feeling strangely fine

I just finished the fifth of the five meetings I had today. That makes 13 in three days (a total of nine hours), which I'm pretty sure is a personal record for me. I’m tired, but not totally exhausted, I think partly because most of these meetings were actually productive or at least informative, and not those stupid pointless meetings that make me want to tear out my hair.

(The most major of these meetings was today: a brief presentation to the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioners during their weekly meeting. I wasn’t that nervous and felt prepared, but I still had a bit of that out of body “I’m talking but I’m not sure if I’m saying things that make sense” experience. Luckily the person I was presenting with seemed to keep his wits about him, and claims I did fine.)

I’m not sure whether this job is a net gain for my health or not; I’m certainly more stressed and feel overwhelmed more often than I used to, but I also feel more fulfilled and like I’m contributing something important. Here’s hoping they keep finding money to fund my position!

Just realized it's a binary AND palindrome day!

So, I got in a little car accident this afternoon. Little in that no one was hurt and both cars were technically driveable after the accident. However, it's pretty clear that my car's not road safe anymore. And, to be honest, it's really old and was already partly smashed up and had a lot of other things wrong with it so I was thinking of replacing it soon anyhow. But of course I would have rather not had to replace it because of an accident.

Regardless, I need a new (or new used, more likely) car. The car that's finally died is the only car I've ever owned, and it was handed down from my parents, so I've never bought a car. I'm curious as to any tips anyone has about buying a car.

Since I've been thinking I'd need a new car in the next year anyway, I'd been doing some reading up on what's out there, and am leaning toward a Honda Fit (I want four doors but small and good mileage, lots of room inside, hatchback rather than sedan, the Fit seems to come out at or near the top of a lot of "small cars" comparisons), but I'm certainly open to car suggestions too.

Jason Segel = my boyfriend:

A friend passed this on to me, the neat food/restaurant Heavy Table blog/magazine has started a local "Atlas of Ethical Eating". It doesn't include many restaurants yet, but it's cool to have the information about the ones that have answered their survey. Pass it on to your favorite restaurant that hasn't responded yet!

Wow, it's a great time for film in the Twin Cities (or, let's be honest, Minneapolis, sorry St. Paulites, most of what I'm seeing is happening west of you)! I'm happily overwhelmed by options, and want to spread the word:

The Coen brothers retrospective continues at the Walker! (Coming up: Barton Fink tonight, Fargo and The Man Who Wasn't There tomorrow, Raising Arizona, Burn After Reading, and Big Lebowski next week.)

The Oak Street continues to come back to life. This month includes Nazi Zombies, some classic Melville, and HAUSU.

The Paul Newman series continues at the Best Theater Ever (IMO), the Riverview. (Sorry kids, you missed Slapshot.)

Finally, the beloved (by me) and still-young Take-Up Productions continues to program excellent films at their awesome new "microcinema," The Trylon, and at the Heights. There's one more film in the Audrey Hepburn series (Tiffany's) at the Heights. A Cronenberg series starts this weekend (creepy!) and running through Halloween and Capra films in November.

Enjoy!

FYI: Schedule for the Coen Brothers Retrospective at the Walker is up! Films are $8 each ($6 for Walker members) or get five films for $24.

The Regis Dialog with the Coens is September 25, but may already be sold out, tickets for that are $45 or $100.

Okay, this is possibly my weirdest post ever...but here goes: does anyone out there want any frozen meat? Our former house guest bought it and we're not going to eat it. It's still all packaged and frozen and good as far as I can tell. It's: one small package of "catfish bites," one 3.5lb package of chicken drumsticks, and one 3.5lb package of chicken thighs. I don't want it to go to waste but it's taking up too much space in our freezer! Let me know if you want it!

The warm-season revelry has already begun, and I’ve been remiss in posting my calendar of wonderful things to do during this season – particularly outdoor movies! But never fear, it’s up now in my general "things to do" calendar, along with other events and fun stuff I come across/find out about.

The always-highly-anticipated Walker Movies and Music series hasn’t been announced yet, that I can tell, but be assured that when it does I’ll post it here. For their part, the Minneapolis Parks, Solera have posted their outdoor movie schedules.

Enjoy, and hope to see you outside this summer!

The awesome Take-Up Productions is presenting a series of Hitchcock films at the also awesome Riverview Theater starting tomorrow! Tickets are $8/show, which is more than twice the regular Riverview price, so that's a bit stiff; however, you can also buy five tickets for $5. Tip: arrive early, the show last week at the Heights sold out!

MPR clued me in to this today; how is it possible that I haven’t heard of Studio Bricolage before?? I may be busy tomorrow, but I totally want to go to future events of theirs!

The Beyond Borders Film Festival starts March 25 and has great films for all ages and tastes. Check it out!

Hello all! I went to a great show last night (Amy Salloway's Heebs and Dweebs) and wanted to pass on info about the festival it's part of: "The Spirit in the House Festival is an annual 10-day event exploring questions of spirituality, interfaith dialogue, ethics and social justice through theater, film, music, dance and storytelling."

The festival includes a wide variety of different plays and movies; even if you don't consider yourself "spiritual" there's probably something that you'd enjoy. Check it out! Events run through March 8 and are at Hennepin United Methodist Church (right across from the Walker Arts Center).

http://www.thetalkies.net/

JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL – LIVE IN PERSON!!!

The fourth installment of The Talkies (and the first in MPLS) is the most ass-shakin' yet, a double feature of rock musical HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH with writer, director, and star John Cameron Mitchell live in person!

How many inches can you take?

February 5, 2009 – Arrive at 7:00p.m. for the screening of the hit about a transexual punk rock girl from East Berlin. At 9:00p.m. the film screens again with the extra somethin' somethin' that only The Talkies provides: live commentary provided by John Cameron Mitchell himself.

Skip down memory lane, savor every juicy piece of nostalgia, and enjoy a
distinctive evening of total glamour.

----

The little something you'll have to leave behind*

7:00p.m. screening (movie only):
$7 advance/$8 at the door

9:00p.m. Talkies special screening with John Cameron Mitchell:
$20 advance/$25 at the door.

Communist Special (both screenings):
It's more fun than four hours at Bilgewater's!!!
$25 advance/$30 at the door.

–––––––––––––

Heights Theater
3951 Central Ave NE
Columbia Heights, MN 55421

If you or anyone you know is an artist who might be interested in working with live models there's a life drawing co-op starting up on Mondays at Articulture on January 19. Only $5 per session! I'm going to be modeling for this group at least once in Jan/Feb.

Take-Up has another excellent noir series starting next Monday, focused on films set in and about LA. Check it out!

Ready For Our Close-Up: 50 Years of L.A. Noir
Starts December 8
Monday nights at 7:30
At the Parkway - 4814 Chicago Ave S
Tickets: $5, Take-Up discount cards: $20.

12/8 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 110min
12/15 Mildred Pierce (1945) 111min
12/22 Chinatown (1974) 131min
12/29 L.A. Confidential (1997) 138min
1/5/09 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) 103min

Ug. There is some really messed up stuff (thanks to underwhelm for the link) going on in the Twin Cities. Seems obvious that they're trying to freak people out (not so much those they're raiding, but people who hear about the raids) so that they won't show up to protest. The legality/constitutionality of many/most of these actions seems questionable at best. I hadn't been planning to march tomorrow, but now I think I just might. If you're in town I'd encourage you to do so as well if you're able.

We're hosting some people who use art for activism (or hope to be, if they don't get stopped on the road as some have been already!). They're a collective that gets together a few times a year to do things like make public memorials to Iraqi civilians killed in the war. I sure hope that they're not targeted, but if they are I'll try to have their backs as best I can. I'm collecting legal crisis and jail numbers and stuff so that we're ready just in case.

I'm very happy about all of the independent journalists who are in town. They've already been able to capture a lot of the raids and interview people who've been targeted. Go-go-gadget digital video and cell phone cameras!

I've updated my map of Twin Cities places to eat, things to do, etc., check it out! I was happy that they updated the ap so that I could move my placemark listings around, enabling me to categorize them. Now they're organized into lists of foodstuffs (making up half of the total list; yes, I like to eat), film and performance venues, retail, edification (museums, libraries, etc.), outdoor activities and neat places, some transit info, and some other general neat things/places.

Feel free to share/forward it to anyone and to send me ideas for things that should be added. I built it for visitors to and new residents of the Twin Cities but it seems to be useful for people who live around here too!

If you like...

having fun
Harry Potter
jumping or yelling
School of Rock
geeks or geeky stuff
being silly
dressing up in funny outfits
puppets
They Might Be Giants
being a non-too-cool-for-everything-hipster every once in a while

...then this Thursday you should come and see Harry and the Potters, Math The Band, and Uncle Monsterface at the Minneapolis stop of the Unlimited Enthusiasm Tour! It's a "traveling summer camp, circus, and indy rock tour!" Stop rolling your eyes and believe me, it's going to be a ton of fun. The Harrys have come to town the last few summers, playing a crazy standing room only show at the Central Library and a couple of ginormous shows in Minneapolis parks. For some reason that I have yet to ascertain, they're playing at the Triple Rock this year, which seems a bit of an odd venue, but I highly doubt that being inside will dampen the enthusiasm.

Be there.

The Triple Rock
Minneapolis
Thursday, July 31
5:00pm (yes, it's early, but that means you can party more afterwards if you so desire)
All Ages (kids too!)
$10 advance/$12 at the door

It doesn't really feel like summer yet, but it IS June, so regardless of the weather I'm getting excited about one of my favorite summer activities: watching movies outside!

Starting this weekend there's a movie in a minneapolis park almost every night through August! Check out the list (a pdf), it's got everything from Roy Orbison and Eagles concerts to newer kids movies that I don't know much about to the "classics" of my generation like The Goonies, Back to the Future, and The Neverending Story. Plus, Ratatouille!