Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Free Tax help at the Government Center


An unused corner of the skyway/Public Service Level is converted to a tax preparation center for those who can't afford professional assistance and need help. Check it out. AARP is sponsoring, and they give preference to people over 60...but anyone who needs help can probably get it.  The temporary office is manned by all certified volunteers.
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One Year! A unicycle! A Thousand dollars!


To celebrate a full year of blogging the skyways I am posting this iconic photo of a man who is pushing a unicycle around the skyways to video tape the experience for posterity. His name is Alan Polk, and he is a social worker who is an avid architecture fan, also. We chatted a bit about the Architecture Minnesota contest he plans to enter. If you win, you get a thousand dollars...for showing your opinion on skyways and their impact on street life downtown.

For a thousand bucks, I would push a unicycle with a clown on it around the skyways. Allen is more circumspect. Good luck, dude.

(Note -- I am thinking of entering the contest myself, and must relate that I posted this because I admire Alan's ingenuity and dedication to his task.  I am not sure what the AIA tweeter meant by pointing out this post as a warning of some kind. I think that using a repurposed unicycle is vastly preferable to a Segway or hospital gurney.  My suggestion to Alan was that a camera mounted backwards on an airline travel case and pulled behind one, then reversed in post processing, would provide a smoother DIY tracking shot.  And I can't close without mentioning the 9 minute single take tracking shot that opens "A Touch of Evil", which as far as I know has never been surpassed in the annals of movie making.)

Post Scriptum: I did enter the contest.  You can see Alan and my and 22 other entries here.
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