[Aug 9, 09:31] Video — Recon
[Note: Unlike Recorder files, videos don’t come with auto-transcription. The record below reflects my best attempt to capture both words and activity in the video. Added in-clip times are for reference. ~a_boojum]
[Video: Selfie angle (SA). Midmorning sun with partly-cloudy skies. A woman with apparent age in her forties, with dark hair showing first strands of grey; visually matches the woman on the lock screen on the phone. A black Nissan Altima matching the car where I found the phone is parked on the top level of a ramp, directly behind her. She is leaning with one arm against the Altima’s open door, her head just above the roof of the car. She is wearing a long-sleeve heather-grey shirt and pale blue jeans.]
[00:02]
Hey all. Alice here. [she looks down at the ground, cheeks visibly coloring] How do people do this whole vlog thing and deal with all of the cringe I am feeling at the moment?
Ugh. Soldier on, Alice. Soldier on.
Anyhoo, I am here in at the, umm, A Ramp in downtown Minneapolis. It sits right over or near enough the place I used to get my hair cut and dyed in colors that gave mother a shit-fit.
“Oh!” she would cry, “What’s happened to my poor, delicate Alice? Why do you do this to me?” as if having neon blue hair would somehow end up being the death of me or was done out of spite. As if I didn’t just want neon-fucking-blue hair. [chuckle]
Okay, sometimes I did it out of spite.
[Video: Camera pans away from the car and switches perspective to POV. View of maroon-colored stairwell.]
[Audio: car door shutting, followed by double chirp sound.]
Time to get going.
[Video: Camera lowered, focused on concrete stairs with maroon-painted kickplates and tennis shoes.]
[01:57]
[Video: Street level. Video shows silver stars with the names of musical acts written over the star on a black-painted brick wall facade. Camera pans over the sign above the glass doors. The sign reads “First Avenue & 7th St. entry”.]
First Ave. I spent far too many Sunday nights socializing at the all-ages danceteria back in the day. Smoked my first weed behind one of the nearby buildings before going in. Took up cigarettes for the coolness factor. Even inhaled. Surprised mother never said she could smell it on me.
Maybe she just was careful to pick the battles she was most likely to win.
Yeah. Seems legit.
[02:25]
[Video: Bouncing as Alice uses the crosswalk and faces forward, panning to a side door to the black-painted building.]
The Entry. Still there, thank God. Everything seems alien these days.
[Video: Camera pans to face the oncoming one-way street traffic from the sidewalk. Shots of the sidewalk show gridded panels of small purple squares that look like chipped glass. The camera pauses for a few seconds and then continues panning to both sides of the street as Alice walks slowly up the sidewalk, lingering on buildings on either side of the street.]
[03:45]
[Video: Camera turns to face a modern building covered in painted sheet metal and large panes of glass.]
Holy shit. I know it’s been a while but this is the Aurora? I mean, okay…
[Video, SA: Alice standing in front of one of the windows in a polished facade.]
I mean, Jesus… This corner was the armpit of Minneapolis and this store was nothing pretty back when I was a kid. I honestly thought they tore it down with E Block. [she turns around so the Mayo Clinic sign is visible before returning to original shot framing] Before they erected that turd, this was all a couple of seedy blocks of dirty mags, sex toys, three or four dive bars, and — horror of horrors — an arcade. They even had a room-by-the-hour hotel tucked in somewhere around here.
[Video: She looks over her shoulder in the direction of the Mayo.]
It had character. Not that… whatever.
[04:13]
Anyhoo. This is where Kyle used to go to his after-hours parties. Lock-ins, I guess. The store would invite bands to come in and play in the basement and everyone would be drinking or doing their thing if it wasn’t drinking.
It was half-legend. Everyone who went must have kept their mouths mostly shut so there wasn’t trouble from the cops.
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the cops were on the take to look the other way. Some were like that back then.
“Here’s a hundred bucks, ignore the sound of the music rising up from underground.” Or something like that. People minded their own business in the 80s. ‘Round here anyway.
[05:01]
[Video, POV: The camera pans up and down the partially sunlit streets, Hennepin Avenue? Shadows are cast in part from the overhead clouds, other parts from the buildings. The camera goes back to filming the sidewalk.]
[Audio: Alice’s voice goes lower here.]
Wonder which of these [places?] they plan for our little adventure to start. [inaudible] —ome poking around to see if I can figure it out on my own [in case they skip?] with the gear and leave us han— [hanging?].
[05:25]
[End video]
Leave a comment. Markdown permitted.