Perhaps its been on everyone’s radar but mine for a while, but stumbled across Metro magazine today.

I feel a bit out-of-it, realizing this publication launched last September, so I spent a few minutes cruising their site — seems like a nice (perhaps lesser-known) alternative to city pages and the like?

And Metro has some decent blogs worth checking out:

Fitness Flights - fitness blog
ARTicles - the Metro mag’s A& E blog
Will Work for Food - foodie reviews; I discovered a few new places and events whilst reading
the best night of my life - my personal favorite, the catch-all-things-I-do blog (call it the voyeur in me.)
Bows and Arrows - fashion blog
meta-METRO - metro-miscellany

Looks like most of these blogs just started up in the last month or so… but I like the idea of having a few different blogs in one place (and I’m always interested in what people are doing, seeing, making, eating… especially if I’m getting a less mainstream opinion.)

That being said, they are really encouraging reader input, story suggestions, etc… I rather like the idea of being able to shape the media I read (huh, maybe that’s why I blog.) Anyway, worth checking out. Anyone know anything more about the magazine itself?

The TC is hosting the Northstar Classic Softball Tournament today and tomorrow at the Northview Athletic Fields in Eagan. You can get out of town and still be close enough to party with all the softball jocks coming into town from all over the country at the Saloon later tonight. Games are all day today and tomorrow, with teams visiting from Washington, California, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as our own home TC teams.

Team Infinity will be playing with our first game at 10am today, followed by a few more at 1 and 2. These are the Pool Play games to figure out who we’ll be matched against in the actual double-elimination tournament that starts at 3pm this afternoon.

If you don’t already have plans to be on the lake or go up north, come on down to Eagan and cheer us on!

Discussions on the state of things at MNspeak these days have been ongoing, both online and off.

Today, Matt Bartel announced that Max Sparber, formerly of The Pulse and currently of the The Bottle Gang, is the new MNspeak editor. To which I say…

Hooray!

Max is a great writer, is in the know, is creative, and I think he can make a big difference there (as long as they don’t continue to let technical difficulties bog them down).

Congratulations, Max!

I got an email from this group, The Shondes*. What do you think a band that calls themselves “a quartet fusing elements of feminist punk, Jewish liturgy, and classical music to make passionate, political rock” sounds like? (Like this, in case you can’t figure it out.)

I know a bunch of punk rockers who would probably love this stuff. Give ‘em a quick listen and if you like what you hear, hit The Entry tonight at 8:00. 21+, $6 cover, and Ten Ton Bridge and Hard Left are also playing.

* Shonde is Yiddish for “a shame, a disgrace, a pity, an outrage.”

A few days ago, I posted a quiz sent out by the Minneapolis SAFE email list. At last, we have our answers…

How did I fair? Well, I squeaked by with a 75%. Just goes to show, I obviously have some more reading up to do.
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But what I really want to know is, what will they be like at 3pm when I head up north for the official opening weekend of summer?

And where can I find some (ahem, relatively speaking) cheap gas this side of the state line (since I am heading into Cheese territory)?

And what’s the best time to leave town today? (I know the best answer to this question is yesterday, but I had to be at work this morning.)

City Pages Beer Festival, June 2nd 2007 - 5 to 9PM on Hennepin Ave in Uptown

Has anyone been to the City Pages Beerfest? I went to my first beer festival last fall (which was wonderful, by the way) and loved it. Planning on attending this one, I think. This seems like an entirely wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon in early June. I’m a little nervous that you have to get your advance tickets at Ticketmaster, though… mostly because I try, whenever possible, to not buy tickets to anything using TicketBastard — I mean, Master… due to the exorbitant fee structure.

Anyone out there care to review this fest in years past?

You guys know how much I love MS Paint editing photos, but this time I didn’t have to.

This is part of a Star Tribune photo of Rep. Paul Kohls, who taped his mouth shut to protest the cutoff of debate on the vote to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’ s line item veto of a five cent increase in gas tax.

If you are protesting NOT being able to speak, does taping your own mouth shut really get across your point?

Well, the override failed by a vote of 83 - 50 and the house adjourned about 15 minutes later. No word if Kohls left the tape on. At least gas will be cheaper, right?

Apparently it’s my week to find neat little ways to get around the city.
Thanks to the Rake’s Daily Secrets, who mentions minnieindie, a mailing list/calendar site with some of the lesser-known happenings ’round town (read: no arena shows. now you know my bias.)

Anyhoo — looks like a few cool things happening, including Bring Your Own Vinyl Mondays at the Uptown bar.

The Minneapolis SAFE email list just sent out a quiz on bicycle safety. I’m curious what people believe as far as the laws go, so thought I’d post it here so we could all play along. Questions are under the cut…
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