At Pike Place Market

This guy was waiting patiently


As was this guy


And this guy



These two guys were rocking out as "Raw Corn"



And these two guys were discussing health care.

Beachcombing

At Newcastle Beach yesterday my eye was distracted from the gorgeous views by shiny colorful objects in the sand. I decided to start collecting them. Bottle caps, tiparillo filters, a lot of styrofoam and even a waterlogged boot. I was alone for a while, but then people became intrigued and joined me. A treasure hunt. Shiny bright colors.

It's just a little bit of beach, but now I feel like I own it. I also understand my dog's nature a bit better now--we're both just treasure hunters.

Day 2: St. Paul

"My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness." F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to his daughter Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald (July 1938)

Day 3: Weisman Museum (Gehry) to Guthrie Theatre (Nouvel)

Two cultural icons preside over opposite banks of the Mississippi: The Weisman Art Museum by Frank Gehry, currently in expansion mode, and the Guthrie Theatre by French Pritzker winner Jean Nouvel, upriver, in the Mill District.

Gehry's work employs the metaphors of the artist: waterfall and fish scales, reflectivity, playfulness and suits the busy multi-level intersection it marks. It teeters above the river, amid the cacophony of speeding cars below and the bustle of the student Union nearby. Bikes whiz by, separated from pedestrians.

Not only is it difficult to view because you're watching the bikes, other pedestrians, the river and its banks, but it is too close to the bridge to be regarded as you make your way across. It has to work to catch your eye, like hooking a shiny lure hooks a fish, and sometimes blinds the onlooker or oncoming driver in the process. It's aged like a bit of cheap jewelry, tarnished in spots, loose in places, and really what are those snowplow-eyelids for above the entrance doors? Does anything here serve a purpose?
















In contrast, Nouvel's work sits in quiet repose, changing with great subtlety as you walk toward it, across the Stone Arch bridge. Here there was enough hydroelectric power to grind the nation's flour. A place to stop and contemplate, suited to the atmosphere of ruins, in the process of being preserved, below the waterfalls which brought Minneapolis into being. The birthplace of the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Minneapolis is an extremely walkable city. We started our first day in the center, at Nicollet Mall. We saw bicyclists and cabs, but very few cars, even in the heart of downtown. And there is a parallel universe co-existing two stories in the air: a vast series of skybridges connects all of downtown above the snowy streets in winter. Like a habitrail for humans.

Sidewalks are wi-i-i-de, and sculpture greets you at nearly every turn. There are an amazing number of plazas, fountains and restaurants have spacious outdoor seating areas.

It's Scary Mary!

First day, Minneapolis

In Loring Park, between downtown and our destination, the Walker Art Center.

We arrived at the Walker (see photos last blog entry) 15 minutes before opening time and were kindly directed to a coffeehouse inhabiting a bit of "old Minneapolis" down the road apiece. A neighborhood known as "The Wedge" between Hennepin and Lyndale. We were so taken with this area that we never returned to the Walker (I feel bad about that, but we did wind up spending most of the afternoon in the Minneapolis Insitute of the Arts, a truly amazing place right in the neighborhood)



Walking down streets lined with Victorian houses, spreading in every direction as far as the eye could see, housing who knows how many families, each one a unique composition of window, turret, door and garden.






With mom and pop stores, cafes, and wide alleys. Friendly porches. With a variety of chairs. (To be continued)

Puffballs Behind Bars

They've been sequestered in some kind of holding tank for wayward topiary--a detention center for illegal arboreta, a lock-up for botanical specimens: but now spring is here and they're ready to break those chains of bondage.