Northern Spark: Out with Friends

Meet Shelby and Kara!

They were thoroughly enjoying the evening.  

Thanks Shelby and Kara!

Northern Spark: Even the Animals Enjoyed the Evening

Meet Jake!

Jake was riding along with his owners in a small bag.  It was a bit warm.  But they stopped to rest and to give him some water.  I think he was enjoying the evening just fine!

Northern Spark: Keeping the Games Going

Meet Katie!

Katie works for a company called Glitch.  They built the games that were on display.  Thanks Katie!  It was lovely chatting with you!   You were busy keeping everything going!   Well done!

Playing a Role

Meet Richard!

He was in period costume and was playing William de la Barre.   William, an Austrian, arrived in Minneapolis in June 1878, just a few days after a flour mill explosion.   He was an engineer.   And, he came up with an idea to clean the dust out of the air of flour mills.

He did very well in Minnesota after that!

Thanks Richard!  You were awesome!

Working the Crowd

Meet Michael!

He was one of a few people inside who were carrying around an electronic game on their backs.  They would stop and chat with people and let them play the game.

Thanks Michael!

Friends Watching the Puppetter!

Meet Merrie

And meet Merrie's very good friend, Gloria!

They have been friends for a long time and decided that it was a nice night to be out and take in the various artists exhibits.

And, Gloria does have a sense of humor!

My sincere thanks to you both!!

Members of the audience and some of the band

The Northern Spark was very culturally inclusive.   The people below were part of a band that played before the puppeteer performed.

Puppeteer

This was rather fun to watch.   This shows a bright light cast against a white screen.  The other side of the screen, shows the shadows of the characters below.

The audience is on the other side of the white screen and they are observing the puppet show of shadows as the puppeteer moves the characters with sticks.

Here was the puppeteer!

He was plenty busy with the various characters moving on and off the screen as well as doing the dialog!

Lighting the Way: Continued.

Here are a few more images taken of the Lighting the Way exhibit.

I did notice that many people had the same, small backpack.  But, that wasn't universally true for everyone.

The photos were fun to do in this case.  Very dark.   I didn't want to use the flash and preferred to use the ambient light.  But, there wasn't much of that. 

And, I had to hand hold the camera.   All in all, I think they came out OK. 

Lighting the Way

One of the artists exhibits at Northern Spark was simply a long line of light bulbs with people standing next to them.  Below are two of the participants.

I rather liked this exhibit.  But, I am not certain what is was supposed to represent.  And, I am not certain how long people stood in the lines.

But, they were trying to be nearly motionless when I was there.

Working Artists

Meet Mike!

He had been setting up and preparing for Northern Spark since 9:00 AM.  By now, it was about 11:00 PM.  He was tired!! 

Meet Gwen, his daughter!

She was there supporting her dad.  But, they were both exhausted.

My sincere thanks to you both!

Friends Out for the Night at the Northern Spark

Meet Dana and Janel!

They are friends and do ballet together!  They were standing waiting for some event to begin and coordinating where they were going to go next.   They were very gracious to let me get a photo.

As soon as I got a photo of them, another friend appeared.  I managed to talk her into a photo, as well.  But, it didn't turn out.  I was disappointed.    It sometimes happens.  I try to get one photo..or at the most, two.   And, I just missed that one.

So, for your friend Carol, who works with Janel, I owe you!!

Thanks ladies!

Peddling for Power: Participant #3 and Her Friend

Meet Roisin!

Roisin was the last person I watched peddling for power.   And, she was also able to hit the mark and illuminate all of the incandescent bulbs.

Meet Audrey!

She and Roisin are friends and were at the event together.  And, Audrey and I chatted about photography.  She is a professional! 

They were both gracious enough to let me get one photo of them together.

My sincere thanks to you both!

Peddling for Power: Participant #2

Meet Guy!

He had just hit the mark to illuminate all the incandescent light bulbs.  And, he was pretty happy....and tired!

Thanks Guy!

Peddling for Power: A Participant: 1

Meet Maria!

She volunteered to peddle to get a sense of how much energy it takes to power the different light bulbs!

Thanks Maria!

Peddling for Energy

Meet David.

He was running a "booth" where participants could get on a stationary bicycle and peddle it to light up light bulbs.   Think of it as something like swinging the huge mall, at a circus or fair, to ring the bell on the top of a pole.   Then, with a simple switch, the lights were changed from incandescent bulbs to CFL bulbs.  And, yes, the pedaling was much easier!

Thanks David!

The Furries Were Out!

I have written about the furry community a few times.   I've run into them while doing photos a couple of times.  I don't quite get it.   But, anyone wearing a hot suit like this, outside, on a warm summer night, must thoroughly enjoy it.

This furry had a handler with to keep her/him from stumbling or tripping over anyone.

Dancing with the Band

Meet Olivia!

She was standing next to me listening to the Bumpy Jug Bumpers playing on the bridge.  She was enjoying the music so much her feet were moving to the tune.  

Nice meeting you, Olivia.

The Bumpy Jug Bumpers

This duo was having a great time playing on the Stone Arch Bridge.   And, I liked their music!

I don't see many dobro players

And, it is difficult to play a harmonica while strumming and keeping lyrics arranged in your head. 

They were doing a brisk business this early in the evening!  I don't know how long they lasted.  But, they were gone when I passed by about 2 hrs later.

July 4th, 2016

I woke this morning and realized I didn't have a post for today.   I guess chasing grandkids for a week will do that do you. 

So, what to say this morning that is profound and will inspire both my readers to be more patriotic.  I must confess, I don't have much. 

The US is at a crossroads.   I suppose we have been here before.  Certainly outside influences have tried to overtake us.  But, I am terribly concerned about the inside influences that chip away at what we were.

• We have a president who ignores his duties and opens borders.
• We have a president who hides what he is doing and shuffles newly arriving people into cities and towns without notice.
• We have an attorney general who "just happens" to meet with a former president of the US in an airplane sitting far away from the gates.  The former president's wife is under investigation for running her own email server and compromising the security of the US.   And, of course, lying about it to investigators. The impropriety is beyond stunning to me.  
• We have a government that is oppressively stifling the free market and burdening us with thousands of pages of new rules, created by bureaucrats whose only job is to create more rules.
• We have at least one judge who has stated that he sees no value in studying the Constitution of the United States because it no longer has value.   I am sure there are others.
• We have colleges and universities who limit freedom of speech because someone might be offended.  But, they appear to be the experts on what is permitted.  

I am very fearful for our country.  We made a left turn years ago.  And, we very much need to reign in this corruption and perversion of what used to be a free country.

Below is a portion of a speech by President Calvin Coolidge at the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Finally, I can't say this any better than those who formed this country.  My hat tip to Borepatch for posting this.    Do you wonder why the UK voted to leave the EU?  It was their own revolution.  

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

Northern Spark: Nighthawks?

After visiting with Eric and Katy, I turned and saw the Cheese Curd stand.  I immediately thought of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks painting.  

I need to find a way to re-enact that painting sometime with a photo.   I really like it and have seen it in Chicago.   For now, though, this will need to suffice as the Minnesota version. Note, I didn't say it was good.   But, I did smile at it.