MINNEAPOLIS: Yah, You Betcha!

Clean Air is where it’s at!!! I got to re-connect with many folks while I was back in Minneapolis this past week. Unlike the last time I was out here (back in 2002) I actually felt the 5 days flew by too fast! Wish that was true of my flight into the Twin Cities. I guess it’s fair to say that time does fly when you’re playing catchup, and that indeed it did. The synopsis of my return to the Land O’ Lakes is below:

–> MCAD

How can I not visit my alma mater of which is the root source of nurturing my professional well-being of graphic design-hood?! Plus, I never did see the fruits of the new expansion of the facilities last time I was here. So my first stop after touching down on Thursday morning was to MCAD and to see how so much has changed (or shall I say improved?) since I graduated some six years ago. QUITE A LOT!!! Design Works has it’s own wing in the main building while looking super-professional and is still helmed by the ever charming & formidable Pam Arnold who I got to chat up for a minute. Computers are in virtually EVERY common use area, including the print studios and photo labs which boasts their own scanners too! Shoot, there’s even a dedicated deli on the 2nd floor and the lounge areas have been tripled. Where was all this stuff when I attended!?

*sigh*

Anyways, it was good seeing familar faces again like Kathleen Heidman, Rebecca Alm, Mary Kuzura (and Chris, her other half), Susan Calmenson, Hal Wells, Scott Bowman, Rik Sferra, and Cindy Theis among others. Even got a picture of Kris Musto’s work desk though she wasn’t around. Michael O’Keefe was his friendly self, and is now the president. Unfortunately I didn’t get to catch-up with most of my former and favorite instructors like Jan Jancourt, Frenchy Lunning, Tom DeBiaso or Rich Shelton but I did manage to catch Piotr Syzhalski (who I pretty much credit for turning me over to the dark side of internet design….SMILE) and he was nice enough to give me five minutes of his time especially since it was during a finals week class. I was also privileged to make the acquaintance of the new Alumni Director Doug Nathan as well as Santiago Piedrafita (Design Chair) who were both very warm and generous of their time. Apparently I missed the fine folks down in the accounting dungeon (Alan Coleman & Co.) both times I came to the campus but I figured they already know how much I love them all. It’s great to see that everyone is doing so well and that the school is continuing to commit themselves to the needs of their students and it makes me that much more proud to be an alumni from MCAD.

–> IOWA

Drove down to Des Monies with my gal-pal Lauren to visit Kat & Tom in Des Moines who I haven’t seen since their wedding. As per usual Kat was her lady-like self with all that sailors’ talk and still hip to the pop-culture scene of things. Tom was able to escape the slave pits a bit early to come hang and chit-chat with us city slickers. I also got to finally meet in the flesh their little man-cub Jakob who was absolutely dashing and quite well-behaved for a one year old….who said tough love doesn’t work?! But yeah, we grown-ups (ugh) chewed the fat, talked smack and grabbed some eats before all those kitty hairs started to send my allergies into overdrive. I fancy these Thompson folks a lot….I mean it’s just priceless the value of a friendship that’s solidified over “deez nuts, beytoch”.

–> HOMIES

First night back in Minneapolis I headed over to a pub called Gluek’s (pronounced “glicks”) in downtown Minneapolis with Lauren Nicole Rusnak in tow and we meet up with Daidrian & CPT who were already there kicking back listening to the live band. Kevin Wideman meets up with us a little later on along with Ryan Simonson who, after all of these years, has decided to embrace that wonderful world of beer. Can’t you feel the love!? Reunited with my ol’skool buddies it becomes clearer as the evening rages on that we’re getting slammed as evidenced by the progressively sillier pictures we’re taking of ourselves. I even get a hot looking stranger to take a picture with Lauren before the night is through. Last but not least, while still at Gluek’s, I finally get to meet the love of Daidrain’s life: Angie. She is crazy kool with a genuine sweetness to her and as I watch the two of them interact, it becomes unquestionable to me that their bond is inseparable. Once Lauren started fading, we broke out to crash @ her & Randy’s place before heading down to Iowa the next morning.

Actually before I headed over to Gluek’s that first night I dropped by Auni Adams house to meet her & Steve’s son Keaton for the first time and introduced him to the hispanic-panic that is myself. Both Auni & Steve look great but it’s almost tragic how early parenthood makes it a little challenging to party on short notice. Still, I was glad I got to see them for a bit before making the rounds elsewhere.

Kevin was nice enough to let me crash at his pad for a couple nights and no matter what he says his apartment is pimping!!! My man decked out his spot with the flyiest modern-style furniture and had all his original G1 Transformers on display along with his graff art tribute snaphots and souvenir signs “aquired” from his multiple trips out to New York. Through his wise insistance, we ate breakfast at Shorty & Wags near his ‘hood before meeting up with Stephanie Kays for some chit-chat over at the French bakery.

Afterwards, I meet up with my babushka buddy Alisa and her main squeeze Matt who was a very swell dude with New Jersey roots. After 7+ years it was nice to finally touch-base in person and get the scoop on the latest & greatest. I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to see her Mom, Dad and little bro Vlad who were always super-nice to me, but I guess that’s excuse enough for another mid-west visit.

Kiyo + Ulli were also on my hit list and reconnect we did, especially since I knew there were getting ready to move to Germany in a few weeks so I was determined to spend some face time with these extremely wonderful people. After having some drinks at the Red Dragon and talking with Ryno about mutual friends, slumlords, and the glory days of the Knicks, we head out to have dinner with Kiyo + Ulli over at Pizza Luce. Afterwards, the agreeable Japanese & German couple put me up for a night and, after Ulli hits the hay, Kiyo and I yapped the night away with topics ranging from the usual banter to discussing our respective future goals & aspirations. Before saying “Bon Voyage” the next morning, Kiyo hooked me up with a couple of his letterpressed posters and I tried my best to sell Ulli on the benefits of reading a weblog….hope I convinced her!

And how could I come to the Twin Cities without paying homage to Mama Harris & Co.!? Ronnie cooked us his gourmet speciality while trying to serve me an O.G. lesson in dominoes with Daig and Angie. It’s always great to see the Harris family and hopefully I’ll see them again sooner rather than later.

–> WALKER ART MUSEUM

After two years of renovations the Walker Art muesum finally completed it’s expansion and I was lucky to be back in Minneapolis just a few weeks after this world-class museum was reopened to the public. Of course I went there in full force with Kiyo, Ulli, Lauren and Daidrian (big ups to Kevin for the free passes) and we managed to bump into Victor and Miki in the lobby. The new facilities was super sweet looking but most of the work exibited was from the permanent collection so that was kinda dissappointing. But the dolphin exhibit was one of the few notable exceptions along with an interactive touch-based kiosk that lets you grab people and drop them anywhere onto the screen to open up more info on a specific topic. Kiyo & Ulli have been recently taking pictures of people jumping so we horsed around doing this for a little bit behind the Walker before heading over to the Sculpture Garden to wrap up our visit to the museum. Afterwards Kiyo & Ulli introduced Daidrian and I to a pretty damn good ice-cream shop on the south end of Minneapolis.

And that’s pretty much it. You can check out some more pictures of my trek back to Minneapolis here.

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