Chairs and a Piano

There appears to be a chair project in Minneapolis - there were a couple of places around Lake of the Isles where a few were seen:

One was even in use:

Then I saw a piano outside of the Downtown Library:

I wish I knew how to play!

I love this city :)

Pink Martini

I went to see Pink Martini last night with a friend.  They put on a great show.  It was enjoyable on so many different levels .... I love the eclectic music, I enjoy getting out, I haven't been to Orchestra Hall in decades ...

I used to go to Orchestra Hall pretty regularly, when I was in high school and actively playing flute, piccolo and oboe.  I got to see James Galway and Jean Pierre Rampal, among others.  That aspect of my life fell by the wayside at some point.  If I remember right, the last time I was at Orchestra Hall was to see the newly rediscovered score to the movie Battleship Potemkin played by the Minnesota Orchestra while the movie showed.  This was in the mid 1980s, before Perestroika.  It was a big event.

In other news, Yarnover was last weekend.  A good time was had and Rose the Gypsy helped me get all of my yarn cataloged into stash on Ravelry.  She also encouraged me to start my mink stole which would involve using the yarn I bought last year at Yarnover.

Cataloging stash is a reality check like no other.  I did not buy yarn at Yarnover this year.

Above is the Yarn Door at Needlework Unlimited, a favorite store I will try to resist visiting as I work on reducing that stash.

Houston

I was in Houston this week for work. I don't believe I've ever been to Houston before.

We stumbled upon a gathering in a park after dinner on Wednesday.

This little girl had on an outfit that was a cross between Pebbles Flintstone and Hello Kitty.  She was adorable.

Not a good photo, but hopefully you can see that the one guy is playing an accordion and the other guy is playing a washboard.  It was a Zydeco band.  Lots of people were dancing.

This building, part of the convention center, looks like a Lego building to me.

The Hilton has Chihuly light fixtures in the lobby.

And psychedelic carpet.

It was awesome.

I believe this is the entrance to an underground parking ramp.

There are lots of exotic plants in Texas.

And this just proves that Georgia O'Keefe lives on!

I used to be mad that George Bush got an airport named after him, but Houston Intercontinental is such a dump I'm not upset about it any more.

No Woman No Drive

Let's hear it for the fusion of Saudi and Rastafarian style:


Read about it here.

The Most Awesome Tuba

Saw this over the weekend...

It Gets Better

Thanks to The Kat for posting this:

Knitting and Kids

The 400 Bar

Life goes full circle in so many ways.

Last night I found myself at the 400 Bar on the West Bank of the Mississippi near the University of Minnesota campus. Girl-childrens' friends are in a band that got its first gig at the 400 last night, so off I went to listen and show support. They were great.

Molly and the Mistakes is the name of the band. Molly has a fantastic voice and The Mistakes showed that they are first-class musicians. Not only did they play well together, there were good instrumental solos. Look for them at Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday, April 26th at 6pm.

I couldn't help but tell the story of Arturo who, 25+ years ago came to visit when Pato and I were living on the West Bank. He had been an AFS student (from Spain) at my high school in Bloomington way back in the 1970s. The guy was astonished that he was in the same town as that high school in the suburbs (he liked the West Bank a lot). And then, in the most delightful example of linguistic over-compensation I have ever witnessed, he went to the bartender at the 400 and asked for a "two exes beer" because he didn't know that we call it "dos equis" in the U.S.

Nicole's comment was that we had been hanging out at the 400 before she was born.

Yes, dear, that's right. We used to be cool.

Celebrity Crush

I was going to protest when my children referred to my obsession with Cee Lo Green's song as a celebrity crush, but I decided to give in to it.

I bought the album.

Random Acts of Culture

One of my aunties who lives in Florida sent me this recently:



I've never been a religious person, but I did used to be a musician of sorts. This song pretty much always brings tears to my eyes. I has to be one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

New and Old

Thanks to Alli for introducing me to the Flaming Lips. Yes, I know I should have been up on this old band (old to Alli, anyway) but I wasn't. I think I know a few of the songs they've done, but I've never been cognizant of the band itself. I love the album titles found in the discography section of the Wikipedia article on them. I guess I'll add them to my Pandora radio station and see if I want to make any purchases...

And since I'm musing on conversations with youngsters, Sarah was quite surprised to hear I had been in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. As I tell her more stories about things I've done she becomes more amazed that I am still alive to tell the tales. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I haven't told her practically any of the outrageous stuff.

Girl-child called last night. She got a tattoo. She's been talking about it for ages, so I knew it was coming, but it still seems kind of odd. It'll probably take some time for me to get used to it. (I haven't actually seen it yet; I may or may not take a photo).

I am chugging along on the cardigan I've got on the needles, but it's slow going. I also started another shawl for bus knitting; it's off to a promising start. The shawl is part of my continued effort to diversify from (obsessive) sock knitting. Perhaps I will have a moment to take a few photos this weekend. Perhaps not.

I had a good talk with an old friend the other day. It's funny how helpful that is (Thank you again, Susan). I plan to see another old friend next Monday for dinner; I haven't seen her for quite a while and I suspect she has some big piece of news to spring on me. I hope it's good.

And speaking of Susans, a cousin of mine from Baltimore is in town and I'm going to see her tomorrow evening. Should be interesting. I haven't seen her that many times but we're only five years apart and we've both been through some big mid-life stuff over the past few years. She's having lunch with my mother today so I hope she's recovered enough from that by tomorrow night that we can talk about other things too.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

Easy Listening

Girl-child recently introduced me to Michael Bublé and it turns out I really like him.

I was trying to get over the fact that I ended up in the Easy Listening section at Borders in order to find his stuff. Last I checked Easy Listening was for old people.

Girl-child discovered him because of her swing-dance activities. I don't dance.

So how could it be that I like this guy? Could it be because I'm almost 50? That could be one reason. Could it be that I am turning into my mother? That's possible. Nostalgia for the days of my childhood? Maybe; I find the way his style mimics that of Dean Martin and company very appealing.

But maybe the real reason that I find Easy Listening appealing is because I'm middle-aged, and when you reach middle age you don't want to work for your music anymore. Music is for relaxation. No more Johnny and Edgar Winter for me.

Check out his version of Moondance here.