I’ve begun an art project that will include photography of some of the more interesting designs found on the lowly manhole covers in the streets of our fair Twin Cities.

Through my research for the project, I’ve discovered that I’m not the only one who finds the big round castings interesting. There seems to be an entire community of cover-lovers taking photos out there. Not strictly in the TC, mind you…but they’re out there.

Anyway, have you ever noticed any interesting manhole covers while popping around town? Yes? Let me know. No? Start looking down.

The St. Paul Saints are having a special “Baseblog” night for Twin Cites bloggers & readers on June 13th. If you go to their group website and enter the password ‘blog’ a special offer pops up for a General Admission ticket, hot dog, soda and a hat for only eight bucks. (you’ve got to have your cookies enabled on your computer or it won’t work.)If you’ve always wanted to go and couldn’t get tickets, this is a good way to go.
They’ve got a lot of funny promotions coming up this summer, too. They’re having a sleepover doubleheader on May 7th & 8th. The game on the 8th starts at 5:30AM! Peace Coffee is also promoting a game where you can buy your enemy (or someone you just kind of don’t like) a ticket to a game. Just go to the same group website and enter the password ‘peace’.

I was driving through downtown today and have noticed that the new library looks really cool. There is now this weird metal thing that is sticking right out over Hennepin Ave. It looks pretty close to being finished on the outside.It isn’t supposed to open up till next year, though. I wonder how long it takes to put books on shelves. Curse you Dewey (sp?) and your blasted decimal system!!

Tomorrow I am going to try and at least stop by the Walker. Now that it is rumored to have Bjork, I will have to be on watch. I NEED TO MEET HER!! Is she remarried? I hope not. Minnesota and Iceland are similar, right? She might want to live here…

Okay, okay, I know, it was a horrible pun. Apparently Bjork is in town for the opening of the new Walker expansion. I don’t think I’ve read anything about her performing, she just wanted to come to the opening. Go check out the art, and if you see someone wearing a big swan, don’t be surprised.

I experienced something this week that has kind of been off putting and I felt I had to share it. I work at a job where I get a chance to work with school kids and their teachers. We take a day and have fun with them and hopefully help change the vibe in the school to be more positive. It is a great program and I have a lot of fun. I was a t a school recently that the kids were great kids. What I mean by this is they had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, they also seemed very half-heartedly going through their lives at school.

There is a time in the day when one of the members of our team goes in the hall with the teachers and asks them what the issues seem to be at school. Most of the time we get the same old thing; teasing, clicks, roughhousing and the like. This particular school’s teachers couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with the kids. They said they had a great class and nothing really seemed to be going on between them. Well I can tell you that within the first hour of us being there, I could tell there were issues. There was an obvious boy click that most of the kids looked at for direction. Basically everything we asked the kids to do, they wouldn’t REALLY get into it until these boys did. Second, there was a TON of teasing going down. Also, a number of kids seemed to be excluded from the main part of the group of kids.

You see, the teachers ,most of the time anyway, sit in with us and participate with us and have a good time. With these teachers, it was like pulling teeth to get them to come in the room and recieve applause from the kids. There is one point in the day when they KNEW we wanted them to be “the heroes” and participate in an activity to win the school recognition. They made it a frickin’ POINT to be nowhere to be found at that moment in the day. Now, you tell me, are these teachers connecting at all with their kids? I don’t think so. It really was no wonder they thought this class was awesome…they never pay attention to them!! It was really sad.

It got me thinking, though. I looked back and found that classes where the teacher wasn’t really “present” in the classroom I did horrible in. I had a hard time caring about what was going on. Unfortunately, I saw that on the faces of all of those kids. I think if you are going to teach, you need to have a certain knack for wanting to be arounds kids an AWFUL lot. You have to give more than most people. I know the pay isn’t there for it. I think like acting you have to do it for the love of it, not for the money. I have met some astoundingly great teachers. They really made me happy. It is HARD work and they don’t get enough credit for it. AARRRGH!! I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience with a teacher…

I went to the Metrodome last night to see my beloved Tigers lose to the Twins. What can be said about the concrete balloon that hasn’t already been said? Nothing. Lets focus on something the Twinkies could control:
I enjoy visiting gentlemen’s clubs as much as the next guy (probably more), so I have no problem seeing 21-year-old girls in five-inch heels and short dresses. What I don’t expect is to see them in those outfits as you exit the stadium (on a Tuesday night?) passing out VIP admission cards for Rick’s Cabaret ! They were standing right outside the main exit. I doubt if the average family of four who went to see Torii Hunter & Joe Mauer would consider stopping at Rick’s on the way back to Woodbury. I’d be shocked if the Twins condoned this, but if they do, let’s get some cheerleaders!

One thing that I don’t understand is why MPLS is not an automatic stop for national concert tours. I just found out that Kraftwerk and Ivy are both playing Detroit & Chicago, but bypassing the Twin Cities.
Am I the only one upset by this?

As I approach my one-year anniversary of moving to the Twin Cities, I have to give the area some props. I’ve never been in a market with this many good radio stations. Between 89.3 The Current , Drive 105 & KFAI, you really can listen to something other than your iPod to get good music. The record stores here are equally impressive–The Electric Fetus & Let it Be Records stand out to me, but I’m sure there are more on the St. Paul side of the river. I miss listening to Canadian stations back in Detroit, but hey, you can’t have everything.

If you are a fan, you more than likely have already heard the good news. If you are not, let me get you on board. There is a brand new Cirque Du Soleil show that is going on tour. It is called Corteo and it is more than like ly going to be awesome. We here in the twin cities get to see the show first in the U.S. It is touring to three other cities in Canada and then coming here this fall. That should give them ample time to get it just right for the U.S. premiere.

If you have missed the other two shows that have come here, you need to see this one. They come and set up this really cool tent and perform an amazing show that mixes dance, circus performance, and visual awesomeness. This year, they will be setting up camp in The Parade down by the sculpture gardens by the Walker. They used to set up down by the river, but a certain fancy dancy theater built it’s new building on the site (*cough* Guthrie *cough*). If you go to the website and sign up to be a Cirque Club member, you can buy tickets right now before the general public gets a stab at them. Iwill warn you, they are pricey. But I also must say it is worth every penny. I have yet to be disapointed by any of the live shows I have seen…

The International Film Festival is in full swing, with an incredible lineup of films from ’round the globe.

I went to a showing of Kung Fu Hustle, the Steven Chow martial arts comedy, at the Riverview Theater last weekend.

I’m totally in love with The Riv. It’s close to my pad in South Minneapolis, it has some killer retro-groove decor, a large house and real butter on their popcorn. Movies are cheap and I’ve yet to have a bad filmgoing experience there.

The showing of Kung Fu Hustle was completely packed. I’ve never seen so many people at a showing in my life! I’d purchased tickets for the show from the festival’s website, which was a fairly painless process. Unfortunately, they didn’t have my name at the will-call table, but the volunteers were nice enough to let me in anyhow, just taking my number in case the transaction doesn’t show up.

The film started late because of all the shoehorning of folks into the theater. But, once it got going, it was absolutely terrific. I’d recommend this film to any martial arts film fans, especially if you’re a Bruce Lee fan like myself.

Kung Fu Hustle will be opening locally the weekend of the 22nd, so check the local listings.