 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
| Ryan Simonson was out of town, but we stopped at the SooVAC gallery to see the drawing show that he has a few pieces in. They were all kind of jumbled together on the walls, his are the colorful, bold, gnarly, collage-y ones. | Closeup of one of Ryan's pieces. | The rest of these are just some things that caught my interest at the show, in no particular order. |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
| These were a nice format and had good colors. | Nice collage and colors here, reminds me of Constructivist collages we saw in Type 2 class. | Lots of this drippy, layered, shiny square stuff. I liked it. |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
| And again. | And some more. Vanessa liked these too. | Lots of good stuff in this gallery and store. Wish we had more time to look at more stuff, will go back next time I'm in town. |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
| These alien forms are some kind of dead or hibernating foliage outside Vanessa's friend Kyle's apartment building. Wow. | We ate at Mai Village in Frogtown, St. Paul. It's a beautiful new Vietnamese restaurant. The decor was splendid, the food was about a 6 out of 10. These veg spring rolls were pretty good, the sauce was a bit much. | Vanessa's mock duck noodle salad. Good flavor but lost points for: 1) being served with fish sauce 2) no plate of fresh cilantro, lime, basil, peppers and bean sprouts for garnish. |
 Fri, Nov 26, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
| My spicy mock duck dish was decent but a little unimaginative, this is basically your Typical Chinese Vegetable Delight Stir-Fry with mock duck instead of tofu and a slightly better sauce. | Saturday night we went to a wedding, for Vanessa's friend Wendy from Chicago Public Radio. Windows on church where whe was married. It was freezing cold outside. | David and Wendy dancing, man and wife. |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
| Their reception was held in a beautiful space called Sokol Hall, a Czech establishment on the second floor of a building off of 7th St. in Saint Paul. Lots of brochures promoting gymnastics, Czech culture, and more. This place was an old-school gymnasium. | Vanessa wasn't thrilled to have her photo taken, you can tell by the red eyes. | |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
| The band was pretty awesome, especially once they warmed up and started playing some good ethnic shit, as opposed to "wedding standards." | Some of Vanessa's workmates at a table together. Good folks. | The top portion of the wedding cake. The layers were separated to facilitate cutting. |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
| First in a series of "train dance" photos. | "Doin' the Butt." | Wendy leading a group |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
| And again | More of Vanessa's workmates, Andrew and Norvyn in foreground | CSPS Hall was the official name on the sign outside. |
 Sat, Nov 27, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
| Got a view of St. Paul from a hill across the river(?). See panorama photo, last in this set. | Driving home through Wisconsin, about 6 hours of this sort of view. | I love the pine trees. |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
| This looked better in real life, twisty-turny road descending a large hill. | I took this just for the raggedy evergeen in the Falls Motel's sign. I-94. | There are a few scenic bits in western Wisconsin on I-94, like this exposed rock which makes the perfect canvas for aspiring teenage spraypaint bandits. |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Mon, Nov 29, 2004 |
| More of those same rocks, looking back. | Downtown Black River Falls, Historic Jackson County, WI. They had several of these great signs telling tales of local history. Reminded me of Buhl, MN, home of the World's Best Water. | Stopped in the Dells for dinner because Vanessa had never been there. Had to capture this gem at night, this is a short video of the House of Embers restaurant's brilliant neon sign. |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
 Sun, Nov 28, 2004 |
| We managed to get in touch with Jean, who was visiting Liz in Madison. Here is Vanessa posing with him. | Here's the Champ and I in front of the WI capitol building. | Another shot like the last, but in a "landscape" format suitable for framing. |
 Mon, Nov 29, 2004 |
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| Here's the aforepromised panorama of the St. Paul skyline at night. Blurry! |