Video Camera No-Go

I was onstage tonight at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I had hoped to film myself but it was a no-go, as it was battery powered and they were too low. I went to a Walgreen after the show to get some replacements. The show went real well, I worked in some new jokes like the one about a fellow comic showing up in a dream when I was at a house party at my dad's in Iowa. Since I am traveling soon, I decided to get a few jokes about my plans in as well.
      I tend to notice things like what crowdmembers are wearing, of course after I perform. There was a girl in a dress, and she had long braids that kind of looked like dreadlocks. She also had boots on and tattoos were just above the boots on her calves.
   I needed to make up some time at work, so I stayed about 20 minutes beyond my typical leave time in the evening. I was home for about an hour and then knew I needed to hit the road to get some errand running done before the show. So I went to an ATM at a Walgreen, then on to the library to print two emails that had some relevant information on them.
   After the show I had the Irish band The Cranberries on my mind. So I went to Youtube and checked out 4 of their songs. 'Ode to my family', 'When you're gone', 'Salvation', and 'Zombie'. 'Ode' was one I played a lot after the death of my grandma 4 years ago. It provided me some solace I really needed at that time.  It was the final grandparent- and the only one who lived long enough to see me graduate twice.  

First Time Using Valet

I recall seeing an article one time that said 'One man, 3 shows, One night'. It was about actor Michael Gross, who was on the TV show 'Family Ties'. This seemed to describe my day, though better said as 3 events. At midday it was a thank-you luncheon at my employer's facility in Eden Prairie, and on the way in I saw 2 colleagues that are now based there. One of them just transferred this week. She likes to argue, and asked if I missed her. My response was just like the judge to Col. Jessup in 'A Few Good Men'- 'You don't have to answer that'. This was the second such luncheon this month. I would have liked participating more, but the feedback given by others before me was close to my experiences. I did expand on it near the end, however. Then it was back to work. While walking today, I saw 3 girls holding hands and each one had a punk rock hairdo.
   After work, there were 2 more events. One was an alumni event at an Irish bar in Minneapolis. This was where I used valet parking for the first time, at a ramp 2 blocks away. What made it easier to do was knowing it is cheaper after 6pm. At the event there were 3 Iowa Hawkeye athletes, one still plays in the pros for the Vikings. Two of the 3 were football players, the third basketball. The other 2 had retired, though I wasn't too familiar with any of them. We were told that Chad Greenway couldn't make it due to visiting his dad in the hospital, who is at Mayo Clinic. I didn't win any of the door prizes in the raffle, though I have won some before. The valet attendant seemed surprised how I hadn't done valet before, I said I could have used it at my high school prom but turned it down.
   Then I went across town to a comedy show, or more accurately described as a roast of a comedian on his birthday. I had attended his Facebook wedding, and seen him perform many times before. I even went to his roast 2 years ago at the same venue, in the basement of a bar. There was a homemade video in the middle of the show. I did see a few friends there in the crowd. What I also saw was a woman who used pencils to hold her hair in a bun, 4 in all. I don't see this too often.
   I had wondered if I was late, as I needed to drive across town. But I saw many of the attendees crowded around the entrance having a smoke and was told it hadn't started yet. When I was leaving the venue I heard 'As I lay me down to sleep' by Sophie B. Hawkins. The song moved me like few others, I recall it being a hit when I was in college. An odd thing happened while leaving the parking ramp I was in: when inserting the ticket, the machine rejected it as a nickel fell out. So I reached down to pick up the nickel and tried again with the ticket. I got outside pictures of all 3 venues to remember the day by.
   I did make it over to Bobby and Steve's after the show, and got a small Godfather's pizza. Hadn't had one in a while, will want to eat it in the next few days. Also got some Old Dutch 'puffcorn', as they appeared to be all out of popcorn at the bar. I saw an empty machine anyway. I stayed a little longer to hear the ending of 'Last Kiss' by Pearl Jam inside the store. Then when I was driving home on the Crosstown, I liked hearing 'Wake me up when September ends' by Green Day, around the time I was close to the airport. It was memorable as I saw a Southwest plane in its final descent right above me.

Helping An Undercover Cop

I had 2 odd dreams recently, I told a colleague about it earlier today. One of them was about me helping out a cop who was working undercover at a grocery store of all places. Why, I don't know. But I am good at analyzing my own dreams. As I recall, the man reminds me of who I see when I go to my regular grocery store. The colleague thought I was crazy, maybe since undercover cops are more likely found in other business establishments. The other had me at my dad's house, one he sold 10 years ago. I recall a Century 21 sign out front, and hosting a gathering there. We were watching TV and my dad was on, making some off-color but funny joke about getting divorced. Then I beat somebody up that I knew, thinking he stole my denim jacket. This is another simple one. My class reunion is this summer, so it has been on my mind quite a bit recently. And of course how my denim is greatly valued by me, I like wearing it when the weather allows it.
   At the comedy club tonight there was a big crowd, another round of the contest. Didn't know too well who advanced. But I did know many of the participants. I saw the show runner right before going in, the NBA playoff game was on and he said he was for San Antonio in it. He also shared a story how one doesn't talk about the Sonics in Seattle, since the franchise has moved to Oklahoma City, San Antonio's opponent in the series. A sore subject there. He had to make a distinction, how there's a music group called Sonics apparently.
   A big part of my time after work was spent getting caught up on postal mail and email. A theater I've been to is annoying me. I have asked them to send just one brochure about upcoming events, they are still sending two. So now I have to figure out what might work this time.

Second Trash Bag

I sent another trash bag out today, normally it is just one a week and I just sent one out last night. But I was busy with a cleanup of my home when I had the day off for Memorial Day. I started fairly early in the morning, breakfast first of course. Then I junked 2 more VHS tapes, found them when locating the graduation tape. It was episodes of 'All In The Family', and I already had some episodes- but not the same ones- on DVD. What required me to send out another bag was using the paper shredder a lot for travel brochures I didn't need, often places I thought about seeing but didn't. I pulled out a few items I found, like my Best Buy reward zone card. Usually when I buy something there, they can find it some other way so I didn't need the card. Another was the program from the Buddy Holly weekend in Clear Lake, Iowa, in June 1988. It was when they renamed a street near the Surf Ballroom for Holly, and a monument was dedicated outside the Surf to him and the other plane crash victims, including Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper. It was due to the success of the movie 'La Bamba' a year earlier. Another was a wedding program from 2005, a classmate from high school was getting married. Also two from Valley Junction, the part of West Des Moines, Iowa, I lived in for a year and a half after college. There were multiples from the Herbert Hoover Museum in West Branch, Iowa, which I had seen in February. There was a ticket from a previous visit, in August 2009.
   I liked getting a bookcase filled, it meant moving out most of the books under my laptop table. I liked having the space freed up. I swept up quite a bit in each room, and vacuumed the rugs as well. At midday I went out to Target to get some items I needed, all told it cost me just 86 cents as I had a $25 gift card from my workplace. I got a set of pillow cases, shaving cream, razors, a small picture frame, and batteries for my portable CD player. I found a Salvation Army donation bin for a book and 2 DVD's I no longer wanted. Then it was on to the laundromat and I did get a load done there, while listening to my Incubus CD since I had just picked up the replacement batteries for it. I liked getting to see 'Millionaire' and 'Jeopardy' today, another break from the cleanup. The final venture outside was over to the grocery store to give them plastic shopping bags, as I had accumulated plenty.

Food Trucks After Saints Game

I went to the St. Paul Saints baseball game with my date in the afternoon, they beat Sioux City 6-5 in 11 innings. After the game there was the theme of the day, 'Monster Food Truck Rally', I liked getting pictures of some of the food trucks. I had an Italian Sloppy Joe from 'Messy Guiseppe', along with their blackberry flavored lemonade. I also had some tater tots from Bloomy's. One of the pictures was of a retired fire truck, now used as a pizza truck. This served as a nice replacement for last week's game, which was washed out.
    Before the game, I watched the tape of my high school graduation with my date. It was a little bit of a struggle though, having to figure out how to hook up the VHS tape player as I don't use it much now. After it was hooked up we did watch most of it, like the speeches and the choir singing. But with nearly 240 graduates, I decided not to watch all of them cross the stage. We watched me of course, and when one of the 'class marshals'- who was there to help us on and off the stage- faint since it was a warm day in late May. He was wearing white suit, I was wearing a black cap and gown. Odds would have been on one of the graduates fainting. Since I am attending my class reunion soon, I figured it was time to watch it again. Not sure how long ago I had watched it previously.
   I noticed a favorite shirt of mine is ready to be retired, a Chicago Wolves hockey T-shirt. They're a minor league team. It's a nice reminder of attending their games when living in suburban Chicago, they play at an arena in northwest suburban Rosemont near O'Hare Airport. There were three small holes near one of the shoulders. But I had left Illinois more than 8 years ago, so it had been well-used. Now it means finding a replacement when I have the time. I checked E-bay first when I already have an account with them. There were some shirts, but not a lot. Some of them were jerseys, and when I already have 2 hockey jerseys- both NHL teams- I question the wisdom of getting another one. If need be, I can find one on the team's website, as expected they are reasonably priced at under $20. When I have been to just 2 Wolves games since leaving Illinois, I know there is no need to wait for when I would be attending another one of their games. Not sure when this will be. Quite often I would be back in the old neighborhood during the baseball and football season and not hockey, which made it harder to get to one of their games. But of course this year I made it in January, for the historian convention.

A Visit to Candyland

A classmate said he was doing a bike tour on the Mississippi River next month. First time I've heard of such an event, in Iowa I mainly know of Ragbrai.
   The plans today called for seeing the pirate exhibit at the Science Museum, but it was a no-go. The line was too long for tickets, it would have left us too little time to enjoy the exhibit. This was likely due to the holiday weekend. But we still have more than 3 months to see it, until Labor Day. I walked around downtown St. Paul with my date instead, since we had already paid for parking. We stopped at Candyland and got a box of popcorn, to be eaten later while watching a movie on video. In the evening we did watch a DVD I had bought from E-bay, 'Covered Wagon', based on an Emerson Hough novel. I hadn't seen a silent movie in a while, but the continuity was just fine. I was able to follow the story fairly well.
    Before leaving the Science Museum, we got an ice cream sandwich from the vending machine at a discount. A dollar was already in it, and it cost two, so I just put in another dollar for it, Neapolitan.
   We did make it over to attend a friend's birthday party. I spoke with the pizza man as I had delivered pizza one summer in college. The pizza was for the kids, who didn't want any of the fried chicken from Rainbow Foods. It did remind me of Kentucky Fried Chicken, having the mashed potatoes and gravy and cole slaw, but I was told KFC doesn't serve it in large aluminum containers. Eventually we had cake and ice cream as well, my date was getting impatient for the cake.
   I woke up late as I was leisurely due to the morning rain, but got some important errand running done like sending a sports column written by NFL player Larry Fitzgerald's dad to the same friend doing the bike tour. He had asked me if I was familiar with his writing, I was not. I had to find out what publication he wrote for, it was a small community paper. I got a free copy at an advance screening of the Mark Wahlberg movie 'Contraband' in January as the paper was sponsoring the screening.

Harvey Pekar

I decided to turn in rain checks tonight from last week's St. Paul Saints game for a game on Sunday. After this was done I looked at the tables outside the stadium. I spun the wheel and got 3-D glasses from the TV station known as 'CW Twin Cities'. Also got a half-off oil change coupon from White Bear Mitsubishi Suzuki. Though I'm not in White Bear Lake much, a long way for an oil change. I made it over in a van from Gabe's Bar, they had more than just charter buses running tonight. I think this was due to the Twins being home as well. I started walking back to my car when it was in the middle of the 2nd inning of the Saints game, no score. I needed the exercise and didn't want to wait for a ride. I checked their website and the Saints went on to win tonight, and it looks like the rain held off. I know the 'theater guy' colleague said he had free tickets tonight, in the Leinenkugel Lodge behind the left field wall.  
    I watched a DVD tonight in full, it was the original Muppet movie. I had bought it recently from Best Buy. It is replacing another Muppet movie, 'Great Muppet Caper', in my collection as that one was on VHS and I am slowly phasing those out by junking them when a replacement is found. I noticed an odd coincidence in the closing credits, how Scott Walker played the 'frog killer'. Same name as the governor of Wisconsin. This is the governor in a recall election next month due to being known as a union buster. I made it a Facebook posting. Also shared a link about student loan relief, from Moveon dot-org. I did this after signing the petition, the 'theater guy' spoke of it. He said tuition has quadrupled since I was in college. I can empathize since I had student loans, thankful it took me just 5 years to pay them off.
    It was the final day for a colleague, who is leaving for a job at another office with the same company, the Eden Prairie facility. There was donuts and cake brought in. The cake was made by somebody who is doing cooking classes at Cordon Bleu.
   I did read in the paper at lunch how the president made a second visit to my hometown of Newton, Iowa, on Thursday. Though he doesn't cover all of the facts. I understand that wind energy is something he believes in. But the facts are that the companies in former Maytag facilities don't employ near as many people, and don't pay near as well either. So when he speaks of 'they now make wind energy here instead of appliances' it's not the whole story.
   I looked up the Wikipedia article on Harvey Pekar, a music and literary critic. One friend I met at the comedy clubs read the blog and said my writings were like Pekar's. But I hadn't looked it up as I got busy after seeing the Facebook posting, and of course it was buried after a while. But thanks to the new format where it shrinks older activity, I was able to find it again without having to scroll down too much. He died in 2010, and he's a Midwesterner, from Cleveland. As a regionalist, I am partial to those who are Midwesterners. I also liked a cross reference to Studs Terkel and his book 'Working'.