Winter Close-Up

Absolutely beautiful crystals on the trees the other day. Gorgeous.







I know this is all natural and beautiful and whatnot, but can we please agree that it looks like a bunch of Koosh balls?

Fantasy Land

Last weekend Jake celebrated his birthday along with a few other Aquarians at one of the strangest, most awesome apartments I've ever seen. The Party Wizard's place consists of 5 apartments transformed into one giant fantasy land of theme rooms riddled with secret passages and the like. Now, I don't think I'm alone when I say that every kid (big kids, too) dreams of having secret passages in their home. As far as I'm concerned, the Party Wizard is officially living the dream.

It was dark, and I didn't want to be crazy flash lady at the party, so I took very few photos. But here's a taste of what I saw.



Bourbon Street (above) was just a wall away from where the Rolling Stones tribute band played on stage (below).



There was a room devoted to the Party Wizard's favorite Twilight Zone episode. It was playing the soundtrack on repeat. The creepiest part was that the only way to get to it was by opening the brick wall.




Rooms that I didn't get photos of included the inside of the Genie's Lamp, a log cabin, a funky living room, an African-themed room, Elvis's Graceland and the inside of a plane. Even the bathrooms were themed. One had a guitar as the toilet seat. Another had mirrors everywhere (below).




And again, did I mention the secret passageways?



For more insight into this place, check out the news story on it here.

How to cut a mullet.

Meet Jake. A nice, charming young man...with a raging mullet. He's been grooming that thing for more than half of the time I've known him. The three of us are very happy together, as you can see.



I don't think the mullet had anything to do with his upbringing - his parents seem totally normal.



(PAUSE)

Ok. To be honest - and I'm telling you this in complete confidence - I've seen photos of his dad with a mullet in his younger years. It's possible it could be a role model/nurture thing. But I don't want to point fingers and so I'm pretending this is simply a coincidence and doesn't imply that Jake will also go through a pretty serious mustache phase in the future.

Anyway, there was a lovely little party for Jake's 30th and, more importantly, the cutting of the mullet. A nice crowd gathered to celebrate.





I got to take the first cut. I was honestly nervous - I had forgotten what he looked like sans-mullet and was a little frightened that I'd find myself thinking the unimaginable: "I want the mullet back." What if, after all this time, I was meant to love a mulleted American?! (Clearly I warmed up pretty quickly - look at that smile in the last one!)



Melissa (the pro cutter who took over the scissors almost immediately after witnessing my excessive emotions) did a great job. There were so many people there taking photos and video that I imagine it was like cutting Britney's hair, except without a razor or real paparazzi.





Well, RIP BIFPIB (Business in front, party in back), I guess. And happy 30th, Jake.




Oh - and great news- it's clear that I had nothing to worry about. I'm not abnormally attracted to mullets after all. (HELLO non-mulleted Jake...)

The Sextons: New music. New photos.

The Sextons just got signed to a record label, which means they have a newly mixed CD in the works (release party March 5) and needed a new one-sheet photo. Our goal was to get shots that didn't look staged, which proved practically impossible wince we were, in fact, staging shots. Oh well. They were good sports and trekked through ridiculous amounts of snow at 8 a.m., after which they bought be a bowl of oatmeal the size of a bird bath (both rewarding and incredibly excessive).









While we were wandering, we stumbled across this great little scene. Too bad there was so much snow on the couch.

One more...

I have a lot of posts to get up here soon but for now I'll just put this up--one of my favorite photos from the Art Shanties that I forgot to post! (I'm a little geeky about "outer space" and NASA and all that, so I was instantly drawn to this astronomy shanty.)

Minnesota 'Ice

This past weekend I wandered over to the Art Shanty Projects on Medicine Lake. The project is really interesting--artists are asked to build a shanty, and therein an experience, for visitors. Shanty art ranged from a dance party to a business exchange (no money needed--the price tag for a set of stickers read "reveal your superpower to a stranger") to learning Norwegian to constellation gawking.






The Photo Shanty let this kid experiment with reflection by cooking a hotdog with the sun...



The Fantashanty was my favorite - transporting visitors to a fantasy land the minute they walked in.





My cousin Katie moved up here last week from Kansas City. I thought--why not introduce her to Minnesota the right way? "Welcome to Minnesota. Come walk across a frozen lake with me to learn Norwegian in an ice fishing hut." It's almost poetic.



Learn more about the project here.