First a busted microphone for Annie Hayden in the studio (she and her band ended up crouching around a gooseneck stand connected to the desk -- it was all we could hookup in time), then, a FIRE. Not really, but the fire department was here. It seems some hot grease from the popcorn maker started making some smoke or something and set off the smoke alarms.

Popcorn maker?

Yes, this week, there is a popcorn maker sitting outside the studios. The big square glass kind, like in movie theaters. Management decided it would be fun to bring in one of those to make the week more "festive" as we all pack up and move our offices to the new wing that just opened here at MPR. (If you're saying, "why did they build a new wing?" you should probably come down here and see how crammed togehter we were before we did ... if you're curious about more, you can check this out). Anyhoo ... apparently, the dern popcorn thing started smoking or something. Next thing I know, there are firemen with axes walking down the hall on the other side of the glass from the Current booth. I then look around, and notice that it seems I'm the only guy left in the building. I guess it's a good thing that the fire alarm doesn't go off inside the booth (that would be kinda loud), but the downside is that I basically didn't know that the whole rest of the staff was outside on the street. At least (as Mary tells me), they were down there wondering if somebody should come back inside and tell me the building was burning down.

Anyway, it wasn't really. It turned out to be one of those situations where there's no real danger, but you're better safe than sorry. So we had five of St. Paul's finest standing around the popcorn maker, no doubt thinking, "you people can run mixing boards and microphones, but fer Pete's sake, stay away from the hot grease."

Maybe the broken microphone earlier was some kind of omen.

So, all's well that ends well, and all that. Eliza Gilkyson then came in and played an absolutely mesmerizing, bewilderingly gorgeous set. It was a nice capper to my Friday experience.

Good luck, Looch. You may need it today.