Based on the lackluster reviews from Sunday's Target Center performance it sounds as if Justin Bieber left it all on the lakes.
Video surfaced of him wakeboarding Friday in Detroit Lakes. As girls excitedly squealed and proclaimed their love, a wet-suited Bieber walked silently from the dock to the black SUVs while a small crowd of fans stood around taking pictures. The appropriate response to cries of "I love you" from fans is some form of acknowledgment but Bieber returned nothing. He wiped off his face with a towel while walking.
Monday on Twitter Kookie Mom @erinamundo asked me "How come nobody is reporting on JB being on Lake Minnetonka [Sunday]?" She attached a fuzzy photo. I guess that could've been Bieber.
I asked my friend Steve Schussler, of the restaurant development company Schussler Creative, if he saw Bieber on Lake Minnetonka. "I didn't see him, I heard he was there," said Schussler, who told me to ask Billy Ellis if his son Danny got his audience with Biebs.
There was more Bieber-related disappointment.
"My son shot a video that we sent KARE 11 about Danny, and [reporter Jana Shortal] aired the video a couple of days ago," said Ellis. "Danny's a Down syndrome kid, very talented. He's been following Bieber. He learned the ability to dance, sing and perform by watching Bieber. Bieber really inspired him."
Shortal did a piece on her show, "Breaking the News," co-anchored with Rena Sarigianopoulos, about Danny, the ultimate Bieber fan. (It's the video where I was wildly distracted by Shortal's feet being up on the couch; via Twitter she clarified that she was not wearing shoes. I still don't think her feet, even in socks, belonged on the couch but maybe she's a family friend.)
"Through all the people my family and have known throughout the years, some music executives got involved, local people got involved and we had apparently penetrated the inner circle but we just couldn't get [Bieber] to go for it. So Danny went to the show with his brothers and cousins. Had a great time," said Ellis. "The effort on the part of so many people trying to get this thing done came up short, but it was very gratifying to our family to see that many people concerned to give my son this opportunity."