Minnesota/Minnesotans C or D

All the hippies at my school that dream of moving to Canada will be saddened by this information.

CLASSIC

IN THE HOUSE!!1

I was thinking this when composing the thread.

Dud:
Snow
St. Olaf College
Lutherans (aka 'lobotomy for religious reasons')
Mosquitoes AND midges (gnats) in summer
Knowing how to use jumper cables and snow-shovels
Racism towards Viets, especially Hmongs, and Mexicans and Somalis
The NW suburbs: Blaine, Brooklyn Park, Robbinsdale
Morbidly obese Minnesotans at State Fair in their thousands

Classic: Low, the Cows, Duluth, Ironworld, the International Wolf Center, the World's Largest Hockey Stick

http://www.wlra.us/wl/th/wlhstick1.jpg

As for the Vikings, I just like making fun of my dad's team as they choke in the playoffs year after year.. oh jeez, ya know dey won't win da Sooper Bowl so why not root for de Packers der. It would be cool if they did pull it out, but I tend to be pessimistic.

Except for when he pledged to only serve one term. But Wellstone is classic for that campaign bus.

Classic:
Hating all those cake-eaters in Edina
Hating the Bears
Hating the Packers
Lord Fletchers (hey, my aunt & uncle live on Minnetonka, too...and so did I 30 years ago)
Uptown
The Replacements
Prince
St. Paul
10,000 lakes
Boundary Waters
CP & the Strib (except for CJ)
that free zoo in that park that I can't remember the name of

Dud:
8 months of winter
mosquitos
SPAM
1am last call

This is also the gateway into teaching the French Revolution in St. Louis Park. Believe.

Lake Minnetonka must have a ley-line that acts exclusively as a preppy magnet.

Minnesota is a great place to grow up, but people like me need bigger cities than Minneapolis.

The problem with Minneapolis is the same with most large modern cities--there's not much density to it. It's all sprawl. Which is also part of its charm.

Also, SPAM IS CLASSIC.

-Lots of friends there
-Had some good gigs, at the Times and Cabooze and whatnot
-Lots of cool restaurants, and I love going to Maria's or Triple Rock for breakfast
-Halal markets that sell camel meat
-That Sun Ray sign on the way into St. Paul that's had the 'y' out for years, so it says "SUN RA"
-Happy Apple

DUD:

-Asshole drivers, for real
-I can't stand finding my way around Mpls, I've gotten lost there more than anywhere else and (partly as a result of being lost and stressed) gotten in my only car accident, which is still causing me financial trouble
-Driving from Wisconsin to Minnesota is most mind-numbing drive imaginable, and it's just long enough to feel really long but too short to settle into 'driving all day' mode.

You forgot MATOS. KCLASSIC.

Minneapolis road rage is among the most passive-aggressive in the world.

I miss Dayton's, the Lincoln Del, and Excelsior Amusement Park.

First Avenue/7th Street Entry
some restaurant a couple blocks away
some hotel (maybe it was by the airport?)
the mall in Edina
a gas station somewhere between Minneapolis and Moorhead
a Target somewhere between Minneapolis and Moorhead
a dumpy bar in Moorhead
some restaurant that kinda sucked in Moorhead
a Days Inn in Moorhead (we snuck into the pool later that night)
a Chinese buffet place in Moorhead
yet another gas station

Also, Husker Du.

Hah

I'd like to see more of the state.

Well you pretty much covered everything between Minneapolis and Moorhead (as well as Moorhead) so you can check that off the list.

Yet, somehow at the same time: Classic.

tom bernard: racist.

minneapolis was my traumatic home for about a month while i decided i did NOT want to be a flight attendant. it was hell. really and truly.

on a roadtrip a couple years later i decided to give it a second chance. it didn't help.

i don't know about the rest of the state, but i hate minneapolis.

When I was twenty and living alone in an apartment off of Franklin, a woman from the liquor store invited me to her family's house for Thanksgiving. I think that I may have been the only person there under 200 pounds, and the only man under 6'3". They fed me like a brother, got me drunk on Schnapp's, and it was TEH BEST THANKSGIVNG EVAH.

It was just one family in NE Minneapolis, but I'll stick up for Minnesotans any day of the week. Even the screedy James Lileks.

It's been awhile for me, but I always really enjoyed Radio K. College radio sounds so beautiful on the AM band.

God, sometimes I want to move back there so badly.

I can get it in from the cities all the way to Sauk Centre which is pretty damn good. I like it better than Radio K as well. But please don't forget KUMM the praries only alternative. We have to be classic if only for our call letters. Also worth noting is Rev 105 which all us kids thought was the coolest thing ever at the time.

Yeah, that's usually around where it cuts out for me, too. But I used to have an '82 Olds a few years back that would get it just about to the rest area right before Alex. Only good thing about that car.

I used to hate MN with a passion growing up (could be because it was way out in the sticks) but now that I've gotten a little bit older and done a bit of traveling I've realized that all in all it's a pretty nice to be.

Also, it's the only place in the U.S. (well most of the upper midwest according to A Short History of Nearly Everything) that doesn't have to worry about earthquakes!

C/D:

Don Shelby/Diana Pierce
Sebastian Joe's seconded - I know of no better way to completely negate the good work done on arse by 10 mile bike ride around Lake Harriet/Steve and Sharon aaaaahghghh
Red Dragon/food at the Red Dragon

HUGE shout-out to Chris K.

haha so so right

Funniest thing: Acieed House Helen and I were at Reading one year and bumped into Kevin Cole shepherding five contest winners around the festival; I was gobsmacked. She was doing Trance Europe Express then and so it was a bit of a meeting of minds, and we all had crazy fun.

I have long considered starting a microlabel to reissue his old Radio Depth Probes WHICH HE STILL HAS THE REEL-TO-REELS OF, EVERY GODDAMNED ONE OF THEM. cough, cough.

OH MY GOD.

Yeah, Kevin is just one of those people that can get things going and those people are always evident, even when the person is working in Platters. He's also notable for not succumbing to that evil bloaty big fish, small pond thing that a lot of old scenesters get in Minneapolis.

haha Dan, I think they're all in storage in Mpls! He's mentioned it a lot, it's like he's taunting me or something.

sorry for all-caps gush but Dan and Suzy feel me I'm sure.

There was another set where he went from some evil-sounding gabber track into "People Everyday" by Arrested Development that was FUCKING AMAZING. I actually saw him do that one live at First Avenue and I've never seen a happier crowd EVER.

haha NO KIDDING! I actually pushed him into doing it--he'd written something for Rain Taxi (another reason to love MN--it's a quarterly, free lit zine) and I'd been asked by City Pages for a show blurb I didn't know anything about but knew Rod did, so I sent them to him: "He writes for Rain Taxi." The rest is history. < /bragging>

If we are going to mention the Foetus and Cheapo, then damn, let's pimp Garage D'or. Folkjourwhateverthefuck wasn't all that great to me, but there was a time there in the late 80s early 90s when it seemed like there was about ten great record stores in that city.

Thanks for reminding me it is the Como Zoo.

As Matos has waxed eloquent before, there is an incredible heritage of great music writers from Minneapolis. It's too bad that the CP is so small--there's not nearly enough room for all the talent.

Where is M@tt He1geson anyway?

pulltabs
walleye
a bunch of dive bars along Hennepin that probably aren't even there anymore
softball in the summertime
the way the road runs along the river down to Winona
the bluffs on the Missippi up there by the West Bank and by Ft. Snelling
the way that planes scrape the roof of your car on approach over there by the Airport

biggest dud ever--
waiting in line to get into a show during February

DUD:
The Vikings-Packers rivalry seeping into EVERYTHING at every possible opportunity
The new Block E entertainment center/pseudomall (except the movie theater, which has nauseating decor but fantastic seating)
Lileks
The Walker Art Center being closed for remodeling until 2016 or some shit like that
Governor Tim Pawlenty
Almost every single movie filmed here not Fargo or Purple Rain (see: Jingle All the Way, Joe Somebody, That Was Then This Is Now, Feeling Minnesota)

Um...I've often gone on the record as saying Minnesota: CLASSIC!

Man I'm missing the T-Wolves right now.

(Nate, I am such a Vikings dork it's unbelievable - season ticket holder for 7 years!)

If we are going to mention the Foetus and Cheapo, then damn, let's pimp Garage D'or

I have such fond memories of Garage D'or...I went there alot when I first moved to Minneapolis from the homeland of Blue Earth, MN (home of the Jolly Green Giant)....the guys that worked there (Terry, John, and Grant) were always super nice and helpful to me the yungun aspiring cornee indie fuc. It was a super great show and they has some really great in-stores back when they were on Nicollet by the Black Forest (another Classic, btw)...Alejandro Escovedo did this really long 10 minute Iggy-by-way-of-LedZep-Kasmir version of I Wanna Be Your Dog...

The Vikes are like the Replacements of the NFL...they are super talented and sometimes brilliant, but they can't execute for shit and always sabotage themselves when they're on the verge of real success!

Oh yeah, Minnesota's CLASSIC it goes without saying. But I'll say it anyway.

also nu-Mpls classic: The Chatterbox - great Atari 2600 friendly pub in Southside!! (good food as well and sometimes good 80s new wave djs)

Also, Ned what's up with your wierd obscure knowledge of Minneapolis trivia? Did you live here or something....you were breaking out like Toolmaster of Brainerd and Magnolias references on the Oliver Wang beef thread...you frighten me!

Cough

buck up there, good buddy!

It's weird...Jerry actually works at a butcher shop near my house...I've been waiting in line and actually seen him do his infamous "thumbs up" move to a co-employee!

god they were cable access gods!

Best thread evah, by the way. Makes me feel good to live here.

CLASSIC:
the international film festival, which just wrapped up
jucy lucys
Pepito's chili con queso to go
finally being able to tic off one of my junior-high "life goals" now that I get to write movie capsules for City Pages
"I'm a bartender and it's fun."

DUD:
the political shift
Block E
Ed Asner on Channel 5 ads
everything about Bell Auditorium except for the movies they play
The I-Beam (Moorhead's gay bar)

The Rainbow is pretty good but my favourite Viet used to be Trieu Chau, where Azia is now. The Lotus (Viet of choice in school) is now unspeakably bad and something about Kinhdo makes me vom, I think it's too many shredded carrots in the spring rolls, so I only eat at the Nicollet Viets anyway. There are a few new Viet/Cambodian/Laotian places I will have to try when I'm back next that looked like they were set up on the ground floor of some of the more housey-shaped retail spaces.

Someone in my immediate family has been a Vikings season-ticket holder since the beginning of the team (my sister holds now, my grandfather had 50 yard-line seats). The first owner, Max Winter, had a daughter in the same year at school as my aunt, so the dance line Max' daughter was in became the Vikings cheerleaders by osmosis. Bleurgh, Parkettes. Feathered hair, lip gloss, dirty looks, struggle to maintain B average for doing nails in class.

I am SO craving Seb Joe's Oreo ice cream it isn't even funny. (haha I used to make cones for them!)

oh my god. I cannot even fucking believe I forgot the classic to end all classics: LITTLE TIJUANA. oh my god. I love love LOVE that place to DEATH.

Rainbow is Taiwanese, actuellement, if that's the place Chris and Matt took me. They have bubble drinks.

MCAD students with deadlines probably grateful for the crayons.

I caused a Scot to shudder with tales of mozzies AND midges together.

also, upthread you mentioned Southdale as birthplace of postmodernism. explain yourself!

Southdale was the very first atrium mall in the whole world, and had a 'sidewalk cafe' where my mom and aunt worked the 'outdoor' tables. Simulacrae ahoy!

all the reasons mentioned above and more

every rock music fan in the world owes themsleves a trip to the 7th Street Entry, the greatest rock club on the planet. Even if the state only consisted of that tiny black room and the Summit Brewery it would still be an all time classic

most passive-aggressive population of human beings to ever grace the face of the earth

Oh, I forgot... the "National American University" jingle.

El Rey De Oro on Nicollet & 35th in south...

Chiapas - not sure of the intersection, but it's up on north central by Fat Boy Billiards...

both nice family run joints...el rey specializes in seafood, chiapas is good all around.....I want to marry the salsa that they put out with their free chips and salsa before you order..

i think it's better than Taco Bell, but that's not saying much...

Classic: rural Minnesota

And what about Information Society? Also classic.

Now that the trees are blooming, I'll go with classick. Winter makes me cynical and prone to the MN disease of self-conscious paralysis. April thru Sept. makes me want to have long-distance love affairs with the Mage. Classic.

Classic: rural Minnesota

no diggity!

My homeland, God's country:

http://www.be.blue-earth.mn.us/

Classic =

Everyday People
Uptown Theater
The Plastic Constellations
The Tuna Melt at Grumpy's
Evergreen
D4
Copper Dome
Day by Day Cafe
Run Westy Run circa 'Dizzy Road'
Margherita Club at Bar Abilene
Guitar Band
Dara's food column in CP
Sonny's Ice Cream
CC Club
*I'm* fond of the record store I worked at for 11 years (even if others are not)
CC Club [I only go there once a year or so, but it fulfills it's mission as a pleasant neighborhood bar. In fact, it was overcrowding at the CC which lead to our looking for other nearby places to hang out, bringing us to the Red Dragon. It was so deserted that even on weekend nights, the front room wouldn't fill up. Now all three rooms are packed even on Mondays, bringing us back full circle to the CC where one can sit down and drink (albeit not such fancy boozy drinks). ]

I tried to stick to things that hadn't already been mentioned, but the utter classicness of Lifter Puller, Cows, Replacements, Husker Du, 7th St, Triple Rock, Kevin Cole and Rod Smith cannot be stated enough.

Dud =

People that I like to hang out with moving away to bigger and 'better' places. It makes sense to me that one would want to move to Sydney, Paris or London (especially if it's somewhere you should have been born in the first place- Hi Suzy!), but to me, moving anywhere else in America would be a lateral move and therefore pointless. That said, other people's obsession with NYC is akin to my own fascination with other countries, so I could be more understanding and less pissy about the whole thing.

Chris K

Heh -- the MST3K crew did an enjoyable enough Tolkien parody called Edward the Less which intentionally played on the 'Midwesterners obsess over/worship NYC' stereotype, as described by Kevin Murphy in an interview at the time.

I thought the category HOUSE PARTIES AT CHRIS K's would be a bit too obscure, but they are classic. And I also have to shake the fist as have never yet been taken to Copper Dome.

Next time, Suz, next time! (Oh yeah, I discovered your email was down when I sent you a long one that bounced back, which I have since accidentally deleted. I'd call you now, but the internet will be tying up your line. Let's talk soon, though!)

Speaking of those oh so fun parties, I was cleaning the basement last week and found the remnants of the vines we used to decorate ourselves and the drum kit last time we played a show down there. Memorial Day, 1991, the date that we discovered that you were good to play has long has you had downed 2 1/2 drinks but never 3. Good times.

i wanted to revive this to ask if anyone has any insights into mn being a red state all of a sudden. what happened? the mall? redistricting? i don't quite get it.

The current state of Block E is far more saddening to me than humorous. I survived many an hour plus bus ride (including transferring) from St. Paul to go to Minneapolis, and Northern Lights in particular, the original location of which was found on the North side of Block E. It was tiny, with the hardcore records and a place to put your skateboard right at the front. There was a row of records down the middle of the rest of it, and on weekends or before / after shows it would be so crowded that the only path through the store was one way. The clerks (Ryan, Rod and Randy) were like gods to me and the role models my parents never wanted me to have. Years later, when Northern Lights moved to a larger location on the next block, Vaughn, the resident lech, would try to convince me to go see 25 cent movies at Fantasy House on Block E. I prefered Shinders, where I would buy import priced copies of the Face and Suzy would read NME and Melody Maker at lightning speed so she wouldn't have to buy them. Rifle Sport Gallery was there, as well as Moby Dick's, home to a 'whale of a drink'. I never actually had a drink there but did peek my head inside once and also saw large numbers of 'patrons' staggering out of the front door and collapsing in the gutter.

Even it's transitionary period as a parking lot had it's saving grace, as it provided a place for Cheap Trick to play for free a few years back.

When go by there now, I see the ghosts of punks, drunks and the business people who would hurrily walk down the sidewalk, dodging the misfits.

OF COURSE BUSH HAS GONE TO FUCKING EDINA. You expect he's welcome anywhere else in the state?

I always thought the CC was an interesting place. On way too many occasions it drew tourist-types looking to have a drink with musical luminaries. But the juke was always good.

The Uptown had a pretty good run back in the late 80s but was really fading by the time the early 90s. Is it even open anymore?

snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

For more than a year, investigators found, Runningshield, a 26-year-old North Dakota native who penned flowery letters to Thole and gave him the nickname "Oldman," had both attorneys convinced that he was a wealthy friend waiting to turn over millions of dollars to them.

Setting up a business with an inmate violates Minnesota prison rules. Thole was reprimanded by the court for using official stationery from his office so that his letters to Runningshield would not be opened by prison officials. Lillie also was reprimanded for misusing legal correspondence.

In some cases, investigators found, Thole had written up his own sexual adventures as a young man and sent them to Runningshield in official county attorney envelopes.

...

Documents released by the board, detail the close friendship and business dealings between Thole and Runningshield, sentenced to 20 years for his part in the 1995 south Minneapolis stabbing and kicking death of a champion tae kwon do competitor.

Contacted recently at his home, Thole, a former Stillwater City Council member, said his only comment was: "I'm sorry."

-- Matos W.K. (michaelangelomato...), April 21st, 2004.

I have to meet this Rod Smith guy.

http://static.flickr.com/7/10577386_c46e89dc1b_o.jpg

I live by 4fton 4lps. That's "Military Road." 70th St. 'Bout two miles west of the aforementioned ski area.

I can't remember, were the St4ben0ws still living around there while you were in school? Jessica was in my class and I can't remember if she had younger siblings or not.

Wait, the J0hnsons lived out that way (wildly uncommon name, I know)! I think they had 5 or 6 kids in that family, the youngest of which was probably in school at the same time as you (Dan was in my class; he was a kick-ass distance runner who went to Brown).

Jesse went to Nepal w/the Peace Corps. Zach almost made the US Ski Team and Nate...live in Wyoming for a while?

I knew Wade J0hnson. Nice guy. Dated my One Twue Wuv for a while in 8th grade and I wanted to kill him for it.

Would have been cooler if she always had been.

Dan, you can get up off the floor now.

(Did I mention that MN is classic? Because it fucking is, esp. STPL.)

You've got a dick, and you're watching me
I'm on the Internet but it's not free

CLASSIC

Matos - Rod Smith will probably be able to back up my story about the invention of gaydar (when I was 16 and in the store, employee GT was macking on some straight boy and I asked him if his really existed). But that song-parody doesn't even begin to touch THE GENIUS. He used to tell people that his folks were called Evelyn and Trevylan Smith; the sisters that wanted to meet/fuck all the instore guests, but were like punk versions of the Chaska girls in Fargo, were known as Doperone Twins. He may also be able to still impart ridiculous pieces of made-up bullshit to gullible strangers with a straight face, 'purely to generate a meme.'

Hastings massive: it sounds like for all the other weirdness, it was a good place to get an education, considering where people escaped to!

He still does all this shit. It's just amazing. I want to grow up to be him so badly.

the sisters that wanted to meet/fuck all the instore guests, but were like punk versions of the Chaska girls in Fargo, were known as Doperone Twins.

tall? lanky hair? brunette? busty? First Ave regulars? I think I know these people.

The big difference between Rod Smith and all the other bears is that he was 'generating a meme' in 1985, and knew it.

so, woodbury then?

I used to deliver pizza in Woodbury. BARF BARF BARF

My high school job, just to reminisce, was at Musicland in the mall in downtown St. Paul that was not Galtier Plaza. One night, probably in late '87 or early '88, Axl and Slash stopped by because they were opening for Aerosmith at the Civic Center, and they wanted to see if we had their record, and we didn't.

The one cassette in stock of "Rhyme Pays" and "A Salt With A Deadly Pepa" were shoplifted each time.

The security guard there with a Malcolm X bright-orange close haircut came into the store one day, excited, and we both had read the five-star review of 'It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' and were excited to hear it.

A woman was browsing the jazz cassettes for a workout tape, and somehow I honestly thought that 'In A Silent Way' would be appropriate.

(hold this up to the mirror): wokS

NOTHING on YouTube, this must be rectified. Anyone?

Matos, get Rod to post here or totally forward my mail to him, OK?

DT St. Paul is still a mystery to me. I've only ever been there after dark for one reason or another. But I did take a bus in and then out one morning this summer to pull my car out of impound. wow was that a good day. mm hm.

Don't think his son had started teaching yet, though.

I still have my tenor sax at my parents' house. I can't really play it anymore.

I've got my alto still, and have been playing on and off for the last few years. I WOULD be playing it in my band, but my neck strap broke and it fell to the floor during practice a few months ago, and needs a couple hundred dollars of work.

So, yeah, ;_;

I chatted with Fancy Ray once at a SON VOLT show of all places! Nice dude, but he stunk to high heaven! He was wearing a b&w vest and pants ensemble w/no shirt.

My Minnesota stuff is like crazy magic realism that happens to be true. When I was home, my dad gave me a drawing of my grandmother someone had done in 1930, which I've had framed (I think I told you about this at FAP, Geoff). She was born in New York, but moved to Minnesota when she was very young. She used to tell me great stories about going to the Commodore and the Lexington in the '30s and because she was both startlingly gorgeous and in art college, she had a lot of fun getting chased by the film stars who drank there.

*Johnny Cash voice*

My dad was born in a town called Excelsior...

haha tyrel ventura deserves his own appreciation thread! he was the "k-fed" of governor's sons! kegger at the gov's mansion!

ihttp://206.146.95.55/images2/GG.jpg

hymie RIP.

At least you can rest assured that the Cheapo clerk payed absolute top dollar for that album...

aggravating.

Hey M@tt, did you ever see the Goddamn Doo-wop Band? And have I managed to miss several of your shows in a row, once again?

nope i haven't seen them yet....will do soon...they prolly have a myspace thing up or something...

yep, we just got through playing a bunch of shows...including a "benefit" for big vs on sat. w/april epidemic, half fiction, mc/vl, and tight pants - haha - so j0e h0ll@nd and j0hn br0wn can buy a new better PA for the place cuz god knows Vic is too cheap to do it....was a lot of people there...

btw....MC/VL is arzu's boyfriend's rap group, really fun old skool beastie boys - licensed to ill- not really a parody though cuz it's actually better than the last two beasties records...use samples of hell's bells and pour some sugar on me...)

(hope you are well!)

Do you remember the Mpls rapper Top Tone? He had an album called "What Part of the Game is This?"

I saw him at Wendy's a month or so ago. He was wearing a really old and shabby Scarface (movie) leather jacket...he was just kinda milling around the Wendy's on Broadway and 94 in North....he looked kinda sad....

Suzy, what were the Commodore and the Lexington? Where were they? What were films stars doing here in the '30s?!!

http://citypages.com/databank/22/1092/article9927.asp

At least one of the film stars was chasing my grandmother, while she was engaged to my grandfather. I don't know for sure how long, but she had to tell him to give up and just go away. She went to MCAD or the U, or MCAD *and* the U, and trained in fashion design. Make no mistake, she was cool.

http://caudle2.home.comcast.net/fsfitz18.gif

Lexington Restaurant, Still Serving Women Who Think They're Babs Paley:

http://www.planet99.com/pix/6859_1.jpg

The glamor spot for us Dakota County kids was the Chart House in Prior Lake - nautical theme, lounge music, booze and frogs' legs.

The Lexington is the bomb.

If on a farm, mean geese will come and chase for reals.

My neighbourhood's 'scary house' had 'guard' geese - mean, low-necked hissing fuckers. Hence the great Minnesota Gray-Duck.

duck duck goose is for losers!

Anyone here from outside the Twin Cities? Is DDGD de rigeur in all corners of the state?

Also, we get so few opportunities for sanctioned yelling there, Grayduck takes A LOT longer to scream.

...what they don't say billfold and phy ed everywhere else?

Peppermint bon bon = Kemps.

Unique among all Minnesotans, I was not once forced to suffer a crunchy onions/cream of mushroom/green bean (meat) casserole EVER. CoM soup in our house = beef stroganoff or shrimp equivalent. My mother has very specific ideas of what should be eaten (full fat milk, butter, good bread) and what should not (meat from a can, convenience foods, sugar cereals).

I don't follow this logic. Regardless of its derivation, it's being used as a noun, not a verb, in the construction "I'm going to prom with Suzy." It's really the same thing as "going to school" or "going to hospital" (although this latter one is UK/AUS-only).

oh yah we did.

(RIP, for real)

that and "borrow" for both "borrow" and "lend." that just makes nooo sense, i'd love to know the reason. to scandinavian languages have just one word for both or something?

OMG, Don, that place is Leisure Suit Larry with BOATS. Wayzata has such hilarious Hamptons pretensions sometimes.

I had a great time around there with my dad at New Year. He grew up in Deephaven/Excelsior, where he delivered his Minneapolis Stars in the late '50s ON HORSEBACK and gave tourists rides on Excelsior beach on the weekends. He said that in the '50s/'60s there was an amazing club next to the amusement park (gawn 1975, I remember it, carousel is in Valleyfair) where Stones/Beach Boys played.

...i'd also love to knock-out every person that has ever made this mistake in conversation with me.

Yeah, I'll borrow you my bike
We're having EYE-talian food for dinner!
Have you tried expresso before? It's a delicious drink from Italy!

Bring and take do, I admit, cause problems when Britishers decide to get pedantic.

actually has anyone ever been to DAVID FONG'S in richfield?

I'm trying to deal with the "prom" thing here: definite articles

and it's been that way since at least the mid-70s when I lived out on Halstead's Bay. We've got family photos from Fletcher's to prove it...luckily I probably had no idea how drunk my parents were.

Wayzata's snobby, but I always thought that Excelsior gave it a good run for the money.

AY-rab is a little dated, and i don't know if anyone used it non-perjoritavely.

Oh look, scars from my childhood ripped open for all the world to see.

I got so drunk last night, only on like eight beer!

speaking of which, how about that kid getting shot in uptown? jeez.

...like, once. I didn't shower that day.

xp ??? I'll have to ask my sister about that.

You don't have relatives in central Illinois, then. :)

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/322376.html

i hadn't thought of billfold in years.

The other day I tripped on the stairs and let out a genuine "Uff da!"

Matt: Oh no you didn't.

Please understand that my mother *may* have the ability to kill with a dirty look. This may explain why my otherwise non-academic sister pronounces NUCLEAR correctly. But says 'ompen' intstead of 'open'. However that is just The Betsy.

Good grief. Uptown shootings = one gazillion speeches from above parental unit about don't go out on one's own there, like ever.

haha then you were referencing all these bands from that Du Huskers comp and really fucking w/ my head...

I've never heard "ompen" in my whole life.

actually maybe nobody actually does that! i'm inventing imaginary norsk hipsters.

Seriously though I've probably used that phrase in earnest several times a week throughout my entire life!

that's awesome!

i'd love to have seen a big mining operation in effect but i think those are further west. anyone ever seen one of the pits?

Dan where is that fish thing from?

(Hey geoff i really liked yr article on the dude that does the hip hop show on the current...excellent!...that part about that lost jheri curl box Run DMC song I was like woah!)

how we doin, mn?

this is maybe the best thing about the entire state

Are people still thinking of going to the Turf Club Freedom From/Boredoms etc. thing? Perhaps a pre, post, or during fap? Also, if out-of towners need couch space, I live close, and rarely get the urge to kill house guests.

St, Uhro

St. Uhro has a fancy theme song.

Also, I will hold down for my collegiate alma-mater town, Northfield, as the most odd-smelling town in MN, due to the MALT-O-MEAL factory.

Austin has an interesting aroma, being SPAMTOWN USA and all.

lol.

DEER RIVER! 56636!

I grew up on Hwy 6, 3 miles north of Deer River. I went to Cyrus King Elementary. I went ice spear fishing on Winnibigoshish.

For a school field trip we went to the planetarium in Hibbing where I threw up orange soda as my classmates watched. Another time we went to the Soudan iron ore mines where we went 1/2 mile underground (IN A STEEL CAGE).

My family and I moved away in 1987 when I was in the 6th grade and I haven't been back since.

That's what I have to say about MN for now.

Eric was my best friend in grade school. Tell him I said hi.

Hastings looks hopefully toward the future with a dawning sense of the inevitability of all things NUMBER 5

We can't let just anyone in. now can we? Imagine how they'd detract from the dignity of our matching windbreakers.

http://chiba.cool.ne.jp/possum/buppin/windbreaker.jpg

I used to have a membership card to a local Hasting's. Does that count?

http://www.gohastings.com/images_s/storepics/HastingsStore.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30cheese.html

I don't think so. As much as I worship the dairy industry, I'm thankful for a pre-Thanksgiving-night lab that will keep me in Minnesota for Thanksgiving (my family, too) instead of in Wisconsin. Minnesota is way friendlier, even if I will be in Hastings for the holiday.

Regarding PP's year-and-a-half old Skyline question: I've lived in Mankato my whole life, and have been asking the same question every now and then since about first grade or so, and no one seems to know. Skyline is basically a neighborhood, with no apparent non- residential buildings. I'll, uh, keep you updated.

Anyway, MN= classic, though living in your grubby little hometown for almost twenty four years is among the mightiest of duds.

how's the river hills mall these days?

i have cd's from ernie november that still smell like patchouli

hahaha RIP ernie november. i bought bauhaus and urge overkill cds there.

IT'S GONE?!?!

Mankato Ernie's closed in, gosh, the summer of '03, I think? They moved all the stuff to a new location in Sioux Falls, SD. I bought a Bauhaus cd there, too (the live reunion one!).

haha The RHM is, y'know...

So what are the TC area music stores now? It can't all be Musicland/Sam Goody, can it?

ELECTRIC FETUS

I thought someone told me that closed years ago...?

Probably. I was halfway just looking for an opportunity to say ELECTRIC FETUS in big capital letters.

I think it's still around, as is the EF in Duluth.

http://www.electricfetus.com/

^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

nope, still there! still busy, too, i think they're doing quite well. i think the head shop/spencer's gifts side of the store gets more heavily stocked every time i go, tho. last time i was there this nervous looking 40-ish woman in professional dress was buying a bong while a fat bored cop sat on a stool reading citypages, and i was all "lol mpls"

xps

I think there are three of them left, in Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and Duluth. Treehouse, Roadrunner, Cheapo, Extreme Noise, and some others are still around. I work at a little shop in Mankato called Tun e Town.

Electric Fetus is still open. Let It Be is the one that closed.

xpostss

skin boat to tun e town

aw. ;_;

Still YAY EF also maybe I should try to spend all of my savings at Cheapo the next time I come home y/n

fetus does well. cheapo seems to.

as far as tru-school indie stores, Treehouse (oarfolk) and Roadrunner keep on keepin' on. I think the used vinyl boom has helped keep them afloat big time.

Eclipse just reopened in St Paul.

Dan, the answer is obv. YES

I love everything about Eclipse Records other than that their laziness in checking out the availibility of the name makes me want to slap them upside their heads with their bongs ._.

I love hitting the EF in Duluth as well as the nearby used bookstore with random piles of books everywhere.

I was gonna ask about that, John!

Yeah, a phone call prior to opening would have been a nice gesture.

extreme noise in minneapolis is great to me because their staff works on a volunteer basis - they work for free to sell pounds and pounds of rare used punk 45s.. NICE MINNESOTA PUNX fer ya

do they still have the pool table in there?

naw, it was gone last time I was in

MN classics:
-pie
-John Lurie
-Terry Gilliam
-popcorn balls
-"funeral hotdish" (a lutheran thing I like the sound of, but would never enjoy - often accompanied by "funeral fruit jello")
-old guy curling club
-dog shows
-Minnesot-izing swears, like they have been dubbed for a tv movie - ie : "I sure feel like spit today" or "you motherheader"
-winona, kasota, and all other small, scary, dingy towns with feral children swinging off the telephone poles, chewing dirtsicles

DUDS:
-Louis Anderson (dud for his creepy cartoon)
-old women who smile even though you know they're mad - adds a whole psychotic element to their demeanor
-edina (though I hear they have an impressive perkins, and craig finn came from?)
-new gigolo hiphop/nu-metal scenes - individually, and they're meshing! and though it sounds fun... wait, does it?
-sauerkraut pancakes

The concept of sauerkraut pancakes makes me want to kill myself immediately.

wtf Minnesota, why do that to an innocent pancake

I have never heard of that, and Dan, you can always shelter at our place in Minnesota where we usually make chocolate chip pancakes, like any SANE person would.

-Louis Anderson (dud for his creepy cartoon)

a friend of mine flew to vegas and sat by louie. she said he was really nice and seemed sort of melancholy. her mom died when she was young and they talked about their moms and louie said his mom dies and he missed her. he got her address and mailed her a copy of his book.

wau, that almost makes up for the culinary Dachau that is a sauerkraut pancake

MN CLASSIK AS MOTHERFUCKER, THE HUMAN CHOCOLATE ORCHID, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN THE BEST LOOKING MAN IN COMEDY MR. FANCY RAY CLOONEY WOULD LIKE TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO GO TO STRIP CLUBS AND ALSO RENT AT VILLAGE VIDEO WHERE THEY HAVE THE BEST ANIME AND KUNG FU SELECTION!

http://www.pulsetc.com/image/2006/1213/fancyray.jpg

"wau, that almost makes up for the culinary Dachau that is a sauerkraut pancake"

That's hilarious

wow, I think Fancy Ray is the lady who does my mom's nails. I've never tried sauerkraut pancakes but I have smelled them - I'm guessing brown sugar and the liquid that keeps aging brains intact are the main ingredients.

And I thought putting sauerkraut on pizza was unacceptable. What is WRONG with people?!

even the thought of the stuff disturbs me. A friend's mom once gave me THUNDERBOLT CAKE, with like two-pounds of sauerkraut in it.

sauerkraut on pizza is great

also, am i the only one who saw the mn episode of last comic standing where fancy ray showed up and the panel was basically "wtf at this guy" for like 5 minutes?

xpost no chocolate chip pancakes for you

omg John I must see that

chocolate chips would only waste the valuable pancake real estate that could be better utilized by bananas or blueberries

xpost i know i kind of freaked out but no one else in the room i was in knew who fancy ray was so i think they thought i was crazy

okay, utter bafflement at John repping for healthy additions to his pancakes, wtf

Don't forget that John uses "bananas" as a code word for "cigarettes" and "blueberries" as a codeword for "peppermint schnapps".

takes the pancake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYXmUOasgw

The universe is righted again. xpost

That being said, pancakes with bananas and chocolate chips would be awesome.

lol Fred Willard?

old guy curling club
LOL. my granddad was in a curling club. my aunt is a bartender in this town

fancy ray commercial for auggies!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8dyfDC2So

greg gagne: "look at those nails"

the man, for nicollet village video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOh661-zDZo&feature=related

ok so i haven't read anything but i caught a mention of FANCY RAY

my dad was in X-TREME CURLING when I was a kid, with a bunch of aging metalheads - the team's uniforms were variously colored neon zoobas.

Zubaz? Ewwwwwww.

That does paint a picture, doesn't it.

That's Tom Barnard and the KQ morning crew's influence on Minnesota men's fashion, right there.

STRETCH

nothing will ever top fancy ray's prince impersonation, with the commercial ending with a huge closeup of his jiggling ass

this thread makes me want to go out and like, do more
but then i realized its the end of march, so its still 10 degrees and fucking snow everywhere

guys i am totally taking up NORDIC SKIING when i move back

not even fucking around

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/408672209_ac22849c30.jpg

^^ top result for "serious face"

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/408672207_47a11ba454.jpg

I AM SERIOUS ABOUT CROSS COUNTRY SKIING.

Oh man, Ernies. Once I got this amazing old Toru Takemitsu record of weird tape manipulations there for ten cents. I wonder if it still smells. I think everything else I've got there I've sold by now.
Speaking of the River Hills Mall, that's where Tune Town is these days. Sigh.

Minnesota classic: My mom and dad!

Minnesota dud: MARCH. It gives you hope for Spring and then TAKES IT AWAY! Pretty nice out today, actually.

Hey fellas--MT. KATO!

So where should i eat and drink in the Twin cities this may?

The Rainforest Café inside Mall of America

I'd like to know that, too. In fact, I should know that. For the most part I don't have much of a life outside of downtown Mankato. Nearly all my time can be split up between three places: a) here in my apartment, b) at work, or occasionally at c) suzy spew's pad a few times a month. That's...about it.

Ed, go to citypages.com and look at the back columns for Dara Moskowitz. She is good at cheffy stuff, places I never eat at in the US.

Your closest Mexican to 'work' is La Cucaracha, as described upthread (read the whole thread for good food recs). I have told you about Fuji-Ya (St Paul and Lake/Lyndale); see also Tampopo and the shitload of Korean restaurants in St Paul. Vietnamese at University and Lex (I think) in St Paul also amazing. You have to go to the International Centre on Lake Street, where all the signs are in Spanish/Vietnamese/Somali and there are plenty of vendors inc. Indian and soul food. Lake is where there are tons of mom and pop Mexicans and markets with Mexican soda (yum). Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis will feed you all manner of things at all manner of prices, but of those you'd enjoy Black Forest, Quang's, Market Bar-B-Cue. Barbette in Uptown takes French stuff and wine seriously.

Also for sports bar experience get my mom to take you to Bunny's by on Monte Cristo special night when my sis is working.

I so want to try Tampopo. I have also been craving Thai food. So hungry.

What's open late? I'm seeing the Boredoms tonight and will probably be hungry afterwards.

the weinery (west bank's greasy spoon), hard times, galactic pizza (brilliant, though unless you really enjoy listening to The Big Wu whilst eating, I'd suggest take-out)

oh, Minnesota dud: The Big Wu

lol at wheelchair guy getting kicked out of hard times.

hard times can eat my ballz

hahaha

generally i agree, but why do you say so??

hahahaha i also DNFW, but i cant come up with a succinct description why

i don't know, it's just this vibe...of that whole west bank thing that kinda rubs me the wrong way...i always feel like everyone's looking at me like i'm not down 4 the cause when i've been in there, and it's kinda dirty and grosses me out...i dunno, it's a feeling more than anything...tall bike envy??

It's been a long long time, but is this the place over near Riverside and those Slums in the Sky?

yup

ah the crack stacks. or 'vertical mogadishu' for the verbose and racist among us.

i always like the story of dave pirner bringing winona ryder there and getting booed

the hard times, that is. not the projects.

aren't those apt. buildings supposed to be kinda famous in architectural circles?

they look pretty grim.

yeah the west bank black label bike club dudes are not my favorite, we played some show with this electroclash band from portland that was weirdly aligned with them at the bowling alley and we had to load out through a gaggle of drunken black label dudes arguing and getting into scraps amongst each other. someone had grabbed someone else's sister's boob or something.

Seward Cafe is way nicer (same owners), but has really short hours.

I second the Wienery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_Plaza

LOL, "brutalist."

weinery is great!

I spent time in Minnesota as a college student, coming from Oregon. I was not happy there. There was a certain amount of culture shock involved. The other students all seemed so bland to me, so resolutely unimaginative and unwilling to venture so much as a toe beyond the line of conventionality, that I felt like an alien.

After the lapse of many, many years, I do not wholly trust these memories. To a certain extent I think whatever validity these observations have is founded in part on the callow age of the midwesterners I was thrust among. But I recall the feelings very well. They haunt me, when I let them.

Bland, sure, but compared to Oregon?!

When I was 20 and looking for a place to live, I got an application for Riverside Plaza. I had no idea they were "projects".

Hard Times can suck it too. Dunhill-smoking baristas making me put away my own dishes.

(^^^^ One of the more white AND privileged posts I've made, sorry.)

I grew up in SE Portland and attended high school from 1968-1972. Bland it was not.

This is wholly dependent on where you went to school; I can easily see large swathes of U of M subculture being bland and unadventerous but not so much Macalester.

I have heard the complaint more often that outsiders think "minnesota nice" is a bunch of bull, and that people here are generally as cold as the weather. As a cold person, I guess I agree.

"Minnesota Nice" = bizarre passive aggressive behavior.

example: No one will take the last bar of a pan of bars. People will literally halve it down to a sliver in order to not be so impolite as to take the last piece.

Also, there ARE a lot of bland people wandering around MN, even on college campuses. (Dan OTM about it depending on which college you are talking about).

example: people eating bars

now that my wife works for a "direct" "in for face" new yorker (a.k.a. an asshole that needlessly freaks out and yells abt everything) i don't diss MN nice so much.

the U of M I wouldn't call bland exactly...it's just huge...like trying to stereotype a whole little city....pretty much every kind of person in the world is there if you fall in with a certain crowd.

i dunno. i know lots of interesting ppl here but maybe it's more boring that other places who knows.

i would say it's probably a state -- much more so than others -- that it's much easier to enjoy if you were raised here. it's kinda insular.

xpost I eat bars, but they have to have a decent chocolate component. A terrifying number of "bars" are dry and dull.

I promise not to make bland bars, ever.

I love places where I think the help might yell at me.

M@tt, all I meant was that the U of M is lolhueg so it wouldn't surprise me if you ran into a bunch of bland ppl there just because of basic probability.

nobody's mentioned 'good company' yet!

THEY WILL NEVER REPLACE GOOD COMPANY

Ha, I used to watch Good Company every afternoon after school. I wonder whatever happened to BARGAIN HUNTER VICKI AUDETTE

Where can I get the full episode of this?:

and the Twins won again tonight!

No way!!!

holy shit awesome. america needs more fancy ray.

minneapolis, safest city in america i guess

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/news/20091027AmericasSafestCities.asp

Did they make murda-apolis an unincorporated township or something?

http://www.tawnja.com

hahahahaha goole i am so sorry i missed a tawnja zaradka link. she is one our leading lights.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y85/bxrx/usouyofmnwj01.jpg

DUDES and DUDETTES

think about THIS

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7499/robyne.png

So long as it wasn't the dead guy from Surgery, I guess.

she talked about that when she was on drinking with ian!! she toured with some band at some point!! toured as in groupie toured!! plus her uncles are all black panthers!!

ps how did i miss the Tawnja Zahradka revive!!

Be funny if it was Hazelmyer though.

she was totally lit up!!

i call Shannon Selberg for most awesome and O_O possibility

Especially if she was the one who drew on the mustache each day.

I'll tell ya what I wish I could find -- this bizarre little video skit that was filmed in the AmRep offices (allegedly) for broadcast on MTV for 120 Minutes or something similar around 1993/1994. Featured some guy playing the supposed label head in Mafia boss/crusty old talent agent mode, Hazelmyer was briefly shown working in the mail room and Mary Jo Pehl from MST3K was playing the secretary/receptionist.

i was sincerely hoping it was shannon s. or hazelmeyer

but i now have it on good authority:

Vinnie Signorelli from Unsane

oh hahahahahahahaha...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Signorelli

Not many know that he made a guest appearance on "MTV Downtown Julie Brown" playing drums for Londonbeat on the song "I've Been Thinking About You".

so awesome

totally great. But I was removed to the UK at a young age.

also, it's a bit chilly

MN punk fun facts week!

okay so i guess in this video missy is wearing a t-shirt of mpls hardcore legends Code-13!

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc121/pmowens2000/Decorated%20images/Code13shirt.jpg

i almost thought that was in the clown lounge for a sec

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xYLEBW8Dayg/S_qVBj48L3I/AAAAAAAADDU/1-uz9DO4NY4/s400/The+Subversives+-+Tomorrow+belongs+to+no+one+12EP.JPG

oh dammit wrong thread

LADY GAGA WENT TO THE TURF CLUB LADY GAGA WENT TO THE TURF CLU

hahahahahaha AWESOME

her show was FUCKING DOPE btw

omg sh@kedown say more

never mind i just found like 9 blog posts about it

Oh yeah also that's right mpls u can suck it 651 forever y'all.

south st.paul ain't no mendota heights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfVZHpyx1OI

^^^ a guy who knows where its at

i am v v proud that i can use that whenever out of town folks are confused by "west saint paul" and i can be "oh here let me show u the magic."

ha i was probably a couple blocks away just putzing around at home.

did crazy things happen.

oh by the way if it is still MN punk fun facts week i just wanna say for the umpteenth time that i love love love the "No Hold Back: All Attack!" comp rekkerd - nice that i finally got around to it 3 years after i got it i guess

also been listening to some super scuzzy rockabilly local thing i must have gotten at a show that i want to do a RFI on, but the record is at home so I don't remember the name of the band at the moment.

its probably actually punkabilly but urrgrghh i really hate using the word punkabilly

some surf stuff on there too, awesome looking clear vinyl. real weird.

"psychobilly"

oops i shamed myself by confusing west and south st. paul!

btw is there a north st paul that's a separate city too?

there is! and unlike the rest of them, its actually in the correct cardinal direction

Yes!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/mn/MNNSPsnowman_burrichter.jpg

North St. Paul.

so i guess my coworker kicked it w/ lady gaga at the turf

according to mn monthly magazine:

#1: Voter Turnout, Water, Tornadoes, Gayness, Autism, Big Business, ACT scores!

suck it other states (well maybe not wrt to tornadoes and autism)

Minnesota should join Canada. We can tack it onto Manitoba and call the new province MANITOBESOTA.

If we can gerrymander so that the voting districts supporting Michelle Bachmann are appended to Iowa, and everything ELSE becomes Manitobesota, I am all for this.

i will be in this state later today!

You will have a blast! Make sure some of the people ITT take you out and get you drunked.

i have a daet with jjj!

is this the preferred mpls thread by the way, or is there another i should take a look at?

jjj comes with an assortment of very fun sidekicks who I missed last time because of brevity of visit and depth of cold/snow, so I had to entertain myself by dressing up my sister's Cavalier KIng Charles spaniels as ET, using bath towels, in between missions to the fridge to bribe off my mom's poodle.

nice day huh

yeah srsly

this is a lot worse than the forecast i heard yesterday evening drivetime. by like 6 inches

oh man

hahaha sorry dude

WELCOME TO MN!

feel like withnail in this when i ask people for guidance today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD2P9Px3enI

going to test the limits of "bottomless coffee" in an effort to stay warm today i think

ha well im pretty sure im not going to have much to do at work today, so if yer failing to find something hit me up here and ill help you out

you betcha

^^^ learning to talk MN

successfully asked for a glass of water first time this morning too

high fives!

just looked out my window wtf

What's going on? Hellsnow?

Hope you guys had fun last night. Apart from the weather, caek, what do you make of it?

not that bad really, it's just that it was real nice a few days ago.
can't believe I fell for this again

ah, it's not that bad. maybe six inches, at least where i am? it's still coming though.

i am having a great time! i walked a long way yesterday. i took the bus to downtown mpls, then walked through the magical skyways to the big bread museum in the exploded flour place by the river. i sat there and wrote postcards, then crossed into dinkytown and had a pint of coffee, which was overdoing it in retrospect. ha. then i recced the campus and had a wander round the physics department. then walked back home to seward. then my dates picked me up and got me drunk in a nice bar. if this is what it's always like then sign me up. i'm going to try to make it up to NE or maybe Uptown today, but staying in this cafe is pretty alluring right now.

oh cool i didn't know you went to the mill city museum! that place is great, did you go in and see the exhibits?

yeah my friend michelle who is a museum curator was completely floored by the execution of the mill city museum, like i think she goes every time she visits mn

i went there one day when they were cooking a bunch of 40s era 'ration' recipes. like fake chocolate cake with no chocolate in it, muffins w/o any sugar or salt. pretty good tbh!

Go to the Walker Art Center, it's pretty cool.

My areas of expertise are downtown, Uptown (which goes all the way to the Eat Street part of Nicollet IMO), Loring, Kenwood, and around the lakes in the southwest of the city - not so much Northeast and the U.

Northeast basically means one thing to me: http://www.kramarczuk.com/

i didn't actually go in to the exhibits because i was kind of against the clock. just bought some "lol white bread" postcards and defrosted my face for a few minutes. but it is an amazing structure! i will definitely check it out if i come back.

i think i am going to have to go outside. i am getting coffee sweats. not built for this stuff.

Dang, I need to try this MN coffee.

Every time I've been in that area I've been rushed for time but the Mill City Museum building even looks awesome from the road.

I know it's probably all cliche with the same groups of people who frequent modern art museums, but since I'm from out of town, I can also highly recommend the Walker. Love the hell out of that place.

guys what's goin on with the weather because I'm chilling in the sun on a mountain overlooking the ocean and am thinking maybe I shouldnt come home

well if you are going to be that way then i dont think you should come home either

>:(

srsly tho wha happen

day of rain followed by a day of snow, just more hot times in the old town tbh

highs staying under freezing until monday too as a bonus.

harumph

fuck. that.

Yah, the snow I'm cool with. It's the fact that temps won't allow it to go anywhere for another week that really gets under my skin at this time of year. That and having to read another dose of Facebook status updates that are nothing but bitching about the weather.

i think that michelle bachmann announcing her presidential exploratory committee today has tipped us dangerously towards the dud side

Glass half full territory: Maybe this ends her reign in the 6th.

oh hey! i like that

(i mean also i cant help but think that that crazy eyed rabid freak is unelectable on a national level, but i also thought she was unelectable on a local level so i dont really trust my judgement all the time)

actually wait, maybe she and pawlenty will both draw from the same pool of midwestern folksy chaaarm and drag each other down into the depths never to be seen again.

Pawlenty has already recalibrated to flex his tea party cred. He's been scapegoating gays hardcore for months now.

i hope to fuck she does run just for the selfish reason that MN media is gonna be awesome. pawlenty and bachmann will inevitably have to start teeing off on each other if they get anywhere.

it's super rare to have two potential candidates running from the same place in a primary, right?

my hate for pawlenty is strong enough that i will go 1000% frothing psycho on the political threads for the duration if he makes it to the finals.

xpost yeah see i like that idea. quick, someone buy tom emmer and his 74 kids a campaign bus

it's gonna be entertaining as hell, mainly watching t-paw squirm -- does he try to keep up his fake tea-partier act or break down and say, 'ok for real this woman is totally crazy'

watching bachmann tear into his record as pinko squish governor will be a treat too, but honestly i don't expect much out of this bcz neither one will get anyway.

bachmann could conceivably pick up iowa tho.

lol pinko squish!

er 'bc neither one will get anywWHERE' i mean

Bachmann won't win Iowa, we always pick the most boring middle-of-the-road "electable" person.

this year really seems different... but yeah you're probably right.

Iowa picked Huckabee and even chose Pat Robertson over the first George Bush.

that boring, middle-of-the-road Pat Robertson

although it's scary that nowadays he genuinely IS middle-of-the-road

still can't believe Huckabee's "quarantine AIDS patients on an island" comments haven't completely ruined his career

TPaw could MAYBE win Iowa. Bachmann, no effin' way.

McCain never even showed up in Iowa, iirc

also, Bob Dole beat Pat Robertson

did y'all hear T-Paw's new southern accent? what a fucking empty human he is

that shit is hilarious

also, Bob Dole beat Pat Robertson

That's right. GHWB came in third.

did y'all hear T-Paw's new southern accent? what a fucking empty human he is

― Bleeqwot the Chef (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, March 24, 2011 12:46 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh come on, this is the land of 10,000 alt-country bands. surely this is a kind of authenticity.

He's from Eagan and shouldn't have been allowed to run anything, just for that.

xpost lol

Lee's Liquor Presents:

T-Paw & The Last Honest Men
Pert Near Sandstone
Rich Matson (solo set)

you minnesotans and your governors, sheesh

The one we have right now seems lovely.

you minnesotans and your (ex) governors, sheesh

M@tt, I hadn't heard the TPaw accent thing until I just now listened to the NPR piece on the net.

What a knob...

When a 'you bet' comes out of the kudzu, I will LOL.

T-Paw & The Last Honest Men

i lol'd

oh look the final nail in the coffin for us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hkp_KNT_e0

yuck!

please note that my favorite band in the world is in there too

Wtf

Did Pomplamousse direct that spot?

i told K that they should have hired the lady who did the awesome west saint paul youtube instead and it would have been way more awesome. which i will post once again in a moment of hometown pride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfVZHpyx1OI

That video actually makes it look much uglier than it is. Love West St. Paul.

That video looks more South St. Paul.

lol i am drunk

yay

also btw i have been wearing a UMN Med sweatshirt around and have twice been given a shout-out from strangers on the street here in seattle

p sure not many other states do that

caek did K force you to do jagbombs curbside at the airport?

lololololololol

haha i had a beer, a tonic and gin with K and then three beers in 30 minutes at the airport. now i am hungover.

headin back as we speak. someone turn up the temperature, please

hey its 32 degrees right now. and next week is going to be in the 40s what more do you want

a puppy

you can visit my puppy, but you cant take him with you.

FINAL OFFER