Exploration: Internet Cat Video Film Festival

Oh, Friends,

What a soul-warming evening! I rode my trusty steel steed a couple miles on my first downtown dwelling bicycle commute to my friend's house for a little pizza and film action.

The bike ride was great: I kept finding wrong turns--entrances onto 394--and ended up riding through the bowels of downtown, but it was a zippy, safe ride, perfect for downtown dwelling.

The trusty Surly Cylclocross with a kitschy Serfas bike seat. I do what I can to keep things interesting.

The pizza and company were great, but what iced the evening was the Internet Cat Video Film Festival at the Walker Art Center. Us and about two thousand fellow video enjoyers sat on the lawn and enjoyed about 70 videos last night together. It was fun for a few reasons:

• We were outside!
• We laughed!
• There was a full moon!
• The video screen was tiny (we were waaaay up on the hill), which really gave a sense that we're still watching these on a teenie laptop; this time, a public laptop.
• And this: 

•  And this!

• And finally this:

 

Schematics!

People,

Ideas are percolating inside my head!

If dreams become a reality (fun fact: this magical transformation, dreams --> reality, is one of my favorite pastimes), things are going to get a little crafty in my teenie abode. I have a slight aversion to my windows being 4' off the floor in my new place. After a couple mildly pained anxiety events about my ill-positioned panes, I started resigning myself to this fact and started to accept their vertical challenge.

However, my dreams were stirred tonight into drawings and possibilities (the interim stage before action and reality; not quite to the action stage yet...naturally), as a good friend of mine helped me realize  that my remedy to this affliction isn't necessarily merely time to accept it, but perhaps a little bit of action and a circular saw.

So, with a little hubris, lumber, graph paper, and the wits of my friend, I may just build the one and only indoor deck at 811. It's such a good feeling knowing I have creative, can-do friends that see a need and meet the need with their time and talent. Sometimes it takes someone else's encouragement and enthusiasm to spur you on to greater things.

Raise the roof--er, floor-- for friends!



P.S. my phone's auto correct for "mpls" is "mold." Fascinating. 

Musings on 394

I was rolling back home on 394 from a friend's birthday party tonight and rolled up to lights of Target Field. I realized while zooming under garages A, B, and C, that Target Field is my backyard (a mere 4 blocks away, people!)! My house is peoples' out on the town. I go into town to go in for the night; others get out of town to go in for the night. I believe what we have here is a feral paradigm shift caught in the wild. Out is in, in is out. Downtown is home.

I have to explore this understanding and make downtown my own.

I have to get used to this cool, new reality.

I gotta get my bicycle out!

(speaking of, I hear One on One has excellent espresso. You should join me sometime!)

And we're in

But not quite living there yet. Turns out the building had a little permit issue so I'm living out of a suitcase until they give us the all clear to start sleeping there and getting used to our new digs.

First adventure: tackle the noisiness of warehouse living:

My couch is coming tomorrow (which will hopefully absorb a lot of the noise of being in a voluminous warehouse abode) and early next week, my Flor tiles for my living room rug will be arriving! That's right, it's 8' x 7' and designed with tiles on sale by yours truly. This 20-squared rug surely will abate most echos and yodels. (If this doesn't work, I'll climb up to the HVAC unit myself and shove blankets inside to quell the clattering.)

Straight off of Flor's room designing website, my 8' x 7' on a 17' x 11' cement-colored background! 

Hot tip: if you like assembling things yourself, like they style that modular design offers, embrace loud colors, and don't mind the element of surprise of ordering colored carpet squares online, then order modular carpet! I paid about half of what a decent standard rug of a tad smaller size would have cost me. And that's a big deal when I'm trying to keep my decorating costs under $2,000 (sans couch).

There you have it--almost. moved. in!

And I Ask: "why not?"

Why not get a garish, awkwardly faux-patinaed, blue coffee table? Why not? It was, after all, only $20.00 on Craigslist. And so, I feel like I've hit the second-hand furniture jackpot. I can leave it as is, do an inspirational refinish on it, or disassemble it for firewood or unique parrot perches: either way, well worth the investment. 

The photo from Craigslist that made me go get it

A little staging at my parents' house before it heads to 811!

Ambulatory Streets

Hi!

I was quick to judge back in the mid 2000s. I remember gazing across the Mississippi at the trendy lofts and condos, whilst sipping some latte or sangria al fresco on St. Anthony Main, and  thinking, "who makes enough money to live over there?" Sweet Jesus, a few odd years later, I do. 

Granted, I'm in the back forty of downtown, down a hidden alley, facing a brick wall, and virtually swept under the carpet of fancier pads and places, but--hey!--I'm downtown, damn-it! I'm downtown! It turns out downtown living is a little more affordable than I had so carelessly assumed way back during my formative young-adult years. Which, in turn, works in my favor.

And so, in order to forgive myself for that fateful downtown-living faux paux and to avoid any conflicting mindsets in my tender soul (read: erroneously becoming a pompous downtown dweller), I've made a list of goals to strive for during this downtown experiment. Here's what I've had percolating in my mind for the past few weeks:

• Embracing the slow food movement: eating good homemade food and eating it often. No, no: no Bisquick shenanigans here. I'm talking about food made with blood, sweat, tears, and love. Shazam!
• Hoofing it one mile to the express bus and taking it to my place of employment at least one day a week. Yeah, that's right, I can work from the freeway.
• Eschewing new clothes as much as possible and getting to know my local Unique thrift or similar thrift store. Used is the new new, people!
• Walking and riding my trusty steel steed to get myself around town to do the ol' errands. 
• Unloading that television on FreeCycle. I don't need that shit! I don't need that cable bill!  Got 'er done!
•  

This girl's getting a little hipster as she folds her hands around her NPR mug, isn't she? Let me know if I get a little too hipstery, would ya? Or, send me a gift card to Apple, eh?