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Sometimes reaching the goal is more important than the time it takes to get there. I ran to Lake of the Isles, lapped around the lake (dodging baby carriages and dog walkers) and headed back downtown. I didn’t post a great running time, but I got in 7 miles!
P.S. Did your eye find the fifth square in the photo?
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I love jazz. Some of my favorite musicians comprise The Manhattan Transfer, a group celebrating its 39th year together. The aural complexity of their vocalese is both pleasing and perplexing in its precision and perfect pitch. I’ve been a fan club member since 1999, following not only singers Tim, Janis, Cheryl and Alan, but also their pianist Yaron and drummer Steve. I own 21 of their albums and multiple solo albums. Yet this was only my third concert, following performances in 2000 and 2004. Tonight, they performed at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. (Margaret Dorn filled in for Cheryl Bentyne who is recovering from a health issue.) And they were awesome.
Down them stairs, lose them cares – yeah
Down in Birdland
Total swing! bop was king – yeah
Down in Birdland
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Tiffany Globe, designed and assembled by Tiffany Studios New York, 1907
Each globe contains 487 milky yellow opalescent glass pieces configured in a style Louis Comfort Tiffany called “iridescent luster.” Once part of a grand Tiffany ceiling at Marshall Field’s State Street Chicago store. My Grandma Curry once worked in that Chicago store selling swimsuits. In the summer of 2006, I lived on State Street in Chicago, half a block from that store. I then lived in Chicago (suburbs) for four years. Today, I work for the company that, for a time, owned Marshall Field’s. Full circle.
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Wednesday night social with colleagues.
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I was so elated to see 60 degrees today (in March!) that I almost did the Balki Bartokomous Dance of Joy (see below). This afternoon, I walked a couple blocks to LaSalle Plaza. I enjoy studying my photography subjects to look for interesting angles or lines, and not just taking the obvious photo on the first approach. Many times, I end up with an unexpected and cool photo. And instead of doing the Dance of Joy tonight, I ran 3 miles outside…in shorts. Huzzah!
300 more photos to go! If you’re questioning my math, it’s a leap year after all.
The Dance of Joy
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Stained glass windows, St. Olaf Catholic Church.
In other news, Target Style and celebrity stylist June Ambrose today helped me answer #whattowear on a first date with this “if preppy went rogue” look from Target. Which is nice and fun. 🙂 Except I’ve probably never gone rogue a day in my life.
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During the winter, if you don’t find anyone in Minneapolis walking the downtown sidewalks, you’ll surely find them in the skyway. Enclosed passageways connect the 2nd and 3rd floors of various office towers to hotels, banks, restaurants, and retail stores. The Minneapolis Skyway System links 69 full city blocks over eight miles, and the 84th skyway opened last December. Check out the interactive guide or find the free app for your iPhone or Android. In today’s photos, you can find skyway reflections of Laurel Village and the Basilica of St. Mary.
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Tucked away on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota is a suspension bridge next to Sanford residence hall. My day started in Dinkytown and ended with the U of M Law School Musical, Alawddin, presented at the Pantages Theater and cleverly written by a fellow marching band member and Gopher football tailgater, Emily.
Named after the first University president, Folwell Hall is the foreign languages building, though only two of 8 classes for my Spanish minor were held in this building. When I attended the U, the rooms had skeleton keys. Today, they’re fancy electronic badge scanners. Some tour guide trivia: Folwell was built with 26 chimneys, but there are zero fireplaces.
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Friday night was an exploration of Nordeast Minneapolis, a neighborhood that feels hipster, eclectic and fun. In some ways, it reminds me of Wicker Park in Chicago. (Oh Piece, I miss you.) With a good balance of restaurants and bars that have anchored the community for years, there are also new arrivals like The Anchor Fish & Chips. Or recently new (2009), if you’re fact checking my blog.
The wait time for a spot in the 36-seat restaurant? 60-90 minutes. So my friend Ben and I headed to the nearby 331 Club for drinks, where I tried a Surly Bender and Bell’s Amber Ale. It was trivia night with a fair amount of Dr. Seuss trivia in celebration of his birthdate. I’d been Dr. Seuss rhyming for work last week for Read Across America, but that didn’t help me here.
We ambled back to The Anchor, grabbed two seats at the bar counter and ordered the main feature, fish and chips, with a side of mushy peas. Mushy peas, you may ask with a wrinkled nose? I like peas (frozen, not canned) but was skeptical, too. It was more like buttered mashed potatoes, but with peas, and actually tasty. The cod fish was great, though the handcut fries did not seem exactly award-winning to me. (Then again, I have a strong bias for McDonald’s fries.) Paired with a pint of Smithwick’s, it was a satisfying meal.
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I pass the Continental Hotel every day on my walk to work, and I’ve been trying to capture the green neon in the sign but the twilight must be at just the right moment. Finally at 5:30pm Wednesday, it worked. That was going to be today’s story, but intriguingly there’s more.
Originally built as the Ogden Apartment Hotel in the early 20th century, it was designed for middle class worker housing and billed as an “apartment hotel.” The units didn’t have their own kitchens, and residents instead ate from a common restaurant in the building. It included modern conveniences such as private bathrooms, Murphy beds, and electric appliances.
The building changed its name to the Continental Hotel in 1948. Today, it offers stable, affordable apartments for 70 formerly homeless individuals, and it’s operated by Aeon, a nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable apartment homes in the Twin Cities.
And that is a far neater story than green neon.
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