Don’t forget to hit up your favourite Local Comic Book Store for your share of the Free Comics! I’m heading over to the Source right now, with a brief stopover at Keys for the sustenance required to overcome the thronging horde.

I attended the Whitter Alliance’s annual fundraiser last night at the Blaisdell Manor, where I got to sample food from a number of the Eat Street restaurants, and listen some nice jazz. The Whittier Alliance is one of the more active neighbourhood groups in Minneapolis, and the community meetings tend to get a little raucous at times. For a neighbourhood that measures only about a square mile, we have enough drama sometimes to account for the whole city it seems. But with our little area containing Eat Street, part of the 29th Street Greenway, and the contentious K-Mart on Lake Street, not to mention MCAD, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, and the Children’s Theater, people get more than a little involved in the goings on and possible developments.

The fundraiser helps raise money for the Whittier Alliance itself, with donations coming from residents and employers in the area. There was a silent auction, and a regular auction for some bigger ticket items. A $1500 dollar trip to San Francisco, all-inclusive, went for around 500, I think. I won a membership to the Hennepin History Museum, just down the road from my apartment, but which I have yet to visit. Guess now, I’ll start going.

Has the rain gotten you down?

There seems to be something about this weather that is making the air equal parts glum and humidity. 

Still, on my drive home tonight I found myself thinking of sunsets.

Yesterday Cameraphone10000 captured this sunset from our yard. 

Where is your favorite place in the Twin Cities to watch a sunset?

I’ve always loved the sunsets at Lake Hiawatha Park.

I had to go to a wedding in Blaine on Saturday, and as I only drive a 49cc scooter, I can’t take the freeway. One advantage to this is that I get to see all the stuff en route that everyone else misses. Like the new location for Totinos. On County Road 10 in Mounds View. The actual address is 2535 Highway 10 NE, Mounds View. It’s a standalone building with its own parking lot, what looks to be a former Bridgeman’s or the like. I hope that the fine people of the northern suburbs appreciate a non-chain place, and that the family continues to be successful in their new digs. I miss having them just across the river in Northeast, and probably won’t be making the trip up to Mounds View that often. Maybe they’ll foster a renaissance of small individually owned restaurants in outer ring suburbs. Highway 10 will become Eat Street North. Right?

Last night was the Opening Night Gala for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, enjoying its 26th consecutive year in the Twin Cities. I didn’t make it to the Gala, which was hosted at Bellanotte, and featured performers from the Secret Circus. Tickets to attend were very affordable at 10 dollars, or free with a festival pass. I thought seriously about going, so I could have a more objective viewpoint about the event and the festival. But I’m still angry at the parent organization, Minnesota Film Arts for the mismanagement that’s been going on for the past years, which has led to fewer films playing at the soon-to-be-history Oak Street and the cancellation of the annual GLBT Film Festival. I still say that their argument that there wasn’t enough community interest to support a GLBT Film Festival is disingenuous at best. We have one of the largest Gay Pride celebrations in the nation each year, and a huge arts-loving and film-going community. There’s got to be an intersection there. You can blame the audience for not showing up only so much before you have to turn the spotlight back on the organization and say, “What are we doing wrong in our advertising and promotions?”

I may or may not go see some of the films this year, but it’s hard for me to get excited about the festival when it’s run by MFA. Al Milgrom, who’s been involved since it started, does a great job, but the board of directors for non-profit MFA certainly haven’t made it easy for him.

If anyone made it to the Opening Night Gala, let us know how it went, and I’d love to hear more experiences from people attending the films as well.

Nothing like waking up and heading to work to see police cars blocking off both ends of my block. Not much information is available, but there was a burglary last night, and this morning, the suspect took hostages in a townhouse near 25th and 3rd, and the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. WCCO reports that the hostages have been released, but the suspect is still armed and holed up. The SWAT team is on site, but hasn’t moved on the suspect yet.

I left to come to work at about 9:30 this morning, pulled the scooter out and turned north, saw the squad car blocking off that end, turned around and saw three cars blocking off that end. What to do, what to do. I went north, and the police let me exit the area, but they weren’t letting anyone back in. I normally have my clock radio tuned to Jazz88, which has news regularly throughout the morning, but today I had it turned off. I wonder how quickly I would’ve woken up this morning hearing on the news that there was a SWAT team facing down a hostage less than a block away from my apartment. How long would it have taken my waking brain to process that information and would I have decided to just stay inside than to venture out on the scooter?

Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, will be speaking at the University of Minnesota tonight at the Humphrey Institute. She’ll have books available for sale and will be doing a signing afterwards as well. I think I’ll finally pick up a copy of Fun Home and get it signed. Maybe I’ll also be able to pick up a nice gay fella who likes comics, too.

Yesterday, Esquire Magazine published a story on “The Best Sandwiches in America.”

Admittedly incomplete, the list features Midwest ‘wiches from Chicago, Ann Arbor and Cleveland but completely snubbed Minneapolis Saint Paul.

Screw Esquire and their list, anyway. Where’s your favorite sandwich?

As far as deli sammiches go, Be’wiched in the warehouse district is pretty great. Downtown Saint Paul has two Blink Bonnie locations for my favorite #12 - The Edinburgh. For BBQ, I have to go for Baker’s Ribs pulled pork sandwich (yes a chain, but locally owned, okay?). Esquire ruled out burgers, but since that’s my favorite kind of sandwich, I would have to vote for a Jucy Lucy from Matt’s.

And you?

On March 8th, local Chef Thom Pham hosts a Nyotaimori/Nantaimori Event at Temple Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.

Nyotaimori and Nantaimori are accepted traditions in Japan of serving sashimi and sushi off of the body of a woman or a man. It has been practiced for centuries, initiated as an art by the Geisha Community.

Tickets are $75 which gets you sushi, sake, champagne and the freedom to stare. Too bad this wasn’t a Valentine’s Day special for singles.

More info here.

(via Alexis)

I’ll challenge Erica’s vow not to ever post about Diablo Cody and share today’s Academy Award news.

“Juno” got Oscar nominations for Best Picture, as well as for original screenplay by Diablo Cody, best actress for Ellen Page and direction for Jason Reitman.

Wow. That’s a ton of back-slapping for the Minneapolis writer who wrote the screenplay while living here. Congrats Ms. Cody!

The UK’s The First Post has a great profile on Diablo today here.

In addition, home state favorites The Coen Brothers also have a lot to brag about today. “No Country for Old Men” is leading the Oscar nominations with eight nominations in a tie with “There Will Be Blood.”

Full list of nominees here.

UPDATE: Diablo on Letterman last night:
“I wrote this screenplay at a Starbucks inside a Target, which is like two layers of corporate filth…surrounded by surburban misery and thought, ‘I gotta get the hell outta here. I better finish this.”