Minnehaha Part two, Nana Grizol and a wedding
So where did I leave off? I went off about how I hate zoos. Man, I do. They shouldn't exist. Sure maybe a few help prevent extinction by domesticating endangered species, but refugee camps aren't fun, cute or educational. "Oh look at that starving family! Our global capitalistic system caused this, but lets ignore that and talk about how great it is that they can finally have a bowl of rice here in this cute little camp! They must love it!"
Alright, I'll stop, time to get talking about some crucial shit. BIKES!
Nate wasn't too stoked about us all riding different bikes. He has a fixed gear, his touring bike, a Japanese racing bike and a tandem. Nate figured having friends in town was a good reason to use his tandem and get a return on the investment he made on it. At first, I must admit, I wasn't too stoked about this. I wanted to ride that japanese racing bike and tear up some shit flying through traffic.
We ended up riding a bunch of trails. Minneapolis has a CRAP LOAD of bike trails and they don't suck either. So there wasn't much of a chance to rip through traffic because we were riding with other bikes and not cars so much. Eventually I got used to being on the back of the tandem and could kind of dig it. Basically I just had to get used to reading what Nate was about to do. There is a possibility that in the summer of 2009 I will a bike tour on it with Nate. It would only be like a week long considering how much time I would be able to get off work and shit, but good times either way.
I promised the story of sexy nipples and the tandem has to do with him. While riding on one of the trails there was a guy that only wanted to wear bike shorts and shoes. No other clothes were permitted on his body. I can't blame him. However, I had to name him sexy nipples because of this. Sexy nipples was in front of us for quite a while and he also had a good time riding without his hands on the handlebars. Sometimes when we were lucky he would spread his arms out in the crucifix position. It was holy.
I was telling Nate (who is a foot in front of me on the same bike) about that movie The City of Angels (which I have never seen). Anyway, Meg Ryan's character rides her bike in a similar fashion with her arms spread in the crucifix position, except she does it in traffic...and she closes her eyes...and she gets hit by a truck. Nate decides he is going to try this. Only problem is that he is on the front of a tandem. For him to do this successfully, both him and I need to be in perfect balance.
We weren't.
The tandem started to shake violently and after the shot of adrenaline hit my stomach I got ready to go down. Luckily Nate got control of the tandem before we died, but sexy nipples escaped us because we lost some speed from the mishap. I also rode Nate's fixed gear when I wasn't on the tandem and I don't really want a fixed gear anymore. I never really did. I always thought building one up to have for fun might be nice but not anymore. Going down hills on them sucks! It also made my knees hurt.
Moving on, since I mentioned bike trails. One of the main ones that Nate works/advocated for is called the Greenway. It goes across the city where old train tracks used to be and has entrance and exit ramps. Some of the entrance and exit ramps sucked cause they had sharp blind corners, but I guess that prevents people from just flying onto the greenway really quick. With those sharp turns people have to stop and look.
The Greenway coalition (that Nate works for) just moved into a bike center on the greenway. Mike and I helped paint part of it green and got vegan somali food for helping out. I think that was the day we didn't ride bikes too much. It was kind of rainy and we were tired from riding a lot on Friday.
Speaking of the greenway coalition office. The city was donated a bike sculpture from this guy victor a few years ago. Apparently the city didn't want to put it by any of their many bike paths, so instead gave it to the greenway coalition. The coalition decided to put this 16 foot tall bike sculpture in their office since they will have a 20 foot tall window looking out onto the greenway.
The only problem was moving the sculpture. On our last day after riding 40 miles we went and lifted this huge thing onto a trailer. While we were doing that I met the artist. He was wearing a hat with the HRC equality logo on it. He asked me and Nate what it meant and we told him about the human rights campaign. He was like, "All right human rights! That is good! I thought it was gay or something." I then replied, "It is gay. It is about gay humans." It was a good moment.
After we got this awkward thing on the trailer it was driving down the street towards the greenway. We followed it on our bikes. So imagine a 16 foot tall bike sculpture driving down the street with four dudes following it on two single bikes and a tandem. It was a sight to be seen I'm sure. That was really fun. We kept yelling things like "We're going to burning man!/Join our church!/We crown thee the king of critical mass!" and other such weird shit.
Most of the rest of the Minneapolis trip involved art galleries. We went to the Minneapolis institute of arts. It was free which was great. I only got to see a little bit of it cause Mike and Nate had already seen half of it before I got in town. I guess they have a lot of east Asian art which is the stuff that Nate and Mike had already seen so I had to miss out.
We also went to the Walker art center. It is this huge contemporary art center. This one exhibit was all about this choreographer woman. I wasn't really into her art too much. But to be honest, dance is an art that is always lost on me. I just don't really relate to it. I can dig it and am amazed by the creative things people can do with their bodies and rhythm, but it just isn't part of my experience I guess.
This other guy had this crazy fucked up stuff. Some of it was fucked up, like his collection of pictures of topless women from the back of biker magazines, but this other pieces he had were great. He took photos from porn magazines and drew this scribbled heads and arms for them. Basically it was part porn picture, part scribble and part painting. If you saw it you would understand. I really like it. Through the scribbled faces and body parts were real sexualized human images, but those same scribbled faces made those porn pictures look as ridiculous as they truly are. I'm having trouble explaining why I like those pieces, but they were cool.
Art museums are great, but they always give me a headache from thinking and taking in so much. Before I move on I should mention there was a piece that was a digital dolphin that you could type questions to and have a conversation with it. That dolphin kind of schooled Mike. Though there were kids around so mike didn't want to give it to the dolphin too bad. I pooped in that art museum and they had floor to ceiling doors on the stalls. Good stuff.
We also saw King of Kong which wasn't that good. It was kind of fucked up cause it is about world record video game scores and what lengths people go to protect them. It did have Mr. Awesome in it though and he actually seemed less crazy in this movie though the man is still crazy. The other movie we watched was Juno. It was pretty cool. After seeing Hard Candy I realized that Ellen Page was a great actress. She was definitely good in Juno and that guy that played her boyfriend did a tremendous job. However, the movie never really develops his character. I think he did great and I wanted to know some more about his character, but it was worth watching. Maybe it didn't live up to it's hype, but it was a good time.
Nate fell asleep during it like he does during every single movie I've ever watched with him.
I guess that is enough about how great Minneapolis is and how fun it was to see Nate.
So last night I went to the Nana Grizol show. Keith's band the beekeepers opened up. They were alright. Actually, they were really good and tight, I just wasn't in to their kind of music. But what they did, they did well, I must admit that.
Second was a band called the Witches. They were fun. It was like this bluesy tired punk sound that I can't fully describe. I only caught part of their set because I was outside talking to Clark and Joey about guerrilla bike lanes.
Then this local band called Sneaky and the rat played. I really was not into them. I think I was the only person in the whole place not digging them and singing along. I think more people came to see them than Nana Grizol. I left during Sneaky and the Rat to go home and get a sweater cause I was also the only person there wearing only shorts and a t-shirt.
I got back in time to rock out to Nana Grizol which is good cause they were fun. The PA at the Trumbullplex really sucks so not everything came through, but since I was like 1 foot from the band their horns came through great and everything. I used my body as a wall to protect their keyboard that people kept trying to dance into and knock over.
Afterwards I had a long conversation with the singer from the Witches (I think her name was carol?) about ICP and juggaloes. It was pretty great. We also talked about "punk" spaces and big ten colleges. She is pretty cool. I also had a good conversation with Nana Grizol's drummer (...no, can't remember his name right now - I wanna say James but that is probably totally wrong). He was a pretty cool dude, we talked about how playing loud and fast is the best, but how using those skills along with slower, smooth indie rock can be really effective. He was like "I just wanna thrash, but all my friends wanna play country style stuff." I was like "add those two together and you get that folk punk sound that everyone is loving right now." He was like "Yeah, shits pretty weird huh? But it works."
We also spoke about other percussion instruments we have played cause he overheard me telling a story about me being in high school. I was telling the starfish prank story. He was like "Yeah, you were telling some story outside about getting suspended from school. Something about dead animals, getting suspended and then playing snare drum in the school band." It was pretty funny.
I got home at 3am totally tired. It was a good night though. I'm glad I stuck around and got to talk to members of the traveling bands. I like hearing perspectives from people like that. Plus I'm sure they are happy to speak with someone that isn't their band mates who they are in a van with for hours a day.
Today I woke up and did the recycling. After that, Mike, Sicily, Clara, Carmen, Mark and I went to Eastern Market. For a few reasons (a lot of them me) I didn't have much time to be there. I would have liked to hang out with those cool people longer, but Mike and I had to go cause IT WAS TIME FOR RED'S WEDDING!
Red's wedding was cool. Unfortunately it rained so it had to be inside. However, even though the preacher spoke a bunch of sexist, transphobic bullshit, it was great to see Red up there being so happy. Red is awesome and I love him. Red's dad is awesome too, we talked about Rancid coming to town and about punk rock in general. We got to hang out with Nic and Torrie. It was good to see them. The DJ freaked us out and he banned Dee from requesting songs caused her songs "killed his set." No one was really dancing to this dudes music and he wasn't happy about that.
Mike found a big bell that said "Rotary Club" on it. He brought it to the table and we played it. That shit was real funny for some reason. Too bad I don't like dancing otherwise the reception may have been more fun. But seeing cool people that I don't see often was good enough for me. It was an honor to be there. Also, I'm glad my friend Dee came with me. That girl knows how to have fun, she just does her thang and don't give a shit. Plus she help alleviate some weird moments. Dee knows what I"m talking about.
Also, she did the impossible and outfarted me. She dropped a bomb that I couldn't top. Usually I clear the room with my ass bombs. This time it was Dee. I was on the other end of it for the first time in a long time. Dee, you win the fart of the day award.
This month has been fucking cool. I'm paying the rest of my loan off to my parents tomorrow and maybe going to a thing for my grandmother's birthday. Or I may be doing a "band practice" with Joe Krause. More about that later cause it is getting fucked up. Also, there is a plan to have new room mates by August, but more about that later.
Declare independence, don't let them do that to you!
Alright, I'll stop, time to get talking about some crucial shit. BIKES!
Nate wasn't too stoked about us all riding different bikes. He has a fixed gear, his touring bike, a Japanese racing bike and a tandem. Nate figured having friends in town was a good reason to use his tandem and get a return on the investment he made on it. At first, I must admit, I wasn't too stoked about this. I wanted to ride that japanese racing bike and tear up some shit flying through traffic.
We ended up riding a bunch of trails. Minneapolis has a CRAP LOAD of bike trails and they don't suck either. So there wasn't much of a chance to rip through traffic because we were riding with other bikes and not cars so much. Eventually I got used to being on the back of the tandem and could kind of dig it. Basically I just had to get used to reading what Nate was about to do. There is a possibility that in the summer of 2009 I will a bike tour on it with Nate. It would only be like a week long considering how much time I would be able to get off work and shit, but good times either way.
I promised the story of sexy nipples and the tandem has to do with him. While riding on one of the trails there was a guy that only wanted to wear bike shorts and shoes. No other clothes were permitted on his body. I can't blame him. However, I had to name him sexy nipples because of this. Sexy nipples was in front of us for quite a while and he also had a good time riding without his hands on the handlebars. Sometimes when we were lucky he would spread his arms out in the crucifix position. It was holy.
I was telling Nate (who is a foot in front of me on the same bike) about that movie The City of Angels (which I have never seen). Anyway, Meg Ryan's character rides her bike in a similar fashion with her arms spread in the crucifix position, except she does it in traffic...and she closes her eyes...and she gets hit by a truck. Nate decides he is going to try this. Only problem is that he is on the front of a tandem. For him to do this successfully, both him and I need to be in perfect balance.
We weren't.
The tandem started to shake violently and after the shot of adrenaline hit my stomach I got ready to go down. Luckily Nate got control of the tandem before we died, but sexy nipples escaped us because we lost some speed from the mishap. I also rode Nate's fixed gear when I wasn't on the tandem and I don't really want a fixed gear anymore. I never really did. I always thought building one up to have for fun might be nice but not anymore. Going down hills on them sucks! It also made my knees hurt.
Moving on, since I mentioned bike trails. One of the main ones that Nate works/advocated for is called the Greenway. It goes across the city where old train tracks used to be and has entrance and exit ramps. Some of the entrance and exit ramps sucked cause they had sharp blind corners, but I guess that prevents people from just flying onto the greenway really quick. With those sharp turns people have to stop and look.
The Greenway coalition (that Nate works for) just moved into a bike center on the greenway. Mike and I helped paint part of it green and got vegan somali food for helping out. I think that was the day we didn't ride bikes too much. It was kind of rainy and we were tired from riding a lot on Friday.
Speaking of the greenway coalition office. The city was donated a bike sculpture from this guy victor a few years ago. Apparently the city didn't want to put it by any of their many bike paths, so instead gave it to the greenway coalition. The coalition decided to put this 16 foot tall bike sculpture in their office since they will have a 20 foot tall window looking out onto the greenway.
The only problem was moving the sculpture. On our last day after riding 40 miles we went and lifted this huge thing onto a trailer. While we were doing that I met the artist. He was wearing a hat with the HRC equality logo on it. He asked me and Nate what it meant and we told him about the human rights campaign. He was like, "All right human rights! That is good! I thought it was gay or something." I then replied, "It is gay. It is about gay humans." It was a good moment.
After we got this awkward thing on the trailer it was driving down the street towards the greenway. We followed it on our bikes. So imagine a 16 foot tall bike sculpture driving down the street with four dudes following it on two single bikes and a tandem. It was a sight to be seen I'm sure. That was really fun. We kept yelling things like "We're going to burning man!/Join our church!/We crown thee the king of critical mass!" and other such weird shit.
Most of the rest of the Minneapolis trip involved art galleries. We went to the Minneapolis institute of arts. It was free which was great. I only got to see a little bit of it cause Mike and Nate had already seen half of it before I got in town. I guess they have a lot of east Asian art which is the stuff that Nate and Mike had already seen so I had to miss out.
We also went to the Walker art center. It is this huge contemporary art center. This one exhibit was all about this choreographer woman. I wasn't really into her art too much. But to be honest, dance is an art that is always lost on me. I just don't really relate to it. I can dig it and am amazed by the creative things people can do with their bodies and rhythm, but it just isn't part of my experience I guess.
This other guy had this crazy fucked up stuff. Some of it was fucked up, like his collection of pictures of topless women from the back of biker magazines, but this other pieces he had were great. He took photos from porn magazines and drew this scribbled heads and arms for them. Basically it was part porn picture, part scribble and part painting. If you saw it you would understand. I really like it. Through the scribbled faces and body parts were real sexualized human images, but those same scribbled faces made those porn pictures look as ridiculous as they truly are. I'm having trouble explaining why I like those pieces, but they were cool.
Art museums are great, but they always give me a headache from thinking and taking in so much. Before I move on I should mention there was a piece that was a digital dolphin that you could type questions to and have a conversation with it. That dolphin kind of schooled Mike. Though there were kids around so mike didn't want to give it to the dolphin too bad. I pooped in that art museum and they had floor to ceiling doors on the stalls. Good stuff.
We also saw King of Kong which wasn't that good. It was kind of fucked up cause it is about world record video game scores and what lengths people go to protect them. It did have Mr. Awesome in it though and he actually seemed less crazy in this movie though the man is still crazy. The other movie we watched was Juno. It was pretty cool. After seeing Hard Candy I realized that Ellen Page was a great actress. She was definitely good in Juno and that guy that played her boyfriend did a tremendous job. However, the movie never really develops his character. I think he did great and I wanted to know some more about his character, but it was worth watching. Maybe it didn't live up to it's hype, but it was a good time.
Nate fell asleep during it like he does during every single movie I've ever watched with him.
I guess that is enough about how great Minneapolis is and how fun it was to see Nate.
So last night I went to the Nana Grizol show. Keith's band the beekeepers opened up. They were alright. Actually, they were really good and tight, I just wasn't in to their kind of music. But what they did, they did well, I must admit that.
Second was a band called the Witches. They were fun. It was like this bluesy tired punk sound that I can't fully describe. I only caught part of their set because I was outside talking to Clark and Joey about guerrilla bike lanes.
Then this local band called Sneaky and the rat played. I really was not into them. I think I was the only person in the whole place not digging them and singing along. I think more people came to see them than Nana Grizol. I left during Sneaky and the Rat to go home and get a sweater cause I was also the only person there wearing only shorts and a t-shirt.
I got back in time to rock out to Nana Grizol which is good cause they were fun. The PA at the Trumbullplex really sucks so not everything came through, but since I was like 1 foot from the band their horns came through great and everything. I used my body as a wall to protect their keyboard that people kept trying to dance into and knock over.
Afterwards I had a long conversation with the singer from the Witches (I think her name was carol?) about ICP and juggaloes. It was pretty great. We also talked about "punk" spaces and big ten colleges. She is pretty cool. I also had a good conversation with Nana Grizol's drummer (...no, can't remember his name right now - I wanna say James but that is probably totally wrong). He was a pretty cool dude, we talked about how playing loud and fast is the best, but how using those skills along with slower, smooth indie rock can be really effective. He was like "I just wanna thrash, but all my friends wanna play country style stuff." I was like "add those two together and you get that folk punk sound that everyone is loving right now." He was like "Yeah, shits pretty weird huh? But it works."
We also spoke about other percussion instruments we have played cause he overheard me telling a story about me being in high school. I was telling the starfish prank story. He was like "Yeah, you were telling some story outside about getting suspended from school. Something about dead animals, getting suspended and then playing snare drum in the school band." It was pretty funny.
I got home at 3am totally tired. It was a good night though. I'm glad I stuck around and got to talk to members of the traveling bands. I like hearing perspectives from people like that. Plus I'm sure they are happy to speak with someone that isn't their band mates who they are in a van with for hours a day.
Today I woke up and did the recycling. After that, Mike, Sicily, Clara, Carmen, Mark and I went to Eastern Market. For a few reasons (a lot of them me) I didn't have much time to be there. I would have liked to hang out with those cool people longer, but Mike and I had to go cause IT WAS TIME FOR RED'S WEDDING!
Red's wedding was cool. Unfortunately it rained so it had to be inside. However, even though the preacher spoke a bunch of sexist, transphobic bullshit, it was great to see Red up there being so happy. Red is awesome and I love him. Red's dad is awesome too, we talked about Rancid coming to town and about punk rock in general. We got to hang out with Nic and Torrie. It was good to see them. The DJ freaked us out and he banned Dee from requesting songs caused her songs "killed his set." No one was really dancing to this dudes music and he wasn't happy about that.
Mike found a big bell that said "Rotary Club" on it. He brought it to the table and we played it. That shit was real funny for some reason. Too bad I don't like dancing otherwise the reception may have been more fun. But seeing cool people that I don't see often was good enough for me. It was an honor to be there. Also, I'm glad my friend Dee came with me. That girl knows how to have fun, she just does her thang and don't give a shit. Plus she help alleviate some weird moments. Dee knows what I"m talking about.
Also, she did the impossible and outfarted me. She dropped a bomb that I couldn't top. Usually I clear the room with my ass bombs. This time it was Dee. I was on the other end of it for the first time in a long time. Dee, you win the fart of the day award.
This month has been fucking cool. I'm paying the rest of my loan off to my parents tomorrow and maybe going to a thing for my grandmother's birthday. Or I may be doing a "band practice" with Joe Krause. More about that later cause it is getting fucked up. Also, there is a plan to have new room mates by August, but more about that later.
Declare independence, don't let them do that to you!