Thought for Food

MN Pride (via @BRLSQ, adambez, nprfreshair).

Impressive.

PS: Prairie Home Companion’s on Tumblr.

My aunt Therese — who you may recall made this wonderful little picture book for me when I was little — gave me another priceless gift this Christmas: a DVD with audio from a tape that my dad sent her in April 1981, when he and my birth-mom were living in Rheinheim, Germany, and anticipating my arrival that September.

She set the audio to a slideshow of images of our family through the years as well as nuclear bombs and Reagan and Gorbachev and silly shots of French mimes and Germans beer girls. The content of the 45-minute tape ranges from big brotherly advice (very good advice, I might add) to their upcoming trip to Paris, ruminations on German vs. Austrian heritage, and questioning what he was doing bringing a child into a world that could be obliterated in nuclear war.

My sister and I watched it together the last night she was here and I’m very glad we did because it was fun and touching to share it with her. The first thing that struck us (and struck him, when he watched it) was how much his voice has changed. He sounds much more Minnesotan than he does now — in fact he sounds a lot like my great state’s other prodigal son, one Robert Zimmerman, weaving a yarn in an old concert recording. I think it’s not just a Minnesotan accent but a working class accent — an accent made for telling tales — and you rarely hear it these days. It may have been lost completely.

We were so amazed by how different he sounded that we watched this news report, made five years later, to compare. His voice still has some of that that folksy quality, but it is significantly diminished, replaced, I think, with a certain heaviness, and I can’t help but wonder if it was a reaction to all that had happened over the last decade of his life. From student to revolutionary to husband to U.S. Army civilian to father to business owner to widower to activist.

One of the things that was most touching about the tape was that he spoke at length about his fear of the specter of nuclear war — a common fear of the time — and his struggle with what it meant to go on loving and making a family despite that threat.

Why am I helping to bring another person into this world when they’re going to be fried — mentally — and probably also physically? 

But in fact the tragedy that would strike would be this horribly mundane thing, the fast and silent death of his heavily pregnant wife, the little girl left in his care, and the next day, a bleak Monday in February (there is no other kind), the postman bringing the crib for the baby who no longer exists. (Therese described that wrenching scene to me this summer — I had never heard the story — and it’s since made appearances in my dreams.)

If he knew all that would lie ahead, would he have done it all anyway? It’s a trick question, of course, but if his advice to Therese is any indication — go to Paris (“put it on the plan to get your butt over to Europe and do some traveling”), enjoy the mimes and street theater, pursue your art, follow the fool in you — then, yes. He would have.

nprfreshair:

Happy 7th birthday wishes to The Current!

I love my hometown public radio stations, especially The Current, which plays a hip and wide-ranging selection of music, new and old, from Minnesota and all over the world. I recommend listening to it at work for productive, happy busytimes.

(keys to home via lilacp)

I don’t know if it’s because we’re from Minnesota — “the cities,” not a small town, but still — or if it was Charlize’s perfect rendition of an out-of-place asshole that sadly, reminded us just a bit of ourselves, but Gena and I loved this flick. To my mind, Charlize, Diablo Cody, and Jason Reitman nailed every detail, down to her clothes, and music, and the fact that the “other woman” is actually pretty awesome. Though I will say two couples walked out of the theater. I’m not sure what they were expecting — I think it delivers on the promise of the trailers and this brilliant poster — but it’s certainly not for everyone.

Moorhead, Minnesota, 1940 by John Vachon (via kateoplis)

This is how we roll.

The loon is the Minnesota state bird, and what you read below about the noble creature can be said of Minnesotans themselves: “Minnesotans … are not social creatures. But towards the end of the summer, just before they wrap themselves in Slankets and down slippers and retreat in to their homes where they pass the winter watching hockey and football and braising large hunks of meat, they host the get-together of all get-togethers. ‘The Great Minnesota Get-Together’: The State Fair.”

(Wish I was stuffing my face there right now!)

“Loons…are not social creatures. But towards the end of summer, just before they fly back to the North Atlantic, where they pass the winter bobbing on stormy waves, they host a series of get-togethers. A dozen or more loons from all the neighboring ponds fly in, and they all swim together for a couple of hours for no discernible reason other than the pleasure of being together. The host loon leads the guest on a proud but low-key tour of his territory — first to his favorite little cove, say, then perhaps over to an interesting fallen log, then on to a patch of lily pads. ‘This is where I like to fish in the mornings,’ he seems to be saying. ‘And here’s where we’re thinking of moving our nesting site next year.’ All the other loons follow him around with diligence and polite interest. No one knows why they do this…or how they arrange their rendezvous, but they all show up each night at the right lake at the right time as certainly as if they had been sent a card that said: ‘We’re Having a Party!’”

— Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods (via caro, who took the photo of the loon party you see above)

From the Braham Pie Day 2011 festival flyer.

It’s true.

You can’t!

In-flight entertainment. (They’re not actually doing a Real Housewives of the Twin Cities. Fortunately!)