Minnesota Wild Win Home Opener

Starting the season off right, the Minnesota Wild was victorious tonight against the Boston Bruins by a score of 4 to 3. With nine new faces on the Wild's team, there are some familiar faces, number 9 is still Mikko Koivu who was selected 6th overall in the 2001 NHL draft. Returning to the team is number 15, Andrew Brunette. He signed as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche after the 2004 season completed, but has returned to the Wild after signing a three year deal. New to the Wild is number 11, Owen Nolan, he has played in the NHL since 1990. Last season, James Sheppard was number 15, but with Brunette returning to the Wild, his previous number was 15, so Sheppard gave up his number and is now number 51.

   

What A Wild Week

Now I'm normally not a watcher of Wall Street, but the past few weeks have certainly captured my attention with the wild financial crisis, let alone this week's wild ups and downs in the stock market. My oh my, what a wild ride the stock market took today by itself seeing the greatest margin between highs and lows in the Dow Jones. With that said, will I get many groans, if I post a photo today marking the opening day of the Minnesota Wild's 2008 hockey season? Do you see it, the sign in the upper left that reads 'Welcome Back Hockey Fans'? Now I will not be at tonights game, but I will be there for the second home game later this month versus Buffalo Sabers.

RNC 2008 Day 1 Has Begun

Well, the RNC Convention 2008 has begun, but only the basic duties were carried out today. Due to hurricane Gustav coming ashore in Louisiana, all of the speakers were canceled. I made it to the convention area late in the afternoon as bus after bus after bus made it's way into the parking areas around the Xcel Energy Center. By this time, the main anti-war protest had just completed. There was a 'peace' march from the Capital, to the Xcel, around downtown and back to the Capital building. As this was the largest of the protests, they had anticipated 50,000 people to attend. I've read reports of 2,000 to 5,000 protesters showed up for the rally. Not much of a rally I guess.

What I found interested was the dress of the typical protester. Dressed in black was the typical color of choice and wearing a backpack. Some had bandanna's covering their face....why did they not want to be identified if they have strong belief's in their cause? Some of the protesters did have their cause printed in their t-shirts, which was rather smart. I know there are rules to carrying a sign with a stick attached. The stick could only be so large or it could be considered a weapon. But if you're hands were free from carrying a sign and your bandanna started to fall, your free hands could easily pull it back in place.

The strangest part of my walk around the area was when I was on my way home for the evening. I was walking towards the Minnesota Historical Society building when I well groomed man approached me wearing a blue polo shirt. He asked me this question "Sir, I'm from out of town, do you know where a good place to get some coffee is around here?" Whoa! Time out! What? It's 90 degrees outside, I'm sweating my ass off walking around and a well groomed man asks me where I can get a cup of coffee! The first thing that came to mind was: Is that code for something? Is this a Larry Craig episode unfolding? Is this guy an undercover officer looking to nab someone? Is this an undercover news reporter trying to relive the Larry Craig episode? They guy wasn't trying to tap my foot or anything, but I told him to try downtown and got the hell out of there. The first police officer I found, I pointed the guy out to him and told him what had just happened and said the guy seams out of place for what is going on around here.

One thing I noticed while looking at this batch of photos. If you look closely at the photos, you can see officers standing on the roof of the Xcel Energy Center. I hadn't noticed them while taking the photos.

  

To Go Or Not To Go

Monday in St Paul, there is going to be a protest march were they are expecting 50,000 people. This is unbelievable to me. Mind you, I will not be protesting, I only want photos for this daily photo site. But my thoughts are....where are all of these people going to be staying for the next week or so? Those are the protesters, 50,000 people, we not even counting the real reason for next week when the Republican National Convention gets underway. How many people will be involved with just that? What an economic boom for the Twin Cities areas.

So keep in mind, tropical storm Gustav [as of 11:00 PM Thursday] and currently located over Jamaica [hang in there Jamaica] could make landfall sometime during next weeks RNC. So there is talk of delaying the convention a couple of days to make sure we have everything in order where ever the potential hurricane makes landfall. What does that do to all of these protesters plans? I would imagine many are flying into the Twin Cities just for the RNC and have a schedule time to leave, but if the convention is delayed, will the protesters just go away?

Also keep in mind, people have been arested/detained for taking photos before the convention has even started. Fox 9 News Report

Republican National Convention Sept 1-4

The big news in the Twin Cities happens next week from September 1-4 when the Republican National Convention moves into the Xcel Energy Center. Right now, the Democrats are having their turn in Denver. I've been following the protests outside of the convention in Denver mainly. I do plan on taking photos during the RNC, but I'm starting to worry about being around the negative environment. It's a rare photo event and I'm finding myself losing confidence in getting out there.

I was reading a local Twin Cities blog about taking photos at the RNC, this reply is what has me worried. Keep in mind, this is worst case scenario

1. stay close to the cops (even in this day and age, you're safer around them than in the crowd)
2. if you have goggles, take them. if not, consider getting some
3. take a water bottle and a couple of rags... not for drinking, but for soaking the rag in case the tear gas starts flying
4. try to have someone go with you to watch your back... when you've got your face pressed against the back of the camera, it's not easy to see the bottle flying your way
5. know your exits
6. be prepared to lose your equipment (one tv cameraman got between the kkk and a group of protestors and had to use the camera as a shield)

this is all worst case scenario kind of stuff, but it's better to be prepared.

So do I still go? Do I need to worry?

Behind The Scenes

I took this photo from my seats at the last Minnesota Wild hockey game. Our opponent for the evening was the Vancouver Canucks. It's my favorite rivalry to watch and every game is a close one. The FSN North sports network has been broadcasting their shows directly behind my seats for the Wild games. It's kind of fun to watch and when the announcers are waiting for the period or the game to end, they like to stand behind my seats to watch the game. I've chatted with them a few times and they all like to kid around and seam eager to talk with you. The announcer you see behind the desk is Anthony LaPanta.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Minneapolis, Minnesota | San Francisco, California | St Paul, Minnesota

Somebody's Gotta Feel This

I'm going to keep with the concert series theme since it's Memorial Day weekend. I've had this photo in my photo vault for well over a year now. I took this one during the Kid Rock concert back in April of 2006 when they performed in St Paul at the Xcel energy center. Wifey and I were sitting in row 14, center section. I challenge you to find anyone who enjoys a concert of this music genera and also enjoys concerts that features nothing but brass instruments as show in the previous daily photo. The photos I took during the show were very tough to take. Low light, no tripod, lots of movement. Needless to say, most of the photos were a blur and not very presentable. This one was fairly decent with the pyrotechnics in the background giving me more light for this photo.

My Top 3 Daily Photo Favorites
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Bastia, France
Joensuu, Finland

Ladies And Gentleman, Your American Idols

No silly, I wasn't at tonights American Idol finale show in Hollywood, this is from the 2006 Idols road tour. The 2006 version toured through Minnesota last summer performing at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul. It was an enjoyable show. My kids loved it as this was their first concert they had ever been too. Congrats to Jordan Sparks, the 2007 American Idol winner. She gave me goose bumps when she sang the 'Broken Wing' song on Tuesday. Blake Lewis had the most original song ever this season with Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name'.

My Top 3 Daily Photo Favorites
Riga, Latvia
Katowice, Poland
Joplin, Missouri

Playoff Hockey Time

I am a big fan of the Minnesota Wild. Tonight is their first game of the playoff season and I wanted to post a photo during the intermission of one of the games I attended this season. The Zamboni had just cleared the ice, the lights were dimmed and the Wild logos were dancing on ice.

My Name Is Kid Rock

Today's photo was from earlier in the year, April 13. Kid Rock was playing in St Paul at the Xcel energy center. Wifey and I had seats in row 14, center section of I recall correctly. The show was entertaining, energetic, and a bit loud for some of you I would imagine. For taking photos, I found it quite challenging. I was the tripod and I couldn't hold the camera still long enough to get a clear shot. I had to either use my flash or wait until the lights were bright on stage. Also, I had only had a digital camera about a month at that point and was still very new to taking photos with it.