My last visit to the Varsity Theater was under very different circumstances. It’s still a great venue.
The tequila shots made the cover band more interesting.
My last visit to the Varsity Theater was under very different circumstances. It’s still a great venue.
The tequila shots made the cover band more interesting.
My landlord probably posted a new ad on Craigslist because this morning my phone gets bombarded with calls from hoodtastic prospective tenants.
Some of the callers hang up on me when I tell them the building income requirement. Others hang up upon learning that their felony record and two month old unlawful detainer is a problem.
I am in Dinkytown when my phone rings for the 5th time. I am en route to buy a $30 xeroxed reading packet for my Weimar Cinema class. It’s my elective, and my only other class besides the tax clinic.
Alesus and I went to Pagoda, which is one of the first restaurants I visited in Minneapolis. We had a Jellyfish appetizer.
Strolling around campus with my camera makes me notice things that I’d otherwise miss, like the awesome details on the east bank buildings:
It was a rough morning in Dinkytown.
Good thing she didn’t lose a cute pair of shoes.
Dinkytown is still one of my favorite places to spend my breaks in between classes. Dinkytown is the University of Minnesota’s student village, and just far enough from school to not be infested with law students.
Dinkytown is home to most of UMN’s Fraternities and Sororities, including Gamma Eta Gamma, the law school fraternity. I lived in Dinkytown during my first semester of law school and love passing by my old haunts.
The Kitty Kat club is where the Twilight lesbian parties were held:
We went to see “The Crazies” in Roseville because gory, apocalyptic zombies movies are totally appropriate for dates.
There was a pack of girls behind us in the theater, so we got the stereotypical commentary – “OH GIRL! HE CRAZY!”
Word.
After the sheer terror movie, we went to Dinkytown to Pagoda. Pagoda is a pan-Asian restaurant and an old haunt from 1L year.
I usually loathe dinner dates. I fear being stuck at a table with awkward silence or even more awkward conversation. There is also the possibility that the guy will drop a deal breaker early on and make the rest of the dinner uncomfortable.
On our first date, we ate at the bar area of a Granite City, and the only awkward part was that one of my friends1 just so happened to be at that very restaurant, at the bar, snickering.
There were no cameos last night and the conversation wasn’t forced or awkward. We lingered. At one point, I wanted to look someone up on google images and noticed that I didn’t have my blackberry. It was probably in my car…
There was also a wild bachelorette party going on in the back room of the restaurant, so our conversation had brief pauses for the random cheering, laughing, and singing coming from the walls.
I left Judd in the car and went back to the restaurant. The blackberry wasn’t there. It wasn’t on the sidewalk…or in the car… this was strange, and a giant date-swagger fail.
After another fruitless search of the car, I went into the Jimmy John’s near the car:
Me: “Hi, I lost my blackberry outside. Did someone happen to turn it in?”
JJ Deliveryman: “Pfft. A blackberry? I would have pawned that shit already.”
Me: “Heh. Lovely. Have a good night.”
I drove Judd to his house, and he helped me to search the car one last time.
So of course the phone had fallen in between the seat and the center console, and it was still plugged into the charger. Epic fail. Judd is dating a bald blonde. You can call me Amber Rose.
1Aka, the only law student with whom I discussed my upcoming date. He swears this was a coincidence. Right. And Alesha Dixon coincidentally looks like Beyonce.
I don’t understand the point of these University of Minnesota crime alerts. The theme seems to be: “Young-ish black men wearing dark clothes mugged someone. Watchout.”
I’m sure the police are frustrated when the only description they get is “I dunno. It was a black dude. Youngish… dark clothes.” – but passing that unhelpful description on to the student body probably sends one message: “If you see a young black male: be very afraid!”
This is why I rock pink.
Here’s today’s crime alert:
On Thursday, November 19 at approximately 6:30 p.m., a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student was the victim of an armed robbery near Marcy Park, off campus in the Dinkytown neighborhood.
The victim was at the intersection of 7th Street SE and 11th Avenue SE when he was approached by two males. One of the suspects pointed a silver handgun at the victim and ordered him to the ground. While the victim was on the ground, the suspects took his backpack and ran south-bound from 7th Avenue SE in between 10th and 11th Avenue SE. The victim was not injured.
The first suspect is described as a black male between 20 and 30 years of age, approximately six feet, two inches tall with a medium build. The suspect was wearing a baggy black hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and black baggy jeans. The suspect held the sliver handgun in his left hand.
The second suspect is described as a black male between 20 and 30 years of age, approximately five feet, eight inches tall with a medium build. The suspect wore glasses and had short black curly hair, and was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.
These are pictures of the area around the Kitty Kat Club.
The Kitty Kat Club is on the edge of Dinkytown, which is the college village where UMN’s legal fraternity (Gamma Eta Gamma) is located. I lived in the neighborhood most of 1L year.
I forgot to mention that this weekend we had a riot in Dinkytown, the legal fraternity’s neighborhood.1 This is from the UMN student newspaper’s website:
People jumped on cars, rode in shopping carts and chanted around the fires as the evening progressed. Partygoers attempted to flip cars sporadically through the evening and harassed drivers attempting to navigate through the area.
…
About 70 officers, many clad in riot gear, were at the scene over the course of the night, Garcia said. They used various chemical irritants, including gas and spray — commonly known as tear gas and mace — as well as riot sticks and projectiles, such as foam and marking rounds, for crowd control.
Some partygoers almost immediately submitted to the officers, but many resisted, launching bottles and debris at officers and onto the fires and shooting fireworks toward police.
Full story is here. There are slideshows here and here.
Cops were apparently slow to respond, which wasn’t a surprise. A few weeks ago the sorority across the street from the Gamma house had a sprawling party. Think drunk, screaming undergrads… Krawall & Remmidemmi. The kids blocked the street, causing drivers to blare their horns at 3am…
I heard the party coming closer to the house, so I went outside to check on my car. As I opened the door two guys popped up from the side of my car, shouted “shit!” and took off running.
I called the cops.
The cops took a long time to respond and didn’t even shut down the party. Right after the police left, a train of undergrads crept from behind the sorority house and re-entered the front door. A few minutes later they left the sorority house and stood in front of the Gamma house and howled.
The party restarted, and they continued to keep our entire house awake, so I called the cops again. They never showed up the second time.
This weekend’s riots were obviously more serious than the sorority party. One of my former housemates had his windshield smashed. I wish the police would shut parties down before things like that happen.
Oh, and apparently the president of the university is very disappointed:
Law students at lesbian night. You know it was special.
So Erik and I were having issues with a portly woman, who kept invading our space on the dance floor. The consensus was that while gay guys may be incredibly bitchy, some ladies are just rude.
But Erik and I colluded and set up Miss P. on a blind date with Erik’s ladyfriend. It’s in 2 hours. We are chaperoning. Oh my. There will be pictures…
Last night:
I knew Minnesota was cheaper than Miami but dang – the portions are ridiculous here. I went to the Pagoda pan-Asian restaurant and ordered this $8.99 dish. And erm…. Yeah. That’s too much food. It doesn’t look like a lot but that plate is like 10×10 inches of nothing but meat. PETA would flip.
Another thing that’s killing me is the drink specials. The drinks are about $2 cheaper than in Miami and there always seems to be a 2-4-1 or 3-4-1 special going on. My problem is that I’m not a huge drinker, and at some clubs they don’t give you a ticket… they just hand you two beers.
There’s no graceful way to doublefist beer at the clubhouse. You’ll look like you have issues every time.
So the result of the Minnesota portion problem is that I’m always lugging around a to-go box.
And yes, there’s one sitting on my coffee table as I’m typing this.
The University is only about two miles from downtown so I’ve spent a lot of time roaming and playing tourist. I love the sculptures that are all over downtown.
These guys are my favorite. It’s like the bird turds have come to life and decided to garden!
So apparently the Mary Tyler Moore Show was based here… as a kid I assumed all city shows took place in NYC. Oops!
Moving to Minneapolis a month early was a good idea. I’m meeting my housemates sort of one-by-one as they move in instead of in a huge group a few days before school starts. I also get to explore at a relaxed (and random) pace –“Oh let’s see where this bus goes to!”
One thing that has been on the to-do list is City Hall.
City Hall!
Stained glass windows in City Hall
I was a history major as an undergrad and I’m a huge sucker for historic buildings. City hall didn’t disappoint – a highlight was the heroic statue in the middle of the lobby.
“Father of Waters” by Larkin Goldsmith Mead
The downtown Barnes & Noble has become my downtown hangout spot. It has window seats facing Nicollet Avenue – the people watching is amazing. Today however, the entertainment was inside,
Lady sitting behind me (to her friend): Our new couch is AMAZING. This must be the best time in our marriage because we must have tried seven different positions last night – the sex has never been better!
Umm… maybe they’ll name the baby Ikea?
Other snippets:
And I realize my posts are incoherent/in snippet format. Things will shape up once I get out of my wide-eyed tourist mode.
