Saturday, August 26, 2006

Bombay!


I'm off to Bombay for a week this afternoon, so perhaps no Twin Cities posts for the next week (unless I decide to use some of my reserve content). It's been fun writing about life in the Cinnamon Metro from my basement hotel room, riding on the back of a strong wireless signal - really I would have collapsed without one.

Join you soon at the window seat.

Gateway and the Taj - Photo by Andy Hay.

Friday, August 25, 2006

The Great Get Together on a Stick

A wet start to the Minnesota State Fair didn't dampen too many spirits. The cows were mooing, and mama pigs busy feeding a new litter.



The rains let up in about a half hour after pouring buckets. A rainbow was out instantly.



I came to the Fair on a bus, and who knew I'd leave in style. Hummer? Chevy? Maybe both.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

The Window Seat

The Humphrey Terminal LRT station will close for a year starting Sept 9. It's getting in the way of a parking ramp construction at the airport, and therefore closing doors on its faithful riders for a while.

I get off at Humphrey to get to work on days when Lynn can't pick me up. After its closure, I'll have to travel on to the Lindbergh Terminal and take a free, 24-hour shuttle back to the domestic.

Here, I give you the window seat view of the train plunging underground as it leaves Humphrey. And what might be on top of that tunnel? You guessed it - the runways.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Twists, camera...Yoga


Ever imagined doing Yoga in a studio? This one struck me as amusing as I walked the deserted streets of St. Paul one Sunday afternoon. As Indians breathe more and more polluted air, Americans eat, breathe, and sleep more Yoga. And they're in need of more. This post proves it.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Do Not Eat



The cafe at Minneapolis Institute of Arts is fringed by a neat brush. Of course, it isn't served off the veggie menu.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

London on a Shoestring

As I go out on my walking expeditions in Minneapolis armed with my digicam, I'm reminded more and more of one weekend in London a couple years ago when I walked my feet blue. I'd say I covered more than half the city and beyond in two days on my legs, the red bus, and not to forget the tube.

So let me make this departure from Minneapolis for a bit, and show you the sights of London from my eyes.



I've done this walkathon in Calcutta too for a couple hours one Sunday, covering the Park Street and Sudder Street area, and loved just every bit of it. I think there's no better way to discover a city than by walking+bussing it.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Como-Harriet Streetcar: History on Rails

Chug along down history lane and tap your feet a bit. I will let the film tell the rest of the story.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Anachronism

Preparing for the annual Irish festival in Shakopee, and campaigning hard at the Mall.



Sunday, August 13, 2006

Prairies on Notice

In Minnesota, you wouldn't expect to be too far away from the prairies wherever you are in the state. My tours, however, in the Metro area and outside it have revealed very little of America's grasslands so far. Instead, I'm seeing a lot of these boards that have to 'announce' the presence of native prairie planting.



Lynn spoke about homesteading and how it has ensured a rapid and steady decline of the once expansive grasslands. I guess it's time to update geography texts in Indian high schools. Or, maybe, they already have. It's been a long time since I was in high school.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

DFC Demolition Derby - My hood's come off!

I had a mad, mad, mad Friday night. Perhaps the maddest in my Minneapolis stint so far. The Demolition Derby at the Dakota County Fair in Farmington had people cheering as one 'car' crashed into another, producing more junk.

I visited the fair with Jim and his son, Keith. We paid $12 each to watch this insane mashup of hunks of metal salvaged from some incredible junkyard. No windshield or windows, just a tough metal box on four wheels out to eliminate you. Drivers wore helmets and five-point harnesses. Five heats in all (every heat had 3 winners) and the Title for the last man driving.

As we arrived, the mud pit was being prepared for the five battles. Take a look:



Of course, nothing could prepare me for what was to come after the cars had lined up:



The Grandstand was packed with people gathered to watch modern-day gladiators at work:



Expectedly, the aftermath was bloody:



It was difficult to digest this amazingly gruesome experience without a trip to the beer garden at the fair. There was no recourse. So Jim and I nicely topped the evening off with a MGD each.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Death lurks - plane or train

Maybe not the most pleasing headline, but please read this.

A digital info board at a Light Rail crossing near the Humphrey Terminal in Minneapolis flashes 'Security threat level Orange' on the morning of the foiled terror plot in London. Normally, this board displays the day's high and low temperatures, seat belt reminders, and the names of new airlines landing at and taking off from Humphrey.

Perhaps this board is doing two jobs at once - reminding citizens of the security threat associated with plane or train.

Zero Threat - Bringing Aviation Back to Life

AN AMERICAN AIRPORT - Airports across America have hit upon an ingenious way to keep passengers "high and dry" in the wake of new TSA directives following arrests in London early this morning, and a botched plan to blow up 10 trans-Atlantic flights. Airport security officials are now working overtime to draw all body fluids from passengers' bodies before boarding, in addition to holding back perfumes, shampoo, and hair gel bottles carried in cabin baggage. The passengers' lifeless, rubber-like bodies are then consigned to a conveyor belt that places them on to their designated airline seats.

Blood, serum, semen, and breast milk are filling up containers at a dizzying rate across all airports here, and these are transported in cargo planes to their respective recipients' destinations, where through a "precise regeneration procedure", passengers' bodies are brought back to their original state of being.

"This represents an important breakthrough in the area of transportation security, one that rules out all threat to life because the passengers really are 'lifeless' at the start of their journey through to the end," the chief security officer at a large American airport was quoted as saying.

Asked if pilots were being given the same "pre-emptive preservative" treatment before climbing on to the cockpits, the officer said it was being considered and would be rapidly implemented when airlines confirm that on-board auto pilots could do the job.

"It was freaky," said a passenger witness to the arrival of the first "dry" flight at a major American city. "One minute they're unloading these limp human bodies like it was a plane from Iraq, and the next minute these 'bodies' are amazingly walking out like laughing-talking zombies," she said. This passenger wasn't witness to the regeneration process but noticed a 5-minute belt stop in a room labeled 'Cargo'.

Airlines are pleased with the "new way to fly" as it allows them to continue charging full fare without having to serve wine or caviar on board. "Pre-emptive preservation helps airlines realize huge cost savings and buffers the effects of rising fuel prices to a great degree," an airline representative said.

Meanwhile, in Britain, the doctor who masterminded this entire medical procedure to make air travel safer, is on a bicycle tour of the world and wasn't available for comment.

"Are you being preserved?" - Photo by Chris Conway

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Think global, watch local

This just in from a local television news channel:

An Egyptian student in an American university was arrested today after he failed to show up at the college, having landed in New York a few days ago. Some seven or eight of his other mates from Egypt are reported missing too. According to the TV report, the police found the students' disappearance suspicious because they're from the Middle East.

Middle East? No, Egypt. No...whatever. Hope the police weren't watching the news. In the end, it will hopefully turn out that the students were experiencing immigration issues, and they are all allowed to go back home to Indonesia.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Rural delights at the Midtown Farmers' Market

My love for the city's noisy markets continues. On my way to the Art Fairs last weekend, I walked off the curb (spelling! spelling! spelling!) and into the farmers' market off Lake Street. Farmers from Minnesota and neighboring (!!!) states get together to sell fresh fruit and vegetables, pop and chops, tamale (a rural corn delissimo), honey, pickles, local junk jewelry, and stuff.

Meanwhile, a band entertains the customers and hangers on like me.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Underarm business

A couple months ago, I bought this deo at Walmart:



Today, I bought this one at Walmart:



Spot the difference? You're right if you're thinking Right Guard and Equate. Now, here are a few other differences:
1. They both are a golden-brown color (you can see that; didn't mean to insult your intelligence). 2. They're both 'Original'.
3. They both serve the needs of 'active' folks...OK, sorry about that one - Right Guard is for the 'active man', while Equate is for 'active people'.
4. Both provide all-day protection against odor. Right Guard wins on this one by including the word 'perspiration' before odor.
5. They both need to be shaken well before use, held 6" from underarm, theyy're flammable and CFC-free.
6. And, finally, did you think one of them wouldn't dry on contact? Hard luck! They both do.

What did catch my eye in the maze of such amazing differences is some verbiage on the Equate can. It urges you to "Compare to the Original Right Guard Sport" (all trademarked). Take a look:



And on the back of the can is a dead straight disclaimer that Equate isn't "manufactured or distributed by Gillette..., the distributor of Original Right Guard Sport."

I don't have the time nor the inclination to compare deos, and I don't f***ing care if it is or isn't distributed by Gillette. Maybe Walmart decided to nail one final difference into its product to avoid any confusion. And priced it a dollar fifty lower than Right Guard.

I looked up the term 'guerilla marketing' on wikipedia, but this isn't quite it. This is far worse, but has a simpler name. Deception.

Sunday, August 06, 2006



Images of a lazy Sunday afternoon in downtown St. Paul

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Value Hop - 80% FREE


This is art weekend in Minneapolis. A 3-fair bonanza is currently underway at two parks and one street in the city's uptown neighborhoods. Getting to these fairs is easy even if you don't drive, or at least that's what the city's rapid transit system claims. Getting on one of the Art Hop buses revealed a story quite different from the "air conditioned comfort" advertised on the Metro Transit's website. It was more like being hauled from one fair to another. Any guesses why? The ride was FREE.

The rush is unbelievable. A fraction of the people ride the buses on other days. In this pic, we've been packed quite uncomfortably to each other and dangerously close to the back door. And did I hear this lady in front say, "...just like in India!"

Videos from the art fair in another post...soon.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

An American impression

Mr. Heavy rolls into the train and plonks himself on to the first available seat. He probably will never make it to the list of America's Most Obese, but padding around male and female human bodies starts early in this country, and places a lot of stress on the city infrastructure I'd imagine.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.