Minnesota/Minnesotans C or D

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.