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Last night I attended the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information (COGI) John R Finnegan Freedom of Information Award ceremony at the downtown Minneapolis Public Library. COGI is a nonprofit organization of librarians, lawyers, journalists and information fans who strive to support access to government information. (I used to be involved with the group.) Named for John R Finnegan, former editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and recipient of the Heroes of the 50 States: The State Open Government Hall of Fame award for 2011 from the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Finnegan award has been awarded annually since 1989.

This year the award went to Matt Ehling founder of Public Record Media, producer of ground-breaking documentaries, such as Open Source, and creator of “Capitol Conversations”, a weekly live-streamed political talk show broadcast from the capital featuring lawmakers, political pundits, analysts and reporters.

Ehling gave a gracious speech, calling the award the Heisman Trophy of information awards as he shared his passion and views on government transparency. He spoke of how tools that promote government transparency, such as the Minnesota Data Practices Act serve to provide access to information to the general public, but they also support policymakers in their efforts to provide oversight and, finally, access to information provides a common ground for citizens and policymakers on all sides of an issue. Ehling cautioned that access to information was like a muscle – it will atrophy if unused. We need to keep MN Data Practices Act vibrant; we need more partners; we need to keep the idea of transparency alive for the next generation.

“Democracy’s a messy thing,” observed keynote speaker Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, echoing Ehling’s call to action. She recounted her experience at the Republican National Convention in 2008 as an example of the power and impact of transparency, or, if not transparency, at least the power of getting information to the people. Talking about the RNC in the Twin Cities is a tricky proposition, because most of us have our own memories, but in a way, Goodman drew many of us closer, because I suspect most of us in the room were the people getting the information to more people in one way or another during the demonstrations.

A quick reminder: Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, all credentialed journalists from Democracy Now, were arrested at the RNC as they covered the demonstrations. Video of that arrest was the most-watched video on YouTube for the first two days of the RNC, which certainly facilitated their early release. The three went on to sue the St Paul and Minneapolis Police Departments and Secret Service for their treatment. They were awarded $100,000 and St Paul was required to develop a more appropriate protocol for handling First Amendment issues with the press and public in similar situations in the future.

Goodman borrowed from Woody Allen to say that 90 percent of life is showing up. It’s true for journalists; it’s also true for engaged citizens. She praised the independent media, the libraries, the dissenters. She told the story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, German Christians who published and distributed pamphlets during the Holocaust shining a light on what was happening in Nazi Germany. They risked their lives (and lost) in an effort to bring information to the people.

Goodman finished by reading from her latest book (Standing Up to the Madness); she chose a chapter called Librarians Unbound and a story of librarians who refused to share patron records with the FBI. It was perfect for the setting and amplified the heroic deeds performed by people who showed up and did the right thing in their quest for transparency and providing access to information.

This week a new club opened in Minneapolis –The Brick. It’s coporate owned. It’s moving into a town that has a lot of love (mostly) for the existing clubs, such as First Avenue. And in fact I have to say that First Avenue is bar none, the best club I have ever visited. After First Ave, we have a lot of good places around town that play a nice assortment of local and national bands. So maybe we don’t need a place like The Brick – but they got Jane’s Addiction for the opening night. So I wasn’t turning that down.

Billy and I went. We showed up about 5 minutes before Jane’s Addiction started to play (after a great meal at 112 Eatery) – and it turns out our timing was amazing – beucase apparently there had been a huge queue to get in if you were early – there were just a few people waiting when we got there. There wasn’t the best vibe in the world around the place. Tons of cops and security guards. Billy said it was nearly as bad as when Rage Against the Machine played during the RNC. And the security guards were dressed like every popular-yet-evil guy from any Molly Ringwald movie circa 1983. And I think there were frisking most people at the door – they looked at me and let me walk in. (I like this think it’s ‘casue I’m a girl; it might be because I’m old.)

But we get in and our timing is perfect – so we’re happy. But the place is super crowded. We go up to the top floor. Useless – I can see nothing. Billy can’t see much more. Billy suggests we try a monitor – but they too were from 1983 (super small) so we moved on. Second floor wasn’t much better. There balcony overlooks the stage – but it’s too deep. I bet the folks hanging off the balcony got a great view – everyone else, not so much.

So we head to the ground level. I kind of have to mention here – that the bars weren’t super impressive. We must have walked by a few – but they weren’t very appealing. Now we were focused on getting to a place where we could see – but we’re usually easily distracted by beer.

Anyways we finally sort of snake into the big crowd downstairs. We’re nowhere near the stage – but at least it finally feels like we’re at a concert. And actually we have plenty of space because we’re behind one of the many columns that seemed to wreck sight-lines all over the floor. The crowd was generally pretty happy – mostly 30-somethings would be my guess. But with all of the security, I think people were kind of looking for injustices too. And there was a least one couple that didn’t seem to realize that if you’re going to make out the whole time – courtesy dictates you find a wall!

The one thing that I didn’t love was the huge amount of secondhand smoke – not from cigarettes. I know I may be in the minority, but that’s not a value-add to a concert for me.

Jane’s Addiction was good. Who can resist Jane Says or Stop. They got everyone going – depsite the fact that even they could clearly feel the bad vibes. In fact at one point Perry Ferrel called out the bouncers – sugesting that if they didn’t stop the agro that they might haev a riot on their hands. (Probably not – again the crowd was 30+.) But I’m sure that management heard the call from the stage.

I could see the members of the band occasionally – when someone ducked down in front of me or someone on stage jumped. They did have the dancing girls on an upper part of the stage. So if you’re into dancing girls – you could see them. And Perry Ferrel is pretty theatrical so I could see some of the acty parts of the act. I’d say you’d be hurting if you were seeing a stand-and-play band (which is often the kind I like best).

We left not loving the place – but thinking it was a pretty good night. So imagine our delight when the complainers of the world united, took to the social media airwaves and scored everyone their money back!! (In fairness the tickets were $65/ea and there were a lot of issues.) The big question is – would I go back? I guess that depends on who is playing.

I’ve been very negligent with updates but I did two fun things I wanted to post about today – first the Art Shanties. The Art Shanty Project is a collection of arty ice fishing houses. I don’t know the rules but it seem like you just have to have something that will last out on the lake. Some include ice fishing holes; many don’t. Some include heaters.

For folks outside Minnesota (or other cold parts), some people around here like to fish in the winter by drilling a hole in the ice of a frozen lake. They like it so much they have houses they can put around the hole. Some folks have huge mansion type ice fishing houses and they usually include heaters – because the ice is generally so thick around here by this time of year, it’s safe. This year has been unseasonably warm. It was 50 degrees earlier this week. So we were worried about the Art Shanties – but they got permission from the County to move forward. And on Wednesday it got cold. Today it was about 10 degrees when we were out there.

Due to the earlier warm weather, the shanties are much closer to shore than in the past, but that’s OK. There were a couple dozen I think. They are very cool (no pun intended)and the artists who create the shanties are generally pretty friendly and are happy to tell you about their project and they might even have an interactive component to the shanty. Here are a few brief descriptions of some of the shanties:

• Basketball Shanty – has a baseball hoop set up with bleachers and a score board outside the shanty. Inside the shanty is a locker room with the smallest lockers I’ve ever seen. The artists bought them on eBay and apparently they were in a school. The only graffiti we saw said “ACE ‘79”. The artists thought that it was probably a kid named Ace. I pointed out it could be an Ace Frehley fan.
• Robot Reprise – giant robot – think transformer in looks – shoots rocket-like fireworks. Need I say more?
• Reflection Shanty – include a glass wall (well not glass, but transparent and very clear/clean wall) and a few mirrored walls. Very calm – beautiful view of the frozen lake.
• Fort Shanty – don’t think army. Think card table and all of the blankets in your house – plus a few cubbies.
• ICE-Cycles Shanty – ride a bike around the like! Include at least one bike with an ice skate for a wheel.
• Nordic Village Bridge – bill goat clothing for you, a bridge, a troll – be sure to have a fast answer to get by is all I can say.
• Camera Head: Invert Your World – very cool idea where they have head-mounted camera obscura. Look through and see everything upside down. (Cemented lessons we learned about camera obscura in Scotland.)
• Monsters Under The Bed Shanty – very cute inside and out, inhabitants are monsters. They asked Aine to give a monster description to their sketch artist.
• SitandSpinShanty – This has to be a crowd favorite. It looks like an ornate egg. You go into it and it’s like the tilt-a-whirl. You turn the wheel, it spins. The artists mentioned that it took a lot longer than they expected, but it’s cool. I took a quick video from inside, which I actually wish was longer – and I rarely wish that.
• Letterpress Shanty – another cool one. They have a working letterpress and will be creating a newsletter/newspaper each day based on Tweets they receive online and pen and paper Tweet on site. Aine and I each made a postcard. It’s very cool to see how the presses work – and amazing to think what was involved in spreading the news back when they used them.

On Saturday December 17, Aine and I attended a Posada – or at least a modified version of the Mexican Posada hosted by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (St. Paul’s Lutheran 2742 15th Ave S, Minneapolis). Spanish for lodging, Posada is a traditional festival celebrated in Mexico for nine days leading up to Christmas where community members walk door to door with actors portraying Mary and Joseph as they seek shelter.

The Minneapolis version lasted for one night, starting at the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church where community members were invited to prepare for the parade by making lanterns to hold candles and viewing a bilingual performance of bible stories leading to Mary and Joseph seeking a safe haven. From the church, the procession went door to door seeking shelter and was turned away by church neighbors (or at least the minister enacting the parts of the neighbors) until returning once again to the Church, where they were invited to stay. Once in the Church there was a brief, musical ceremony that ended with the addition of a well-behaved Baby Jesus. Following the ceremony were games, food and a great party. It is an interesting firsthand glimpse at what it must have been like to go from inn to inn before settling in a stable for the night.

Virginia Salgada, originally from a small town in Mexico, now residing in Minneapolis, explains that in her town the festival would involve 17 home each night; 16 homes would turn away the procession and the final home would invite them in to celebrate. This happened for nine days; on the final day Jesus would be presented. Everyone in the town would join the celebration. It was one big family. The Minneapolis tradition is different. It’s too cold (even this year) to want to walk so far and the attendees do not necessarily know each other but the sense of community is strong and the celebration is still based in music.

The Posada has been celebrated in the area for several years. Originally the production was done in tandem with the Heart of the Beast Theater; this is the second year it has been performed solely by the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church community. Reverend Patrick Cabello Hansel has been reaching out to the Latino population around St. Paul’s Lutheran Church since 2005. The Posada is one example of the emerging Latino community bringing a new look and new perspective to a Church that has been serving the community since 1872.

We had an interesting Sunday last week. We went to the Mall of American where we saw Anne Burrell (from the Food Network) and Duff McKagan (from Guns n Roses) signing their books. Then we headed to the OccupyMN demonstration.

The girls were not necessarily thrilled to be going to a demonstration – since our last one was the RNC. I promised there would be no guns here, which they did not believe – luckily I was right.

Occupy MN was interesting. We were there during a quiet time, which gave us a better opportunity to check out everything. Everyone is camped out by the Government Building. There appear to be a hard-core group of people who are there full time, a group of people who probably come and go throughout the day – and then looky loos, like us. I have to give credit – we were welcomed in a friendly matter and folks were quick to thank us for our support. Nice!

I got a picture of the Committee Board, which I think gives a really good idea of how things seem to be down there. There are committees to handle different aspects of demonstration life – from food to sanitation to poster boards. There was a “teach in” going on while we were there. In essence it looked like a teacher (volunteer with knowledge or expertise) was sharing their knowledge with anyone who wanted to take part.

We ran into a friend there – RuthAnn. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that RuthAnn is north of 60. She’s a librarian and she has been on site for a few hours every day. She confirmed that we were there during a quiet time. She said most folks seemed pretty supportive of the effort – the exception being some Vikings fans who suggested that maybe the demonstrators get a job. But that’s some – not all of the fans – many were supportive.

It would be interesting to know how many of the demonstrators do have jobs – clearly the full timers probably don’t – but I suspect many other do work (or are retired, or are students).

I noticed that there were marketing and cohesive message committees. That would be a tough climb – as the Occupy Wall Street manifesto seems a little all over the place – although maybe that’s a reflection on society being a little all over the place right now.

The girls, Grandpa and I made our annual pilgrimage to Pumpkinland. We’ve been going for a few years. Grandpa and I are prepared for the year that the girls aren’t so interested – but as soon as we saw signs of fall, all three start asking about Pumpkinland.

There are some generational differences in trip highlights – but I’ll try to be fair in my summary.

We get to see (and hold!) baby chicks and bunnies. You know how grandpa and I are suckers for cute and fluffy! You get to ride in a go-cart kind of thing down a hill. Really I could spend my whole day doing that. Then there are contests – like sack races – ask me who the winner was. You can swing on the hay bale thing – if you’re under 14. And best of all is the pumpkin trebuchet. We love seeing the pumpkin catapult into the lake. Love to hear the explanation of how it works each year.

This year was definitely the warmest trip yet. It was unseasonably warm and we went a little earlier than usual. No stopping at Wal-Mart for mitten this year.

We also stopped by the largest ball of twine – in Darwin, MN. We love seeing that and playing on the playground across the street – where they have old school seesaws. Someone usually gets hurt and we are reminded why most places have safetied up community playgrounds.

We capped off the day to a visit to the cemetery – where my grandparents are buried.

A fun family tradition!

Last week we went to see Imelda May. We kind of discovered her over the summer; she is from Dublin. I had hoped she would play while we were in Ireland. No luck – but when we got home we saw that she was planning to play here.

Imelda May plays rockabilly. She was great. As Patrick put it – she did a stadium performance in a night club setting.

The Weisman Art Museum is the very funky building on the University of Minnesota campus. It overlooks the River and has been closed for a long time. They reopened in October and we were there for it.

Aine and I were super into it. Patrick and Kate were not. Aine and I got brand new silk screened T-shirts. They did not. Aine and I saw all of the art. They did not.