The Bestest Ever

Have you ever met someone with some weird, strange obscure fact about them? For example, Bickels uncle is the one who invented those little urinal soaps. Strange right? Or how about that person who is the online Monopoly champion from 1997-2003? I've decided to give myself a random fact. The trick here is to make up something really random, so there is no factual truth to it. So here it goes.....

1. "I've published a book under the pen name Alex Kendall. Mostly the books are collections of memoirs that have been woven into fictional tales of my life. It was picked up by Random House, but never fully distributed. Every time someone buys my book though, I get $2.97". That sounds believable right?? Alex Kendall-that name sounds on the border of made up or actual fact. Plus, the fact that the book was never distributed leads people to believe it's one of those un-found gems in the literary world.

2. I'm the Midwest Bocce Ball champion from 2006. Ok, the fact that Bocce ball doesn't get played a lot AND I can say it with a straight face, should lead people to believe it's true. Besides, who would have a set of Bocce balls around if they decided to challenge me?

3. "I was on the Price Is Right, but never made it to the showdown". Ok, here's the logic in this. If you watch this show, you can't honestly tell what year it was done it. 1978? 1999? Who knows! And since the show airs daily, it would be hard for someone to say "No you weren't". The only downside is that I would somehow slip up and mention that I broke the Plinko game......

4. "I used to work at Starbucks and I gave John Goodman a Mocha". Due to the fact that most people would believe that a top-notch celeb such as John Goodman would in fact go into a starbucks, allows this to work. If I were to say that Katie Holmes, Chuck Norris or Morgan Freeman came into my starbucks, people may not believe me. But I can switch out John Goodman for a number of celebrities: Corey Feldman, That guy who played Balki in Perfect Strangers, Dave Coulier, Macho Man Randy Savage or Michael Bivins, and it would still work.

And the winner is: Midwest Bocce Ball Champ! I chose this because I am semi-decent at the bocce ball game, and the fact that I look like I may be able to actually play leads this white lie to the front of the line. So next time you see me, be on the lookout for this lie to somehow slip into our conversation, in order to make me seem a little bit cooler.

In other news, the city of St. Paul (i.e. Minneapolis' lesser cool sibling) instructed a non-profit organization called Portage for Youth (who help underprivileged kids express themselves through art and theater) to paint over a mural they had worked on. The reason: The mural had too many "graffiti elements". The Star Tribune wrote:
The theater is owned by Portage for Youth, a group that encourages troubled kids to express themselves through art, executive director Raeann Ruth said. And the mural, running alongside a garden, had butterflies, flowers, leaves and vines.
But then came the complaints, said City Council President Kathy Lantry, who represents the area. She drove to the theater in early April, expecting to find a garden scene. Instead, she recalled thinking, "this is not that."

This is the photo of the finished mural (photo from Star Tribune)

And the mural as it's being painted over. Nothing says "advocate for art" quite like telling kids that the mural they worked so hard on needs to be painted over because a city official doesn't like it......I saw the mural when it was being done, and it was one of the better legal murals I've seen. If you'll notice the fence behind the theater covers the scene from the street, so I don't see what the deal was. Mind you, this whole mural was done with permission. I wonder if the Nicollet Ave. mural project will face the same problem?

Karate Kid

So as I'm sitting and watching Sportscenter with some starburst, I come across a segment about 5-6 year olds partaking in MMA fights. Wow. Whatever happened to kids playing dodgeball, 4-square and not getting picked for basketball?? For some reason, kids putting other kids in a compression locks seems a little much. Now don't get me wrong, I was ALL ABOUT tae kwon do for about two weeks (before I realized it was pointless) while I was 12. And when I hit the summer of 9th grade, I started learning Brazilian jujitsu. The difference? I was learning from one person in a one-on-one basis. I wasn't being "trained to fight".I had no intention of actually fighting anyone, partaking in any tournament, or one day growing up to be a cage fighter. I've also been to Brazil on many occasions for this purpose. I don't think a 9 year old has quite the capacity for this kind of thing. It was actually kind of appalling to watch a class full of 30 kids beating up on each other on Sportscenter. Now when the day comes where a little-me is running around, I'm pretty sure I'll teach him/her the same things I've learned. I think it's important to know how to defend yourself, while never actually having to do it. With that, I'll step off this soap box thingy......

So a week ago Kristen and me sent off for the Minnesota zoo where they have the new Grizzly bear exhibit. For some reason, they're REALLY close. MAD amounts of money went into this thing. The bears actually fish for their own salmon in the stream.....

And a swimming bear....

And it really wouldn't be Minnesotan without a mullet. But as I was laughing and flicking the guy in the red shirt from behind to catch the mullet, the lady in blue comes walking by with a FEMULLET!! It's a two-fer!!!! But judging by her Wisconsin Dells shirt, she's not from the Gopher state.....

And due to the fact that it was Thursday, I hit the farmers market downtown. These two ladies have become favorites of mine. They sell Buffalo meat. I know it sounds odd, but it's actually really healthy and not to bad when it's cooked up....I've become known as "shiny-bike" to them. I also ran into Bree on the Nicollet Mall. That was quite trill.

And during the Aquatennial, there are all kinds of random things going on around the Twin Cities. One of my favorite are the day-long tennis sessions right in the middle of Downtown on Peavy Plaza. It's a great way to spend a lunch break with some coffee.

I have no clue who this guy in the red is, but I tried to get part of the skyline in the background....

And finally, Minneapolis is funding a mural project down Nicollet Ave. This is the one that is being done on the King Park Building. As I was riding, I didn't see the other murals being worked on. All-in-all there should be 10 murals. The murals are all different and seem to look pretty good. If I see more, I'll post them.

King Building again......I should have held something up for scale...

My new favorite thing in the world (well- besides ninjas, joose, sporks, the first 3 seasons of Dawsons Creek, no-stick-bandaids, the episode of Scrubs where Turk dances to Poisen, zubaz and pagers) is Photobombing. Some people have termed it "that guy" photos. To put it simply, it's where a person is found in a photograph that shouldn't be there, and pretty much ruins it for the intended party. I myself have been doing it for years, but now it's caught on to the masses. Here are some examples:

Thirsty-day

Wednesday was one of the biggest waste-days I've had in a while. I painted my garage and re-read About A Boy.

But Thursday was cooler!

I started off my after-hump-day with a cup of coffee from the Riverview cafe. As you notice the flick is on the outside. A: I forgot my camera. B: There was a lady staring at me all crazy-eyes like. She sorta freaked me out.......If I had brought my camera in, I would have gotten a flick of a staple of one of the finest coffee shops in Minneapolis, Rach.

My cool coffee cup that almost spilled all over me when I had to slam on my breaks because of the Train police chasing some vandals.

These are the two cops that stopped traffic on 38th for almost 20 minutes while they looked all over the place for about 3 kids. Who paints trains in the middle of the day?? They had dogs and foot police all over the place.

After my wondrous caffeine fix, I hopped the bike and headed downtown. I completely forgot to flick the new library downtown....But I did get the MacPhail center for music. I stopped in and listened to some people learning how to play the french horn. It was actually pretty good.

After the tingling in my ears wore off, I went across the street to the Gutherie theater. Now I wasn't all that pleased that they moved from the old location (and the fact that the big blue building took a LONG time to get used to), but I've been pleased with every play/production I've seen here. I went up to the Target Lounge and got an Cherry Italian Soda and a club sandwich and watched tourists flock back and forth like a slow pong game.

After the Gutherie snack I headed across the stone arch bridge to find this......

I also found a security guard I aptly named Jersey Mike. He explained everything about these large, black, mirrored boxes in a very classic Italian-Jersey accent. He looked like a smaller Paul Teutul from Orange County Choppers. No lie. I asked if I could take a picture of him and his reply was this "If yous (yes, he said yous) take a picture of me, It'll be the last thing your eyes ever see". Other then the death threat, he was a nice-funny guy. We joked about some of the pictures and the fact that Redbull was sponsoring it. So we had some redbulls and I went on my way.

Redbulls reasoning for doing this. Jersey Mike told me that the part about "braving the lens to take a picture" was b.s. He said that that the people behind the pictures took flicks of people being brave (because most of the pictures are of REALLY extreme sports). He then mumbled about how he once jumped off the 4th floor of a building for drunken kicks....

The park boards message about it.

Since Jersey Mike wouldn't let me take his picture, this is the next best thing. Just picture Paulie with a yellow security shirt and black sunglasses.

This is what the 5x5 blocks look like when they're lit up at night.

This is what the blocks look like when they're not going during the day. Apparently, they show an image of Jon B-nonstop!

The Gutherie and Gold Medal Flour from the Stone Arch Bridge. You can sorta see the Metradome behind them.

This is what the 35W bridge looks like thusfar. Hopefull it will be done in October......It really doesn't look like the old one. Apparently there is supposed to be a walking/bikeway underneath it to go across the river.

This was the video of the parked cops. I couldn't get them actually chasing the kids...

This is the stone arch bridge part 1. At the end, some yuckle started yelling for me to get off that side. It was one of the security guards.
This is the stone arch bridge part 2. I got the Guthrie, Gold Medal Flour and some other stuff.

Then for dinner I whipped up some garlic shrimp, lemon pasta and some white wine (that turned out not to be so good). Oh well.

Update: Kristen and me tried out this spot called First Course in Minneapolis. I'll babble about it more, but it was quite good. Good wine, tasty pizza and the head chef spent about 10 minutes talking about his drivers license photo. I would give it a solid 8/10 for a good 2nd date.

Too-day Tuesday

Ah Tuesday. Not as lame as Monday but still not as cool as Thursday......

As it's vacation day #2, I decided to indulge in some arts and....well, no crafts. If you live in Minneapolis currently, you know it was about 95 degrees today. It was the perfect, sunny day to be bopping around town. The first stop was at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

I tried to take some more flicks outside, but the sun-glare ruined it.....

There really wasn't anything new inside except for a few works here and there, but I still lost track of time and realized it 3 HOURS LATER! I got there around 10 in the morning and the next time I checked my watch it was almost 1:30! Oh well, it was time well spent. I find it strange that all art museums seem to have a similar smell. I actually like it. I would have to say that the MIA is one of the best free spots in the state.

After the MIA, I biked on over to the sculpture garden. There were all kinds of people there today. There was a lady taking senior pictures of another girl and she almost fell in the spoon-pond. I chuckled. I didn't have the time to take pics of the 40 sculptures, so I settled on the main ones.

It's the IDS building in between the bicycle. I wish I could use my film camera and actually take a picture that's good, but I'm still using the digital......

I would venture to say that the cherry and spoon is one of the most recognizable/photographed things in Minneapolis. I decided that I would go with the popular trend and flick it also. I'm pretty sure the person in the white shirt is the one who almost fell into the pond.






If you turn to your right from the cherry spoon, you can see the basilica. If I weren't so tired, I would have walked across the bridge and flick some stuff over by Loring Park......but I didn't













And this is from on top of the hill by the Walker Art Center. As you can see below, there is an "art inspired" putt-putt golf center set up. It was actually pretty good. If I had more time, I may have played a game. So I sat on this hill for about a half hour and pondered how to include this into the new book.....











To top it all off, I caught a little league game. This is my little brother (from the Big Brothers program) H. He struck out twice.....but they won the game. I'm pretty sure it was the last game of the season.















And of course, nothing caps a summer day quite like some gelato. The best place I've found for it in the Twin Cities is at Fat Lorenzos (I recommend the Stracciatella or Frutti di Bosco). So I took my cup and hung out by Lake Nokomis for a while.

This is Lake Nokomis. The southern end of Minneapolis. Still only 5 miles from downtown though.

So as I'm writing this, the All Star Game is in the 14th inning and all tied up....See National League, if Derrick Lee were in, this wouldn't have happened......

Well, since the news is predicting rain the next day or so, I'll be doing tedious work around the house. I'd flick some of it, but it's probably boring......

Thursday and Friday should allow for some interesting festivities though....After all, it is the 10 best days of summer.

I need to find a new book to read...I spent almost an hour and a half at Barnes and Noble tonight looking for something new and good. Everything I found seemed humdrum.

Oh, and the Dark Knight comes out this week. I'll have to catch it at some point in time.......They should make a comic book movie about Calvin and Hobbes..

Oh Vacation

You call it a balloon, I call it a bad breath holder.

So the first formal vacation is slated for this week. Due to the gas prices, my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants (or at least the seat of an airline) is quickly diminishing. My ticket for the UK almost doubled in price since I last checked, so needless to say I won't be going this year.

On another note, I've decided to add some media-vacation-notes. So with this being the first day of vacation, lets see what transpired.

So my old running shoes have long worn out. I've decided that breaking in my new shoes would be a great way to spend a Monday morning/afternoon. I was a little nervous about spending so much dough on shoes, but around the 10th mile around the lakes, I realized it was a wiser investment then google.

After the run and a much needed lunch, I decided that I should go for a bike ride. Since I don't think I have any flicks of the new bike up, I decided to post some around the city of Minneapolis. I actually gave in and used a digital camera because with the heat, I felt it best not to carry my film around (hence the less-then-good photos). This is from Harriet looking towards downtown.

Another one from Harriet with the Bandshell and Downtown.

After visiting cities from around the US and the rest of the world, places like this are great to have in your city.

After about 2 more hours on the bike doing the Minnehaha Falls/Nokomis/Harriet/Calhoun circle I walked for a bit towards Harriet. This is the rose garden. It smells better then it looks. During the middle of the day it is occupied by old people and 1st date couples.

So I found a nice tree to prop the bike up against and relax for about a half hour. But guess what? Five minutes into it, this beastly woman flops down 100 feet in front of me to read a book (which I'm sure wasn't a good one)...No joke. It's quiet as could be and she farts. I heard it...FROM 100 FEET AWAY!! Within about five minutes of sitting there, she starts to sweat through her shirt. Thanks obesity.

The bike parked up against the tree. It's much easier to ride now that I have foot holds and a front break....

I got home and decided to make dinner. As you can see, Italian sausage looks pretty similar to

something........But anywho, Broders has the best Italian meats in the city (or at least that I can find).

So heat up some olive oil, add the sausage, onions and a whole bunch of other things and let it cook. Hours later my kitchen still smells good.

Add some cheese and bake. mmmmmmmm. If you look to the top-right, you can see the pictures some of my students have made for me. (Yes, I actually do hang them on my fridge-along with the topgun flicks).

Some good red wine with bread later and it's a night!

So this is a video I took while sitting under my tree at Harriet park. In it, you can see the sweaty woman and a couple that made out for about 15 minutes.

This is a short clip of Lake Harriet from a dock. I'm pretty sure you can't see all the fish in the water.

Tuesday is the Ma's birfday so I don't think there will be many photos, but the rest of the week should be good for flicks.





The All-star game is also this Tuesday. I may or may not watch it. It sorta reminds me of the probowl. People are there, but don't really try. Also, Derrick Lee got snubbed...The home run derby is also a waste of time. At least the slam dunk competition can be good. My problem is that people don't participate anymore. I remember the days of the Michael Jordan/Dominiqe Wilkins showdowns. There are no big name players anymore. Why won't Dwayne Wade or Carmello partake in the event?? Perhaps they are worried about bruised egos.....I think more "big name" athletes should participate in things like that. It's good for the sport. If Ryan Howard or Alex Rodriguez were participating, I'd probably watch. Don't get me wrong, Justin Morneau is the home-team guy, but not exactly a charismatic player. And out of all the pro athletes I've met over the years, he's one of my least favorite in person. Heck, Shawn Merriman (who you would think would be arrogant) was much more pleasant to talk with--but that's another story.





On another random meeting, I met David Crosby this past Thursday at the IDS center. I was down there for lunch with Kristen and who should walk out wearing a jean jacket outfit?? Mellisa Etheridges' baby-daddy! I didn't' get a chance for a photo or a long chat, but it was cool none-the-less to see him.





Everyone should check out the Nicollet farmers market. It's one of the best in the Twin Cities.
Other then that, the Lyndale and Mill City farmers markets are really good in the summer months.

Well, have a good week everyone. Enjoy the weather. I'm off to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and then the Sculpture Garden.

-JB