Tuesday, December 24, 2013
It’s Christmas Eve morning. Soon we begin driving all around the metro for two days of family time with five different familial configurations. But for now I am settled in at my desk, in pajamas, dutifully backing up my computers. And attempting to get some last minute photo editing done. Naturally I’m taking a break to round up all of the oddball tabs I have been keeping open in my browser. Merry Christmas!
Five or more totally random good and/or interesting things:
Yesterday afternoon a minor Christmas miracle occurred. Just before closing time the auto body shop called to say my old Mazda was ready for pick up. I was able to leave the rental car there and drive away in my car, no muss no fuss. Felt good. So much more comfortable than that beastly and awkward automatic. Driving my little manual hatchback feels so right. And since the other driver’s insurance company just sunk another $2,000 of work into the old girl I feel obligated to ease some more life out of her. Pretty much all of the big ticket items have been replaced in the last couple of years anyhow. So the end of that fiasco was a huge relief. You’d think I would have slept soundly last night. But no. RANDOM INSOMNIA. For no real reason. I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie with the boyfriend around 10pm and barely remember relocating to the bedroom. But around 1am I was WIDE AWAKE. And remained that way until 5am. Not so awesome. I went back to the couch for the interim, so as not to disturb the boyfriend, and desperately attempted to fall asleep again. In doing so I stumbled upon an Anthony Bourdain show I hadn’t heard of. The Layover. And I wish we’d found his episode on Montreal before we visited last summer. There’s so much we missed! We’ll just have to go back. Hopefully before too long.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Humans adapt. Behaviors can be changed. Wrong-headed thinking can be corrected. It just takes time. Often too much time but still, change can occur. I’ve seen it in my lifetime. Last week International Human Rights Day happened to coincide with Nelson Mandela’s funeral. I remember first learning about Mandela and other prisoners of conscience when I was in junior high. That’s what kickstarted my activism. Classmates and I even founded our own Amnesty International chapter. Progress has been made since the 80s but when we win, we win in inches. There is still too much injustice on this planet. People with power persecuting those without. Often with the most arbitrary of rationalizations. People with power could be doing more. I was hoping for a greater international response to the discrimination in Russia but I do agree with this: President Obama’s selection of Billie Jean King for the official U.S. delegation to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games is a stroke of genius. Now if Obama would just get cracking on this: Gay Blood Donors Ban Endures In The U.S., Despite Lacking ‘Sound Science’
Now for five fascinating things:
Speaking of humans adapting…all of last week my sad smashed-up car sat out in front of my house. But I was able to work from home, which was great. It was snowy and cold anyhow. When I did need to get somewhere I took an Uber car. That’s how I met up with my boyfriend at the Trylon after work for a screening of “The Punk Singer” (amazing, btw) and at my company’s holiday party (so my boyfriend wouldn’t have to haul ass from the other side of the metro to pick me up before either happening). Eventually the other driver’s car insurance returned my call. On Friday afternoon. Nearly one week from the day of the accident. They were apologetic and arranged for my car to be towed within the hour (though I haven’t yet heard from the auto body shop) and I took yet another Uber car to the car rental place. Where I was given an oversized American car to drive around in, all expenses paid. I can barely reach the pedals. Now while my beloved little car is being patched up, yet again, I’m back to debating whether or not I need a car of my own. But it may take some time before I land on a decision.
Saturday morning my son and I left the house, headed to the Santopticlaus sale at CO Exhibitions. We didn’t get far. A block from home a neighbor came barreling out of an icy alley and crashed into the front end (driver’s side) of my already much-abused Mazda. The car I have been thinking of getting rid of or replacing for a while now. It was technically totaled the summer of 2012 but I opted to repair it then as I had just replaced the clutch, among other expensive repairs. This week I’m playing the waiting game again with insurance adjustors and am unsure how it will all turn out. Extra stress for the holidays! And I realized something. This is the first time I’ve had to deal with such hassles in the dead of winter. It was so bitterly cold Saturday (0 degrees, -15 windchill) we opted not to call the police. The year my car was totaled by floods it was July and monsoon-like. Years ago when a woman broadsided my car (while she was driving on the wrong side of the street and didn’t even slow down for a stop sign) it was early Fall. And last time around was late June, the day after my birthday. Once again I am so thankful I am able to work from home. And that the school bus transports my son to and from school.
I’ve been saving up some of these in browser tabs for the last week or so…but here we are. Five good things:
Aside from the car accident we had a pretty good weekend. Our holiday decorations are up, including our very real tree (that is oddly deformed - the top isn’t as pointy as it should be). We all attended a wonderful holiday party with friends. I enjoyed a baby shower with old friends. At The Saloon of all places - the addition to the back of the building is remarkably lovely. The boyfriend and I went to a show at Seward Cafe last night that was just the thing. Suzuki Junzo, touring from Japan, played along with some local musician friends of ours. And I got on top of several batches of photo editing that needed to be taken care of before my next photo jobs this coming weekend.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Last year I was barfing up a storm Thanksgiving week thanks to my first encounter with norovirus. This week I definitely have an appetite. And it’s for comfort food. I made a batch of crockpot mac & cheese. More squash dishes are in the works. And I’m planning to crank out a couple of maple pecan pies (hold the lard please). Grocery shopping is done and tomorrow night I will whip up items to bring to several events we’ll be attending Thanksgiving Day. Once again there are four total. Cultivating our blended family has been beneficial in so many ways. But dang does it involve a lot of driving at the holidaze.
I am lucky. I am employed by a company that gets it. Employees are allowed a great deal of autonomy and flexibility. I am able to work from home and to go to the gym and grocery shopping at off-peak hours and to hang out with my son after school. And being able to manage the day-to-day stuff so easily reduces my stress levels and ensures I am a more productive employee. It’s all win-win for everyone!
Most workers are not so lucky. I don’t know how the higher ups at Wal-Mart sleep at night. It made headlines when Walmart was holding food drives for its own employees. Asking low-wage employees to donate to other low-wage employees? Appalling. Improving their compensation would be a better move. And it sounds like they could do it. As Wal-Mart Workers Plan Record Black Friday Protests, Study Says Retail Giant Can Afford Higher Pay. Likewise McDonald’s has gotten into hot water recently over its creepy McResource web site, instructing their underpaid employees to sign up for food stamps and turn off their heat at home to save money. The activist group Low Pay Is Not Ok has been all over that. I never thought I’d so wholeheartedly agree with a Pope. But Pope Francis knows what’s up. “The Pope Just Published One Of The Most Powerful Critiques Of Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read” Just one of the highlights:
On the dangerous mix of inequality and consumerism: “It is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric.”
Ok, enough with the heavy stuff. How about five good things?
Just yesterday I packed up the bulk of our Halloween decorations (I leave the glitter skull and other shiny things out year-round). We don’t have anywhere to be on Friday so I’m planning to hunker down at home, eating Thanksgiving leftovers, and BUYING NOTHING. I would like to play some board games. And avoid any holiday advertising. Speaking of, a co-worker pointed out this Minimalist Parenting holiday resource site. “You’ll enjoy the holidays more when you do less.” I can get behind that.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
My wanderlust flares up regularly. An itch I can’t always scratch. I *could* blame it on social media but in the olden days before the information super highway I was hooked on travel shows on public television. Now with twitter, instagram, facebook, pinterest and other sm channels it’s more immediate and intimate. People I know or are acquainted with are traveling - to places I would like to visit and in ways I would do so. More observation than complaint. And AirBNB sure is handy. I’ve been looking at places to stay in Seattle and Portland, for my son’s Spring break, and I shared our top picks with friends who live in both cities. With their help I’ve figured out which are our best candidates. We’re getting excited about this trip but I would love to go farther afield again. The Perennial Plate has me all nostalgic thinking about my trip to Morocco.
Five mighty fine things for this Wednesday:
- I splurged. The Nick Cave tour was recently announced and then the specific dates and venues followed. And I managed to get in on the super-fan pre-sale yesterday morning. $182.90 for two tickets! Youch. But the Minneapolis date is just days before my birthday.
- Speaking of quick-selling tickets, tomorrow will see the return of Ignite Minneapolis, at the Riverview Theater. Tickets sold out in the blink of an eye (as they do every year) but I hope to watch the live stream of it, for a bit at least. Particularly the bit where my photos will be on the big screen for my co-worker’s “Everything You Need to Know to Save a Life” presentation.
- And more hot tickets? Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary special, Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor will be screening at theaters this Saturday, November 23rd. It sold out before I could get in on it but a friend has a spare for me. Phew.
- A helluva thing that was making the rounds yesterday. This Interactive Video Of Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Is Insanely Cool - Flip through multiple “TV channels” and watch different shows lip sync the song in its entirety. Speaking of songs…somehow I’d totally missed Low’s cover of a Rihanna song. But I’ve been listening to Stay on repeat today. Bonus? All proceeds from the sale of the song go to Chicago music education organization Rock For Kids.
- And lastly, this amazing bit: “Watch Joss Whedon Make the Perfect Speech About the Word Feminist” The man nails it. Building on decades of feminist history and, hopefully, bringing an important message to a wider audience.
A couple of weeks ago we made a video for my friends’ band, Kitten Forever. And it is ready now! I only see myself in it in one spot and it looks like I’m scowling. But really I was just trying to concentrate. Rollerskating in a squid costume is kinda hard!
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Every Fall I look forward to Halloween and its trappings so much. Afterward I steel myself mentally and emotionally. Because I’m never ready for the “holiday” blitz when it hits. It is TOO MUCH. It is depressing to listen to NPR’s Marketplace and realize how much our economy relies on this unnatural shopping “season.” We are so broken as a society - when buying each other things we don’t need in the name of a holiday that is only loosely connected to these shopping frenzies - is what keeps it all going. There’s got to be a better way. 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit would have been a great way to deal with the season. Sadly that’s already SOLD OUT. Oh the irony. At least we had “Give to the Max Day” in Minnesota on Thursday. A day where, instead of buying more stuff, we can gain some satisfaction by donating money to our favorite non-profit organizations. Unfortunately their danged site went down mid-day, for six hours. “We are experiencing a tremendous surge of giving. We are working to get the site back up and running as quickly as possible.” The saddest of sad trombones. I made several attempts to GtM and was eventually successful before bedtime. But I wonder how many potential donors have been discouraged. So unfortunate.
It was another week full of frustrations but I’ll try to override those with five good things:
I chucked my Friday night plans when my son asked me to stay home…to re-watch the Scott Pilgrim movie with him. That plan will always win, hands down. And this morning I woke up to the pleasant surprise of the The Night Of The Doctor mini episode featuring the return of the Eighth Doctor. But I won’t let myself stay holed up at home all winter consuming media, no matter how tempting that is. I will make myself go sledding this winter (if we have enough snow). And I look forward to the return of the Art Shanty Projects (now only every other year). And there’s our annual pilgrimage to the Saintly City Cat Show. And I swear, this is the year we’re going to be *in* the Art Sled Rally in Powderhorn Park.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Running a small business is no small thing. I’ve never thought to take on such a venture but I know others who have. Sadly the failure rate is HIGH. And another one bites the dust. My son and I really enjoyed Rusty Quarters Retro Arcade. I was able to share a slice of my childhood with him and he’s always been Nintendo-obsessed. Last Wednesday was the arcade’s last night open to the public so we were there. I played Centipede while he played Donkey Kong. And we played some two player Mario Bros and Ms. Pac Man. I know of another arcade like it, in Portland, called Ground Kontrol. But we can’t exactly pop by after school. Sad.
Five interesting things:
Some say cars are coffins / cars = death. That may be true to a certain degree. But it can be more generally agreed that cars = stress. Big boxes of wtf? When things go wrong. And they often do. Over the weekend the boyfriend’s usually reliable and not very old Honda was acting up. It wouldn’t shift into 2nd or 4th gears. You kinda need those gears. So he took it into the dealership yesterday. The initial diagnostics showed something wrong with the synchros. Upon closer inspection the mechanic found a GIANT WALNUT stuck in the shifting linkage. Maybe it’s a global squirrel conspiracy. The squirrels are organizing, trying to get their biggest threats off the road.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The US really needs to retire daylight savings. I like the proposal to maintain just two time zones, one hour apart. It doesn’t matter if we’re falling back or springing ahead, arbitrarily changing “time” messes with me (and nearly everyone I know). And it is unproductive and counter-intuitive. It doesn’t help that our neighborhood’s power went out for a while Monday night, right around bedtime. When the power came back on an hour later we had to reset all of the clocks we had just changed the day before. Except for my son’s battery operated Darth Vader clock, I guess.
Five items of note:
- Speaking of time and and timing and how it affects our well-being - What Is the Exactly Perfect Time to Drink Your Coffee? This stuff is fascinating. “Most people drink coffee first thing in the morning. But is that the right way to do it? If you’ve ever had coffee and felt like it didn’t work, you’ve run into the field of chronopharmacology—the study of how medications and drugs interact with your biology.”
- How working remotely changed my life (and can change yours, too). I may be working remotely but I still have co-workers who share things (sharing is caring) with me like “Cats Wearing Tights“. And some cuteness to balance out the weirdness.
- I’ve only visited Des Moines, IA a few times but enjoyed each visit. Not enough to contemplate living there but this crazy-ass house is on the market. It has a House on the Rock vibe about it.
- I love this photo series. And I can totally relate. Photographer Explores Loss Of Faith and Family in ‘Next of Kin’. Another fabulous photo series, Mullets, tie-dye and shopping at Tape World: New book sheds light on the American mall in the 1980s - and the off-duty style of shoppers that defined a generation. Oh the memories.
- Speaking of photos, a new trend was being widely condemned recently. And I’ll admit my knee-jerk reaction to it was “how disrespectful! how narcissistic!” But others have made some interesting points. Selfies at Funerals: Why People Freak Out when Technology Mixes with Death “What we humans forget is that death’s persistence means that we will persistently invent new kinds of death rituals.” And also this - “The Death Ref Technology Law: Any use of new technology that involves death, dying, and/or the dead body will be simultaneously rejected as a breakdown in human civility as well as embraced as an innovative turn for human grieving.”
I feel like I’m out and about a fair amount and keep up with new restaurants and whatnot. But I was taken aback when I saw Cool Hunting’s Minneapolis guide and realized how many spots on their list I haven’t gotten around to visiting yet. Need to remedy that, impending winter or not. Our first snow of the season fell last night but it’s mostly melted already. And there’s bright sunshine. I may try to ride my bike again before nightfall.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
I knew it wouldn’t last but there was a brief period in the past couple of weeks - where I was all caught up on photo editing. Client work anyhow. And most of my personal stuff. I know of two or three batches I haven’t finished from summertime but they will have to wait. Last Saturday night I shot a wedding that was officiated by a BRITISH ELVIS IMPERSONATOR! First time for everything. Sunday I did family photos for some totally adorable repeat customers. And today I’m shooting another wedding, for friends. Then I will be done with scheduled photo shoots for what’s left of the year.
Life has been so very busy for a while now. I totally dropped the ball the week before last and missed the Janelle Monae show. I can’t believe I forgot about it. (Also I had no idea she lived in the Twin Cities for a couple of years when she was a kid.) This week I attempted to cram in as much Halloween goodness as possible, which included hosting a pumpkin carving party. And rollerskating in my giant squid costume while being filmed for our friends’ band’s video shoot. And manning the front porch solo, handing out candy on Halloween itself. No Barebones Halloween show for me, but I did further damage my hearing with another My Bloody Valentine show last night.
Five more good things:
This past week we experienced some frustrations with our current rental housing situation. It almost made me miss home-ownership (nearly, but not quite). Overall I have been pleased by our 2+ years in this duplex. It’s definitely been the high point of my St. Paul residency. But before long we’ll be saying goodbye to this fair city to relocate across the river, in Minneapolis. And we’ll be moving just as things are improving! The light rail will be up and running and then there’s this: “St. Paul’s Palace Theatre was built in 1916 as a vaudeville theater and later became a movie theater. The City of St. Paul plans to spend $12 million to refurbish the long-vacant space as a contemporary music venue.” At least it isn’t far away.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
My son’s school was closed Thursday and Friday for MEA. We look forward to this long weekend every October. I usually take advantage of it by taking him up North (more photos to come). Last year we went up to Madeline Island and it was absolutely lovely. This time we returned to Biwabik, where we spent Spring Break earlier this year. But this trip didn’t go as smoothly. It was annoyingly stressful with poor weather and culminated in the boyfriend slicing his finger open on a kitchen knife while washing dishes. We made a pit stop at a hospital in Duluth on the way home where he received stitches and a splint. Poor guy.
Speaking of knives…Incredible Ballerina Performs En Pointe with Knife Shoes - this was terrifying and hard for me to watch. But also wow.
Now for five more interesting things:
End of October snuck up on me. I still haven’t gotten all of our Halloween decorations hung up. There will be so many parties this weekend. And it is the 20th anniversary of the Barebones Halloween Show. Hoping I can make it to one of the performances this year but my busy-busy schedule isn’t going to slow down for a couple more weeks yet. I’ve got two more Saturdays of weddings to shoot, and a few more family portrait sessions. Looking back this may be the year where I didn’t say no often enough. I’m feeling a bit overextended. But the long winters are pretty quiet when it comes to paid photo gigs. It will be time to hibernate soon enough.
