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www.witnessthinks.com
Well, I did it.
I picked up and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
And to be honest, I couldn't be happier.
To recap the story, I fell in love with a wonderful, inspiring girl who lives here. She's the
Lisa to my
David. After making the decision that I needed some change of scenery, needed to scare the hell out of myself and needed to explore as many zoos, fields, parks, lakes, forests and city streets as possible with the aforementioned lady, I picked up and moved one thousand miles from home. Music took a temporary backseat, but I don't think one could ask for a better distraction than happiness. Though, I'll be damned if I become another statistical musician who loses steam when he stumbles over a little sunshine.
So what's new?
I got one of these.
The lady and I captured this young mammoth when he was but a few weeks old. We call him Shark. Or Sharkey. Or Lemon Tiger Sand Shark. Or Zharque. Or pop.
Getting a dog when drunk may be worse than getting a tattoo after a few drinks--namely because tattoos aren't alive--but I'm very happy with this decision. Even when that decision wakes me up at 4 AM because he wants to find and devour small pieces of corn on the cob hidden under miscellaneous shrubbery in the park.
Skyline.
I have a hard time imagining this place becoming Antarctica.
Weeping Willow Islands. You heard right, son.
I live in the south side of Minneapolis. Directly on Powderhorn Park, to be specific. The picture at the top of this post, in additions to the ones above are one of the many points visible from what is essentially my front yard. If Powderhorn Lake weren't covered in pondscum and dead fish penises, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be swimming in it all week.
Minneapolis--Southside in particular--has a ton of epic restaurants, groceries and peculiar shops, often consolidated into the same building. For example, a bar that girl and I go to on occasion is a bowling alley, restaurant, bar, cabaret theater and spoken word poetry joint. There's also a laundromat/arcade/ice cream parlor not too far from me. A true artifact of 90's excess.
Summer is serious business in Minnesota. Serious fucking business. Which I guess makes sense, considering how absymally cold the winters are. The park in front of my house is a daily circus, home to people juggling axes, riding unicycles, practicing tumbling and tai chi and one woman who seems to think side stepping across the park is an acceptable form of public exercise. There seem to be festivals, outdoor concerts, outdoor movies and some kind of insane bar special going on everyday. There's so much going on in fact, that there are about 3 weekly papers, 4 websites dedicated to daily activities in the city and a bulletin board dressed in a thousand flyers in almost every local business. And there are a ton of local businesses. Quirkiness is everywhere.
Vans are made of grass here. What else do you want?
Cars are sold with dinosaur hood ornaments. What of it?
As far as Hip Hop goes, it's pretty much everything you'd expect. There are some very dope local radio stations which play a ton of local artists, the scene is ripe and growing and knowledge of the indie scene seems to be far more widespread than back home. I was even at a local show about a month ago only to see Ant of Atmosphere smoking cigarettes on the outdoor patio. Shit is tight knit and beautiful here. I'm looking forward to getting involved.
I've got many more stories to share, so I'll be blogging about my experiences in Minnesota from here on out, in addition to the usual nonsense. I just needed to find a way to break the news and explain the story up until this point. Musically, I'm back on the ball and have some interesting things underway. I'm going to avoid making announcements because, well, if you're reading this you know how my announcements normally turn out. Let's just say it involves a full length record for next year, a new mixtape for this year and a ton of shows in places I haven't played in over 5 years. I hope to see you there.
Below are a few other photos that I couldn't cleverly weave into my post.
From inside the skyline.
Fish have auras here.
Butterfly exhibit at Como Zoo. Thousands of these things.