Killing Batteries

This video is actually old news, but I’m belatedly posting it here to alert certain key visitors that I don’t look half bad on camera.

It was produced a year ago as a promo piece for Architecture Minnesota magazine’s Videotect competition “Exploring the Built Environment”, the subject being the skyways of Minneapolis and St Paul (and Rochester). They’d gotten wind that I have a (totally healthy and normal) fixation on the Minneapolis Skyway System that, unsurprisingly, peaks in the winter months. Take last winter, for example, when I voluntarily confined myself to the Minneapolis Skyway System for two weeks as a livability test and to explore my skyway-as-neighborhood theory for an article.

Architecture Minnesota asked to follow me around one afternoon with a Flip camera and an iPhone pointed at me and considering that there was no script and no plan whatsoever, it turned out really well. Check it out.

Videotect: Leif in the Skyway from Architecture Minnesota on Vimeo.

Did you know that I juggle? Yep. Since I was 12 years old. Related, I did not first kiss a girl until much later than the average guy.

Last week I went to the International Jugglers’ Association annual festival for the first time in a decade. While I was there I decided to shoot a video profile on the festival for kicks and to have an excuse to shamelessly show off my dope juggling skillz. Here’s the result.

Semi-related, here’s a video starring Steve Birmingham and I doing what we do best: uniquely ungraceful, yet lively six club passing.

Pretty self-explanatory.

If you can’t see the video or if YouTube is blocking it in your country, try here.

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During my (fleeting) downtime in Timisoara, I went around the city making a spectacle of myself for the locals while shooting my (abridged) retelling of the events of the 1989 Revolution. Check it.

Bucharest has precious few, outdoor, calm retreats from the frantic drivers and crowded sidewalks. Here’s one, with atmosphere to boot.

It wasn’t an easy drive, but me and a merry band of Moldovans road-tripped up to Soroca last week and I took some gripping video.

Using my faithful Dacia Logan, I test the magnetic properties of a notorious hill in central Moldova. There’s really not much more to add. You gotta see it to believe it.

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Anyone who’s every spoken to me for more than seven minutes knows that I reap the same warm, comforting feelings from the Minneapolis Skyway system as most people would experience on a quiet, tropical beach. Moving into a Skyway-connected building instantly transformed my outlook on Minnesota winters – in that winter was no longer my problem.

As such, I hatched this tribute video. [If you can't see the video, click here]

I had a lot of help making this video. Foremost thanks goes to Kaeti Hinck, who probably spent more time working on this thing than I did, and whose directing, editing and creative input significantly affected its overall awesomeness. Thanks also goes to actors Rachel Hunsinger and Jill Wigert.

Agonizing over travel insurance? Maybe I can help…

I’m often reverently described as a modern Renaissance Man, to which I always answer, ‘Damn straight, mom!” So in case any of you were curious about what the 2008 version of a Renaissance Man looks like, I present you with the following evidence.

First, going straight to Renaissance Ground Zero, the long awaited video where I semi-coherently describe Florence:

Of course, no Renaissance Man is complete without some sort of circus skill, so here’s a video of me doing what we in juggling refer to as ‘passing clubs’. (there’s several guys in this video, I’m the cutest one, obviously):

Finally, lest any of you forget, I make a mean omelet:

Agonizing over travel insurance? Maybe I can help…

I apologize in advance for the length, but not really. I vblog like I write – it’s either 2,000 words or nothing at all.

[Cross-posted at This is Why I Love Minneapolis]