For crying out loud.

What is up, Saint Paul? Where is the love?

Last Wednesday evening, there were two - TWO, I say - shootings in Saint Paul. Now, I know that there are probably more than two shootings in Saint Paul on any given night, however, I'd like to take the East Side out of the equation, because (sorry), it's just sort of expected. These shooting were a lot closer to home, literally, and felt threatening in a way the East Side madness doesn't. It was a weird night of news-viewing, window-peeping, and checking in on people.

Shooting 1 - Ohio and Stevens, West Side Saint Paul, USA. This is just blocks from our house. Ish. It felt a lot scarier on Wednesday night then it turned out because 1) the fuzz originally thought there were multiple crime scenes, one basically out of our living room window... cops, ambulances, CSIs, gawkers all night all around the house, and 2) they also originally said it was gang-violence, which scares me a lot more than the botched drug deal it turned out to be.

Shooting 2 - Costello's on Selby Ave. Fucking Costello's man... ya know where Nick works and where we, um, are all the time. Nobody died in this one, but it is apparently more gangy than druggy. Awesome.

Strib blurb on both, for the curious.

I read this City Pages article a while back on the Gangs of Saint Paul and was actually quite shocked about the proliferation of random, violent, gang-related crimes downtown St. P, on the West Side and around Cathedral Hill. No one really seems to be talking about it much, at least when it was published. I know I didn't discuss the article with anyone. I remember I just read it, shut the paper and thought 'huh, that sucks' and 'what a stupid title.' I'd guess it's getting more attention now, at least at Costello's.

Anyway, speaking of drugs and gangs, I am up for checking out this new Miami club, dubbed "Miami Vice meets Scarface." I think this is hilarious and could actually be really fun and quite the hit.

Seriously, a Scarface room? Come on, that is awesome. I hope they offer free-standing piles of cocaine you can just stick your face into.

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina.

P.S. If you haven't seen it yet, go check out what I (and Mel) feel is actually the best movie of 2006 and should have brought home every award it wasn't up for: Little Children.

It is an amazing film- - intelligent, chilling, complicated without feeling heavy handed, thought (and conversation)-provoking, darkly funny, really, really well acted (beautiful, bold Kate Winslet - you never cease to amaze me) and so well written it just made me shake my head - many times. By the way, the original book was written by Tom Perotta, who wrote Election- so, you know it's smart. The adaptation was co-written by Perotta and Todd Field, the director. How it didn't win adapted screenplay is beyond me.

There's this really cool thing that happens with the voice over where it first hits you over the head with pointed narration, basically telling you how you are supposed to feel about a character or a scene... and then it drops out at one point along the way, which you don't even notice, allowing for the viewer's own judgement and connection, only to pop back up again at the end. It's jarring and, I believe, utterly brilliant.