Video

Gone Fishin’

Brianne Bilyeu, , 2,162 Comments

Saturday was a lot of fun.  I slept through my alarm…and by “slept through my alarm” I mean I turned the obnoxious thing off at 7am and went back to sleep.  So, I woke up four minutes before my 9am meetup time with friends for breakfast and fishing.  Luckily, breakfast and fishing means no makeup or fancy schmancy clothes, so I ended up being only about 15 minutes late.  Breakfast was good, but by 10am it had started raining.  Darn!  First fishing trip of the year cancelled.

Ah well.  We headed over to my friends’ house and played YouTube.  You know…when you all crowd around a computer and take turns sharing your favorite YouTube clips.  I shared a couple of Tim Minchin videos, which were received quite well, but the winner of YouTube was my buddy Q, who introduced me to a absolutely fabulous artist, Janelle Monae:

It looks like she has two full CDs out: Metropolis and ArchAndroid.  I’m psyched to do some reading about the albums because each album is composed of suites, which are made up of songs that are like chapters in a book.  From Wikipedia:

Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase: This EP introduces Monáe’s Metropolis conceptual series, following a fictional tale of female android Cindi Mayweather who is mass produced in the year 2719 for a market filled with severe social stratification.

ArchAndroid: Incorporating conceptual elements of Afrofuturism and science fiction, The ArchAndroid continues the series’s fictional tale of a messianic android and features lyrical themes of love, identity, and self-realization.

Fun!  Geeky!  Sci-Fi!  And she’s got great dance moves, kick-ass style, and a voice that blows me away.  I heart Janelle Monae.

~~~~~

And then the rain stopped!  We decided to brave the cloudy skies to go fishing.  I like fishing because my Dad taught me how to fish.  He took my sister and me to different lakes and parks near our house when I was growing up, and we also went fishing in my grandparent’s pond in southern Illinois, which was always stocked with well-fed (i.e., gigantic!) catfish.

But I’m kind of impatient when it comes to fishing – there’s not a lot of zen in it for me.  I practice catch-and-release because I don’t like killing things, but then I feel guilty because I’m just playing with the poor thing instead catching it to eat.  Soooo not logical.

We wanted to go fishing in Fort Snelling State Park because you don’t need an angling license for MN state parks.  I had heard of Fort Snelling State Park, but in the five or six years that I’ve been in the Twin Cities, I’d never actually found my way over there and I wasn’t positive of the location.  First we headed to Fort Snelling…like, the actual Fort.  Turns out Fort Snelling and Fort Snelling State Park are in completely different locations.  We eventually found the right area using my new phone’s internet and google maps features.  Fun – it was kind of like Midnight Madness!

Fort Snelling State Park…wow.  All I can say is that I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.  It’s fantastic.  I don’t know if you know this…but it’s kind of a big deal (I love you, Ron Burgundy).    There are areas where the river rushes alongside smaller, quieter lakes, and different branches of the Minnesota river converge in places throughout the park.  We saw people biking, fishing, hiking and canoeing, and Q swears he saw two beavers!

We found this awesome fishing spot – see the large sunken branches in the photo below?  That’s where the fish like to take shelter (mwah ha ha – we’re on to you, fishies!).  There were gigantic bass swimming around this area and plenty of sunfish.  It isn’t quite bass season yet, so we were using smaller bait intended for the sunfish, but it didn’t really matter because nobody was biting.  In the background you can sort of make out the turtles sunning themselves on the farthest log.

We didn’t catch anything, which was great for me because my buddies like to eat the fish they catch, and I promised that I’d let them keep anything I caught.  I like tying on lures with the special “fisherman’s knot” that Dad taught me, so when I got bored of not catching fish I amused myself by changing out various ridiculously huge lures just for the fun of casting and reeling them through the water.

~~~~~

Saturday evening the Hubby and I went to the Vali Hi Drive In in Lake Elmo with our friend Courtney.  The screen is a large, flat, white billboard-like sign and the film is projected onto it.  The first show starts at dusk (~9pm this time of year), and if you don’t get to the theater early (7-8pm), you get stuck in the waaaaay back and to the sides – like we did below.  To be fair, we were on-track to get to the theater around 8pm, but then we got sidetracked by a crazy search for Noodles in Woodbury and then we got all  turned around in the construction on 494/694.  We finally rolled into the theater at ~8:45pm.

The shows for Saturday night were Shrek 4, Ironman 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street – three new release movies for $8/person!  Of course, the Hubby and I never make it through the third movie, so we really only look at what’s playing for the first two shows.

Vali Hi is neat because people get to the theater early to claim a spot and set up “camp” – you can grill out, play frisbee or toss a football around, and sit around in big ol’ camping chairs shooting the breeze until the show starts.  Below is a picture of the Hubby and Courtney in our set-up.  We line the bed of the truck with all of the cushions from our couches, and we grab two or three blankets, the snack food and beverages.  Some people get *really* elaborate.  In the picture above, you can see the guy in front of us getting ready to spread a blanket out on the top of his SUV.  We saw one couple in an Ford F250 who had set up a small loveseat and coffee table in the bed of their truck!

Shrek was eh…Ironman 2 was decent, and we rolled out of the theater after that.  That put us back in Minneapolis at about 1pm, with a full day left of the weekend.  I’d call this another successful Saturday.

Gone Fishin’
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Gone Fishin'

Brianne Bilyeu, , 711 Comments

Saturday was a lot of fun.  I slept through my alarm…and by “slept through my alarm” I mean I turned the obnoxious thing off at 7am and went back to sleep.  So, I woke up four minutes before my 9am meetup time with friends for breakfast and fishing.  Luckily, breakfast and fishing means no makeup or fancy schmancy clothes, so I ended up being only about 15 minutes late.  Breakfast was good, but by 10am it had started raining.  Darn!  First fishing trip of the year cancelled.

Ah well.  We headed over to my friends’ house and played YouTube.  You know…when you all crowd around a computer and take turns sharing your favorite YouTube clips.  I shared a couple of Tim Minchin videos, which were received quite well, but the winner of YouTube was my buddy Q, who introduced me to a absolutely fabulous artist, Janelle Monae:

It looks like she has two full CDs out: Metropolis and ArchAndroid.  I’m psyched to do some reading about the albums because each album is composed of suites, which are made up of songs that are like chapters in a book.  From Wikipedia:

Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase: This EP introduces Monáe’s Metropolis conceptual series, following a fictional tale of female android Cindi Mayweather who is mass produced in the year 2719 for a market filled with severe social stratification.

ArchAndroid: Incorporating conceptual elements of Afrofuturism and science fiction, The ArchAndroid continues the series’s fictional tale of a messianic android and features lyrical themes of love, identity, and self-realization.

Fun!  Geeky!  Sci-Fi!  And she’s got great dance moves, kick-ass style, and a voice that blows me away.  I heart Janelle Monae.

~~~~~

And then the rain stopped!  We decided to brave the cloudy skies to go fishing.  I like fishing because my Dad taught me how to fish.  He took my sister and me to different lakes and parks near our house when I was growing up, and we also went fishing in my grandparent’s pond in southern Illinois, which was always stocked with well-fed (i.e., gigantic!) catfish.

But I’m kind of impatient when it comes to fishing – there’s not a lot of zen in it for me.  I practice catch-and-release because I don’t like killing things, but then I feel guilty because I’m just playing with the poor thing instead catching it to eat.  Soooo not logical.

We wanted to go fishing in Fort Snelling State Park because you don’t need an angling license for MN state parks.  I had heard of Fort Snelling State Park, but in the five or six years that I’ve been in the Twin Cities, I’d never actually found my way over there and I wasn’t positive of the location.  First we headed to Fort Snelling…like, the actual Fort.  Turns out Fort Snelling and Fort Snelling State Park are in completely different locations.  We eventually found the right area using my new phone’s internet and google maps features.  Fun – it was kind of like Midnight Madness!

Fort Snelling State Park…wow.  All I can say is that I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.  It’s fantastic.  I don’t know if you know this…but it’s kind of a big deal (I love you, Ron Burgundy).    There are areas where the river rushes alongside smaller, quieter lakes, and different branches of the Minnesota river converge in places throughout the park.  We saw people biking, fishing, hiking and canoeing, and Q swears he saw two beavers!

We found this awesome fishing spot – see the large sunken branches in the photo below?  That’s where the fish like to take shelter (mwah ha ha – we’re on to you, fishies!).  There were gigantic bass swimming around this area and plenty of sunfish.  It isn’t quite bass season yet, so we were using smaller bait intended for the sunfish, but it didn’t really matter because nobody was biting.  In the background you can sort of make out the turtles sunning themselves on the farthest log.

We didn’t catch anything, which was great for me because my buddies like to eat the fish they catch, and I promised that I’d let them keep anything I caught.  I like tying on lures with the special “fisherman’s knot” that Dad taught me, so when I got bored of not catching fish I amused myself by changing out various ridiculously huge lures just for the fun of casting and reeling them through the water.

~~~~~

Saturday evening the Hubby and I went to the Vali Hi Drive In in Lake Elmo with our friend Courtney.  The screen is a large, flat, white billboard-like sign and the film is projected onto it.  The first show starts at dusk (~9pm this time of year), and if you don’t get to the theater early (7-8pm), you get stuck in the waaaaay back and to the sides – like we did below.  To be fair, we were on-track to get to the theater around 8pm, but then we got sidetracked by a crazy search for Noodles in Woodbury and then we got all  turned around in the construction on 494/694.  We finally rolled into the theater at ~8:45pm.

The shows for Saturday night were Shrek 4, Ironman 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street – three new release movies for $8/person!  Of course, the Hubby and I never make it through the third movie, so we really only look at what’s playing for the first two shows.

Vali Hi is neat because people get to the theater early to claim a spot and set up “camp” – you can grill out, play frisbee or toss a football around, and sit around in big ol’ camping chairs shooting the breeze until the show starts.  Below is a picture of the Hubby and Courtney in our set-up.  We line the bed of the truck with all of the cushions from our couches, and we grab two or three blankets, the snack food and beverages.  Some people get *really* elaborate.  In the picture above, you can see the guy in front of us getting ready to spread a blanket out on the top of his SUV.  We saw one couple in an Ford F250 who had set up a small loveseat and coffee table in the bed of their truck!

Shrek was eh…Ironman 2 was decent, and we rolled out of the theater after that.  That put us back in Minneapolis at about 1pm, with a full day left of the weekend.  I’d call this another successful Saturday.

Gone Fishin'

You’re one in a million!

Brianne Bilyeu, 467 Comments

The Hubby and I are off to the May Day Parade, and the first bike ride of the spring.  I’m making eggs and yummy gluten-free pancakes – soooo good and yummy and just like real pancakes (shut up and play along!) – for breakfast, and then off we go!

I was recently introduced to Tim Minchin – he’s an odd duck, but that’s a large part of his charm.  He’s a comedian, musician, singer and skeptic, and in this video, he reminds us that one in a million is very, very special.  But with a world population topping 6.8 billion…well…

You’re one in a million!

You're one in a million!

Brianne Bilyeu, 883 Comments

The Hubby and I are off to the May Day Parade, and the first bike ride of the spring.  I’m making eggs and yummy gluten-free pancakes – soooo good and yummy and just like real pancakes (shut up and play along!) – for breakfast, and then off we go!

I was recently introduced to Tim Minchin – he’s an odd duck, but that’s a large part of his charm.  He’s a comedian, musician, singer and skeptic, and in this video, he reminds us that one in a million is very, very special.  But with a world population topping 6.8 billion…well…

You're one in a million!

Teabaggin’ for Geezus

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , 375 Comments

I’m off to the gym (mmm…hot tub…), then brunch with some friends at the Independent in Uptown, followed by a shift at the bookstore.

Two outta three ain’t bad.

Today, I bring you the satirical stylings of Edward Currant.  WARNING: This video is mean, a little rude, and dare I say vicious and relentless?  But, gently readers, know that none of these things are done idly!  The attitude of the video helps drive home it’s underlying message: Evangelical religious right wing politics are very, very scary…and funny in their ridiculousness…funny in a make-you-want-to-cry kind of way.

Edward Currant is well known for his no-holds-barred videos lambasting religious silliness and right-wing extremism.  However, if you like that kind of stuff, enjoy!  Oh, and make sure to watch for the hand-reading glance ala Sarah Palin!

Teabaggin’ for Geezus

Teabaggin' for Geezus

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , 473 Comments

I’m off to the gym (mmm…hot tub…), then brunch with some friends at the Independent in Uptown, followed by a shift at the bookstore.

Two outta three ain’t bad.

Today, I bring you the satirical stylings of Edward Currant.  WARNING: This video is mean, a little rude, and dare I say vicious and relentless?  But, gently readers, know that none of these things are done idly!  The attitude of the video helps drive home it’s underlying message: Evangelical religious right wing politics are very, very scary…and funny in their ridiculousness…funny in a make-you-want-to-cry kind of way.

Edward Currant is well known for his no-holds-barred videos lambasting religious silliness and right-wing extremism.  However, if you like that kind of stuff, enjoy!  Oh, and make sure to watch for the hand-reading glance ala Sarah Palin!

Teabaggin' for Geezus

Giving you the biz.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 2,318 Comments

Random Updates and My Latest Amusements:

I picked up the soundtrack to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  It’s all orchestral (symphonic?), and it makes the BEST study/paperwork music, because there are no words to listen to or hypnotizing beats in the background.  Geeky and productive!

On Sunday we had yummy Buca di Beppo Italian Easter Dinner with The Hubby’s family.  Fried calamari, stuffed mushrooms, breaded mozzerella, caesar salad, stuffed shells, ravioli, chicken saltimbocca.  Mmmm…

The Hubby bought rollerblades!  He has always been hesitant to try in-line skates.  He is scared to break something (he’s an old man, you know), and he’s 6’3″, so he already has a long way to fall without adding another 4-6″.  The first time we went out he was so cute and funny, wobbling around like a newborn calf!

If you have access to facebook, check out the cutest video of me and my friend Elizabeth messing with her daughter, Edie.

The bookstore is having a sale and I was able to pick up some inexpensive Italian language materials so that I can learn a few nicities for my potential trip to Italy this summer.  Molto buono!  Divertimento!  The only sucky thing is that something is wrong with my Mac – it won’t let me install my old Spanish-language Rosetta Stone CD or my brand-spankin’ new Italian Berlitz CD.  I haven’t tried to install anything else by CD…   Bummer, I think a trip to the Genius Bar is going to be unavoidable this time.  Ciò è triste.

Giving you the biz.

Rockin’ with Roy Zimmerman

Brianne Bilyeu, , 643 Comments

The Hubby and I were wondering what to do on Friday night.  We thought about going to see How to Train Your Dragon at the MN Zoo IMAX because 1) It was playing at an IMAX in 3D, so…duh, and 2) It has garnered an amazing 98% at Rotten Tomatoes and whodathunk that?

But then I read on Pharyngula about Roy Zimmerman playing – of all freaking places – Cannon Falls High School Auditorium.  Cannon Falls is a little town between Rochester and St. Paul, MN.  It has a population of about 4000 people, and is a typical Minnesota town in that it consists mostly of churches, liquor stores and banks.  You can read about all of the cool places Roy Zimmerman has played, and all of the cool people he’s played alongside at his cool website.  And then you’ll see that Roy Zimmerman playing…Cannon Falls…was just too good to miss.

Roy Zimmerman is a political satirist – his tagline is “Funny Songs about Ignorance, War and Greed.  He’s a big ol’ liberal, hippy, socialist.  Based on his songs that we heard on Friday, I’d say his songs fall in three categories:

*Songs that make fun of Right Wing Politics and the Religious Right
*Songs that make fun of Liberals
*Songs that remind us that we are all one and stuck on this planet together, so let’s play nice, dammit.

You can find a LOT of Roy Zimmerman songs on YouTube (or on his CDs for sale on his website).  Here are two of my favorites:

It was a very intimate show – there were only about 100 people in the entire audience.  We unexpectedly ran into a couple of friends from the Twin Cities, and the four of us sat together in the second row.  PZ Myers showed up and was asked to draw the winning raffle ticket.  We went to the after-show get-together at the Mill Street Cafe and had the chance to meet some very cool freethinkers, including PZ Myers and some awesome people from the Waseca, WI FreeThinkers group.  Very cool, very unexpected evening.  Cannon Falls – who knew?

Rockin’ with Roy Zimmerman

Rockin' with Roy Zimmerman

Brianne Bilyeu, , 176 Comments

The Hubby and I were wondering what to do on Friday night.  We thought about going to see How to Train Your Dragon at the MN Zoo IMAX because 1) It was playing at an IMAX in 3D, so…duh, and 2) It has garnered an amazing 98% at Rotten Tomatoes and whodathunk that?

But then I read on Pharyngula about Roy Zimmerman playing – of all freaking places – Cannon Falls High School Auditorium.  Cannon Falls is a little town between Rochester and St. Paul, MN.  It has a population of about 4000 people, and is a typical Minnesota town in that it consists mostly of churches, liquor stores and banks.  You can read about all of the cool places Roy Zimmerman has played, and all of the cool people he’s played alongside at his cool website.  And then you’ll see that Roy Zimmerman playing…Cannon Falls…was just too good to miss.

Roy Zimmerman is a political satirist – his tagline is “Funny Songs about Ignorance, War and Greed.  He’s a big ol’ liberal, hippy, socialist.  Based on his songs that we heard on Friday, I’d say his songs fall in three categories:

*Songs that make fun of Right Wing Politics and the Religious Right
*Songs that make fun of Liberals
*Songs that remind us that we are all one and stuck on this planet together, so let’s play nice, dammit.

You can find a LOT of Roy Zimmerman songs on YouTube (or on his CDs for sale on his website).  Here are two of my favorites:

It was a very intimate show – there were only about 100 people in the entire audience.  We unexpectedly ran into a couple of friends from the Twin Cities, and the four of us sat together in the second row.  PZ Myers showed up and was asked to draw the winning raffle ticket.  We went to the after-show get-together at the Mill Street Cafe and had the chance to meet some very cool freethinkers, including PZ Myers and some awesome people from the Waseca, WI FreeThinkers group.  Very cool, very unexpected evening.  Cannon Falls – who knew?

Rockin' with Roy Zimmerman