JACC Chair Kip Browne Gives A Home Tour

Kip Browne has a wonderful, nicely-decorated house just two doors down from City Council Member Don Samuels, where Kip lives with his lovely new wife Kelly.

Some features of the house include Kip's basement "man cave" where he keeps weight-lifting equipment and Star Wars collectibles. Jeff Skrenes was over the same night and his jealousy over Kip's tricked-out "geek-o-topia" hung heavy in the air like the stench of Jabba the Hut's breath. Another room was dedicated to Kip's guitars, with lots of art hanging on the walls.

I noticed a framed...

...NOMI picture near the kitchen, and snapped a picture of Kip with a wine glass in his hand, as though giving a toast to NOMI and all their great work.

On the deck was a gazebo-like structure, but it was square, not round like most gazebos. Kip joked that it was called a "Gazz-ah-boe."

Kip has a dog that understands German when Kip says stuff like "Platzen sie!" ("Sit.") Browne had an academic fellowship in Germany, and he enthusiastically adopted many aspects of the German lifestyle. After drinking quite a bit of Jose Cuervo and toasting to I-don't-remember-what, we had potatoes and bratwurst. Kip hauled out some hot German mustard in a metallic tube, but it wasn't as hot as the warning--written in German on the label--seemed to imply. It was still pretty good, and complimented the brats. Kelly ate half her chicken cordon bleu and generously gave me the unfinished half. Waste not, want not. My kind of woman.

I think Kip said he paid $64,000 for the house back in 1999, but a lot of alcohol was consumed last night...I couldn't swear to it. As nice as Kip's neighborhood is, there is still a vacant house right across the street. Houses capable of being transformed into what Kip and Kelly posses can probably be snapped up for around $25,000 in this crazy North Minneapolis housing market.

Kip and Kelly have a great life going in North Minneapolis. There are plenty of houses for sale in the Jordan Neighborhood for anybody who wants to live the same great life. Sometimes, it seems, what I call the "Hawthorne Lifestyle" can also be the "Jordan Lifestyle."