The651.com

Lowetown keeps getting cooler and cooler – and we’re not JUST talking about the seasonal weather shift. Despite heavy lightrail construction in the area this year, Lowertown businesses and artists are just as upbeat and creative as ever, and the recent elaborate hoax inspired by the bones of King Boreas proves just that.

In the wake of the aforementioned construction, a few Lowertown inhabitants cooked up a fun rumor that got the Twin Cities buzzing. Was a human skeleton really unearthed near Broadway & Prince Street? The answer is actually no, but the publicity stunt sure was a clever precursor to this Friday’s “Dancing on the Grave” party at the Black Dog Cafe. The humorous hoax involved Black Dog co-owner Andy Remke, local artist (and skeleton crafter) Michael Bahl, and Anoka-Hennepin Community College journalism professor Richard Broderick who staged a faux archeological dig photo featuring fake bones near some uprooted Lowertown street signs. Before long, the internet was buzzing with the “discovery,” and the planted speculation that the bones belonged to “King Boreas” (a clever St. Paul Carnival correlation). Officials, of course, soon nixed the rumor as fake.

The Black Dog’s party this Friday, however, is far from fake, as the neighborhood gets together to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the monthly Lowertown First Friday Art Crawl. Amidst open studios throughout the district in numerous buildings, you can stop into the Black Dog Cafe, which will surely be rockin’ with live music from the Fantastic Merlins, Todd Harper, and Dan Newton and Friends, plus fire spinners, dancers, food, drinks and new artwork in the cafe by locals Kristoffer West Johnson and Aaron Marx. You’ll also be able to inspect the “bones” and other interesting “artifacts” unearthed during the construction.

Dancing on the Grave runs from 7-10pm at the Black Dog Cafe on Broadway & Prince Street in Lowertown and is free and open to the public. For more info visit www.blackdogstpaul.com.

The Lowertown First Friday Art Crawl runs from 6-9pm and is free and open to the public. For more info click HERE.