Tilt a Whirl

I have been totally neglectful of sitting down and documenting my weekend trip to the twin cities. Now whether or not I saw or could even identify Minneapolis as it is I cannot say. I can say that my fears of cold were only part true, but it hasn't been that temperate here in Chicago either until today.

I flew to Minneapolis on Friday after work and I will say this, I love the short flight. You literally get into the plane, get a refreshment, a small bag of sodium carbohydrate in the form of mini pretzels and before you know it you are landing.

My friends Todd and Jeffrey picked me up at the airport and took me back to Todd's place which is in the The Lofts at International Market Square. IMS was built in 1915 as the headquarters for Munsingwear, Inc., a Minneapolis-based garment designer and manufacturer. For many years Munsingwear was made famous for its union suits, and was said to be the originator of the classic golf shirt with the Penguin logo.

Todd's condo is beautiful in my opinion, but this could also be because I feel that he has similar design sensibilities to mine. They also have the sweetest feline, Mr. B. who became fast friends with me. I think it is because I am part lesbian, although I equally love dogs too, a fortunate trait I inherited from my father.

His building is also home to several design trade only showrooms which surround a covered atrium space. This space is frequently rented out for events and this weekend was no exception. There was a prom and it was quite entertaining to watch from above. You could see the cool kids, the fat girls without dates and the fringe types. Of course there was the one boy that was spasmodically engaged, the likes of whom imagined that he was a great dancer, but was truly creating a
small circle of distance around himself as those who were in close range were concerned for their safety.

Not long after observing this, we decided to head out into the Minneapolis nightlife. I was taken to a bar called The Saloon, where Jeffrey and Todd met. The bouncer at the front door compared it to Roscoe's. It was a sprawling establishment with a large dance floor, bar and smoking patio. Not long after being there, Jeffrey and I were approached by a hot mess who claimed he was visiting from Milan. Clearly seeing that I was in distress, Jeffrey called him on this by saying that he thought this guy had told this same story before. Hot mess from Milan did not like hearing this and made a b-line for some other poor soul in a dark corner.

We danced to a techno version of the theme from Brokeback Mountain which was just too gay for words and called it a night.

The next day the three of us got up and were trying to figure out what we were going to do. Jeffrey was meeting up with a friend and they were planting a tree in Jeffrey's back yard. Todd and I stayed back for a
bit and talked shop. He worked for the same employer as me a couple years back and we compared notes to our shared experience.

We headed over to Jeffrey's home which is in an adorable residential area. I'm not sure whether to call it a borough or suburb as it really didn't have that suburban feel to it. The homes were well kept and looked like they were out of a back lot Hollywood soundstage for a 40's movie. It had begun to drizzle at this point and my fear of cold was rearing it's ugly head.

Jeffrey and his friend Richard were planting a tree called a service berry, which we all found quite amusing. It turns out after doing a bit of research on this tree that it is a member of the rose family. Sometimes referred to as sarvisberry, a colloquial pronunciation of “service”, this tree is often attributed to the fact that its early blooms
signaled the arrival of the traveling preacher, who would hold the year’s first formal commemoration for those who had been unable to survive the winter. Why it always come back to religion, I'll never know, but an interesting backstory none the less.

We went and had lunch at this cute restaurant called Rix. I was excited to see that they had sweet potato fries on the menu. These remind me of growing up on the East Coast and going to "".

Our next stop was to visit their friend Terry who was part of an event called Art-A-Whirl. AAW is an open-studio and gallery tour of Northeast Minneapolis. More than 300 artists participate including potters, tile makers, painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, glass blowers, printmakers, and textile designers. They showcase their art in warehouses, homes, storefronts and cafes.

Their friend Terry was showing his photography at the old Cream of Wheat factory, another loft conversion rehab known as the C|W Lofts. I quite liked his images and will probably purchase a couple.

After stopping there we went to a large industrial building that was hosting several different artists. Some of them were good and some were not so good. In any case, the lot of us had severe sensory overload after a few hours. We left and dropped Richard off and headed back to Todd's to rest up a bit before dinner.

We went to a fantastic restaurant called Masa. Masa is a contemporary and cosmopolitan restaurant featuring Mexican cuisine with strong regional authenticity. I had the pork shoulder which was steamed in a banana leaf and served with grilled pineapple. I am not a food snob, but I must say that I appreciated its haute presentation and atmosphere. A far cry from David Burke's Primehouse here in Chicago where the three of us had been a month earlier. But I digress.

With our bellies full, we left and went to the Minneapolis Eagle which also features an underground bar called Bolt. Bolt plays 80's music on Saturday night, but was surprisingly vacant, so we headed back up the stairs to watch the dancers in their ass-less leather chaps parade around the bar top. This was all being held court to porn video producer Chi-Chi La Rue who was spinning in the DJ booth. I suddenly felt like I was at the fictitious Titty-Twister bar from the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn" gone gay. The plot outline is two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in an establishment populated by vampires, with chaotic results.

This my friends is one of the reasons I do not go out, but I was in a different city so c'est la vie. I can't help it that I'm an uptight white boy.

This brings us to the third and final day of my short trip to the twin cities. We all slept in until 11am that day which felt really good.

Our final two destinations were the Walker Art Museum and the Mall of America. I could have spent hours in the art musuem bookstore. There were just so many beautiful books on architecture, photography and design. One of my favorites was a children's book called Chicken and Cat by Sara Varon. I bought a small pin by this artist to put on my backpack.

The museum was such a cool space and the art it held was displayed well. Plus they were serving my favorite coffee from Peet's, I just couldn't help but have a cup with lunch.

By the time we were done wandering the museum we took a quick stop at the Mall of America. Truly I have never seen anything like it. Well, I only saw a fraction of it and it is every bit as Guinness Book all you can shop as I had heard that it was. They have an amusement park of sorts in the section that we passed through and all I could visualize was the merry go round spinning wildly out of control and flinging the kids into Victoria's Secret which was adjacent to it. That of course is just the way my warped mind envisions things although I do not honestly wish harm to be done to anyone. Well, almost anyone, but certainly not small children.

They dropped me off at the airport and we said our goodbyes. Hopefully good memories were had by all and the two of them were not releasing a collective sigh of relief of my absence.