Plymouth Theater and the Marvelous Wonderettes

I don't venture out to theater very often and I usually find myself squirming during the end of the second act. Aging ADD, or just basic impatience.
I had never been to the Plymouth Theater, which conveniently shares the same building as a Best Western Motel and a Green Mill restaurant. The atmosphere (IAQ) is a combination of pizza and chlorine from the Best Western swimming pool. Oh - it is kind of quaint.
The play was very fun. I am not dong a play review, but I left the theater with a real respect for the talent and energy of the four women in the play. This play is not written as an intellectual tour de force, but as sheer oldies retro-fun.
The play lasted 2 hours and these 4 attractive actresses (who never missed a note) were performing in high gear. Kudos.


I refer to Jean Gabler's review for a more detailed account. Google it.

Signs

Sunrise at Bobs' - a really big shoe.

A new location. Bob is a well known homeless advocate, and he repairs shoes. Ups on one side, New Balance on the other.

Shoes as a sign of one's social rank and status have been around for milleniums:

"In ancient Egypt, the sandal demonstrated a person’s rank in society. Slaves either went barefoot or wore crude sandals made from palm leaves. Common citizens wore sandals of woven papyrus, consisting of a flat sole tied to the foot by a thong between the toes. But sandals with pointed toes were reserved only for the higher stations of society, and the colors red and yellow were taboo for anyone below the aristocratic rank."

I have no red or yellow shoes....

A distant dock

Little ghosts of Cottagewood

Circa 1921

They flitter about Donkey Park in the evening. In the morning they wait outside for the general store to open. Their names are scribbled on an old postcard: Gladys, Sylvia, Dorothy and "Little Florence".

Sunrise commute

I pulled over on the side of the road on the man made isthmus on 101 at Gray's Bay. I have shot this many times, but I always welcome the chance to stop on the way to work and see the sunrise. The tracks of the ice roads are filling with water. Spring is near.

Excelsior

Excelsior founder Robert McGrath

I recently read a comment on my Facebook in which the writer described Deephaven and Excelsior as "the suburbs". The guy was an New Urbanist advocate, and commented quite frankly that; "The problem with the suburbs is that they are filled with suburbanites". I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Truth is, Excelsior is an historic old town by any Minnesota standard. Deephaven too.

*** *** *****

1852 - The beginnings. A large man burst into the St. Charles Hotel in St. Paul. He was carrying a musket and was dressed like a hunter.The office was filled with people interested in the newly opened territory (the Traverse de Sioux had been signed). He tossed down his trophy - a large white pelican. "I have been with two or three gentlemen into a country about 20 miles west of St. Anthony to visit a lake the Indians call Minnetonka (big water). I am going back east to interest a few of my friends to come out this spring and begin a settlement on the shores of the lake."

Take another little pieceof my heart

The General in February

The bitter cold and snow of 2011 reminds me of other Generals....at Valley Forge. Here are just a couple quotes from Washington's men at winter camp.

"General Johann de Kalb wrote: "...so cold that the ink freezes on my pen, while I am sitting close to the fire. The roads are piled with snow until, at some places they are elevated twelve feet above their ordinary level."


Private Joseph Plumb Martin's memoirs, writing in the rollicking style of a soldier, reported: "We are absolutely, literally starved. I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except for a little black birch bark which I gnawed off a stick of wood. I saw several men roast their old shoes and eat them"

Agie Garcia Father of Minnesota Rock Roll 1956

So you're worn out from the Super Bowl. That what's getting you down bunky? Kick start your week with the Father of Minnesota Rock (props Minnesota Historical Society). The signature Bermuda shorts will help. According to legend, he opened for Elvis in 1956, until the Colonel felt he was upstaging the headliner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAIDC29BYUs

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Minnetonka

An out take from "The legend of Sleepy Hollow"

"An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones's ghostly competitor had disappeared. "If I can but reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I am safe." Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash,—he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind". Washington Irving


But in the depths of Minnesota winter another haunted tale may reside.
A shadowy ghost rider on an old Polaris, with a single bright headlight charging across the dark ice toward the little St.Albans Bay Bridge. Pursued relentlessly by the restless soul of a 19th century yellow Steam boat Captain, drown while pressing his coal boilers too hard on Lake Minnetonka...

Snowscape hides Carson's

Ice fishing...

Frozen dinner

Hibernating

Hibernating in Minnesota can be a three-quarter time job. I pulled this list of hibernating animals from a nature web site.

• Bears
• Frogs and toads
• Bats
• Moths
• Hamsters
• Prairie Dogs
• Dormouse
• Bats
• Fat tailed lemurs
• Lizards
• Snakes
• Earthworms
• Ladybird
• Mosquitoes