It’s usually a good idea to look up when walking on Cedar Springs Road — there’s often a crew hanging out on the powerlines and I’ve seen unwary bargoers torpedoed.
It’s usually a good idea to look up when walking on Cedar Springs Road — there’s often a crew hanging out on the powerlines and I’ve seen unwary bargoers torpedoed.
It’s exhausting. He wouldn’t be so reluctant to go outside if I still put him in a kennel – then shitting in the closet wouldn’t be an option.
Gunter is a Chihuahua Dachshund mix that is extremely lazy.
Gunter is a Chihuahua Dachshund mix that is extremely lazy.
Gunter is a Chihuahua Dachshund mix that is extremely lazy.
Gunter is a Chihuahua Dachshund mix that is extremely lazy.
I pass the Holy Mackerel tattoo parlor on most of my dog walks, and I love the mural on the side of the building.
The mural reminds me a lot of the Wynwood District of Miami, and I wish more businesses in town did this.
Graffiti Outside the Holy Mackerel
Graffiti Outside the Holy Mackerel
Graffiti Outside the Holy Mackerel
Graffiti Outside the Holy Mackerel
I spent summers in Germany growing up, and I love having this building so close because it reminds me a lot of Trier.
I haven’t seen many other comparable cathedrals in the U.S. and the building commands my attention anytime that I venture to that side of downtown St. Paul.
An exterior view of the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Minnesota.
A long-stance view of the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Minnesota.
An exterior view of the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Minnesota.
The interior of the church is on par with anything that I’ve seen in Germany. My mother recently visited and said that it was impressive as the Kölner Dom.
An exterior view of the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Minnesota.
The outside of the cathedral almost looks like a European church, minus the lack of dirt and acid rain stains.
I completely ignored the statue the first few times because I was too busy staring at the church, but one day I stopped to take pictures.
Although St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood is rapidly developing, there is one building left behind.
Apparently the Lowertown Depot wasn’t a depot at all, but the old Standard Oil Branch Warehouse. The name was just a marketing gimmick for condo developers.
I’m surprised that they haven’t attempted to redevelop the area – it’s a massive undeveloped chunk of land right by downtown.
The Lowertown Depot reminds me a lot of Miami’s Midtown neighborhood. Midtown was just a huge chunk of undeveloped railroad tracks when I was in high school. Developers decided to play Sim City and turned it into a huge residential and commercial complex.
Midtown Miami
It will be interesting to see how much the Lowertown area will change in the next few years. We just got the Amtrak and light rail service, and apparently a stadium is coming soon.
This neighborhood has become increasingly trendy (and expensive) which will likely force many of us to make a buying vs. moving decision next summer.
Rising rents almost drove us back to Minneapolis this summer.
In fact, we had a deposit down on an apartment, but we were rejected because my prior landlord didn’t respond to their reference requests. The guy who took my unit is a little freaked out because he’ll likely run into the same problem.
Exhaustion from the apartment search caused us to sign on for another year in Lowertown, but I suspect future rent hikes will soon turn this area into another Uptown or Warehouse District.
We’ll see.
The trip was completely spontaneous and probably ill-timed. I attempted to fly out during the storm of the century and ended up stranded at the airport for over three hours.
I looked pretty rough by the time I got out of O’hare, but nothing beat speeding through Chicago in a rented BMW while blasting Rick Ross. It would have felt completely gangster if I wasn’t giggling at myself the entire time.
The weekend was hilarious, although I am surprised by how many Minneapolis gays move to Chicago.
I felt like I was running into a former-Minnesotan at every-other-bar…
And of course… there are pictures.
Monica Beverly Hillz!
Dita Ritz. No lotion needed.
I love visiting Chicago, but I was so happy to come back to Minneapolis after the weekend.
Living in Chicago full-time would probably be too crazy, but the occasional crazy weekend with friends is perfect. I’ll be back next year!
They were unified in their horror, but mostly because they thought I was moving to some desolate, backwoods place.
They were totally thinking about Iowa.
The drive is uneventful, but pretty in its own way.
The drive was very long, and I was blasting trap music the entire way down. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my speed however, and totally got slapped with a speeding ticket by Trooper McDreamy of Bumblewood County.
By the time I passed through Waterloo I was shocked to see buildings.
People actually live here!
Iowa City is actually a rather cute college town. The city is dominated by the massive University of Iowa and has a nice downtown area. I did have a strange feeling of always being on campus though…
Oh, and it happened to be Gay Pride weekend!
The Iowa City Gay Pride parade was the saddest four minute thing.
But hey, they tried.
The silence was the strangest part of the parade – none of the cars or floats played music. It made the block-long procession feel even smaller.
This was the most extravagant float in the parade:
It’s from Studio 13, the only gay bar. Iowa’s finest.
And again, no music.
The underwhelmed crowd drifted toward the pedestrian mall after the parade ended. The mall was lined with booths but there was no music there either.
Not even the restaurants with outdoor seating had music.
As with any pride, there was a great cross-section of the community: young, old, black, white, tan, punk, prep, etc. Oh! And there were these crazies holding up anti-gay signs:
One girl decided to make her own sign and followed them around for about 20 minutes.
“Sodomy is an abominable sin” / “But it feels so good!”
This sparked another faux-protest.
There was a stage set up in the pedestrian mall. Everyone congregated there and things picked up once the performances and drag shows started.
The Iowa City drag shows were entertaining and surprisingly good, but most of the girls are from the same drag family and interchangeable.
We went to Studio 13 both nights and I was again surprised by the quality of the drag.
They also had a special guest:
Alaska Thunderfuck from Drag Race! Hiiiiii!
Studio 13 is small but just like any other gay bar – aggressive hair, strong cologne, and at least three people face-planting on the floor.
I had a lot of fun, but I’m sure the $3 long islands helped.
We ended up going to several other douchey college bars so it was a long drive home on Sunday…but I had a great time that weekend and will definitely visit Iowa again.
I think my next adventure is dancing in Des Moines!
The past few months have been busy, hilarious and utterly exhausting. My social calendar is far busier than last year, but I’m slowly declining events in favor of sleep and time with the dogs.
Pictures!
Due to some hang-ups with my German passport, we spent Pride 2012 in Chicago.
I’ve been to Cologne, Amsterdam, New York, Philly, Vegas, etc. as a child, but this was my first time as an adult in a big city other than Miami.
Let’s just say that Minneapolis feels a lot smaller now.
As far as I can tell, Wynwood Walls seems to be at the epicenter of the Wynwood neighborhood revitalization. It’s an event space that has murals and a chichi restaurant-bar.
The streets immediately surrounding the Wynwood Walls are covered in street art and most of the empty warehouses are now studio spaces and businesses. The developed area is massive, and probably the most interesting area in Miami today. I took a ton of pictures, which I will finish editing in the coming days.
It’s back to Minneapolis and goodbye to the warmth, palm trees and breast implants. Not a bad way to spend a week in December.
The fact that there were 2-4-1 Whiskey-Diets on the plane made the return to winter easier to bear.
Sure, I may have gone to a few underground hipster parties in college, but the Wynwood Arts District was nothing like this.
