How was your Thanksgiving?

I took last Wednesday off and spent the day with my family. After proclaiming the day Epic Wednesday “the last shopping day before Thanksgiving” we set out on our adventures.

 Scheduled for the evening was a trip to see the holiday lights in Phalen Park. It’s a drive along Lake Phalen that’s decorated by lights,joy,cheer, and corporate sponsorship.

From the Eastside Review,

For 37 nights starting Nov. 25, families will be able to drive a half-mile course within Phalen Park and view 43 different displays illuminated by LED lights, such as ice castles with snowdrift peaks, soldiers with horns, Santa Claus in a North Pole truck, and a tunnel of lights.

Sightseers will pay a vehicle entrance fee of $8 Sunday through Thursday and $10 on Friday and Saturday or holidays.

IF YOU GO:
What: Holiday Lights in the Park
Where: 1615 Phalen Drive East
When: Daily holiday tours are from 5:30-10 p.m. from Nov. 25-Dec. 31.

The profits go to to Second Harvest Heartland, Union Gospel Mission, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy Fund and UnderConstruction.  

The lights were pretty cool, but sadly my child node cried the entire ride. None the less, I only have two laments.

 1) It would have been nicer with snow. 2) We should have stopped at the cookie and hot cocoa stand near the entrance. I misheard directions. Live and learn. Or dare I say, that’s how the cookie crumbles?

So if you like holidays,charities, and festive lighting you should check it out.

More info:
Lights in the Park
For the brave, some video I shot and barely produced.

Happy Thanksgiving, (nearly) everything is closed today:

POST OFFICES: Closed, except for the 24-hour office at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Express Mail will be delivered in the metro area.

BANKS: In-store and traditional branches of Bremer, TCF, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are closed.

GROCERIES: Major supermarkets are closed.

MALLS: Major malls are closed. At the Mall of America, stores are closed but the theater is open. Nickelodeon Universe is open 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Underwater Adventure is open; call for hours.

MASS TRANSIT: Metro Transit buses and trains will follow Sunday/holiday schedules. For route information, call 612-373-3333 or go to www.metrotransit.org. Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, Maple Grove Transit, Plymouth Metrolink, SouthWest Metro Transit will have no service. Metro Mobility will follow reduced service.

PARKING METERS: Not enforced in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the University of Minnesota. Minneapolis parks will enforce meters unless noted on the meter.

SCHOOLS: Public schools and the University of Minnesota are closed.

PUBLIC AGENCIES: Local, state and federal offices are closed.

LIBRARIES: Closed.

RECREATION CENTERS: Most are closed. Edina-Edinborough Park is open; call for hours.

Thanksgiving is coming soon, and many of us may be off visiting family and friends.  A couple years ago, sultry hipster Alexis clued me to the fact that the night before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest nights for bars all year (and not just in Michigan).  So, Minneapolis Metbloggers, where is the best place in town to lift a few the night before you face the bird — and your family?

I’m sure that by now you’ve heard of the latest Bachmann kerfuffle where the esteemed Minnesotan Representative calls for a “penetrating expose” to take a look at who in Congress is “pro-America or Anti-America”.

I heard about it last night Via schmelzenfreude when he Tweeted this story, New McCarthyism: Bachmann calls for investigation of ‘anti-American’ Congress members.

For me, this story raises a lot of concerns and I’ve composed several diatribes in my head about the dangers of recent GOP rhetoric.   I’ve had a nagging feeling like a thorn in my thoughts since the last debate that started when the candidates were discussing allegations of people chanting “Kill Him” at Palin speeches. John McCain too umbrage to the suggestion his campaign should do anything to quell or denounce the “fringe” while mumbling something about people making negative TShirts about him. Seriously, he compared death threats to hurtful tshirts.

Do I digress? Perhaps, but it all seems connected by a reckless strand of anger and hate that is trying to tangle our country up and drag it back generations into the past.

The flip side of this latest Bachmann debacle is it’s helping raise support and funding for her opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg. Frankly, that feels a little dirty too. It suggests the dirty little secret none of us like to speak aloud, money basically buys votes. I’d rather politicians pay for their mistakes through loss of funding and support than their opponent making money from their gaffes. Now, I digress.

I have a lot of questions.

What is anti-American? Why does a call for Congress to be investigated for anti-American behavior resonate so strongly with the public when Congress has been basically making the same call against the U.S. citizens for the last 8 years? Assuming we had an agreeable definition of “anti-American” what would such an investigation accomplish? Censure? Gitmo? Kill Him?

This is a leak not even a plumber can fix. What do you think?

Rainbow Families, our friendly neighborhood LGBT family organization (which became the Midwest office for the Family Equality Council just this summer), is having a its annual fundraising gala, the Fall Colors Masquerade. Saturday, 10/11, 7:30pm, at Solera. $50. For the low low price of $200, you can attend the VIP portion of the event which starts at 5:30. Semi-formal. “Masks encouraged.” I’ll be there, probably sans mask.

David already gave you the scoop on the Saint Paul Art Crawl.

Women Stand Up! A Comedy Cabaret - Stand-up Comedians Colleen Kruse & Miss Shannan Paul; Brave New Workshop Veterans Shanan Wexler & Katy McEwen doing sketch comedy; Fringe Favorite Storyteller Allegra Lingo; Legendary Poet and wit Phebe Hanson; and the Comedic Chanteuse Stylings of Diana B. Wilde. $20 or $15 with a Fringe button (this is the annual benefit show, so prices are a little higher than usual). Saturday, October 11, at Bryant Lake Bowl. Doors open at 9:30 p.m.; show starts at 10 p.m. For tickets and info call the box office at 612-825-8949 or visit www.bryantlakebowl.com.

Pillsbury House Theatre proudly presents Non English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series on Saturday, October 11. Preshow reception begins at 8pm followed by the performances at 9pm. Non English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series is curated by Laurie Carlos and co-curated by e.g. bailey. Performances are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased at the door the night of the performance or online. All performances take place on the Pillsbury House Theatre mainstage at 3501 Chicago Avenue South in Minneapolis. This weekend’s lineup includes: Pramila Vasudevan, kim thompson, Katie Ka Vang, and Tou Saiko Lee. [complete details on the series and on this weekend's event] [purchase tickets]

This last one is mostly a reminder to myself that I have punches left on my Brave New Workshop Punchy Pass and I want to see The Lion, the Witch, and the War Hero; Or is McCain Able? before the run ends on November 8th. Need to see it before Election Day. That last weekend of shows could be pretty painful to sit through. Buy tickets online or call the box office at 612-332-6620.

• The TC Avengers, “an all-inclusive direct action group committed to dismantling all forms of oppression” with an emphasis on LGBT issues (e.g., they sponsor Dyke March), are “chronicling gendered injustice” by putting together a Google map documenting instances of harrassment based on gender and sexual orientation. I presume, given their mission statement, they’d include incidents based on race, (dis)ability and whatever other situations might cause a person to feel uniquely targeted and threatened. (via @autoclavicle)
• Google released its web browser, Chrome, in Windows-only format a few weeks ago. Yesterday, Minnesota company CodeWeavers released “proof of concept” versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux. (via @Minnov8)
• At the Walker tonight: Daniel Bergin on Parents, Kids, and the Media. Daniel Bergin is a media educator and TPT producer.(via @lisa_ray, founder of Parents for Ethical Marketing and the Corporate Babysitter blog)
• Michele Bachmann: Still a crazy hypocrite!
• Minneapolis has a new Sister City: Cuernavaca, Morelos (Mexico) from which thousands of Twin Cities residents have emigrated.
• Altered Esthetics (now sporting its fancy new F1 Overnight Website Challenge redesign) has put out the Call for Art for 2009. There are 12 themes (one for each month). You may end up on display at AE and/or featured in their 2009 calendar. Read the submission guidelines (pdf) and get your artwork in by September 30.
• The Poster Offensive 4 exhibit, a political poster show, just closed at the Black Dog Cafe but will be opening September 24 at the Frank Stone Gallery. Watch the 3 Minute Egg video on Poster Offensive. (via bigboxcar)
• And, hey! Look at 3 Minute Egg, “a video blog spotlighting the Twin Cities arts scene, created and produced by Matt Peiken, former staff arts writer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and managing editor of the Walker Art Center’s magazine.” Matt, one word of advice: Disable that SnapShots Wordpress plugin. It’s really annoying.
• Lazy Lightning: Random Sampling of South Metro Police Calls.
• Fringe Famous: Why you gotta be all melodramatic?
• Glimpses of Soul Photography talks about photographing They Might Be Giants at First Avenue. With photos from said concert.

From my inbox:

Current TV is coming back to Minneapolis as journalist Trace Crutchfield (also seen on Vice Broadcasting System) is taking the metro area by storm to see what happens outside of the convention halls.

“Unconventionally Yours with Trace Crutchfield” will provide local responses to the arrival of the conventions, decipher the mindset of participants, interview politicos and extremists, and explore the thoughts of attendants on the fringe (protesters and nay sayers).

From interviews with the Minneapolis Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee and Minnesotans for Change to show-goers at the Turf Club, Crutchfield is speaking to community members and politicians about this essential and hotly anticipated convention.

Crutchfield’s uninhibited reporting style delivers fresh political coverage for the 18 - 34 demographic. For an unflinching perspective on this election season, tune in to “Unconventionally Yours With Trace Crutchfield, Minneapolis-St.Paul” on Thursday, August 21, 10:30 p.m. EST/PST.

For more information, enjoy the trailer.

Originally uploaded by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

A visitor to our fair city tries her first Jucy Lucy. It is, and I quote, “SO GOOD.”

I got to have brunch with Rachel and some other folks on Sunday. She made the most of her weekend, taking in a Fringe show, visiting the Walker, eating at Matt’s, going to a cupcake meetup, and doing readings from her books at Amazon Bookstore and the Smitten Kitten (her reason for being here in the first place). I believe she’s going to the Mall of America today. A quick look at a lake or a river and she’ll have done most of the quintessential things for Minneapolis visitors. We strongly warned her that it would not be safe to visit again next year until May or so.

Fringe Encore shows! Congratulations to the festival’s top sellers.

You can read all the reviews I posted at fringefestival.org in one place. I think that’s a new feature on the website this year. I like it. (Just so you know, those are mostly the same as what I posted here.)

Besides the official staff photos on the Fringe’s website, there are plenty to be found on Flickr. [minnesota fringe]

This is the last Fringe Report from me for this year. I finished the Fringe off with two shows I’d been planning to see since the very beginning of the festival.

On to the reviews.

The Underpants Show by Lili’s Burlesque
When I thought we weren’t going to get in, I tried not to be too upset since Lili’s Burlesque is local and I could see them some other time. But we got in at the last minute and I’m glad we did. It was nice to see the show with a packed house. This kind of show thrives on the hootin’ and hollerin’ in the audience, which there was plenty of. What blew me away was how well-produced a show this was. The acts, the music, the costumes were all fantastic. The three-piece band was great. The host was great. The two guys that cleaned up discarded clothing between acts were great. It was visually interesting and you didn’t have to think too hard. This show was one of the most fun to attend.

Roofies in the Mochaccino by Empty S Productions
Empty S Productions aka Michael Shaeffer, who also participated in at least one other Fringe show this year. Maybe two. I actually didn’t enjoy this one as much as I expected to. I mean, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It was an easy-to-endure show, as each poem was only a few minutes long. I confess, my previous perception of beat poetry involved a beret, sunglasses, and snapping. So if this is beat poetry, this is way better than I thought it was. He writes well and he tells it well. As much as I hated phillip andrew bennett low’s show, pabl’s review of this one is right on. I’ll be looking out for more Michael Shaeffer around town.

Further miscellaneous observations…

I totally skipped my early afternoon Fringe plans to watch the Olympics. Hey, I passed up the Opening Ceremonies to see four shows on Friday night.

This is your last reminder to go see The Jamal Lullabies on Sunday at 1pm at the Southern Theater. And then go see The Nosdrahcir Sisters on Sunday at 2:30pm at the Rarig Center Xperimental. I am not kidding. Make time.

I wish fringefestival.org would quit logging me out so often.

As of right now (10pm on Saturday night), Musical the Musical and Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead are tied for the most audience reviews at 61 apiece. 15 different shows are averaging 5-kitty ratings; nine of those 15 shows have more than 10 reviews.

Also, be on the lookout for the early Sunday afternoon announcement of the Fringe Encore performances, in which the top seller at each venue gets to perform one last show at 8:30 on Sunday night. You can only see one, because you can only be at one venue at 8:30 on Sunday night.

On to the reviews.

In Rehearsal by Alison Vodnoy
Alison Vodnoy tells the story of Akiva, who’s wookin’ pa nub. She tells her side of seven attempts at relationships (along with visits to her therapist), and then goes back and tells the other person’s side of the story. The show description’s mention of lesbians is sensationalist. One of Akiva’s relationship tries is with a woman, but it’s not treated any differently than the other six. Halfway through, I thought it was a decent show but nothing special. The second half redeemed it. A very interesting way to delve into the character of Akiva and a reminder that there are always two sides to every story, neither of which is necessarily the wrong or the right one. Not bad.

The Gypsy and the General by 3 Sticks
These are clearly very talented people. They did some really cool things with their props. But I totally didn’t get the story. I found that I could only focus on the music or the action but not both, and a lot of times I was more interested in the music. Glad I got one last chance to check out the now-closed Theatre de la Jeune Lune.

Further miscellaneous observations…