1.17.12 He'll Be Back! (Well, probably not.)

Today I thought I would introduce you to a spot on the island that can boast a little Hollywood cachet. I speak of the building on the southern end of the island known today as the Nicollet Island Pavilion. Nowadays, the place is rented out for weddings and parties, and occasionally, community meetings are held there. But once upon a time, Hollywood came to shoot a film there. But more on that later.

While on that side of the island this morning, I thought I would also share a few pictures of the small outdoor performance area where, on a few occasions during local festivals, I have sat and watched local bands perform.

This is the stage, covered now with a patina of snow. I would love to see a Greek play performed here at sunrise. Maybe I should produce and direct it myself? But I'll wait until spring and then think about it again. In the warm seasons, it's a lovely place to sit and watch musical or dramatic performances. In fact, it's a great place just to sit, even without any performances.

Here is what the performer, standing on the stage, would be facing: a gently-tiered grassy knoll (during warmer seasons), where men, women and children can sit or sprawl on blankets with their coolers and picnic baskets. Maybe one of these days I'll get a little blues band together and perform there myself. Or play one of the masked old men in a Greek chorus, warning Oedipus of his tragic fate.

As I turned toward the Pavilion building, or rather, as we turned, for I was accompanied by my lovely island companion, she suddenly drew my attention to something glittering on the ground: a Christmas ball. Imagine that! (You will have to have read my early posts to understand this reference.) I bent and picked up the silver ball, and then immediately spotted another, a red one. From there--that's right, you guessed it--we headed over to the southern tip of the island, to the general area where I had hung the last Christmas ball. This time, however, I chose a tree branch that was a little harder to reach, and hung both balls.

That is the Central Avenue Bridge and St. Anthony Falls in the background. The Falls have a story all their own which I will save for another day. We stood and admired the balls for a few moments, wondering how long these would remain, then turned back to the Pavilion building. It was pretty cold out and we both were eager to be on our way.

Here, then, is one view of the Nicollet Island Pavilion building. It's sort of barnlike, sort of warehousey. I've been inside and it's a pretty cool building. Do you see those green doors on the side that look like stable doors? This building, and these doors, were used in a holiday movie called Jingle All the Way starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (and can you believe I got that spelling right on the first try? Fact!)

Anyway, here is a head-on picture of the doors where the scene in question was filmed. Well, okay, I'm not actually positive that it was these doors, but if not these, then the next set over, or the next. The movie was released in November of 1996, when my youngest was 5 and my oldest was 10--perfect ages for this flick, which we watched quite a few times, and hadn't even moved to Minneapolis yet.

The movie also starred Sinbad, the late Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Jim Belushi, and other notables. It's a fun movie that had scenes shot in various places around Minneapolis and St. Paul, most of which we've visited. The scene shot in the Nicollet Island Pavilion featured Arnold doing battle with a bunch of dwarves in his quest to acquire the year's hottest toy for his son. I am now eager to re-watch this movie and more closely observe the Minneapolis settings, especially this one on my little island. And that is the Nicollet Island claim-to-fame of the day.

Life flows on, in and around us--and sometimes, for a moment, the stars shine in our midst.

D.E.S.