Adventures

I love a good adventure, whether it’s attending experimental theater performances or finding an abandoned sulfur mine in the desert, they’re moments and experiences that bring me joy. I don’t generally use social media, but instead I prefer to share these adventures here.

Minneapolis, MN

Out of the Shadows

It's incredible how much life comes back once you emerge from the darkness of winter! As spring has turned to summer, I've been spending more time outside: for evening walks and bike rides (while dodging the turkeys and Canada Geese), for concerts in the park (with food or drink), or taking my friends' kids to the park to play. It's been years since I've spent so much of winter in Minnesota, but it's given me new perspective on being outside and enjoying nice weather.

A brisk walk around Lake of Isles on a April evening.
Biking down the Cedar Lake Trail at dusk.
The turkeys have come out in South Minneapolis.
Me, attempting to restrain a seal lion statue at Minnehaha Falls.
Bread and Pickle opened at Lake Harriet!
Free concerts (and movies) in the park!
Twin Cities, MN

Arts and Theater (Spring)

This spring, I've been lucky to attend a variety of different art and theater events, with a handful standing out out as particularly impactful. My favorites lately have included Caitlin Cook's The Writing on The Stall, Jeremy Messersmith, Donja R Love's new play When We Are Found, Dessa, NerdDom's parody of Midsummer Nights Dream, Ways of Knowing exhibition at the Walker, Mae West and the Trial of Sex, and Daniel Tosh (I didn't even realize he was still around).

The Writing on the Stall by Caitlin Cook is a musical created almost entirely of bathroom graffiti. What I didn't expect was the history, expertise, and personal story Cook threaded through the show.
Jeremy Messersmith is a Twin Cities musician who strongly hopes that, in the future, everybody gets a kitten.
Donja R Love's new play, When We Are Found, was commissioned by the Penumbra Theater, and shares a fable of two separated lovers who strive to reunite. Not only was it beautifully performed, but the content continues to reverberate in me weeks later.
Dessa, a favorite artist of mine, performed at the Ice House.
NerdDom's parody of Midsummer Nights Dream was, fortunately or unfortunately, the first time I actually saw any version of that show.
The Ways of Knowing exhibition at the Walker questions the relationship between history, reality, memory, and truth. The most impactful moment was walking through Petrit Halilaj's Very volcanic over this green feather.
I didn't realize how little I knew about Mae West (nor how much I needed to know).
I honestly didn't know Daniel Tosh was still around, but wow, he hasn't really changed. I don't know if that's good or bad, but regardless, it was more entertaining than I expected!
San Francisco, CA

Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

Stopped by to see colleagues, friends, and the latest presentations and posters in infectious disease research.

Sunset from the hotel.
Many posters had to be withdrawn due to governmental changes.
A portion of the AIDS quilt on display at CROI.
Meeting up for breakfast after the conference.
Ragnar Kjartansson's The Visitors at SF MoMA. While it was filmed in 2012, it felt prescient given the together-alone experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly impactful coming out of CROI.
A final, quick stop at the GLBT history museum in the Castro to see the original pride flag.
Death Valley, CA

Death Valley (and worn out shoes)

Took a quick trip to Death Valley with a few friends to (succesfully) convince them of ineffable expanse of Death Valley. While there, I crossed off a goal I've often dreamt of: the Eureka Dunes.

Waking up in an ecopod in Ridgecrest, CA.
My 'hotel room' for the trip.
Me, at the top of Dante's View.
Me at Badwater Basin.
When in Rome, I guess?
Me taking pictures of salt.
A picture of salt.
Backcountry of Death Valley
Hiking on the Eureka Dunes.
Me walking around the Eureka Dunes.
Equipment at the abandoned Crater Sulfur Mine.
Large pieces of Sulfur all over the place.
Twin Cities, MN

Arts and Theater (Winter)

It might be cold outside but the art scene was on fire this winter. Ok, well-worn cliches aside, I've really enjoyed the past few months of exploring the Twin Cities art and theater scene. Some of my favorite shows included touring productions of Parade and Hadestown (an all-time favorite of mine!), Buckslam, Milo Cramer's School Pictures, Stanley Whitney's exhibition How High the Moon, Orren Fen's Weird Stuff Only, Gaelynn Lea and Kevin Kling's Invisible Fences, and Taylor Tomlinson.

Leo remains on stage during the entire intermission in Parade.
Buckslam is a poetry slam. I haven't attended one in years and, just my luck, I was asked to be a judge as I walked in the door. The power.
Hadestown is one of my all-time favorite shows. I'm not sure if it's the story, the music, or Hades voice, but I'm mesmerized the entire time.
I did not expect School Pictures to be that mesmerizing. I quickly became a huge fan of Milo Cramer's music style and sense of humor, but my love of this show was cinched by how he weaved all the stories together (no spoilers!).
I was surprised by how moved I was by Stanley Whitney's exhibition, How High the Moon, at the Walker. While his work appears simple, mostly just boxes and colors, the more I read about him and observed his art, the more depth emerged.
Weird Stuff Only certainly lived up to its name, but I am still mesmerized by Orren Fen's work-in-progress, Bug Ballet. It tells the story of what happens on the window ledge of an old woman's kitchen after she passes, but with human-scale bugs.
Gaelynn Lea's music with Kevin Kling's writing made Invisible Fences a wonderful experience.
Taylor Tomlinson was great, but the real star was Sophie Buddle.
Twin Cities, MN

Winter Wonderland

The weather outside is frightful. I haven't spent a full winter in Minnesota in over a decade, so I figured I should try to adventure out into the cold tundra and see what I could find. So, I went to the Winter Lights exhibit at the Minnesota Arboretum, saw ice castles and the world's largest ice maze, and loved the art shantys at Lake Harriet.

Me peeking out from a house at Winter Lights.
Candelit winter walk.
Ice Castles
Ice Castles
Ice Castles
Kite Day at the Art Shanties on Lake Harriet.
World's largest ice maze
Me, very cold, at the world's largest ice maze.
Minneapolis, MN

Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle is a french conceptual artist, who had a retrospective (Sophie Calle: Overshare) at the Walker. I became entranced by her work after being a participant in traces (spy on traces), an audience-of-one, immersive experience informed from Calle's work exploring death, separation, and surveillance/voyuerism/exhibitionism. I was a civilian informant tasked with identifying and following a person through downtown Minneapolis; I got caught (which destroyed any inkling I might have had about someday making that career change). This experience led me to see Exquisite Pain: her project revisiting (over and over) the narrative of the end of a relationship, juxtaposed against conversations with strangers about the worst pain of their life. That led me to see her full retrospective, including the debut of her project On The Hunt, that compares men and women's personal ads in a hunting magazine over a 120 year period.

I've been tasked with being an informant in the traces investigation.
I found the target of the investigation.
I broke in to the target's hotel room to search for clues.
Found a clue.
The target got away.
Exquisite Pain at the Walker
Resolution for new year. No lying. No biting.
On the Hunt. Excerpts from personal ads over time.
New York, NY

New York

Off to NYC for a marathon of shows for the holiday season: Stereophonic, Oh Mary, Cabaret, Maybe Happy Ending, Drag the Musical, Our Town, and Romeo + Juliet. I think I exclusively ate pizza, and still fit in a stop to Luna Luna (a forgotten artist-designed amusement park from the 1980s, which was both fascinating and, at times, reminiscent of a fever dream) and the Christmas Tree at Rockafeller Center.

Flight into NYC
Stereophonic at the John Golden Theater
Oh Mary at the Lyceum Theater
Oh Mary curtain calls with Cole Escola
Luna Luna. Keith Haring merry go round
Me at Luna Luna
Luna Luna
Back alley entrance to the Kit Kat Club
Maybe Happy Ending
A Home Alone 2 moment
Drag the Musical at New World Stages
Drag the Musical curtain calls with Adam Pascal and cast singing Seasons of Love.
Our Town at the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre
Kit Connor's teddy bear in Romeo + Juliet at the Circle in the Square