Sampler Release Party

If you recall, I won tickets to the Cities 97 Volume 22 Sampler Party, which I attended on Tuesday with my friend Jill.  If you are not familiar with the radio station Cities 97 or the Sampler, here's some background.  Cities 97 is a radio station in the Twin Cities and the best way I can describe the music played would be Adult Contemporary and Adult Alternative.  The Cities 97 Sampler is a CD that is a compilation of artists that performed live within Studio C at Cities 97.  The CD itself has been released every November since 1989 with all proceeds benefiting Minnesota charities. It is only offered through Target stores and the line each year for this CD on the morning it is released is out the door and around the corner.  The CD sells out every year and this year it was released on Thursday, November 18th and sold all 33,000 copies early that morning.  I also got my copy in the mail from Cities 97 on Thursday.

The Volume 22 Sampler Party was held at BayView Event Center in Excelsior on the shores of Lake Minnetonka.  If you know where Maynard's is, it's right next door. I do not venture out too much to the west side of the cities so it seemed so far away from my house but it wasn't too far of a drive from my work, which is where we left from.

Once we arrived inside, it wasn't too busy, with maybe a few hundred people there and it was very comfortable to walk and stand around.  We grabbed a beer (thank you, Jill!) and got there just in time for the first band to start. Cedar Avenue was the name of the first band.  They are a local band and are featured on the Sampler.

The next artist to take the stage was the one I was excited about....Donavon Frankenreiter.  He played for maybe 30 minutes as he had a show at the Varsity Theater later that evening.

After Donavon played, we were hungry so we ventured downstairs to eat some of the free food that was offered.  At this time, it was pretty busy and it was hard to move around.  Once we were downstairs, it was another big room with a heated outdoor tent that extended onto a patio outside.  That where the food was with tables and chairs to sit and eat but it was so packed down there, we had to stand and eat.  The food offering was pretty good including spinach and artichoke dip and chips/crackers, chicken wings, BBQ ribs, crab rangoon and different kinds of sandwiches.  We ate and hung around downstairs while the next band, The Rescues were playing, however there was a TV and a live feed from upstairs so we didn't miss the music.  We ended up going back upstairs towards the last part of their show and it was completely packed.  We could no longer move and everywhere we could stand was not a good place because it was either an aisle to somewhere or we were just packed in like sardines.  

We ended up leaving before the headlining band, One EskimO came on.  They are a band from the UK also featured on the Sampler CD.  One our way out, we were given a gift bag that included some earplugs, a few coupons, a note pad from TCF and a 10 pack of cute eco-friendly Thank You cards.  

Colton's Baptism

My nephew Colton was baptized last Sunday at their church in South St. Paul.  He was a very good baby throughout the whole service. Colton's Godmother lives out of state and wasn't able to attend the baptism so Jamie's stepdaughter Emily stood in for her alongside her brother Gunnar who is the Godfather. After church, we went back to Jamie and Tom's house to visit a little, eat some good food, open presents and watch a not-so-good Vikings game.

Colton with his cousin Owen

Colton after his big day with his Vikings gear on  

Random Schmandom

I always go in streaks with blogging and I've been on a non-blogging streak as of late so it's time to share some hodge podge thoughts and experiences with you, bullet style.

• I decided to shop for car insurance as my policy was expiring and I haven't been happy with the rates I've been getting considering that I've been driving for almost 18 years (that sounds so weird to say)and I've never been in an accident and I only have one speeding ticket from 2003 in a different state that is no longer on my record, however my car is on a top ten list (at least it was two years ago) for high insurance rates. Anyway, I first went to Allstate to check their insurance because let's face it, Mayhem was the only reason I checked there because I love those commercials.  Their quote was the same as what I was currently paying so I went to Progressive.  After getting their quote, I decided to go with them.  Progressive saved me 50% off my current insurance premium with equal coverage but better deductibles.  So thanks to Progressive and Flo, who saved me a lot of flow.  Here's a picture of my friend Jill from Halloween as Flo.  Doesn't she look good?

• I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping!  Not only do I have most of my shopping complete, I also have everything I've purchased wrapped!  I love being ahead at this time of year. 
• I went to lunch with a couple of girls from work at Big Bowl in the Galleria in Edina.  After lunch, we went into the new Louis Vuitton store.  It was totally like being in a store in a movie where there isn't much merchandise but just a few items with beautiful decor all around.  The one girl I was with has a Louis Vuitton purse so she was looking for a wallet to match it.  We looked at a wallet and it was $925!  Forget about all that luggage I was admiring.
• I didn't find out until the 3rd day of November that November is NaBloPoMo, which is National Blogging Posting Month, which is where you blog every single day for the whole month of November.  If I would have known sooner, I would have joined up to do it and your life would have been that more pleasurable as you would have been able to read about all my amazing life events every.single.day.
• M was out of town for the past two weekends due to deer hunting.  I've loved having the house to myself but I've found myself missing him more than ever too.  I love that I still love him this much after all our years together.  And no, he didn't get a deer....he didn't even see one while in his stand.  
• Do you go in waves with what types of food you crave?  I do and while it's usually good tacos, this time it's good pizza.  Pizza Luce to be exact.  I love their pizza!  What do you crave right now?
• While doing my hair yesterday morning and parting it a different way than usual, I found a gray hair!  NOOO!!!  This is about the 4th or 5th gray hair I've had in my life, my first being when I was young, like 20.  I think I've had 2 gray hairs this year....well the first one this year was questionable because it looked blonde, but why the heck would I have a blonde hair?  I'm not ready for this.  I'm too busy trying to fight fine lines and future wrinkles on my face that I don't need to deal with this too quite yet, but I've had enough to stress about the last few months so I suppose it might come with the territory.  
• I took off my shoes from work yesterday and laughed because this is what I saw.  I guess because they are both pale yellow in color, they must be matching socks. 

 

• I got new tires for my car!  After the big snow day this past Saturday where some parts of the Metro received up to 11 inches of snow, it was time to replace the tires.  Unfortunately I was only able to get the front two as that's all they had in stock since I have a weird size but that was enough for me not to slip and slide all over the roads.  Here's a picture of what my backyard looked like around 11 am on Saturday:

A Celebration of the Life of Mikey "Eyedea" Larsen

I went to First Avenue last Tuesday with M and Sara and we mourned and celebrated at the same time for Tuesday, November 9th would have been Micheal Larsen’s, aka Eyedea 29th birthday. The night was dubbed, “A Celebration of the Life of Mikey “eyedea” Larsen. No one really knew what to expect of the night as it was not announced who would perform or any details of the night were released. There was a no camera policy for the evening as it was the strict wishes of the family to allow no photos or videos. While that bummed me out as I would have loved to have documented the evening, I completely understood and checked my camera at the door. As I would later read on a blog, the night became more special without the camera.

Once inside, there weren’t that many people there, maybe a couple hundred. This disappointed me as I wanted it to be a packed house as all the proceeds of the $20 entry fee would be going to Eyedea’s family, but it was still early and I hoped for more people to show up.

The first person to take the stage was Slug (Sean Daley) of Atmosphere. He started talking to the crowd and it became clear that he would the evening’s emcee. From that point forward, it would be a revolving door with the number of artists to take the stage. Here are the artists that would perform in one way or another for the evening:

• Carnage
• No Bird Sing
• Kristoff Krane
• Roma di Luna
• Kevin Beacham DJ set
• Carbon Carousel with Glo Pesci
• Abstract Pack
• Battle Cats breakdance team
• Felipe from Los Nativos
• DJ Abilities
• Memorial video
• Kimya Dawson
• Themselves
• Alpha Consumer
• Face Candy with Slug
• Kevin Beacham DJ set
• Speech and reading by Mikey's mother Kathy
• Freestyle jam with Aesop Rock, Slug, Doseone of Themselves, Joe Horton, Kristoff Krane, Psalm One, Sector 7G, Glo Pesci, Kevin Beacham, Battle Cats, Carnage and more

On all of the TV’s around First Avenue, there was a picture slideshow that was shown during the performances and in between one of the performances, there was a video tribute to Eyedea, which showed off not only his freestyling skills but also his ability to breakdance as well as some different interviews he’s done over the years. There was even a video of him as a young kid jumping on a trampoline and just being a kid.

The mood was still somber, yet celebratory. Everyone on that stage was either a close personal friend, an artistic collaborator or just an artist that Eyedea admired. The feeling was mutual that these artists impacted Eyedea’s life as well as these artists lives were impacted by Eyedea.

During the performance of Kimya Dawson, the three of us congregated near an artist who was painting a collage of Eyedea. I would later find out that this artist, Michael Gaughan, also did the artwork for the album cover of Eyedea & Abilities latest album. Speaking of DJ Abilities, he watched over the artist while he painted. I purposely made eye contact with Abilities as I wanted to look into his eyes. What I saw was sadness. I felt and feel terrible for him as his best friend and long-time musical partner is no longer. I wanted to go up to him and just hug him. I know that may sound strange but I really wish I would have.

The tribute lasted nearly four hours. It was quite a long time, however that was how much time was needed to honor Eyedea. I stated earlier that there was only a couple hundred people earlier in the evening but that did change as I would imagine there was around 1,000 people that showed up. In addition, The Depot also donated 10% of all food and beverage sales to Eyedea’s family.

Eyedea has impacted me more after his death than while he was alive. I’ve listened to a lot of his music and I truly enjoy and respect his talents as an artist and just as much as a human being. I hope his legacy will carry on. As I write this today, it has been exactly one month since Eyedea’s death, yet the cause of death is still unknown. As the details become available, I’m sure I will post more about it in the time to come.

Slug’s last words to the crowd was this: "We all gotta remember to push and challenge the people we love to do better," he said, choking on his own tears. "This dude pushed everybody he loved to do everything better -- that's something we could all use more of. Push those people and make those people push and challenge you."

DJ Abilities last words were this: "Mike's favorite time was being on stage and sharing with you guys. Thank you so much."

If you’ve been to First Avenue, you know of the many painted stars paying tribute to the most coveted bands and artists that have played there over the years. Eyedea & Abilities earned their star the same day of Eyedea’s death, one month ago.

 
R. EYE P., Eyedea.

 

 

Vikings vs. Cardinals

The last home Vikings game was against the Arizona Cardinals.  The date was Sunday, November 7th and the weather was pretty decent with the sun shining warm for November.  Because of Daylight Savings Time, we gained an extra hour and despite that we slept in and didn't arrive to the parking lot until 9 am and was surprised with a $50 parking lot fee instead of the usual $40.  Really?!  You are going to charge us $50 to park there to see the Vikings and the Cardinals?  Yep, and we paid it.  Well, I paid it.  That's the deal.  M buys the season tickets, I pay for parking.  It was just M and I when we got there but M had 3 groups of people that were maybes.  One of the maybes did show up....M's friend Wayne and his son Tyler.  We tailgated with them until it was time to go in but not before both M and Tyler got their "Fire Childress" shirt.  Let's actually go back to the Dallas game back on October 17th.  It was Randy Moss's first home game with the Vikings and there were guys in the parking lot selling shirts that had Randy Moss on it and it said on the bottom, "I'm back bitches."  In between that Dallas game and this Arizona game, Randy was cut from the team.  So what does a t-shirt peddler do with all those Randy Moss shirts?  He prints "Fire Childress" over that same shirt and sells them again.

The Vikings were down 14 points with about 4 minutes 30 seconds left to play.  The Vikings tied it up with two touchdowns bringing the game into overtime.  The Vikings ended up winning with a 35 yard field goal to win the game 27-24.  Brett Favre also threw for a career-high 446 yards.  Bernard Berrian also got fined for wearing yellow cleats during the game.  The players can wear only purple or black shoes and Berrian knew this going into the game, however he had 9 catches for 89 yards so maybe he should wear them again.

Check out those yellow shoes

Lucky Duck

Monday, November 1st was the actual date of M and I's anniversary and while we didn't even remember to acknowledge it in the morning while we were both home before going to work, I did remember to call him and tell him Happy Anniversary.  On the way to work, I was almost hit by a semi on 35E going south.  And yes, he was talking on his cell phone.  He came right over into my lane and I was scared.  So I thought, ok, so this is how my day is going to go.  Turns out, it wasn't.

I'm a regular reader of the blog Mi Vida Ocupada and Kristi was having a giveaway for a gift certificate to CSN Stores. I entered the contest based on her rules and I was chosen which means I won a $45 gift certificate to be used at CSN Stores so that is when my luck started to turn around for the day and it was shaping up to be a good Monday.  Thanks, Kristi!

Later in the day, I quickly checked my personal email and I saw that a girl I went to high school with wrote on my Facebook wall to check one of the radio stations websites because she thought I had won. I went to the website and saw that in fact my name was on the website and all I had to do was click the link to claim my prize.  So what did I win?  I won the radio station's yearly CD release of in-studio performances of many artists.  This CD goes on sale at Target every year and it's a big deal.  The line is out the door and round the corner at every Target on the morning they go on sale and they never have enough for the demand.  So to win won is pretty awesome.  Not only that, I also get to go a private concert on Lake Minnetonka to see a few of the artists that are featured on the CD.  I'll blog about that after it happens, which will be in mid November.  So how did I win?  I've been signed up as a frequent listener to that radio station for many years.  I used to listen to that radio station much more but I've since become exclusive with another radio station, which I'll blog about in the future.  Anyway, so being that I'm a frequent listener, they feature one person on the website from October 27th to November 18th which gets posted at 7:40 am and you have until 7:40 am until the next day to claim your prize.  If it hadn't been for my Facebook friend having my back, I would have missed out.  

So I felt pretty lucky that day.  My life and car were spared by my quick cat-like reflexes by dodging the semi, I get to go shopping on the internet for free and I get to listen to much in demand music and attend a concert.  Not too bad for a Monday. 

A Splendid Saturday

Last Saturday was a day of coupons and deals.  We started out our day by driving almost an hour up to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, where we would be touring a winery and vineyard called Chateau St. Croix .  I had purchased a gift certificate on one of the daily coupon sites back in the summer and wanted to go to take the tour in the fall when the leaves changed.  We got busy and didn't make the trip a priority.  Almost a month ago, I tried calling for same day reservations and they were booked all day and also for the following Saturday so we decided to do it on our anniversary weekend, hoping the weather would still be nice, which it was.  The gift certificate included a winery tour, a cheese and cracker tray and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to take home.  Our tour started at 11:30 am and we were supposed to be there 15 minutes early, and we would have if it wasn't for stupid Google Maps taking us to a random area where no winery existed.  We had to call for directions.  Once we were there, we were still able to go on the 11:30 am tour.  I believe that people getting lost happens frequently as there were multiple people who were late that also claimed to have gotten lost.

The tour wasn't too much of a tour.  I guess I wasn't sure what to have expected but it was done in what seemed like 20 minutes, which actually turned out to be a good thing.  One of the things I learned was that it takes a certain number of years for the vines to become mature enough to use the grapes to make wine. I believe they started with the grapes in 2003 and this past September was the first year they were going to harvest them and use them, however because of a late frost, it wiped out their whole crop so they will hope for next year. The cheese and cracker tray was nothing special, although they did have a ginger and mango cheese that was kind of interesting.  We were also given 5 wooden coins that allowed us to taste 5 different wines. If you live in Wisconsin or Minnesota, you may know two of their wines.  The Wisconsin one is Cheesehead White, which has a small cheesehead as a topper in honor of the Packers and then there's Helga's Red, which has a helmet with horns on the top in honor of the Vikings. We had a fun time at the vineyard but probably would have enjoyed it more if it had been a month or two earlier.

I'm thinking about purchasing this wine vest for M for Christmas.  Looking good! 

We stopped at the overlook on Main Street right in town, which you can see the power plant and dam on the St. Croix River.  Nothing too exciting.

We stopped in Marine on St. Croix to have a quick chocolate fix at the St. Croix Chocolate Company.  We found out that on our fourth visit there, they've only been open since June and they say that business is better than expected.  We each got two chocolates which again is probably the best chocolate I've ever had.  But it's not cheap...$2 a piece.

We headed further back south to Stillwater where M had to go to Brine's for their famous Bloody Mary.  He prefers non-alcoholic bloody's so that's what he chugged down in about five minutes and then we were back on the road to use another coupon.  

Being that we'd already had some wine, a couple pieces of chocolate and a bloody, it was time to eat some food.  We stopped at Dari-ette is St. Paul to eat.  Again, this was a coupon that I had purchased on a coupon site in the summer which on that day if you used your Visa card to make the purchase, you got another gift certificate for free.  We had already gone one time and we had to go again as they close November 12th for the season.  

We came back home and took a nap.  When we woke up, we went to Marcus Theatre in Oakdale to see a movie.  I thought it would be perfect because even though it was Saturday night, it was the night before Halloween so many kids and adults would be at Halloween parties or doing some sort of Halloween activity which means that it would not be uber busy, which turned out to be true. Because it is the 75th anniversary of well, something, the price was $7.50 and each person got a popcorn and pop for free. We saw Hereafter.  It's a movie directed by Clint Eastwood that has Matt Damon in it.  I would say he stars in the film, however there was plenty of time he wasn't even in the movie.  The movie started out very intense and had you on edge but after five minutes, it leveled off and somewhat dragged on to the point where we wondered how everything was going to come together in such a short period of time towards the end.  If you haven't seen it and wondered about it, you're better off waiting for it to come out on DVD. 

Another great day with M!

Michael Sack, You've Outdone Yourself Again

My anniversary with M was on Monday, November 1st, however we decided to celebrate our six years together on Friday, October 29th.

My workday was enhanced when I got a call from the receptionist saying I had a package up front.  I was surprised by a beautiful poem and beautiful flowers from M. I received six red roses, one for each year we've been together and orange (my favorite color) gerbera daisies (my favorite flower) and tiger lilies.  The poem he wrote is as follows:

You tattooed my soul so that I'll never forget

A beautiful butterfly that I was lucky to have met

You are the most special person, the sweetest treat

You are the one that has shown me

One + One = Complete

After work, he took me out to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, where we had a fantastic dinner, including an anniversary dessert.  Because he made the reservation under my name on Open Table, he was greeted as Mr. Sterner.  I thought that was pretty funny. Before the food arrived, M pulled out an anniversary card from his jacket and gave it to me.  And then he magically pulled out a gift bag from Sephora out of nowhere.  He told me not to get excited by the bag but when I did open the package it actually was something from Sephora, a $50 gift card! It's no secret to M that I love Sephora!  

We got home and the plan was to crack a bottle of wine and listen to music.  I went upstairs to change into some comfy clothes and yelled down to M that I had washed all the wine glasses earlier this week.  When I got downstairs, we sat on the couch for a little bit before we had wine and when I looked at the wine glasses sitting on the table, I just stared at them because initially, I didn't recognize them and then after staring for a few more seconds, I realized these were new wine glasses and I laughed asking where these came from.  Engraved on each glass was "Happy 6th Anniversary" along with a Spanish saying underneath it.  One glass said "Muchos Te Amo" which means I love you very much and the other one said "Siempre Te Amare" which means I will always love you.  Not only was I surprised that he did this, I loved that he put such loving phrases in Spanish.  M knows I love Spanish.  I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and 1 year in college and while I am not close to being fluent, I love whenever I can use my skills.  After seeing these wine glasses and correctly being able to read the phrases on them, I started to cry, good tears of course. 

After we had been sipping for a while, M said he had something else for me.  He came back from the kitchen with a bag from Godiva. I've always wanted chocolate covered strawberries and he got me a milk and dark chocolate covered strawberry along with one that had blueberries, raspberries and a blackberry with chocolate.

Again, after sitting and talking for awhile, M said he had something else, something he had actually forgotten about and had purchased before he got the strawberries.  I loved it because this girl loves dark chocolate!

Our anniversary celebration was a complete perfect night.  I felt like I was in a movie because it was so romantic, so extremely thoughtful and so loving.

Michael, thank you for the wonderful memories of Friday night along with every other moment I've shared with you over the years.  I love you incredibly. 

Rhyme in Peace, Eyedea

Whether you know this or not, the Twin Cities has a big hip hop/rap/freestyling scene. You may or may not recognize some of these groups, emcees and DJ's: Atmosphere, Slug, Brother Ali, Doomtree, P.O.S, Dessa, Sims, Paper Tiger, Cecil Otter, Eyedea & Abilities and many more.

Micheal "Eyedea" Larsen was found dead at the age of 28 on October 16, 2010.  He died in his sleep and while the cause of death is still unknown, and frankly, doesn't matter, this earth lost a talented soul.  Eyedea impacted and influenced a lot of the artists I named above as well as many more artists.

I'm not going to pretend as though I was a huge Eyedea fan.  I had only heard of his name and a limited amount of his work before he died.  I've learned to appreciate his abilities more so after his death as I have wanted to expose myself to his multiple talents and now I wish I had the chance to see him perform in person and wish I discovered him more in depth before now.  He was the king of freestyling and won many championships. He had many artistic styles and experimented with a range of different musical tastes.

Last Thursday, M and I went to the Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown St. Paul to Eyedea's public memorial.  The room was huge, with hundreds of chairs set up in the middle.  The room had items all along the perimeter of the room including photo collages, paintings and art of and from Eyedea as well trophies and other freestyle battle memorabilia.  The casket was in the front of the room with huge video screens on each side with a photo slideshow showing and music playing throughout the whole room.

The mood of the room was obviously sad.  There were many artists there, many of whom I could not recognize by face alone (except Sims) but saw some of them in the paper and remembered them at the memorial.  There were many fans and by the end of the night, there was about 2,000 people that came out to pay tribute to Eyedea.  He even got a star on the First Avenue wall the day of his memorial.  Despite me not being a big fan prior to his death, his death has affected me and to see how much of an impact he's had on so many people is incredible. M has known and liked some of Eyedea's (& Abilities) music for almost a decade so he's been impacted quite a bit by his death.

There is a concert in celebration of Micheal "Eyedea" Larsen's life at First Avenue on Tuesday, November 9th, which would have been his 29th birthday.  The tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Fifth Element.

"But I pay homage to my melody 'cause she's the sweetest
The core of our spirit is naked
The form of its lyrics are sacred
Blanketed by the original sound of the inner vibrations
I'm floating on the soft clouds of positive creation
See, I can look at a painting and admire the colors
Or appreciate any type of art that I discover
But what I dig's invisible
It's my teacher and I'm its student
I tell ya
Ain't nothing quite as beautiful as Music."

Micheal Eyedea Larsen

Rhyme in Peace, Eyedea.

Please listen to the audio of this video of Eyedea & Abilities.  If you can't listen to the whole thing, listen from 40 seconds to 1 minute.  He was so crazy fast and smart with his freestyling, lyrics and rhymes.  If you don't like his art, that's ok but try and appreciate his ability and talents.  I know for a fact you can't do it.

I Ran Out of Space

Last Wednesday, I was uploading pictures to the blog post I had just written and Blogger would not allow me to upload any more pictures.  Why?  Because I ran out of space!  I used up all the free space, 1 GB, and in order for me to post anything else, I had to purchase space.  So that's what I did, however it wasn't expensive.  I purchased 20 GB of space for $5 a year. I was able to blog for almost 2 years and 5 months for free so a little expense to keep this blog going isn't that bad, especially if it keeps my loyal readers happy.