Each time I visit someplace new-to-me, I can’t help but compare it to Minnesota…not that I’m always comparing for better or worse, I’m just interested in spotting the differences between. Most of this week, I spent my time cruising around New York and Connecticut on business. Prior to this, I was pretty much an eastern seaboard virgin as my travels have only taken me as far east as Philly, West Virginia and Florida (gulf-side) in the past.

I flew in to the crazy-busy JFK Airport right on time and procured my lovely aqua-colored Ford Taurus rental among the masses of other travellers. The instant I left the airport, *bam* I found traffic jammed up on the expressway. At about 10am I called my first appointment in Connecticut to let them know I was sitting bumper to bumper. She laughed and replied dryly, “Welcome to New York.”
(more…)

Sayeth Summit:

This year we are celebrating our 20th year in business and beer takes center stage! On September 30th, Noon-10pm the brewery will move its headquarters to Harriet Island to celebrate our anniversary with Cake, Soul Asylum, The Suburbs, Richard Thompson, Tapes ‘n Tapes, The Alarmists, Big George Jackson, Minnesota Pipes & Drums.

Lots of beer and some sweet-ass bands. Cake alone would make it worth it for me, and y’all know how Tapes ‘n Tapes are all the rage these days.

Tickets available in advance for $25 at Ticketworks.com (along with the band schedule) and at the door for $30. With all those bands, I’m really wondering how easy it will be to get in. Good luck parking, anyway.

A couple of free events are taking place tonight that involve the artistic and creative activities of some of my friends. There has been some minor local coverage for these events, but it’s been mostly word of mouth.

Local artist, John Grider, will have work on display at the grand opening of First Amendment Gallery, an art gallery/print studio/movement. His stencil art is on display at various locations around town, and tonight you can find him at 1101 Stinson Blvd NE, at Broadway. The gallery is in Basement A & B. This is an all ages event, with no cover, that will have music by POS and Paper Tiger (Doomtree), The Seawhores, Andrew Broder and Tim Glenn (Fog), and DJs Mike the 2600 King and Espada (Impressive Fource). There will be other live entertainment as well, and live t-shirt printing. Refreshments are available. It starts at 7 and goes until it ends. Whenever that is.

If you can drag yourself away from that, around 11:30, head to the Uptown Theater for a free screening of Cosmic Dissonance. It’s at midnight and did I mention it’s free? My friend Samantha worked as a grip, as well as taking production stills. The City Pages gave a capsule review of it this week, which praised the movie for its imagery and shot composition.

Oh, yeah, and entrance for both of these events is a whopping FREE.

The Minnesota Airport Commission is working with Muslim cab drivers to determine the best way to accommodate both a passengers right to transport alcohol and the religious rights of cab drivers who refuse to transport alcohol. A color coded cab system has been suggested. However, there is also a difference of opinion in religious interpretation:

“Refusing to give a ride to a person carrying alcohol is equal to refusing to haul a drunken person whose body is full of alcohol.” said Dr. Farouq As-Samaraa’i, imam of Al-Huda Mosque in Columbia Heights and a senior member of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of Minnesota, a highly respected body on Islamic theology. “Would a Muslim driver give that person a ride? I bet you they would.” The purpose of the ride, he argues, is not carrying alcohol, but hauling someone from one destination to another, merely on business terms.

According to the Star Tribune, about 75% of the 900 cab drivers at the airport are Somali, of which many are Muslim.

Construction has been spotted. Hannah brought this to our attention and hopes there’s going to be a new produce section in the 1st floor grocery area.

There was so much buzz when the downtown Target opened. You’d think it’d be the best, most perfect Target ever.

Anybody know what they’re doing to it? What do you hope they’re doing?

The list, in no particular order:

Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal (2005) - Rem Koolhaas
Valleaceron Chapel, Almadenejos, Ciudad Real, Spain (2000) - Sancho-Madridejos
Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis (2006) - Jean Nouvel
Metropol Parasol, Seville, Spain (2007) - Jurgen Mayer H
BMW Plant/Central Building, Leipzig, Germany (2005) - Zaha Hadid
Tubac House, Tubac, Arizona (2000) - Rick Roy
New Museum, New York City (2007) - Kazuyo Sejima +Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA
Scottish Parliament building, Edinburgh (2004) - Enric Miralles
Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden (2005) - Santiago Calatrava
De Young Museum, San Francisco (2005) - Herzog & de Meuron

No idea what the criteria were. They’re definitely all “different-looking.” Anyone have the September issue of GQ at home?

(via Gridskipper, as transcribed by PSFK)

The Twin Cities’ most recent reality competitor just got the boot from NBC’s third season of The Biggest Loser. Heather (from Utah), another contestant on the show, accused Jennifer (from Shakopee, MN) of not working as hard as ther rest of the competitors, causing Jennifer to be the first to be eliminated from the show.

According to NBC’s website, Jennifer was a “former plus-size model, she’s had to compete in some of the toughest industries - the fashion and pageant circuits - and she has always come out on top.”

Jennifer lost eight pounds before being eliminated from the show, dropping from 245 lbs to 237 lbs, and can still come back at the end of the show. If she’s lost the biggest percentage of her body weight at the show’s season finale, she’ll earn the title as The Biggest Loser.

She was on The Ellen Degeneres Show today and has lost a total of 78 pounds since the taping of the show.

Noah Kunin, the blogger who found the videos in the first place, makes a statement.

Chuck Olsen updates at New Patriot [1] [2] [3]. (Still waiting on that investigative video follow-up, Chuck.)

In short, liberals say Noah didn’t do anything wrong. Conservatives say he did. The end.

Hold on to your butts. The Star Tribune reports that the GOP will hold their convention in the twin cities in a little under two years. They will premtivley invade the Excel Energy Center this afternoon to make the announcement at the site of the 2008 convention.

Could their choice be an effort to swing the long-time Minnesota blue trend slightly more purple–or even red? In the last presidential election, Minnesota was considered a swing state, and could have been the deciding 10 electoral votes for victory or defeat for Bush.
(more…)

Seeing as I work with a liquor store, we have many perks. One of them is to attend the trade shows that happen during the fall season. This is a time for you to go to a large building and drink just about everything the company has to offer. This is a free event, and you really don’t have to do anything special to get in. There isn’t really tight security or anything. If you were to show and and say you worked for Haskel’s, they would more than likely let you in. I have had numerous friends of mine show up to these things without me and they never had any trouble getting in.

So, what do you do at these things? Eat and drink. Simple as that. For me, it is a chance to taste all the wine that I can in a short amount of time. Now some of you may be saying “Um, Nate, you can’t drink a ton and then expect to drive home.” You would be right. here are many places for you to spit out what you are drinking instead of swallow it. Total alcohol abuse, I know, but very necessary. I am going to one tonight. By the end of the evening I will have tried about 75 to 100 hundred wines and other alcoholic beverages. Without spitting, I would have passed out around 45 small cups of liquid. Some people get absolutely hammered, though. That is the other perk. People watching is sometimes even better than going out to the clubs at night. Nothing like watching people who think they are more sophisticated getting drunk and stupid. Good times…