10 Questions About…

We spent our morning at the Bakken Museum. The girls learned about circuits as part of the Bakken Museum super science Saturday. It’s always fun. Aine is still too scared to hang out in the Frankenstein room. We learned that Earl Bakken (inventor of the pacemaker) is lives in Hawaii.

After the Bakken we headed to the Second Annual Ground Breaker Battle – a break dancing contest. We went last year too. I think the dancing is just amazing! But this year it was the impromptu singing that blew me away.

The emcee was sort of killing time when someone started beatboxing and then they looked for a singer and suddenly we’re on the set for Fame. We were kind of like the nerdy extras who can’t really sing or dance but maybe could write haikus if necessary.

At night Patrick and I went to the Guthrie. We had an amazing meal and saw The Importance of Being Earnest. It was good but I bet it’s better if you haven’t read or seen it a hundred times.

So on Friday night I went to see Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann at the Northrup. I thought there would be a ton of people there – but there weren’t really. The audience didn’t fill the main floor at the Northrup. The crowd was divided into at least three camps. There were the Paulites, the protestors and the Bachmann fans.

Somehow Kathleen and I scored second row seats. My only disappointment was that Billy couldn’t be with us. I think the folks ahead of us were Bachmann supporters. So I tried to avoid them. It was funny to watch them sort of argue about who would sit where – in the best seat in the house. Behind us were some Ron Paulers. Otherwise the rest of us in that little area were kind of nondescript. The protestors were all on one side – and were focused on health care. Well there were other comments in the audience but that one group of placard-carrying protestors.

It was interesting to hear the speakers. I have to give them props for starting on time and really most folks were pretty quick. They knew that the crowd wanted to see Ron Paul. Even Michele Bachmann wasn’t as long as she could have been. I’m going to try to not say anything about her since I’m working with the girls on the credo – if you can’t say anything nice, say nothing. I’ve got a lot of nothing to say about Bachmann. (Except that maybe someone who is her friend should clue her into the fact that the Soviet Union is no longer.)

I got a little bit of Ron Paul on video – and then my Flip ran out of batteries. I don’t agree with him on all of the issues – but I have room for a lot of what he has to say. He advocated: bringing the troops home (all of them), adding transparency to the federal reserve bank and others, living and let live and speaking out when you disagree with the government. It was funny to see Bachmann applaud some of his point that you know she just doesn’t believe. I went in part to see how they would handle those differences. Ron Paul spoke as he always would and she clapped.

One of the historical aspects of the day vis-a-vis Ron Paul is that Congress started to look at his bill (HR1207), the Federal Reserve Transparency Act on Friday. So that came up a lot too.

The event lasted almost two hours. Afterward I got to shake Ron Paul’s hand. Again I was so sad that Billy wasn’t with me.

I have a new favorite pastime – buying mystery art for $99.

The Soap Factory, an art gallery in Minneapolis, has a fundraiser where you can buy any work of art for $99. The art is all the same size – about 5×7 inches. It’s not framed and it’s not signed. Some is worth more than $99; some is not. You don’t find out who the artist is until you buy the work.

I went with Anita, who is always a good sport and I bought 2 works. One was by Lindsay Roth, a painter from Inver Grove Heights.  Her piece reminded me of the exhibit we saw in IMMA in Dublin. The other was by Katherine Rochester, a program manager from the Gallery. I just liked that one.

The next day when I went to pick up the art, I let Aine pick out a work too. She picked work my Liz Miller, who I feel is the most established of the artists we selected. Maybe Aine has a calling.

Luckily this is not an ongoing event or I would own it all. I loved going through the art and trying to decide were possibly valuable. Also I like the idea that you pick what you like – not what’s valuable to someone else. Also I like that you just get the artists name so then if you’re not so knowledgeable in local art you have to go home and stalk the person.

My plan is to frame everything and put them in the dining room. I might get the girls to do works that are the same size and frame them too. Then guests can guess which are ours and which are gallery pieces. Regardless I will definitely be going to the next arty crap shoot!

Sorry no video – but just have to say that Billy and I saw Motorhead at First Ave. Last time I saw them was 1987!