what about the plastic animals?

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Spoonbridge and Cherry, by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen

Ann and I in the Two-way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth, by Dan Graham

One rainy afternoon while I was in Minnesota, Ann took me to the Walker Art Center and adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  The drizzle and light weren't great for photography but the art outside and inside was highly enjoyable. 

For Oldenburg and Van Bruggen's Typewriter Eraser at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden be sure to check out Pink and the City.

Guthrie Theater

Guthrie Theater and Gold Medal Flour elevator.

Inside the cantilever.

Collapsed I-35 bridge.

Looking out the window toward the Gold Medal Flour grain elevator.

The rotated building on the previous post is the cantilevered part of the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.  The building sits on the bank of the Mississippi and opened last year.  There are great views up and down the river from the edge of the cantilever. 

Quiz Time

What is wrong with this picture from Minneapolis?  Jeff can't answer until Friday.

Champion: Small Diameter Sausage

Pizza Brats were the champion in the small diameter sausage contest at the Minnesota State Fair.  Pizza Brats are beef and mozzarella sausages.  Would it be redundant to use them as pizza toppings?

Time to move on from the state fair (though I reserve the right to return) and head someplace I had never been before.  If you want a good read about state fair cultures I recommend David Foster Wallace's account of going to the Illinois State Fair, "Ticket to the Fair" that appeared in the July 1994 Harper's and was repubished as "Getting Away from Pretty Much Being Away From it All" in his collection "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never do Again" in 1997.

Minnesota State Fair: Butter Busts

The Minnesota Dairy Queen Princess Kay of the Milky Way and her court have a likeness of their heads sculpted out of butter.  Heidi's not a blockhead, the sculptor creates one bust a day and it wasn't quite yet her turn.  We didn't know why the artist doesn't carve the teeth.  The tradition, as Ann explained to me, is for each person to keep her head frozen until the next summer, when a whole lot of corn gets buttered at a gigantic party.

Minnesota State Fair: The Crowd

There were a lot of people at the fair.

Late Night Minnesota Thunderstorm

There were intense thunderstorms the first two nights I was in Minnesota.  Lots of lightning and rain but little damage.  Here's a video from the second night (sorry for the cough at the start).

Minnesota State Fair: Hotdish on a Stick

I skipped the pickle treats at the state fair.  Instead I opted for Ole and Lena's Hotdish on a stick.  Mmmm, mmm good, especially with the cream of mushroom soup dipping sauce.  What could be more Upper-Midwestern than that?

Minnesota State Fair: Pickles on a Stick

The Minnesota State Fair is famous for having hundreds of different foods on a stick.  I only tried one, and it wasn't the pickle on a stick.

Speaking of pickles, and this is the main reason for this post, tomorrow is the seventh International Pickle Day on the Lower East Side.  There will be pickled good from around the world, live music, and valet bicycle parking!

Minnesota State Fair: Crop Art

There was lots of good crop art at the state fair.  The art was made mostly from seeds.  There was a legend next to each artwork that explained what crops were used in the art.  As you can see, Minnesotans aren't shy about expressing their political opinions in their crop art.  These were the only two pictures I took.  Now that I see them I wish I had gotten that Spam piece as well.

The crop art reminded me of the bug art I saw at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont a few years ago.