Puppets beware...

A few days ago we went to see the new Minneapolis Central Library. It opened June 22nd and was designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates (See Blog entry: Lectio Rabies). I had written that I would offer a review of the library with that past post so, here it goes. The primary order of business was to reassure my beautiful oldest daughter that there were indeed no puppets present at the library; Maymuna is not particularly fond of puppets and people dressed in strange costumes.

We parked in the garage beneath the building ($3.00 for about an hour). It is located on Hennepin Avenue, close to the Mississippi River and the Hennepin Bridge. It's a great site and the building takes advantage of that by attempting to maximize it's views when it can. The building is split by a large public are that bisects it North/South and essentially clusters the public spaces to the east block. The west block is largely service oriented (sorting, library staffing areas and storage). The public spaces are essentially open plan, with large concrete columns and views out to the south, east and (partly) north.

The building is pretty bland from the outside, excessively understated except for the roof of the central atrium which juts out on both the north and south sides of the library like a big chicken beak. This is actually more interestesing on the inside, as you get a reverse gable that has some very nice light qualities. The atrium is bright, airy and has a simple material palette - polished wood veneer and channel glass aplently. It's a nice space (Minnesota Nice) and opens up to the public spaces with large balcony expanses. It feels a little...corporate, but is generally pleasant to be in.


The children's reading area is terrific. It is playful, whimsical and has an excellent collection, along with computer stations and abstracted trees. The collection is expansive and runs the gamut from history to comic books and children's magazines.


Teen Central is also a nice space - ultimately too small, but it occupies a nice north/west corner and looks out onto Hennepin and the city itself. There are some wonderful places to sit, linger and read and the Atheneum (Rare Book Collection) looks very interesting - and is open by appointment only. There are a number of public art pieces scattered throughout and a two story fireplace will be a good draw in the winter - especially with some of those terrific views. Hopefully, the city will take advantage of the fact that they have an interesting building and propose some provocative new projects on the immediate sites around the library - which are most parking lots.

All in all, it is a great investment for literacy for Minneapolis (according to some survey I heard about before, Minneapolis is the 'most literate city in America,' though this is also probably from the same people that say that Tim Hortons cofee contained nicotine - or that Timbits have, as an ingredient, the hair from Chinese people) and a wonderful contribution to the reading life of Minnesotans. The architecture does not seem remarkably inspired - but perhaps that is the point - to allow the interior of the project to be more celebrated. I'm curious about the long-term plans for the planetarium on the top.

There is a Dunn Bros. Coffee Shop on the ground floor, as well as a small gift shop and a voluminous check-in-out/information area with lots of staff. The collection - of which we browsed through only briefly - looks great. The library seems to have a good acquisistions bugdet and even has a world languages section with books in Somali, Arabic, Swedish, Spanish, German... as well as a good Video and DVD section. The floors, appropriately, are coded differently to help finding your selections easier and wayfinding is done my means of electronic signage boards to help you plot your path from where you are to where your book is.

They probably even have a section on puppets.

Herbie Husker: a puppet according to my daughter. He beat out Goldy Gopher - the mascot for the University of Minnesota - in some strange mascot competition..

Points for Minneapolis

The Como Zoo is open!! Well, as those who live here know, the Como Zoo is actually never closed - it does stay open all year round, and we kept going as late as October last year, when all the animals were huddled inside and most people stayed at home. Maymuna was actually wearing mittens the last time I was there. This is one of my favourite places in the Twin Cities. Today Minnesota's best free park was alive and well, and it was gorgeous day outside. We packed a lunch and set off to see the "aminals" as Maymuna puts it.

The grounds of the zoo are spectular in and of themselves, with lots of green spaces, a green house, an old fashioned merry-go-round and a large park with over a dozen pinic tables and a big play structure. We parked a bit of ways away, but sure enjoyed the walk over to the main exhibit. Here are some photos of the grounds, including one of Ozayr and Maymuna waiting to be sprayed by the water sprinkler in aid of cooling off...


The place was packed as I think I mentioned, but Maymuna wasn't really fazed, she has her Baba to help navigate the crowds and she doesn't dare let go of his hand! It's a sweet little zoo, with as much to entertain you as in a larger one. We paid tons of money to get into the Minnesota Zoo last year when Daniel was in town and it really wasn't any nicer than this one. Here they have a couple of zebra... couple of giraffes... a tiger... two lions... and monkeys. Those are Maymuna's main interests (and really for her one tiger is just as fascinating as multiple breeds of tigers or a sizable number of them). Plus they have seals, polar bears and some other wildcats.


It's a manageable size for a two-year-old - she can walk the whole thing without getting too tired and the exhibits are all pretty close together which prevent her from losing interest in the whole thing. But it's also free, so you don't feel bad if you skip stuff or don't catch the aquatic show, or go through it quickly.

Speaking of interested, it was Hafsa's very first time at the zoo today! Amazing, this child was so riveted... so in tune with the wildlife... so... asleep. This is what she looked like the entire time we were there:


Oh well, she's got plenty of time to see it... I'm sure we'll be back to the Como Zoo about eight million times more this summer :)

After a leisurely walk through the zoo we stopped to eat our lunch under a shady tree. We just sort of sat and watched the people walk by and enjoyed the fine weather. It was quite lovely, actually.


Well, I just wanted to share our lovely morning with everyone... I hope the weather in Ottawa/Johannesburg is all just as nice (though I bet the animals are better there...)

Warning: Baby Brag ahead...

Hafsa can roll over! machallah! This new trick is only a couple of days old, and she still has a tendency to eat the carpet, but here's a little video for y'all to enjoy:





Thanks for watching!

Movie Review!

I saw a movie. Yes.

Ozayr and I used to see movies ALL THE TIME before Maymuna was born. Even bad ones. Lots of bad ones. But going to see a movie in a theater is one of the hardest things to accomplish when you have a baby, or especially a newborn. Sooooo thank goodness for "STARS & STROLLERS"!! or "Cinebabies" as they were called back in the day (uh, 2003). It is truly a phenomenon to behold. Basically the theater provides one showing every two weeks of a movie (this week was "The Breakup") which is baby-friendly. You can bring your baby under one year of age. I know. Crazy.

So we pull up to SilverCity cinema and we immediately know that we're in the right place: there are about half a dozen women with strollers heading up towards the cinema main entrance. Inside there are even more, scooting around, meeting other mommies, taking pictures of their kids next to the movie poster sign (NO JOKE! "it's his first time at the movies!!" I heard her say). Outside the auditorium there are tables set up with diapers of every size and scores of wipes (plus one very stinky huge garbage can). You can see the huddled backs of perhaps a dozen moms all in a row along this table, geting in their last minute diaper changes before the movie begins.

We go inside and quickly nab some decents seats (of course we need FOUR, one for Ozayr, one for me, one for Hafsa's carseat and one for all our bebe accoutrements). Then I send Ozayr out for tons of greasy movie theater food. Honestly I miss that disgusting stuff almost as much as movies themselves. I know that the "cheezy" nacho topping is likely some sort of alien substance, but that's why they serve it almost exclusively in movie theaters: it's DARK so you aren't directly confronted with its neon glow or melted plastic consistency. Woo-hoo!!

By the time Ozayr comes back, the place is packed. Babies. Everywhere. Hippy babies in hemp slings. Jock babies in athletic carriers. Prissy babies in pink frilly headbands (usually these are the babies with no actual hair - ever noticed this?) Diaper bags and strollers everywhere.

Have I mentioned the movie yet? Okay it's "The Breakup" and unless you've been living under a rock you know it stars Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.


You may recognize this ad from every bus stop, magazine and billboard in recent memory. Soooooo I usually find Vince quite funny - and he is funny in this. But not in any scene whatsoever shared with Jennifer Aniston. The scenes with his buddy are hilarious, the group scenes with their friends or families are pretty funny... but, not with Jenny. Not much at all. I wish the world would just face the facts here - Jen is cutie-cutie and all, but not a movie star, I'm sorry to say. There is quite a bit of hype about how she is starting her movie career now that she's done with Friends, but HELLO? she's been trying to pull off a blockbuster cinema success since she was discovered on Friends ten years ago. All these non-starters can be found on the internet at a million Jennifer Aniston fan sites, but I'll list them here so you can see how many actually ring a bell:

• "She's the One" 1996
• "'Till there was You" 1997
• "Dream for an Insomniac" 1997
• "Picture Perfect" 1997
• "Object of my Affection" 1998
• "Office Space" 1999
• "Iron Giant" 1999
• "Rock Star" 2001
• "Swept Away" 2002
• "The Good Girl" 2002
• "Bruce Almighty" 2003
• "Along came Polly" 2004
• "Derailed" 2005
• "Rumor Has It" 2005
• "Friends with Money" 2006
• "The Breakup" 2006

Not many bells a-ringin' eh?

Anyway, it was an okay film, that said. Not brillant at all, but a nice way to spend a couple of hours (especially if you've been movie-deprived for a year or two). I could have been stuck with a worse movie for a S&S viewing. A few years ago while desperate for some entertainment I saw a Cinebabies showing of Welcome to Mooseport staring Ray Romano and Gene Hackman. It was so bad, not much more can be said other than that. It was BAD.

So what about all the babies? Well, it all works out somehow. I guess in a quiet theater one crying baby would annoy you immensely, but with a general chorus going it doesn't seem so intrusive. Though I think the baby behind us might've sneezed on Ozayr's head. But we all know that with babies it could've been much, much worse.

Justice is served... as well as pizza

I was listening to As it Happens on the CBC last night and tuned in just in time to hear a story about a woman who works at The Wedge grocery store in Uptown Minneapolis (where we get most of our allergen-free foods for Maymuna). As she left work Tuesday evening a man came out in front of her and grabbed her purse and ran off with it. She looked around for help and yelled to a man on the street to help her...

I guess he seemed to be the perfect rescuer, he was wearing a cape after all.

What more could she ask for in such a time of peril? With the help of a couple of other bystanders, the caped 'superhero' (?) chased down the thief, recovered her purse and brought it back to her.

It turns out that Cameron Evans works as a delivery person for Galactic Pizza - whose motto is, fittingly, "Pizza with a Conscience!". They deliver their pizzas by electric cars (weather permitting) and donate money to world hunger relief, use renewable wind energy to run their establishment. And chase down thieves apparently. The cape and unitard are part of their work uniform.

Read the story as reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune here .
Listen to the As It Happens interview here.

Swedish Swear Words and the Varicella-Zoster Virus

Der skit sugander flygger mus.

I have Swedish cousins but never learned to really speak Swedish, save for the occasional swear words (usually compliments of my Favourite Uncle - to our American readers, note the RIGHT spelling of the word 'Favourite'). Okay...this is from the Mayo Clinic Website:

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies dormant in your nerves. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. Although painful, typically shingles isn't a serious condition. Sometimes, however, the rash can lead to a debilitating complication called postherpetic neuralgia. This condition causes the skin to remain painful and sensitive to touch for months or even years after the rash clears up. Early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and reduce the risk of complications.

Ferbanne Nehelvete. People have been generally sympathetic - except the mad giggling from my younger brother when I told him that I had shingles. They usually tell me how sorry they are and go on to mention how painful it is. My dad showed me a picture and my grandmother reminisced about how her sister's eyes swelled shut for two weeks. I remembered my French teacher in high school being away from work for about a month - Mme. Tomosk. The shingles diagnosis was prefaced by a blistering headache and a visit to the emergency room at the Queensway Carleton Hospital Emergency Room. If you ever have to go, ask for Dr. Zhao. He was great. Oh, yes, I also had a CT scan of my head; an odd experience, but the best 2 minutes of sleep I had in 3 days. My Favourite Uncle - who, incidentally is also a doctor - diagnosed me with shingles with the following words: 'Congratulations. You have Shingles. It can be pretty painful."

The families have been good so far, alhamdulillah. My brother-in-law asked me to infect his parents, so he could quarantine them in the basement and have the house to himself. Maybe I'll infect my younger brother.

The original Mayo Clinic Buildings:

Qui?

...DAM! So, yesterday, my father, brother-in-law (Igor), cousin (Ihsaan) and I went to see a Cirque du Soleil Show at Landsdowne Park. We had went the previous Sunday but were told our tickets were for the sunday show NEXT week. Sheepishly, we headed back to the car, managed to get our 5 dollars back for the parking, double checked the tickets which were indeed for June 4 and resolved to be on time for next week's - yesterday's - show. The show is called... 'Quidam,' and is part of a travelling show bound for Philadelphia and Cincinnatti.

During the intermission we tried to figure out what the narrative of the show was. My dad thought there was one. Igor didn't quite feel there was a story and Ihsaan and I thought it had something to do with childhood, innocence - a kind of Oliver Twist - with a little bit of odd Quebecois freakiness thrown in. This piece of text is from the website:

QUIDAM
Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. It could be anyone, anybody. Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. This is the "quidam" that Cirque du Soleil is celebrating.

A young girl fumes; she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, and she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.

Back to the Post:
..Okay. So we were a little off. The show was okay, I guess. There were the usual amazing acrobatics one associates with a Cirque performance, along with some obscure narrative sequences. There were also a group of players in what looked like Level 1 HAZMAT suits. I laughed hysterically at one scene, where one of these "Chiennes Blanches" plays a barking seal with a red balloon in his mouth. For a moment there, I thought I was being Punk'd.

All in all it was a good afternoon, with great company.

Company: 10 timbits out of 10
Quidam: 6 timbits out of 10

Image is from the Cirque du Soleil website... ladies and gentlemen...the QUIDAM!