Weekend I - Friday Night, Under the Gaslight (with Olios)

It was a busy, busy weekend. Even if I don't include starting to pack for RAGBRAI or going to the new Ghost Busters remake.  Which we enjoyed.  I didn't like it as much as the first one, but they did a great job.  The scene where Kate McKinnon (Jillian Holtzmann) fights the ghosts with two pistol proton packs was inspired and her character was excellent.  A lot of the action took place in Times Square and I saw my orange and white company logo, even if the corporate name was nowhere to be seen.

Friday night after dinner with my wife's folks at the Red Cow (so much food - the egg + peanut butter burger was overload) we all went to Under the Gaslight at the University of Minnesota Showboat.  We've been there before and it's wonderful.  They do a melodrama coupled with a lot of little skits.  All performed by U of MN students.  The skits, or olios, are superb.  They reused one about a girl for every month with over the top costumes, but finished it up with a twist that wasn't there the last time we saw it (I won't spoiler it).  And the olio about the bugs with the fireflies and ladybugs and oh-so-put-upon flowers...brilliant.  Supposedly it's their last year after being flooded out last year and that's a real disappointment  One of my favorite performances.

The boat at the riverside in St. Paul.  

And just looking out over the river...the night shot, later, is better.


Pooteewheet right before the performance.


The stage.  The scenery was great - they seem to keep all their sets from previous years and reuse, as well as costumes.  The end olio involved costumes from many different years including sashes with the years Under the Gaslight was performed.


Pooteewheet and Eryn braving the spiders.


After the play we walked back to the car through the park.  Getting off the boat, there were dozens of Pokemon Go players lounging next to the water trying to catch water Pokemon.  Others were scattered through the park at 11:00 p.m.  Quite the craze.  Eryn and Pooteewheet are playing in this picture.


Time to confer on a pidgey or something.


During the intermission I lounged at the front of the boat and enjoyed the Mississippi River.  A much more serene view than two years ago when it was flooding and large trees were bouncing off the side of the boat and being sucked under.

Flooding

We drove to downtown St. Paul today to take the car for an open air ride, see the flooding at the Mississippi, have stomach-churning amounts of ice cream at the new Nelson's in St. Paul on Snelling (we shared two child sizes between the three of us and still couldn't finish), and do a bit of antiquing at the nearby stores on Snelling.

The Mississippi was wild, particularly as we were at the Showboat only 8 days ago.  At that time, you could walk out to the steamboat.  Today there was at least a block of water between the shore and the boat and the ticket office was deep in water.  You can see where the walkway down to the shoreline is in this photo - those flags mark the top of the stairs.


The Mississippi was actually down a little from where it must have crested.  Hopefully it will go down a bit more before all the water from later today kicks in. It looked like someone was dumping a bucket of water on the neighborhood.


There's the Showboat and the tickethouse.  Understandable why the U of MN is putting Jekyll and Hyde off for a while.


The playground.  We could see the St. Paul Yacht Club on the way to the park and it was way out into the water.  That's not unusual as it tends to go under with even a little bit of flooding, but it seemed excessive even for their location.  I usually ride down into St. Paul along the cliffs which come out at the Club.  There must be a mile or more of water along the trail which would stop passage even if the trail wasn't closed because the cliffs were loose.


This is the picture they're showing on the news. Now it's on my blog too.  They have receptions there.  I hear they moved a lot of weddings and receptions to lower town St. Paul to sooth the tears of upset brides to be.


It's the apocalypse.  Wildlife reclaiming what was previously a human area.  I'm surprised lions didn't start chasing us like something out of Will Smith in I Am Legend.  Swimming lions.


Not our footprints.  Going in the water is a no-no.  These are the footprints of two people who were yelled at by the mounted police.  Eryn was excited to see the police on horses.  She had no sympathy for the barefoot waders.  We left after talking to Kuz's cousin for a while, who was undoubtedly taking much better pictures with his 7200 than I was with my iPhone, to go find ice cream and an antique cat key hanger.  We pulled into the garage just as the rain came down.  Good timing to a good afternoon outing.

Minnesota Centennial Show Boat - Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde

Last night we went to Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Showboat near Harriet Island in St. Paul.  It was the opening night of the show, put on by University of Minnesota students.  My wife and I had been to the showboat before, to see Dracula but I believe our last visit was in something like 1992, before we were married.  We both remember it being closer to the Minneapolis campus and infested with spiders.

Jekyll and Hyde was performed as a melodrama with olios inbetween.  I'd never heard of an olio, but was pleasantly surprised.  They were hilarious.  The show itself was full of great humor, but the olios really stole the show and "The Calendar Parade" and "The Saga of Two Little Sausages" had me laughing.  All of them were amusing.  I highly recommend the show, but after their opening night they're on hiatus for nine days while the Mississippi River crests.

I was joking with Kyle on Facebook that I sort of felt like I was in Bioshock Infinite.  There was even a barbershop quartet as part of the olio "Marriage a Cinq"  He said if I had to throw a ball at a minority I should get out my skyhook and go to town.


This view, more than most, made me think of Bioshock.  It's like all the empty decks where you're looking for trashcans to pilfer.


Panorama of the river.  The water was speeding along.  At one point, just as it was getting dark, a large tree was going past me as I was standing at the rail, with a noise that sounded like a monster had breeched, the whole thing sudden vanished.  A few minutes later, one limb popped back up above the water.  I would not want to be in the water right now, or in the next week as it crests.


It's a little less Bioshock when Eryn is posing with her umbrella, although if she'd had a dress and could manipulate dimensional barriers, it might have been a different story.


There were two boats on the river pulling in as we went to the play.  I wonder if Tall Brad is up on that bridge somewhere...


Nice picture from the showboat of downtown St. Paul.


The stage before the show.  Almost all the scenery was painted.  There were amusing scenes where someone would pretend like a painting was a 3-dimensional prop.


Intermission.  The cathedral in the dark from the showboat.


There were a number of informational displays about Jekyll and Hyde.  One was about how Hyde was portrayed through the years.  It included Doofenshmirtz's failed attempt to make himself a monster.


The title painting which came down between scenes and after the Monty Python-esque ending.  Wonderful vaudeville and a lot of energy.