Judgmental Minneapolis



seen here


this gave me some much needed LOLs this morning.... behold, Judgmental Minneapolis. (click the image for a larger/readable map) it's spot on for my neighborhood- i live in "drug deals," just north of "unsupervised children playing in the street." and i love that the f*cking Kmart gets its own shout out. we're trying to get rid of it, honest!

us from space!



source

 in case you're not aware, the astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station are awesome. due to magical internet connections, they are tweeting, Facebooking, conducting reddit AMA's, making music with Earth... all from the ISS. i follow Col. Chris Hadfield on Facebook, and he posts the most beautiful pictures of Earth along with interesting tidbits about life in space (you swallow your toothpaste after brushing, clothes are worn until too dirty and then thrown away, you don't want to know how they get their water, etc).

anyway, another astronaut on board finally posted a picture of the Twin Cities as they floated overhead a couple days ago (seen above). aren't we lovely from a distance? if you're having trouble making sense of the photo, Bob Collins labeled some of the major landmarks on a Newscut post. 

Midwest horns

the top half of a SXSW poster, original can be seen here

Blankets

i don't know why it took me so long to read this one. i have a lot of friends who read graphic novels and have seen this one laying around their houses/apartments for years. historically, comics/graphic novels have not been my thing, so i guess i just needed a nudge to try one out. our roommate last summer is a big fan of both, and while she was living with us i was able to peek at her library choices. which means, yes, this has been on my list to read since last summer and am only now getting to it. sigh.

i really didn't know anything about Blankets, so i was surprised to discover that it's a fairly autobiographical coming of age story set in 1990's evangelical Christian culture in rural Wisconsin. there was so much that was familiar- church camp-y type trips, suspicion of the arts, long winters with never ending blankets of snow, grunge fashion, Kurt Cobain posters on the wall, etc etc. the story is a really intimate, vulnerable portrayal of Thompson's adolescence and crisis of faith, with back story of his relationship with his younger brother Phil. he tries to reconcile his faith with his love of drawing and his new found infatuation with Raina, a girl he meets at church camp. it sounds pretty standard, but it's such a delicate, beautiful story, with the theme of blankets woven throughout all the scenes and stages of Thompson's life. i was surprised by the depth and layers of the story, and his illustrations are so smart and beautiful too. no wonder everyone loves this book. it's 600 pages but i read it in 2 sittings, and i am certain i will read it again.

doughnuts to the rescue

Scene: driving down Nicollet Avenue, 12:45am, post-gig.

Matt: the sucky thing about these late night gigs, is that you're just so hungry afterwards...
me: I know, i was thinking the same exact thing. actually, I was thinking "what am i going to eat when i get home...?"
Matt: hey, there's that new doughnut place...
me: oh yeah, Glam Doll. they're supposed to be really good- WAITAMINUTE. I think they are open.
Matt: really?
me: yesiremembernowtheyarealatenightdoughnutplaceturnthecararoundturnthecararound

one u-turn later and about $7.00 later, we were the proud owners of a huge apple bourbon fritter (with bacon on top), a peanut butter sriracha* doughnut, and an old fashioned cake doughnut with chocolate icing. probably not the best idea to load up on sugary sugar sugarness right before bed, but last night they really hit the spot. 



*Blogger spell-check doesn't know what sriracha is.... poor Blogger.

The Book of Mormon Girl

 

That's when i realized that through all the years of searching, from the time I was a small girl kneeling at the bedside on her orange prayer rug, I had learned what the voice of God sounded like. I knew what the voice of God felt like, and it did not feel like rocks against the side of the house. It did not leave a sting of shame burning across my temples and in the pit of my stomach. The voice of God I knew was gentle, kind, and deliberate. And that voice was not forbidding me to write or speak, as long as I did so honestly and without malice. Even if I made mistakes from time to time, as a write or as a Mormon, that voice would not condemn me. It would guide me firmly and gently through.

I have been in such a reading slump this winter. It seems that most people's reading habits ramp up in the colder months; I appear to be the opposite. Although it might have to do with the series of books I've attempted over the last few months. I'd like to blame The Casual Vacancy (zzzzzzzzzzzz) for beginning this streak of books I've started and not finished. Even Tim Gunn's new book couldn't save me from my slump. And as excited as I was to get Wolf Hall from the library, one look at the 5 pages of family trees and list of characters and I knew I wasn't going to make it through.

So here's to The Book of Mormon Girl, the first book I've managed to finish since..... November? (sooo embarrassing) It's a super fast, super easy memoir about growing up Mormon, falling away, and figuring out how to come back on one's own terms. I appreciate memoirs about spirituality, especially those whose faiths are different from my own. There is always common ground and I enjoy finding it- in this case, the paragraph quoted above about the voice of God being gentle and kind. And how it's okay to make mistakes. 'cause it is.

Church mural

OH MY GOD HOW AMAZING IS THIS.

if you are in Washington, DC, please find this and bask in its awesomeness for me. according to the artist Hense's website, it's in Ward 6, and is across the street from where a new art museum will be built. there are more pictures on his website of this commission, some of other murals, and a little of his graffiti past.

so cool. i love to see art reclaim and enhance urban environments. there are a lot of really cool murals here in Minneapolis, but nothing of this size and scale and impact.

i want to go to church here. or live here. or just live on the same block, so everyday when i leave my house i get to see it. 

Sworn Virgins

i found out about this from Kottke, of course. Photographer Jill Peters traveled to Albania to capture the "Sworn Virgins", women who assume a male identity fot the rest of the their lives in order to secure their basic rights and privilages. Peters explains it best on her website:

"Sworn Virgin" is the term given to a biological female in the Balkans who has chosen, usually at an early age, to take on the social identity of a man for life. As a tradition dating back hundreds of years, this was necessary in societies that lived within tribal clans, followed the Kanun, an archaic code of law, and maintained an oppressive rule over the female gender.The Kanun states that women are considered to be the property of their husbands. The freedom to vote, drive, conduct business, earn money, drink, smoke, swear, own a gun or wear pants was traditionally the exclusive province of men. Young girls were commonly forced into arranged marriages, often with much older men in distant villages.

As an alternative, becoming a  Sworn Virgin, or 'burnesha" elevated a woman to the status of a man and granted her all the rights and privileges of the male population. In order to manifest the transition such a woman cut her hair, donned male clothing and sometimes even changed her name.  Male gestures and swaggers were practiced until they became second nature. Most importantly of all, she took a vow of celibacy to remain chaste for life. She became a "he". This practice continues today but as modernization inches toward the small villages nestled in the Albanian Alps , this archaic tradition is increasingly seen as obsolete. Only a few aging Sworn Virgins remain. The number of new cases are scant and tend to be considered less authentic by younger generations.

we live in such a fascinating world. Check out Peters' site for more photos of these intriguing women.

best valentines ever.

aaaah, how amazing are these? found here. the top right is my favorite.

Cat Petting 101

thank you Buzzfeed

as a relatively new cat owner, i did not realize this was quite so universal. (Gordon's more "meh" on the tummy rubs, though)

Outdoor cat shelter

still trying to lurch myself into 2013. it's slow going, so here's a little story about how we became obsessed with someone else's cat and i spent a couple weekends on an "addition" in the backyard.

i recently realized that i know more about the social dynamics between the neighborhood cats than i know about my actual human neighbors. there's Bad Cat, the feral who lives under the vacant house next door, Pudge, the orange cat who comes to our front stoop and meows in this disturbing low register, and the one who's stolen our hearts- Caspian.

Caspian isn't a stray- he's owned by some neighbors down the street. i returned him to his house back in the spring when we first started seeing him and thought he was lost, and they were like, "oh yeah, thanks. yeah, we just let him out to roam." which is whatever, a lot of people do that. BUT, it's now the dead of winter and poor Caspian is still "being let out to roam" in sub-freezing temperatures. (fun fact- we once kept him for 6 days during a brutal cold snap when we could not get in touch with his owners and thought they had moved and abandoned him. when we finally got a hold of them and returned Caspian, they had no idea he had been gone for 6 days. so, not winning any awards for pet ownership.) he's also become increasingly skinnier throughout the year, so at some point we also started sneaking him some food in our backyard. which of course now makes him a regular on our property and i realize this actually encourages him to leave his house and not stay put where it's warm... we helped create that problem. but he clearly wasn't getting fed (enough) and if he was going to be outside i wanted enough meat on his bones to survive.

so, fall arrived and the weather started getting colder, and i began to worry about where he was going to hunker down if he found himself outside on some really cold days or nights. i did some Internet research on outdoor cat shelters- ones you can buy and ones you can built yourself. i realized that i had almost all of the supplies for one of the homemade versions, so i set out to make this:

the actual cat shelter portion was really simple. you can see in the photo above that i went over the top and then created a 3-sided wooden lean-to shelter for the shelter... sigh. what can i say, i had roofing supplies burning a hole in my... garage? here's the nuts and bolts of what i did, just in case you've also got a special outdoor kitty who needs a little place to get warm.

SUPPLIES
large Tupperware container
styrofoam cooler or 1" foamboard insulation (comes in big sheets at Home Depot)
straw (NOT hay. the websites were very adamant about this. animals eat hay, sleep on straw. i was able to buy a bale from a garden center about 9 blocks from my house for what i will politely refer to as "city prices")
duct tape
power drill
sharp knife
sharpie
a couple bricks or large rocks

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. measure and cut your styrofoam/foamboard into pieces for the bottom, 4 sides, and top of the tupperware container. (the top piece should be big enough to rest on top of everything)
2. cut a 6" hole on one of the wider sides of the container. it should be about 5" from the ground and off to the side.
3. put your styrofoam in the container and trace the hole onto the foam piece. then cut the same hole into the foam.
4. put your bottom & side pieces in the container, and then start stuffing it with straw. fill in any extra spaces between insulation pieces with straw, creating a nice cozy nest for your kitty friend.
5. place the top piece of foam over the nesting area. it should be cut big enough to just sit on top.
6. place the container's top back on, and place the bricks on top to keep it weighted down.
7. duct tape around the hole so the container and foam are connected and your kitty friend doesn't run the risk of getting cut by the rough edge.
8. you can also sprinkle a little catnip inside to entice him/her to check it out, but Caspian immediately crawled right inside like he knew it was just for him. awww.

with the lean to, i bought a 10' 4x4 post and cut it into 4 pieces, totally guessing on the angles. (yes i had to re-cut) then i cut & screwed the plywood roof onto the posts, stapled down that paper stuff that goes under roofing shingles, then secured the shingles with roofing nails. i also had leftover cedar planks in our garage, so i cut and screwed them around the sides to block the wind. i would like to add a floor of some sort, as water tends to pool on our patio in that area. maybe just some paver stones or something? we shall see...

(i should also add that on the really, really, really cold nights, we just scoop Caspian up and bring him inside to sleep in our guest room. he totally sleeps like a human- on the bed nestled up against the pillows. and again.... awww.)

Nomad

it's been a while since a photo caught my eye. a Mongolian herder setting out to collect his animals during a snowstorm, seen here on The Big Picture.

2013

from the always brilliant In Focus

i read somewhere that how you spend New Year's Day is a harbinger of the year to come. for my sake, i hope that isn't true- i spent all of yesterday sick on the couch, minus the hour i was at the doctor's. if when i finally kick this cold, i would like a do-over please.

more internet finds

Ancient graffiti from Pompeii. humanity doesn't change much, apparently.

the skeleton of a WWII carrier pigeon was recently found in England, the coded message still strapped to his ankle. and so far, no one has been able to crack the code.

the wife of one of the few remaining Tuskagee airmen has died. she was also a pilot- the first black female pilot in Alabama. they would meet up in the sky and fly in formation together. it's a lovely article about their life together and their struggles to serve their country amidst the racism of the 20th century.

Laid Down & Wiped Away

Gregory Euclide is a local mixed-media artist who got somewhat of a break by creating the cover art for Bon Iver's last album (the one that won the Grammys). it's almost a shame that his most famous piece is represented on such a small scale, because all his works are incredibly intricate. i got to see one of his pieces in the MN State Fair this past year and it was a great experience. 

and i like him even more after coming across this article from the UK about his day job as a teacher. as a way to relieve stress, he would paint intricate masterpieces on his classroom's whiteboard and then wipe them away. his students would then flip out, incredulous that he would destroy his works of art so easily. after seeing how affected they were, he decided to release prints of some his whiteboard paintings, calling the collection Laid Down & Wiped Away. the article has more pictures and a cool "making of" video for the Bon Iver cover, and go check out his website for more of his amazing talent.