I take most of my walks around Lake of the Isles (LOTI), because it's close to home and pretty. I recently noticed a tree trunk being carved into a #2 pencil by a chainsaw artist and grabbed the QR code displayed on the front lawn to read all about it. The story is at https://lotipencil.com/ (The gallery tab has cool pictures of the storm that damaged the tree that became a #2 pencil sculpture.)
After reading that, I followed the internet to stories of a guy named David Rees, former political cartoonist turned professional pencil sharpener, because he was asked to supervise the inaugural sharpening of the pencil at the opening ceremony! My favorite (and award winning) short video of him doing his thing is here: https://vimeo.com/60718161 (If you watch, you should wait for the Epilogue at the end.)
Finally, and taking a sharp turn in my rabbit hole, I searched news of Bobby McFerrin, because it turns out he used to live at the very house where the former tree/pencil is located!! I learned that he does a thing (in California where he now lives) called circlesongs, which you can watch him creating in this IG video from 2012: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY1sxxUJbOg/
P.S. and FYI: There is a link to a fun Prince video at the "The Plan" tab of the LOTI pencil website, in which he happily sings that Rock'nRoll is alive and well in Minneapolis! Here is the link if you are in the mood for Prince and don't want to fuck around going back to find it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxbwQNa15Q
PPS: Minneapolis knows how to put the cool in nerd. Photos and videos of the opening ceremony below...
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| the pencil |
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| the artist (in the hat) |
the pencil dance
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