I’ve been living and working in the Twin Cities as a summer intern for the super cool Kidblog folks (more on that later) and never got around to “officially” letting the world know. I’d hoped to catch up with some of the many friends, alum, etc., that live in this part of the world, and while some of that has happened, I now only have about 2.5 weeks left and realize how many connections I haven’t made. This is mostly because my job is cool and I really dig it (all of which is good), but I would like to connect with folks while I’m still here.

So, if you live in the area and would like to do coffee or dinner or something before I bug out, let me know! I probably respond best (at the moment) to e-mail (mcphee@morris.…) or Twitter (@NicMcPhee), but I’ll try to track my Facebook account as well.

Speaking of which, apologies to all my Facebook peeps. I really hate FB in a lot of ways and am happy to take any excuse to ignore it. The fun of work and other obligations meant I pretty much checked out of FB from late May until now, only to find that people’s lives have gone on without me! Wow. Thanks a ton for all the kind birthday wishes, etc., and sorry if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been ignoring you.

WeatherGrrrl and I capped off our day in the Twin Cities yesterday with showing of “Other desert cities” at the Guthrie Theatre. With one exception, the play was quite splendid. The opening section of incredibly funny in a quite dark sort of way, as a family reunited for Christmas dance and spar with each other as a prickly kind of getting reacquainted. It then gets increasingly serious, tense, and emotionally wrenching as both the past and the future of the family are explored in ways that are in turns explosive and tender.

The director and five person cast does a great job with an intelligent and perceptive script, conveying rich complex characters that could easily become stereotypical and 1-dimensional. The set did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of a well-heeled, old-guard GOP operative home in Palm Springs, and gave the proscenium space a real depth and scale.

My one nit to pick is the very end scene. Without saying much because I don’t want to spoil, I found the last scene to be weak and lacking the emotional punch of the rest of the play. I’m not even sure it was all that necessary, and could perhaps have been left off altogether. While it’s unfortunate to end on a weaker note, the vast majority of the play is quite excellent and totally makes up for that thin spot.

The play ends this weekend (24 March), so get tickets while you can!

The event will feature the 18 first and second places from the nine regions, each reciting one, two, or three poems depending on how far they get in the finals. Two of the 18 are from Morris: Alex McIntosh, son of Alisande Allaben (UMM Alumni Relations office) and Gordon McIntosh (UMM Physics); and Thomas McPhee. Having 11% of the finalists be from our little town is a pretty good showing, so we’ll definitely appreciate any Morris fans that are able to come out and join us.

Based on what we’ve seen getting this far, and what we’ve heard about past finals, the quality of the recitations should be really high. At the risk of being an immodest dad, I think that this should be a real artistic performance, and certainly not a painful “We’re only here for the kids” kind of experience.

The state winner goes on to the national finals next month in Washington D.C., with a chance to win a $20K scholarship!