Tony Patton/OMGKitties was my host in Minneapolis and he’d recently returned from an attempt at climbing Mount Rainier that was cut short by an avalanche. Â He had applied sunscreen to his face but the snow was bright enough that he got burned between the hairs of his beard.
He cohabitates with his girlfriend Amanda.
They have an apartment in Minneapolis which has a bug/feature in their shower of only having either frigid or scalding water. Â I thought really hot was just going to be a touch excessive on the warm side but I felt like was being poached when I touched it. Â After standing in the shower for a bit and having my feet get scalded I hit upon using a portion of my towel as a wash rag. Â I had to man up and just scream a little to wash my hair, but in the end, I think the dirt was washed/carbonized.
After Amanda left for work Tony and I went to the Minneapolis sculpture garden. Â I normally like sculpture as an art form as it has the power to impose itself in a way that painting simply doesn’t. Â Working in three dimensions allows the conversation between the artist and the viewer to be much more intimate by saturating the space with meaning. Â The Minneapolis sculpture garden largely failed to do this. Â For example:
So we have the space to the right occupied by the girder combo that suspends the held board plank. Â While the installation suggests both the serendipity of created form as well as the seeming difficulty of creating structure the blank board doesn’t close the deal. Â The figure on the left is a functioning bridge with a poem inscribed on the cross beams which is functional but trite. Gr….
Another team member in town was Hal King/DoubleDragn, a digital design student who we met at the Mall of America.
I met two interesting people at the mall, the first being the guy who manned the World of Lego named Ki who told us of the times that people have stayed after hours and tried to take the display pieces.
The second fellow I met was at Noodle & Co. Â He had a bad ass scar on his arm that happened BECAUSE HIS FRIEND IGNITED A LINE OF BLACKPOWDER ON HIM WHEN HE WASN’T PAYING ATTENTION.
I also learned at Noodle & Co that Amanda asks for a glass for water and then proceeds to fill the glass with soda. Â If I recall my Dante, she’ll wind up in the 7th bolgia of the 8th circle of Hell but has probably saved a bundle in drink costs.
The evening ended by watching Demetri Martin and learning that he’s 37.