MARosko's Blog

Is it just me, or have we gotten into the season of "doing good?"

I'm heading up to Duluth this weekend, with Team Backdrafters, to take part in my second MS 150 ride.  If luck and my quads hold out, I'm planning to do the first day--75 miles from Duluth to Hinckley.  The second day, when I should be riding to Blaine, I'll be popping ibuprofen and doing stories on the wonderful people who make this event possible.  From the colorful, costumed riders--to the volunteers from small towns who act as crossing guards to make sure everyone stays safe --to the folks who turn out along the trail and at the finish line with their bells, whistles, tink-tinklers and all manner of noisemakers to help root everyone on. 

If I weren't doing that, I'd be at "Colinpalooza" on Saturday.  It's at Lee's Liquor Lounge, from 1-5, and features acts like Billy Dankert (of the Gear Daddies), the Rank Strangers and Slim Dunlap.  It would be worth the 15 bucks right there.  But it gets better.  The music loving friends of Colin Kuehn have organized this to help with the cost of his leukemia treatment.  I really love when contributing to a great cause is painless because it brings people together for a good time--whether its a 150 mile bike ride, or a rock-a-palooza.

 

 

The folks at the Uptown Art Fair (August 3-5) have come up with a pretty ingenious fundraising idea, and trust me, I’ve been pitched a lot of fundraising ideas.

 

 

Local “celebrities” from the Twin Cities have been paired with Uptown Art Fair artists working in different media to create pieces of artwork.  The art will be auctioned off on Saturday, Aug. 4th from 10-3 at the Mosaic Sales Building at 1426 W. Lake St.  The money raised will help fund art programs in Minneapolis schools.

 

I had the good fortune to be paired with Kim Crocker, (Booth 212) a jewelry designer from Prior Lake.  Our mission:  a necklace whose unmitigated beauty will whip bidders into a high-stakes froth.  We picked out a gorgeous set of opals which Kim set in sterling silver, accented with peridot.  As you can see from the pictures, I actually helped design the piece and best of all, got to fire up the torch to do some soldering.  That sure is fun, but you need to have excellent eyesight, a steady hand and lots of patience to do the tiny, intricate work—and I’m short on all those qualities.  You begin to understand why real art costs real money.  It takes a lot of time and dedication to create a piece by hand and what you get is one of a kind.

 

 

Please stop by and check out all the artwork which will be on display at Calhoun Square before the auction.  Between the Uptown Art Fair, the Loring Park Art Festival and the Powerderhorn Art Fair, you’ll find something that just needs to be in your home….or dangling around your neck!

As you probably can't avoid knowing, "Live Free or Die Hard" opens tomorrow in theaters across the Twin Cities.  Our "Die Hard" challenge winner Bridget Schwandt and I had the thrill of going to the world premier in Berlin last week, followed by the London premier.

We met so many wonderful people on the trip, but I can assure you Bruce Willis was not one of them,

I interviewed Bruce Willis on the red carpet in London.  Part of that interview aired on Fox9 last Thursday, but trust me, not all of it.  Since I've come home, so many people have asked me what Bruce Willis was like in person. Well, I'm gonna tell you the straight story right here.

If you want to preserve some notion you have of Bruce's being a cool, down-to-earth guy (not that you'd get that impression from reading his interview in this month's Vanity Fair)--I suggest you read no further, and tune in to "Entertainment Tonight" where you can get some fawning coverage of McClane and Co.

So, after waiting for about 2-1/2 hours outside the theater in Leicester Square, Willis finally arrives.  I told him I was reporting for a station in Minnesota, and that I'd heard he spends some time in White Bear Lake.  You know, local angle, but not too personal.   Without a local angle,  we might as well stay home and air the same exact soundbite about reprising the role of McClane he's giving to every other station in the free world.

Apparently, this was the wrong question to ask.  With not even the self-satisfied smirk he is known for, he answered, "I can neither confirm nor deny that."  He later gave a shout out to his friend in White Bear Lake, but not before asking me if this was the first interview I'd ever done.  (We cut that part out before satelliting the interview back to Minnesota.)  Later he looked at me sideways and told me, "I can see you're going to go right to the top."  (I made sure that part was also left on the cutting room floor.)  Gosh, Bruce, thanks for the vote of career confidence. 

Now, you viewers know me well enough to know I'm not one to hold back with a retort.  But, you know when someone says something so mean and out-of-context to you that it doesn't really register until a little later?  That's what happened.  A minute or two later,  I got upset, not just because Bruce was pointedly mean, but because I had no interview.  A whole week build-up to this Bruce Willis interview, and I got bupkus.

  Because it's probably bad PR to have a reporter crying on the red carpet, one of the 20th Century Fox Film promoters whisked me and a reporter from San Diego off to a pub around the corner for a soul-bolstering pint.  And a much-needed transfusion of real people.

While Bruce didn't out and out insult any of the 10 "Die Hard Challenge" winners from across the country, it's clear than hanging with fans is not his deal.  He took a picture with Bridget and the other winners, but I never saw him smile and he never said two words to anyone.

But here's the deal.  Promoting a film is part of his job.  He doesn't have to like it, but he's an actor, so he could act.   Let's not forget he's being paid obscene amounts of money to appear in films that don't exactly require the acting chops of a Richard Burton.  He should consider himself lucky to have fans that would wait outside a theater for more than five minutes to meet him.

Greetings from London!  Tonight is the London Premier of the movie, and tonight, I get my shot at interviewing Bruce Willis.  I sincerely hope there aren't any egregious olefactory errors committed by the other media outlets if you know what I mean.  And if you saw my interview with Justin Long (the Apple Computer ad guy who plays McClane's tekky  sidekick) --you know what I mean. 

Just found out that the Fox movie people have arranged for us to get styled by a professional stylist who did work on "Pirates of the Caribbean."  But don't worry, no eye patches and billowy white shirts.  They have actually gotten clothing from Agnes B and other British designers that we--as in me AND contest winner Bridget Schwandt--get to wear.  At least until the movie is over and we turn the clothes back over and we turn into pumpkins.

Tomorrow...check this out....we all go to a racetrack outside London and experience a car stunt re-enactment from the film.  I doubt it will be any hairy-er than the story Chip and I did a couple winters ago about ice racing.  The kind where crazy 'sotans clear off a path on a frozen lake, and whip around the track in fast cars with studded tires.  Chip still shudders to think back to him trying to hang on to the camera through massive g-forces and over-zealous drives trading paint on the straight away.

I digress.  Justin Long is very cool and down-to-earth and so is Maggie Q who is about the size of a toothpick but can wield a stiletto like a lethal weapon.  What my one day in heels has done to my knees is also, in fact, lethal.

Cheers, mates...talk to you soon.

Greetings from Berlin! M.A. here, blogging from the Fox suite...and it IS sweet!...in the Ritz Carlton hotel. Our "Live Free or Die Hard" Challenge winner, Bridget Schwandt, of South Saint Paul, is currently getting her hair and makeup done. We are just a few hours away from the world premier of "Live Free or Die Hard" and Bridget is going to get her picture taken with Bruce Willis on the red carpet. I'm going to have to wait until the London premier to get near McClane, but I will get to interview him there. I plan to ask him about his favorite White Bear Lake haunts...I understand he has an old friend who lives there, and he's been known to tipple a pint or two in the local watering holes.

Bridget considers herself a little bit lucky...the "Live Free or Die Hard" Challenge winner from Chicago, a lovely woman named Nova, won the trip by shaving her head and getting Bruce's name tattooed on her back. Bridget only had to answer trivia questions, and here she is. Note to self: next time we have a contest like this, we gotta make it harder!

Well, gotta go practice walking in these heels. Lola Red was right...Von Maur, which I visited before I left, has an awesome shoe clearance room, and I bagged a sweet deal in the dress department, too. Stay tuned and check back!!!

Only 6 days away from the MS 150 bike ride !  It's 150 miles from Duluth to Blaine over two days, and I am riding  with Team Bikeman, of Erik the Bikeman fame. 

After I recovered from May's terrible tree crash incident, and Erik patched my bike back together, I was back in the saddle. 

Of course, me being me, last week's training ride was not without incident.

Last Thursday, I was riding a total of about 40 miles from Minneapolis, along the Midtown Greenway Bike Path (I love the fact that it's finished and extends ALL the way to the Mississippi River now!) to the East River Parkway, and down Shepard Road to St. Paul. 

I was on my way back, when I stopped at a port-o-let near Crosby Farm Park.  I'm not going to lie to you, I was sweating.  And it's not exactly breezy inside those plastic biffs.

So, I'm in the biff, fumbling with my gloves, my headphones, my iPod.....and then....plunk.

My iPod disappeared in an electric blue splash of other people's waste.  My 40G iPod, etched with a personal inscription on the back, because it was a gift from The Boyfriend TM.......the musical symbol of our love, sitting in a pool of.....well, I don't want to think about it too much.

I'm not terribly squeamish, and the biffy was newly cleaned--pristine, even--so....after standing there, sweating profusely, wondering what the heck I should do for a few seconds, I took off a bike glove, closed my eyes, and shoved a hand down in there.  Yup, I sure did.  And I sure did wash my hands REAL GOOD when I got home.

Now I'm faced with how to tell an Apple tech exactly what happened to my iPod and why it doesn't work. 

Although a person could conclude that there have been a few bad omens regarding this ride, I'm still excited, if not conditioned, for it.  I'm really looking forward to meeting some of the 3-thousand or so of you who are also doing the MS 150, and most likely, are better prepared for it.

I'll be the one who's all chatty.  After all, I don't have an iPod to listen to.

 

 

 

What fragile cases we come in.

The boo-boos heal a little slower now, at 44.  It's Monday, and the bike crash happened Friday.

So, I was having trouble getting my MS-150 bike ride training off the ground from the get-go. I am signed up with Erik the Bikeman's team, Team Bikeman--a team I can only assume is having better training success than I am.

I got my usual late start on the bike.  (I have months to train!...then later....Wait, I have less than a month to train!)  One ride was shortened by rain; another night, the leader of a group ride was injured so that didn't happen, then on Friday evening--well, that's when this story takes place.

I declined an invitation to get happy hour margaritas, in favor of doing the right thing.  Getting on the bike.  Training, so I don't let Team Bikeman down.

Next thing I know, I ride by the Flat Pac house on Cedar Lake Bike Trail, and then I lose control of the bike--for reasons, I still don't know why--and I'm veering past one metal pole but careening headfirst into a tree.

And now a bit about the helmet.

I cannot say I always wear a helmet when I ride. Not 100% compliant. But I had it on this time, and I'm real glad. The front of the helmet came away cracked. When I went back to the scene of the impact, there was a chunk of tree sheared away, and I found my sunglasses in pieces. (Turns out "lifetime warranty" on the glasses does not include unintentional impact with a tree.) The glasses are toast, but at least eye abrasions are not any of the many wounds that need dressing and undressing.

The other ones are swollen and oozy enough.

Back to the ax-- during that unimaginably embarrassing wait for the ambulance, the aftermath of an accident you vaguely suspect is your own fault but you're not sure why, I was treated to the comments of a random guy who wandered by.

A typical Hidden Beach habitue. He looked down at me lying in the weeds, and told me that, as his mom would say, "Someone up there doesn't like you." Then he offered me some water from his filthy jug. Just a little Minnesota Nice for ya.

Hours and hours later, after an ambulance ride made pleasant enough by Paramedic Amy, and the staff at Methodist ER, I walked away...slowly, from the whole ordeal with a dislocated finger, bruised shoulder, wicked facial road rash, sore back, and at first, a nausea-inducing headache. And I can't emphasize how long it takes to dress the oozing facial wounds.

The Boyfriend (tm) wondered what sort of makeup strategy I was considering for Monday TV time, and I said, "Dude, I'm still in wound management mode." But I am thinking that a full-on profile approach might work, as I took the brunt mostly on my right side.

Well, enough about me. Team Bikeman still needs your help. Absolutely none of what you contribute to me or my team will go toward those expensive, individually- packaged, gauze pads that are pre-impregnated with Vaseline, so they don't stick to the most unmanageable wound.

I'll eat the cost of that out-of-pocket.

 

Now that it's spring, there are SOOOOO many things going on, I don't know what to do first.  And I surely can't do stories on all of them, but I wanted to pass two of 'em on to you.

After Saturday's "Walk for the Animals," you might want to take your pooch out to the ballgame.  Leave it to the St. Paul Saints--the team is having a dog-friendly game Saturday evening.  I love this idea!!!  Trust me, Munter knows how to "tail gate."  Dogs are allowed in the stands.  Tail gating (and wagging) starts at 5:00, first pitch is at 7:10.

If there's one thing I love as much as dogs, it's local beers.  The Onion newspaper is sponsoring "Brewing for a Cause" on Thursday , May 10, from 7-10 pm, at O'Gara's, 164 Snelling Ave. N.  For 15 bucks, you can sample all kinds of beers from different breweries, local and otherwise.  Proceeds benefit "We Can Ride"--a therapeutic horseback riding program for people with disabilities.  I did a story on "We Can Ride" a while back, and it's a fantastic program.  So, if you need to come up with a better reason to have a beer than the usual one you come up with on a Thursday night....here's your event!

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A new restaurant opens today in downtown Minneapolis, called "Fogo de Chao."  I got to preview the Brazilian-themed steakhouse last night.  The best way I can describe it is "meat theater of South America."  And if there's a carnivorous guy in your life, he'll probably love it.

Frankly, I'd be surprised if the concept doesn't work here, because essentially, it's meat on a stick.  And we all know how Minnesotans feel about that.

Dashing male meat handlers in gaucho pants cruise the dining room bearing their particular cut of filet, sirloin, ribs, pork, chicken legs, etc., etc. on long, dangerous-looking knives.  You indicate to the meat handlers that you are ready for some tableside slicing by flipping a disk on your table green side up (yes, meat please) or red side up (no thanks, my pie hole is full of meat right now.)  The boyfriend (TM) was in meat nirvana, cooing over the quality of the cuts, although he may not eat again this week.  Because you don't order one particular dish, it's hard to know when to wave off the meat handlers.  "Oh, just one more bacon-wrapped medallion from your sword, meat gaucho."

While I was being fully smacked in the gob by the meat theater surrounding me, I was struck by a simple fact.

 NO FEMALE MEAT HANDLERS. 

I asked the manager about this.   I don't know about in Brazil, where the restaurant originated, but here in the U.S., most ladies I know feel very comfortable handling/brandishing/slicing meats of all sorts.  The manager told me that these male meat handlers are the "Chef" for that particular cut--they buy it, grill it, and then perform the slicing heater part of it in the restaurant, and chances are, they've worked their way up the ranks from Brazil.  I was assured that they are not opposed to having "gauchettes" work there and the gaucho costume could be fully tailored to a lady meat handler when that time comes.

Which may be sooner than they think.  I smell a return of the popular segment "M.A. Does Your Job for a Day."  Day #1--M.A. puts on gaucho pants for the first time since 1972 and serves up some meats.  Stand back diners.

We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  That's especially true for all the anchors and reporters at Fox9 Morning News.  Well, ok, maybe I'm just referring to myself--an eater of at least one, and often two breakfasts.

This morning, I was doing a story at "Re Gifts," an earth-friendly gift shop at 1832 E. 42nd in Minneapolis.  The owners couldn't be cuter. (Wait, this will get back around to breakfast.)  Tina and Ryan North met when they were both actors in "Tony and Tina's Wedding."  Because I was ready for breakfast #2 of the day, they recommended the wee little shop across the street called "Colossal Cafe."

I ordered a breakfast sandwich on one of their homemade biscuits.  Oh...my....God.  So good.  And huge--it was so big, even Munter and I needed help finishing it.  Bess the owner also makes a "flapper," a yeast-based pancake that I will certainly be back to try.

I've really, really, really put my mukluks and parka away for good this time.  Back of the closet.  Near the mouse traps and clothes that I've deluded myself into thinking I might fit into again.

Spring-ish temps are back.  And so is the itch to get outside.  Walking my trusty hound Munter, whether around the lakes, at Theodore Wirth Park, or around Uptown doing errands is a staple outdoor activity.  (Munter is currently working on a blog about dog-friendly restaurants....stay tuned!) 

But as we get older, we (at least I) tend to fall into a rut and do the same ol' stuff.  Walk.  Bike.  Whatever that thing you do is.  I challenge you to try at least one new thing this Spring.  It's ok to dust off that New Year's Resolution and bring it back to the front of your closet.

Here's some of the stuff I'm excited about this spring:

*Training for the MS 150 Bike Tour,  June 8-10.  With Erik, yes, the Bikeman, on my team I better get started on that pronto.

* This is the year I get a kayak.  I hear the Midwest Mountaineering Canoe & Kayak auction on April 28th is a great place to start.  My photog Chip and I are planning a weekend drive up to Banning State Park (pert' near Sandstone) on the 21st to do a story on a whitewater kayak race on the Kettle River.  You can bet that water is cold.

*There are several Women's retreats coming up.  One is on April 21-22, called "Sow, Grow and Nurture" at Camp St. Croix.  It's sponsored by Hoigaard's and the YMCA.You can try Nordic Walking, climbing & rappelling, yoga, zen gardening and other activities.  The idea is to "plant new seeds" with fresh ideas on how to cultivate a healthy lifestyle. 

Now that's my idea of spring.

The original pronto pup, my miniature dachshund, MUNTER, sends her best wishes to all of you who have stopped by the Fox9 Broadcast Pavillion asking after her. No, they don't allow dogs at the fairgrounds, although I did smuggle her in one year in a handbag. And come to think of it, I'm not sure why the "retrievers" from certain other stations are given special dispensation to come to the Fair, not that I'm bitter or anything. Some states are starting to allow dogs into places where they can't typically go under an "emotional service" dog type category, a category other than dogs that help people with physical disabilities. Frankly, the term "psychologically fragile and codependent" has never applied to anyone as fully as it does to me and my wee freak on a leash.
Anyway, Munter (I didn't name her, but it means "lively and energetic" in Germann)thanks you all in her particularly aloof, Teutonic way for asking about her wherebouts. woof.

Before I moved to Minnesota, I read local author Pete Hautman's novel, "The Mortal Nuts." Couldn't have had a better MN primer.
The thriller takes place at the State Fair, and I must say it prepared me for how large mini donuts and things-on-a-stick loom in the cultural landscape here.

Here's an inside scoop for you.
Ladies, you might want to block out Tuesday Aug. 29th as your day to grab your friends and come watch the Fox9 Morning Show live from our booth in Carousel Park.
On Tuesday, local fashionista Lola Red will be back from visiting the gift suites at the Emmy Awards in L.A.
She's going to dish about what celebs stuffed what swag in their Gucci bags. AND she's going to have a fabulous gift basket of gen-u-wine Emmy sway to give away to a lucky live audience member!