BRRRRRRR!
Now it’s -10° with a -30 windchill!! Do any of you wonder why we put up with it? I do. One does not want to get drunk and pass out on the street in this weather. I have friends that actually enjoy going and up north camping in this life threatening climate. I like to warm my car up for about fifteen minutes (now that’s ecologically sensitive) jump in and drive to a heated garage. Just as Hawaiian business men where those goofy shirts to work, Minnesotans out of climate driven neccessity have developed a certain flexibility in there outlook on fashion. Those Norwegian sweaters are considered to be evening apparel in these parts.
And then there’s the Norwegians. I Love Norwegians. I’m married to a Norwegian. At one point my boss was a short Norwegian woman, I co-managed the department with a short Norwegian woman, and my wife was a short Norwegian woman. How many decisions do you think I got to make. One day I made the mistake of saying I had a bad headache and needed to go home. You can’t imagine the scorn I suffered, directed at my by all three.
But tonight I went to the visitation (I think that’s Lutheran for wake) for a short Norwegian woman. Joan Palmquist. My wife introduced her daughter, a co-worker, to my nephew some years back and they ended up getting married. Jill didn’t know she was marrying the whole family. The Palmquists embraced us with warmth and humor and hospitality. With Grandma Gangestad escaped in Arizona and my mom gone for a decade, our kids thought of Jo as their Grandmother. This little woman with a twinkle in her eye and an Ole and Lena joke for every occasion was one of the great people I’ve known. And it wasn’t just me. The place was packed. My brother-in-law (a Norwegian) said, “Liz and I could die simultaneously and they’d have to have an ice cream social to get this many people.”
Tomorrow’s the funeral. Could be interesting. Jill’s done most of the planning. She’s the one who had the Vikings mascot ride into her wedding on a Harley.
All posts by Bob Keller
IT’S FIVE DEGREES BELOW ZERO OUT THERE!
Monday, Monday
Morning comes the sunrise, I’ve got devils in my head Crosby, Stills & Nash
A long relaxed weekend ending in a nice party with the YaYas and families. I’ll explain the YaYas later. AND NOW I HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE MONKEY HOUSE! In about 90 minutes I’m going to have to go from 0 to 80 in about 3 seconds. My job is kind of like being the ringmaster of a three ring circus, and right now the tent’s on fire. We are right in the middle of our biggest publication deadline (good timing, you say) and I’m the guy who has to deal with all late work and all the mistakes discovered by advertisers who didn’t look at the proofs we sent them three weeks ago until it was too late. To paraphrase The Old Pea Picker, I’ll be as busy as a cat with a long tail in a room full of rocking chairs. Oh, well, I’m an adrenalin junky, always have been.
Multi Prop question: Who was “The Old Peapicker?”
If you can answer you might be as old as me.
Art?
This is one of my favorite photos of my wife. Maybe one of my favorite photos. It was taken way back in ’77, before we were married and living in a light filled upper duplex in the city. She’s 23. I didn’t realize it at the time but the photo comes out looking like a vermeer painting. Young woman working in the kitchen with soft light coming from a window on the left.
Now here’s my question. I’ve been working lately on what I call “photopaintings,” taking photographs and manipulating with Photoshop filters to give them the look of paintings. I really love the results, but what makes art, results or process? By he way I’ve also made an actual acrylic painting based on this photo.
One could argue that minus the years of hand skill developement and the tedious investment in time building layers of real paint on a surface, there is no art. The famous “My three year old could do it” argument. Which I don’t buy. First there’s artistic choices to be made in capturing the image. I sometimes use stolen images for practice, but wouldn’t publish them or call them my own. The photos are either taken by me or someone in the family. And then there’s the skill involved in the knowledge of the software. And the choices made in the process. I do this very experimentally, trying different avenues, keeping some results, discarding others…I guess that’s one of the keys. I derive the joy of artistic experimentation from it. So I’m calling it art. I do miss the smells of a painting studio though. When I retire, I think I’ll go back to real paint.
I’m getting addicted!
I’ve been spending a lot of time here lately. Enjoying publishing my own drivel and reading that of others. History_Pig writes about how Xanga is serving the community building role of church for him. And to tell the truth, I’m skipping church this morning. But I’m not skipping Xanga. It’s OK though I’m a Lutheran, I’m already forgiven.
I want to reassure my readers (do I have any?) that I’m not going to turn this into a Gopher Hoops fan page. It’s just that it’s part of my life now. I have season tickets and it’s been such a great story in our town over the last four years.
Gophers win 63-53
Article
Gopher Women on National TV!
Women’s basketball: Popular Gophers go national
If you have an interest in hoops, tune in. Don’t miss the chance to see Lindsay Whalen play. 3 pm Central, CBS. You’ll get an idea of why I’m so excited about this team.
Review: Cold Mountain
I liked it. It’s not a great film by any stretch, but sometimes I don’t much care for great films. I was entertained and moved, so I guess I got my moneys worth. The concept of lovers who’s love is based on not much more than aquaintence and one kiss, going through extreme hardships to stay true and reunite, stands in sharp contrast to our concept of love and faithfulness today. The epic story of the journey had me wondering what Classic epic it was patterned after (I guess I should have paid more attention in school). The photography was great as well, I want to hike those hills. No wonder Linman wanted to get back to Cold Mountain. The battle scenes were excellent and provided the neccessary testosterone content. As my wife said, “Love, war, something for everyone.”
The acting was strong, especially from the supporting cast. Rene Zellweger is probably a lock for best supporting actress in a chameleon like performance remeniscent of Billy Bob’s shape changing. Natalie Portman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Baker are also outstanding. Kidman and Law were adequate, doing a great job of looking great, but I don’t think they mined the potential of the roles.
Which brings me to my conclusion (thank God, you say!) For a story full of powerful emotional content, in the end I found myself wondering why I wasn’t more powerfully moved. So, in terms of Hollywood epics, pretty good, but no Dr. Zivago.
Abstract Image: I started by building the concentric circles in illustrator, I imported that into Pshop and then worked with layers and filters, including SuperBlade Pro to get the effects. This is a style of image I’d like to explore much further. Looking at it now it occurs to me that it looks kind of like a chicken.
Minnesota 64 Michigan 44
What’s really scary is that Lindsay, until now, has not been known as an outside shooter. Her game was taking it to the hoop and dazzling people in the open court. She was 5 for 7 from outside the arc tonight! Two of those came from 5 feet back from the circle. She scored 32.