Hours of Daylight: 9:28
Weather: Clear, cold, but not as cold as before. Highs of 30

Pardon my lack of entries over the past 14 days.

On Saturday, Jan. 20, Annette and I attended what was billed as a TV Preview Focus Group. It turned out to be a low-rent consumer products/commercial test session. The reason we were there at all is because a coworker here at The Theatre had two tickets. As I said, it was billed as a TV Preview type of thing. We were to watch two pilots and give feedback. Ever since I saw an episode of “Ed” I’ve wanted to give my opinion of recent TV. So Annette and I figured we’d give it a shot.

It was a total scam. We did see two pilots, but they included actual commercials at the break points. After we’d watched both pilots the MC read us questions that dealt almost entirely with the commercials we’d watched. There were only a few cursory questions regarding the pilots.

One pilot was a recent production called “Blind Men.” It was a generic sitcom dealing with a group of salesmen who sell window blinds. When the title ran there was a skyline establishing shot of the supposed city where the sitcom takes place. I let out a involuntary, and quite loud, yelp. It was Columbus, Ohio. As you might imagine, I trashed the show.

One of the actors was Wallace Shawn playing the old, washed up, salesman. One of the questions read by the MC was, “how did you like the character portrayed by Wallace Shawn?” The MC had to remind the group what character he was referring to and said, “you may remember Wallace Shawn from ‘My Dinner with Andre’.”

Nobody said a word. I looked around at the blank, livestock-like, faces.

“Dude,” I suggested to the MC, “you might try a different movie reference.”

The MC looked at me, then at the group and said, “uh, how about ‘The Princess Bride’?”

That elicited grunts of acknowledgment and agreement from the assembled herd.

Anyway, we got out of that mess as soon as we were able and headed down the street to what seemed like a promising bar. It is called The Brit, and is probably the most authentic British Pub West of the Mississippi. They serve their stout too cold, but beyond that it is a fine place. There’s even a portrait of the Queen over the fireplace.

But let me step back a bit to before we began the focus group session. We arrived downtown and parked in one of the concrete monstrosities. Having over an hour and a half to kill before the appointed hour, we decided to walk to Dayton’s department store and shop a bit for a comforter cover. We elected to travel via The Skyway.

I would like to give an entertaining account of our misadventures in the human hamster maze, but I cannot find the words. I cannot make of light of something I detest so much.

The Minneapolis Skyway system is nothing less than the circulatory system of the embodiment of evil. It is the physical manifestation of the mallification of daily life; the morphing of culture into commerce.

A friend of mine once called Manhattan one big open air shopping mall. All that is left is to enclose the island with a giant dome and it would become the world’s largest mall. He is correct. But that dome does not yet exist and what is so exciting about New York is how outside and inside co-mingle and coexist. The grunge of the street is allowed to enter a snazzy restaurant only so far. Such an environment spotlights contrast and encourages people to see all aspects of their reality. The Skyway does the opposite. The skyway is all about homogenization, the myth of security and safety, the separation of outside and inside. It embodies what I like to refer to as the American Myth of Man’s Ascendance.

So, imagine it is Saturday night in the big city of Minnesota. The temp outside is a brisk 15