[ Post a Response | EVEN DeepER Blurting! ]
Posted by Kenneth Morgan
on 10/27/2008, 9:35 pm, in reply to "ANNOUCING...The Outside Stuff: Week 1"
Today, Kenneth Morgan sets sail on a different, and far more seaworthy, Titanic.
*****
I’ve never claimed to be a highly-experienced traveler, and by that I mean long-distance travel. I don’t have the time, money or desire to be what used to be called a “jet setter”. Sure, I like to travel, but I’m too attached to my usual NJ stomping grounds to completely enjoy the trip.
Still, there are exceptions. I’m always glad to drive to my ancestral home in PA. And, perhaps once a year, I have enough cash and vacation time available for one big trip. It has to be reasonably something special, though, like a convention or something. In this case, that “something” is definitely worth the plane and hotel charges.
Thus, our subject for today: last Saturday’s live performance of “Cinematic Titanic” in Minneapolis.
Now, I’m not sure of how detailed I should be in my report. After all, this site is dedicated to things either directly connected to (or in the general spirit of) MST3K. I’m not sure if my hotel choice (Day’s Hotel University) or my opinion of the Minneapolis weather (a bit chilly at times) falls under that umbrella. Still, those who are reading this (people do read these things, right?) might be interested, and I’ve got the available space, so I guess I might go into the background a bit.
Anyway, I arrived in the Twin Cities area from NJ last Thursday. As usual, I wanted to leave myself some extra time to see the area and relax a bit. Now, the last time I was in Minneapolis was only two years ago, when I revisited the sites of 1996’s ConventioCon II and BBI, as well as the site of what once was KTMA. So, I had to think up things I missed seeing last time in order to justify the extra time. Fortunately, I had a couple of ideas. Specifically, a couple more revisits.
When I was in Minneapolis for ConventioCon I in 1994, and then during my next trip in 1996, I left myself time to stop by the Minneapolis Central Library. (Professional curiosity and all that that.) And, in 1996, I had time to take a tour of the nearby Metrodome. Seeing as how more than a decade had passed, I figured maybe I should take a look at how things have changed, if at all. Okay, maybe not the most exciting travel plan in the world, but my tastes aren’t all that exotic.
So, I stopped in at the library on Friday, which had recently been remodeled, and found it pretty impressive. It takes up four floors and is so big that South Plainfield Library (where I serve as a Senior Library Assistant and unofficial PR contact) would barely fill perhaps half of one of the floors. I browsed around and thought their collection was pretty impressive (they have at least three copies of Mike’s Movie Megacheese book) and the interior design looked great. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take the full tour, so I still haven’t seen their collection of the works of Bob Bagadonuts. I had to go to the Mall of America and get souvenirs for the folks back home.
The next day, Saturday, I went to the Metrodome to take the tour there. Unfortunately, they weren’t conducting tours that day, as there was an event scheduled. I considered heading back to the hotel and taking it easy, but I had the afternoon free, so I figured I’d stick around. The event was a marching band competition featuring bands from area high schools, including the old BBI location of Eden Prairie. I couldn’t stay for the whole thing, but what I saw was OK. There wasn’t a whole of lot the usual “band music” played (except for “While the Caissons Go Rolling Along” by guest performer the 451st Army Marching Band). The bands instead went for some more elaborate production numbers, but they did a good job. One disappointment: I didn’t see Wilbur Duckworth’s famous baton routine.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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