Recently in Architecture & Cities Category

Recently passed by Minneapolis' shining star of the arts, the Guthrie. A very recent facility, it hosts tony-quality performances that frequently include major national stars, such as Tony Kushner and the various graduates of the Royal Shakespeare. But on a sunny day, it's the big blue shiny thing next to the farmer's market.

I rummaged through my huge file of photographs, and found this one from a trip to Washington DC early in the 2000's. Seems like an appropriate image for the day. 

In Minnesota we are privileged to have one of the most expensive state capitols ever built, a structure created in the 1890's with more marble than I have seen in numerous Roman palaces (this is not an exaggeration).  As I need something to push the ugly technical post below down the page, in order to reassure my literary and photography-minded readers, here are the golden horses atop the capitol. Yes, they are gold-plated. Yes, you can go see them by taking the Capitol tour. No, I don't advise going on top of the Capitol roof in January in Minnesota. 

In early October I found my way to Decorah, Iowa, an idyllic little town right on the Mississippi River. The town has a secret tourist spot that isn't well marked, but can be seen from a distance when approaching over the river from Wisconsin - a viewpoint perched on one of the upper Mississippi's many high hills.  Once I crossed into Iowa via an impressive steel bridge I set about finding the spot. Taking a left from the bridge and then an immediate right, I found a sign to a city park. I followed the sign up a steep hill behind the town and sure enough, we emerged on the viewpoint along with a number of other gawkers.

The Mississippi spreads out in marshes, island, and a thousand channels, surely a mystery to navigate but a beauty to behold from high above.

Decorah is extremely small but has a quaint main street and impressive scenery. Might be a nice spot for a writer.

I toured the Minnesota State Capitol last Friday. I've never seen such an extraordinary spectacle of exotic marbles, placed in such a unified and luxurious design. And I have been to Rome and Florence and seen plenty of marble, let me tell you. Built for a few million back in the 19th century, building it today would (if even possible - many of the marble types used are now exhausted) cost over 500 million. Or, if you're a Wall Street banker looking for a handout, "pocket change." But I digress. The free tours, which leave on the hour during the week, take you all the way to the top of the building, where the capitol's signature golden horses charge forever toward the city of St. Paul and the Mississippi.  

Last weekend was a glorious day, sunny, mid-thirties, which here in Minnesota means it was like walking around in the Bahamas on a breezy summer day.  And it was the day they carved the ice sculptures in Rice Park, downtown St. Paul.







And a shout out to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who watches over Rice Park and its sculptures forever and ever.

Every year there are thousands of writers retreats available, ranging from a couple of hundred bucks to thousands of dollars for more elaborate surroundings. On a drive up to Bemidji, Minnesota, this weekend, I saw these fishhouses on Lake Mille Lacs, and I thought, now there's a writer's retreat. Nothing but a box on the ice with a hole for catching your dinner. Put yerself out there, and don't let yerself back in 'till the novel's done.

This may be how Stephen King pumps out so much material...or not. Anyhow, perhaps there is something for the writer to learn from the frosty contemplation of ice fisherman, and the icy villages they create on northern lakes each winter.

I took a drive in the sunshine today, a little alone time before the family dinner.  Stopped at Coon Lake County Park, in northern Anoka County, Minnesota, and found a few lonely ice huts already out on the ice, a symptom of our cold winter (in the last few years, December has generally not been cold enough for ice fishing by Christmas). It was cold and quiet, very little wind, bright sunshine. After I stood by the lake's edge for a while, taking pictures, a fellow drove up in his old pickup. He rolled down the window and said, "beautiful, isn't it?" I answered yes, and he smiled, and then rolled up his window and slowly drove away.  Days like this bring out the nature lovers, even for a small lake like this one.





My semester in Fiction is over, thankfully, so I'm going to start posting more regularly again. I have to say, the class was a disappointment. I feel like I'm getting into a situation where the MFA program may be interfering with the writing I actually want to be doing right now.  Anybody out there have a similar experience? Feel free to leave a comment.

Found this recent article on Bookslut - why do MFA programs ask students to specialize in a genre? Good question. My program emphasizes multi-genre writing, but in the end asks for a thesis in only one.   Maybe we know that most people are good at basically one genre and suck in everything else?  Maybe forcing students to specialize weeds out less serious candidates? My answer is that MFA programs are easier to administer when people are assigned specific literary roles, but I like to write fiction, so as usual I'm pulling that out of my ass.

The New Pages blog wonders if many of these literary anthologies that call for submissions are legit.

Google is trying to weasel out of responsibility for its decision to self-censor in China by arguing that censorship should be considered a barrier to trade--and therefore be part of international agreements that regulate trade.   While Google's point isn't without merit--using trade structures could be one way to combat censorship--the idea of taking freedom of speech and making it a trade issue rather than a fundamental issue of civil rights seems ominous to me.

Boys do better in reading when they have female teachers? Weird.

Off in my world, I spent the weekend up on Minnesota's North Shore. Beautiful day, and we even stopped for pie...



Above: Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior, Minnesota.



Above: view of Minnesota's North Shore (Lake Superior).