The world continues to spin, but I am hard-core focused on work these days! Partly because we're ramping up to the beginning of a new school year... partly because my kid is off at college & it's weird living alone... partly just because I love my work...
As the school year goes, this time of year is so sweet... all anticipation, high energy, positivity and hope!
Labor Day Weekend approaches:
* Thursday - staff party, BB King at the state fair
* Friday - staff breakfast, light work day, The Final Word spoken word performance at the U
* Saturday & Sunday - at the cabin, hopefully with lots of sun :)
* Monday - re-focus & get ready!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Brio's Reflections from the Stone Arch Bridge
My friends Brionna & Anne & I had drinks downtown Friday and then walked over the Stone Arch Bridge to see the 35W bridge and then have dinner on the other side. Brio wrote some reflections that night and said I could reprint them here.
Hi Everyone,
Thought I would share something that I wrote about the 35W bridge
collapse. It's funny how the mind works. I wrote this almost
immediately after coming home from hanging out with a couple of my
favorite people. When I returned to the same place today with Chris and
Ben, I found it odd how much my memory of seeing it the night before and
the images I took in today were, in many ways, different. While the
storm last night had something to do with that, I'm sure, I think my
narrative below is more indicative of how seeing it affected me rather
than a true account of what I saw. Emily and Anne - it will be
interesting to hear how your recollections of what you saw agrees or
conflicts with my recollection of what I saw). Anyway, for what it's
worth. . . here it is.
Brionna
A couple girlfriends and I met up downtown for drinks this evening and
walked over to the Stone Arch Bridge. For those of you unfamiliar with
the Twin Cities, the Stone Arch Bridge is part of a large historical
park memorializing the flour mill ruins. (A little over 100 years ago,
Minneapolis was known, in part, for its flour mills. Flour dust is WAY
more combustible than gunpowder and with the Industrial Revolution
relatively new to the States, the technology and working conditions were
ripe for sparks to fly. A number of mill explosions, including the BIG
one, resulted in too many worker deaths. The park honors that history by
turning the ruins into an educational park. It's pretty cool.)
From the bridge you get a decent view of the 35W collapse and boy, it
is difficult to find the right words to string together into sentences
to describe the whole thing. I was having a difficult time envisioning
where the bridge would have been because I kept looking for a landmark
to place the bridge in my mind. The problem, I later realized, was that
the bridge itself was the landmark I was searching for and could not
find. It wasn't until I was able to make sense of the other landmarks
WITHOUT the bridge, that the gravity of the bridge collapse from a
simple environmental/geographic standpoint sunk in.
While on the Stone Arch Bridge, you look to the right and see a slab of
concrete cascading like a waterfall down into the south bank of the
river. You see concrete move like that on hilly roads and streets, but
seeing the concrete take the particularly shape it has taken as a result
of the collapse challenges the mind to grasp how a concrete road can
take such a path. Strangely, it seems very fluid, as though it is
supposed to do it. Just as the concrete takes its dive downward, you see
a car, very precariously positioned, as though a strong enough breeze
could send that car down the waterfall of concrete to the rubble below.
As you move your field of vision to the left, just passed the
lock-and-dam system - which obscures a large part of the river and thus
the rubble of the bridge - you happen upon another very part portion of
the bridge, above the water, bent in a concave manner. Once again, you
are struck by how a road just shouldn't DO that. There is no reason to
have such a strong sense of cognitive dissonance, except that this
expansion of road is also an island of sorts in the Mississippi River. A
week ago, there were a number of cars on this piece of the bridge,
including the delivery truck engulfed in flames that became the death
pyre for one of the dead. Now, all cars are gone from this u-shaped
piece of interstate, fallen from its groundedness. All that is left are
the white stripes of the lane divisions, another eerie reminder of what
it once was.
Still farther to the left, you see a mangled mess of bridge trusses,
green in color and collapsed in such a manner that the geometric
patterns formerly created by the supports have fallen into each other,
creating dozens of new triangles, hexagons and open angles searching for
the beams that closed the shape it had once been. On the northern side
of this display of metallic geometry is another large slab of concrete,
cast down at nearly a 90% angle. Most of this section is shielded by a
number of trees, if I recall. At this point, however, it could have been
partially hidden by just about anything because at the same time, you
are hypnotized by your own personal, private, intellectual and emotional
response to seeing something that the local media, in its coverage, has
been unable to "make real" in your head and heart.
From that far away, it is difficult to take in the full effect of the
view. But, I'm not sure I want to. The miracle that so few died as a
result lessened the impact. Had we lost more to the event, I'm not sure
I could write my thoughts down immediately after seeing the aftermath.
Having attended the University of Minnesota for both undergrad and
graduate school, I know the bridge, traveled it often. There is a part
of my identity that is attached to it for the sheer fact that it is the
road I took so many times to get to where I am most comfortable, a
classroom, any classroom. It's funny the flood of memories, often very
visceral, you can have of simply driving a stretch of road, slowing down
along an exit ramp, sitting at the yield sign waiting to leave the
highway, cross four lines of traffic to get in the best position to
enter Dinkytown to find parking near a coffee shop that you might get a
demitasse of espresso to fuel a quick study session before a midquarter
exam or a discussion during recitation. Somehow, now, those memories
have more value in my mind, plug a bit more urgently at my heart.
Despite having traveled that portion of 35W for any number of other
reasons, the fact that it so often served as a gateway to the U is that
of which I am most contemplative. As I look back at what I just wrote,
to share this experience, it is a bit odd that I took myself out of the
narrative, using instead second person language. I suppose I needed a
bit of space to put words to paper around the experience of seeing the
site of the collapse, because, as I sat down to write about it, I felt
that the words would not come. Still, I, like so many here in the Twin
Cities and others - wherever they may be - who have followed the story,
recognize the change it means, however small or however monumental,
however public or however private.
Like Brio, I have traveled that bridge many times as an undergrad and grad student at the U of MN. As an icon, that bridge sticks in my memory as having the most amazing view of downtown when you are travelling south and look to the west. It was strange to look AT the bridge FROM downtown - an odd reversal.
My recollections from that evening are right there with Brio's. The concrete waterfall - the twisted geometry of the green metal parts - simultaneously disturbing and interesting. Locating the bridge within the context of other landmarks - the "aha" when we remembered that the Humphrey Center is just at the south end of the 10th St bridge...
It was strange to be on the bridge with so many people when it wasn't the Fourth of July. Usually, folks are just walking across - or it's a holiday and that's a reason for crowds - but this was neither...
Hi Everyone,
Thought I would share something that I wrote about the 35W bridge
collapse. It's funny how the mind works. I wrote this almost
immediately after coming home from hanging out with a couple of my
favorite people. When I returned to the same place today with Chris and
Ben, I found it odd how much my memory of seeing it the night before and
the images I took in today were, in many ways, different. While the
storm last night had something to do with that, I'm sure, I think my
narrative below is more indicative of how seeing it affected me rather
than a true account of what I saw. Emily and Anne - it will be
interesting to hear how your recollections of what you saw agrees or
conflicts with my recollection of what I saw). Anyway, for what it's
worth. . . here it is.
Brionna
A couple girlfriends and I met up downtown for drinks this evening and
walked over to the Stone Arch Bridge. For those of you unfamiliar with
the Twin Cities, the Stone Arch Bridge is part of a large historical
park memorializing the flour mill ruins. (A little over 100 years ago,
Minneapolis was known, in part, for its flour mills. Flour dust is WAY
more combustible than gunpowder and with the Industrial Revolution
relatively new to the States, the technology and working conditions were
ripe for sparks to fly. A number of mill explosions, including the BIG
one, resulted in too many worker deaths. The park honors that history by
turning the ruins into an educational park. It's pretty cool.)
From the bridge you get a decent view of the 35W collapse and boy, it
is difficult to find the right words to string together into sentences
to describe the whole thing. I was having a difficult time envisioning
where the bridge would have been because I kept looking for a landmark
to place the bridge in my mind. The problem, I later realized, was that
the bridge itself was the landmark I was searching for and could not
find. It wasn't until I was able to make sense of the other landmarks
WITHOUT the bridge, that the gravity of the bridge collapse from a
simple environmental/geographic standpoint sunk in.
While on the Stone Arch Bridge, you look to the right and see a slab of
concrete cascading like a waterfall down into the south bank of the
river. You see concrete move like that on hilly roads and streets, but
seeing the concrete take the particularly shape it has taken as a result
of the collapse challenges the mind to grasp how a concrete road can
take such a path. Strangely, it seems very fluid, as though it is
supposed to do it. Just as the concrete takes its dive downward, you see
a car, very precariously positioned, as though a strong enough breeze
could send that car down the waterfall of concrete to the rubble below.
As you move your field of vision to the left, just passed the
lock-and-dam system - which obscures a large part of the river and thus
the rubble of the bridge - you happen upon another very part portion of
the bridge, above the water, bent in a concave manner. Once again, you
are struck by how a road just shouldn't DO that. There is no reason to
have such a strong sense of cognitive dissonance, except that this
expansion of road is also an island of sorts in the Mississippi River. A
week ago, there were a number of cars on this piece of the bridge,
including the delivery truck engulfed in flames that became the death
pyre for one of the dead. Now, all cars are gone from this u-shaped
piece of interstate, fallen from its groundedness. All that is left are
the white stripes of the lane divisions, another eerie reminder of what
it once was.
Still farther to the left, you see a mangled mess of bridge trusses,
green in color and collapsed in such a manner that the geometric
patterns formerly created by the supports have fallen into each other,
creating dozens of new triangles, hexagons and open angles searching for
the beams that closed the shape it had once been. On the northern side
of this display of metallic geometry is another large slab of concrete,
cast down at nearly a 90% angle. Most of this section is shielded by a
number of trees, if I recall. At this point, however, it could have been
partially hidden by just about anything because at the same time, you
are hypnotized by your own personal, private, intellectual and emotional
response to seeing something that the local media, in its coverage, has
been unable to "make real" in your head and heart.
From that far away, it is difficult to take in the full effect of the
view. But, I'm not sure I want to. The miracle that so few died as a
result lessened the impact. Had we lost more to the event, I'm not sure
I could write my thoughts down immediately after seeing the aftermath.
Having attended the University of Minnesota for both undergrad and
graduate school, I know the bridge, traveled it often. There is a part
of my identity that is attached to it for the sheer fact that it is the
road I took so many times to get to where I am most comfortable, a
classroom, any classroom. It's funny the flood of memories, often very
visceral, you can have of simply driving a stretch of road, slowing down
along an exit ramp, sitting at the yield sign waiting to leave the
highway, cross four lines of traffic to get in the best position to
enter Dinkytown to find parking near a coffee shop that you might get a
demitasse of espresso to fuel a quick study session before a midquarter
exam or a discussion during recitation. Somehow, now, those memories
have more value in my mind, plug a bit more urgently at my heart.
Despite having traveled that portion of 35W for any number of other
reasons, the fact that it so often served as a gateway to the U is that
of which I am most contemplative. As I look back at what I just wrote,
to share this experience, it is a bit odd that I took myself out of the
narrative, using instead second person language. I suppose I needed a
bit of space to put words to paper around the experience of seeing the
site of the collapse, because, as I sat down to write about it, I felt
that the words would not come. Still, I, like so many here in the Twin
Cities and others - wherever they may be - who have followed the story,
recognize the change it means, however small or however monumental,
however public or however private.
Like Brio, I have traveled that bridge many times as an undergrad and grad student at the U of MN. As an icon, that bridge sticks in my memory as having the most amazing view of downtown when you are travelling south and look to the west. It was strange to look AT the bridge FROM downtown - an odd reversal.
My recollections from that evening are right there with Brio's. The concrete waterfall - the twisted geometry of the green metal parts - simultaneously disturbing and interesting. Locating the bridge within the context of other landmarks - the "aha" when we remembered that the Humphrey Center is just at the south end of the 10th St bridge...
It was strange to be on the bridge with so many people when it wasn't the Fourth of July. Usually, folks are just walking across - or it's a holiday and that's a reason for crowds - but this was neither...
Monday, August 13, 2007
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Even Better
Check out more entertaining social commentary from Wellington Grey! As always, razor-sharp and RIGHT ON.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
I Don't Get It
Not a huge controversy, but interesting anyway... a writer on PopWatch takes issue with MTV censorship of a video. Apparently the top pop song these days is "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston (or rather, by Lieber & Stoller, performed by Kingston.) I didn't know that - maybe because I'm 39 and just don't watch enough MTV?
OK, I don't watch MTV at all, so I haven't seen this - though the link includes the video - but apparently MTV, in its infinite wisdom, blanks out a couple words (or a few lines, depending on who you believe) of the song on the video. That, in itself, can't be surprising, but here are the lines:
You're way too beautiful, girl
That's why it'll never work
You'll have me suicidal, suicidal
When you say it's over
Now I absolutely think the lines are stupid - but not in need of censorship. The idea of dying over rejection is pathetic, but do teens need to be protected from the very idea? Come on.
Frankly, while I'm impressed that MTV actually does bleep out offensiveness - another thing I didn't know - all this does is draw attention to something that would otherwise have received much less attention.
Dumb.
OK, I don't watch MTV at all, so I haven't seen this - though the link includes the video - but apparently MTV, in its infinite wisdom, blanks out a couple words (or a few lines, depending on who you believe) of the song on the video. That, in itself, can't be surprising, but here are the lines:
You're way too beautiful, girl
That's why it'll never work
You'll have me suicidal, suicidal
When you say it's over
Now I absolutely think the lines are stupid - but not in need of censorship. The idea of dying over rejection is pathetic, but do teens need to be protected from the very idea? Come on.
Frankly, while I'm impressed that MTV actually does bleep out offensiveness - another thing I didn't know - all this does is draw attention to something that would otherwise have received much less attention.
Dumb.
Modern Communication pt 2 OR It's a Small World pt 2
A colleague told me yesterday that the news of the 35W bridge collapse was so dominating national & global news that it was even the lead story on Al-Jazeera. I didn't have a chance to look at the website until today, and while it's not on the front page, it is still the lead story on the "Americas" section of the website. Interesting!
It's always hard to gauge the extent that a story in our back yard will be interesting to the rest of the world. I was in Philly on Tuesday when the Wolves traded Garnett, and was pleased to find pretty significant coverage in the papers out east.
I'm curious to see how Gov Pawlenty will deal with the national exposure he'll get from this. On the one hand, it raises his name recognition & gives him a chance to be a hero. On the other hand, he's already taking a beating for vetoing the transportation bill this year & being a generally "no new taxes" kind of guy his whole tenure in office. If he's angling for a Veep spot on someone's ticket next year, he'll have to walk a pretty fine line between now & then. It will be interesting to see how the national news covers him in the process...
It's always hard to gauge the extent that a story in our back yard will be interesting to the rest of the world. I was in Philly on Tuesday when the Wolves traded Garnett, and was pleased to find pretty significant coverage in the papers out east.
I'm curious to see how Gov Pawlenty will deal with the national exposure he'll get from this. On the one hand, it raises his name recognition & gives him a chance to be a hero. On the other hand, he's already taking a beating for vetoing the transportation bill this year & being a generally "no new taxes" kind of guy his whole tenure in office. If he's angling for a Veep spot on someone's ticket next year, he'll have to walk a pretty fine line between now & then. It will be interesting to see how the national news covers him in the process...
Friday, August 03, 2007
Modern Communication
I didn’t understand the “are u safe? im at the u now too” text message at first – it followed an earlier text from the same friend asking about lunch, so I just replied that I was glad she had started her doctoral program, I had just landed from PA, and we’d have lunch next week.
The next “Are u safe?” text came after my mom had told me about the bridge collapse, so I understood what it meant!
I was annoyed at the airport that my call dropped about 6 times while I was trying to tell my mom which door to pick me up at – I just switched to Verizon from T-Mobile and was starting to regret it! But as I complained about it to her, she explained about the bridge and it became clear that the lines were just overloaded.
Flashback to September 2001!
I landed within an hour of the bridge collapse, and within an hour after that I had at least 3 texts from friends asking “are u safe?” – then a call, then another text… I had only called my brother after she told me about the bridge – his family was intact, my daughter was hundreds of miles away, and my mom was sitting right next to me, so all good. It just didn’t occur to me that I would know anyone in the tragedy!
Amusingly, my mother called my brother when she first heard the news – just to tell him to take a different way home, as 35W would be blocked off. She left a message & didn’t think twice about whether he might be IN it! We’re just not the worrying types, I guess.
But I have to admit it felt pretty good to have so many people checking on me… so I checked on a few more of my closest friends just because. Counted heads & all were present. One of my daughter’s friends told her that all their friends are accounted for – between texting & instant messaging I’m sure they counted heads in about 10 minutes!
Two of my good friends were in NYC on 9/11, so I was aware that the need to find out if people were OK must be strong for them. Both admitted they were more than a little freaked out by the situation. Apparently texts get through better than calls in busy times, so both used text and I was not surprised.
My boss’s brother’s wife’s sister is among the missing – that’s as close as it has come to me to my knowledge so far. Of course there are many more bodies yet to be pulled out, so who knows – but I’m feeling lucky, and loved, and blessed – by my loved ones and by modern communication. ☺
The next “Are u safe?” text came after my mom had told me about the bridge collapse, so I understood what it meant!
I was annoyed at the airport that my call dropped about 6 times while I was trying to tell my mom which door to pick me up at – I just switched to Verizon from T-Mobile and was starting to regret it! But as I complained about it to her, she explained about the bridge and it became clear that the lines were just overloaded.
Flashback to September 2001!
I landed within an hour of the bridge collapse, and within an hour after that I had at least 3 texts from friends asking “are u safe?” – then a call, then another text… I had only called my brother after she told me about the bridge – his family was intact, my daughter was hundreds of miles away, and my mom was sitting right next to me, so all good. It just didn’t occur to me that I would know anyone in the tragedy!
Amusingly, my mother called my brother when she first heard the news – just to tell him to take a different way home, as 35W would be blocked off. She left a message & didn’t think twice about whether he might be IN it! We’re just not the worrying types, I guess.
But I have to admit it felt pretty good to have so many people checking on me… so I checked on a few more of my closest friends just because. Counted heads & all were present. One of my daughter’s friends told her that all their friends are accounted for – between texting & instant messaging I’m sure they counted heads in about 10 minutes!
Two of my good friends were in NYC on 9/11, so I was aware that the need to find out if people were OK must be strong for them. Both admitted they were more than a little freaked out by the situation. Apparently texts get through better than calls in busy times, so both used text and I was not surprised.
My boss’s brother’s wife’s sister is among the missing – that’s as close as it has come to me to my knowledge so far. Of course there are many more bodies yet to be pulled out, so who knows – but I’m feeling lucky, and loved, and blessed – by my loved ones and by modern communication. ☺
No Post from Philly or DC
The TREO has almost eliminated my need for computer access while traveling since I can get home & work email on it… so I didn’t think to post at all!
I left my lovely daughter at U Penn on Saturday, went to DC for a few days to visit friends, then came back after she was all settled in. I strongly recommend this strategy to other parents who have to leave kids at college many miles away!
It was great because by the time I came back, she had friends, knew her surroundings a bit, and had been to her classes so had a good sense that she was going to enjoy it! I even got to take her out to lunch with all 3 of her roommates – nice to put faces with the names and see that they are, in fact, pretty cool kids.
Yes, the trip was wonderful. So I didn’t post.
I left my lovely daughter at U Penn on Saturday, went to DC for a few days to visit friends, then came back after she was all settled in. I strongly recommend this strategy to other parents who have to leave kids at college many miles away!
It was great because by the time I came back, she had friends, knew her surroundings a bit, and had been to her classes so had a good sense that she was going to enjoy it! I even got to take her out to lunch with all 3 of her roommates – nice to put faces with the names and see that they are, in fact, pretty cool kids.
Yes, the trip was wonderful. So I didn’t post.
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