Sarah Morris

Last Friday Jen and I went to see Sarah Morris at the 318 Cafe in Excelsior.  We've been to see Sarah a bunch of times.  At the State Fair Heritage stage.  At the State Fair by the BOB FM stage [sooooo brutally hot, particularly after a bike ride up there from Eagan].  At the Aster this last Christmas.  I'm sure I'm missing one or two.  Yeah....definitely.  Because I remember working on my bicycle under the entryway to the house while streaming her concert during the deepest Covid.  Ah...and at the Hook and Ladder for the Christmas concert with the Sometimes Elves - can't forget that one; it was wonderful and there's a poster of her on the boardgame shelf in the dining room.  And we backed her Kickstarter back in 2016 and Patreon her musical lifestyle.  Well....I think my wife would say I backed her even though it's our family Kickstarter account, because she didn't know who Sarah was until I hauled her to stage at the Fair.

You can catch her music over on her Youtube channel.  I recommend checking out some of her "Toilet Tunes" as well as her official videos.  That's the series she started while on Covid lockdown.  Lots of local artists.  By the book, country [she was on the BOB stage after all].  Realistically...a bit more folk, and lounge and variety than just country.  You'll find some toilet tunes that channels Janis Joplin and more. If you go into a show thinking she'll just be country and that means you'll be disappointed, you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised.  My sister in law seemed to be.  She lives in that area so we invited her and her husband to join us.  My brother in law was busy, but she showed up and seemed to have a really good time.  Smart lyrics.  Transcendent voice.  And she really is that small.

The 318 Cafe was a double gig.  She was there with Becky Schlegel. For a while they were doing songs about states that were warmer than Minnesota [it was the night it was like -16F by the time we got out], but transitioned into warm places they'd written songs and some warm thoughts about songs Becky had written on request for anniversaries and birthdays.  Pretty cool to have your own song.

I did enjoy that the library behind them lit up a little while into the show as a pair of janitors started evening cleaning.  It was like one of the coffee shop screensavers my wife plays on Youtube while reading.  A couple of guys coming and going from shelves of books as they dusted and vacuumed, all set to music.

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Best Art-Related Podcasts In the Twin Cities

I saw this article about local arts podcasts on WCCO this morning while debating, "should I go to work early so I can  have coffee with Mean Mr. Mustard? Or should I just use my new french press, save $1.81 (not being overly fond of the free coffee at work, which means resorting to Caribou, which is a habit I'm trying to break in favor of paying off my house in 15 years, not 30, and saving just over $100,000.  That's right - not drinking Caribou may save me $100,000 over the next 15 years before I even get to the cost of the coffee), and read the local news."  Mean Mr. Mustard is never available anyway, so he's now second fiddle to a french roast decanter and CBS local news. He's probably not surprised.

My father-in-law (I don't have a blog nickname for him yet - I'll give it some thought and try to determine what won't get me the evil eye next time I see him, which will be in three days for BOMB) might find these interesting if he's looking for something to play while he's at the studio.  Their top five were (follow the article for the links):

• Talk of the Stacks (Hennepin County Public library)
• Collections Up Close (MN Historical Society)
• Soapcast (Soap Factory)
• Art on Call
• You Are Hear
• Building Minnesota (sort of Lost Twin Cities, but without the Lost?)
• Anything by the Guthrie or MIA

Sudden Lovelys, Brian Laidlaw, and Paul Doffing

Saturday night, Eryn, Pooteewheet, and I went to the Northeast Social Club for dinner, and then to the Ritz to see Paul Doffing's album release.  The Sudden Lovelys were playing as part of the event, and Eryn had been asking if there was a way to see them that didn't involve a bar at 9:00 p.m.  I have to say, seeing three very good acts perform in the Ritz Theater with only a few dozen other people around, and the bar open and serving Sweet Child of Vine...that's definitely the way to enjoy music.

Brian Laidlaw was on first and played a number of tracks from his album wolf wolf wolf.  There were a lot of great songs, and Eryn particularly liked a number of them, including The Last Known Whereabouts of Amelia Earhardt, which includes some rather peculiar lyrics about poets, although you can't find them on his site.  Ashley (Ash) Hanson sang with him, and they harmonized well together.  I've never heard the Dusty Porch Sisters sing before, but perhaps I'll have to watch for them performing locally.

Brian said he plays at The Amsterdam in St. Paul.  He  has an  upcoming performance with Alicia Wiley who I went to see at Barbette, but the acoustics weren't that great.  So I'm looking forward to hearing her at a venue designed for sound.

The Sudden Lovelys performed next.  Eryn's favorite moment of the night was when they changed up their set to play a special request and played Dirty Rotten Apples, which she'd asked for between sets. Paige and Danny make me appreciate that local singers in person almost always sound exactly like they do on their albums, if not better. Eryn jammed along to most of their songs, even though it was almost 10 p.m.
And Paul Doffing was the man of the evening. I'd never heard anyone play a 12 string guitar before. It was absolutely beautiful. Particularly on the acoustic songs, his fingers crawled all over the strings. Made me appreciate exactly how far it is from my puttering around to being amazingly good. Peshtigo Fire, despite the fact that he told a story that has Eryn constantly talking about P-shit-go Fire, is excellent and you can hear it on his site. And it's not too often you can add a song about great fires of Northern Wisconsin to your list of music. Eryn kept her eight-year old self up until after 11:00 p.m. So that should give you an idea of how much she liked it.

Caching Overlook

We went caching for two virtual caches not so long ago.  According to geocaching.com, no new virtual caches are allowed, but old virtual caches are still grandfathered in.  These were sort of in our backyard (St. Paul), so I thought they were worth checking out.

Here's Eryn, at the footstep of the first cache.

Yes, that is Pooh at her feet.  Sort of Banksy in nature.


Not the virtual cache.  But I couldn't help but thing the gay versions of Arsenic and Old Lace lived here.


What we were really after was the Prospect Park water Tower.  If you've read Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, you can appreciate the witch's tower for the parallel fairy domain it really is.  The plaque reads, minus the screaming type: "The Witch's Hat Water Tower was designed by Norwegian architect Frederick William Cappelen and constructed by the city of Minneapolis in 1913.  Occupying the highest natural land area in Minneapoplis, the water tower was built to improve water pressure in the homes of Prospect Park residents.  The tower was decommissioned in 1952, but has been preserved as a significant part of this city's history.  The Witch's Hat Water Tower and Tower Hill Park are listed in the national register of historical places."


Can you see an evil fairy lurking up there?  Black gauzy 80's clothes, circa Prince and the Revolution?  Sexy evil...


The view from one direction at the top of the hill.  That is our fair city of Minneapolis in the distance.  Closer is Moos Tower, home of many sexy nurses.  And my sister and mother.  And I'm not sure what the building in the foreground is.


Looking in the other direction.  Absolutely beautiful.



Our second virtual cache was part of a trip around the world.  It is the 45th parallel.  It exists in many places in the twin cities, but is only commemorated in one location.

Alicia Wiley II

I guess I could have dropped in a real video for Alicia Wiley instead of a still with a soundtrack. But her content can be difficult to find with only almost 500 hits. The stupid Pokey and Gumby video I have on YouTube that I made when Eryn and I were in Arizona has over 81,000 hits, which just goes to show that life isn't fair because my artistic inspiration for that project can be measured in terms of a bottle of Summit. So here's halfway home, video by local director Wayne H. Johnson, Jr.

Alicia Wiley

I saw a write up about Alicia Wiley in the City Pages. "Half Gone" off her new album, Both Sides, is a great song. More Sarah McLachlan than Fiona Apple, which is who everyone who writes something about her seems to compare her to. I Wish I would have picked up the paper before she had her album release party on Thursday. I'd have liked to have gone and heard it.

Alicia's Web Site.

Holidazzle

Pooteewheet, Eryn and I took Ming's advice and went downtown over the weekend to see the Holidazzle parade on Nicollet Avenue.  We'd never been before and, I can honestly say after having been once, I will never go again.  I don't mind standing outside in the cold.  I used to do it at Bockfest each year.  That was fine (although having a beer, like at Bockfest, would have been a boon).  The corner near Macy's was a perfect place to hear the tunes coming off the floats, and the temperature wasn't bad at all - sneaker temps, not snowboot temps.  And I didn't have to listen to Pooteewheet or Eryn complain, because they could stay in the skyway, warm and snuggly, and still me standing on the street below.

What I didn't enjoy was that the parade was less than a dozen floats long, and they didn't make an effort to shut down traffic, so each float was separated by several minutes of NOTHING before the next float, delayed by red lights, finally went past.  Standing in the cold watching a parade is great.  Standing in the cold watching an empty street is annoying.

But here are some pictures, taken many minutes apart.  Pinocchio!  He's friends with the Target dog.


The little kids dressed as giraffes were cute.


Eryn and Pooteewheet in the skyway.  Note the huge space around this particular member of the parade.


With music...

Dawes

Last night Erik and I went downtown to see Dawes at First Avenue.  I think you'd have to measure the time since I was last at First Ave in decades.  And I do mean to include the trailing s.  It was a great show.  I had heard some of their music before on 89.3, but it wasn't until I did a group event with my team at work where we tried to guess what each team member listened to, that I was reminded exactly how much I enjoyed them.  Karma was on my side, because the tickets at First Avenue went on sale right after I finished the work event.

The most exciting part of the evening, other than Dawes and the Moondoggies and Peter Wolf Crier (all excellent), was when this guy and his boyfriend sort of edged their way in front of Erik and I.  One of them left to get a beer or go to the bathroom, and the other one did this sort of dance with his hand extended at a little over a 45 degree angle from his body trying to reserve the spot they'd pilfered.  Erik messed with him a little and then got in his face and told him maybe he shouldn't shove his way in front of others.  The guy was too drunk to respond coherently (or so it seemed), but that wasn't the amusing part.  After the guy's boyfriend came back, and the music was going, he sidled up next to the guy in front of him and put his hand on his shoulder.  The other guy - who had a girlfriend next to him - looked confused, and calmly removed the hand.  So the drunk guy put it back.  And it was again politely removed.  Then he sort of tried to dance with the other guy.  Tried to put a hand around his waist (at least that's what it looked like).  And then some more dancing.  All the while the guy with the girlfriend was getting more and more irritated. Finally, the girlfriend, sensing a fight was brewing, left toward the bar.  A minute or so later, the drunk frottaginest was rapidly yanked backward by a bouncer.  Almost end of story.

The boyfriend, who didn't seem at all phased that his boyfriend was too drunk to put his arm around the right person, didn't leave to support him but, according to Erik, texted him that the show "Just isn't the same without you here."

Check out Dawes.  They packed First Avenue, and for good reason. Some actual video from last night from Eric Bass at Catching Sounds. Photos from last night at Reviler.

The Hammer

I was in a traffic jam on 35-E after Senad's going away party at Old Chicago today (he's headed to Amazon.com) and ended up next to a truck for Girtz Construction. Their logo is "Golden Hammer Man". Goldenhammerman.com is even their URL.

All I could think of was Captain Hammer. I wonder if there is really a construction company or if it's some sort of roving porn production company.

Rockits

Last night we went to see the Rockits at the Minnesota Rollergirls event in St. Paul. We hadn't been before, but Eryn's teacher from Tesseract (one of them) is now a roller girl. She goes by the name Salvadore Brawlie (guess what kind of teacher she was/is) and rolls for the Rockits. Four teams play, alternating 20 minute halves. It's very different as far as sports go, which you can gather by watching this video of the intermission.

Yep. Everyone is ON the rink, singing along while a polka band sings Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. We also got Ring of Fire (the second reference to that song this weekend), Zicke Zacke, and the bird dance.


Here's Eryn with Salvadore.


And the live action. You can see her by looking for the black and white checkered stockings. They won their first match, although a teammate broke a leg. So it's as potentially violent as it looks.

High Water

Before Chilifest, we went down to the Minnesota River (what the hell...I went on RAGBRAI and to Elroy Sparta last year? I was a bigger slacker this year than I imagined) to check out the high water. Either Pooteewheet or I cross it on 77 every day, so it was obvious it was running high as it was touching the bottom of the old train/bicycling bridge. We went down to the frontage road near Eryn's old school (now bankrupt) and ran into this sign. The water was higher than I thought.

The model boat club is serious about their boating area. The water starts before you even enter.

Remember to turn right. Turn left, and you'll end up in the river.

Eryn. Where the sidewalk ends. Or the road.

A bird house suitable for ducks. Or fish.

Franconia Sculpture Park

On Friday I took a day off to hang with my wife while Eryn was at school. I took a half day off last week so we could go to Devil, but Devil really sucked (reminded me a lot of 70's horror movies and I agree fully with the reviewer who said that if you have a locked room movie, you should never cut the action away from the locked room. I preferred Fermat's Room which is a similar movie, but without the supernatural aspect). Even a full day off is a short day, as Eryn needs to be picked up by about 3 p.m. on Fridays after school, but it was long enough to drive up to Franconia Sculpture Park, find some breakfast, and visit a place near Stillwater to get some discount prairie grass for the back yard. We tried to stop by Nelson's Ice Cream as well, but its hours didn't jive with getting back south of the river by 3 p.m. I went to the Franconia Sculpture Park with Ming and Kyle last year when we went to ride the Gandy Dancer trail, almost to the day and I wanted to revisit it this year as, unlike the Walker, their selection of art almost completely changes annually.

This is where we ate breakfast, Joseph's, just off Highway 36 as you head into Stillwater. The food was great, the waitress pleasant and talkative, the selection of homemade pies extensive (we took home their signature raspberry swirl, which was more like a pie-sized cheese cake), and they have a food challenge. The Paul Bunyan Burger. It looks to be about 2.5 pounds of burger and fries and accouterments. The t-shirt was free until the 25th, but after that it costs $5. I have challenged Ming to eat one, head to head, via Facebook.

As you can tell from the last picture. It was overcast. Not an ideal day for a stroll around a sculpture garden. But it was a better day for us than it was for these artists setting up their sculpture balloon. Because what you can't tell from the picture was that it was incredibly windy. Watch a video or two below and you'll hear it, because the noise of the wind completely overwhelms whomever is speaking.

This is what the sculpture looked like by the time we left.

I'm not sure what this one is called. It might be PART of Montenegro by Zoran Mojsilov. Hard to tell - we couldn't find the sign/plate. There's a nice picture on Flickr (or click the title) of Pooteewheet touching one of the plant things, as well as an interesting close up.

This is where hobbit programmers hang out. 10 Minutes Towards Enlightenment by Steven Kuypers. I like the moat, although given how much water was around it was difficult to tell if it was intentional. There's a computer screen and keyboard at the top of the hill, although they don't actually work.

Spurl, by Paul Howe. Sort of disturbing close up. Looks like a really gross scorpion. The rocks are actually cement formed in bags, and you can see the striations if you're standing there. Made me think of the pictures of scorpions with their babies on their backs (ew...ick...).

Three. THREE. Ahahahahahahahaha.... The Count from Sesame Street's favorite piece, Bon Chance by Andrew Macguffie. Like Elmo, he had a duet with Katy Perry that he filmed near here, but it too was axed.

But if they popped a three out of the sculpture, then why is the cut out piece a 5??? Must be the part of the art that makes you really think.

It was a little more interesting from inside.

1994 Oldsmobile Achieva S by Tamsie Ringler. A flattened car made out of concrete, right down to the license plate. Seemed like a cool idea for a playground.

Quaker Cannons by Paul Linden. Are they Quaker because there's no iron, or are they Quaker because they're obviously non-functional as implements of war?

One of several fish by Robert Ressler, such as Gar and Lamphrey and Mudpuppy and Catfish. Pooteewheet and I both thought it would be interesting to have one of these in the back yard.

Pooteewheet on the swing in Bridget Beck's Playstation.

A bit of swinger video. You can see what I mean about the wind.

Me, on Playstation. If it weren't for the rusty metal, or that the birds in the many birdhouses would poo all over, it would be an almost practical playground for kids. It had lots of little nooks with tables and chairs for just hanging out.

Playstation from a distance. Pretty sizable. I think the Walker should move this one to their space. It would complement their bridge.

I believe this was called "Tongues of the Masters".

You can appreciate it more when you're close up.

Johnny Appleseed by Mark di Suvero. I'm not sure why it's Johnny Appleseed. I would have called it Mary Anne.

The Big Game by Kari Reardon. We gave it a quarter because it was so funny. There's a gun and you can pull the trigger, at which point it mocks you about not giving it a quarter and your shooting prowess. At one point it broke into maniacal female laughter. I tried to catch it in the video below and maybe you can catch just a piece of it if you have your volume cranked up enough to hear it above the wind.

Here you go...listen carefully.

Baseline by William Ransom. Reminded me of another piece called Skinscape that's still there (it's basically a concrete patio, so it would be difficult to move), but that's by a different artist, Trevor Nicholas. I'd like to see Tall Brad and Klund play head-to-head on this court.

Trying to show a bit of how wet it was. About 60% of the fields were covered with water. The rest was just soggy.

The ducks liked it very much. Practical art if you're waterfowl, until the house falls on you while you're eating some weeds.

Rocco by Amy Toscani. The strong wind meant it was actually spinning like a giant amusement ride, although you couldn't ride it.

Live spinning action...

Tractor Fin by Kurt Dyrhaug. It was interesting from this angle, but then we passed it again from the back...

...and discovered it had a seat. I think the artist should just have it in his front yard and sit on it so that when people drive by they're incredibly confused about whether it's a real vehicle.

Evening by James Payne. It's like Dexter's shipping container, but without the serial killer paraphernalia. I thought it would be difficult to take a picture, but it turned out very nice. If I had been thinking, I'd have done something like this picture by Dan Anderson on Flickr. Very nice!

Great day trip if you like art and getting out in the Minnesota fall. I wish the colors had been a bit further along in the river valley, so a week or two from now might be optimal.

Fischer's Orchard

Eryn went to an orchard with school and came back convinced that she needed Chestnut crab apples for her lunch. As she doesn't eat much in the way of fruit beyond apples, I'm all for substituting apples for goldfish crackers, even if it means a trip. So we went down to Fischer's Apple Orchard which, according to the webs, has Chestnut crab apples.

And a train. This looks very much like the Nisswa train I rode on the Paul Bunyan bike ride with Ming and Adam. Some of us never grow up.

Hey. Little girl. Yeah. You. Gimme that head baaa-nd. Hey. We match. See. We must be siblings. We can share stuff. Like your head baaa-nd. C'mon sis. It's my turn. I'll return it. Honest. After I ea....wear it.

Hey. Little girl. Don't trust that goat. Do you know what's black and white and full of lies? The Star Tribune! Oh, man. You thought I was going to say "The goat" didn't you? That shit is priceless. That's right, I'm a Republican you liberal hayseed. If we had a donkey, I'd argue with him, or get the elephant to stomp him, but they don't live here, so you'll have to do. This farm is my tea party. Red barn, baby. Red barn. None of that shades of purple crap. You can have an apple a day to keep the doctor away, but only if you approve individual health accounts and repeal O-baaaa-ma's law.

Whoa. I'm going to take this idea back to work. Multi-level cubes with a feed chute. I could just crank Mountain Dew up there a couple of times and day and everyone would be happy. The goats definitely understand the end result of the conveyor belt, if not how to build one.

Apples are actually very pretty in the fall. The trees were very full.

Not Chestnut Crabs (which are good), but some pretty fruit nonetheless.