Waste not

They're tearing up Lake Street again -- this time the portion directly north of my house. This is one of the really big east-west streets of Minneapolis, and has been here for a long time, running west from the Mississippi to pass between Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun, and continuing into the western suburbs. They're rebuilding the road, allegedly to improve it; they're taking advantage of the mess to clean and line the water main, and upgrade the storm sewers.

As I was passing by the construction on Thursday evening, I noticed a bunch of people energetically working in the construction zone with hand tools. I was curious, but didn't stop. On Friday, I took the girls to the Dairy Queen, which is right in the middle of the construction area, on the side they're currently tearing up.

The people with the hand tools were digging out bricks. Lake was originally paved with brick, and that was just covered over when they put in asphalt. The construction crews had torn out the asphalt and exposed the brick; they'd be back to clear out the rest of it the next day, but in the meantime, people had brought pitch forks, pry bars, and shovels, and were prying out and stacking up the reddish interlocking bricks as fast as they could.

The girls wanted to know what people wanted the bricks for, so I asked a few of the brick diggers. Two were planning to build patios; one was thinking of using the bricks as a border for a flowerbed. They all noted that bricks aren't cheap, particularly really nice bricks with the interlocking bits, and here they could have as many as they wanted, free.

It was an interesting win-win. The brick salvagers were getting a valuable construction material; the city was getting a bunch of rubble hauled off. I have no idea how word got out about this, and how the brick salvagers got the idea. It did make me wonder how often construction work destroys things that people would gladly salvage, given the opportunity.

Molly wanted a brick, but since I'm not planning to build a patio, I suggested she take one of the broken bricks; no one wanted those.

Mayday - public workshop

I've written before about the Mayday Parade. On the first Sunday in May, the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theater puts on a huge parade down Bloomington Avenue to Powderhorn Park. I've watched the parade annually since about 1998. Molly has gone every year since she's been born, and this year she wanted to be in it.

Heart of the Beast does public workshops starting at the beginning of April. We couldn't go last Saturday because I was at Minicon, but I took her today; her friend Emily and Emily's mom Elizabeth came as well. When we arrived at nine, an artist was explaining the storyboard, which is posted up in the lobby, so that we would understand each section and be able to choose something to do. Molly and Emily both decided to be frogs in the second section, "All Life Comes From Water." (The theme for the parade this year is Water.)

The workshops are startlingly organized and efficient; they're clearly used to giving direction to people who show up but have no real idea what they're supposed to do. There are stations set up for each section of the parade, plus stations for certain tasks -- a cloth and sewing station, a tool station, and a clay and papier-mache section. The artist at the "All Life Comes from Water" station offered us a big book full of frog photos to look at, and then pointed us towards the clay tables to make masks. There were two artists at the clay tables who provided us with materials and instructions as needed. The girls started with a plastic bag with some wadded-up newspaper inside, covered that in clay, and sculpted a frog's face on top. Then they carefully covered the face in plastic wrap, and put five layers of papier-mache on top. Elizabeth and I helped some, and the artists periodically wandered by and offered suggestions like, "For the next layer, just lay the strips on dry, because there's so much goop on there right now you don't need to add any more. They'll help soak it up. If it's too wet it'll take a really long time to dry."

The workshop lasted two hours; then there were announcements, and everyone helped clean up.

We'll be going back in future weeks to paint the masks and help the girls make costumes. Elizabeth and I will also need costumes; since the girls need to be escorted, we'll also be things from the All Life Comes from Water section, probably water lilies.

The whole workshop was amazingly fun.

I've always resisted participating in the parade because if you're in it, you can't watch it, and I love watching it. But being in it looks like it may be even more fun.