Someone else's happiness

I snared these women in a moment of happiness. It was not mine, but I took it as a souvenir. You don't see other people really showing much emotion in the skyways and on the promenades, not at lunch time, not here. So when you do, memorize it. But don't use it as a measure of other demeanors you will see, or you will reach the false conclusion that skyway people are not, on the whole, a happy lot. Their happiness is disguised as purpose. They are threads in a tapestry that depicts happiness, but you must step back and squint to see the larger picture made up of thousands of little pixel-people moving through the skyways.

The ethics of public hospitality

I was looking for a place to drink my latte outside of the Caribou in USBank, and this table was available. It came with the relics of an earlier lunch. I thought about many things as I sat, but I mainly thought about the people who would walk off and leave their dirty trays for someone else to bus for them. Some passers-by would stare at me and my two big dirty trays, as though I was a Falstaff and here was the evidence of my wanton excess and indifference. At one point I considered busing the trays myself, just to fix the nick in the veneer of social order. Naw, maybe another day. Today, I feel superior to the jerks who made me look like I was the jerk, finally, leaving my dirty trays when I finally got up and left.

Oh, the ethics of public hospitality.

UrbanMan

He blends into the urban setting, dressed casual upstyle, disguised in digital artifacts, ready to evangelize an analog world.

Skyway silhouette

Walking the skies in Minneapolis.

Foshay sits for a close-up

Ah the blogger has a new 300 mm lens for his film Canon, and has to try it out on the landmark. Click on the picture to see the detail.

Baker Building Facade

Ornate terracotta, 1920s Minneapolis style.

Portrait of a skyway

Warm October in Minneapolis. Dry streets, dudes in shorts. Second Ave. South between 6th and 7th Street.

A spot of light

A man sits behind the information desk at the Government Center, while the reflections of the late sun in the huge atrium pick him out of the shadows.

Soar like an eagle...

The Steve Miller Band tune was going through my head as I looked at Mark Harlow's stunning eagle photos in the Fifth Street Towers atrium this afternoon.  He was there to support and participate in a Gulf Wildlife Art Benefit coordinated by Maggie Gray Photography, featuring local artists, photographers and artisans.  It runs through 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15.
Mark recently won national recognition for the vertical eagle shot over his left shoulder in this photo...acclaim from other award winners and nominees.  Ask him about it, and ask about the classes he teaches for National Camera Exchange.  I am going to sign up for the next one in November. This guy has the goods.  And Nikons. Oh, and buy some art while you are at it.

Government Center tic tac toe

The X's are winning the window grid in a gigantic game of tic-tac-toe on the Government Center. Shining against the deep blue Autumn sky, it presents an unsigned purity of form.

Stages of Autumn

Green, gold, naked. The stages of Autumn as trees prepare to sleep through the Winter. The Thrivent Building provides a reflective backdrop, and in its stepped mirror, the Government Center and Capella Tower fold in upon themselves.

Favorite scenes from the skyways, 1

Every time I pass this corner -- First Ave. and 9th, I am delighted by the craziness of the visuals. In this shot you have the fruit cup that ate Minneapolis, the Target Center looming behind the building with its hair in curlers, the adamant First Avenue sign, and shadows, street lights, buses and work crews to add a little spice. One of my favorite out-of-the-way spots on the great Sky trek.

Accidental sundials tell us what time it is

The part of the sundial that casts the marking shadow is called the "gnomon." After the Fall equinox, at our latitude of 45', the sun has fallen into the lower quarter of the sky in its daily transit, and shadows compete with the objects that cast them. Looking south at 2 p.m. on a quick break, it seems like the light etches away the substance of the pedestrian, and he becomes a statue by the Italian sculptor Giacometti. The gnomon becomes no man.
(Sculpture link to Happy Faces Chicago blog)

The light changes

Low sun in the early afternoon sends signals to the pituitary gland and hypothalamus...Winter is approaching. Eat more carbs. Get ready to hibernate.

Shadows lengthen

Taking the pulse of the city.

Taking life in stride

Steppin' on the sidewalks.

Autumn color, skyway

You don't think of real Fall colors and skyways seriously. Really.

When clouds are in the buildings and the work is in the sky...

Clouds reflected of the row of buildings on 3rd Ave. So. ... but the sky directly above is intense, brilliant blue. It looks like the clouds are painted on.

A run of morning skyline photos begins here

Okay, if you visit this blog you are starting to see this view in many kinds of light and weather. But as my wife and I observed of the downtown skyline coming back from Taylor's Falls on Sunday, it is tidy, nicely proportioned. It is artsy and substantial both, colorful and even bold in moderation, if that isn't an oxymoron. We had our run of 80's eye-catching experiments and now as the economy declares a holiday for major construction, we can enjoy the rhythm and elan of our skyline.

Urban colors, skyways rationale

These colors are fall colors, right? I think they are very urban. Gritty. Concrete taupe and cadaver white, warning curb yellow, vapor lamp sulpher and sodium, industrial paint chosen to color code function in chalky primaries, not to enhance the view. It is the back room of the skyways, the parking ramps at the periphery that actually helped motivate the city to support Les Park's original vision once it grew past any individual's vision or control. A study done in the late 50's proposed that the inner core of the downtown is better served by keeping the parking on the edge of the downtown, and that could be accomplished if there were clean, safe well lit walkways to serve the office workers and shoppers. The skyways filled the bill.

They still do, and the feeder skyways from ramps to business and government nodes provide an interesting contrast in tone to the core armature of carpeted paths making their way from restaurant hub to retail center to office megaplex.

When I started walking the skyways in earnest, in February of this year, I made a point to travel to the furthest points of all the outlier skyways, and do it early and thoroughly. It helps that I am something of a loner by nature, because there are stretches that go for blocks where you might only see one or two other people...at least, during the middle of the day. At the end of the day, all these extremities pulse with the bustle of getting out of work and getting home as quickly, safely, and in as climate-controlled and well-lit a manner as possible.

In that respect, we have an amenity here, folks. A major, low profile, flyoverland amenity that just sits there and works for us while we make fun of it, or roll our eyes about "habitrails" for the urban worker rodents...

Is there beauty in the photo above? That is in the eye of the beholder. Is there amenity in it? That is in the ease with which I park and lock up without looking furtively around me, and head for the nearest skyway entrance less than a block away, without thinking about the pain that distance would cause in 20-below weather.

Well, I guess I am on my soapbox. And it's two stories high.