MnIndy’s Paul Demko writes up his experience getting detained while covering the protests

Star Tribune says 818 people were arrested over the 4 days of the RNC, including 396 last night

The UpTake’s volunteer coordinator Suzanne was shooting video of a police-protester confrontation when she got caught up in the melée and was arrested.

Video of WCCO photojournalist Tom Aviles being arrested

What’s your story?

Friendly neighborhood actress lady and blogger extraordinaire Leigha Horton has been blogging the Fringe, since she’s not in a show this year. My favorite part: Audio interviews with folks in line. Of course she knows, like, everyone in line. Follow along. As a theater type person, she asks performers and directors totally different questions than I would ever ask.

Slideshows of official Fringe photos are going up at fringefestival.org.

I was just wondering, and my question was answered: Opening weekend numbers were great! From Thursday through Sunday, 14,215 tickets were sold. Up 10% over last year’s opening weekend attendance which you’ll note was somewhat dampened by that bridge that fell down.

On to the reviews.

The Survival Pages by Malia Burkhart
Malia ponders humanity’s relationship with nature, talks about hosting her own wildlife show, asks the questions we all ask about how we’re killing our planet and what we should be doing to conserve and survive, and goes on this kind of interesting exploration of soil vs dirt. All this is presented with spoken word, some kind of free-form movement that I wouldn’t quite call dance, some recliner acrobatics, video, this really cool thing where she makes her own cocoon, and a bucket of dirt. I didn’t find the story she told to be gripping, exactly, but I really liked the way she presented it. I’m sure every Fringe artist puts a lot of thought into their show, but it was interesting watching the show keeping in mind that every little bit was very carefully considered (having skimmed through her blog dedicated to the development of this show which includes the cut-and-pasting of a rejection of her request for a second projector by the Fringe’s tech director which she is not pleased with). One last showing Friday at 7pm. If you’re looking to try something “different” this is a good option.

JACK by Eric Van Wyk
So this is a reinterpretation of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. The puppets were really cool. He had several different types so it wasn’t just different characters, it was puppets with truly different aesthetics which made for good variety. Some of the puppetry techniques and production elements were pretty cool, like how he portrayed the passage of time with the moon rise and how he portrayed traveling with the scrolling backdrop and how he portrayed the growing of the bean stalk. In some cases, the execution wasn’t entirely polished. The actual story itself was totally meh. I think an 8-year-old would enjoy it quite a bit. As much as I enjoyed it visually, I found myself ready for it to be over, or at least pick up the pace, about halfway through and I really didn’t get the ending. If you have kids, take ‘em. Last night was his first show, so he’s got four more. Coincidentally, this guy went to school in Iowa back in the day with one of my co-workers. I told my co-worker to go see it anyway.

Further miscellaneous observations…

If you are online to read this and haven’t found out yet, you’re… well, I don’t even know.

Phone service is spotty.

Today’s the anniversary of the 35W Bridge Collapse, so I thought I’d revisit some of the liveblogging we did of the post-collapse events. Above is from Erica’s post at 6:57 p.m. on August 1. Heavy stuff when you think back to it all.

Significant MB posts covering the collapse:

• August 1
• August 2
• August 10
• March 18 (Bridge Findings Released)

What do you remember from that day?

A moment of silence for those lost to and affected by the strangest, randomest, closest tragedy I’ve ever experienced.

WCCO has a wonderful retrospective.

I get anxious just reading through what we wrote here the day it happened.

I guess I’m closer to the 35W bridge than I thought. Last week, I was woken up by an odd low throbbing coming from somewhere, and as I moved towards wakefulness, I thought to myself, “Who is playing that much bass this early? And it doesn’t even have a rhythm!”

That bass is back tonight, and it suddenly hit me that it must be construction on the bridge. As the crow flies, I’m about a mile away, close enough for the vibrations to provide just that little bit of discomfort that you hardly realize is there (making you just the ever slightest bit nauseous).

At least they’re ahead of schedule, so this should pass quickly.

Someone who didn’t like the Red Bull Illume exhibit felt compelled to make a statement.

Photo courtesy of Corporate Babysitter.

Dialing that phone number — (612) 230-6400 — gets you to the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.

This is Why I Love Minneapolis: “New initiatives (for people smarter than me to spearhead)” Many related to getting around, which Leif does a lot of.

Minnesota Lynx: Photos on Facebook from the Lynk Up and Get Down 2009 season ticket renewal campaign shoot. All the players and Prowl decked out in ’70s high fashion.

Perfect Porridge: “Social Information Hoarder: MIMA’s Data Overload Panel and Helpful Links” This is Greg and others presenting to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association.

Star Tribune: Data porn! (via s4xton)

About: “I-35 W Bridge: Before and After Exhibition Opens July 18″

Twin City Sidewalks: Sidewalk Closed Signs. Also see Bill’s new project, Twin Cities Streets for People, “where a team of Minnesota urbanists are going to try to keep tabs on what’s going on in the local urbanism scene.”

Eleventh Avenue South: Andy responds to criticism of his (perceived lack of) coverage of congressional candidates’ stand on GLBT issues (i.e., “Why don’t you light into Keith Ellison like you do Michele Bachmann?”).

Minnov8: Recapping PublicRadioCamp.

Minneapolis Issues Forum: “Minneapolis: getting power from our poop” … … … Heh.

See a baseball game played according to the rules from 1860 as part of the Minnesota’s sesquicentennial celebration. Saturday, 7/19, 11am, B.F. Nelson Park. (via NRP)

KFAI: Converting to digital and increasing power! (via Rhubarbarism)

Peter Fleck, who sits on the Digital Inclusion Fund Advisory Board and the committee that gives out the grants (and who was just on Truth to Tell talking about it), has all the details on the RFP process.

Important documents: The proposal, and the RFP and grant application. Deadline for submission is Friday, September 5, 2008.

The grants are available to nonprofit (501 (c)(3) ) organizations. There is a total of $200,000 to be given away, same as last year. Grant amounts vary between $5,000 and $30,000.

The purpose of the fund is to:

The Digital Inclusion Fund supports efforts to bridge the digital divide in Minneapolis by providing qualified organizations with financial resources to promote technology access and literacy for low-income people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, displaced workers, seniors, and other new users of technology.

and we are interested in funding projects that address:

1. Affordable internet access;
2. Technology literacy;
3. Local, relevant and accessible content;
4. Adequate, affordable hardware and software tools.

Past grantees can apply but must provide a progress report with specific quantified outcome measures.

US Internet, who is building the Minneapolis Wi-Fi system, gave the money for the Digital Inclusion Fund as part of their contract with the City of Minneapolis.

Contact Peter at pfhyper@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Lazy Lightning and commentors discuss replacing vs renovating the currently-condemned Meadow Lake Bridge which carried bikers across the Minnesota River between Bloomington and Burnsville.

Cam Gordon (Mpls 2nd Ward city council member) has the deets on this year’s National Night Out.

TC Biz Journal’s 2008 Women In Business Honorees.

TC Biz Journal reports what downtown MNspeakers have known for weeks and that is that a SoupMan (of Seinfeld fame) is now open in the Minneapolis Skyway.

The great people of the Tale of Two Cities LiveJournal community discuss Minnesota’s representation in that CNNmoney list of Best Small Cities to Live. “[Y]ou’ll see most of what got Plymouth into the #1 spot isn’t even located in Plymouth.” MNspeakers discuss as well.

Mary Lahammer on Jesse’s non-announcement on Larry King Live. He did, in fact, talk to someone in the local media. Sort of.

MinnPost runs a University of Minnesota eNews report on a study confirming what people who use Facebook and Myspace already know, which is that kids learn technology skills and share/collaborate on creative efforts through social media. New news: the digital divide is perhaps not as big as we think it is. “The students participating in the University of Minnesota study were from families whose incomes were at or below the county median income (at or below $25,000) and were taking part in an after-school program, Admission Possible, aimed at improving college access for low-income youth.”

MnIndy: “Local immigration attorneys and advocates say Postville raid reflected ‘a complete lack of due process’”

NRP is sending a delegation to the 2008 Bank of the West Neighborhood Summit in Omaha. (Bank of the West is an actual bank.) “The Summit will be an opportunity to learn from residents of Des Moines, Omaha, Wichita and Kansas City what they are doing around key issues, share ideas, network, tour Omaha, and have fun!” 31 Minneapolitans attended last year. Apply to attend by August 1.

saintpaulitan visits the friendly neighborhood geodesic dome house.

vita.mn’s guide to all the drag shows in Minneapolis and St Paul. That’s not very many, but then, how many drag shows do you need? Feel free to edit the list.

TC Biz Journal says, in the wake of the dented nose cone issue, MSP is some new runway status lights at some yet to be determined time between now and 2011. The $400 million tab is to be picked up by the FAA.

Lots of different takes on the Red Bull Illume exhibit in which some big black cubes are perched on the Stone Arch bridge. They light up at night revealing some pretty amazing photography.

Taylor talked about it as an art exhibition. My take away is I’ll wander over if I happen to be in the area, but I’m not going out of my way.

Corporate Babysitter talked about the crass advertising aspect.

Peter Fleck is concerned about some logistical issues.

Looks like they considered pedestrian traffic but forgot that this is a major bike route. It’s hard to understand this lack of awareness given that City Hall is shouting from the rooftops what a bike-friendly town we have here.

and

Besides the whole bike thing, there’s also the issue of promoting Red Bull on park property. The Minneapolis Park Board has also been accepting some other advertising money some residents don’t think it’s proper.

(That other advertising money would be from Lowe’s.)

A Downtown Journal article on the exhibit asks two good questions.

Is this proper use of the Stone Arch Bridge? If not, where should the exhibition be put up instead?

To me, the question of whether the exhibit-as-advertising is appropriate for the historic nature of the Stone Arch Bridge is less important than the funding questions and the traffic questions. If the goal is to put this type of exhibit up on a bridge over the river, what other alternative do they have? The other options are a train bridge, car-carrying bridges, or the Washington Ave Bridge which has limited visibility because of the covered walkway in the middle.

As for where to put it instead, how about Gold Medal Park? It gets close to similar visibility since there are lots of viewing points along the river. It’s as easily accessible. It’s not completely public land so there are different rules as to how the money comes and goes. It does not block traffic.