Space Contest, Drinkin' Spelling Bee, and a Crashed Wedding

 LET ME JUST START BY SAYING I would be thrilled to title one of these posts as follows:

Coco Goes Out...OF THIS WORLD

That's right. Ellipses and all caps. You know I don't use those grammatical tools lightly.

So what's the big occasion? It's the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle. And there will be a contest to accompany the celebration. The grand prize is the opportunity to travel into suborbital space. That means the winner will be able to see "the curvature of the earth and the blackness of Space."

If I don't win on behalf of the Space Needle, I'd love to petition Space Adventures to send a blogger (i.e. me) into space.

To keep myself from getting completely wound up about the idea of flying into orbit, I must distract myself with novelties here on earth. So, on Saturday I helped judge the Drinkin' Spelling Bee at the 331 club. It was a total blast (blast off? See? I can't get my brain down to earth now.) I witnessed someone spell a very long word backwards. I also saw a couple of people spell in their underwear.

And then Bunny and I crashed a wedding. 

Bunny and I danced a bit and then discovered a camera in one corner of the dance floor. Let's just take a look at what's going on here for a second, shall we? Obviously Bunny is trying to high-five the camera. Clearly I was afraid of bright lights at this point and slowly sinking into the floor. And then there's our new friend Eric -- a friend of the brides'. The brides' friend. Did I mention this was a lesbian wedding? And Eric is the fellow who invited us over for some Lillet on the rocks. Thanks again for one helluva great night, Eric!

Took some time for other summer activities this weekend -- including sitting outside at Gather, the new D'Amico & Sons restaurant at The Walker Art Center. It couldn't have been a more perfect afternoon for sitting outside. I'm not usually one for garden-y tasting cocktails, but their lavender lemonade was a perfect match for the summer afternoon. Be sure to visit on Thursdays for happy hour. A specialty cocktail is chosen as their feature and is only $5. Appetizers are also only $5 during happy hour, too.

There are a couple of feature appetizers each month as well. During August the two features are gnocchi, foie gras meatballs and cold porchetta, parmesan cracker, with horseradish cream. I had the gnocchi. I don't think I've used the word delectable on this blog before, so I will use it now. These appetizers were delectable. I'll share more about this later.

My uncle lives in northern Minnesota and likes to make his own wine using the area's wild fruits. In the past I've tried his various wine flavors, including choke-cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and, most recently, blueberry. One night the bottles of blueberry wine fermenting in his basement decided to have party of their own -- corks were popping. Instead of wine, my uncle accidentally made sparkling wine. And let me tell you, blueberry sparkling wine is luxurious. I wonder how many bottles are left...


Remember when I told you I took a very special behind-scenes-tour of the Science Museum of Minnesota? I'm making good on my promise to share it all with you -- I wrote about it here, for the local CBS affiliate.

Go. Eat, drink, and be merry, Chester.

Flash Flood, A Meteorite, and The Claw

Took a dip in the Rum River last Sunday with Indiana Jones, my mom and dad's flatcoat retriever mix. He likes to swim and he likes me, but I'm not sure he likes both at the same time. He starts to whimper if I float out too far and feels like he has to swim out and rescue me.



Walking back from the river I noticed a strange rock in the ground. I didn't pick it up at first, but then went back for it. I am so glad I did! Its dark red color stuck out in the light-colored sand of the field I found it in. I noticed shiny black specks in it as well, so when I got home I checked if it was magnetic. To my amazement, it was! However, I can't seem to find any photos of similar looking meteorites.



In my research though, I found out a 3-pound meteorite was found in that field in July 1961 (50 years to the month that I found this little rock!) and came to be called the Anoka Meteorite. In 1963 a 123 pound meteorite was found in Champlin, Minnesota, and has the exact same composition as the Anoka Meteorite. Found out a bunch of other information, too, but on to something else!

The next day on the bus ride back to Minneapolis, well before rush hour, I was surprised at the sudden traffic jam near the Broadway bridge on I-94. Cars were trying to merge back into the main lanes of traffic from the exit lane. As the bus continued forward, slowly, I saw what the problem was -- flood! I got some footage for you:

It seems I visit the Walker Art Center more than anything else lately, but how could I miss meeting famous wrestler from the 1960s and '70s, Baron Von Raschke? I couldn't, that's how. His son was present for the filming of a documentary by Phil Harder about Baron Von Raschke, so Bunny and I dressed as extras to appear in the film, too. Pretty great.

Hope you have a great week, Chester! Grrr!

Prosthetic Limbs, Mowing the Lawn, and Monster Munch

Photo by Bunny Ultramod

Because I live life on the wild side, I thought I had better start planning for my future by picking out a prosthetic limb. I'm betting I'll lose an arm some day -- you know, drinking mishap -- so started working on a prototype. Still have some work to do on that grip. You know, to hold a martini.

Coco and Paul Martin. Photo by Bunny Ultramod

Got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Science Museum's massive exhibit shop from Paul Martin, the Museum's Senior Vice President of Science and Learning. I tried out some prototype exhibits and also got to explore the vault a little. Couldn't bring my camera in though.

Saw some priceless artifacts -- it was nothing short of a room full of shelf upon shelf of treasures. Quite exciting. While I was there I found out some of the heirloom seeds they have are currently up on the International Space Station for an experiment. As you know, I love space, so this news thrilled me.

Saw some actual dinosaur bones up close and personal, as well as an ancient Mandan bull boat, spears, Chippewa Indian bead-work, and ancient Mexican ceramic sculptures. It was a good day in the Science Museum's vault, for sure.


Oh, I got a look inside my head.

Photo by Bunny Ultramod

And played with some nano particles.

Bunny and I headed over to The Walker yet again for their Open Field activities. Sat on the lawn while they did a lawn mowing demonstration (told you I live on the wild side) and hung out a bit with a couple of the artists-in-residence, Samuel Bing and Sinosa Loa of the band Fol Chen. They were creating customized, one-of-a-kind songs for people with their Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator.

Also listened to a sheep sniff around in the grass a bit.

Like the rest of the world, I am a bit fascinated with one Mr. Karl Pilkington. He mentions a snack he likes, Monster Munch, fairly frequently so I decided I wanted to try them, too. I got pickled onion flavor, which is pretty good. I like how tangy they are -- kind of like dill pickle chips (and I LOVE Old Dutch brand dill pickle chips). I want to try more flavors of these. They are tasty! I was expecting potato chips, but they are actually baked corn and kind of puffy. The packaging is fun to read, too: "Suitable for monsters and vegetarians."

Have a fine and dandy weekend, Chester!

Meeting and Eating

Remember to buy this and this.

Haven't been taking advantage of eating at all the food trucks parked around my neighborhood, but I did make a point of trying a sandwich from Turkey To Go. It was simple -- just pulled turkey on a plain hamburger bun, but somehow it was pretty sumptuous.

Checked out 1,001 Chairs at the Walker and saw chairs of all sizes and shapes set up outside on their patio on the corner of Groveland and Hennepin. The official name of the event was 1001 Chairs: An Observance in Honor of Silenced Voices. And when I say all sizes, I mean it. There were some Duplo-person sized chairs out along with the human-sized ones that people donated.

Saturday was an all-day affair. Found myself at the sculpture garden again, on one of the most hot and humid days of the year. This time I was there to dance. Good timing, right?  


Thank goodness an ice cream truck came by (got a massive Bomb Pop, ran into cwethern chewing on a Ninja Turtle). 

 

Bunny and I were there along with about 200 people to be a part of a Where the Hell is Matt? video. He's the fellow who's videos of him dancing badly in various places around the world have gone about as viral as viral can get. Nice guy! 

After that Bunny and I headed over to Joe's Garage. There was talk of a celebrity showing up there. Sure enough, lights and cameras were being set up in a back room. Then they wheeled in the woodchipper. That's right. Celebrities don't necessarily have to be people, just a noun. I consider the Empire State Building to be a celebrity, for instance. And an actual prop button can even be elevated to some minor celebrity notoriety. And on Saturday night Bunny and I got our photo with the Eager Beaver woodchipper that had a pretty memorable cameo in the Coen brothers movie Fargo.

Loving the hot weather, by the way. Reminds me of when I lived in New Orleans and of telling people who complained about the humidity there that it gets much worse in Minnesota.

Have a drink and remember all those snow emergencies we had last winter. 

Have one helluva week, Chester.

A Bang and a Bombshell

Photo by Bunny Ultramod

Well my week started off with a bang -- fourth of July, you know -- and ended with a couple of bombshells.

Headed to my mom and dad's house for a little getaway to the 'burbs and played bartender. I am getting really good at making mojitos. What else are we supposed to do with all the fresh mint growing in the yard? Once the sun went down we shot some fireworks over the house and ran around with sparklers for a bit.

Recent Bride #1; Emily Bennett Beck

Visited the SooVac gallery for their latest show Untitled 8. I'm always so excited to attend each of their exhibitions -- they are always jaw-dropping exciting and, in a way, futuristic. I never fail to be a little shocked and also laugh a bit, which is a sign of great art, no?

Naked Composer Series: Britten; Donna Dralle

Bunny and I headed to the Mall of America to do a bit of shopping and were lucky enough to be able to meet the 2011 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Claire Sinclair. She was there signing autographs and posing for photos, but also making an appearance in a fashion show showing off the new vintage-inspired fashions for sale in the mall's new Bettie Page store.

Photo by Bunny Ultramod

Miss Sinclair's sister and Playboy model Angela Marie was along as well. We chatted for a bit before the fashion show began. Sounds like the two of them are having fun in Minnesota! I hope they were able to make some time to visit some of the vintage stores in town -- I tipped them off to my favorites.

Here's to starting this week off with another bang and a bombshell, Chester!

Sneak Peeks and Tours

Plenty of projects that I'll surprise you with later (do you love surprises as much as I do?), but I was a busy bird this week with plenty of things I am happy to share right now.

Except for my out of state readers, we're all familiar with the Shubert Theater in downtown Minneapolis, right? It's that impressive but quiet, boarded up large cream-colored building on Hennepin between 5th and 6th streets. It has a pretty interesting history and, until now, may be most famous for it's delicate, slow move from its original location. Well, it's seeing a lot of action lately (including a name change to the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts) and I was able to get an inside sneak peek. The place is still full of construction equipment and I got to wear a hard hat on the tour. Scaffolding is on the stage and construction dust covers just about every surface. It's easy to see past all of that though. It's going to be a beautiful performing arts center. I can't wait to see dance performances there! I don't see nearly enough dance for how much I enjoy the artform.

Was great to see H.M.S. Pinafore at the Guthrie on opening night this weekend. It was also the Guthrie's 5th birthday in their new building! Everyone got to toast with little cups of champagne after the show. As I tweeted earlier, this production of H.M.S. Pinafore is absolutely insane. It's so naughty! And when it's not naughty, it's just sort of, well, mind blowing.

Headed over to PUNY to find out some fun things for you -- that's going to be a surprise though.

Gregory Green and John Waters

Have you gone to Absentee Landlord yet? It's the latest rage at the Walker curated by John Waters. If anything, see it for artist Gregory Green's piece. Bunny and I were able to chat with him a bit when the exhibition opened and he told us a wild tale about an art gallery that got raided by the police because of one of his creations, which contained diluted liquid opium. He makes fake bombs and whole-room pieces that, when you walk into them, look like you've stumbled into a crazed bomb maker's lair. John Waters has a room in his house devoted to a piece by Gregory Green, if you were wondering about the connection. 

Also, the special gift shop merchandise for this exhibition is really great. Plenty of gags, like fake mustaches and squirting flowers, but also limited edition pieces by John Waters himself. He's given some Barbie Dolls trashy makeovers and put their pictures of plates, of course. Check out Tina here:

The Ordway's production of Guys and Dolls closed this weekend -- I was glad to hang out with the cast before they dispersed onto other projects. After getting drinks with everyone at Meritage and before getting more drinks at Camp in St. Paul, I saw the International Space Station zip by overhead at 17,500 mph. It was fun being able to point that out to everyone! An exhilarating night for sure.

Planning a trip to NYC with my mom. Technically, we are always planning a trip to NYC, from the day we get back until the day we go again. Always so much to do! Thinking about Los Angeles a lot lately, too. I'm hooked!

Also, have you been to the ladies room in the intimate apparel section of Macy's in Minneapolis? It's a glamorous vintage gem. Oh -- and it's free!

Have a great week, Chester.

John Waters Curates "Absentee Landlord" at The Walker Art Center

Listening to John Waters talk about Absentee Landlord, his curatorial debut at the Walker Art Center, is like listening to someone talk about their latest, grandest, most experimental party ever. He’s invited strictly a cast of troublemakers -- those who were troublemakers in the past, and those who are more recently falling into the title. On Friday, Waters walked through his exhibition wondering if the artists he’s assembled together would get along, and, on a more thoughtful note, if some of them would eventually gain fame or fall into obscurity, saying “Who knows what a new master is going to be.”
He refers to the artists in this show as troublemakers because, for the most part, they work in taboos, such as Yves Klein who famously had nude models cover themselves in paint and push their bodies onto blank canvasses, or Russ Meyer, who is famous for his penchant toward busty women. Waters points out that eventually troublemakers become the norm, or “blue chip.” Take, for instance, Wolfgang Tillmans’ photo of two young men kissing entitled "The Cock (kiss)." It isn’t as controversial as it would have been several years ago. In fact, as Waters puts it, “now it’s rather innocent.” But Absentee Landlord explores the question: Can the old troublemakers handle the new ones? Which is why Waters made sure to put seemingly mismatched works next to each other. “It’s like casting a movie with unlikely combinations,” Waters said. And somehow, the pieces brought together for Absentee Landlord do work quite nicely together.

People who know of John Waters’ other professions -- and he has many -- know that he doesn’t shy away from raunchy subject matter. Some may mistake him for a prankster or someone just out for the novelty of shock. And that’s not without cause -- after all, some of the products brought into the Walker’s gift shop include fake mustaches, squirting flowers, fake syringes, and other classic gags -- but when it comes to the world of art, John Waters is not joking around. He is sometimes amazed at the audacity of art, but recognizes that wit is a big part of contemporary and modern pieces. His first major experience with art was one of power, and his obsession began with a Miro art print that he bought for a dollar when he was just a boy. Or rather, the reaction he got when he showed it to his friends. ”When I brought it home and showed it to my friends, they all said, ‘eew, what is that?’ and that’s when I realized, wow, this is powerful stuff.” His tastes have expanded since then, but art is still serious business. In fact, when he plans gallery visits in New York, friends who join him know they must follow along tout suite or be left behind in his Comme des Garcons fashion dust.

Absentee Landlord is anything but a joke, and “nothing is camp. [This art] may not be easy, but none of it is bad,” Waters says. And for those who scoff at art that looks like something their kid could make, Waters is quick to point out, “yeah, but they didn’t, stupid.”
One of the more challenging pieces is a set of large window blinds which lay on the floor and look like something that the janitor has neglected to clean away. “I love this,” Waters says. “It’s like someone just dumped this here.” It’s one of many pieces in the show that Waters insists that audiences don’t have to understand to enjoy, and, in fact, don’t even have to like. It is important, however, to recognize that it can forever change the way in which art is seen and, according to Waters, “It will open your eyes to see art everywhere you go.”
Absentee Landlord, curated by John Waters, will be on display at the Walker Art Center in galleries 1, 2, and 3 through March 4, 2011.