Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Full Artemis Moon<\/p>\n
Downtown Minneapolis, along the Nicollet Mall, has a lot of art, as Glen Keitel showed a group of 15 or so this afternoon.\u00a0 We started with shadow portraits made of ![\"loon\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/loon-300x228.jpg\" "\\"loon\\"")
bronze and cast into the sidewalk.\u00a0 They were commemorations of various political struggles including the 1934 truckers strike, Nellie Stone Johnson’s political career and a moving tribute to a Dakota woman.\u00a0 Across the street from them at Westminster Presbyterian a Paul Granlund cast three humans up and heavenward from geometric forms all cast in bronze.\u00a0 We walked a long ways, over two hours, and the leg on which I ruptured my achilles took to aching.<\/p>\n
A surprising number (to me) of restaurants downtown now have sidewalk dining and there were plenty of people out and about.\u00a0 A fun afternoon.<\/p>\n
There was, too, as there always is in a major downtown, desperate people pleading for attention, for money.\u00a0 One woman stood with a sign that said she was 7 months pregnant; another man asked me to roll down my window on the way home.\u00a0 A few sat heads down, clothes tattered, a look of dejection covering them in gloom.<\/p>\n
There are now many theories about the mall, whether it was a good idea or whether it has stagnated downtown, taking the liveliness out of it.\u00a0 Should we fix it by allowing cars?\u00a0 Should we close it altogether?\u00a0 What worried me was the number of businesses with store fronts, but no display windows and several buildings with papered over glass and graffiti.<\/p>\n
It is city life, flux, humanity at its richest and most callous, humanity at its poorest and most demeaned, the impermanent made to seem solid and stable amidst the signs of constant change and the flow, always the flow, of paper and food and metal and goods, in and out, as the people flow too, making paths that do not last on streets that will not either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Full Artemis Moon Downtown Minneapolis, along the Nicollet Mall, has a lot of art, as Glen Keitel showed a group of 15 or so this afternoon.\u00a0 We started with shadow portraits made of bronze and cast into the sidewalk.\u00a0 They were commemorations of various political struggles including the 1934 truckers strike, Nellie Stone Johnson’s … Continue reading Strolling on the Mall<\/span>