Both of Us .org

JSP and I have enjoyed the past few weeks. Work has been going well for both of us and we spent our last two weekends out of town. Last weekend we went to the beautiful town of Bayfield, Wisconsin, and went sailing with our friends Rod and Georgianne on Lake Superior. Sailing in and out of the apostle islands in a luxurious sailing vessel was fantastic. JSP and I are now big fans of sailboats.

This weekend we went to a beautiful piece of land outside of Finlayson, Minnesota. Although the insects were not so friendly, everyone else was. We enjoyed nature walks, a bonfire, games of boccie ball and Catan, yummy food and and good times with Cosmic Monkey, Emma, and a whole gang of fun, friendly people. I especially enjoyed seeing the Digging In garden that Cosmic Monkey and Emma started been writing about. A special thanks to Hilty clan for their hospitality.

Elsewhere, from their South Minneapolis home, my friends Patrick and Morgon Mae have begun documenting their participation in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) on their blog CSAte. The photos they share illustrate the bounty of tasty food they write about. CSA's are a great way of supporting local farmers while receiving copious amounts of fantastic food.

On a completely unrelated note, my sister published a book review on a Web site called Donne Tempo. Her review, Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin. is compelling and well written. If you are looking for a new book to read, check out Julie's review.

Labels: friends, garden, Minnesota

Last night JSP and I went to the Guthrie Theater to see their current mainstage show, Peer Gynt. We left our home in Northeast Minneapolis about 20 minutes before showtime and arrived only ten minutes before the curtain. This time crunch meant that we did not have time to lounge about in the Guthrie's deliciously modern public spaces and bars. Instead we were herded with our fellow audience members through the halls and into the thrust theatre to our seats.

As we took our seats, we noticed that most of the cast was already on stage. The actors were greeting each other and speaking casually to the audience in typical Midwestern dialects. We could discern that they were talking about a party happening and they seemed happy that we all had made it through the cold to join them. The stage was minimally dressed, but was staged to look artfully like the inside of a barn. The stage floor itself appeared to be made of planks of hardwood. Later in the show the floor would show off a marvelous ability to transform to look like both shifting sands and finally moving water in a tempestuous sea.

The script is based on Henrik Ibsen's construction of a Norwegian Folktale. Ibsen is best known for his play A Doll's House. This translation and script work was done by Robert Bly, a Minnesotan writer probably best known for Iron John: A Book About Men.

The play follows the title character Peer Gynt, a merry prankster of an everyman, through his life. His life is marked by an inability to connect in any real way with women or anything feminine. He is driven by self interest and fear of commitment. The actor playing Peer is charismatic and interesting but even his fantastic acting skills were not enough for me to find his exploits worth savoring. The performances by the entire cast were first rate. However, I was really not very touched by the content of the play. It was a little like using great ingredients to make a mediocre recipe. The play lasted too long and offered little philosophy to chew on.

Some have likened Peer Gynt to a morality play. This analysis falls short because the main moral question in the script is roughly: Is it enough to just be yourself, or is it important to challenge yourself to be responsible to those who love you and to your community as a whole?

I saw a different translation of this play performed at Hill Murray High School when I was in about sixth grade. As a student years ago, I thought that the Norwegian tale of Peer Gynt must be too deep for me to fully understand. By seeing this production I realized that this was not the case. The play is a farce dressed up as something profound.

In summary, the production was very good, but the play itself is mediocre. It was interesting to see that with even the full artistic force of the Guthrie Theater behind this play, it still could not become a better play than it is. I guess we cannot blame Ibsen's Peer Gynt, the play is just being itself.

Labels: arts, Minnesota, Northeast Minneapolis

Circling Around Abstraction, a new exhibition of select works by Georgia O'Keeffe is at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in South Minneapolis. The show is fantastic.

My friend Connie and I spent 90 minutes simply marveling at 42 O'Keeffe images, chosen for this exhibition to highlight the artist's use of circles and circular movement in various periods over her career.

During our time together looking at O'Keeffe's work I pointed out my three favorite images and asked my companion Connie which we her favorites. She could not limit her favorites to only three. I found that after reconsidering the question, I could also no longer limit myself to three works either.

Communicating with my co-workers about my experience at the exhibition last night, I received a response from my coleague Kristeen.

I saw the O'Keeffe exhibit twice with different guides. It was worth going twice.

I have not spoken with anyone who had seen it that was not wowed by the exhibition.

Check out this short but delicious online audio slide show of the O'Keeffe exhibit when you have two minutes to spare.

While going from the exhibition to the cafe in the Minnesota Institute of Arts, we came across a Diego Rivera painting (not the image at right), which reminded me that a Frida Kahlo exhibition is happening simultaneously at the Walker Art Center.

Two of my favorite artists are being exhibited at the same time in Minneapolis, what fantastic luck.

Labels: arts, Minnesota

The Minnesota Thunder played the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday, including the legend that is David Beckham. The surprisingly close game was decided in a shootout after a score of 1-1 in regular time.

Although the stadium was far from full, 20,123 soccer fans came out to watch the game, a record crowd for the Minnesota Thunder.

The friends I was with at the game, who are also players on my soccer team suggested that it would be great to have the opportunity to watch soccer like this more often. Wouldn't it be great to have our own MLS team here in Minnesota! Until that time, soccer fans in the Twin Cities can watch Thunder games at Central High School in St. Paul. Central High School lacks the grand scale that a stadium like the Metrodome offers, but the minor league feel of the games played there is enjoyably intimate.

Labels: Minnesota, sport

Today I took some pictures with my mobile phone so I could try to sell some furniture we are storing for friends. In the process I downloaded all the photos stored on my phone and came across a few that came out very nicely.

The pictures here were taken at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, also known as the Minnesota State Fair. We went one Saturday evening with JB's sister and enjoyed each others company and the not so healthy food on offer there. The hundreds of thousands of people that visit St. Paul for the Fair are representative of the diversity of our state, from lily white farmers parading their sheep in the Sheep Barn to middle class suburbanites checking out the Arts and Crafts Building, to ethnically diverse neighbors from our neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis investigating the thrills of the Midway.

In these photos, the moon was rising as we passed under the chair lifts. I took these photos with the moon in the background. I hope you enjoy these images even posted months after the Fair went quiet and dark.

Labels: Minnesota

This is the first time in over five years that I have experienced a Minnesota Winter. The season started off fairly tame, December and January were significantly warmer than normal. However, several weeks ago that all changed. The average high temperature for the last two weeks has been about 5 F, this is roughly 15 F below normal. One night it even dropped to -18 F. I am solidly against this cold weather hanging around much longer.

I have to attribute my angst for this weather to the past five years of living in much more temperate climates. In Groningen, the coldest winter temperature was about 20 F, and in Philadelphia perhaps it dipped to 5-10 degrees one or two nights the last two winters. I had heard that Minnesota winters had also been quite mild the last several years, and I was hoping for a continuation of this pattern. Alas, I am dealing with bone chilling weather.

I do keep in mind that this weather is not significant in any extreme. No record lows have been broken, not even close. The record low for the cold night I mentioned above (-18 F) was -33 F. My sense is that our cold snap is lasting too long. I expect perhaps a week each year where the temperatures struggle to get above zero, then a rebound to normal. This snap is going onto week three.

Diverting my thoughts from the cold, we have been enjoying the guest that we have hosted at our home in NE Minneapolis since last Sunday. Our friend Rick from Aurora, Illinois has been seeing our city and his other friends. We all went to a performance at the Guthrie Theater, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. The performance was very entertaining, and we were all satisfied.

The rest of the week was spent enjoying cookies, pie, pancakes, Thai and Mexican food. The time grows short as our guest is returning to his home soon. Perhaps this last weekend of his visit will be spent touring St. Paul and going to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The week has been brightened by our guest, and thankfully so, because my work has been busy and stressful.

Also, JayBee and I will take our first vacation from work within the month. It will not be lengthly, at least not long enough for me. For five days JayBee and I will be traveling to visit friends in the Denver area. They have arranged a cabin in the mountains for roughly 15 people. We will be hot tubing, eating, drinking, skiing etc. This trip is a continuation of the ski weekends in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains that have occurred the last two years. The difference this year is that two of our friends formally of Washington DC are now living in Denver and they had the inspiration to invite us all out there to gather.

Viva friendship!

Labels: cold weather, friendship, Minnesota, winter