French blood

More of Prozzi, the maestro of Voyageur and explorer stories and portraits at the Government Center.

A simple, normal skyway photo

There is nothing worth remarking on in this photo. It is what it is, in the Minneapolis skyways.

The ghosts of Christmas present

There are some payphones in the US Bancorp Center. Payphones. In wooden carrels. Just like the old days. There was a group of very down-and-out guys in threadbare winter rags surrounding one of their number who was shouting into a payphone. Not all of us are wirelessly connected. Some of us are barely connected at all. I shot this from the hip in dim light with slow film, letting the trails of a long exposure transform the image of a human dilemma into a ghostly water color, an abstraction of social inquity. It's about all I can handle this year.

Later, by the Target store, a dilapidated guy in army fatigues sat at a cafe table in the midst of the skyway furiously "writing" dense bales of black ball-point scribbles in a wire bound notebook. He stopped and occaisionally "explained" to an invisible comrade at his table. I wanted to sit with him and ask him his name, and give him a non-judgemental human contact. But I didn't have it in me. Not this year.

Let me come to terms with these conundrums and get back to you, ok?

In the spirit of giant Christmas trees downtown,

The Crystal Court 30 foot confection is a contender for the "Most Victorian" of giant trees. The diffuse ambient lighting in the courtyard doesn't do justice to the tree as a focal point of Holiday sentiment. Fortunately, whomever is programming the music has secured some outstanding vocal talent of all ages, kids choirs and old hippie electronica-folkies who cut through the guilt and shopping fog with the archaic power of the human voice. If you don't see what I see, do you hear what I hear?

Dramatic downtown vista from the skyway

This looks like something out of a sci-fi interpretation of a Bram Stoker novel, but it is just looking south down Second Avenue on a midwinter day in Minneapolis. The Edwardian decoration of the Minneapolis club contrasts with the looming Metropolis-inspired Campbell Mithun building, while the neurotic tensions that gave rise to both styles is soothed and sublimated by the spire of St. Olaf church.

Giant Christmas Ornaments Dept: Inflatable Chrysler Logos at Capella

I love these, and my snarky description is more out of habit that from a true conviction of snarkitude.

In the spirit of giant Christmas trees...

Capella Towers wins with their East Atrium showpiece. It reminds me of the ads you see for the Nutcracker Suite, and the whole lobby looks like an ornament designed by an origami-obsessed Californian.

There is life beneath the skyways! Uh, within the skyways....

My friend Mike Bleakmore at skywaymyway.com captured this proof of life beneath (but within) the skyways recently. Although scientists wince at the suggestion this species be called "homo skypians", we are looking forward to capturing one and having them entertain us at the office holiday party with their tales of the "sky underground" and other oxymorons.

Holiday Auschwitz among the skyways?

The legend over the gates to the Auschwitz extermination camp was "Arbeit Macht Frei" -- Work Makes Freedom. The sponsor of this exhibition window in the NorthStar building has gone to considerable expense and trouble to bring a reminder of something that seems horribly out of place in the skyway/downtown work environment. Doesn't it? Is there any parallel in modern American experience with the emergence in 1930s Germany of a monstrous disorder of the human spirit, a hatred so great that it tried to eradicate a whole people from the face of the Earth? Is there anything in Minneapolis that would inspire this commitment to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive at a physical and symbolic level for the hordes of workers who race through the skyways daily?

As a pseudo-intellectual and recovering liberal, I am deeply moved by the sight.  We cannot forget that the 20th Century happened. We cannot forget what the lessons learned in blood were meant to teach us.  And we are so close to forgetting.  Putting this image in the path of struggling wage earners during the holiday season is a shocking and provocative gesture.  On the whole, it will be lost on many who do not recognize the story behind the stage set, and it will be ignored by many who find the sketchy minimalism of the gates and photos to be simply unattractive.

But for a few, it is profound hook into that part of the subconscious that needs to be dealt with on a regular basis: the  human capacity for blood-lust and dehumanization that can lie buried in the self-involvement of an entire nation, waiting to rise up and overwhelm the spirit without notice.  It is a reminder of the checks and balances our appetites and desires must submit to in the interest of civil order, and the monstrosity that is unleashed when reason, and memory, sleeps.

We cannot leave that maintenance of civil order, and of national conscience, to a few people.  We remember the heroic few who risked their fates in the face of mass psychoses in Germany. Some escaped, many didn't.  But we don't know how to emulate them.  We trust the will and direction of the crowd.  We celebrate it, and empower it with technology now in social media, without a backward glance at the horror represented by the tainted homily. Work makes freedom.  It really meant Might makes Right.  And we haven't learned to question that effectively yet. Have we?

What really makes freedom?
If you can think about that seriously for a few minutes today, the investment in this grisly tableau will have paid off a bit.  In the meantime, Happy Holidays.  Really. You have a lot to be grateful for.  So do I. We also have  to be courageous in the face of crowd-sourced stupidity and evil.

On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops, a day commemorated around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Rockin it A Capella

Capella Towers west atrium is having live music every noon hour during the holidays.

The Government Center Atelier

A fascinating show of historical figures from Minnesota's French History is on display in the Government Center this month. I had the privelege of watching the artist at work. The overhead light from the display wall fixtures was diffuse and cool as a north window in a French artist garret.

The rising of the ladder day saints.

Target's giant christmas thingy

One of my favorite people-watching spots is the entry of the Target store on 9th and Nicollet. This year they have what looks like a giant paper-cutout chandelier. Beautiful. Hard to photograph against the busy background.

Cleaning the architecture

Look closely.

Selling MnPass cards on the Skyway is a hoot!

I bought my MnPass card here. Hope I don't need it too often this winter.

Enlightenment takes a snow day

Om: "Siddartha, are you wearing mittens?:

The city as sundial

Only certain times of the year, when the winter sun rises far enough north and rides a low enough arc in the sky, does this shaft of light shoot through the gap between the USBank building and Capella towers, casting the long shadow of a northern season across 2nd Ave. So.

You look like a blank window.

How does that protect your assets?

Watery reflection, snowy sidewalk

If I had just gotten the steam plume from the energy center I would allude to all three states of water.

Steam frames St. Olaf Carillon

The bell tower is given a heavenly setting by water vapor.

A steam frame for Campbell Mithune

Water vapor from the energy center embraces the Campbell Mithune building.

Hello from Sunny Minnesota

Postcard from the skyways: Been meaning to get back to you but have been really snowed under.

Hello from Sunny Minnesota!

Postcard from the skyway: Hey California peeps, wish you were here!