I’m looking forward to tonight, because it marks the season 2 opener of the awesomely masculine show, “Ice Road Truckers“. I’m not much for reality shows - I don’t despise them exactly, but they seem so overdone and re-used. And then this History Channel gem came around.

In far northern Canada, there exists companies so remote that everything has to be flown in. And we’re talking big companies - diamonds, oil, gold, minerals. Lots of money moving around. The only problem is planes have a weight limit that they can carry, and a 100,000 pound silo isn’t the easiest thing to lash onto a Cessna.

So years ago, as these industries were booming in Canada’s Northwest Territory, an enterprising fellow named John Denison became the first Ice Road trucker.
Ice roads¹ are exactly what they sound like - in the northern reaches of the country, many lakes and rivers dot the landscape. This impassable barrier opens up in the sub-Arctic temperatures winter brings about. Costing about $10 million and lasting no more then 90 days, crews head out and literally plow a road over the ice that’s now 4+ feet thick. After the plowing, come the truckers. Who can earn upwards of $1,000 a day delivering freight to the energy and mineral companies dotted along these bodies of water. Freight that is desperately needed and has no other way to get there.

And “Ice Road Truckers” is the story about the people who get the freight there. And it is the greatest show ever. And season 2 starts tonight, 8pm, on the History Channel. So watch it, and be amazed!

Interview with Hugh “The Polar Bear” - Ice Road Trucker

1. Read the history of the Ice Road [↩]

My home state of Minnesota is known for many many things. Our progressive politics and social policies. Our love of Norway. Our 10,000 lakes¹. Our health. Our highly educated and literate population. Paper mills. First iron ore, now taconite. Hockey. We get around.

We’ve also had our share of stars: Prince, Husker Du, The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Eddie Albert, Judy Garland, Jessica Lange, Winona Ryder, Vince Vaughn, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Biel, Melissa Peterman, Jonny Lang, Joel and Ethan Coen, Terry Gilliam and Mike Todd.

Our GDP is $234 billion (In 2005). Our state drink is milk. We’re the first state to mandate the use of ethanol fuel and we’re US’ largest producer of sugar beets, sweet corn, and green peas for processing, and farm-raised turkeys.

That’s all great, but none of them matter.

Our greatest natural resource is Angus “Mac” MacGyver.

It’s true.

Ok, so Mac is really Richard Dean Anderson - also a Minnesota native, but I won’t focus on that, even though he decided to become an actor when he took a cross-country bike ride from Minnesota to ALASKA after college. Friggin’ Alaska. On a bike. From here. Yes, it’s safe to say that Richard Dean Anderson and MacGyver are one in the same.

Mac is the reason I’ve carried a Swiss Army knife with me every day for over a decade. He’s the real reason I was in the boy scouts, and the reason I decided to learn dozens of knots and lashing wood together instead of hanging out with the other scouts at our Jamborees. He’s how I want Minnesota to be thought of: Quiet, Smart, Inventive. Someone you want on your side when the going gets tough.

Today is MacGyver’s 57th birthday. Born March 23rd, 1951 in Mission City, MN, he grew up to study physics at Western Tech, and then signed on to the Phoenix Foundation, where he learned to solve problems not with brawn, but with his brains.

Let’s all celebrate Minnesota’s greatest natural resource: MacGyver.

Mac is so epic that recently CBS decided to give him away to the masses, and as such you can now logon and watch every single episode!

And as great as it is to watch it online, it’s nothing compared to seeing it on a modern big screen, so go out and buy yourself the first season of MacGyver:

Then go out and buy yourself a MacGyver action figure:

Or, even better, the MacGyver multi-tool:

Add to that the appropriately titles “MacGyver” watch, with it’s combo watch/mp3 to round out the look:

And even more MacGyver links!

Read about him on Wikipedia, hit up MacGyver online to see every single MacGyverism he’s made. And be sure to check out TV.Com to catch those reruns!

It’s safe to say that Minnesota, and even the entire world, is a better place with him around - so happy birthday, Mac!

1. Actually, Minnesota has 11,842 lakes that are 10 acres in size or larger. Now you know. [↩]

Last night I watched the pilot episode of FOX’s newest show, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”¹²³.

There may be spoilers in here, I’m not sure - be forewarned if you’re that kind of person. The first half already aired, and I’m not sure if it’ll air again soon, so it really doesn’t matter since you won’t see it - but I’ll be kind and place it after the jump anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Official FOX Terminator website. [↩]
2. Wikipedia entry [↩]
3. “Official” Wiki [↩]

Wow, it’s been a crazy last 7 days so far.

First on Friday at Studio Bricolage I noticed a gentlemen that looked quite familiar. He had a couple of mannerisms that were very unique, and I knew I saw them before. He must have thought the same thing because as we were soldering things to other things he asked me “I think I know you from somewhere”. I told him that he looked very familiar as well, and inquired as to if he had been to any MPR events, involved heavily with the MN Fringe Fest (Maybe he saw me on stage this year - I get that a lot now), or gone to a lot of smaller art shows. He said no, and then I asked if maybe we worked together - then asked him where he worked. He said he worked in Chicago, and I replied that years ago I to worked there. He said “Where did you work?” and I told him “Townsend Analytics”.
We used to work together

Over 7 years ago!

Turns out he lives here, and just happened to be in Chicago for a year we worked together then went back to telecommuting. He still works there.

Then, a couple of days ago, as you all know by now - I won tickets to see the Smashing Pumpkins. I never win. I just don’t.

Yesterday I was feeling like crap, so I decided to take a small financial hit and stay home - rest up. I lay down on the couch and pick up the remote and watch some shows that my DVR recorded last night - one of them happens to be the hilarious Colbert Report.
Many of you know about the incident with Larry Craig, a cop, and a bathroom stall at the Minneapolis International Airport. What you don’t know is said cop grew up here - he grew up in International Falls for a bit, where I grew up. Now the Colbert Report tried to get him on for an interview and of course it didn’t happen. But, weirdly enough, one of the associate producers for the show also grew up in International Falls and went spent some time with him. Her name? Katie Bruggeman. She was one of my classmates too. See the whole video right here. Go Broncos!
Anyway, so I couldn’t believe it - how cool was that. Someone I knew and grew up with was on a national show. So I hit google, search for her, and find her on a social networking site - along with a couple of dozen of my fellow classmates! So I spent the rest of the day seeing how they’ve changed, exchanging emails, and being totally amazed at how some of them have transformed in a dozen years. And now, I’m looking forward to going to the next reunion - seems like they do it every year, too.

And today I learned some of my photos were chosen to be published in the next edition of the Minneapolis Schmap - Schmap is an interactive map which is like your guide to a city. It shows you how to get to places of interest, and once you’re there, what you’ll see. Pretty sweet, eh?

So I hope things keep going well. Tomorrow I’m shooting the opening night of Jane Eyre at the Guthrie - maybe something good will happen during that to really make this a perfect week. *shrug* We’ll see!

And I’m reduced to watching it online, if I’m lucky, because Americans by and large suck and don’t get it.

The IT Crowd from Channel 4 - Season 2, Episode 3. Thank me later.