More birthday wishes and my weekend!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, JAZZ!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, SHING!
I hope you both got plenty of cake, ice cream, and presents all around! Any birthday wishes? If so, please post here ;)! Jazz/ego-drums, you should be getting 3 8 things from me on Gaia soon plus a package in the mail with some little trinkets!
I had a great weekend 8D! On Saturday, I hit TPT's 50th anniversary party in downtown Saint Paul as well as 2 art fairs in Minneapolis: The Uptown Art Fair and The Loring Park Art Fair! I've never ventured outside of Uptown's Art Fair before because Uptown had always been so huge, so this was my first visit to Loring Park's Art Fair. I wanted to hit the 3rd big art fair also held this weekend, The Powderhorn Park Art Fair, but I had no idea where Powderhorn Park was XP! I ran out of time on Saturday anyway. I later found out on Sunday where Powderhorn Park was, but my car decided to choke a couple of times on its way back from Loring Park on Saturday. I thought it would be best if I stayed put at home until my car could get looked at today. My car IS 20 years old now, so I can't take any chances with it anymore.
I was shocked by how many people showed up for TPT's 50th anniversary party o-O! I estimate there were more people at TPT's party than BOTH Uptown and Loring's art fairs combined! Yeah, yeah, the nice cool somewhat drizzly weekend weather was probably a deterrent for the art fair crowds, but it didn't seem to mind the crowd at TPT. I suspect TPT wasn't expecting such a huge crowd either because they had only blocked off the street right in front of their building. That entire street was standing-room-only for the most part! There were tons of families and kids all waiting to meet and see their favorite PBS costumed characters, and sadly, I don't think many of them got to see them much except for a tiny glimpse over a sea of people ;(. I hope those kids weren't too disappointed about not being able to interact with giant Elmo, Cookie Monster, Arthur, Big Bird, etc.. TPT's event was just not organized for such a huge crowd, but the TPT volunteers did their best to accommodate everyone.
I was so lucky I arrived when I did just a little after 10:00 a.m.. I got a good spot in line for Mr. McFeely's meet-and-greet booth which also was terribly disorganized. TPT didn't setup a proper line until about 10:30 a.m.-ish, and people were just standing around wondering what was going on. I was the 'sore thumb' near the beginning of the line where people were talking with one another ahead and behind me --;. The conversations were extremely interesting and fun, but I don't think I could participate in them well. Later, one of the women in front of me tried to start a conversation with me, but it died rather quickly ;b. Sigh, I'm just not a conversationalist. Before the conversation died though, we did agree to help one another take photos with McFeely when it was time.
McFeely ran a bit late because he just couldn't tear himself away from the other event. He was one of THE sweetest people I've ever met at one of these events X)! He sounded genuinely happy to be there and to meet his fans of all ages. He even brought his Speedy Delivery bag! One of the people ahead of me even brought Mister Rogers' potty book which featured McFeely's real life kids in the photos. He was surprised to see it, and he even told us the kids are now all grown up. One was over 6 ft tall o-O! It was an honor to meet him and shake his hand! The woman whom I gave my camera took 2 pictures, I think, and hopefully, I'll be able to post them when I get the film developed at Target. Yes, I'm still in the 20th century as far as taking pictures goes! Here's what I got!
Click on the link above for a bigger scan. He even gave me his business card in case I needed more autographs or pictures! According to his card, he's Director of Public Relations for Family Communications, the producers for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I really need to write to some of the other neighbors there sometime!
After I said my good-byes, I headed to TPT's 'garage' tent sale and picked up a couple of DVDs and a videotape for 75% off their original price o-O! It would have only been 50% off, but since I was a member, I got another 50% off of that price! Judith/honeyedbuscuit, I got you a DVD copy of The Illuminator there! TPT produced the show, so they had plenty to sell off ;)! I'll send that to you in my next package to you! There was even the BARRY MANILOW Music and Passion DVD for sale there, but sadly, I already bought that 2 years ago ;b!
I next headed into TPT's studios for the guided tour. My gosh, that line was HUGE too O~O! I had to wait 30 minutes in line for the tour! It was a short tour though because TPT wanted to cycle people in-and-out of the studios as quickly as possible because of the huge line 8P! I took a few pictures of the studios and control rooms. They first took us to Studio A where TPT produces all its live shows like Almanac and the infamous pledge drive. The guide, a TPT producer, said we will be getting quite familiar with Studio A over the next 2 weeks as they start their pledge drives, again. I never got to ask my question as to why TPT never shows us their 'good' programs until pledge week ;b. My Mom always felt PBS 'cheated' us by only showing those high quality shows during pledge week only and not regularly. Next, they took us into Studio B where TPT films non-live shows. Apparently, Studio B is the second largest production studio in MN. The biggest is in Chanhassen somewhere. Studio B was remarkably quiet and 'isolated' from any outside noise or vibration. According to our tour guide, TPT's director of programming, Studio B was built to 'hover' above the rest of the building, keeping any noise or vibration from disrupting filming unless of course they had an elephant on the set. Studio B big claim to fame is Newton's Apple, of course ;), which had plenty of animals on-stage when Nancy Gibson from the MN Zoo visited. I think by the time TPT filmed Newton's Apple in the downtown Saint Paul studios, the live audience was already gone. Those would have been filmed in TPT's/KTCA's old studios near the State Fairgrounds on Como Avenue. Our last stop was TPT's fancy control room area where we watched a pre-taped interview with people who worked there. After that, we were quickly shuttled out past their editing rooms to make room for new tours. There was another meet-and-greet area in one of TPT's conference rooms, but I didn't recognize anyone from there to wait in line ;P!
It was finally time for me to EAT 89! I went outside and found probably THE most interesting thing I ate that day: roasted corn on the cob with butter, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkling of paprika and pepper! I've never tasted such a sensational combination =9! I felt like Remy from Ratatouille tasting all those new combinations of flavors! It was heavenly! I would never have thought of putting sour cream, Parmesan cheese, or paprika on corn! I wonder if they'll offer those toppings at the State Fair later this month? I hope so! I topped off my little snack with some flavored crushed ice which I ate under the music tent because now the rain was pouring. I ate this all the while I heard people around me complain of the cold weather ;b! I thought it was refreshing considering the muggy hot days we've had lately.
Afterward, I headed back to my car and drove out to Uptown for the art fair! Like I said, compared to TPT's party, the crowd there was pathetically small. It wasn't raining too badly in Minneapolis compared to Saint Paul, but it was still enough to deter people from going I guess =/. The art fair was free, but it cost me $10.00 to park in Calhoun Square X(! I brought my umbrella along just in case the rain started up again, and it did a couple of times during my walk around the tents. The streets and park were WET with puddles everywhere. My pant-legs were drenched in mud when I finished my rounds. I looked and felt dreadful. Looking at tents was very difficult. If I wanted to look more closely at an artist's wares, I had to take down my umbrella to make sure I wouldn't get anything in there wet. If it was still raining after I finished looking, I would have to put the umbrella back up again, and down, and up, and down, etc.. I ended up looking from afar for several tents --;, but I still finished looking through the entire round of 350 artists setup at Uptown. There were a couple of jewelry pieces that caught my eye, but the price tag was a bit out of my price range (i.e. $3500.00) XP! I was very tempted to buy a beautiful polished wood jug that was only 3" tall which I had eyed from last year, but I wasn't sure about investing $120.00 in it. Maybe next year when I'm not dripping wet.
I finished in record time because of the rain factor though, so I had plenty of time to head over to Loring Park's Art Fair for the first time ever! There were only about 140 artists set up there around the lake. I saw a couple of familiar artists I had seen from Edina Art Fair earlier this year including a very cool aluminum jewelry artist! I love her work, but I couldn't see myself wearing any one of her cute big pins =/. I might change my mind next year though X)! I saw a couple of gorgeous ceramic pieces though that were awfully tempting, but our house already has too many ceramics as it is. I was also tempted by this one wood jewelry artist who made delicate inlaid pendants from various woods. Each pendant cost as much as a wonderful wood box though, so I ended up not buying anything whatsoever except more food.
Another wonderful things about art fairs, besides the art itself and the vendor food, are all the free samples one can get from various companies trying to promote their latest products! I got free samples of health bars, vegetable and fruit chips, cereal, soy milk, Starbuck's blueberry frappé, salsa, waffles, etc.. My purse was stuffed to the gills with free samples by the time I left! I must say that chocolate soy milk was rather tasty, and I wouldn't mind drinking it on a daily basis =9! They gave me a whole individual bottle of it as a sample which I quickly gulped down and got a bit on my shirt as well as some mustard from earlier. I also picked up some free pencils for my Mom's sudoku madness!
It was a most satisfying weekend indeed even if I didn't pick up any art.