Virtually Home

Saturday night at the State War Memorial January 26 is Australia Day. The occasion is celebrated in mid-summer, typically with drinking and barbecuing among friends, followed by fireworks. If this reminds you of the 4th of July, you're not wrong to draw the comparison. In recent years, some Australians have advocated for moving or abolishing Australia Day because the data was chosen to commemorate the arrival of a British fleet, and celebrating the colonial history of this nation, which is marred by numerous massacres and injustices against its indigenous people, strikes some as uncomfortable and inappropriate. Think of the vibe on Australia Day, then, as about two-thirds 4th of July, one-third Columbus Day. Australia Day is the only day of the year on which new Australians become citizens. We happen to know someone who became a citizen on this Australia Day, which I thought was pretty cool. This year, the holiday fell on a Saturday, with an official observance the follow...

Arriving in Australia was a surreal experience. If you have never moved to a foreign country to which you have never been, I'm not sure I can relate the experience. It's like diving off a 10-meter board into a pool of unknown temperature, in which there may be saltwater crocodiles. We touched down in Sydney after a 17-hour red-eye from Houston. Getting through biocontrol and customs took us our entire layover. I had just watched six movies and was exhausted. Ever since getting a blood clot on a plane, I can't sleep in a chair. I just watched a bunch of not-so-memorable movies and stood up obsessively to stretch my calf muscles. And all that was between crying jags, since I had received news of a close friend's death immediately before getting on a plane. We ran through the airport and got on another plane, across the Australian continent. I had an aisle seat, so no view out the window, no access to movies, and insufficient bandwidth to read, by that point. It was a lo...

Jacob and Jessie on NYE 2018 was kind of a whirlwind. There were a lot of highs and lows, but mostly highs. I had some wonderful adventures this year. Here are some highlights. January Oberst with Taylor Hollingsworth of MVB We kicked off the New Year in the best way possible: by seeing a Conor Oberst concert in a California. Jacob and I flew out to Los Angeles and met up with friends from all over the country to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band play their first show in years. We caught up in line all day in the gloriously warm (by comparison with Minnesota) weather. We ate amazing Mexican food. And the show was brilliant -- the new venue in Silverlake was really cool and made custom cockatils for the show. Miwi La Lupa played a fabulous solo acoustic set to open. At midnight, the band played "Auld Lang Syne". The New Year couldn't have begun in a better way. That day turned out to be the last time I hung out with my friend Christina outside a ...