DISCLAIMER: Be careful. If you have sensitive eyes, you may not want to read this post. I drop some F bombs in here. But seriously, it’s warranted.

Basically, I don’t think I can read MinnPost any more.

You see, last weekend I was doing some late-night reading about the election on MinnPost, and the side-bar banner ad caught my eye. “Gee, the woman in this ad vaguely resembles my mother.”

Do you know why?

Because it WAS my mother.

It was really weird. I had known she was featured in print ads for the U’s Management of Technology program years ago, thought it was pretty neat, and moved on. Then I saw this ad on Saturday and it freaked me the fuck out.

But that’s not all. I read MinnPost (as well as many other news sources) for my jerb every day, and three times this week I’ve seen her there, staring back at me, telling me to clean my room from the fucking internet.

So, I’m sorry MinnPost. Your intrepid, exciting format of grassroots, community-based professional freelance journalism was genius (and a sustainable nonprofit business model!). But it has all been undone by putting my mom’s face all over your articles.

• Sunday, May 17, is Syttende Mai, Norway’s Independence Day.
• Kids from one school bus stop are biking to school together for Bike Walk to Work Week.
• Minneapolis City Councilmember Ralph Remington on the black experience in America.
• Charles Hallman of the Spokesman-Recorder, who (along with Stephen Litel from DT/SW Journal) provides the best Lynx coverage in town) previews the Lynx going into the team’s 10th season and the WNBA’s 12th season. Home opener is Sunday at 5:00 against the Detroit Shock and will be broadcast on FSN North. FanFest will be happening out on 6th Street from 2-4pm.
• Vandals damage governors’ portraits in the Capitol. Harold LeVander, Elmer Anderson, and Jesse Ventura. Colonel Mustard, in the rotunda, with a marker.
• Mary LaHammer previews her Almanac interview with Jesse Ventura. Dude’s all over the place pimping his new book.
• Sornie: “When I attend the Minnesota State Fair, I love to wander through the ‘varied industry building’ or as I refer to it as ‘people peddling crap that doesn’t deserve shelf-space at the As Seen on TV store at the Mall of America building’.” It doesn’t even matter what the rest of the post is about.
• St Paul Issues Forum is doing happy hour tonight. O’Gara’s. 5-7pm. SPIF is also looking for candidates for their executive committee. Deets at happy hour.
• My favorite Rake blog is Just Passing Through. Guest blogging by all sorts of interesting folks.

While I was working on yesterday’s roundup, I came across Metro Transit’s Bike2Benefits program.

Since I live four miles from where I work, I decided that it would probably not be nearly as bad as I imagined to commute to work on my bike. I did that for the first time today and it didn’t suck! So I was all proud of myself, but then I noticed that there are prizes involved in Bike2Benefits, so I went ahead and signed up for that.

Choose any eight-week period before Dec. 31 to start commuting by bicycle. Track your trips and mileage at this website. When you complete the program, you will automatically be entered in our year-end prize drawing. You’ll also receive a Twin Cities Bike Map (while supplies last). Once your eight weeks are over, continue tracking your commutes and you’ll be eligible for even more incentives!

Bike2Benefits is open to anyone 18 or older who lives and works in these counties: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington. There is no fee to participate.

Here’s how it works:

Bike/Walk Related:

• R.T. Rybak wins the Great Commuter Challenge on his bike, beating out the Ramsey County Commissioner who walked/took public transit and Roadguy who drove a car. I did not bike to work today for Bike Walk to Work Day, but I give my potential bike commute a dry run on Monday evening and may do it yet this week, since Bike Walk to Work Day is just one part of Bike Walk to Work Week.
• Minneapolis and St Paul mayors unveil community bike program. The program is called “Freewheelin” and is sponsored by insurance company Humana. “Solar-powered kiosks will be stationed throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul during the [Republican National] convention, which will be Sept. 1-4. People will be able to take bikes from these kiosks, travel anywhere and drop them off when they’re done. The only requirements will be online registration and a credit card number — not to be charged, but to hold people accountable when bikes are damaged or go missing.” 70 bikes will be left behind to continue the program after the convention and the program may expand for the following spring. IMO, going into the winter is not the best time to fire up the program, but at least it’s there.
• Cycling in the city. vita.mn on bike culture in the TC. (via east-lake)
• Bike2Benefits is a Metro Transit program somewhat similar to the commuter challenge (but focusing on biking, obviously). (via twin_cities)

The Rest:

• You know that big bronze (kind of scary) rabbit sculpture on Minnehaha Parkway at Portland? This Saturday at 10am there will be kids out there planting clay bunnies around it. Not sure why, though… (via @nxt)
• The Rake has a new Call for Artists section. Current listings are for actors for a Fringe show and exhibitions to display at various Hennepin County Library locations in Minneapolis. (via @RakeMag)
• In case you just moved here and aren’t sure what the white lights on the traffic signals are. I find it extra confusing that the white lights also blink along Hiawatha when the train is coming. Is LRT an emergency?
• Bon Iver on Pitchfork.tv (via east-lake)
• Taylor Carik = Bon Iver (I so told Taylor that months ago.) And, yeah, they do both look like every guy that hangs out at the 331 Club.
• Least Dangerous Game, everyone’s favorite Twitter hide and seek game, starts again on May 24 after its winter hiatus.
• Living on the Minnehaha Homestead has a multimedia presentation on the May Day Parade.
• Localized job boards that are not Monster/CareerBuilder/etc.
• Strib blog: “Patent Pending will provide you the latest information and commentary on the people, companies, and trends driving innovation in Minnesota. From visionary entrepreneurs to game changing technologies, this blog will offer a window into the future of Minnesota’s economy.”
• Graffiti = Killing Puppies
• Firsthand account of the immediate aftermath of an armed robbery in the parking lot of the E Lake Street Cub Foods.
• Local crazies. Fun to discuss unless they’re actually crazy.
• Best Buy sucks the big schlong.

The Twin Cities has been known for its theatre scene, rivaling larger cities for mere number of venues, and beating most of them for theatres per capita. The Minne-Apple, Broadway of the Midwest, the True Great White Way (get it? White Snow? right….), basically we have lots of theaters. And we get big shows. Touring shows from Broadway, that play at various theaters in our fair metropolises. Unfortunately, some of those big boisterous Broadway shows feel a little cramped once we wedge them into the theaters we have here. I saw Wicked when it came to town, and unless you have seats directly down the middle, you’re not seeing a good portion of the stage.

We do have a theater, however, that deserves these big shows, with its vast stage. I love the Ordway. I’ve seen so many great shows there, from Les Miserables to the Drowsy Chaperone, to its currently running spectacle, Cabaret. And I’ve never been disappointed with a show that I’ve seen there. No, not even Big (which only ran for 193 performances on Broadway). There’s so much more room for the staging, that at the very least, the spectacle of the show generally blows you away. The current show, Cabaret, has the excellent staging, in a brand new co-production of this classic musical. Cabaret is co-produced by the Ordway, San Jose’s American Musical Theatre, and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater. Each city brought its own talent and expertise to the production, with actors coming from all three cities, and Seattle providing the director, Bill Berry. It premiered in San Jose in March, continued on to Seattle, and then landed here last week, with performances continuing on until the 18th, prior to it touring elsewhere.

The show itself was so much fun to watch. I’d never seen Cabaret before, not even the movie, and was stunned by this performance. The creative team did a lot of research into 1920s Berlin of the final days of the Weimar republic, when many liberation movements were in full flower, using the book Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy, by Univ. of Minnesota professor, Eric D. Weitz. The freedom exhibited in the story, counter-pointed by the tragic ending foreshadowing the growing horror of Nazi Germany moved me greatly. Particularly well performed were the parts of the MC, played by Nick Garrison, and Frau Schneider, played by Suzy Hunt. I’m also enjoying the Ordway’s habit of putting the orchestra on-stage in costume, as they did in Chicago (this may be traditional for these shows, I’m not sure). They certainly looked like they were having fun, dragging it up on stage, while playing their instruments. Smiles all around. And that would explain the monitors facing the stage with the conductor’s hands displayed. I wondered about this the whole show, and it hit me just now why it was there.

There are still performances and still great seats for the show, and if you’ve never been to the Ordway, go over to St. Paul and check it out. It truly is my favourite theater in the Twin Cities.

I know it’s only Monday, but I’m already thinking about next weekend. If today’s weather is any indication of the upcoming week it should be a great weekend to be outside.

Which is why this Saturday I’ll be attending the Ramsey County  Master Gardener’s plant sale in the morning and then heading over to Lake Phalen WaterFest for the early afternoon. 

A few of the WaterFest activities: On-the-water education in Wilderness Inquiry Voyageur canoes (Canoe rides!), Kid’s fishing lessons and stream monitoring, Rain garden tours,Raptors and other live animals, the Toonies Puppet Show, Native plant give-away, Powder Puff and 3M clowns and stilt walkers, and solar boat races.

Where else in town can I see raptors while getting advice on rain garden creation?

For this type of variety I’m willing to brave the clowns and stiltwalkers.

Anyone else want to go?

(Photo courtesy of cameraphone10000 / Mothers Day Sunset)

I fly for my job - a lot. And almost always on Northwest Airlines.

This week I was on four Northwest flights (New York and Chicago [and back]), and on my outbound flight to Chicago yesterday morning I heard something completely new and foreign to me during the in-flight announcements:

Something to the effect: “As part of Northwest Airlines’ commitment to the environment, we will be coming through to collect aluminum cans, newspapers and plastic for recycling…” The flight attendant read a whole little speech about it.

Apparently this is part of a bigger environmental program called EarthCares.

However, during my three other NWA flights this week, the cans and papers were thrown into the same garbage sack with all the other trash — just like always. Maybe it’s an effort in-progress.

New feature #1: Metblogs now features some snazzy Seesmic integration.

!!!

Seesmic is an online video sharing service. You can record video directly through Seesmic or link to videos you have posted elsewhere and share them with folks.

What that means for Metblogs is 1) authors can now post video and 2) any registered user can record a video comment in Seesmic (and you don’t need a Seesmic account to do it). Look for this button below the comment box.

!!!

Go ahead, somebody try it out.

New feature #2: Related posts. Not mindblowing, but there it is. You’ll see those at the bottom of every individual post page.

New feature #2.5: Some updates to the CSS rolled out this week, so your viewing experience should be much improved. Even my crappy Windows/IE6 combo I’m stuck with at work displays the page much better. HQ has a list of fixes, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This week I’ve been listening to MPR: Radio at 8:15 am.

Each morning they’ve been featuring a young up-and-coming Minnesotan artist that is also a winner of the Schubert Club’s Bruce P.Carlson Student Scholarship.

From the MPR article: “The preliminary round competition typically draws more than 250 students competing in 15 divisions, split up by age and instrumentation. The youngest competitors are in junior high. The oldest are graduate students, but there a few out of college”

The talent level of these up-and-coming young artists is amazing and each day I have been delighted and impressed by the chosen material and the performace.

Show your support for Minnesota talent and give these young artists a listen.

Related:
The Schubert Club

Listen to the interviews on MPR’s website after they air.

( Photo, Stillwater High School violinist Emily Anderson, courtesty of MPR/Karl Gehrke ) 

Metblogs is having an open call for authors. If you’re a blogger looking for a wider audience, or simply have a desire to write about whats happening in Minneapolis Saint Paul, keep reading:

This is an unpaid gig, but you have the opportunity to have your stuff read by our fabulous Minneapolitans on a daily basis. Vloggers, photographers, community journalists, gripers and anyone else with a desire to write about Minneapolis is encouraged to apply.

Applications are now closed. We have some fantastic new authors! Hooray!