff jean shorts with a button up shirt that didn’t quite fit with paint all over both, and could admirably care less what anyone thought. Just watching the way people looked at him made me admire him even more. Not getting the looks of a man who has displays in a downtown gallery, that’s for sure. Just a welcome gentle reminder of that oh so simple lesson – things aren’t always what they appear. Even with O.A.R. playing after Dylan, it was Bob that kept us there gabbing.

Wendy came to play! Haha, this was just the first night only, poor guy.
Charlie’s wife Capi was in town this weekend, too, so we all went out and explored Minneapolis together. Both ladies know how to have fun, so it was a blast having a group to play with. We went to eat at Psycho Suzis, who Jules told me about – apparently they were on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives – so we went there for lunch. It had a great ambiance, totally tiki, the food was good, and it was pretty busy. Weird thing – I wanted a bloody mary but you had to make it yourself. If I knew HOW to make a good bloody mary, I would – but I don’t, so I order them. Hmmm. So I ordered water, silly me – I had to go walk down the patio to the igloo cooler and get my own water. Huh? After leaving, we ran into a big old cart with a bunch of people on it pedaling away – turns out it a fucking traveling bar?! HOW COOL IS THAT?! They all looked very happy, no surprise, and waved gallantly as we drove by honking. This could be my next job! Where to do it, that’s the question.

The Mall of America has a big Lego exhibit by all the rides – I know it’s corny but I think it’s cool.

This was strange – Sunday downtown – there were FEW stores and even FEWER restaurants open. Struck me as very odd, so we ended up at Hard Rock for lunch. I think we all would’ve preferred a local establishment, but all the ones we walked to were closed. No matter, it was a good lunch – good food, and a great bloody mary that I didn’t have to make myself!

Unfortunately, I didn’t watch the Mary Tyler Moore show, but I still took a picture of the statue.

Our hookah IS HERE!!! Yay! Now folks, no – this is not a bong. It’s a hookah, dammit. It’s tobacco. Perfectly legal. I promise. If you want it to be. You can tell how excited Wendy was.

The Twins had to win three at home against CHI to take the lead, and guess what, they did. We were there for one. Although I would’ve probably enjoyed it more knowing who I was watching. I’m not the biggest baseball fan, I like to go, but rarely follow it – and am continually disappointed by the Mariners – but anyway… Ken Griffey Jr plays for the White Sox, and he hit a home run. I saw the home run but was oblivious as to who it was, and that I *might* recognize the name. Ha, how lame. We got a great deal – there were six of us together, the others were down a level – and we paid $5 a ticket. Yeah, we were in the uppers, but what the hell. It was my first ever broken bat game too – two to be exact. The guy at the gate said they were expecting 42,000 fans that night, I can imagine how many more they had for game three.

The Wild had their first preseason game against Columbus in St Paul, and yes – they won too! After years of watching loses, we might have changed course finally. Although we still aren’t taking any chances with going to a Nebraska game again soon. The Wild have an amazing stadium – it’s actually where all the magic of the RNC took place. Hmmm. Magic, voodoo, brainwashing, something like that. I think it holds around 20,000. We got great seats with a dad and his son down on the floor. Lucky us, his wife and other son didn’t want to go. There are still lots of fans that wear their North Stars gear. And this guy - he's the organ player - has got the best job!

We made one last trip to the MoA with Ryan and Amanda and the kids to play putt putt. You might think it was for the kids, but nah – it was for the guys, hehe. They have got to be the cutest family ever. Johanna is so free and spontaneous and food loving, and Malakie is smart and curious and sweet; both are affectionate, fun loving and happy kids - no doubt they get all these great traits from their groovy folks.

When we walked in, we saw Dion Warwick leaving – I didn’t know she still tours! I saw this store and it’s so close to my Uncle Mart’s name – made me smile. Wish he could see this.

Wisconsin is so close we just HAD to go, and we are very glad we did. The town of Prescott was actually a really cool town - along their short main street were stores and bars and restaurants, and very friendly people. We had a burger that is made of a bratwurst, but it's a patty - interesting and yummy. Looked like a fun water town with boat docks everywhere and also a fun snow town with snowmobile crossing signs in the streets.

Happy Birthday baby! We got another year in the bag oh yeah! Life is definitely not boring with you - regardless of celebrating birthdays in a different location each year.
It's always great hanging out with friends new and old, but it's even sweeter for a reason. Great group of guys.
KANPAI! (insert Tequila theme song here)

Okay, so maybe famous is stretching it, but made ya look...

Her 2nd annual Kite Festival is coming up, and she was on the news yesterday.

Her website also has lots of info, if you are interested.

Good job Mom, love ya!

Back to our peregrination … I can’t help but wonder from time to time, what is it we are doing going from place to place... to place? Is it solely for the love of travel, to experience new places and people and landscapes; or am I looking for something or someplace instead? It seems the more cities/towns we go to (regardless of the accommodations and amenities) they are all so similar. Yes, they are each wonderful in their own way, but they are all still uniquely quite the same. What is the balance between working towards a goal and progress versus floating along a life? Is it better to continually focus on gaining ground, whatever the aspect – work, routines, house, family, education, etc.? or is it better to be content with the present, and focus only on the now, without feelings of failure for stagnation in those other aspects? Or... IS there a better? Do we lose when we succumb to acceptance of just ‘being’ or do we lose when we continually strive for something? And who is to say what should wear that bulls eye? What is the goal - for some maybe a different job, a bigger house, planting roots and spending precious time with family and friends? Or maybe the question is IS there a goal at all - others may be absolutely happy with no clear goal or passion of any specific tangible. Is one way of thought or living more beneficial or more detrimental? Is life without a target or something to aim for meaningless... or free? What's true for me may not be true for anyone else. It's all relative, and it's all impermanent.

On our way, we stopped at a little town called Bismarck, North Dakota. This is the same place that Cujo had lived for a while years ago. We didn’t realize that this was the Pow-Wow weekend in the area, and there were no rooms to be had. After driving around town and calling dozens of rooms, we finally ended up where on of his friends had stayed those few years ago. And – check this out – we got the SAME ROOM! What are the odds? Same town, same motel, same room. Crazy. It was a different (read odd) place – Charlie came up with a pork chop bone from under the bed, and in the morning the cleaning girl stopped by to pull our sheets before we left because as she said ‘it would make HER job easier’. Eh, okay. True, we weren’t actually lying on them anymore. On our way out we had a BIG breakfast at an old time diner, I just think it looks groovy.

We are members of a club - not the Wine of the Month or Cheese of the Month, but Home of the Month - and it is currently in the Twin Cities area of (said in a Jesse Ventura accent) the great state of Minnesota. This area is very pretty and very big. I had an impression of this area, (which was completely wrong) like how different the two cities are, for one. Minneapolis seems more metropolitan and business, while St Paul seems more blue collar and capitol-city-ish. However, the greater metro is quite large and traffic can be demanding even with all the different highways and byways of getting from Point A to Point B. The RNC was here in St Paul a week before we arrived, and there is still much on the news regarding the chaos and calamity all those pesky protesters provided. There were still billboards and placards up outside businesses with Ronald Regan’s face plastered on them, promising a great meal for only $14.95. Marketing is pure genius and pure pathos. One man who wasn’t a protester was released with protesters from jail, others didn’t get their belongings (cell phone, wallet, bags) returned, and now they are claiming victory in their actions while paying an independent company to tell them exactly what they did so well during that week. Aargh, politics! Speaking of, from the state that elected The Body comes Al Franken for Senate. When his commercials come on, I still half expect him to throw in a witty dry cynical comment at the end, instead of ‘I am Al and I approve this message’. And on a side note, his race has the nastiest commercials by far – both sides. I can’t say it’s not interesting, though. Or maybe the correct word is entertaining.

While traveling, you never know what you are going to have or (think you) need. This is adaptability folks. Ha, real adaptability would probably be not bringing all that shit.

First thing I think of when I think Twin Cities is the Mall of America. This is an amazing example of excess. Wow. We didn’t even know where to walk and ended up in the amusement park. Sensory stimulation overload. This is where I almost wished I loved to shop. If I have something in mind or am getting a killer deal, I like to shop, but I can’t just wander around. I get bored and pissy. So I guess I need a list of stuff to shop for and then I will go back. Place your orders folks. Or I will just go back and ride the rides.

I have to say, this area loves animals. There are a TON of dog parks, and a lot of those shows on Animal Planet are from this area. We’ve been to a few, and Charlie is really digging it and thinks we should stay here forever. What more can a dog need – big swampy moldy lakes, trees and bushes with tons of foliage, and other dogs to romp around with? One of the parks is actually on airport property, and was created to help deter vagabonds and hooligans from doing whatever it is they do on open property adjacent to an airport. It’s loud at times, but pretty cool to see them constantly take off and land. In fact, there is never a time here where I don’t see an airplane in the sky, but we are fairly close to the airport, maybe 10 miles.

There is a great little bar on the property here, and it’s our favorite new Cheers. They have a membership called the Mug Club (which of course we joined for beer discounts) and people here are so friendly. We talked for an hour with a fellow barstool squatter next to us, and were congratulated on our membership by another guy near us, funny joint. Apparently it’s a chain, which is good because I already have a new favorite beer. The Bock. Just in case you were wondering.

I choose to think this was somewhat serendipitous - but a new favorite band of mine played in Minneapolis this week! They were the opener, but hey, that means we got to go – it was early and we were home not too late for the working man. And, because they are still not ‘big’ we actually got to chat after they played, while the headliner was playing. The headliner by the way was a group called the Fratellis. And the opener for the opener was Electric Touch. Both were good, but the Airborne Toxic Event band was excellent. Seriously, excellent. As the drummer walked by, and said to Curtis ‘The Drummer!’ and he actually turned around. That’s when I had a moment of geek and I waved, gave him a thumbs up and said ‘You’re awesome!’. Big sigh, I know. But that didn’t stop me – I then stalked and accosted the guitarist and pretty much did the same, just for an extended time. The venue was great, similar to a Big Easy or a Knitting Factory, and they had a voter registration table inside – how great is that?! Apparently it’s where lots of famous folks got their break, so I’m crossing my fingers. All in all, a very good night.

I'll admit it, I got a black eye from a dog. And MY dog, nonetheless. And yes, I still have her. Her body, at least. I had no idea that a dog's head was roughly as hard as a big rock. Now I know. And I also don't think that young puppy prancing and jumping is so cute anymore. Well, it's still cute, but from afar.

Our local fair is generally full of tractor pulls, demo derbys and rodeos with a country concert thrown in. This year, they went retro rock, lucky us. Seriously, we had grown up on this shit and were not part of the Rock of Love fan base - the difference is you know the words to the songs. It was obvious who was there for what reason, it was GREAT people watching! There were the leather, long haired stoners with their lovely blue eyeshadow ladies with big hair and tight clothes and then there were the youngins... hehe. I think I've gotten soft, I used to love to stand in front and fight through the crowd to get a killer view, but now I just get pissy and wish they pick the wrong angry person to stop in front of. And, now I also notice that they are generally loaded and spilling their precious expensive beer that took 15 minutes in line to get. What a liquid waste, how sad. Though... they don't really NEED to drink it ALL at this point. Damn, I sound super lame today. Back to Poison, they haven't changed (despite pimping Rock of Love on VH1)! You know how some bands morph or 'evolve' with their music and appearance? Well, these guys look pretty much the same - maybe a bit shorter hair, and maybe a tad less makeup, but there is still lots of hairspray and mirrors involved, and they actually sang the songs you want to hear - not all new ones. That always irks me to no end.

And where else than a state fair can you find a super tall clown and a 700 pound pumpkin? Make that two.