Minnesota

Selected FITK posts on the Professor’s sojourns in the Land of Lakes:

2021

Mysteries of Grand Marais
Wine Tour (Stillwater)

2020

Honky-Tonk Woman (Waverly)
The Last Gig (Northeast Minneapolis)
Jono’s Letter (Grand Marais)
Heroes and Villans (South Minneapolis)
Yard Concert (Robbinsdale)
Nature Preserve (Anoka) 
Prom Nights (Saint Paul)
State Fair Memories (Falcon Heights)
Adventures with the Green Van (Bemidji)
My Last Cigar (Cambridge)

2019

Take-out (Anoka)
Paradise Found and Lost (Minneapolis)
The End of Winter (Anoka)
Small Town Talk (Anoka)
Skaterdater (Minneapolis)
() (Minneapolis)
Halloween Terrors (Anoka)
Weekend in New Ulm

2018

Five From the Frigid Fair (Falcon Heights)
On the Town (Anoka)
Art-A-Whirl (NE Minneapolis)
I Live in a Magical World (Anoka)
I Dig the Nightlife (South Minneapolis)
Savoury Summer (Anoka)
Surreal Saturday (Downtown Minneapolis)
Waseca Wonders

2017

Grand Marais by Night
More Grand Marais
Farewell Grand Marais
Harriet and Desha (Saint Paul)
Food Truck Frenzy (Anoka)
Midnight Serenade (Chatfield)
Purcell-Cutts House (Minneapolis)

2016

Jack Clark’s Bar and Cafe (North Minneapolis)
Transition (North Minneapolis)
Green Lake (North Minneapolis)
Anoka Home Tour
Four More from the Fair (Falcon Heights)
Four from the Fair
Fair Friday Final Four
North (Cook County)

2015

Art-A-Whirl (Minneapolis)
Ergot Museum (Dassel)
Rivertown Ramble (Anoka)
Saturday in the Park (Waseca)
River Rats (Anoka)
Four From the Fair (Falcon Heights)
Four More From the Fair
Further Fair Foursome
Fair Final Four

2014

Trail Center (Cook County)
Young at Heart Records (Duluth)
Country Auction (1970-Upsala)
Art-A-Whirl (Minneapolis)
A Jolly Excursion (Minneapolis-Saint Paul)
From Paradise to Sunrise (Kanabec County)
The Crazy Lady’s House (Kanabec County)
Clambering in the Fog (Anoka)

2013

Street Street (Anoka)
Playing Hooky (Minneapolis)
Art-A-Whirl (Minneapolis)
More from Art-A-Whirl
Mr. Lucky (Minneapolis)
Family Values (Two Harbors)
Stale Pop (Minneapolis)
Mansion on the Hill (Anoka)
Loring Park Girls (Minneapolis)
I Love the Fair (Falcon Heights)
Pipestone

2012

Art-A-Whirl (NE Minneapolis)
Prairie Home Cemetery (Anoka)
Alice in Wonderland (Waverly)
William A. Porter (North Minneapolis)
Frank R. MacDonald (North Minneapolis)
Charles C. Webber (North Minneapolis)

2011

Sleepy Eye
Bands, Beer and Birds (New Ulm)
New Ulm
Hot Rods and Custom Dreams (Anoka)
Ye Old Mill (Falcon Heights)
Aprés-Ski (Morrison County)

2010 and older…

Postcards from the Fair (Falcon Heights)
Old Camden (Minneapolis)
Street Corner Philosopher (Minneapolis)
Twilight of the Goddesses (Minneapolis)
Luncheon on the Grass (Waverly)
Mysteries of the North Country
Curiosity Shop (Northfield)
The Interlopers (Lanesboro)
Beaver Flicks (Grand Marais)

Year in Review - Arts Edition

Art opening, Maple Grove, Minnesota

These images are "leftovers" from prior posts, they didn't really fit at the time, but I felt them to be too good not to show.

This year could be termed "The Year of Art" at FITK. It seemed to me that a larger portion of the posts this year were concerned with visual arts; be it openings I had attended, galleries crawls, as well as my own photo-illustrations for The Matriarchy serial novel. I've also been acquiring new art. Original works by Caitlin Karolczak and Shoshanah Lee Marohn, in addition to reproductions of Wanda Gág photos and illustrations, are now gracing the walls of Flippist World Headquarters.


Art opening, Maple Grove, Minnesota

I've managed to overcome my traditional avoidance of public photography, most people ignore me: its surprising how far gray hair and wrinkles can go in making one become invisible.


Art-a-Whirl, Minneapolis, Minnesota

One of the original 'tenets' of Flippism is the Key was "Common things which are actually strange and strange things which are really common will be dealt with here." Tip for those thinking of starting a blog: leave your credos as open-ended as possible, you'll eventually need as much "wiggle room" as possible.


Experience Music Project, Frank Gehry architect, Seattle Washington

I've been fortunate in avoiding disability or destitution, so travel is still enjoyable. I'm not a compulsive globe-trotter, but it is nice to broaden my horizons from time to time. No Iceland this year, but there will be a 'special' trip in February.


Pedestrian Tunnel, Anoka, Minnesota

On the home front things are going well, my immediate neighborhood has been repopulated, with only one unoccupied house in the adjoining blocks versus the seven or eight only a few years ago. We're the 'old-timers' now, although we'll always be considered 'outsiders' (some of the houses here have third generation owners.)


Commercial Exterior, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, a thirty minute drive away, has maintained its stature as the cultural mecca of the upper Midwest, although Saint Paul is right on its heels. Improvements in mass transit have started to erase the barrier between the twin cites, as well as continued growth in the increasingly more urban suburbs.


Commercial Interior, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The new year finds Professor Batty and FITK looking ahead to more randomness as well as finishing ‘The Sequel.’ This site is starting to suffer the law of diminished returns but, barring further revisions in Google's search algorithms, it should remain viable for another year. If, however, the open internet should happen to be taken over by corporate interests you can kiss this blog goodbye.


Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Art-A-Whirl 2015

Another year, another Art-A-Whirl. This event takes place on Northeast Minneapolis, in the manner of art crawls everywhere. This is the 30th, it really hasn't changed much, except for the plethora of food trucks.  I saw this studio-less sculptor in the hallway with a creature made from old iMac parts:




Auto traffic is really quite impossible in places, even with hundreds of bicyclists relieving the parking pressure. ‘Bike-A-Whirl’:




There are a variety of musical groups performing—it’s a lo-key affair—the ‘green room’ is likely to be a loading dock:



But the real fun is making connections with the artists, I had taken a picture of Alexandra Bildsoe last year (on the left), this year I got to participate in her ‘Send a Postcard’ project:

Art-A-Whirl 2013

Abstract Study in Blue, Caitlin Karolczak, collection of the author

It's the third weekend in May, which means its time for the Northeast Minneapolis Art-A-Whirl. I've gotten into the habit of going, there is always something of interest, even if it may not always be the artwork. Most of the studios on the tour are in re-purposed industrial buildings, which sometimes have interesting links to the past:



The very first place I stepped into was the studio of Susan Armington, who was doing a painting/oral history project on the Mississippi River. I talked to her and her most charming volunteer assistant Bridget for a long time about a subject dear to my heart:



There was far too much to talk about in one post, but I'll leave you with this image of a couple of "Art-Cars":



Some people know what great art is when they see it!

Betra Líf

I attended an art opening last week where one of my favorite artists had some of her work up in a gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. A late-summer humid warm spell gave the non air-conditioned space a sultry vibe, perfectly suited to her atmospheric paintings. When I caught the artist’s attention, she came over and we had a short chat about her art and the neighborhood.



While I’m not as good at small talk as I used to be, and I really did enjoy talking with the artist, I don’t want to be a creepy old man who follows her around. I’ve bought some of her work in the past, I hope she judges my taste by those things I have purchased. Any struggling artist leads a hard life and I’m happy to support her in my small way.



I always feel like an imposter at these soirees. I hardly ever see anyone I know and I’m usually the oldest person there. My days of trendy dress and hipster-ish behavior are in the distant past. This event was better though, it always helps to have children around: 



I had spent many an evening in the neighborhood and the memories of them were benign. Non-threatening ghosts were swirling all around me: a dance where I had played 45 years ago was held in the ballroom directly above the gallery, the theater where I had seen a memorable play was on the same block, a record release party held on the next block. Many memories, all within a stone’s throw. After I got in my car and began to drive away, the Páll Óskar song Betra Líf came on my car’s MP3 player. It was the poignant concert version; a bittersweet musing on desire and fulfillment:

I just look around and see
All of this beauty that is near to me
I had put that aside, it was only a stalemate
Now I'm at the right time and in the right place
Who can I thank for that?
I opened my eyes and my heart…

At the end of the block I drove past the bar where I had worked in the early aughts. Across the street from that place was another bar, a place where I attended a mini-reunion with some of my high-school classmates. Swinging over a block, to the county road, I soon came across a restaurant where I once had a dinner with my late brother-in-law and his mother. All gone now. A block beyond that was the funeral home where I had been last year, paying my respects to an old classmate.

I found a better life
Because I finally had to believe it
Another life would be something else
Something bigger and bigger
Life is all that is…

Ghosts everywhere. A few blocks further on there was the club where I last saw Frankie Paradise play thirty years ago. Beyond that was a whole block of houses—surrounded by a tall chain-link fence—that had been condemned. It was where my niece and her now-divorced husband used to live. Nothing like urban renewal to completely erase the memory of a relationship gone bad.

Whether it's a big or little thing
I perceive some major power
I need no proof
I feel and know and see
Even with all knowledge and wealth
You could never create a tree
I opened my eyes and heart…

When I got to the parkway exit I left the county road. To the left of the exit the bridge over the railroad switching yard was still closed, has it really been under repair for 10 years? Going to the right, the parkway skirted the golf course and when I finally got back on a through street, I was only a block away from where Dan used to live. Dan had aspirations of art too, even going so far as to have his place be a stop on the Art-A-Whirl one year. Dan is gone now too, another ghost.

I found a better life
Because I finally had to believe it
Another would be something else
Something bigger and bigger
Life is all that is…

Betra Líf was written by Örlygur Smári, Niclas Kings and Daniela Vecchia, very loosely translated from the Icelandic.

Dogma

A collection of memorable FITK posts, sorted by year:

2025

Óx Revisited
Willey House
Endless Summer Redux
Orange Crush
Sound 80 and Me
Mosh Pit
I want to…
Strange Santa Fe
Experiments in AI
Market Day
The Eternal Dynamic

2024

Apple Loves Me
Love of an Adolescent
Adventures in Fine Woodworking
Memories Like Jazz
The Camden Motel
Cosmic Appple
Return to Shepherd’s Harvest
Kenergy
Virtual Exercise
The Best Day
Happy New Year

2023

Puzzling Perspective
Iceland 2023 Recap
RLBQ
Mothers and Daughters
Food Truck Frenzy
Clouds Over Grand Marais
Snookies Malt Shop
Finely Drawn
Retro Dance Party!
Móðir, kona, meyja
Love Hurts Twice
Soggy Sharon

2022

Day One
Lifting the Shroud
Flu Shot Saga
Simple Meals Are Best
Modern Problem
Bubble World Revisited
Job Opportunity
The Eagle Has Landed
Suicide Tourist
Another Invitation
French Connections
An Invitation

2021

Time Traveling With Bob
Fun with Dick and Joan and Bob and Mimi
Sandhill Cranes
Adventures in Linguistics
Return to Bubble World
Peggy and Her Pals
Matchbook Masterpieces
Ghost Neighborhood
Arty Party
Audio Artifacts…
Fan Dancer’s Horse
Puzzled

2020

My Last Cigar
Tony Glover Auction
Road Trip
State Fair Memories
Marlene Mania
God in the Garden
Hat Trick
Viral Sharon
Jono’s Letter
The Last Gig
My First Date Redux
Honky-Tonk Woman

2019

Waiting, Wishing, Hoping
Weekend in New Ulm
Dylan Double Down
Four More From the Fair
Bubbleworld
Beat Travel Guide
Arty Afternoon on Willy Street
Authority Figure
Golden Boy Redux
JC Revisited
Dreams on a Winter Afternoon
First Avenue

2018

Ceramic Culture
Airwaves and Gender
Anorexic
Light Birds
Red Sun
Savoury Summer
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Art-A-Whirl
Fade to Black
Godzilla Valentine
Pulp Flippist

2017

Porcelain Queen
Farmers Market
Wednesday Night…
Betra Líf
Twinned
Food Truck Frenzy
Art vs. Nature
Pastoral
Livestock
East Jesus
Baffled by Benchley
Harriet and Desha

2016

Walking with Ms. Lee
Great Minds Think Alike
How Does it Feel?
Through a Glass, Darkly
Missives from the Jazz Age
Learning to Fly
Astronauts: A Love Story
Searching for Shoshanah
Green Lake
Depth of Focus
February Thaw
All those moments…

2015

Proustian Dilemma
The Situation Girls
Fimm Konur
Four From the Fair
Girls’ Night Out
Saturday in the Park
Rivertown Ramble
Flaming Youth
Visions of Shoshanah
Woman Lake - 1980
It’s All Too Beautiful
Endless Summer

2014

Old Friends
Wanda in Art School
The Last Day of Summer
Bayfield 1984
Trail Center
From Paradise to Sunrise
Origami Litter
Art in Bloom
Face at the Window
Wanda Gág Day
Creative Writing
Germanium

2013

The Artist and the Collector
The Divine Mrs. M
45th Parallel
Blooms
I Love the Fair
The Mansion on the Hill
Iceland for Night Owls
Two Tickets to Paradise
Missed Connections
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Playing Hooky
Chanteuse

2012

Cindy Sherman
Sunday Night Shopper
Silent Movie
Last Days of Summer
Alice in Wonderland
Night at the Improv
Love Letters Straight from Your Heart
Howie’s
The Maestro's Farewell
Fathers and Daughters
Oral
The Wallflower

2011

Convergence
Book Review
Batty Visits Development Hell
Bill
Best Friends Forever
When Cars Had Tits
Batty’s World Tour
Patina
The Mystery of Ye Old Mill
Rituals of Courtship
Joni Mitchell’s Coyote
Walking on Thin Ice

2010

The Music of Failure
Postcards from Chennai
Sharon as Salome
Cosmic Call
Summer Hiatus
Camping With Sharon
Not Jim
Archie
Loss of a Pet
Pascal Pinon
January Thaw

2009

Mál og menning
Bill Holm's Last Reading
The Pastels
L'Opera dei Dannati
Sod
The iPad™
Haunted Castle
Ensculptic
Sex Dreams
Invader
Black Forest
Iceland at the Crossroads

2008

Saturday Matinee
Cold Comfort Farm
Richmond
Elizabeth the Great
Oh! Those BC Girls
Desperately Seeking Sharon
Milestones in haberdashery
Summer Love
Soliloquy
Door
The Visitor
Soft-core

2007

Cold Night
Single Mother
Amiina Now
Beautiful Kisses
Comica's Temptation
Green Lake
P.A.F
Twinned
Sweet Rolls and Silence
A Familial Misunderstanding
Found Object

2006

700 Year Old Disclaimer
The Boat of Longing
Hippies in the Heartland
Fine, I won’t walk around at night...
lines.
Smoking Lessons - The Pipe
Family Values
Hau Tree Lanai
Seasonal Equipoise
Water
Garden Party
More Postcards From Calcutta

2005

The bigger picture
My Funny Valentine
A day in my life
Sex-Ed 101
The Door
Button Jar
Dondi and the Waitress
Dance Party
The Accidental Traveling Companion
Ghost Blog
River Reverie
Red Zinger Tea

2004

Salome’s Dance
Mel Jass and Me
Coconut Oil
Gym Class
Flippist Industries, Inc.
José Loves Betty
Pink ‘n’ Black
Lesbians taking over the world?

Art-A-Whirl 2014

Another year, another Art-A-Whirl. I've started to burn out on this event, the good artists seem to be fewer and fewer while the growing attraction of this Northeast Minneapolis event is a proliferation of brew pubs. Not that there is anything wrong with a good microbrew, I've been known to indulge in one myself, but it turns the focus away from the artists. The same holds true, but worse, with the growth of music stages. Not only do they generally feature bad music, but the sound pervades throughout an entire building, effectively driving out any lofty thoughts about art one might entertain. It can become a bit too much for the younger attendees:


Solar Arts Building

But there were many nice visual moments; the artists' galleries tend to be in re-purposed industrial buildings which have their own aesthetic:


California Building

At times the overall effect is astonishing:


Solar Arts Building, painting by Caitlin Karolsczak

Some patrons become truly overwhelmed:


Casket Arts Building

Art-a-Whirl 2012

Maison des Artistes

Another installment of Northeast Minneapolis' art crawl event has come and gone. Akin to a traffic accident, so I just had to look. Minute variations on a theme— perhaps the result of too much art education? I found that as I traversed one converted warehouse after another full of unfinished, lifeless canvases and just plain ugly artwork it didn't really bother me. For the most part, this is a world unto itself, with its own set of priorities that didn't include me.

These straw monkeys with cell phones in a steel-lined room said something about the human condition, or perhaps it was a comment on the bad reception:


Brian Sobaski

Some of the older buildings had equipment left over from their previous existences. I found these tableaux to be as compelling as the exhibits:



But there were some exceptions to the artifice. The Bright Blue Earth Studio was one of them, it was full of life:


Tortuga

And life is good:

More from Art-A-Whirl 2013

The most intriguing studios are those where the Art is the hardest to comprehend:


Grain Belt Warehouse

Large scale sculpture needs a lot of space to be appreciated:


Sheridan Memorial Park

The occasional surprise of a completely over-the-top entryway:


Northrup King Building

And, of course, the industrial heritage of the area has its own plethora of art and design:


Monroe Street Viaduct

Diminishing Returns

It was Art-A-Whirl weekend, I was back from Wisconsin to catch it on Sunday afternoon. I wanted  to like it, but I only managed made it through one building.

With the exception of Caitlin Karolczak (right), the art I did see seemed to be worse than in previous years. I think it’s a trend.

The absolutely dismal weather (it had been raining the whole weekend; it was warmer in Reykjavík Sunday than it was in Minneapolis!) didn’t help any. When I tried to go to the Northrup King Building it was way too crowded, with no parking spaces for miles around.

I just can’t muster up an interest in this event any more: there are too many people, and too much bad art.


I found the hallways to be more interesting than the studios:

Art-a-Whirl Redux

#3

2019 Art-A-Whirl II

More from the crawl…

Food truck in Casket Arts patio:



Casket Arts Annex:



New restaurant in Solar Arts area:

2019 Art-A-Whirl I

Random impressions from the studio crawl…


Weathered grand piano in the hall of the California Building:



Door ornament, also California Building:



Welcome sign in Casket Arts Annex:

Mr. Lucky

More from the Art-A-Whirl 2013…



My luck was definitely changing for the better, especially when I ran into these young fortune-tellers:



The one on the right (Maddie?) told me after she read my tarot that I'd come into "good fortune" in a year divisible by four.

I can hardly wait for 2016.

Art-a-Whirl

#1


#2

2019 Art-A-Whirl III

A final look:

Vendor in Solar Arts Attic:



Young patron, Solar Arts Attic:




Basement, Casket Arts Building: