Happy Fathers Day!

This weekend has been a wonderful reminder of why I love the Twin Cities so much! Of course I don't think I could live without the people I've grown so close to in Cincinnati, but there is something so charming, cozy, yet classy about Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Yesterday I wandered around the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts with three of my good friends from high school where I was reminded of how fond I am of indie pop/rock. And hipsters. Gotta love drunk hipsters. As a disciple of classical music, I only hear top 40s hits at parties and the orchestral and jazz repertoire that I perform and attend concerts to hear. It was good to hear something new, and of course the people-watching was incredible! We especially liked Joey Ryan & the Inks, Eliza Blue, and Me & My Arrow. Walking around the St Anthony Main and Gold Medal Park area reminded me that Minneapolis is indeed a 'real' city and that there is plenty to do especially in the summertime in the Twin Cities!
Today my family ventured down to Northfield for an extended family fathers day brunch and to drop my brother of at St. Olaf for music camp. It was wonderful to see my grandparents and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins that I haven't really seen since the holidays, and being once again on campus at St. Olaf brought back many memories (mostly fond, although somehow there always seemed to be boy drama of some sort) of my own years at the camp. My favorite memory was probably the year we shared a dorm with a fat camp; there was something so wrong about piling four plates of food and ice cream when these other kids were forced calorie limits and had to check in to make sure they were allowed to eat everything on their plates! This of course fueled an animated discussion about the lifestyle choices musicians make, cumulating in renaming St. Olaf Music Camp "Bigger Than Big Ole: Get Fat Camp!" (Big Ole is a fond nickname the St. Olaf students have bestowed upon their windmill that is visible for miles). Those were the days...
I will be leaving for California in one week! I suppose that means that I really need to get a-practicing so as not to disappoint Dr. G when I get out there...in the meantime, here is the next installment of my top 100 books!
11. Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
12. As I Lay Dying-William Faulkner (check!-already read this one)
13. The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
14. Beloved-Toni Morrison
15. The Big Sleep-Raymond Chandler
16. Blood Meridian-Cormac McCarthy
17. Brave New World-Aldous Huxley
18. Brideshead Revisited-Evelyn Waugh
19. The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. The Call of the Wild-Jack London