03.23.08
East Lake Street.
Now see these:
03.21.08
El Largo Theater, East Lake Street.
RIP, Jon Hassler.
Now see these:
03.19.08
Italiani’s (formerly Lake Street Garage–this pizza gal has weathered several changes at this eatery), East Lake Street, Minneapolis
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
03.18.08
East Lake Street, Minneapolis
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
03.17.08
El Largo Theater, East Lake Street (now home to the Victory Christian Center).
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
03.15.08
On the side of Italiani’s/Lake Street Garage, East Lake Street.
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
03.14.08
Victory Christian Center, located in the old El Largo Theater building, East Lake Street.
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
03.13.08
Once Phidias stood, with hammer in his hand,
Carving Minerva from the breathing stone,
Tracing with love the winding of a hair,
A single hair upon her head, whereon
A youth of Athens cried, “O Phidias,
Why do you dally on a hidden hair?
When she is lifted to the lofty front
Of the Parthenon, no human eye will see.”
And Phidias thundered on him: “Silence, slave:
Men will not see, but the Immortals will!”
A Workman to the Gods by Edwin Markham
Statue of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, at the Minneapolis Central Library.
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
03.6.08
We pull off
to a road shack
in Massachusetts
to watch men walk
on the moon. We did
the same thing
for three two one
blast off, and now
we watch the same men
bounce in and out
of craters. I want
a Coke and a hamburger.
Because the men
are walking on the moon
which is now irrefutably
not green, not cheese,
not a shiny dime floating
in a cold blue,
the way I’d thought,
the road shack people don’t
notice we are a black
family not from there,
the way it mostly goes.
This talking through
static, bounces in space-
boots, tethered
to cords is much
stranger, stranger
even than we are.
Apollo, by Elizabeth Alexander
Brackett Park, Minneapolis–the old rocket slide transformed into art.
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
03.3.08
East Lake Street, Minneapolis.
The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Like the last couple years, this one is being run with open nominations from readers and editors–any reader can submit a nomination for a single story published online in 2007, and editors of online publications can nominate up to three stories. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.
Now see these:
02.29.08
East Lake Street, Minneapolis.
Now see these:
02.27.08
It’s been so cold here lately that I’ve neglected the poor dog’s walking needs, and I’ve also neglected my old box cameras, so last weekend I gave both the mutt and the Sawyer’s Nomad a big outing through the neighborhood. Here’s a bench at Brackett Park, looking forlornly out at the ball field, waiting for spring.
Now see these:
02.26.08
Outside Merlin’s Rest, East Lake Street’s pub-quiz central.
01.28.08
Landmark Center, St. Paul.
Now see these:
01.9.07
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
from The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot
Two cullings for today:
01.8.07
The cold earth slept below;
Above the cold sky shone;
And all around,
With a chilling sound,
From caves of ice and fields of snow
The breath of night like death did flow
Beneath the sinking moon.
Lines: The cold earth slept below, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Three cullings for today:
01.7.07
In the dregs of the year, all steam and rain,
In the timid time of the heart again,
When indecision is bold and thorough,
And action dreams of a dawn in vain,
I saw high up over Bloxham vale
The ploughshare tilt to the next long trail,
And, spying a larder in every furrow,
The wagtails crowd like a dancing hail!
A second wonder there on the hill:
Beneath the hedge, I saw with a thrill
The budding primroses laugh good-morrow
From a deep cradle rocked by a rill!
Wagtail smart in his belted blue,
Primrose paying her gold ere due,—
(Out upon Winter! Down with Sorrow!)
These are the things that I know are true.
Firstlings (January 7, 1915), by Louise Imogen Guiney
It was 35 years ago today — January 7, 1972 — that John Berryman flung himself from the Washington Avenue bridge; Minnesota winters will do that to sensitive souls. I had planned to read some of The Dream Songs this weekend, but the poetry shelf at the Merriam Park Library had a gaping hole where Berryman should have been, even though the catalog said they should be there. Perhaps the ghost whose footsteps are sometimes heard on the bridge hides these books once a year. I had to schlep over to the Highland Park Library with Jack and Peter for the collected poems, which doesn’t include The Dream Songs (and for some Curious George stories, also sans Dream Songs).
But I did stumble across a Berryman poem about a little corner of my neighborhood, near Cedar on Lake Street, which has given me some ideas for a project. The only question now is which camera? Will the Holga’s rough edges, the Hawkeye’s eerie blur, or the Nomad’s simple purity best capture Berryman’s Minneapolis?
Two cullings for today:
01.6.07
I would like to decorate this silence,
but my house grows only cleaner
and more plain. The glass chimes I hung
over the register ring a little
when the heat goes on.
I waited too long to drink my tea.
It was not hot. It was only warm.
Winter Love, by by Linda Gregg
Five cullings for today:
12.31.06
Among the Peanuts statues in Rice Park.
Four cullings this New Year’s Eve:
Athbhliain faoi mhaise doibh!
12.28.06
Skating at the Landmark Center in St. Paul. I’m on auto-pilot for a few days while we head to Chicago for a nerd fest (museums!) and to Wisconsin Dells for a winter splash.
12.27.06
Skating at the Landmark Center in St. Paul. I’m on auto-pilot for a few days while we head to Chicago for a nerd fest (museums!) and to Wisconsin Dells for a winter splash.
12.26.06
Skating at the Landmark Center in St. Paul. I’m on auto-pilot for a few days while we head to Chicago for a nerd fest (museums!) and to Wisconsin Dells for a winter splash.
12.24.06
From our Santa-and-tree errand at Mother Earth Gardens.
Three cullings today:
12.23.06
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
This is the same tree featured in Lace, one of my favorite pictures from the end of last winter; we finally got measurable snow, though it will be touch and go if it has the fortitude to stay until Christmas Day — it’s been a weirdly warm and dry winter for these parts.
Three cullings today:
12.22.06
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Robert Frost, Dust of Snow
Two cullings today:
12.21.06
Three cullings for today:
12.20.06
Our St. Nick tour also includes a visit to Mother Earth Gardens, where we can take care of a visit with the Jolly Old Elf and buy a Christmas tree in one outing (plus catch a movie across the street at the Riverview Theater and get a hot chocolate at the Riverview Cafe; it’s a perfect little intersection of urban goodness). The boys haven’t caught on that the Choo Choo Bob’s Santa had a real beard and that Mother Earth’s had a fake beard and an Irish accent; next year we may have to be more careful to maintain the verisimilitude.
Two cullings for today:
09.8.06
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Hot dog culture is an interesting thing. In Chicago, of course, the dog of choice is a Vienna Beef (or a Polish) topped with pickles, peppers, tomatoes, relish, mustard, and celery salt, served in a poppyseed bun. In New England, the preferred dog is a "red hot" (so called for the color, which is fire-engine red, rather than the spice, which is pretty mild) in a classic square bun. I'm partial to the Chicago style myself, and also like a good bratwurst topped with 'kraut and spicy mustard. But I do love those square buns: they grill so nicely, and hold the butter well. (Though I like mine stuffed with lobster salad rather than red hots).
Here Peter poses in front of a poster showing exactly how to present the perfect Chicago dog--more condiments than sausage! [Hide the verbosity]
I’m a little behind in processing the rest of my Maine pictures–there are still some black & white rolls from the Holga, and some color to send out. Since school starts today, I don’t expect to get to those until the end of the weekend.
Luckily, I’m also behind on posting shots from our Chicago vacation earlier this summer. Here the boys pose outside Chipmunk’s on Diversey; you can’t leave Chicago without eating at least one Vienna Beef with all the fixings (tomato, sport peppers, mustard, relish, pickles, and celery salt for me; ketchup for the boys).
05.28.06
In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle……and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Walt Whitman
05.27.06
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
Lake Isle of Innisfree, William Butler Yeats
Another from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade at Powderhorn Park.
05.26.06
Another from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade: dragon boat reflections in Powderhorn Lake.
05.25.06
A brief interruption of the regularly-scheduled May Day series to slip one in for the INSPIRATION photo challenge. A few weeks ago I was in charge of Jack and Peter and their pal Oliver for the day, so we loaded up the big green wagon and went to the garden store. It was a good outing–we marched around the plants and pots, commented on the statuary, and came home with a Magnetic Poetry Marker Stone kit. Magnetic Poetry, by the way, started in Minneapolis; I first saw the marker stones at the Birchwood Cafe, a vegetarian-friendly (and darned good) restaurant/cafe in our neighborhood.
05.25.06
Another from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade: banners in Powderhorn Park.
05.24.06
Another from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade. These are the boats used in the post-parade ceremonies.
05.23.06
Another from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade. These fellows and their whimsical trumpets looked like they should be leading a parade from a Dr. Seuss story.
05.22.06
We’re back from Chicago, and I’ve got some film to develop. We were stuck behind an accident on westbound I-90 for two hours–a semi apparently hit a bridge abutment, sending its boxed contents across two lanes of highway–and didn’t get home until almost midnight, so I’m running on strong coffee today.
Here’s a shot from the Heart of the Beast puppet theater’s May Day parade–it was a beautiful day (alternately warm and chilly, a real Minnesota spring) and a fun outing for the Sawyer Nomad’s first spin with color film.
05.2.06
On one of our outings a couple weeks ago, the boys and I visited Micawber’s Bookshop in the Como Park/St. Anthony neighborhood. After we wore out our welcome, I asked them if they’d like to go to Como Park.
I was met with blank stares from the back seat until I said, “Where Dad’s friend Art’s band played.”
Aha! Art’s Park! With the music! And the waterfall!
Art’s band wasn’t there, and the Hamm’s Memorial Waterfall is closed for repairs, but we did hear a bluegrass jam session, and we had root beer, so it was a good outing.
05.1.06
This is a detail on the exterior of the Rand Tower in Minneapolis, my favorite downtown building. It’s a wonderful art deco extravaganza, built about the same time as the Foshay Tower but somehow a little classier, if shorter.
There are aviation motifs throughout the building, most notably the Oskar Hansen statue, “Wings”, in the lobby. The tower was commissioned by Rufus R. Rand, scion of the Minneapolis Gas Company and World War I pilot. These figures–wing-footed Hermes launching a biplane?–were one of my favorite sights when I worked downtown and would walk up Marquette Avenue every morning; why can’t architecture in the ‘burbs be more inspiring than concrete boxes broken up with reflective glass?
04.30.06
No, it’s not actually a human sacrifice to Mammon in the form of the Wells Fargo Center; this is a statue that graces the entrance to the Fifth Street Towers at 2nd Avenue and … um… Fifth Street in downtown Minneapolis.
World Pinhole Day is today, Sunday, April 30. I’ve taken a screwdriver to one of my Hawkeyes–it doesn’t really need a lens anyway–and I encourage everyone else out there to similarly mangle a camera for Sunday’s festivities. Show the world that all you need to take pictures is a box with a hole in it!
04.24.06
Prophecy of the Ancients by Brower Hatcher, 1988, at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
04.23.06
Hare on Bell on Portland Stone Piers by Barry Flanagan, 1983, at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
04.22.06
Without Words by Judith Shea, 1988, at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
04.21.06
This is a composite of two pictures of “Octopus” by Alexander Calder at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
04.20.06
A Minneapolis photoblog without a picture of the Spoonbridge at the Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden? For shame!
I used to visit the sculpture garden occasionally when I lived in Nordeast; it was a nice summer bike ride. But then I moved to the south side, bought a house, got married, and had kids.
The day before Easter I had an unencumbered few hours while Kelly was studying and the boys were at Auntie Kathleen’s house, so I took the train downtown and hiked through Loring Park. I hadn’t been to the Walker for five years or so, and I felt like a tourist. Well, not quite as much of a tourist as the people who were posing for pictures in front of the Spoonbridge, trying to make it look like they were taking a bite out of the cherry or holding it in their fingers. Such fun. I may have some shots of the shenanigans taken with the Spotmatic; we’ll see how they come out.
This was taken with the Nomad–it’s what the cherry might have looked like if it had been built in 1951 instead of 1991.
This print available at Etsy.
02.10.06
The lobby of the place where I work, taken on Take Your Box Camera to Work Day. I brought my Sawyer Nomad for the festivities.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
02.7.06
Outside Fire Roast Mountain Coffee, Minneapolis, taken with the Sawyer Nomad 620.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
01.27.06
43 degrees… that’s March weather, not January. The ice rinks are melting, the snow hides in the shade and turns gray and slushy, the trees may soon be tricked into budding. Not that I’m complaining too much, though it only delays the inevitable: there will be snow again, and bitter wind, and then the long months of spring mud.
01.26.06
01.25.06
01.17.06
It looks like we got a couple inches of snow overnight; when we went skating last night, there was enough snow on the ice that it was hard to find the puck and we had to improvise a Zamboni with a shovel by the rink. At last, winter returns…
01.15.06
Jack takes a break from skating by plopping himself down on the ice. Like the previous picture, this one was for the Flickr group 120 Challenge, in which you burn through a roll of 120 film in 120 minutes on the first Saturday of the month. This month I used the Sawyer Nomad on a trip to the skating pond.
01.14.06
Today is Kelly’s birthday; the boys and I will be making chocolate molten cakes and a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for guests, and then we’re off to the rink for more ice skating.
01.10.06
I’ve put a little calendar project up on Lulu, a company I used for the boys’ Christmas gift to Granddad and Great Grammie & Great Grampie. Get yourself a copy–it makes a unique after-Christmas gift to yourself, and usefully lets you keep track of your life while looking at a few vintage camera pictures (Spotmatic, Argus, FED3, Lubitel, and Holga snaps are featured).
01.9.06
Washburn Water Tower, Minneapolis–my favorite Twin Cities landmark, hidden away on a hill in Tangletown.
Named a Moody Monday “melancholic” favorite–yowza!
01.8.06
I’ve put a little calendar project up on Lulu, a company I used for the boys’ Christmas gift to Granddad and Great Grammie & Great Grampie. It’s $24.95 right now, but I’ll be reducing the price as the months pass. Get yourself a copy–it makes a unique after-Christmas gift to yourself, and usefully lets you keep track of your life while looking at a few vintage camera pictures (Spotmatic, Argus, FED3, Lubitel, and Holga snaps are featured).
01.7.06
I’ve put a little calendar project up on Lulu, a company I used for the boys’ Christmas gift to Granddad and Great Grammie & Great Grampie. It’s $24.95 right now, but I’ll be reducing the price as the months pass. Get yourself a copy–it makes a unique after-Christmas gift to yourself, and usefully lets you keep track of your life while looking at a few vintage camera pictures (Spotmatic, Argus, FED3, Lubitel, and Holga snaps are featured).
11.5.05
One of my obsessions is the Washburn Water Tower in Tangletown. Another of my obsessions is crappy cameras. Here I combine the two with my “new” Sawyer Nomad (c. 1957); I think these may actually suffer from bad development as much as a bad camera, but they do have a certain mood to them.
