Secrets of the City

The “Minnesota talk” link was the number one google search result for “Minnesota speak”. Jerks.

Just so errybody knows, I’m gonna use my real name from here on out.

Does Smithers shop for bike gear at Flanders Bros.?

Who else is having a 4/20 party today?

I’ve been planning my 4/20 party for… hey, have you seen the sky today?… I’m hungry… where’s my pen?… got to eat Cheetos…

Does finding some shake stashed away in the basement count for anything? A little baggie turned up while helping my mom clean out the house before the move. Nobody’s denied possible ownership, so the vintage should roughly match the KS95 format.

that should read:
“so the possible vintage range should roughly match”

True story: We were going to publish a 4/20 story at the scrappy local newsweekly where I do layout and ad design, but the writer simply forgot to write his story.

This just reminded me of how MNSpeak gets sometimes.

dont – be – late

Well, you know how things work on the Internet.

I have heard from students involved with the Macalester festival event that the administration tried to shut down the event in a surprise meeting last night, but all these people are going to get together at 4:00 at Mac anyway. What will happen? Will it be a PR disaster for Mac? I don’t know…

As an alumnus of Dear Old Macalester (’95 / English / PoliSci / Pissing / Moaning), I am deeply concerned that the student body appears to have strayed from its single-minded mission to save the world from Coca-Cola.

Matt, that reminds me: I like the daily links, but it would be rad if you could intermitently scour the newspapers of our local colleges (e.g., Mac, UST) for some of the crazy shit they publish.

Finally, speaking of cycling, I received a SAFE email this morning re an MPD bicycle auction tonight: A Minneapolis Police Department bike auction will be held today, Thursday, April 20, at 6 p.m. All auctions are held at the Police Property and Evidence Warehouse, 6024 Harriet Ave. So., one block east of Bachmans off Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis. Auctions are open to the public. Terms of the auction are: ID is required to register at the auction site. Cash or check only. All items are sold as is. Viewing of bikes is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The auction starts promptly at 6 p.m. If you have questions, please call our auction hotline at 612-673-2932.

Seriously though, are there other events going on today? I want to go “cover” one with Jason, but I don’t want to have to spend time at Macalaster. What about Galactic Pizza? Are they going to have a party?

Must be my time of the month but do we really care about rich kids smoking pot?

Why wasn’t the City Pages article on the guy run out of Worthington linked?

That tells more about how things really are in MN than 100 stories about pot smoking kids.

The speaking Minnesotan website, though a little condescending and stereotypical, does hit on such idiosyncratic phrases existent in the TC (minus the heavy accent), especially -’an’ stuff’, ‘broke-off’, ‘buy off’, ‘give it here’, ‘going with’, ‘gonna’, ‘j’ever’, ‘member’, and ‘yah’. And don’t say you don’t use/hear those if you’re from here.

Strib today: On PAGE B6 the Strib BURIES the arrest of a guy for bashing in the head of family man Thomas dahl downtown (near Cuzzy’s) last November.

Whose picture is printed? Why the VICTIM’s of course!

Is the charged- with – murder-and-therefore-eligible-for-a-photo criminal perhaps, oh say – black?

You can guess the answer to that.

The outrage continues.

Mpls Simpleton: Thanks for the link to the Worthington story in CP.

I grew up in Windom, MN – 28 miles from Worthington. Race relations in SW Minnesota are tenuous, to say the least. Worthington is particularly strained. Towns like Windom have trace latino/somali populations, but some of the larger towns like Worthington and Marshall are seeing the first real influx of these minorities. 80/20 white/minority doesn’t seem like such a huge influx, but–considering most of these towns have been probably closer to 95/5 for decades–it is for them.

I really really don’t want to start another inflated race related thread, but being from the area…

There doesn’t seem to be much to be optimistic about in that article, but I find it pretty indicative of something I noticed living there: the problems (the disturbing sh*t in that article) stem from an older generation in the area, while younger people (in high-school or graduated from high school) seem to be much more open to diversity. So things will get better, but it’s such a sad, deafeatist notion to think “oh well, just gotta wait for these old folks to die.” And that notion sure doesn’t help Lowe out any.

Taylor- Galactic is having a party where all the staff dress up like Richard Simmons and everything is on sale.

it sucks that one man star wars is so expensive because I’d probably go see it for 20 bucks or so.

My girlfriend and I saw One Man Star Wars on Tuesday — the same night as Dominic (and his son), who we chatted with for a few minutes, which is as much time as it has ever taken for us to freak him out. Apparently, the play started life as a 20-minute show, and, truthfully, it might have been better if it stayed that way. It’s entertaining but exhausting, but, then, I’m not precisely the right audience. I like Star Wars and all, but haven’t watched it with the sort of obsessive detail to know what sound effects the actor is representing or what gestures he’s mimicking. When you lose the thread of his performance, it vecomes like some sort of weird modern dance piece where the performer is creating his own soundtack (literally — he sings the score constantly.) Which is entertaining in and of itself, but only for 20 minutes.

And, you’re right, it’s too damn expensive. Dominic was dead on when he said it was a Fringe show that costs $40.

Completely off topic… So I’ve been lurking on this website since I found out I’m moving to Minneapolis. I am working at the hospitals in Phillips Abbot/Children’s. I want to know if it is ok to live in that neighborhood. I have been recommended against it, but with the midtown exchange “upgrade” has the area followed suit? Thanks for any help and if there is somewhere else this could have been posted I’m sorry, but I just could not find it.

Galactic is having a party where all the staff dress up like Richard Simmons and everything is on sale.

*falls out of chair*

It’s a shame that young people (old people too) today have the time to figure out this whole 4/20 bullshit. There’s litter on the roadsides, kids in orphanages and foster homes that could use a volunteer to play games with them to take them to the zoo, lonely old folks who could use someone to talk to or play games with, animal shelters that need volunteers, schools that could use help….. and the rich, spoiled punks at Macalester feel the need to sponsor a pot festival.

RogPog, the area is in flux (block by block) but is definitely on the upswing. You could move there (and it would probably be a good investment) but IMHO you should get the lay of the land, and figure out exactly how things are in different parts of the neighborhood.

Anyway, so, what the fuck? Are we getting together tonight? I presume not.

Matt, I think you’ve got to take charge of this meetup.

Rogpog – I’m buying in the midtown exchange, but I don’t plan on walking around a lot late at night. It’s a block by block thing like mike said.

Oh…Worthington saw an influx of immigrants beginning in the early 90s.

Here is an interesting story that seems to have slipped through the cracks!

Fridley’s Sharx Night Club closes doors for good

A full accounting of the issues at this club are layed out in the Fridley City Counsel Meeting Minutes Skip to page 25.

How can there be that many incidents and a homicide and only 4 stories in the Strib since 1999 and two of those are Lifestyle stories?

If it weren’t for pot festivals we’d have no orange vested Minnetonka youth picking up the hwy trash, no anti-social goth kids tolerating a visit to their lonely great aunt’s nursing home and no mayday crusading, vegan, libertarian gutter punks volunteering at the animal shelters.

And most of them will end up at Macalaster.

Rogpog and Kevin, might I suggest

http://www.2asisters.org/instructor/instructor_3_ma-nj.html

forget pot smokers day, its national high five day!

Whoo Hoo doods! ’smack’. Down low, ha! Too slow!

:code=got any smoke?

I hear that! *slap* *slap* *snap* *point*

The answer is obivious simpleton. Wasn’t there a thread yesterday about how lame the Stib is.

I don’t think it is all an issue of how bad the Strib is. I haven’t looked at the other news organizations but it should seem that someone should be telling us about a known gang hangout on the edge of our city where people are shooting assault rifles across University avenue.

Retraction…Not University Ave. East River Road/Marshall.

Doesn’t it relate a bigger quesiton, like how are journalists trained or goverened? It no longer seems that journalists can provide reports that present just facts and insights from those close to an event, but that there is some direction to get a judgement or opinion from some “distant” source (like a thinktank staffer or a non-profit group that have agendas) into the story that either influences the tone of the story or where it appears in a newspaper. Newspapers must have the idea that the general public is to stupid to read a story and make up there own minds about how they feel about or conclusions that they draw form a story.

As a Mac alum, I can only take so much uninformed bashing of the school being a bunch of rich kids. Check out some facts about MN Private Colleges: http://www.mnprivatecolleges.org/ourcolleges/facts.php A progressive campus that attracts intelligent people from all over the world does not equal a bunch of rich stoner kids. BTW, Kofi Annan (Mac Alum) is speaking at Mac this weekend, might of heard of him…just another rich spoiled punk??

Why wasn’t the City Pages article on the guy run out of Worthington linked?

Interesting story, but there was one glaring omission … the other side of the story. Since we never hear from any of the people who allegedly harrassed him, including the 7 guys who were fired, or his in-laws or his boss, etc., etc., etc., we are left to believe everything this guy says or nothing he says. And given his claim of receiving a football scholarship to a community college (they don’t give football scholarships) I was skeptical from the get-go.

Piss poor journalism in my view. But, given the audience he was writing for, I suppose he figured he could easily get away with it.

I’m a come right out and say it:

The Strib is keeping a lid on city crime coverage.

We have a weak mayor, police that are not allowed to do their job, and a citizenry with their heads in the sand, or worse place.

When the weather warms up, look out.

Just sayin’.

Matt Peiken’s use of mockery to assume the vernacular of those attending this festival is great. (sarcasm)

I wonder if other journalists will soon do the same? Hey DeRusha, the next time you lay down your audio on a story with African-Americans, try ebonics!

That’s great.

Apparently it’s also Hitler’s birthday.

1. More gun play in the Warehouse District.

2. Jim Walsh’s article in the City Pages is incredibly one-sided. Why didn’t they just print the guy’s legal Complaint? According to Walsh, Tory Lowe was charged with theft merely for retrieving his own Play Station. He quotes Lowe as saying, “There was no investigation, or questions, or anything . . . They put me in jail, just like that. They tried to put me in jail for 15 years.”

Does Walsh even mention that Lowe pled guilty? Or that there is another pending theft charge against Lowe? Or that his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child commenced a domestic abuse proceeding against him?

I don’t doubt that racial epithets are common among middle-aged blue collar empoyees of the Swift Pork Company,¹ but doesn’t good journalism require the writer to be somewhat skeptical of a self-interested litigant (and confessed criminal) spinning his version of the events that underlie his pending lawsuit?

Or maybe this is just another idiotic racist post because I have respect for the truth.

¹ Some people here have excused the impoverished people of North Minnneapolis for violent crimes on the basis of their socieconomic misfortune, but if a white guy at the ass end of the socieconomic ladder so much as utters the n-word, those same people start forming a lynch mob.

As a Mac alum, I can only take so much uninformed bashing of the school being a bunch of rich kids.

That’s fer sure. I dropped my well-indoctrinated, right-thinking libertarian son off there about 10 years ago and the kid came back a bleeping lefty! And for that I paid a hundred grand? And I ain’t rich (as you can probably tell from my working-class vocabulary). So if we’re going to paint Mac kids with a broad brush, let’s label them as lefties-in-training who would fit in quite nicely around here.

Recently it seems that Kofi Annan isn’t doing such a great job over there at the UN. Not sure if I’d be so proud. Wonder if he’s in town early for buzz fest? How about poor, white, stoner kids. I can’t believe they’re actually going to put down the Playstation, stop surfing MySpace, listenting to their Ipod or watching the Real World for this worthy cause.

Hey Tate, nice¹! High five! *slap* *slap* *snap* *point*

holy christ that brownielocks website is going to blind me with it’s horrible layout and graphics! and then it’s going to kill me with it’s content! ACK!

I saw the Star Wars show in NY in December. I liked it, but I agree that it is easy to lose the thread if one is not intimately familiar with the movies. I didn’t realize it was a traveling show or I might have waited to see it here. Then again, it is about the same price. Somehow I feel better paying 40ish dollars in NY rather than paying that here.

Taylor you crack me up…. I work alone here and I am laughing outloud by myself. I am sure the other people suspect I have been at my own 420 party. Richard Simmons hah. Fresh Prince HA HA oh the Laugh Riot.

Go ahead and laugh, Sarah! That’s what you get of breaking out on your own. I do it all the time.

Dude, what time is it? Can I get a ride to St. Paul? I’ll pay ya gas money. HOLY FUCK! $3 dollars a gallon! See! That’s the man trying to keep us down. Where’s my bike?

Can you suggest what????????????

Kristoff – try the bus, it’s only $2, and they’re going to start using cleaner burning fuels and hybrids.

There’s litter on the roadsides, kids in orphanages and foster homes that could use a volunteer to play games with them to take them to the zoo, lonely old folks who could use someone to talk to or play games with, animal shelters that need volunteers, schools that could use help….. and the rich, spoiled punks at Macalester feel the need to sponsor a pot festival.

Lars had an orphan he was teaching to type write this while he was picking up trash with my Mom (talking to her about how she was REALLY doing) and walking a three legged dog. Of course, I would also consider doing these things…if I could only get high enough.

I’m trying to get back on Ross’s good side. *behind the back slap*

adam, we’re you abused as a child, repressed trauma perhaps?

wierd
Robot Love, I was just singing the praises of your shop did you hear me?

All this Mac bashing is really unfair — head west to St. Thomas if you want to find the rich kids doing pre-law or “business”. I have two good friends who are Mac grads and very liberal, but to say the school turned them left would be to confuse cause with effect.

TCTix has half price tickets for One Man Star Wars, if that eases the pain.

TCTix has half price tickets for One Man Star Wars, if that eases the pain.

Tate, you rock.

TCTix has half price tickets for One Man Star Wars, if that eases the pain. *slap*

I have two good friends who are Mac grads and very liberal, but to say the school turned them left would be to confuse cause with effect.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Oh…Worthington saw an influx of immigrants beginning in the early 90s.

Kevin – That’s what I meant, I should have been clearer when I said they “are first seeing an influx…” I watched it happen during the 90’s for sure. And the past decade and a half is very recent when compared to, you know, time. It’s still the younger generations who grew up with this change that are the least resistant…

Freie Geburtstag, Herr Hitler

Aw muthaf*ckin’ yeah, Sassy Lu in tha house.

Hipmn – Check out Woody Allen’s movie”Crime and Punishment”. if you haven’t already experienced it. There’s a line in there where Allen remembers the date (4/20), because it was Hitler’s birthday. A great flick btw.

I remember that scene! Oh, and I’m hipmn, by the way.

If I remember right, it was the last time he had sex with his wife. God – there’s some great character builds in that film.

“I can remember the date, April 20th, cause it was Hitler’s birthday”

Honey, you’re the one who stopped sleeping with me, ok. It’ll be a year come April 20th. I remember the date exactly, because it was Hitler’s birthday.

Wow, I thought I new the film well. that’s impressive.
“New York City is like a bunch of striaght lines, just looking for a punch line.”

Thanks to IMDB, I can pull out all sorts of impressive movie quotes.

A-ha! I just read a bit of your “The Older Gentleman”. interesting. Do you remember Robert Taylor in “The Birds”?
“I just wanted you to see what it feels like to be o the other side of a prank. What do you think about that?”
“I think you’re a louse!”
“I am. Good Day…(tips hat)…madame”
No IMDB used in this recollection.

Word to YOUR mother… Alexis really say hi to your mom. Could we address the mumps issue. I just have always wanted to say mumps issue.

You have an issue with mumps.
From the looks of Alexis’ website, seems she has a problem with pumps.
I don’t particularly like the word stumps.
so, there u go.

Seriously though, i dno’t ever remember having the mumps as a kid, and that was a long time ago. I do however rememeber having a serious case of the German measles, with a temp around 106, i was hallucinating, my fingers felt … just like two balloons…no, actually for me, it wasn’t balloons, but popsicle sticks. Sometimes today, when I get sick, my fingers feel like popsicle sticks, again.

I get that too. Gah, it’s awful. And, when I was a boy, when I got a fever, I hallucinated, which was terrifying.

How did we get on this topic?

By the way, all I really remember from the birds is that awful song the schoolkids sing, which sounded to me something like this:

“With a hibblety-hobbelty wibbelty wobbelty jibbelty jobbelty NOW NOW NOW.”

April 19/20 has all sorts of bad thing that have happened.

Ruby Ridge shoot out.

OK City Bombing.

I got my Taylor’s mixed up. It was Rod Taylor, not Robert, that was in The Birds. It came to me on my drive home last night, and I thought to my self how could I get those two mixed up, and then my fingers turned into popsicle sticks, and everyone liked me, especially the magical gnome and his flying pair of pigs.

…as the army of crows regrouped on the jungle gym behind Tippi Hedren.

April 19/20 has all sorts of bad thing that have happened.

OK City Bombing.

Add Waco (April 19), Columbine (April 20), and Grand Forks “hell and highwater” (April 19) to the list.

2. Jim Walsh’s article in the City Pages is incredibly one-sided. Why didn’t they just print the guy’s legal Complaint? According to Walsh, Tory Lowe was charged with theft merely for retrieving his own Play Station. He quotes Lowe as saying, “There was no investigation, or questions, or anything . . . They put me in jail, just like that. They tried to put me in jail for 15 years.”

Does Walsh even mention that Lowe pled guilty? Or that there is another pending theft charge against Lowe? Or that his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child commenced a domestic abuse proceeding against him?

I don’t doubt that racial epithets are common among middle-aged blue collar empoyees of the Swift Pork Company,¹ but doesn’t good journalism require the writer to be somewhat skeptical of a self-interested litigant (and confessed criminal) spinning his version of the events that underlie his pending lawsuit?

TORY LOWE: I KNOW ITS HARD FOR SOME WHITES TO UNDERSTAND DISCRIMINATION. MY BEST FRIENDS ARE WHITE AND THEY DON’T BELIEVE IN RACISM. I NEVER COMMITTED ANY CRIME. THE STRATEGY
WAS EASY GO TO TRIAL IN A SMALL ONE HORSE WHITE TOWN,ALL WHITE JURY, FACING 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR A PLAY STATION 2, WHITE WOMEN, BLACK MAN, CROOKED COPS, LOL
I DID PLEA GUILTY TO A DOMESTIC CHARGE NOT TO ANY CRIMINAL CHARGE. EVEN WITH ALL THE FACTS IN MY FAVOR I HAD ONE THING AGAINST ME…..HISTORY!!! MY CHANCES WERE SLIM AND EVEN WITH
OVER WHELMING FACTS OF INNOCENTS THE ODDS OF ME WALKING AWAY A FREE MAN WAS AGAINST ME. HEY YOUR RIGHT ON ONE THING JUNIOR COLLEGES DON’T GIVE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR FOOTBALL…BUT THEY DO GIVE ENOUGH GRANTS AND I RECEIVED OTHER FORMS OF SCHOLARSHIP MONEYS…FOR A FATHERLESS KID FROM MILWAUKEE..WHO WAS THE FIRST TO GO OFF TO COLLEGE IN HIS ENTIRE FAMILY.. IT WAS A SCHOLARSHIP TO ME…THERE I BECAME BROADCASTING PRESIDENT AND DEFENSIVE MVP 1996 NJCAA NATIONAL RC COLA BOWL CHAMPIONS…MONEY WELL SPENT…

Well, I do appreciate the timeliness of this comment.