Legislative leaders have established a self-imposed deadline of midnight Wednesday for brokering a budget deal, which means I could be back at work by Thursday. In the meantime, I’ve been taking advantage of the spectacular weather to do some exploring of the neighborhood. Today, I discovered that I can take the Stone Arch Bridge through the St. Anthony Main neighborhood to Nicolett Island. After living downtown for three years, you’d think I would have figured this out sooner. I forgot how lovely the view of downtown and the mill ruins is from Nicolett Island. I’ll probably sound provincial for saying this, but Minneapolis really is a beautiful city and it especially shines in the summer. I need to take some initiative with my digital camera and show you exactly what I mean.
I’m digging the podcasting features in the new version of iTunes. But think about this. Podcasting went from obscure to corporate in, what, maybe six months? That’s an incredibly fast maturation for a new medium. It took blogs at least two or three years to creep into the mass media vernacular. But it still feels like more hype than substance. The total number of listeners of all podcasts is still a tiny percentage of Internet users and it remains to be seen whether the audiences will grow for this kind of content. Still, it’s impressive that podcasting has achieved such prominence in such a short time.

I TiVo’ed all eight hours of yesterday’s Live8 concert and scanned the first couple hours last night. Some good performances. I liked the Coldplay/Richard Ashcroft version of “Bittersweet Symphony.” But, goddamn, there was a lot of self-righteous pomposity. Does anyone really care what Brad Pitt has to say on debt relief for Africa? Yes, we all know you’re banging Angelina Jolie, but just because she’s told you about some of her UN aid trips doesn’t make you a policy expert on international relations. And he wasn’t even the worst example. What was up with Madonna parading that poor Ethiopian woman across the stage as she belted out “Like A Virgin?” This woman nearly died from starvation; the least concert promoters could have done was rescue her from Madonna’s Hyde-Park-sized ego. Even U2 made me cringe when a bunch of white doves were released during “Beautiful Day.” Warren Ellis wanted to call in an air strike on Hyde Park when he saw that. I would have settled for someone rushing on-stage and giving Bono a healthy bitch slap. Geldof should have told every artist in advance, “Look, anything you say will only trivialize what we’re trying to do here. So just smile, sing your fucking set, and get off the bloody stage.”

As I read news accounts of the collapse in last night’s budget negotiations, I can’t help but wonder if Senator Johnson and the DFL leadership might have overplayed their hand. The fact that the Senate abruptly adjourned two hours before the midnight deadline, and without trying to negotiate a lights-on deal with the House, simply does not look good in the eyes of the public. The DFL seems to be so determined not to look weak, as they did in 2003 when they caved to Republican budget demands, that they might have overreacted when they felt Republicans were beginning to negotiate in bad faith. The mood at the Capitol seems really toxic today, with a flurry of finger-pointing and heated personal attacks. Lots of anti-incumbent remarks in the papers, but mostly from furloughed state workers.
And I’m really tired of the media reminding everyone that the state parks are open.
I took advantage of my forced vacation and applied for a new passport. The photo requirements mandate that the background be completely white, which meant that none of my black seat insert could be visible. With the help of some city workers, we crammed some white cardboard and the blank side of a ward map behind my back to create a white background. After we were done, one of the workers thanked me and my nurse for being pleasant and not getting upset. That made me wonder whether her faith in humanity has been permanently shaken because of all the jerks she encounters on a daily basis.

As I’m writing this, I still don’t know if I’m supposed to report to work tomorrow or not. How many of you have ever been able to say that about your own job? I’ll probably stay up until midnight to see if the Powers That Be make a deal. If not, I’ll take in a matinee tomorrow or something equally productive. At this point, I’m tempted to take a vacation day tomorrow regardless. But I’ll probably guilt myself into going in.
While I’m waiting to determine my employment status, I think I’ll send out invitations for my birthday party. Yes, I’ve decided it’s time to throw a bigger and better party than the one I had a couple years ago. After all, you only turn 32 once. And, as always, you’re all invited. And you better show up early, because there’s no way I’m making all those pigs-in-a-blanket myself.

Terry Gross of Fresh Air did a recent interview with the director of the docu Murderball and Mark Zupan, one of the film’s featured athletes. I listened to it today and Gross does a good job of eliciting responses from Zupan on a range of issues including the sport itself, adjusting to life with a disability, society’s perceptions of disability, and sexuality.
I may have been a bit overly optimistic when I wrote that a partial state government shutdown in Minnesota would be averted. There has been some progress towards a deal, but even if there was an agreement tonight, there isn’t enough time to get the appropriate bills drafted, passed, and signed before midnight Friday. A lot of legislators have expressed frustration at being shut out of negotiations, which are being conducted in private between the governor and three or four legislative leaders. I can’t help but agree, at least to some extent. It makes little sense to have a special session if 95% of the legislative body has nothing more to do than sit in their offices and check their e-mail. I’m not sure a partial shutdown will hurt anyone politically, especially if it’s over by the end of the holiday weekend. But if July 5 comes around and state offices are still closed, people might start to take notice.
I’ll certainly notice, especially since I only put in for enough vacation time to cover me through July 6. There’s no way I’m going to use up all my vacation time to accommodate the truculence of a few politicos in St. Paul.