7:15 A.M.

-7 degrees.

Why the heck do people live here?  I thought Wisconsin weather was cold, but this is a new level of winter.

We’re almost at the winter solstice, and the days are short and grey.  We’ve had some decent snowfalls, but nothing like a blizzard yet.  I expect to wake up to a blizzard any day now, but I’m hoping it will wait until after the holidays.  Knock on wood.  Mainly, I’m hoping temperatures will rise into the 15-25 degree range so that I can go outside and take some winter photographs.  With temperatures this cold, I don’t last very long before needing to come back inside.

One of my favorite blogs, Overheard in Minneapolis, had this overheard quote from election day:

Woman voting: I only got one eye! It doesn’t matter who I vote for, ’cause I’m still gonna have one eye!

I don’t think either of the candidates considered the one-eye lobby.

I check this blog constantly for quotes– there’s always a few that will make me laugh.  Sometimes I’m amazed at what comes out of people’s mouths.  I’m desperately waiting to overhear a silly quote of my own that I can send in, but no luck so far!

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As alluded to in an earlier post, our apartment was burgled.  My trusty computer was stolen, as was my digital camera, and a few other electronic trinkets.

I immediately wanted to flee from this city, and go home to my real home: Milwaukee.  Minneapolis has been a very difficult city to warm up to in many ways, and having your most valuable electronic posession stolen pushed me over the edge that night.  I ended up staying in MPLS that weekend, but took the following weekend to go home and see friends– recharge my batteries a little away from this place.

We were insured for a portion of our losses, so while its still a financial blow at a difficult time, it wasn’t a complete disaster.  Weeks later we’re still waiting for the rest of our claim to be paid, but that’s another story entirely.  The upshot is that I got a new MacBook and I hope to make good use of it.  The downshot is that I really don’t have a digital camera right now.

Nevertheless, I took this photo of the early autumn leaves in my phone.  Photos do not do justice to the incredible beauty of our street those few days when the leaves all changed.  I would have liked to have taken more photos, but there’s always next year.  Hopefully the snapshot above will give you and idea of the beautiful old trees that line our street.

Election Day is always a bit of a milestone for C & I.  It was on election day in 2000 when Christopher and I first talked on the phone– long-distance Superior to Madison.  Election Day generally conjures up thoughts of waiting hours and hours for results, only to find that it will take weeks before the election was settled.  This election, fortunately, was over pretty quickly, and with a far better result.

I knew that this election was special when I saw the 130,000 supporters gathering in Chicago’s Grant Park just to hear Obama’s acceptance speech.  When I saw the sheer number of cameras pointed at the stage, I knew that this was an event that would reverberate all over the world.

Obama is right when he says that this election victory is not the “change” that we’re after.  This victory is only our chance to make that change real.  If we want to fix the many ills of the United States, it’s up to us to make it better.  But as evidenced by the landslide victory, the combined force of right-minded individuals can achieve great heights.

Here in Minnesota, we have a still-undecided senate race.  Al Franken is challenging the incument senator and former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman.  The campaign was long, expensive, and dirty– on both sides.  Candidates exchanged jabs with one another for months through debates, interviews, and local television.  In the end, their votes were only 700 apart.  Franken, the probable loser, is calling out lawyers to investigate “voting irregularities.”  The recount has begun.

Obama’s victory is so amazing to me because it truly brought people together behind a progressive ideology.  Young people supported the cause in many amazing ways, including some of the greatest graphic design I’ve ever seen in support of a political campaign.  Obama didn’t call into question John McCain’s personal character, or question his patriotism– he simply convinced people that his ideas were better.

And yet, Al Franken seems stuck in this pre-Obama Democratic paradigm.  Attack, attack, attack.  If you don’t get you way, persue any possible avenue left.  Scratch your way to the top.  He’ll end up losing to Coleman in the end, and the millions and millions of dollars spent on negative TV ads will be gone forever.  A word to future senatorial candidates, focus on the good you can do in this world, and drop the dirty politics.  If the only reason to elect you is that your opponent is worse, its hard to get behind your campaign.

For the first time in a long time, I’m proud of my country, and of the message that we’ve sent the world by electing Barack Obama.  No one can know what the future will bring, but at least now we can all be optimistic.  If we can hold on to the energy that Obama created in this campaign, we might be able to make some very meaningful changes.

My computer was stolen from our apartment while I was away at work.  Its been two weeks, but I’m hoping to have a new one sometime this week.  More on all that later.  Wish me luck Mac-shopping.

A few weeks ago at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, I made a little discovery.  Tucked away in a hallway was this unusual landscape:

It’s by a French artist with a very Spanish-sounding last name: Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña.  A landscape painter of the Barbizon school active in France in the mid-19th century, his work would be easy to miss in the museum.  While not quite the stuff blockbuster art shows are made of, I was completely drawn in by the unique color palette of this forest scene, painted in 1860.  I just thought it looked unlike the other landscape paintings surrounding it.  I snapped a picture for reference, and moved on.  A few rooms later, I came across this canvas:

Painted circa 1870, this work shows a scene of Constantinople, immediately recalling Delacroix and his scenes of Algeria.  Though not as dramatic as Delacroix, certainly a nice late 19th century Orientalist picture– evidence of France’s interest in faraway places as it built its colonial empire.  Did Diaz travel to Constantinople?

Then, tucked away in a group of landscape works was this little beauty:

This work, entitled “Wet Pasture” was also painted c. 1870.  Its vibrant colors called out to me immediately, and though it was perched high in the gallery, it made quite an impression.  The oil paint looked fresh and new, the orange of the setting sun a perfect compliment to the grey-blue of the evening sky.  Such a tiny painting, and yet such a masterful landscape– I really loved it.

Diaz only gets a brief mention in some of my texts, so I’m determined to find out some more information– especially how he’s come to carry such a Spanish sounding surname.  I love it when I find something completely new (to me!) at the museum.  You can see the complete MIA photoset here.

In Wisconsin, we don’t have black squirrels.

Of course, that can’t be true.  There must be black squirrels in Wisconsin.  Yet, in all my memories, I can’t ever remember seeing a black squirrel in Racine, Milwaukee, Madison, or anywhere else in the state.  So naturally, when I saw a black squirrel leaping through Loring park on Monday, I was transfixed.

As I sat down on a park bench and ate a sandwich, this little guy became equally fascinated with my food.  He approached me from every angle, desperate for a fallen crumb.  When nothing appeared, he jumped up onto the bench and watched me even closer.  When he got too close for comfort I swung my arm in his direction, causing him to sommersault off the bench and take off into the park.  But when I started eating my dessert, a chocolate brownie, he was back.

I gave him a tiny piece of my food, snapped his photo as he took off, and headed back to work.

September has come, and will be over before we know it.  Autumn is almost upon us, though it seems this week we’re experiencing Indian Summer.  Temeratures are around 80 in the afternoon, though the degrees fall dramatically once the sun goes down.

I once was in Stockholm in March– still winter for Scandinavia but mid-spring in central Europe.  What I remember most about being so far north is that the sun never seemed to rise the high.  At the peak of the day, the light looked like late afternoon.  This dramatic angle of sunlight was the best they got all day, and once it was gone, the air of winter crept back through the city streets.

Here in Minneapolis, the days remind me of Sweden.  Not that we’re nearly as far north (Stockholm is at 59 degrees north, while Minneapolis is only 44), but I’ve always though there was a similarity between the weather in Scandinavia and the weather in the upper midwest.  This landscape, this light, this weather– all must have seemed suitable for the original Scandinavian settlers of the area.

As for me, I’m lucky in that my erratic work schedule as of late has allowed me to enjoy this intermediate season.  The light that pours through our sunroom windows in the afternoon is something special– a light we didn’t quite have in our Milwaukee apartment.

Having not painted our main living room wall yet, I was able to enjoy a reflective image of our street composed entirely from shadow.  As we head towards winter, I thought it best to take time and admire the late summer sunlight before that Scandinavian winter air creeps in and changes it all.

Its Thursday, and I’ve only got a little bit more time before heading to work.  This week has been very tiring, but I have a day off tomorrow– so I’m really looking forward to sleeping in late and enjoying the day.

I’m still looking for a good job– something that pays well, something that is more up my alley.  But for the past week I’ve been working at an art supply store– which has been difficult but fairly relaxed.  Difficult in that I don’t know all that much about art materials since I’m not a fine artist (except for bookmaking and some printmaking), I have to turn to the rest of the staff with all sorts of questions.  But today will be day 4, and I feel like I learn more every day– so it shouldn’t be too difficult to make it through one more day.

The main downside has been working very long days.  8:30-7:00 is much longer than I’m accustomed to being on my feet.  But the people I work with are pleasant, and the store has a very relaxed feel– so I’m not minidng it as much as I thought I would.  I just don’t wear a watch, or time will creep by.  I think its easier if you just let time pass naturally.

After 4 weeks with no work, its a nice feeling to be working hard.  Despite the long hours and the small paycheck, this seems like its definitely a step in the right direction for me.  Work will lead to more work.  Hopefully better work.

Last Saturday, Christopher and I went to the Minnesota State Fair.  It was my first time at the fair, and I was amazed at the number of people there and the sheer size or the fairgrounds.  It definitely seemed bigger that the Wisconsin Fair.  Although, and this is something I’m learning about Minnesota in general, is that it was a sea of white faces– very little diversity amongst the fair-goers.  The Milwaukee fair is always an eclectic mix of different people, and I somewhat missed that at the Minnesota fair.  Nevertheless, the food was great, and there were more good photo opportunities than I could even keep up with.  Here’s a few of my favorite photos:

Italian Spaghetti Village

a crop art tribute to Bernie Mac

fancy chickens

You can view the rest of the photos here.  Can’t wait for next year.