Three Already?!!!

Happy Birthday to my cheeky little niece.



Hip hip, hurray times three!!! Love you Izzy and sooooo excited to see you soon.

Sometimes It's Good to Have Polish Friends

Sauerkraut & bacon and potato & cheddar cheese-filled pierogi with homemade potato soup.

Before the Snowstorm

Before the snow hit Friday night, I visited the Walker Art Center. The Twin Cities has some great modern architecture. The Walker building is one of them. In addition to looking great on the outside, it houses some pretty amazing stuff too. Yves Klein is currently on display.



It is also home to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.


The famous Claes Oldenburg spoon and cherry. You can see a hint of the looming snowstorm in the gloomy background of grey sky.


Alexander Calder's 'The Spinner' -- love kinetic art.


Frank Gehry's plexiglass fish

Which ties in nicely to another beautiful piece of modern architecture in the Twin Cities, the Weisman Art Museum.

Also designed by Frank Gehry, and also housing some amazing artwork.
(Weisman photo from http://blog.aia.org)

Stranded

Uh-oh... guess I didn't make it out of the Twin Cities before the big snow storm hit afterall. Stranded in Woodbury for the night by the "biggest pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm in nearly 20 years." 83 cars in the ditch by 8:00AM this morning, over 400 accidents by the end of the day and nearly 40,000 customers without power.

Welcome back to the Upper Midwest.

Gastro Non Grata: Nordeast

For four years now, an event called "Gastro Non Grata" has brought together local bands, chefs and breweries from the Twin Cities area for the common folk to enjoy for a meager price. Now that I am back in the area, I was finally able to attend one of these great little events. All procedes from this two-day Nordeast edition of GNG go to support the Ritz Theater, a charming little venue in NE MPLS. Read more about it here.


Before the show, Macaroni & Cheese with cauliflower, Widmer cheddar, ham,
herb bread crumbs and truffle oil from GNG supporter Modern Cafe. Pair that with a bottle of Milk Stout from the Left Hand Brewery and you've got a meal that says bring on that 12" of predicted snowfall tonight.

Magic Castles, psychedelic rock that makes you feel like you're surfing an endless wave.


Time to sample the wares:

Hard cider from Crispin Cidery and sweet onion and scrambled egg mousse with brioche and smoked salmon roe by chef Erik Anderson of Sea Change Restaurant blatantly displayed in front of the Gastro Non Grata merchandise table.

See, I didn't get that degree in advertising for nothing.

MEAT RAFFLE! (Honestly, it's a Minnesota thing.)

My buddy Craig, co-founder & co-host of GNG, raffling off some bacon, chive and goat cheese bratwurst from Clancy's Meats while performing artist Tyler Burkum patiently waits in the background. I did not win the brats, but not from lack of want. Nor did I win the rabbit, nor the pork belly. ==sigh==

Me and My Arrow closed down the house with their wonderful hard-hitting symphonic rock.


Take a look at their appearance on MPLS.TV 's weekly live performance series, "City of Music":

City of Music: Me and My Arrow from MPLS.TV on Vimeo.

And if you like that, check out Phantom Tails, featuring four of the members of Me and My Arrow. This is the essence of what I like to call indie-electro-power-punk. Fantastic stuff:

They were just voted one of the top new bands in the Twin Cities and will be playing GNG Nordeast Saturday night along with Marijuana Deathsquads (ranked #7) and Pink Mink (ranked #1) among others. I am already cursing the 90% chance of snow/rain mix guaranteed to hit the metro area within the next 12 hours for making me miss this great line-up tomorrow.

If you're in town, check it out -- great music, great food, supporting the local scene/s: Gastro Non Grata Nordeast : A Two Day Goulash of Good Times

War: Part II

And now I have declared war upon the popcorn ceiling.

Declaring War

A few weeks ago I stripped this bathroom of the "classic" Pooh Bear contents it contained, in place since the mid-nineties.



Today I declared war on the wallpaper. Good riddance, I say. Your peach, ecru and country blue flower blooms shall not be missed.

One Dapper Dog

My handsome nephew modeling the latest new look in fall fashion for canines.

Not only does it alert hunters to that fact you are one dog that should not be mistaken for the average hunting season prey, the light-weight flannel also wards off the impending chill the freshly cut snowmobile trails you are exploring means is right around the corner.

Also, no one would dare say blaze orange is not an absolutely fantastic color for black-haired mutts.

And while Topper is looking every bit the part of a dapper dog, it has been four days since I last showered and eight days since I last washed my hair.

Perhaps it is time to do something about that.

What Was That?

Yeah, Topper heard it too. Gunshots. From a distance, this sweetheart of a dog looks a good bit like a small black bear. Guess it's time to break out the blaze orange.

Daylight Savings Time Comes To a Close

And now the sun is setting entirely too early. This photo was taken a little after 3:00pm.

Bleakness Follows

Back at the Homestead, where the leaves have long since been blown off their branches.

Autumn Is Here

The last day of my trip, my planned camping/hiking excursion is cut short by a frigid, hard-biting wind.



Everything is in the process of losing its leaves, if they have not already been lost.





I cannot say I find too much pleasure in this bleak, deadened autumn landscape.



Still, it was good to get out and get a small hike in. I will never complain about getting the chance to climb a good hill.

When In Rome

... one does as the Romans would do.
And when in Wisco, to do as the Sconnis do is to sample to the alcoholic wares. So what better way to wind down my week long road trip than to visit the new The Old Sugar Distillery in Madison with Laura and Jeff.

Sampling the Cane and Abe Freshwater Rum. Cheers!




Then off to The Old Fashioned Tavern & Restaurant for incredibly cheap pints of microbrews.

The Satin Solstice Imperial Stout, so creamy!

Check out the current tap list and unbelievable prices! Well worth a visit if you're ever in town.

Jónsi at the Vic

My friend Luke has been doing a radio show called "Abstract Science" in Chicago for ten years. Free music and concert tickets are some of the perks to having your own radio show. I got to be the '+' in the '1+' pass he had for Jónsi tonight, which was awesome since the concert was sold out and I had really really wanted see it.

Last time I saw Sigur Ros, it was like a two-hour long lullaby, creating a lush dreamscape of sound. Jónsi solo was equally dreamy, but a fairytale-like innocence and light airiness danced over the upbeat rhythms, leaving me completely energized at the end of the night instead of wanting to be gently rocked to sleep. And the backdrop projections were an amazing addition to the already ethereal music. Read more about them here and take a little look at the incredible show below:

jónsi - sinking friendships (live) from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Thanks Luke! It was an awesome show.

Party Crashers

My buddy Luke was one of the few people I knew in high school who was into Twin Peaks besides myself. My junior year, we pooled our money together to buy the complete Twin Peaks VHS set which we found on the rudimentary internet that existed in 1994. I remember thinking, even going halve-sies, it was a lot of money on my lifeguarding wages. Sad days.

Today I caught up with Luke for the first time in nearly sixteen years --almost as long ago as when we drooled over our brand new Twin Peaks tapes.





The night ended with us getting free drinks and a free pizza while crashing a networking social for black business leaders of Chicago. It's true what they say... Chicago is a hell of a town.

Chicago Via Segway

Being the big nerds that we are, my friend Katie and I did a Segway tour of downtown Chicago. I think we both agree, there is no good way to look cool while on one of these machines.



(although, quite typically, it does not look like I was trying very hard.)

Scenes from our tour:





Completely frozen and with numb feet by the end of the tour, we ended the night with pumpkin soup and a lovely bottle of merlot.


Goodtimes. Happy Birthday weekend Katie!

And thanks for sharing your Groupon with me.