Creative Leadership : Buzz

A local project called Nerdy Candles: For Nerds reached its fundraising goal of $5,000 on Kickstarter last month. 

The project, led by Tom Lubanovic of Frostbeard Studio, centers on handmade candles inspired by video games, movies, and comics. It’s a “fun mash-up of traditional craftsmanship with geek culture,” the Kickstarter page reads.  

This is the group’s second foray onto Kickstarter. In the past, the group created book-themed candles for the literary set. “It's become apparent that people really like our candles, both for smelling nice and for being... different,” the Kickstarter page continues.  

The new line of candles will take inspiration from Zelda, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Doctor Who, among other pop culture icons.  

Pioneer Press photographer Ben Garvin recently produced a stop motion video that went viral, hitting over 1.2 million views on YouTube within only a couple of days. Garvin’s short film, titled “Magic Beard,” which was recorded with a smartphone app, has since been featured on numerous morning shows, evening news broadcasts, and websites all over the globe, including the Huffington Post. The film goes to lengths, literally, to reveal the wonders of Garvin's  "magic beard." Besides the amount of time Garvin spent growing the beard, the film, which runs just a couple of minutes, took 15 hours to put together.   

The Huffington Post shout-out about the film reads, “Ben Garvin's glorious stop-motion film documenting the antics of his clearly out-of-control beard validates all of our fears about facial hair.” 

Former “Glee” actor Stephen Tobolowsky is coming to St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater to tape his syndicated radio show and podcast,  "The Tobolowsky Files," live on Oct. 10, the Pioneer Press reports.   

In the hit TV series, Tobolowsky was the glee club teacher early on. He's also appeared in many other roles on-screen, but he might be most known for his part as “the memory-challenged character who provides a key to the mystery in "Memento,”” the Pioneer Press story states. 

As a part of "The Tobolowsky Files,” the actor recounts personal tales about Hollywood, life, and love, the story adds. 

As a testimony to local food trends, a database from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has grown to include 103 food trucks and trailers. 

The database, which can be sorted by various attributes, including “most popular menu item,” also has information about food trucks’ presence on the street and on social media, a story from the Journal states. 

Food truck reporter Urmila Ramakrishnan put it together. “Besides profiling dozens of food trucks, Urmila broke food truck news and found innovators, interesting people and companies that support the industry as the mobile eateries fight turf wars with established brick-and-mortar restaurants and struggle with their own popularity,” the story states.
 

Community-supported art, a takeoff on community-supported agriculture, provides locally made art to its members. 

Since its start with the St. Paul-based nonprofit organization Springboard for the Arts, in collaboration with the local artists behind mnartists.org, four years ago, the concept has caught on in a number of cities across the country, the New York Times reports.

It has also taken on new forms as it has sprung up in different places, the story reads.  

“The goal, borrowed from the world of small farms, is a deeper-than-commerce connection between people who make things and people who buy them,” the story reads. 

It helps that many people were already familiar with the CSA model, the story points out.  

Food and restaurant site Eater.com recently ran a story about The 18 Essential Minneapolis Restaurants, calling the eateries a "highly elite group" that covers the entire city, spans myriad cuisines, and satisfies all of a diner's restaurant needs.
 
The list is continually evolving, the site notes. For example, Sen Yai Sen Lek, Pizzeria Lola, and Fika were rotated off the list "simply because their time has come," according to Eater.com. New to the list this go-round are St. Paul's Meritage, the North Loop's Borough, and Sea Salt in Minnehaha Park.
 
The top three on the list are all south of downtown: Broders' Pasta Bar, Piccolo, and Tilia. There are plenty of Northeast favorites as well, like Brasa Premium Rotisserie and Masu Sushi & Robata.
 
Not surprisingly, the comments section already contains some lively opinions about what other restaurants should be included — and which ones deserved to be kicked off the list.

“The Ultimate Long Weekend in Minneapolis” is the headline of a recent Wall Street Journal story that highlights the city’s attractions. 

The scenic city “may bring to mind parkas before parks, and Vikings before biking, but Minneapolis is as sweet in summer as it is frigid in winter,” with everything from outdoor activities to cultural offerings to take in, it reads. 

The story lays out a step-by-step itinerary for visitors who visit the city for a weekend. Local restaurants like Burch, Icehouse (also an entertainment venue) and Matt’s Bar get a shout-out. The American Swedish Institute, Forage Modern Workshop, and the Walker Art Center also get props, as do a number of theaters, shops, and parks.  

ActiveTimes.com recently ranked the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis as the nation’s top bike path, CBS Minnesota reports. USA Today picked up the story.   

The over-five-mile-long trail sees up to 5,000 people daily. “It runs right through the center of Minneapolis with little interruption from street traffic or pedestrians,” the story reads. 

On the path, ActiveTimes says, riders get views of the Mississippi River, the Chain of Lakes, and the Martin Sabo suspension bridge. And the site takes note of the fact that many people take the bike path to work. 

To come up with its results, ActiveTimes evaluated “whether the path allows you to skip traffic while at the same time giving you a view of nature.”

U.S. News & World Report recently released it annual Best Hospitals list, and five Minnesota hospitals were ranked high in terms of performance.
 
Coming in at no. 3 in the ranking, Rochester-based Mayo Clinic was highlighted in numerous categories, nabbing the "best" designation for specialties like endocrinology, gastroenterology, gynecology, and diabetes care.
 
The other four hospitals that made the list are Allina Abbott Northwestern Hospital, the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Allina Mercy Hospital, and St. John's Hospital.
 
The magazine sorted data for nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals, looking at factors like patient safety, hospital reputation, and death rates. Only 147 hospitals were nationally ranked.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s recent list of the most giving Fortune 500 companies includes Wells Fargo & Company and the Target Corporation, according to Minnpost.  

To get the results, the Chronicle examined last year’s charitable donations from many of the top Fortune 500 companies, the story states. 

Wells Fargo, which calls San Francisco home, but has strong ties to Minnesota, led with $316 million. “Meanwhile, Wells Fargo may be poised to add new Minnesota jobs, or at least, move existing employees to a new location,” the story reads.   

Target came in ninth place, having given away $147 million in cash and $77 million in products.

Minneapolis ranked third in a recent study that looked at which cities in the country are most appealing for those who work for small businesses.
 
Coming in behind Denver and Boston, Minneapolis has the least amount of job competition among the 30 cities considered by the study's developer, a credit card research site called Card Hub.
 
Cities were ranked based on job growth, average monthly earnings for new hires, cost of living in the area, average unemployment rate, and other factors.
 
Companies with fewer than 50 employees comprise about half of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce's membership, the study noted, and "its workforce spends relatively little time on the job...the city ranks in the top 10 nationally in terms of small business vitality, industry variety, and stress."

Detroit is adding a streetcar line and it’s looking to Twin Cities developers for insights about minimizing the impact of construction on local businesses, the Pioneer Press reports.

For example, St. Paul’s Neighborhood Development Center, which provides support to minority-owned businesses in the city, is pitching in. Isabel Chanslor, a project manager with the organization, is quoted in the story, saying, "We've shared what we learned, what we did and what we could have done better.”

The organization “has been exporting its model to Detroit on a number of levels,” the story states.

Plans in Detroit include a “marketing campaign intended to remind locals that businesses along Woodward Avenue are indeed still open, much like the 'On The Green Line' campaign launched in the Twin Cities,” the story reads.

The Brooklyn Brewery, a craft brewery in New York, “is paying the Twin Cities a little visit in a big way,” a City Pages article states.  

This week, the brewery is coming to the area as a part of its national MASH tour, a series of beer and food-related events plus film showings and music.

The Twin Cities is one of 11 stops in the festival that includes a “series of parties, concerts, and private diners in honor of Slow Food USA, an organization the promotes "the pleasure of food by linking it to the community and the environment."”

While in town, MASH will make its home St. Paul’s The Happy Gnome, while also visiting with a number of local restaurateurs.

The New York Times featured local artist Chris Larson’s art installation that was a part of the recent Northern Spark.

For the St. Paul dusk-to-dawn art festival, Larson created a replica of Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer’s St. Paul house. Before an audience at the festival, Larson proceeded to burn down the house. It was the festival’s main attraction.    

Although Larson worked from 1961 blueprints of the house, he “made the walls and roof out of cardboard and two-by-four studs,” the story states.

Of the original, which is still standing, the story states, “Despite its heritage, the house has been neglected in books on Breuer.”

As for the burning of the replica, it may have been a statement about the architect, the design, or putting too much emphasis on one’s house--several people in the story weigh in on the significance of the pyrotechnics.  

Recently, Intuit put together a list of the top U.S. cities for female entrepreneurs. By its calculations, Minneapolis comes in fourth place. San Francisco tops the list. It's followed by Seattle and Washington D.C., in second and third place.

In a blog post about its results, Inuit underscores that while more women are enrolled in higher education, “they still struggle to find their place in many career fields, including business and entrepreneurship.”  

At the same time, a study shows that 81 percent of female entrepreneurs are “showing optimism about their business ventures,” it states.

To come up with its rankings, Intuit looked at median education levels, unemployment rates, income, population, and the percentage of women-owned businesses for 48 cities across the country.