iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 5h

According to a reliable source at the Capitol Barber Shop, the aggressive towing only started in the last few months.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 5h

You say I'm being passive aggressive but I call it

Title card for the film "Friendly Persuasion" (1956) starring Gary Cooper.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 12h

The owners of this property are supposed to be developing a complex mixed-use project that's been on and off for years. The fact that they can't even run a temporary parking lot isn't encouraging.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 7h

Why it's the 473 arm chair! I'd know it anywhere!

A page from an inventory of chairs at the Minnesota Capitol Building

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 8h

Very nice color at Banning State Park this morning. Barring high winds, should hold up for a week or so.

The Kettle River runs through a ravine of sandstone boulders. The leaves are mostly yellow.

An abandoned stone crushing building sits amid the changing trees and moss-covered rocks.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 11h

🎵 Yankee Doodle...🎵 (details in alt text)

Four urinals in a men's room at the Pine County History Museum in Askov, MN. They are arranged from left to right at ascending heights beginning with the third from the left, reminiscent of the first four notes of the tune "Yankee Doodle."

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Jim and Tammy Faye met here. #Dinkytown

A classical building that was once a bible college

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Photo shoot in #DylanAlley, Dinkytown

Photographer and subject on fire escape in alley

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Seems familiar, though without the drug culture undertones.

Plastic model of Speedy Alka Seltzer, an advertising mascot of a freckled red haired boy with an Alka-Seltzer tablet for a body and another tablet for a hat. The hat says "SPEEDY" in a gothic font.

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Gary Hornseth @garyhornseth.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Stand of pines 1:13 p.m. Afton State Park, Minnesota

Low-angle, upward view of a pine canopy with a few dozen tall, straight tree trunks reaching toward a bright blue sky and sunlit branches.

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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 04/10/2026

old loring park: when 1523 nicollet ave was flame bar and cafe. national acts like david ruffin from the temptations and edwin starr played there before their liquor license was revoked by the minneapolis city council in 1979 after prostitution arrests now it's micah house

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Compliments of the season, courtesy of a Wisconsin salvage yard.

Two old, stained and badly weathered juvenile store mannequins are seated on the rusted springs of a rusted yellow truck cab that is missing the driver side door altogether. Seated next to them is a plastic Santa Clause riding shotgun.

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It was this month, October, in 1959 when Robert Zimmerman started using the stage name Bob Dillon at the Ten o’clock Scholar in Minneapolis. He’d just arrived from Hibbing for his first year at the University of Minnesota and was trying to make a (new) name for himself at the folk clubs of Dinkytown

A view out the window of the Scholar cafe in Dinkytown

A dark black and white photo in the minneapolis star
tues., dec. 16, 1975
caption;
John Koerner and Bob Dylan jam at the Scholar, circa 1960

Lee remembers Bob as a "cleancut kid," very intense and deter-mined.
"Do you mind if I play?" Bob asked when he wandered into The Scholar sometime in October. "I want to be a folk singer."
Lee chatted with him briefly, learned that Bob had some experience, and told him it was all right to play. "I'm not going to pay you," …
Bob Spitz description (Dylan: A Biography, 1989, Norton, NY)

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Minneapolis right now

Sunset, puffy clouds, a big road, green trees and the downtown skyline

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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Removing chairs for staff who have to stand for long hours in the workplace has also been a tactic at Seward Coop and the Walker Art Center, so this sadistic worker-unfriendly policy is not limited to MAGA (But what’s next, testosterone tests for TSA staff checking your ID?)

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Éireann @eireannmor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

True sons and daughters of Wisconsin know what's happening here.

Beef chunks braising slowly in a garlic-laced broth, an early stage in the preparation of tavern-style hot beefs.

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Glam Slam: Chronicles @glamslam72.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Mott The Hoople (September 30, 1972) – “Mott The Hoople” Advert - Melody Maker This full-page CBS Records advertisement promotes Mott The Hoople's newly released album All The Young Dudes.

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It is a little Eastern European out this morning

Old backlit sign for EAST
EUROPEAN
Deli
KRAMARCZUK
With distant highrise seen thru fog and colorful awnings

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's the kind of day that gives folks an urge to form a queue.

Shoppers wait in line for Kramarczuk's to open for fresh pączki on Pączki Day in the late 20teens.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Storyboard art from Clash of the Titans (1981)

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David @archaeomather.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“Perished by Freezing,” March 14(?), 1870 - fragmented tombstone of John Johnson and his son Lewis who died near Luverne, Minnesota. At the Rock County Historical Society. I don’t know why the stone is in this condition or what happened to the grave.

Fragmented and weathered tombstone reassembled in a wooden frame.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#OnThisDay Sept 28 1955: The last baseball game is played at Nicollet Park, as the Minneapolis Millers win the Junior World Series 9-4 against the Rochester Redwings. Next season the Millers played at new Met Stadium in Bloomington, and Nicollet Park at 31st Street is demolished.

The front gate of Nicollet Park with crowds entering. Minnesota Historical Society.

spectators in packed stands. Hennepin County Library Collections

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

That seems like a terrible ice cream flavor.

Small detail from the posted photograph is an outfield advertising board for "Steel DeSoto Ice Cream."

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Sam Bergman @violanorth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hot take, ballparks should still look like this

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"🎵...a spoonful of whoop-ass...🎶

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🎃 Cat-O-Lantern Partsch Conlan 🎃 @catconlan.net · 28/09/2026

Honestly I'm here for it; Mary Poppins is a terror in the books and P.L. Travers cried with rage at the movie premiere because the adaptation was so saccharine.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Incredible and wonderful words.

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

One of my favorite headlines I ever wrote also involved beef

Southeast Angle newspaper
Dec. 2003
Fast Food Fight: Burger barn beef reheated
Film project documents 1970 Red Barn protest

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I had a rough initiation ceremony. They had to call me the Impotentate after that.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#OnThisDay Sept 27 1935: Leonard Steuart, Imperial Potentate of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America, presents a flag to honor the Minneapolis Shriner's Hospital on behalf of the president of the Pontiac Motor Company.

a group of men in suits and fezzes holding a flag while another group of men in suits and fezzes receives it.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

YOU get a fez! YOU get a fez! Fezzes for ALL!!

A platoon of men riding 3-wheeled motorbikes topped with giant red fez canopies ride past a Hennepin Avenue sidewalk filled with blue-shirted befezzeled men.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Fun Fact: I own a fez provided to me by @vthorstenson.bsky.social

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Gary Hornseth @garyhornseth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Four trade catalog covers, 1913 Source: Catalogs Collection via @archive.org; archive.org/details/catalogs

Grandes Roseraies du val de la Loire
Orléans, France

A cover on yellow paper featuring three manicured rose topiaries. At the top, a dark green rectangular block contains the text "GRANDES ROSERAIES DU VAL DE LOIRE". Below and in the center, three slender topiaries with spherical green bushes are filled with small, bright pink roses. The bottom reads "CATALOGUE GÉNÉRAL 1913 1914" in simple, dark capital lettering.

Church Cushions
Ostermoor & Company
New York

A cover on dark tan paper. The top displays a dark rectangular block with the words "CHURCH CUSHIONS" in gold lettering surrounded by stylized leaf patterns. The center features an intricate illustration of hanging lantern-like elements and geometric symbols. The bottom reads "OSTERMOOR AND COMPANY NEW YORK"

Changeable Signs
C. M. Kinney Co.
New York

A cover featuring a large, ornate building directory board against a wall. A dark rectangular banner at the top, itself a changeable sign, reads "C. M. KINNEY CO., SUCCESSOR TO U.S. CHANGEABLE SIGN CO." with an address in New York. A hand is seen entering the frame from the right adding the final O. The center shows a changeable letter directory board filled with five text columns, supported by a decorative frame with claw-foot pedestal legs. A few pieces of yellowed tape around the edges.

Mirrors and Cabinets
Conant Bros. Co.
Somerville, Massachusetts

A cover on beige paper with the words "MIRRORS AND CABINETS" printed in large, brown, serif capital letters at the top. A single, elegant flourish line sweeps down from the letter "S" to the bottom-left corner. The company information, "CONANT BROS. CO. SOMERVILLE, MASS. U.S.A," is printed at the bottom. The entire design is enclosed within a thin, decorative border featuring geometric patterns.

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

AREHOUSE / SPAGHETTI W \ ESTERN

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

You have to assume the spaghetti is stacked vertically.

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Discontinued FoOoOods! 👻🎃 @discontinuedfoods.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Sorry, Kellogg's, but this is the only "Printed Fun" I have ever cared about...

The yellow box, disk, and manual for The Print Shop from Broderbund Software

The black and white title screen for The Print Shop

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East Bank Neighborhoods @eastbankmpls.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Hey Stragglers — the next East Bank Bike Tour is tomorrow, Sat, Sept 26. Sign up to let us know you are coming* —>Meet @ Van Cleve Park (10-10:30am) —>Ride the Ride (10:30am) —>Return to Pard (~Noon) *Signing up allows us to contact you in case of rain out www.eastbankmpls.org/bike-tours

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

...and you're NOT going to get the deets on bespoke carpet tiles from the MN Historical Society tours.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I didn't realize that there were a hundred produced. They're scraping the bottom of the barrel by #20 or so.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Father Hennepin Discovering the Falls of St. Anthony", by historicist Douglas Volk, a founder of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Specifically commissioned for the Minnesota State Capitol in 1905, the huge painting is so racist it was removed and put into a special timeout room in 2017.

painting of the father holding up a cross over the falls, while half naked native americans crowd around his feet. Minnesota Historical Society.

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Atlas Shvitzed @therafischwartz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"ugh, this fuckin' guy"

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I would love to go back to giving unauthorized tours of the Capitol art but they took my key card away when I retired.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In 2022 I had the great privilege being given a private tour of the State Capitol by @vthorstenson.bsky.social, tagging along with local luminaries @chrissteller.bsky.social and Penny Peterson. Here Vic gives this fine work of art the attention it truly deserves.

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Depending on the time of year, around 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon that hallway is filled with a terrific filtered light through the skylights above the steps. Lights up those columns juuuust right!

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Vic Thorstenson @vthorstenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When State Senator Twyla Ring died back in 2022, I had this photo that I wanted to post in tribute, but couldn't find the negative. Long story short - it turned up and here's the shot. Shot on a Rollei twin lens reflex back in 1999. Better late than never.

Shot in the North Senate corridor of the MN Capitol Left to tright Twyla Ring, unknown, Dennis Johnson.

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